Victoria Azarenka: 'Just the usual second round match' against Naomi Osaka
Belarus Victoria Azarenka struggled past 2017 Roland Garros champion Jelena Ostapenko to earn her place in the French Open second round. She will face first seed Naomi Osaka for the right to figure in the draw of 32.
“It was highly anticipated for me also,” the two-time Australian Open confessed about the expectations for this clash. “We've never played against each other at the tournament.
And, you know, she's one of the players that you never know what's coming, and she doesn't really give a lot of rhythms. So for the first round, that was obviously, for me, something very dangerous because it's important to get into the rhythm, into the tournament. And with a player like that, you need to find a way to win, and I felt that today that's what it was.”
Managing to defeat the Latvian has not proved easy for World No. 43. Their match started off with eight break games until Azarenka tipped the balance in her favour by keeping her serve, “The turning point? I felt like the momentum kept shifting, especially in the first set with the breaks of serves. And we are both really good returners, and I couldn't really find my rhythm on serve in the beginning, so there was a lot of shifts of those.
But at the end of the second set, I felt I played really strong, and should have been the same the second, but I wanted to do a little bit more of entertainment, I guess.”
This was 29-year-old’s first Grand Slam victory in 2019, and Belarus opened up on its meaning to her, “I think any win at the beginning gives you a little bit boost of confidence for sure.
It's my first win in quite a while, so obviously before the match, I had some nerves, and I think that also showed a little bit during the game. But I'm very happy to kind of step over that barrier and be able to play in my next round.”
Set to battle World No. 1 Naomi Osaka--who found her way around Anna Karolina Schmiedlova after a disastrous start--Azarenka disclosed her mindset toward this meeting, “That would be nothing new to me. Just the usual second-round match.
But, yeah, it's going to be exciting for me. I love to challenge myself against the best players. I don't think about it. Again, it's a second round. I don't really look at it that way.
But it's going to be exciting. I had some good wins in the last couple weeks against top 10 players, so I feel that I'm ready to play against top players. And, yeah, it's going to be exciting. Last time we played, it was a very one-way match, and so I hope to do better next time.”
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2Ke1tBB
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