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Azarenka All In For European Spring


Victoria Azarenka is committed to the complete European spring swing.

Former world No. 1 Azarenka announced her schedule following her 6-3, 6-3, win over Aleksandra Krunic in Madrid.

Watch: Gasquet Drops Backhand Brilliance

"I'm playing all the way through Wimbledon," Azarenka told the media in Madrid. "I play Rome, I play Paris, I'm going to play Mallorca, I'm going to play Wimbledon. That's my schedule for the next couple months. It's definite.

"I found out close to the end of April that I could go... I've done a little bit of better preparation overall. I'm trying to get a little bit more stability right now."

The two-time Australian Open champion missed the second half of the 2017 season as well as the first two months of the 2018 season due to a custody case with her ex-boyfriend Billy McKeague, who is the father of their son Leo.

Azarenka was forced to withdraw from both the 2017 US Open and the 2018 Australian Open because she could not take 16-month Leo out of the state of California without his father.

The former couple has worked out an arrangment that will allow Azarenka to play the entire spring season.

Next up for Azarenka is a highly-anticipated second-round clash against sixth-seeded Karolina Pliskova, who arrives in Madrid fresh off winning the Stuttgart title.

After losing to Sloane Stephens at Indian Wells in March, Azarenka said she was surprised she was able to keep it together while coping the stress of the custody case.

"You know, this whole process, honestly, amazes me that I still have my shit together, to be honest,” Azarenka said in Indian Wells. "I really am surprised that the challenges that I have been put through and I'm still going through is—I wouldn't expect myself to be this calm and this positive and this optimistic for this long period of time.

"So there is definitely a lot of things and a lot of strength that I'm finding myself outside of the court. And I need to get, you know, confidence back because there is no other way than going out there and failing, getting up, failing, getting up, but just working hard."

Photo credit: Miami Open

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