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By Chris Oddo | Thursday June 22, 2017

Victoria Azarenka’s first event back from giving birth to her son Leo has ended with a second-round loss to Croatia’s Ana Konjuh. The No.7-seed relentlessly attacked the former World No.1, hitting a barrage of winners and winning 14 of 21 second-serve points to hand the Belarussian a 6-1, 6-3 loss.

More: Azarenka Takes Tough Loss in Stride

“I think she started very well in the first two games and then I’ve had so many opportunities, like being 30-0 or 40-15 but I let her get back,” Azarenka told media, according to Giulio Gasparin of Spazio Tennis. “Those wasted opportunities are the reason of this score today: I didn’t have enough consistency, playing two good points and then two bad ones. Those up and down have to get better and right now it is hard to find positives but I know I have to work hard from here to get back in the matches.”

Azarenka’s early loss sends her to Wimbledon, where she expected to gain entrance as a wild card, without a ton of matches under her belt. Nevertheless her comeback has begun a mere six month after she gave birth to her first son.

It’s a step in a positive direction, and the 27-year-old believes she can be better than ever before in her "second" career.

“I know that there will be a lot of expectations on my comeback compared to, I don’t know, Kim Clijsters, so I will just need to focus on my own way and if it takes longer, it takes longer; if it takes quicker, nobody knows,” she said. “All I know is that I must keep positive and work hard, because I am a hard worker and I know I will get there eventually, I just need to be patient. I set my bar very high, but I know I will make it at some point.”


Konjuh, 19, improved her career record on grass to 13-6 with the victory and set up a quarterfinal clash with Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia on Friday. Konjuh will try to make it back-to-back semifinals in Mallorca. She reached the last four at ‘s-Hertogenbosch last week before falling to Natalia Vikhlyantseva.

Sevastova defeated Varvara Lepchenko on Thursday, 6-7(2), 6-1, 6-3.

Sixth-seeded Roberta Vinci defeated Kirsten Flipkens, 6-4, 5-7, 6-2, to set a quarterfinal with either Jana Cepelova or Caroline Garcia, who had their match suspended due to darkness in the third set.

 

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