Paris – World No 3 Victoria Azarenka reached her first French Open semi-final on Wednesday when she defeated friend and former doubles partner, Maria Kirilenko of Russia, 7-6 (7/3), 6-2.
The 23-year-old Australian Open winner will face defending champion Maria Sharapova, the second seed, who beat Serbian 18th seed Jelena Jankovic, 0-6, 6-4, 6-3, for a place in Saturday's final after clinching a fourth successive victory over Russian 12th seed Kirilenko.
Kirilenko, 26, bidding to reach a first career Grand Slam semi-final, simply lacked the armoury to upset Azarenka with whom she had reached the final of the women's doubles at the Australian Open in 2012.
“Maria is such a great competitor and it was a really tough start,” said Azarenka.
“But I am really happy to get through to my first semi-final in Paris at the third time of asking.”
Kirilenko was meeting a top 50 player at this Roland Garros for the first time, having made her first Paris quarter-final without dropping a set while Azarenka hadn't faced anyone inside the top 30.
That lack of sharpness was evident immediately with four breaks in the first four games while Azarenka, a 2009 and 2011 quarter-finalist, won just one point in her opening two service games on Court Suzanne Lenglen.
Kirilenko needed a medical timeout on a back injury after edging ahead to 4-3, and was soon under the cosh in the ninth game, an exhausting 10 minutes long where she fought off three break points.
The blonde Russian was out of luck in her next service game as Azarenka's greater strength and deeper, sharper hitting gave her a breakthrough for 6-5.
Kirilenko, bidding to make the semi-finals of a major for the first time, hit back straightaway to take the set to the tie-breaker, but she was unable to resist the Azarenka barrage as the Belarusian swept through.
The world number three had taken a marathon 76 minutes to secure the opener – over on Court Philippe Chatrier, Sharapova and Jankovic were already into the final set of their quarter-final.
But she breezed through the second in half that time, breaking for a 3-1 lead when Kirilenko, who she had also beaten for the bronze medal at the London Olympics last year, served up a fifth double fault of the match.
Azarenka went to two match points in the eighth game and secure victory when Kirilenko hit a forehand long. – Sapa-AFP