First to the quarters - Vika or Iveta?

Today third seed Victoria Azarenka had to defeat a left hander from the Czech Republic. No, the organisers didn't stuff up the draw and Vika was not playing Petra Kvitova in the fourth round - instead Iveta Benesova for the second year in a row made it through to the round of sixteen and faced this time the unenviable task of knocking over the form female on tour.


Needing to start well, Benesova had the chance with the first service game, but Vika put a stop to that idea by breaking decisively. Holding her own serve has been very matter of fact in her matches so far, and no exception arose early today, so at 2-0 Iveta had already adopted a position of mercy begging.

A moment of respite arrived when Benesova held serve impressively for 1-2, only for the Belarusian brilliance to prevail for a 5-1 lead, forehand winners just wonderful to witness amidst the grand show.

A short interlude of Czech magic represented a welcome change from the main act, but once back on stage Vika the diva stole the limelight again to serve out the set 6-2. Yet to do anything but impress, Azarenka continued moving up the ladder of favorable impression, and the next Czech left hander she faces may well be her nemesis of late - Kvitova, her conqueror both at Wimbeldon and the WTA Seasone ended in Turkey.

The second set began again with Iveta with the same result, and even with her best attempts with her second serve, the intense and consistent pressure of an unrelenting Vika forced the 3-0 scoreline with the Belarusian serve to come - and we all knew that serve to be impregnable.

If you happen to follow Vika on Twitter you will find a very interesting young lady on the social networking scene. The only networking that Azarenka on the tennis court is focussed on is working the net between the players to her own best interest.


Iveta served well, in fact stuck to her guns fairly well amidst the total match barrage, and changed the score to 1-4. Benesova also changed the score to 2-5 when all seems lost at 0-30 in that game. The remainder of score changing was left to Vika with a hold of serve that turned out to be the best game of the match, to win 6-2 6-2, improving her credentials as the favorite in the top half of the draw to win a finals berth. Courtesy of being the first quarter finalist, Vika is now virtual world number one by 15 points over Petra Kvitova; Petra with her fourth round match to come against Ivanovic tomorrow may change this of course.