AZARENKA WINS SYDNEY INTERNATIONAL

Victoria Azarenka, currently ranked no. 3 in the world, gave some brilliant performances in the recently concluded Sydney International to win the tournament.

Azarenka started the game poorly, handing an advantage to the Frenchwoman. The scores stood at 2-5 for the first set, when Azarenka started her comeback. She won five consecutive games, breaking Marion Bartoli’s serve twice, to finish the set at 7-5. Bartoli was frustrated, and it was evident during the break when she repeatedly struck her racquet against the bag.

However, it looked like Bartoli had moved past her emotional outburst by the start of the second game. She started the game quite strongly, but was evenly matched by Azarenka. After a small interruption in the game due to a power outage, the match resumed and Azarenka broke the Frenchwoman’s serve.

The set stood at 3-3 when Bartoli broke Azarenka’s serve through some very aggressive shots. Soon after, Azarenka regained her momentum and the set reached 5-4 with Azarenka serving for the match. Bartoli proved to be no match for the Belarusian as she thundered her way past with a straight set victory 7-5, 6-4.

This, however, wasn’t Azarenka’s only major triumph in the tournament. She defeated the 29 year old Li Na from China to take the trophy. The Asian was on a dream run, after winning the 2011 French Open by defeating Kim Clijsters of Belgium. Li looked to make it three out of three at the Sydney International, having wwon it the past two years.

But Victoria Azarenka had other plans. The first set of the match was a cakewalk for the Belarusian as she took the set 6-2, breaking Li’s serve on three occasions. Li came back strongly in the second set, but Azarenka made amends in the third and final set to win the game 6-2, 1-6, 6-3.

In this form, with the Australian Open coming up in the next few days, we’d recommend placing tennis bets online on Azarenka to reach the Final, at the very least!