Victoria Azarenka defeats Iveta Benesova; races into the third round – Wimbledon Championships 2011
Victoria Azarenka has taken her year-to-date win/loss mark to 35/10 matches with a lop-sided 6-0, 6-3 destruction of Czech Republic’s Iveta Benesova in the second round of Wimbledon championships on Wednesday.
This match between Azarenka and Benesova was never in doubt and Benesova seemed like never improving on her previous straight sets defeat to the Belarusian No.1. Azarenka, who clinched back-to-back titles at the Miami Masters and
Marbella, two months ago and looked in total control as she proved once again that she is not about to let up giving a ruthless display of tennis against an opponent who is ranked 53rd in the world.
Benesova, who managed to reach the second round for the third time in her career, could not hold on to her serve and the gulf in class between the two women was pretty evident from the start.
Azarenka raced through the opening set taking all three of her break points opportunities, making a whopping seven winners while committing a single unforced error. By contrast, Benesova just scored a single winner and while producing
some tired and desperate tennis, the Czech player took just only fifteen minutes to hand over the first set to the hard-working fifth-seed.
After losing the opener, the Czech kept on trying, but it was sensible enough to everyone around the Center Court, probably even to the world number 53, that almost every time she hit an approaching shot into the court, it would
end terribly for her. The Czech’s serve had nothing like the impact she would have expected. Perhaps that had a lot to do with the brilliance of Azarenka’s game.
The Belarusian No.1 was so dominant on her serve that Benesova only won a meagre 12 of 43 points on return. And it happened right after the Belarusian had just smashed a glamorous two-handed backhand that her opponent could barely
tackle with, Azarenka was into the third round.
Azarenka now moves on ahead to face Daniela Hantuchova in the third round of the tournament and the Slovakian No.1 is at a perfect 2-0 head-to-head against the Belarusian. On the face of it, Azarenka’s greater weight of shot, coupled
with her experience as a 2011 French Open quarterfinalist and world No.5, should be too much for Hantuchova to handle. But the 28-year-old Hantuchova, who reached her two semi-finals of the year on grass at the Strasbourg and Birmingham respectively, will
look to recapture the magic of her run that took her to the semi-final at the Australian Open in 2008.
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