Azarenka, Sharapova to vie for Stuttgart title

Stuttgart: Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova, the top ranked players in the world, will contest the final of the Porsche Grand Prix on Sunday.

No. 1 Azarenka of Belarus cruised past Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 6-1, 6-3 in the first of Saturday's semifinals.

Second-ranked Sharapova then outlasted No. 3 Petra Kvitova, the Wimbledon champion, 6-4, 7-6 (3).

No. 1 Victoria Azarenka cruised past Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 6-1, 6-3 set up a final clash with Maria Sharapova..

Azarenka is seeking a tour-high fifth tournament title of the year. She went on a 26-0 start to the year that included winning the Australian Open title.

Azarenka dominated the match against the fourth-ranked Radwanska, whose only four losses of the year have come against Azarenka.

On match point, Azarenka fired a forehand winner to advance to the final. She has a 29-1 record for the year.

Sharapova is off to a promising start to her clay court season.

The Russian broke serve in the fifth game and did not face a break point in the first set.

That changed in the second.

Kvitova held 11 break points in the set, but the Czech could not convert any of them.

She finally did on her 12th, after saving a match point, to level the score at 6-6 and sent the second set into a tiebreaker.

Sharapova made fewer mistakes and cruised home as she seeks her first title of the year.

Azarenka leads Sharapova 5-3 in career meetings.

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