TENNIS – Caroline Wozniacki booked her place in Sunday's final by defeating Angelique Kerber 2-6 6-4 7-5. It's the Dane's first Premier Mandatory event final since Indian Wells 2011. Her opponent will be Maria Sharapova who dismissed Kirilenko in straight sets. Jennifer Jonak

Second seed Maria Sharapova will meet eighth seed Caroline Wozniacki in the finals of the BNP Paribas Open, after both won their semifinal matches on Friday. 

Wozniacki recovered from a shaky first set to overcome fourth seed Angelique Kerber in three sets, 2-6, 6-4, 7-5.  Kerber hit some beautiful baseline winners, mixed with deep topspin lobs, but ultimately, Wozniacki was more consistent, edging out Kerber in a tight second and third set. 

After the match, Wozniacki said that she “should have closed it out at 4-1 in the third [set],” but “I started playing too short and she was all over it.”  Describing Kerber as a “great fighter,” Wozniacki said that it felt “very special” to be going into her third final at Indian Wells.

Sharapova had an easier time in her semifinal, overpowering fellow Russian and childhood friend Maria Kirilenko, 6-4, 7-5. Kirilenko, who was looking to break into the top ten for the first time, came into the match with wins over two top players, third and fifth seeds Agnieszka Radwanska and Petra Kvitova. Those wins gave Kirilenko the confidence that “now I feel that I can be on this level.”  Kirilenko’s fiancée, Russian hockey star, Alex Ovechkin, gave her advice: “Just go there and beat them.”

Unfortunately, Kirilenko’s nerves seemed to affect her in the first set, as she struggled to hold onto her serve and made a number of unforced errors. Sharapova overwhelmed her Russian compatriot, and even with a number of double faults, Kirilenko was unable to weather Sharapova’s deep baseline play. Sharapova won the first set 6-4.

During the second set, Kirilenko played much more cleanly, and it was not until she served at 4-3 that she was broken on a lucky net cord drop. Clenching her fist and yelling, “C’mon,” Sharapova went on to break Kirilenko a second time to capture the match at 7-5 and advance to the finals.

Sharapova attributed her win to better serving in the second set, and “being a little more aggressive than usual.”

Sharapova next faces Wozniacki, who has a 2-4 record against her, but captured the title in 2011. Both women will give it their all in the final. The prize money is US$1 million, and as Sharapova described in an earlier interview, “when you’re walking through a tunnel and you’re going on center court to play in front of thousands of people, if you don’t have motivation to do that and to be excited and lucky, to be in front of them . . . You probably shouldn’t be doing it.”

Jennifer Jonak