April 02, 2011
Sharapova and Azarenka are scheduled to meet in the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open final.
Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka are the finalists for the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open. Azarenka is into the final having defeated both Kim Clijsters and Vera Zvonareva in recent matches while Sharapova is the sole survivor of Caroline Wozniacki's half of the draw.
Sharapova and Azarenka have only met four times in the past and they look evenly matched heading into Saturday's final. Heads-up they are 2-2 against one another with Azarenka winning the last match between the two players, the final from WTA Stanford 2010.
Azarenka, seeded 8th at WTA Miami, has gotten better and better as the tournament has progressed. She was not looking like a finalist early in the tournament as she dropped a set to Lucie Hradecka, another to Dominika Cilbulkova, and then another to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
However after reaching the quarterfinals, Azarenka has played fantastic tennis as she brushed aside world number two Kim Clijsters 6-3, 6-3 and then made even quicker work of Vera Zvonareva in the semifinals 6-0, 6-3.
Sharapova is playing well but the one knock against her is her service game. She had seventeen double faults in her quarterfinal match against Alexandra Dulgheru and, despite winning, Sharapova has flirted with elimination.
Azarenka and Sharapova are on the Order of Play for Saturday with the following information:
Order of Play - Saturday, 2nd April, 2011
STADIUM start 12:30pm (ET)
[16] Maria Sharapova (RUS) vs [8] Victoria Azarenka (BLR)
3] Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) / Leander Paes (IND) vs [2] Max Mirnyi (BLR) / Daniel Nestor (CAN) WTA
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