WTA Madrid Friday Preview

Victoria Azarenka vs. Lucie Safarova

Azarenka and Safarova will meet in the quarterfinals from Madrid on Friday. Victoria Azarenka has surged into the quarterfinals of WTA Madrid 2011 with three impressive victories in the opening rounds.

Azarenka, who will face Lucie Safarova in the quarterfinals on Friday, is into the final eight having only lost five individual games so far in Madrid. Overall Azarenka is 36-5 in games won to games lost at the Premier Mandatory event and she is the player who has been most impressive so far in the women's tournament. Azarenka, who enters her quarterfinal match as a favourite, has not had any trouble with Safarova in the past as the two players have met 5 times. Not only has Azarenka won all five matches between the two but the Belarussian is 10-0 in sets played against Safarova as well.

Safarova, ranked 32nd in the world heading into the match, is an unlikely quarterfinalist as she survived a section of the draw that had Jelena Jankovic and Agnieszka Radwanska in it. However the Czech national is even more unlikely to make the semifinals and her week has to be considered successful already.

Julia Goerges vs. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova

Julia Goerges has not lost a single match since her first round match at Stuttgart. She will be playing Pavlyuchenkova from Russia in the quarterfinals of the Madrid Open.

Julia Goerges is ranked at number 27 among the WTA rankings where as Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova is ranked at number 21 in the world. It will be a match in between two aggressive players in this unpredictable encounter.

Goerges has been in great form this year. After her title win at Stuttgart, she has had a perfect stint so far at Madrid too. The German outplayed Dinara Safina and the first seed, Caroline Wozniacki in three tough sets. Goerges will be looking forward to another Russian in the form of Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the quarterfinals. She would be focusing on winning a lot more matches to tune herself before the French Open.

Pavlyuchenkova kicked off current season with a semi-final performance in Brisbane and then went on to win the ATP title at Monterrey. The Russian then popped out of the fourth round in Miami in March. She defeated eleventh seeded Marion Bartoli and fifth seeded Samanta Stosur in order to book her quarterfinal spot in Madrid. She will be targeting the top twenty among the WTA rankings with a decent performance at this tournament.

Both the players have never met times before and this is the first time that they will be playing each other.  Goerges can slam those forehands at high pace and has the ability to make use of her massive serves in the match. Pavlyuchenkova can hit accurate forehands and slide the occasional volley under pressure.