Azarenka outduels Clijsters, reaches Aussie finals

Tennis Betting Lines

01/26/2012 - Melbourne, Australia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Victoria Azarenka ended Kim Clijsters' run at consecutive Australian Open titles Thursday, besting the four-time Grand Slam champion in a tense three-set semifinal battle.

Azarenka, seeded third, reached her first major final by outlasting the defending champion, 6-4, 1-6, 6-3, in two hours, 12 minutes at Rod Laver Arena.

The 22-year-old became the first Belarusian woman to reach a Grand Slam final since Natasha Zvereva did so at Roland Garros in 1988 when she was representing U.S.S.R.

In doing so, she ended another memorable performance Down Under by Clijsters, who has stated she will retire after the Summer Olympics in London.

If this was, in fact, the Belgian's final visit to the season's first major, she went down fighting. Azarenka broke Clijsters' second serve of the match, then fought off four break chances in the proceeding game.

Azarenka held serve with relative ease the rest of the opening set to stay in the driver's seat, but Clijsters began her comeback by breaking at love on Azarenka's service game in the second.

Clijsters, the 11th seed, quickly evened the match before falling behind 4-1 in the third. She held serve and trailed 40-0 in the next game before breaking to get back on serve.

But Azarenka, riding a 10-match winning streak after winning in Sydney earlier this month, earned her fourth break of the match to serve for a spot in the finals.

In the quarterfinals, Clijsters fought off four match points against last year's Aussie runner-up Li Na before pulling out the three-set victory.

A repeat performance was not meant to be, as Clijsters was wide on match point to end any chance at becoming the eighth woman to repeat as Aussie champion.

Azarenka will face the winner of the Petra Kvitova-Maria Sharapova match. The champion will become the new World No. 1, supplanting Clijsters' quarterfinal victim, Caroline Wozniacki.

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