Victoria Azarenka hobbled with an ankle injury to reach her first final as No. 1, downing Agenieszka Radwanska 6-2, 6-4 in the Qatar Open Saturday. Azarenka expects to be OK to meet Sam Stosur in Sunday's final. Stosur advanced from her semifinal after Marion Bartoli retired with a right calf injury after losing the first set 6-3. Azarenka has won all five previous matches against the fifth-ranked Stosur, the most recent in November at the year-ending WTA Championships. The Australian Open champion from Belarus easily won the first set against Radwanska. She broke the fourth-seeded Radwanska to go up 1-0 in the second set but then she fell badly and twisted her right ankle trying to chase down a drop shot. She limped off the court and a trainer wrapped the ankle. Radwanska broke to go up 2-1 but Azarenka persevered, using her powerful groundstrokes and a great return game to regain control. While her mobility was clearly limited, she still managed to chase down everything Radwanska hit to win the next four games, including a forehand winner that made it 5-2. Radwanska saved one match point to make it 5-3 and won the next game to raise the possibility of a third set. But Azarenka wasn't having any of it, hitting a forehand winner down the line for her 16th win in a row, the most to start a WTA season in four years. The win was the fourth in a row for Stosur, the US Open champ who was coming off a dismal run in her Australia homeland where she was knocked out in the first rounds in Sydney and the Australia Open. She admitted her troubles in Australia came down to being nervous about playing at home and trying to meet high public expectations. Bartoli said she started feeling the strain in her calf during the third set of her quarterfinal win on Friday against Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic. Del Potro in final Juan Martin del Potro mowed down a surprisingly listless Tomas Berdych 6-3, 6-1 to reach the final of the Rotterdam Open Saturday. The Argentine third seed needed just an hour and a quarter as he handed Berdych a first defeat indoors this season, following an eight-game winning run for the Czech that included this month's Montpellier trophy. Berdych barely registered in the match, which takes Del Potro into a final against either top seed Roger Federer or unseeded Russian Nikolay Davydenko. Federer leads Davydenko 16-2 in head-to-head encounters, losing his only two matches in the series in late 2009 and early 2010 before resuming his domination with wins in their last four meetings. Federer reached semifinals Friday with a 7-5, 7-6 (7-2) win over Jarkko Nieminen and Davydenko shocked fifth seed Richard Gasquet of France 7-5, 6-3.
