Victoria Azarenka kicked off her grass-court season but it was a difficult match in the first round of the 2023 Libema Open.
After being forced to withdraw from the WTA 1000 tournament in Rome, and losing already in the first round of the Roland Garros, the Belarusian wanted to forget the unsuccessful clay-court season on a new surface, the grass court.
One of the first two tournaments WTA 250 grass-court tournaments is the 2023 Libema Open in 's-Hertogenbosch. But there are many players that can go far in the Dutch city, and so early wins are important for Azarenka to build her confidence.
In the first round of the tournament, she took on Natalija Stevanovic from Serbia, who was one of the qualifiers at the tournament. The two never met before but their match was a typical grass-court meeting.
Both players broke each other's serve early in the first set, but then held comfortably. However, in the twelfth game, Stevanovic had five set points, even leading 40-0 on her opponent's serve, but she couldn't use her chances.
On the other hand, Azarenka used her experience, eventually taking the first set into a tie-break after the longest game of the match. In the tie-break, she proved to be the better player, winning it 7-5 to take the first set.
The third seed was much more comfortable on her serve in the second set, never allowing her player to have break points. Yet, she created three chances to break in the eighth game, and used the first one to serve for the match.
Despite losing 0-30 in the last game of the match, Azarenka serve it out with four consecutive points, winning the match 7-6(5), 6-3, and advancing to the second round of the 2023 Libema Open, awaiting Rebecca Peterson or Ashlyn Krueger.
0 Comments