INDIAN WELLS, CALIF.—They have their detractors, but like them or not, it's hard to deny that Maria Sharapova and Caroline Wozniacki are two of the stoutest competitors in tennis. They proved it again, in very different ways, in their semifinal victories here on Friday. Wozniacki took a grooved opponent, Angelique Kerber, out of her groove by changing the tempo and trajectory of her shots—i.e., she went to the moonball—while Sharapova kept firing in the face of some fearless counterpunches from her own opponent, Maria Kirilenko, until she had broken her old friend down for good.
Sharapova leads the head-to-head with Wozniacki 4-2, but Wozniacki won their only match on the slow surface at Indian Wells, 6-1, 6-2, two years ago, and they played a close one on similarly paced court in Key Biscayne last spring, which Sharapova won 6-4 in the the third set. As far as their recent form, Sharapova has been far the superior player for the past year; her semifinal win moved her past Victoria Azarenka to No. 2 in the rankings, while Wozniacki will move from No. 10 to No. 9 after her performance this week.
But Wozniacki’s win over Kerber felt like a big one for her—her celebratory scream at the end had a little extra oomph in it. Not only was it her first victory in her last four matches against the German, but it put her back in a Premier Mandatory final. Still, it will be an uphill climb for Caro against the imposing Russian. Sharapova has been tested in a few close first sets this week, but she hasn’t dropped any of them. She has tended to gain in confidence as she’s gone along, which means that the first set on Sunday will be big for Wozniacki.