KEY BISCAYNE, Fla.—It can be a long and complicated process, creating a champion, and nowhere is it more evident than in the trenches of pro tennis, the game that takes the world’s hungry and wretched and – next thing you know – they’re international stars, palling around with Anna Wintour and gorging on Kobe beef.
But tennis’ newest star – Victoria Azarenka of Scottsdale, Ariz. by way of Tampa, Fla. and Minsk, Belarus – has an especially interesting saga, even by the high tennis standard. Now that she’s won the Sony Ericsson Open, inflicting a Serena Williams-grade beat down on. . . Serena Williams, you’ll be hearing all about it with some frequency.
Azarenka’s father is a driving instructor and small-time volleyball nut back in Minsk; her mother was just a working mom. But she happened to be friends with the wife of NHL goalie and fellow Belarusian, Nikolai Khabibulin. He took an interest in Victoria, and was so impressed by her talent and drive that he invited her to live with his own family near Tampa, which was followed by a group move to Scottsdale. The next thing you know, Azarkenka is taking out the most successful player at the blue-chip Miami event since Steffi Graf.
What would have happened, absent that family acquaintance? “You never know,” an elated Azarenka said after her 6-3, 6-1 win. “But I don’t think it would be the same.”
Williams was tied at five titles each with Graf entering this final, but she also had a tender ankle, and she stepped on court with her left quadriceps muscle wrapped in a heavy bandage. Her mobility was impaired, but it’s impossible to say just how much her assorted injuries affected the outcome. Azarenka is spry, athletic, and capable of delivering punishing ground strokes to either wing of an opponent.
Azarenka also has a penetrating serve that she follows into the court, if not up to the net, which leaves her well-positioned to take the ball on the rise and dictate points with either the forehand (that Rafael Nadal bolo swing is spreading like the flu), or a very sharp backhand that she can drive either down the line or roll cross-court, at almost any angle. This 19-year old is going to pose problems for any WTA woman who likes to play “patterned” tennis (Ana Ivanovic comes to mind).
Khabibulin did Azarenka another good turn about three-and-a-half years ago, when he recruited her coach, Antonio Van Grichen. He was chosen because he had worked with a daughter of Khabibulin’s, and the goalie liked Van Grichen’s approach to the game. Azarenka didn’t require a great deal of foundational work; she came to Van Grichen (who calls her a “strong personality”) with a firm sense of how she wanted to play, and a prematurely sweet backhand. He tidied up the once-loose forehand and made some adjustments in her volley technique. Perhaps most important, he tried to expand her scope of the game beyond the sometimes narrow parameters in which so many players operate.
“A versatile backhand is a very efficient tool in the women's game,” he says. “Whoever has one will enjoy a lot of success. Vika understands things like angles and changes of pace much better now than she did when we started to work on her game. She's not just flat-flat-flat. She knows the patterns of the slice game, and has improved her general stroking discipline and focus.
“I saw a big difference in her last year, when her best results were on clay. She's like, 'If I have to go three sets, that's what I'll do. If I have to hit three more balls than I'd like to hit, I'll do that too.'”
Azarenka displayed her versatility today, recognizing that allowing Serena to dictate the pace is a one-way ticket to obliteration. So she took the game to Serena, even at the expense of taking more chances – and making more unforced errors - than necessary. The temptation to play cute must have been great, given Serena’s physical issues, but if you give Serena time to plant her feet and draw a bead, or allow her to move freely around the court, waiting for her opportunity to unload a whopper, you’re in trouble. And Serena has shown time and again that she never met a potential “hero moment” that she didn’t seize.
Wisely, Azarenka declined to play it safe. She aimed for the lines and worked the angles. She made Serena stretch and reach, instead of trying to tire or run her into the ground. She returned well enough (and Serena served poorly enough) to tack up 12 break points, and while Serena is Serena (read: put her break point down and then watch her nail the ace), even fending off more break points than she surrendered wasn’t enough to get the job done today. Azarenka converted five break points, and in a two-set match, that’s the definition of a blowout.
It isn’t like you couldn’t see this one coming, either. The two had met in the fourth round of the Australian Open at the beginning of the year, and Azarenka had Serena bamboozled, leading by a set and a break, when she was forced to quit the match due to illness (stomach trouble and dizziness). That Azarenka looked forward to this opportunity to finish the job she started in Melbourne was pretty evident when she said:
“Today was a much bigger deal (than usual) because it was a full crowd. When they (the PA announcer) said, ‘Here’s Serena Williams’ the crowd pretty much exploded. Yeah, I was just so happy to play against her. I like the way she plays, and I just want(ed) to get a rematch and try to do my best.”
That was one mission accomplished. The next one begins shortly, on the European clay-court circuit. Van Grichen is optimistic, partly because Azarenka played her best tennis of 2008 on the red clay, and partly because he feels she has enough tools to really take advantage of her multiple options. Serena will certainly be smarting for her own re-match, but clay may not be the best place to seek the showdown. But she has no choice about that.
“I think she’s (Azarenka) really improved,” Serena said afterwards. “I think she obviously has potential and she’s going to be a really good player.”
Funny, it looks like she already is.
Peter Bodo, a senior editor for TENNIS magazine, also writes the TennisWorld blog.