MELBOURNE—Victoria Azarenka, who crushed Alison Van Uytvanck, 6-0, 6-0, in the first round of the Australian Open, said she wasn’t quite ready to beat the best players when she was very young.
“Maybe Miami against [Svetlana] Kuznetsova, I think that might have been the third set,” the 26-year-old said in regard to a 1-6, 7-5, 6-0 loss in 2008. “She just killed me.”
The former No. 1 added that when she started out, she was very excited. But on court, she just wasn’t quite ready.
“I was 11 years old,” the Belarusian said. “I was trying to get into Nationals for under-18, but obviously I was too young and I didn't get in. Somebody retired and they gave me the spot. I was in school writing my essay. My dad came in and said, ‘Hey, you got to go. I said, ‘Where, dad?’ He said, ‘You got a spot. You can go and play. I was like, ‘Really?’ He was like, ‘Yeah.’
"So I got excited, went to the court, got beat, [and] cried myself to sleep that day. And that was [a] horrible experience. But I came back to practice the next day, and I don't think that ever happened to me again. Hard work pays off.”
After beating Danka Kovinić in the second round, Azarenka will take on Naomi Osaka in Round 3.