Victory for Victoria Azarenka at the 2011 Andalucia Tennis Experience
Belarusian tennis pro Victoria Azarenka won her second consecutive title of the year at the 2011 Andalucia Tennis Experience in Marbella last night, scoring a straight-sets victory over her opponent Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania.
Azarenka, also known as Vika among fans, took less than one and a half hour to seize the trophy for the clay championship.
Azarenka is currently ranked World Number 5, and has been part of the Women’s Tennis Association since 2003. She has won seven career titles so far, with two of these titles being earned in 2011. Begu, on the other hand, is a Romanian
20-year-old ranked just inside the WTA Top 100 at World Number 97. She has not won any career titles so far.
The match was an easy one for Azarenka, despite the fact that she committed three double faults and scored less aces than Begu. The pro compensated for this by breaking her Romanian opponent seven times out of eleven, and managing
to defend all but three break points against herself. She took a satisfactory 71 per cent of her first serve points, and 43 per cent of the points on her second serve. The player concluded a great week at Marbella by taking 59 per cent of the total points
in the match to win the title.
The victory brings their head-to-head score to 1-0 for Azarenka, who has never played against Begu before. At the time of the match, Azarenka was ranked World Number 6 and seeded first at the tournament, while Irina-Camelia Begu
was World Number 138. The Romanian has made a significant leap on the WTA rankings, an achievement she acknowledged after the match. The player commented on her performance, saying, “It has been a great week. Coming from the qualifying and playing three hours
(Saturday in the semi-finals of the Andalucia Tennis Experience) was a bit tough, but I’m happy with my week.”
As for Azarenka, she seems thoroughly thrilled by her great performance at the tournament. The player has moved up in the rankings to take Samantha Stosur’s place as World Number 5, and the experience is surely an important one
for the player. She spoke to press after lifting the Marbella trophy, saying, “It was unusual to go from Miami on hard courts to here on clay and do so well. I’m more than pleased with the experience. It was important just to keep my mind fresh and do the
same things I did in Miami. I used to practice here when I was 14, so coming here brings me back — I love it here.”
Victoria Azarenka is expected to perform even better in the upcoming tournaments, and her victory here is no doubt good preparation for the 2011 French Open.
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