Victoria Azarenka life and biography

Viktoriya Azarenka, also known as Victoria Azarenka is a Belarusian professional tennis player. Her current and career high ranking is World No. 5, which she achieved on April 11, 2011. She is currently the World No. 1 (January 30th) after beating out Maria Sharapova at Melbourne's 2012 Australian Open.

CAREER:

Azarenka has won two mixed doubles Grand Slam titles — 2007 US Open with Max Mirnyi and 2008 French Open with Bob Bryan. She has won seven singles titles, including the Premier Mandatory Sony Ericsson Open in 2009 and 2011 and has made three Grand Slam quarterfinal appearances.

The No. 1 junior in 2005, Victoria Azarenka had a breakout year on tour in 2009, winning her first three singles titles, including Miami, and reaching the Top 10. She also reached the quarterfinals at both Roland Garros and Wimbledon. Nicknamed “Vika,” she’s known for her fiery temper on court. She won the 2007 U.S. Open mixed doubles title with countryman Max Mirnyi and the 2008 Roland Garros mixed title with Bob Bryan. She lives and trains in Scottsdale, Ariz. (as of Nov. 2, 2009)

Singles Titles:
2010: Stanford, Moscow
2009: Brisbane, Memphis, Miami

Doubles Titles:
2010: Cincinnati
2009: Memphis, Indian Wells
2006: Tashkent

2011:

Azarenka began her year at the Medibank International as the 7th seed where she lost to Kim Clijsters in the quarterfinals 6–3 6–2. At the 2011 Australian Open Azarenka was seeded 8th. She lost to the ninth seed and eventual finalist, Li Na, 6–3 6–3 in the fourth round. Azarenka partnered with Maria Kirilenko in the women's doubles event but the pair lost to Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta in the final.

Azarenka then travelled to Israel to compete in Fed Cup. They beat Croatia, Austria and Greece in the group stage without losing a match. The Belarusian team then defeated Poland 2–0 to qualify for the World Group II Play-Offs in April where they will play Estonia.

Azarenka's next tournament was the 2011 Dubai Tennis Championships where she was seeded 7th. She lost to Flavia Pennetta in the third round. Azarenka then competed at the 2011 Qatar Ladies Open as the sixth seed but lost to Daniela Hantuchova in the first round in three sets, 6–4, 1–6, 2–6.

Azarenka's next event was the 2011 BNP Paribas Open where she competed as the eighth seed. She retired in the quarterfinals against World No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki whilst trailing 3–0, due to a left leg injury. She also became the second person to defeat both Radwańska sisters in the same tournament.

Azarenka then competed at the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open as the eighth seed. She reached her second final at the event where she defeated sixteenth seed Maria Sharapova, 6–1, 6–4 to win the title.

At the 2011 Andalucia Tennis Experience, Azarenka was the number one seed and dropped only fourteen games on her way to the final. She defeated Irina-Camelia Begu 6–3, 6–2 in the final. Azarenka's victory, and Samantha Stosur's inability to defend her points at Charleston, ensured Azarenka would reach a career high of World number 5. She then participated in Belarus' 5–0 win over Estonia in Fed Cup, registering a 6–2 6–0 win in her singles rubber. In her next tournament the 2011 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix Azarenka retired after the first set of her first match having won the first set 6–4 against Julia Goerges ending her 12 match winning streak. Ironically, Julia went onto win the tournament.

At the 2011 Madrid Masters, Azarenka was seeded number four. She lost in the final in straight sets to Petra Kvitova, but still rose to a career high World No. 4. Azarenka then reached the quarterfinals of the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, where she was up a set before retiring to eventual champion Maria Sharapova.

Azarenka was the 4th seed at the 2011 French Open. She beat Andrea Hlavackova in the first round, Pauline Parmentier in the second round, 30th seed Roberta Vinci in the third round and Ekaterina Makarova in the fourth round to reach her fourth career Grand Slam quarterfinal. She lost to Li Na in the quarterfinals.

She won the 2012 Australian Open singles title, becoming the first Belarusian player to win a Grand Slam in singles.

In March 2012, she played in the 2012 BNP Paribas Open, where she was the got top seed. After receiving a bye in the first round, she defeated Mona Barthel in a tough three set match. In the next four rounds, she defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova, Julia Gorges, Agnieszka Radwanska and Angelique Kerber easily in straight sets, dropping just 16 games. Her final opponent was World No. 2 Maria Sharapova, and once again, Azarenka won in straight sets (6–2 6–3). Azarenka's next tournament was the 2012 Sony Ericsson Open, where after a bye in the first round, she went to defeat Michaella Krajicek 6–3 7–5 in the second round, Heather Watson 6–0 6–2 on the third round, next round she faced a harder test against Dominika Cibulkova, losing the first set and being 4–0 down on the second set, Azarenka managed to came back and pull out the match, with a final score of 1–6, 7–6(7), 7–5. In the next round she faced Marion Bartoli, who ended Azarenka's 26 match winning streak to start the 2012 season (3–6, 3–6).

In 2020, Azarenka withdrew from the Australian Open due to 'personal problems', and was due to return to the tour in March at the Monterrey Open but the event was cancelled due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic.

Personal:

Coached by Antonio Van Grichen
Favorite shot is backhand; favorite surface is hard
Introduced to tennis at age 7 by mother; mother is Alla; father is Fedor; has one brother, Max
Speaks Belarusian, English, Russian
Enjoys listening to music (especially hip-hop, rap and R&B), spending time with friends, reading
Favorite city is hometown of Minsk; spends most of her time living and training in Scottsdale now; is friends with NHL star Nikolay Khabibulin and his family, who also live in Scottsdale; has lived there approximately three years
Admires Roger Federer for professionalism on and off court.

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