June 30, 2011
WIMBLEDON, England — There were some strange twists on Centre Court on Thursday. The women’s semifinalist with by far the most experience at this heady stage of a Grand Slam tournament was the shakiest at the start. The match that deserved to end with a double fault did not, but the other did.
But it all worked out sensibly in the end as Petra Kvitova and Maria Sharapova advanced to the Wimbledon final.
Kvitova, the eighth seed from the Czech Republic, was an irresistible force against Victoria Azarenka, winning, 6-1, 3-6, 6-2. Sharapova, the 2004 Wimbledon champion, was, despite 13 double faults, more composed and consistent from the baseline than Sabine Lisicki, winning by 6-4, 6-3.
The final on Saturday will be the 21-year-old Kvitova’s first in a Grand Slam tournament. Sharapova, the Russian star with the California address who is still one of the world’s most visible sports figures, will be playing in her first major final since she won the 2008 Australian Open.
“Today wasn’t my best match of the championships, so I was real happy to get through in two sets,” Sharapova said. “But it’s pretty amazing to be back on that stage.”
She appeared to have stage fright in the early going against Lisicki, the big-serving German who made the tournament as a wild card. Sharapova’s serve — a problem since her comeback from shoulder surgery in 2008 — was shaky again. She double-faulted on the first and last points of her opening service game, finding herself down, 0-3.
“The first three games she played very well, and I did quite the opposite,” Sharapova said. “And then, you know, I told myself to take it one point at a time and really focus.”
It was hardly a state of grace, however. Sharapova double-faulted two more times in her next service game, but still managed to hold. There was plenty of shaky tennis from there, but there was also some classic Sharapova: huge, flat ground strokes struck at sharp angles with full-blown self-confidence.
The more compelling semifinal came earlier. With the net on Centre Court dividing them, the left-handed Kvitova and the right-handed Azarenka were like 21-year-old mirror images with their long legs, bare shoulders, braided ponytails and all-white ensembles.
But Kvitova, with more natural power and the bigger serve, is better on grass. She simply had too much for the fourth-seeded Azarenka, who was repeatedly left lunging for shots in the corners and sometimes missing completely as her visage darkened.
“I think she can beat anybody any day, because right now she has a really good game,” Azarenka said. “She’s really going for it.”
The last left-hander to reach the women’s final was Martina Navratilova in 1994. Navratilova, born in Czechoslovakia, has been one of Kvitova’s strongest advocates, picking her to win the tournament before it began.
“We met in the locker room,” Kvitova said. “She told me, ‘Well done and good luck next match.’ It’s very nice when I can meet with her and speak with her.”
The only other left-handed woman to win here, Ann Jones, was also in the stands Thursday as Kvitova made good use of her left hand to slice wide serves into Azarenka’s two-handed backhand and generate — in her hot moments — brutally effective depth.
Kvitova finished with nine aces. She had 40 winners to Azarenka’s 9, which was not because Azarenka — a dynamic and aggressive striker of the ball — was playing it safe. It was because Kvitova was relentless once she took command of a rally from inside the baseline.
Azarenka, one of the better returners, broke Kvitova’s serve only once, in the second game of the second set. But Kvitova’s window of vulnerability soon shut, and she resumed attacking Azarenka’s second serves.
Azarenka kept hitting hard instead of varying her game and did not take a step or two back to return Kvitova’s first serves. It was not a winning game plan, which was surely a disappointment to Azarenka, who has sacrificed much to reach the higher reaches of the women’s game.
She left her home and family in Belarus at an early age, first to train in Spain and later in the United States, where she established a base in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Though she has risen into the top 10, she was frustrated enough earlier this year with her progress and repeated injuries to think about quitting. She said she reconsidered after a long talk with her grandmother that helped her put her concerns in perspective.
She is back in Europe now and she showed signs of new maturity Thursday in a situation in which she might have lost her composure in other years.
“Today I have no regrets,” Azarenka said. “I probably could have played better, but when I had chances, she really came up with the good stuff. So as I said, all credit to her.”
What remains to be seen is who will give the concession speech Saturday. Though Sharapova has three Grand Slam singles titles to Kvitova’s none, Navratilova thinks it will be close.
“I think she matches up very well,” Navratilova said of Kvitova. “I think for Petra the key has always been to minimize the streaks of bad play. She’s very streaky, which is good on the good side. But she’s been able to do that for the most part.”
Resources : http://www.nytimes.com/
|
Subscribe
