AZARENKA THROUGH THIRD ROUND

Victoria Azarenka has defeated Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium in the third round of the BNP Paribas Open. Azarenka won the match by 3-6, 6-3, 6-0.

Azarenka struggled a bit in the first set, but, in the next two sets, she showed why she is considered as a great player. Azarenka who has been given the top seed in this tournament will play against Urszula Radwanska of Poland in the next round.

Azarenka got a good start in the first set. She broke Flipkens’ serve in the first game. A serve hold in the next game gave the Belarusian superstar a lead of 2-0, and she looked so comfortable that I almsot used my Unibet bonus bet on this match (I’m supposed to be saving it for the final!)

However, Flipkens didn’t take too much time in equalizing the proceedings. She held her serve in the third game and then, got a breakthrough in the 4^th game to make the score 2-2.

There were no serve breaks in the next two games and at the end of the 6^th game; the score was 3-3.

Flipkens got another breakthrough in the 8^th game which took her ahead by 5-3. She sealed the set with a serve hold in the 9^th game.

Azarenka desperately needed to win the next set to keep her hopes alive of moving into the next round and she did that.

Both the players broke each other’s serve twice in the first six games of the second set which kept the scores levelled.

Flipkens dropped her serve again in the 8^th game because of which Azarenka took a lead of 5-3. The Belarusian served out the 9^th game and won the second set by 6-3.

In the final set, there was no stopping Azarenka. Her power and class proved to be too much for Flipkens.

The Belarusian broke the serve of her opponent thrice consecutively and held her entire serve to win the set by 6-0.