If she manages to get past Radwanska, Serena Williams may come across a more accessible player in the Indian Wells final.
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The world No.1, who will play Victoria Azarenka for the title, was 4-2 down in the opening set and not moving freely in her semi-final, but prevailed 6-4 7-6 (7-1).
Williams will play Viktoria Azarenka in the last two, with the 2012 champion battling past Karolina Pliskova 7-6, 1-6, 6-2.
In the men’s draw Rafa Nadal and world number one Novak Djokovic remained on course Wednesday for a mouth-watering Indian Wells semi-final, while Swiss Stan Wawrinka exited in a match he described as a no-brainer. However, she was slowed a year ago by foot and thigh injuries that limited her to only 14 tournaments. I think I expect there will be a lot of long rallies”.
It could be a sign Williams is just mentally off her game or that age is finally starting to catch up to her.
In an effort to repeat, she won three matches at Indian Wells this year, but until Williams, did not match up against a top-20 player.
Back-to-back holds applied pressure to the 27-year-old because she served to stay in the match, down 6-4, 5-4. Halep advanced to the final without a match, and defeated Jelena Jankovic for her first BNP Paribas Open title. If she were to win this event again this year, it would be 15 years between titles.
Kvitova stepped it up in the second, breaking twice to earn a 4-2 advantage before the Czech was outlasted by Radwanska, who raced out to a 4-0 lead in the tie-break.
Williams also broke the Romanian’s serve four times and improved her head-to-head record to 7-1 against her fifth-seeded opponent.
Williams was efficient in the first set, taking her one break-point opportunity and playing clean service games to quickly tie up the match and send Halep packing after a little over an hour on court.
Scanning the strings of her racquet as if searching for solutions to the problems that pained her, Serena Williams looked up to confront a defiant Victoria Azarenka.
The second set began just as the first, with a break, as Williams struggled to groove her biggest weapons with any consistency.
“I was pretty calm”, Radwanska said of her second-set comeback. She fought off a pair of break points for 4-2 then dug in and denied three more break points holding for 5-3. “She’s made it so easy for me to just come and play tennis”. When Serena took the court to face Kim Clijsters in the final (which she won) she was greeted with boos, as were Venus and their father Richard as they walked down the stadiums steps to their seats.
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And she was effusive in her praise for an emotional Williams: “I wanted to first address a personal thank you to Serena”. She also blasted 41 winners compared to just 18 for Radwanska. She saved one break point but double faulted on the second-her 21st unforced error of the match.
