Victoria Azarenka took a long and vital step towards the year-end world No.1 ranking by saving two match points in a heroic tussle against Angelique Kerber at the WTA Championships in Istanbul.
In a dramatic day, Serena Williams smashed a racket before advancing to the verge of the semi-finals and Australia’s Samantha Stosur grabbed a last-minute call-up to play.
A new champion became certain earlier when Petra Kvitova, the titleholder from the Czech Republic, withdrew, apparently with a virus, to open the way for Stosur to step up.
The Australian former US Open champion can still qualify for Saturday’s semi-finals if she wins the remaining two matches in the white group, against Maria Sharapova, the second seed, and Sara Errani, the French Open runner-up.
Azarenka, the top-seeded Belarusian, beat the revelatory German Kerber 6-7 (11-13) 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 in an match full of magnificent rallies and surprises, which leaves Azarenka needing only one more victory to guarantee her a top finish.
Had Azarenka lost either of the match points against her a path might have opened up for the second-seeded Maria Sharapova to sneak through to the summit instead.
But despite repeated frustrations from Kerber’s relentlessly courageous mixture of containment and counter-hitting, Azarenka somehow controlled her once unruly emotions and found a way to prevail.
“On the two match points against me I felt I had to go for it,” Azarenka said.
“I felt she would not miss, so I didn’t want to wait for her to make a mistake – I was determined to make it happen.
“I wanted to change the momentum and take destiny into my own hands. I had a clear mind of what I had to do. It takes time to go through (what’s needed) to learn that.”
With a difficult contest in prospect against Serena Williams on Thursday, that was essential.
A loss to the German on Wednesday and another on to the unofficial favourite from the United States on Thursday might have given Sharapova the opportunity to grasp the top-ranking accolade herself by winning the WTA title on Sunday.
Earlier, Williams overcame the emotions that impelled her to smash a racket and earn her a code violation warning as the 31-year-old American overcame Li Na 7-6 (7-2) 6-3.
Williams, the Olympic, US Open and Wimbledon champion, fought off the former French Open champion from China in a tense, noisy and surprisingly fraught affair in which she never seemed fully at ease.
Williams will be the oldest player ever to win the WTA title if she goes all the way in Istanbul.
Her win was more a triumph of will than anything else, for she landed less than 50 per cent of her first serves – so often her best weapon – dropped service games five times, and needed an hour and 50 minutes before she prevailed.
The racket-smashing incident occurred during a weird fourth game in which one of the finest servers in the history of the game delivered two successive double faults to go a break down.
About the smashed racket, she said: “I guess I was angry and I wasn’t able to control myself. But sometimes I play better when I get angry.”
