Demanding Azarenka ready to 'let go' as she returns to hardcourts
SAN JOSE, California - Former World No.1 Victoria Azarenka is happy to have the hardcourts under her feet once again. The two-time major champion has won 19 of her 20 career titles on the concrete and enjoyed a resurgent run to the semifinals of the Miami Open in her last hardcourt event in March.
Then came a European clay and grass swing that Azarenka described as both surprising and disappointing. The 29-year-old is still in the midst of rebuilding her game after returning to tour last summer after giving birth to her son Leo. Azarenka's schedule has been limited since her return due to a custody situation related to her son. After her strong run in Miami she seemed primed to continue her progress in Europe but finished her five-tournament run with a 3-5 record.
"[Europe was] disappointing for the most part," Azarenka said after her first-round win at the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic. "It’s not surprising if you knew the things I’ve gone through. I know that I don't talk about too much and it's my private life, but those are things that I take really personally because I expect so much of myself.
"Some people say Vika, for you to be able to go on the court and practice or play matches, it's already an achievement and not many people would be able to do it. I try to look at that. But I’m very demanding of myself and I’m very hard on myself and I think that is also not helping me progress, being so hard on myself."
But Azarenka is back on hard courts, a surface she dominated before her pregnancy in 2016, where she won Indian Wells and Miami to become the third woman to complete the Sunshine Double and first since Kim Clijsters in 2005. But has Azarenka's historical success held her back in her comeback? She says yes.
"I think the expectations from myself and what I've done in the past, even playing so well in Miami, the expectation for all of my tournaments was that she's going to continue to play [well], but it doesn't work out for me just yet," Azarenka said. "I just have to keep fighting and keep trying to find myself."
"I think after all the things that I'm going through, I don't expect myself to play excellent. I think I need to just start to accept where I am right now and build from here. It's difficult sometimes but it's ok to struggle. I think people pay attention so much to always doing good and playing well."
Azarenka needed 2 hours and 40 minutes to get past Kateryna Bondarenko in the first round in San Jose. Immediately after the match she went back onto the practice courts to hit some more.
"Obviously I didn’t play my best tennis and I could do things better. Really, all the shots are there, it just needs to come together because there’s nowhere on the tennis court where I cannot put the ball where I want to."
"For the 1st time in a while, I really played the match. I didn’t think oh I missed a bad shot or, oh, I double-faulted. I just played the next point. It’s a small step forward and I have to build from it.
"I have to let it go a bit. I’m too much into trying to do too well and that doesn’t help."
"I'm talking about letting go of thinking about the result because that's not helping me right now. I need to really find a way to stay calm and work and keep going.
"But the demand on the effort that I'm going to put in, that's never in question. I've never been a person that doesn't stay an extra five minutes if I need to, so I'm not really worried about that. So trying to let go and enjoy myself on the court has been a struggle."
Azarenka will face a stiff test on Wednesday against top seed Garbiñe Muguruza.
"I think the most important thing for me is not really the opponent right now. It's to not play against myself. The rest will take care of itself.
"I think my game is good enough to beat anybody really, it just depends on the day and a lot of things. I'm just trying to think of what I can do to just go out there and do what I do in practice and try to bring that together in the match."