WTA Madrid Saturday Preview

Julia Goerges vs. Victoria Azarenka

Fifth seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus and World No. 27 Julia Goerges of Germany won their respective quarterfinal matches over Lucie Safarova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to reach the semi-final of the 2011 Madrid Open.

In the first quarterfinal match of the 2011 Mutua Madrid Open on Friday, World No. 27 Julia Goerges of Germany edged past Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia with a 6-4 6-2 scoreline to secure her berth in the semis of this WTA Premier Event.

The 22-year-old Goerges earned this victory in straight sets, as she saved six break points and took only 90 minutes to dispatch the Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

Goerges is still ranked outside of the top 25 but she's making a convincing push to get into, not just the top 20, but the top 15. The 22 year old won WTA Stuttgart in April on clay and the path to that title went through Azarenka, Samantha Stosur, and Caroline Wozniacki.

Goerges dismissed Wozniacki again in Madrid, something that is more than head turning, and the German can't have any confidence issues at all as she looks to take down her first Premier Mandatory event.

Clay definitely appears to be the German's best surface as her only other tour title besides Stuttgart was also in a clay court event as she won Bad Gastein in 2010.

In the semi-final, this rising WTA star Goerges will take on fourth seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, who rallied past un-seeded Czech Lucie Safarova with a 6-3 3-6 6-2 scoreline.

The two players are among the hottest on the women's tour right now as they have a combined three titles all of which were earned in the last couple of months. Perhaps with importance, Azarenka's recent titles are hard court titles while Goerges' title was won on clay.

Their semifinal on Saturday promises to be competitive and it is hard to figure out who has a clear edge. As one might expect the betting odds favor the higher ranked player: Azarenka comes in as 4/9 favorite while Goerges comes in at about 8/5.

Azarenka took 1 hour and 54 minutes to earn this victory, as she fired 5 aces and converted 4 out of 10 break points. Safarova had 4 break points but she could only convert two and lost a well fought battle in three sets.

Azarenka is chasing eighth WTA title of her career. The Belarusian has already clinched WTA Tour titles in Miami and Marbella in the new season and currently she is placed at the highest WTA Ranking of her career at No. 5.

Na Li vs. Petra Kvitova

Na Li and Petra Kvitova will meet in their first career head to head match on Saturday at the semifinals in Mutua Madrid Open. At stake is a spot in the championship final against either Julia Goerges or Victoria Azarenka, two players who will meet in the first match of the day from Madrid. 

Li has played well so far in the clay court tournament however she enters the semifinals having not played a top player in the draw yet. Francesca Schiavone was the highest seed in Li's quarter but the reigning French Open champion does not appear poised for a deep run in Paris this season and she went out to the unheralded Bethanie Mattek-Sands.

Kvitova survived a quarter of the draw that included Svetlana Kuznetsova, Maria Sharapova, Vera Zvonareva, and Dominika Cibulkova. Kvitova herself eliminated the latter two and she has only one dropped set in the tournament so far. An up and coming player, Kvitova, the world number 18 is a favorite against the world number 6.

The odds on Kvitova might be judged long even despite her status as favorite as she's made a very convincing case for herself to make the final in Madrid where she promises to challenge for the title.

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