Azarenka into Doha final, winning streak almost halted by injury

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Wilson Blade 9

World No.1 Victoria Azarenka survived a leg injury which did impair her movement and defeated Agnieszka Radwanska in the semifinals of the Qatar Total Open for her 16th straight win this year.

Azarenka won the first set 6-2 and after an exchange of breaks in the beginning of the second set at 1-1, the top seed made a bad step on her left leg and injured it so that she needed a medical timeout and the consequences on her movement were visible. However, Radwanska didn’t take advantage of her opponent’s troubled movement. Even though Azarenka lost a game full of unforced errors on her side and trailed 1-2, from then on she was on a roll, broke Radwanska’s serve two times, including without losing a single point for a 5-2 lead. Azarenka didn’t manage to serve out the match right away and dropped serve, but in her next service game she was perfect and closed out the match to love. Final score: 6-2 6-4.

We’ll see how Azarenka’s injury will react when it cools off and how ready she will be for the final against Samantha Stosur, who advanced when Marion Bartoli retired with a right calf injury at 6-3 for Stosur. (photo: Johan Rivera)

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