A fierce competitor: the unrivaled determination of Victoria Azarenka
The trip to the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart proved to be a challenge before she even hit the courts. Victoria Azarenka fresh off from the Belarus Fed Cup semifinals was hit with a bad case of jet lag. She had told tennis.com media "I have no idea right now of the time or what's happening...the flight from Australia was so long I felt like it was never going to end."
The seasons have been quite up and down for Victoria Azarenka and it was just a few weeks ago that she'd gotten to the semifinals of the Miami Open with Ashleigh Barty in doubles. It was then at the Monterrey Open against Garbine Muguruza that Azarenka was trailing 1-6, 1-3 and sustained a leg injury giving the match and title to her Spanish opponent after suffering severely on court.
The first round at Stuttgart was with Vera Zvonareva, a WTA veteran and holder of 12 singles and 9 doubles titles. She's a mother as Azarenka who at times had struggled to comeback her passion after giving birth. Azarenka played her best, found her marks and was able to execute her shots. She levelled the games at the first set and grew with confidence winning 7-5 in the opening set. The second set was highly competitive as both bashed the balls across the ent often giving body shots. They both traded leads but it was Azarenka who broke through at 4-all to gain a lead of 5-4 playing careful and clever. She hit her points wisely and before long it was all over as she won 7-5, 6-4.
The second round with Karolina Pliskova was a battle of two ladies of excellent play and former top 5 WTA players. Azarenka carried onto the court self-assurance through fighting and winning past jet lag in the first round. Things grew to 4-all very fast with both slicing and spinning as well as cross courting the other to find a part on the court to gain another point. Pliskova came out ahead to win the first set 6-4 giving Azarenka more determination to level the sets. The Belarusian cracked away at point after point, finding Pliskova's weakest strategy parts and bashing the ball in all areas of the court to get a victory. It worked well with Azarenka winning the second set 6-3. The first game of the decider set the ladies continued to bash the ball over the court with Azarenka many times clipping the line to score. It was tied at 4-games all with Pliskova playing precision tennis, but the Belarusian had belief in her shotmaking right from the beginning. It took a few games that steadied Azarenka to help her win the match 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 over Pliskova.
It was an impressive win for the Belarusian who gives it her all regardless of the results. This time it was a victory that propelled her to the third round at Stuttgart, knocking out the defending champ Karolina Pliskova. Things are looking interesting for Victoria Azarenka who at first didn't have any idea where or when she'd get her game together, and now she's into the quarter-finals round to face Anett Kontaveit with hopes of staying consistent and going as far as she can at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2IMDzgr
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