Victoria Azarenka battles back to beat Kirsten Flipkens in round three – BNP Paribas Open 2013
Former world number one, Victoria Azarenka, bounced back from being a set down to oust the 27-year-old Belgian professional, Kirsten Flipkens, in the third round of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells. She lost the opening set
3-6 but rallied back into the contest with a 6-3 victory in the second set and demolished her counterpart in the final set with the score of 6-0 to win the contest.
Flipkens didn’t start well in the first set; lost the opening serve game but did well to make a comeback with a breakthrough in the fourth game. Both players couldn’t hold their serves in the following two games that pushed the
scores to 3-3.
It was the moment when the 31st ranked Belgian went a level up with her game; registered a serve hold to love and allowed just one point for Azarenka in the following game to gobble up the breakpoint. It was the critical
breakpoint for the Belgian who prepared to serve for the set and successfully closed down the opening phase to her name.
The second set witnessed a swap of breakpoints on a couple of successive occurrences that kept the scores in touching distance for both players. A serve hold in the sixth game for the Belgian professional equalised the scores at
3-3.
Azarenka had to win the set to keep the match alive. The motivation of victory pumped up the enthusiasm of power play in the 23-year-old Belarusian who trounced her rival in the eighth game to grab a breakpoint and held her serve
after winning the eighth point on the trot.
The final set was mere an exhibition of sheer pace and class from the Belarusian. She broke serve on three successive occurrences and didn’t make a single mistake on her serve to register a bagel to her name. It was a disappointing
end to a promising beginning for the Belgian but she was satisfied with her performance especially considering the fact that she was up against the top seed competitor who was in a sublime run of form.
Victoria Azarenka will play Urszula Radwanska in the fourth round of the event.
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