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Azarenka Crushes Stosur For Win No. 17 in Doha
By Erik Gudris Photo Credit: Mark Peterson/Corleve
(February 19th, 2012) A year ago, one would be hard pressed to use the word stability in the same sentence with the name Victoria Azarenka. Prone to emotional meltdowns, numerous injuries and lost opportunities in big matches, the young Belarusian star seemed headed for a "what might have been" label to her career.
But with her comprehensive 6-1, 6-2 victory over Australia's Sam Stosur today in the finals of the Qatar Total Open in Doha, Azarenka not only earned her third title of the still young 2012 season, improved her winning streak to 17-0, but also proved without a doubt she is currently the best player in the world on the WTA.
In tennis, matchups are key and with Azarenka holding a 5-0 lifetime advantage over Stosur, it looked like Stosur would have to play at her very best to take out the top seed, even if Azarenka was still dealing with a lingering ankle injury suffered in her semifinal match against Agnieszka Radwanska. The cool, windy conditions seemed to affect Stosur's heavy topspin strokes just as much as Azarenka's pinpoint returns pressured Stosur's serve in every game.
After a lucky net cord helped Azarenka break Stosur early on at 2-1, Azarenka continued applying pressure on Stosur who reeled off 14 unforced errors in the lopsided first set. Stosur went down another early break in the second set, and despite getting better length on her groundstrokes to keep things somewhat close, Stosur rarely outhit Azarenka in their rallies and also failed to create a single break point against Azarenka's serve.
Down 5-2, Stosur appeared poised to serve out the game until a successful challenge from Azarenka on a close baseline winner forced the point to be replayed. Azarenka took the initiative from there and broke Stosur one more time to close out the match and the title in just over an hour of play.
It may be a bit premature to start describing Azarenka's current win streak to that of Novak Djokovic's impressive run last year, but that doesn't take away from the fact that Azarenka's new dominance over the women's game is exactly the stabilizing presence the WTA has needed for some time. Azarenka herself might not be thinking about any of that as she celebrates her latest title, but fans of the WTA should be excited and hopeful that the very best of their new "queen" may just well be on the horizon.
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