Indian Wells: Azarenka, Sharapova set for dream final

INDIAN WELLS: The top two women in the world reached the Indian Wells final Friday as Victoria Azarenka eased through in straight sets while Maria Sharapova advanced when her opponent retired with
an injury.

World number one Azarenka extended her season-long match win streak to 22-0 by beating German Angelique Kerber 6-4, 6-3 in a semi-final match on centre court.

Russia's world number two Sharapova, who won the 2006 Indian Wells title, advanced to Sunday's final when a distraught Ana Ivanovic retired from the other semi-final with a hip injury.

They meet in the first final involving the top two ranked women in the world since 2008, when No. 1 Justine Henin played No. 2 Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Reigning Australian Open champion Azarenka has three titles already this year and has now reached the final of her last six tournaments.

Azarenka's win streak is the longest on the WTA Tour since 1997, when Martina Hingis won 37 in a row. Serena Williams had a 21-match win streak in 2003.

Friday's night matches on centre court were played in cool and windy conditions as forecasters are predicting rain showers on Saturday when the men are scheduled to play their semi-finals.

Azarenka, who won 70 percent of her first-serve points, needed 88 minutes to beat Kerber. She broke Kerber's serve in the final game of the match and on match point Azarenka hammered a cross-court forehand that Kerber returned long.

Kerber had five double faults, held her serve just four times and was broken six times in the match.

Azarenka pulled out of last year's Indian Wells tournament after getting injured in her quarter-final against Caroline Wozniacki.

She suffered the hip injury just 10 minutes into the match while stretching to try and return a shot.

This year it was Ivanovic who was forced to retire with a sore hip.

Sharapova was leading 6-4, 0-1 when Ivanovic told the chair umpire she couldn't continue.

Ivanovic called for an injury timeout late in the first set with Sharapova leading 5-4. The 15th seeded Serb left the court with a trainer to get treatment and returned for Sharapova's final service game.

Ivanovic served to win the first game of the second set but then stopped after they had played just two points of second game. (AFP)