Victoria Azarenka Becomes Player With Most Match Wins At WTA 1000 Level

| by Nurein Ahmed

Victoria Azarenka crossed a major landmark in her first-round win over Magda Linette at this week's Canadian Open.

Azarenka breezed past unseeded Linette 6-3, 6-0 in a match that was heavily interrupted by rain on Monday. The Belarusian star was untroubled as she won 80% first-serve points and broke serve six times from eight chances to set up a meeting against 2017 US Open champion Sloane Stephens next.

The victory over the Pole was Azarenka's 187th at WTA 1000 level. Since the format was introduced in 2009, Azarenka is now the player with the most wins in this prestigious category, passing Simona Halep, who is in second place with 186.

The list also features Petra Kvitova and Caroline Wozniacki in third and fourth place respectively, and who are both currently active in Montreal - the latter recently came out of retirement. Azarenka was clueless about this stat during her post-match interview but spoke of how staunch she is when it comes to her work and loves performing at the grandest stages.

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"Oh, yeah? Wow! Well, I think that stat clearly says that I love to play big events. You know, even with Grand Slams in Australia I think I reached 150 matches or something like that. So I do love a big stage."

Regarding her standout achievements, Azarenka was then quizzed on whether there was one specific run that springs to mind at WTA 1000 level, she pointed out her mesmeric run back in 2020 (although she wasn't quite sure of the year), when she won Western & Southern Open that was held in New York during the pandemic-hit 2020 season.

"A specific run? I have terrible memory since I became a mom, but one of those runs in Cincinnati in 2021 was pretty amazing for me. Coming back after a long break - everybody had a long break, but I had a longer break, and I was at the point where I didn't know if I was going to play really again."

"I had a pretty big beat-down by Venus the tournament before that, so I wasn't discouraged, but I was, like, oh, my God. I have lost four or five matches in a row, and it never really happened in my career before."

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