Victoria Azarenka crashes out of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix due to injury
World number five, Victoria Azarenka’s amazing run this season finally came to a halt when her shoulder injury forced her to retire from the encounter against the German, Julia Goerges, in the second round of the Porsche Tennis
Grand Prix, played at the Porsche Tennis Arena at Stuttgart, Germany on Wednesday. The fourth seed Azarenka bagged the opening set of the contest at 6-4 in forty minutes of play before she forfeited the match to her opponent due to her injured shoulder.
It was the most unfortunate way for Azarenka to end her voyage at the $721,000 WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) tournament, especially when she had already won the first set. The Belarusian was currently enjoying her sublime form,
reaching her career highest ranking of five after her back-to-back title victories. She won her sixth WTA title at Miami two weeks ago after defeating a number of top class players; including world number two Kim Clijsters, third ranked Vera Zvonareva and
Maria Sharapova. Azarenka won her second consecutive WTA championship at Marbella, which propelled her to the number five spot in the world rankings.
The Belarusian came to Stuttgart as one of the strongest contenders and received a bye to the second round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. She took off the contest against Goerges with her typical aggression but signs of fatigue
and discomfort were quite evident from the fourth seeded Belarusian right from the start of the contest. Her devotion toward the game kept her battling out with the shoulder pain and she wrapped up the opener in just forty minutes to get a substantial advantage
in the competition. However, Azarenka couldn’t bear her tenderness for much longer and before the second set started, she signalled to the chair umpire that she is no longer in a physical condition to continue play the game.
“I picked up a shoulder injury during Fed Cup,” disappointed Azarenka told the press reporters in her post match reviews, “I have been trying to rehab the last few days and tried my best here but it keeps getting worse. I didn’t
want to push it any further at the start of the clay season. I’ll go back to do some therapy in Monaco so hopefully I’ll have time to recover and play Madrid. I’m sorry for the fans... I wish Julia good luck the rest of the week.”
It might not be the way Goerges wanted to advance to the quarter-finals at Stuttgart, but it appeared to be the only way. The German will now be facing her fellow compatriot, Sabine Lisicki in the quarter-final clash of the Porsche
Tennis Grand Prix. Lisicki had an upset victory against the sixth seed Li Na from China in the second round.
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