Victoria Azarenka the player to beat despite Serena's fireworks

Serena Williams looked superb in her third round match - but the Belarus star still looks better. Let battle commence, says Tumaini Carayol.

Victoria Azarenka’s comments after destroying yet another poor soul, Naomi Osaka, 6-1 6-1, to continue her death march through the bottom half of the Australian Open draw revealed much about where she stands ahead of the second week. After being picked by the world and beyond above Serena Williams as the favourite to capture her third Australian Open title, the Belarusian has fanned the flames with a convincing level of violence that few players can even aspire to. Three matches in, she has dropped a double bagel on one poor soul and has left her three victims with only five games to solemnly share between each other.

Azarenka’s performances have also been important because across the draw in the top section, strongly worded statements are currently being sent. As expected, Serena Williams has responded to her universal vote of no confidence from the tennis world in precisely the manner any logical minded person would expect her to. After using her first two rounds to shake off the rust, Williams departed Rod Laver Arena on Friday having produced one of her best early round displays in years. 

So thorough and complete was her 44-minute 6-1 6-1 termination of Daria Kasatkina, Williams patted her young opponent and complimented her game - a game so good that it won her 18 points. 

 

The two-woman race for the Australian Open title is officially on, but even in the face of a resurgent Serena Williams, Azarenka has plenty of reason to continue to back herself. The scores may be impressive alone, but the quality of her actual performances have underlined her claim for the title. There is no doubt that Azarenka’s draw has been good to her, but the sheer contempt she has treated her weak opponents with has nullified any attempts to discredit it. There will be tougher matches ahead, and battles where the reliability of her serve will be tested, but she has flown past all tests to date.

In 2015, there were moments when Azarenka still brilliantly hugged the baseline and dictated the points as she always does; she still returned better than almost every other player and continued to incapacitate opponents with her sheer precision and depth of shot. 

But the ability to move, to defend and to keep her position on top of the baseline is the glue that holds her game together and it was missing. Not only was the Belarusian visibly unfit throughout 2015, but she was on medication and injured for most of the time.

But times change. When Azarenka sprinted outside the wide tramlines and whipped a screaming forehand winner around the post in her second round beatdown of Danka Kovinic, those worries were firmly put to bed. The off-season has been so good to the Belarusian, and ever since she took her first steps on Australian soil, her increased fitness has been clear for all to see. Her game is whole again and the confidence it has inspired is priceless. 

As Azarenka dissected her state of mind to reporters after her match against Osaka, she did something she has never done before: she slumped back in her seat, her arm rested back the top of her chair, and when she spoke, she made eye contact with the faces in her audience.

This may appear irrelevant, but in the past Azarenka has been notorious for her hostility towards the press. Azarenka’s relaxed demeanor was a further sign of her evolution, and the words she articulately uttered confirmed it. Among the many personal subjects Azarenka openly spoke about, the sincerity with which she broached her feelings of depression during her long slump revealed much more than she had ever done in previous years combined.

“After US Open 2014 [..] I really realized that there is something inside me,” she said. “Like I didn't feel good about myself. I have said that many times that I had a person tell me, 'Are you depressed?' I said, 'No'.”

“As an athlete, you don't really allow weaknesses to show. And then I realised, Yes, I am. [...] It started a process for me to just adjust and adjust. It's been amazing. It changed my life. Really, it did. Starting to be happy and organized and disciplined off the court, it changed my life on the court, definitely.”

Victoria Azarenka’s rise back to relevance has been a long road, but as the physical, mental and emotional aspects of her game rejoin, the snapshots of her first week in Melbourne suggest that she’s in with a clear shot of changing her life even further by the end of the second.

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