Marion Bartoli shocked viewers when she took down world no. one Victoria Azarenka at Miami Masters.
Victoria Azarenka's 26-match winning streak was ended Wednesday by Marion Bartoli, who stunned the world number one 6-3, 6-3 in the quarter-finals of the ATP/WTA Miami hardcourt event.
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Azarenka's season-long unbeaten run had earned her four titles, including her first Grand Slam at the Australian Open, which propelled her to world number one.
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Bartoli (L) after winning the match against Azarenka (R). Photo:AFP
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The 22-year-old from Belarus also won in Sydney, Doha and Indian Wells.
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It was the longest winning streak on the WTA Tour since Martina Hingis won 37 consecutive matches in 1997.
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"I feel disappointed, sure," Azarenka said. "Who wouldn't be after the loss?
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"But what I've done in the last couple of months, I have to be really proud of myself. I could have maybe played better today, that's for sure, but I gave it all I had.
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"Physically I was just not able to do anything today. It was just not possible."
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Defending champion Azarenka fell behind early in the match against her French opponent and was unable to turn it around as she had in her fourth-round match two days ago.
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Down a set and behind 5-2 against 16th seeded Dominika Cibulkova, she had rallied to win in three sets, 1-6, 7-6 (9/7), 7-5, but could not engineer a similar comeback against Bartoli.
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"Everybody wanted to be the first one to beat me," Azarenka said. "I think it's pretty normal. When I was going to play against the number one player in the world I also tried to do the same.
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"Two days ago I could turn it around and today I couldn't. But it's not gonna stop me from working hard and keep going the same way."
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Defending champion Azarenka has won twice before in Miami, but has now lost two of her last three meetings with Bartoli.
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"I'm just tired," she said. "This is expected. But what can you do? That was supposed to happen one day.
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"I couldn't kept going all the way. To play these tournaments back-to-back is really difficult physically.
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"I'm not really worried about anything else. It was just I wasn't able to do anything physical today."
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Bartoli, 27 and ranked at a career-high seventh in the world, will play fifth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland for a place in the final.
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Bartoli u00a0notched her third career victory over a world number one player. She beat Belgian Justine Henin at Wimbledon in 2007 and Serbia's Jelena Jankovic at the Australian Open in 2009.
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"I honestly have never seen her play that well," Azarenka said. "All the credit to her. She did an amazing job today."
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Bartoli, who has yet to win a title this year, capitalised on six of 10 break-point opportunities to secure just her third win in 11 meetings with Azarenka.
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