2014 was not a good year for former number one Victoria Azarenka. After falling in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open the Belarusian found herself on the injured list with a foot issue for several months. When she finally came back in the summer in the middle of the hard court season she suffered another setback. A tumble on the court at the Rogers Cup in Montreal damaged her knee. Although she continued playing tournaments by early fall she decided to end her season. The remainder of the year was spent getting her body back to the level necessary to compete on the tour.
2015 did not start off as she planned. In the off season the women’s tour saw a virtual musical chairs game between players and coaching teams and that continued into the 2015 season. Right after the Australian open, Azarenka’s longtime coach Sam Sumyk left the Azarenka camp and defected to the Bouchard camp. Azarenka responded by hiring Wim Fissette who has previously worked with both Kim Clijsters and Simona Halep as her coach and then was able to add Serena Williams longtime hitting partner Sascha Bajin.
Azarenka’s run at the 2015 Australian Open was a good test of where her game stood after the long layoff and she made it to the fourth round defeating both Sloane Stephens and Caroline Wozniacki along the way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDIT4cOsoTM
Although she won both her matches while playing Fed Cup for Belarus both matches were against players that were considerably lower ranked than the opponents against which she can measure her true form.
Victoria Azarenka has already notched two victories over Venus Williams in 2015 which is notable as Venus her self has shown a resurgence of form. Her first victory was on the hard courts of Qatar while the second victory was on the clay courts of Madrid.
Azarenka has also had two meetings with Maria Sharapova the current number two on the WTA rankings. At Indian Wells Azarenka met Sharapova in the third round where she fell in straight sets. The rematch occurred in Rome on the red clay and again Sharapova defeated Azarenka with Sharapova continuing on to take the title.
In the past Victoria Azarenka was one of the few players who could challenge Serena Williams. The two players have met twice in the finals of the US Open, 2012 and 2013. In both cases Serena emerged as the champion, but both matches went three sets.
2015 has only seen one match between Azarenka and Serena and this match was on the clay in Madrid. Again Serena emerged victorious, but again it took three sets. The most notable feature of this match was the fact that Azarenka had three match points while serving in the third set but was unable to close it out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtUtJdcnKE8
Watching Azarenka play in Rome it was good to see her play her controlled aggressive game. She was hitting cleanly off both sides and moving forward to apply pressure to her opponents. I did however feel that her movement on the clay was not quite up to her old standards, but still significantly better than most players on the tour.
Heading into the second Grand Slam tournament of the year, the French Open, Azarenka is ranked #27 in the world and in Serena’s section of the draw. If matches play out according to seedings the two will meet in the third round and it could be a blockbuster of a match.
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