No. 8 seed, Victoria Azarenka and No. 16 seed, Maria Sharapova, will face off on Saturday in the Final of the 2011 WTA Sony Ericsson Open in Miami.
They are tied at 2-2 in career matches, with Azarenka winning their last match in last year’s Stanford final, 6-4, 6-1.
Azarenka defeated No. 3 seed, Vera Zvonareva 6-0, 6-3 in her Semifinal match, while Sharapova took down Andrea Petkovic 3-6, 6-0, 6-2.
Petkovic, who had taken out No 1, Caroline Wozniacki and No. 6 Jelena Jankovic, started off strong in the first set against Sharapova. Then Sharapova took over, winning the 2nd set, 6-0 and the first five games of the 3rd set by scoring 20 points while Andrea scored only 6. Sharapova is working hard to get back to her pre-injury form. A win in this tournament would take her a long way toward that goal.
Azarenka is 5-6 in previous WTA singles finals. She won her first three titles in 2009; in 2010 she defeated Maria Sharapova in the Stanford final, and Maria Kirilenko in the Moscow final. Azarenka has a 14-5 singles match record in 2011.
