With all the focus on the upsets and decimation of seeds at this year’s Roger’s Cup, it’s worth noting that at least one seed is living up to her billing. Victoria Azarenka, the only top-eight seed remaining in the Toronto draw, defeated Galina Voskoboeva, 6-1, 6-2, and has conceded a total of six games in three matches.
When a star player is upset by a lower-ranked opponent, it's natural to focus on the star’s failings, but Voskoboeva has strung together enough notable victories this week for anyone who draws her in the future to take serious notice. Qualifying into the Roger’s Cup draw and defeating Marion Bartoli, Flavia Pennetta and finally Maria Sharapova, the 26 year-old Moscow native who now represents Kazakhstan hit some remarkable and flashy winners against Azarenka to give the crowd glimpses of the form that took her to the quarterfinals, including a forehand—up the line, on the run—which should cap any highlights reel of the tournament. However, she was comprehensively and consistently outplayed by Azarenka, who broke Voskoboeva in the first game of the match and didn’t look back.
Azarenka has been having a quietly ruthless tournament so far, and was clearly determined not to let Voskoboeva steal the limelight again. From the very first game, Azarenka’s vastly improved defense and raw speed around the court forced Voskoboeva to hit more balls than she was comfortable with; balls that were winners last night against Sharapova came back over the net with interest. The Kazakhstani was never given a chance to settle into the match as Azarenka raced to a 5-0 lead, seizing every opportunity to move forward and dominate the rallies. Voskoboeva started to get her eye in on Azarenka’s serve as the world No. 4 was serving for the set, hitting three clean return winners, and an impeccable dropshot got her on to the scoreboard. But it was a short-lived resurgence, as too many errors off the forehand side let Azarenka take the first set in the next game.
Despite impassioned encouragement from Voskoboeva’s coach Alina Jidkova, the underdog continued to crumble under the sustained barrage from Azarenka. Breaking in the fourth game of the second set to lead 3-1, Azarenka continued to pressure Voskoboeva into errors, and her commitment to chasing down Voskoboeva’s favored dropshot-lob combination ensured that she was handling them with aplomb.
A tearful Voskoboeva left the court to sustained applause, having earned many fans with her eye-catching performances this week, but it’s Azarenka who moves on to face either Serena Williams or Lucie Safarova in tomorrow's semifinals. It’s Azarenka’s sixth semifinal in what has been an excellent year for her so far. She may not quite have hit the heights yet, but she continues to stack up impressive numbers.
—Hannah Wilks