Injury has once again halted Victoria Azarenka as she had to retire in the final set of her quarter-final with Anett Kontaveit in Stuttgart.
The Belarusian had won back-to-back matches against Vera Zvonareva and Karolina Pliskova heading into her quarter-final with Kontaveit.
However it was another step backwards for Azarenka last night after she had to retire due to a shoulder injury at 3-0 down in the final set.
Having been two points away from the semi-finals, the former world number one couldn’t close it out and some good fighting spirit from Kontaveit saw her into back-to-back Stuttgart semis.
This is not the first time Azarenka has had to retire this year as she was forced to withdraw from the Monterrey final against Garbine Muguruza a few weeks ago. So in her case it’s one step forward and two steps backwards.
As for Kontaveit she spoke of her delight at making another semi-final in Stuttgart, “Of course, it feels great to be back in the semi-finals,” she told reporters.
“Not the way I wanted to win in the end but I thought it was quite a high level match. I was quite lucky to get through the second set somehow.
“I didn’t return as well as she did definitely and I think that really gave her the edge, but I just tried to stay in there as much as I could and I felt like, on these close moments, she made a couple of errors and gave me a chance to come back a little bit.”
Anett Kontaveit will now play world number one Naomi Osaka later this evening after her stunning comeback over Donna Vekic and the Estonian is looking forward to it, “She hits the ball really hard, she has a great serve, a great forehand, it’s definitely going to be quite fast tennis from her.”
The match will take place at 6:30pm local time.
