Victoria Azarenka Reaches 1st Grand Slam Semi

Victoria Azarenka reached her first Grand Slam final last night with an impressive victory over Tamira Paszek.

The match finally got onto court 1 after a series of rain delays but not longer had they walked on court before they were walking off due to more rain.

The match was moved to Centre court in a bid to get all the women's quarter finals completed.

Azarenka has dropped just a single set on her way to the quarter finals and she was soon in control of the opening set when she broke in the fourth game to lead 3-1.

A second break saw her move 5-1 ahead as her powerful groundstokes were too much for her young opponent.

While Paszek did get one of the breaks back it only delayed inevitable as Azarenka wrapped up the opening set 6-3.

Into the second and Azarenka was in no mood to hang about as she broke to lead 2-0 before breaking for a second time to lead 5-1.

There was no way back for Paszek and Azarenka notched up a 6-3 6-1 win to make it through a grand slam quarter final for the very first time.

Speaking to BBC after the match Azarenka said: "It was definitely very difficult to wait the whole day and keep focused but I'm really glad we managed to play and I'm really happy with the win.

"I knew when we went back to the locker rooms it was too late to wait on Court One. The roof is just amazing

"It's my mum's birthday today so I wanted to give her a big gift and I was trying to play beautifully. I stayed really focused today and composed throughout the whole match.

"Kvitova is a great player. Grass obviously suits her really well as she has a huge serve. I must play my best tennis, stay focused and try my hardest."

And Azarenka will play the hard hitting Petra Kvitova as she saw off Tsvetana Pironkova in three sets.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw