World No 1 Azarenka pulls out due to fatigue, while No 2 Sharapova is sent home by Stosur in Tokyo
World No 1 Victoria Azarenka and No 2 Maria Sharapova crashed out of the Pan Pacific Open tennis tournament in contrasting styles yesterday.
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Azarenka, from Belarus, pulled out citing fatigue, while the French Open champion from Russia went down to Samantha Stosur of Australia 4-6, 6-7 (10/12) in the quarter-finals.
But defending champion and World No 3 Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland safely went through beating 2010 Tokyo champion Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark 6-4, 6-3.
“Before the tournament on Sunday, I started not feeling very good, just low energy,” said Azarenka, 23, giving Angelique Kerber of Germany a free ticket to the semi-finals. “It took too much energy in the last two matches and today it’s not possible for me,” added the top seed.
Two-time champion Sharapova took a service break lead first in both sets, losing the advantage both times before coming back from 3-5 down in the second set to force a tie-breaker. Sharapova staved off four match points in the tie-breaker, but surrendered the match on Stosur’s fifth match point. “Obviously she was up 5-3 and had a chance to win the match comfortably. I had chances in the tie-break (to win the set). Just a one point here, one point there changed a little bit, but it didn’t go my way. It’s disappointing to lose,” said Sharapova, 25.
In the semi-finals on Friday, Stosur will play Nadia Petrova of Russia, who came back from behind to beat sixth seed Sara Errani of Italy 3-6, 7-5, 6-3.
Lee-Tecau storm into Thailand semis
Leander Paes and Romania’s Horia Tecau defeated Serbian-German pair of Janko Tipsarevic and Alexander Waske 6-0, 3-6, 10-5 to book a place in the semi-finals of the ATP Thailand Open yesterday. The top seeds will face USA’s Eric Butorac and Australia’s Paul Hanley in the semis.
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