Seventh in a series on players to watch in 2012.
“You’ve always been kind of really emotional on court, but over the last six or so months it’s changed and you’re completely different. How did that happen? Was it easy to kind of do that?”
This question was asked of Victoria Azarenka at the start of last year’s WTA Championships in Istanbul. The tone was slightly incredulous, as if the reporter suspected the Belarusian of having stumbled onto a new, secret set of brain steroids. But it was understandable, too. How had the volatile Vika gotten so calm so quickly?
Azarenka made it sound like anyone could do it. “In February I went back home,” she said, “I looked a little bit into what I’m doing, and I change a little bit perspective of how I play and what I should do. I just start to enjoy tennis a little bit more.”
Piece of cake, right? Why don’t we all go back home and do that? In truth, Azarenka worked hard through the rest of the year on improving her focus and managing her stress, and it obviously paid off. Her 2011 season made her the latest example of why tennis will always be about mind over matter. Three months after her “little” change of perspective, Azarenka reached her first Grand Slam semifinal, at Wimbledon. By the end of the year, she had nearly won the season-ending championships in Istanbul and finished ranked No. 3 in the world.
But it was a match that Azarenka lost that held the biggest clue to her improvement. She had the bad luck to play Serena Williams in the third round at the U.S. Open, and on one of the American’s very best days—after 17 minutes, Serena was up 5-0. Azarenka described the experience as “painful,” but she withstood the pain and turned the second set into the best hour of tennis of the WTA season. Afterward, Azarenka said she was proud of her performance because she had gathered herself, “stayed in the moment,” mixed up her game by taking the initiative and charging the net, and held her own with a high-level Serena. As it did all season for Azarenka, everything started with her mind, with her ability to concentrate and handle stress.
In the past, Azarenka, a hard hitter and fierce competitor, seemed to lack two ingredients of the Grand Slam champion. She didn’t hit quite hard enough, and she competed a little too fiercely. As athletic and agile as she was, and as good as her ground strokes were—her backhand has always been better than good—Azarenka lacked the crucial ability to knock the ball past her opponents at will. Serena Williams, Kim Clijsters, Petra Kvitova, even Sam Stosur and Li Na, can all do that, to a greater or lesser degree, and they’ve all won majors in recent years. When it comes down to it, you need to be able to take the rallies into your own hands. Azarenka, who, like Novak Djokovic, likes to work the ball around and use her movement, couldn't quite do that.
And while Azarenka’s intensity and desire to win were obvious from the start, they could also work against her. She was, as the reporter in Istanbul said, emotional on court, and she had trouble channeling that in a calm, positive direction (again, the problem, as well as its seeming solution in 2011, are reminiscent of Novak Djokovic’s). Azarenka had a habit of starting the season strong, only to flag, mentally and physically, later in the year. Like her high-bouncing footwork at the baseline, it seemed like she was overdoing it.
Azarenka is calmer and more directed now on court. Can a major breakthrough follow? She has begun the season well in Sydney, where she served Jelena Jankovic off the court today in straight sets. We should get to see where Vika is in comparison to world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki by the end of the week; the two are on course to play in the semifinals. Unless Azarenka has added some pop to her ground strokes, I still don’t see her as having a natural Slam-winning game, like, say, Kvitova's. But I would still rate her as a strong dark horse candidate in 2012. If Vika keeps keeping her head, and she gets the right draw, she's consistent enough now that she could sneak past Kim, Serena, Petra, Caro, and everyone else at a major—she has had particular success in Melbourne. In her press conference after her match with Serena at the U.S. Open last year, I got the feeling that that loss, ironically, did as much for her confidence as any win.
So far in Sydney, Azarenka seems to be keeping her head. She was told after her first-round match that the No. 1 ranking was “within reach,” and asked whether she was thinking about it. The logical Vika said that unless you win the matches, you aren’t going to get the ranking, “so that really comes first.” If tennis really is mind over matter, she’s off to a good start in 2012.
Still, I don't want Vika to get too calm. Through most of 2011, she celebrated big wins by dropping her racquet, sticking out her tongue, twirling her index finger in the air, and closing with an over-the-shoulder fist pump. I said during Istanbul that while I would probably not describe this as a classy move, per se, I would still miss it if she stopped. By the tail end of the event, the level-headed Azarenka had begun to cut it short. Judging from the evidence above, though, she seems to have brought it Down Under with her in 2012. Here's hoping we get to see the twirling finger on a big occasion or two.