Azarenka Quietly Working for Breakthrough Season

This article is part of On the Baseline’s 2009 Players to Watch Series. Please join us for a special look at several rising and resurgent stars on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour.

Ask Victoria Azarenka what part of her game she’s working on, and she always says, “Everything.”

An earnest answer, but not the most revealing. Ask her coach, Antonio Van Grichen, and he’s also being a little cagey. The two are at the Saddlebrook Resort in Florida, doing some off-season training. “Mainly on her serve and… specially one of the groundstrokes.”

Come on. Which one? No straight answer, just another clue: “Maximizing her strengths.”
 
Now we’re just being toyed with. It’s the backhand. (See, was that so hard?)
 
Fitness is another big focus, with an eye towards injury prevention — knee problems forced her to pull out or retire at several events this year. Azarenka worked with famed trainer Pat Etcheberry during last year’s break, but is now looking for someone to travel with her part-time and currently trialing Mark Wellington for the role.
 
But there are some things you can’t work on at the practice court or the gym, and playing finals is one of them. Azarenka is the highest-ranked player still without a singles title to her name — not that alarming when you’re 19 years old and No. 15 in the world, but it’s always best to pre-empt any onset of Kournikova Syndrome.
 
She’s had plenty of opportunities to bag her first trophy — her best chances actually came last year, against No. 176 Greta Arn in the Estoril final and No. 87 Pauline Parmentier in the Tashkent final. She lost the first in a third-set tiebreak and the second tamely in two sets. This year, she had another tough battle with an in-form Na Li at the Gold Coast, and went down in two sets to the resurgent Vera Zvonareva in Prague.
 
In fact, Azarenka has been generally frustrated in all her attempts to win more than four WTA matches in a row — she also lost in the Berlin and Montreal semifinals this year, though both times to a red-hot Dinara Safina.
 
(Maybe it’s something in the water? Fellow Belarusian Natasha Zvereva, who was around hitting at their local club courts at the same time Azarenka was learning the game, had only a 4-15 record in singles finals despite her considerable talent. Her most famous loss was the 6-0, 6-0 drubbing she received from Steffi Graf in the 1988 French Open final, from which some felt she never recovered.)
 
Still, there isn’t much reason to get hung up on Azarenka’s lack of tournaments wins. She’s managed to make something of a mark through mixed doubles, winning the US Open with Max Mirnyi last year and the French Open with Bob Bryan this year. A run to the second week of the French capped off a nice fortnight in Paris, and she had the opportunity to take advantage of a wide-open draw at Wimbledon (Sharapova’s section) but lost a tight battle against Nadia Petrova. All in all, it was a season to be encouraged if not enthused by.
 
There should be more to come next year. Azarenka’s game has plenty of potential and should snap into place one of these days. Importantly, it’s also accompanied by a genuine love of playing and a solid belief in her own capabilities.
 
Though her mother worked at their local tennis club, Azarenka was not groomed for the sport from birth — she began only at the invitation of one of the other coaches and discovered she had a huge appetite for hitting the ball. Quiet in public but social with her fellow players, she also seems to enjoy life on tour.
 
Azarenka wanted to get to the Top 10 this year, so that’s something to watch and see if she does next season. And get her first singles title, of course.

Kamakshi Tandon is a freelance tennis writer. Her website is www.courtcoverage.org.