Victoria Azarenka: A rising star – Tennis Special
The right-handed Victoria Azarenka, born on July 31, 1989, was playing hockey at the age of 14 but later decided that tennis was her sport for life. She started her career in 2003 when she entered the International Tennis Federation
(ITF) Circuit in Israel as a professional and won the doubles title. In 2005, Azarenka became the Australian Open and US Open Champion as a junior player and was named as the ITF Junior Girls World Champion for 2005 - the first ever tennis player from Belarus
to achieve this distinction. Moreover, she was also the winner of the 2005 ITF title held in Luxembourg. In 2005, she reached her first professional semi-final event at the Guangzhou International Women tournament played in Guangzhou, China. She won her qualifying
rounds against Slovakian Martina Sucha (retired in 2008) and Peng Shuai of China. She was cruising along well but lost to China’s Yan Zi in the elimination round.
Looking at her Grand Slam tournaments, she was the fourth runner-up at the 2007 US Open; semifinalist at the 2011 Wimbledon; quarter-finalist at the 2009 and 2011 French Open and quarterfinalist at the 2010 Australian Open.
She has also been proving her professional expertise at Grand Slam Women’s Doubles. She was the runner-up at the 2009 US Open when she teamed with Vera Zvonareva of Russia; she paired with Israel’s Shahar Pe'er at the 2008 Wimbledon
where she reached the quarterfinals and at the 2009 French Open, she won the women’s doubles championship with Elena Sergeevna Vesnina of Russia. Azarenka has also won the 2008 Australian Open with Shahar Pe'er and this year won the 2011 Australian Open where
she paired with Maria Yuryevna Kirilenko of Russia.
In the mixed doubles division, she was the finalist at the 2007 Australian Open with Belarusian Max Mirnyi; won the mixed doubles titles at the 2007 US Open with her partner again being Max Mirnyi. At the 2008 Roland Garros, she
won the mixed doubles’ title with American Bob Bryan but in the 2007 Wimbledon, she was eliminated in the first round of the tournament.
Azarenka’s greatest moment in professional tennis career apart from her Grand slam singles, doubles and mixed doubles wins was the time when she became the top-seeded Belarusian player in September 2011, reaching the 3rd seed in
official (Women’s Tennis Association) WTA tennis ranking, beating countrywoman Natasha Zvereva.
In total, Azarenka has played 21 career finals with 8 wins and 13 losses. In 2011, she currenlty has a 49-16 win-loss ratio. In the junior division (singles), she won the Australian Open and the US Open in 2005 and won the Junior
doubles title at Wimbledon 2004 with compatriot Olga Govorstova. She also won the 2005 Wimbledon and 2005 Roland Garros with Hungarian Agnes Szavay.
On the tennis court, Azarenka has been having troubles with her grunting, a verbal gesture seen as a rude action on part of the right-handed Russian-born Azareka. She has a habit of making a loud scream while serving or hitting
the ball. During the quarterfinals of the 2010 Australian Open, she was so loud with her screams that her grunts were consistently being heard even when her opponent was in the process of returning the ball. Her grunting issue is so severe that it got the
attention of Ian Ritchie, Chief Executive of the All England Lawn Tennis Club during the 2011 Wimbledon, when she grunted at 95 decibels, equal to the sound of a subway train. In an official statement, Ian Ritchie said that, "officials would prefer to see
less grunting." Her temper loss has also been an issue for her on court where she seems to have less tolerance towards her competitors. With her consistent performances and gradually increasing world ranking, it is safe to say that she will soon reach at the
number one spot.
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