WTA Tennis: Britain’s Keothavong in Memphis semi, and it’s Serena Williams vs Victoria Azarenka in Dubai

Britain’s Anne Keothavong has earned herself a place in the semi final of the Cellular South Cup semi finals which are being in held in Memphis at the moment. Britain’s number three is having a fine run, and clearly enjoys playing in Memphis, as she also reached the semi final in last year’s tournament. She beat Karolina Sprem in the Quarter Finals quite comfortably with a score of 6-4, 6-3, but sadly her compatriot Elena Baltacha could join her in the semi’s as the British number one fell to Russian tennis queen Maria Sharapova, who is favourite for the title.

Keothavong has a great chance to reach the final, but will face a stern test against Sofia Arvidsson from Sweden, who knocked out the number two seed in the Quarter Finals. Keothavong hasn’t been on the British tennis radar too much, as she was nursing an injury for the best part of 2009, and the Memphis tournament sees her return to WTA action. In the head to head against her semi final opponent and good fried, the Swede leads the battle by a narrow 4-3 margin. So there is nothing much to fear for Koethavong, who is looking pretty confident around the court. Keothavong, to her credit beat the number 6 seed in the first round, and has looked fairly untroubled during her progress. She is now at 27/5 at BetFair to win the tournament outright.

In the other semi final, Sharapova, who is by far the highest Ranked player in the tournament, will take on Petra Kvitova in the other semi final. Sharapova, who was knocked out in the first round of the Australian Open, in one of the tournament’s big shocks, will be looking to build momentum for the rest of the season. Sharapova has been looking in fine form throughout the tournament, but the level of opposition isn’t really up to her standard to be honest. Sharapova is ranked 16th in the world, and second favourite for the tournament was Melanie Oudin, ranked 53rd in the world. Oudin went out to Keothavong’s semi final opponent Arvidsson.That is the gulf in class.

Maria Sharapova to win: 1/7 at Boylesports
Petra Kvitova to win: 5/1 at Bet365

Over in Dubai, the final of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships will be contested between Venus Williams and Azarenka. One of the big stories of the championships, was Israeli Shahar Peer making an appearance, after she was denied entry into the country last year. The unseeded Peer made big headlines with her tennis as well, as she beat higher opposition to reach the semi final. Peer knockout out Yanina Wickmayer, Caroline Wozniacki and Na Li on her way to the semi final and it appeared as if there was going to be one of those wonderful fairy tale sporting stories on the cards. But although she battled well, she just couldn’t get the better of the more powerful Williams, who cruised through to the final without playing another seeded player, as Elena Dementieva couldn’t get past the second round in the same quarter of the draw.

Now Williams will play fourth seed Victoria Azarenka, who has only dropped one set on her progress to the final, and was probably expecting a tougher ride from Zvonerava in the Quarter Finals, but the challenge just was not there, with Azarenka winning out 6-3, 6-2. Azarenka, from Belarus and ranked 6th in the world, has had a steady start to 2010, being there or thereabouts in the latter stages of tournaments. She finished in the semi finals in Sydney, and then reached the Quarter finals of the Australian open, where she blew a big lead against Serena Williams. Out of the five meetings on the WTA between the two players, Azarenka has only pulled out one win, coming in the Final in Miami in 2009 on a hard court. Williams will be favourite, but Azarenka is an exciting, powerful and quick player, and if she can find her ruthless edge and play like she did through the Australian Open, then she is more than capable of winning out.

Venus Williams to win: 4/6 at SkyBet
Victoria Azarenka to win: 9/7 at Bwin