Betting tips / Andy Morris / 26 January 2012 / Leave a comment Bet Now View Market

Andy Morris has done the math and concludes that on paper, at least, Victoria Azarenka should sweep aside Kim Clijsters and make it through to the final of the Australian Open.

Fortunately, as we all know, tennis is not played on paper.

And this particular confrontation, between two of the undoubted stars of the women's game, should enthrall the capacity crowd at Rod Laver Arena on Thursday.

Clijsters, seeded 11, in theory shouldn't have made it into the quarter-finals and the third-seeded Azarenka should start favourite.

But that would be to ignore Clijsters' love of Melbourne, where she has made the semis six times over a decade of visits.

Twice she has gone on to make the final, losing in 2004 before finally picking up her fourth Grand Slam title here last year - her first outside the US.

The Belgian has already faced two extremely tough challenges. She came from a set down to beat fifth seed Na Li in the fourth round then saw off top seed Caroline Wozniacki in straight sets in the quarters.

For Azarenka, this is uncharted territory - her best here was two years ago when she got to the quarters. In terms of her own preparations for this one, perhaps she will suffer for not having been fully tested yet.

Sure, she lost the first set to eighth seed Agnieszka Radwanska in the quarter-finals, but the Pole lost her way after that and dropped the second set to love.

There's a theory that easy wins are not a good way to set yourself up for a really tough scrap, and the Belarus ace might find that out on Thursday.