“I don’t think this is going to be a simple set,” Virginia Wade, commentating for the BBC, mused thoughtfully as Victoria Azarenka and Daniela Hantuchova rose from their chairs to complete their third-round match, tied at one set all.
She had good reason to make that prediction, as the match between two former Wimbledon quarterfinalists had been an edgy, fidgety affair. Hantuchova came into the match as the form player, having followed up her eye-catching defeat of Caroline Wozniacki at Roland Garros with two strong grass-court performances at Birmingham, where she lost to Sabine Lisicki in the final, and Eastbourne, where she defeated Venus Williams before falling to Petra Kvitova. Azarenka, on the other hand, suffered another troubling injury at Eastbourne, forcing her to retire, but it was the Belarusian who drew first blood, breaking Hantuchova for a 3-1 lead.
It was the first in a series of breaks and consequent fluctuations in momentum. Of the two women, Hantuchova is the bigger hitter, able to generate pace effortlessly off both wings; she used her backhand down the line—a signature shot which she can hit at almost any time—to great effect in breaking Azarenka back, then held her own serve despite a six-deuce game. With her ball-striking, it’s still a surprise that she has only four WTA career titles, but she has been hamstrung by her own frequent inability to string two points together. Two double-faults at 3-4 gave Azarenka her 10th and 11th break points of the match, and the younger woman’s superior speed and agility told as she worked her way around the ball to find the winning forehand, before sealing the first set with tough serving and a quick-thinking, unorthodox forehand dropshot.
No matter how good Azarenka can look, the fact remains that she has never been beyond the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam, and there was something forced about her performance today. After breaking early in the second set, she started over-pressing, trying to hit the ball harder and match Hantuchova in pace. Instead she succeeded in feeding Hantuchova the balls that the Slovakian most enjoys, and consequently found herself down an early break in the second set. She got it back, but it was a worrying omen for the rest of the set, and when Hantuchova came up with a collection of spectacular forehands to break for 5-3, Azarenka looked scattered and unfocussed. Someone in the Centre Court crowd, never averse to kicking someone when they’re down, chose that moment to imitate Azarenka’s trademark squeal to loud laughter and applause. Nothing looked good for Azarenka just then.
Hantuchova, however, was hardly taking advantage of her opponent’s discomfiture. After failing to capitalize on a break point during Azarenka’s first service game, she was mired at 30-30 on her own serve when rain suddenly began to fall. Returning to a now-covered Centre Court half an hour later, Azarenka was a different player. She hit two spectacular forehands to break and did not look back from there, playing more incisively, coming to the net and remembering that, instead of trying to mimic Hantuchova’s groundstrokes, she could hit her own with more spin and still keep great depth. Azarenka closed the match out doing what Hantuchova had largely and fatally been unable to do—string two winners together. The Belarusian won 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 and moves on to face Nadia Petrova, but she may not get a rain delay to regain her scattered focus next time.
—Hannah Wilks