Victoria Finally Victorious

It's been a while since Victoria Azarenka managed to cause an uproar on the WTA tour. She hit instant fame in 2009 when, aged only 19, she took the world by storm after easing past Serena Williams to win the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, i.e. the fifth most important title of the tennis calendar. Her quick dismissal of the American, who back then was ranked number 1 in the world, made many claim that the powerful Belorussian was about to rise to the top of the women's game. The prediction seemed a bit far-fetched though, as Azarenka was never able to reproduce that kind of form and the expected results failed to come. She found it tough to cope with the pressure, but to her credit, she did manage to hang on inside the top 10. Last year, her first success came late in the season, in Stanford, where she showed glimpses of her brilliance beating Marion Bartoli, Samantha Stosur and Maria Sharapova en route to capturing her 4th trophy. Unfortunately she wasn't able to capitalize, as a strange incident took her out of the US Open where, in my opinion, she had a great chance of making a statement. After injuring herself earlier in the day, she fainted on court during her second round match against Gisela Dulko and was unconscious when rushed off by the paramedics.

After a relatively strong end to 2010, Azarenka failed to impressed once more in 2011. Her two quarterfinals at Sydney (lost to Clijsters) and Indian Wells (retired against Wozniacki) and her 4th round at the Australian Open (lost to Li) were her best results to date. All was about to change in Miami, where she rediscovered her A-game. An uncertainty until the very last minute, Victoria fought hard in the first three rounds, edging past Lucie Hradecka, Dominika Cibulkova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in three tight sets. An easy passage followed, as she destroyed Kim Clijsters, Vera Zvonareva and finally, Maria Sharapova, to win her 6th career title. Two years after she burst into the scene, the Belorussian again looks poised to top the women's ranking. If Caroline Wozniacki did it, there's no doubt in my mind that Azarenka stands a chance. For me, she was always the better player. She plays more aggressively and her strokes are more powerful and troublesome, but she lack the mental strength and the consistency of her Dane friend. If she can improve on these areas, she, alongside Ivanovic, are next in line to challenge Clijsters' dominance.

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