German 5th seed here in Linz had a tough time reaching her first final in the Indoor Tournament of Linz and could make it only by raising her game when it was most needed.
The two players reached the semifinal in a really different fashion, as the Belgian had to get through the qualifications and stun the former world number 1 Ivanovic, while Goerges pretty much had no troubles so far, if you don't consider her opening round against Hantuchova - still closed in straights-.
Flipkens, who seems to be finally on her way back after the unlucky season of injuries, started well confusing Goerges by mixing up flat shots from her forehand and tricky backs out of Backhand. Goerges tried to outhit the Belgian by taking risks with her big forehand, but Flipkens would defend well and fast turn defence into offence.
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| Picture from wtatennis.com |
Everything looked so easy on the belgian side of the net, as Flipkens didn't face a single Break Point in the whole first set, taking it home with a convincing 6-1.
The court change between the first two sets seemed to have done miracles to Goerges, who looked more confident and finally started to figure out her opponent and immediatly took a break from Flipkens and hold in the very next game saving a crucial breakpoint. From that moment on the set was never on troubles for the German girl who won it for 6 games to 2.
The key of this turn-aroud was the new patience Julia showed suddenly and quite unexpectedly from the very first points of the second set: if she just bashed the balls to finish the rally fast in the first set, she showed a better security in her weapons and moved Kristen around the court before finishing with her famous huge shots.
The third set took the same path of the one before and even if the score looks slightly closer in terms of game it never was and Julia sailed to her second final of the year after the one lost in Dubai against Agnieska Radwanska.
Victoria Azarenka def. Irina-Camelia Begu 6-2 6-1
Another walk in the park, someone would say just basing his thoughts on the score and, well, he wouldn't be really far from reality, even though the first set was slightly closer then it seems.
Azarenka started very well on return by breaking the Romanian to love, still Irina seemed to be ready for that a by playing her solid game broke back. The costant of the match was given by an attacking Azarenka and a more attendist Begu, who waited for the right chances to be more aggressive and close the point after having moved Azarenka offcourt, mostly with her crosscourt backhand. Sadly for Begu and the show, Azarenka didn't let many of those chances happen and Irina had to run a lot to defend all the power hitting from the Belarussian.
On 1-1 Azarenka broke again with ease and then hold a crucial game, since it set definitely the distance between the two. Begu realised she couldn't just wait for a short ball from Azarenka as that almost never happened and tried to be more aggressive, but ended up overhitting most of the times as Azarenka's defence and movements are among the best on the tour at the moment and Begu hasn't the stability in her shots it takes to go for winners' attempts more than once each rally. The romanian's class let her win some really awesome points, but it wasn't enough against today's Azarenka, who took the first set 6-2.
The second set started with an even more powerful start from Azarenka, which completely let Begu down: after a couple of games in which the Romanian still tried to build her game, she kind of waved white flag and let Azarenka dictate every point until the very end of the match. 6-2 6-1.
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| Picture from wtatennis.com |
It won't take a magician to understand that the world number 1 is the clear favourite in the final, which will take place tomorrow at 2pm CET. Everything seems to be on Azarenka's side, she's far ranked higher on the ranking, she comes from US Open final and Beijing's title, she hasn't dropped more than 4 games to her opponents so far and leads the Head to Head for 3-1 (the only defeat comes from a retirement when a set up!), but she surely would need to keep her focus up as she is likely to be first time this week challenged on that indoor surface and Goerges has proved to be very dangerous if you let her play her big forehand and, on this surfaces, he backhand looks less of a feebleness than it may be outdoors.
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