World No.1 Victoria Azarenka is all set to battle German wildcard Mona Barthel in the quarterfinal of the Porsche Tennis Prand Prix.
The World No.1 had started the year brilliantly when she won the Sydney International beating French open champion Li Na in the final. She followed that win with her first Grand Slam victory at the Australian Open. By doing that, she became the first-ever player to jump from World No.3 to World No.1 directly. She continued to play like a champion in the following months as she won the WTA title at Doha and then at Indian Wells too. She did however, lose in the quarterfinal of the Miami Sony Ericsson Open to Marion Bartoli. Her win/loss record stands at 26/1. She beat German favorite Andrea Petkovic in the previous round 6-2,4-4 as Petkovic retired.
Mona Barthel - the lanky German has had good year so far and has surprised a few of her opponents this year. In January, Barthel won her first WTA title at Hobart. Then in February, she managed to reach the quarterfinal of Paris(indoors). March was rather disappointing for her where she only managed to reach the 2nd and 3rd rounds of Indian Wells and Miami, respectively. Her win/loss record this year stands at 24/8. She beat French miss Marion Bartoli to reach the quarterfinal.
Azarenka has won all three matches contested between these two and is the clear favorite to win this one as well.