Sharapova Rallies To Beat Radwanska

Victoria Azarenka gave herself a 21st birthday present to remember on Saturday, July 31, 2010, ousting the Bank of the West Classic's top seed, Samantha Stosur, in straight sets Azarenka, the No.8 seed, had never lost a set to Stosur in their three previous meetings, and that trend continued as she pushed the aggressive Australian back behind the baseline throughout the match with her trademark penetrating groundstrokes. After an hour and 24 minutes it was all over and she won, 62 63.

"I served well, played very well on the return and was solid from the baseline," Azarenka said. "Sam's an amazing player. She has had great results this year and it gives me even more confidence I can beat her when she's in good form. It's also good to win on my birthday!"

Azarenka, who fell first round in her only previous appearance in Stanford in 2007, is now through to her 10th career Sony Ericsson WTA Tour final, going 3-6 in her first nine. She won all three of her career titles last year (Brisbane, Memphis, Miami) but has gone 0-2 in finals this year (Dubai, Eastbourne).

At night, No.5 seed Maria Sharapova rallied back from a first set blowout and beat No.3 seed Agnieszka Radwanska, 16 62 62. After getting broken in three of her four service games in the first set, Sharapova only lost her serve once in the second and third sets combined to improve to 5-1 against Radwanska.

"I was all over the map for a little while," Sharapova said. "I cut down on the unforced errors and little by little I came back. She wins a lot of her matches by wearing her opponents down, getting a lot of balls back. You have to be ready for the next shot to come back, and every shot is a new one."

Sharapova leads Azarenka in their head-to-head, 2-1. Azarenka won their first meeting but Sharapova has won their last two, both last year on hardcourts.

The doubles final will pit No.2 seeds Chan Yung-Jan and Zheng Jie against the wildcard pairing of Lindsay Davenport and Liezel Huber. Davenport and Huber advanced when Sarah Borwell and Raquel Kops-Jones had to retire after one game with Borwell suffering from dizziness.