Victoria Azarenka promises to learn from Australian Open victory

On Saturday, the Belarusian Victoria Azarenka retained her title by beating her Chinese opponent Li Na in a highly dramatic match at the Rod Laver Arena. During the 2 hours and forty minutes long game, she had to fight both Li Na and the crowd who openly supported her Chinese opponent. However, she was, at last, able to retain the championship and the world no. 1 ranking by beating the adverse condition. The game was settled at 4-6, 6-4, and 6-3.

She generated the wrath of the crowd by taking a poorly-timed, long break during her game against Sloane Stephens, the teenage player from America, in the semi-finals. However, at the end of the day, it was Azarenka who stood with holding the title. She said it to be a new experience for her and thought that she handled the situation quite well. She also hoped to move on and improve herself as a person and a player.

She admitted that the Sloane issue was a big deal but she said to take it as a learning experience. She also said to feel proud of what she had done.

However, her coach did not take all the rants easily and accused the reporters of making stories when there were no stories. He said that the journalists should act more responsibly in that case given that Azarenka is only 23 years old.

With this title, Azarenka joined the club of those active female players who win two or more titles. Players like Maria Sharapova, Venus Williams, Serena Williams, and Svetlana Kuznetsova are currently in that club. Azarenka said to feel honored by joining them.

While asked to compare this win to that one of last January, she said that both were different from each other but this one was more emotional.

Li Na, on the other hand, tried to look at the positive side of this match and hoped to do better in future.

Image Courtesy: sports.inquirer.net