Victoria Azarenka used 'parenting techniques' to cope with Miami Open technical meltdown
03/27/2024 09:30 AM
Victoria Azarenka admitted the patience she has learned to develop as the parent of a young child helped her to deal with an unfortunate breakdown in communications at the Miami Open.
Azarenka kept her hopes of a fourth Miami Open title alive as she reached the semi-finals with a hard-earned victory over Yulia Putintseva, with her level of performance maintained over the course of a marathon match.
The No 27 seed, a winner in Miami in 2009, 2011 and 2016, laboured for just under three hours as she battled past her Kazakhstani opponent 7-6 (4) 1-6 6-3.
The 34-year-old saved three set points at 5-4 down in the opening set, then failed to convert two of her own before she held her nerve in the tie-break with some decisive forehands.
Putintseva hit back hard in the second, giving up a solitary game as she found her rhythm, but the momentum shifted when Azarenka salvaged a pair of break points at the start of the decider.
After regaining control she did not take advantage of her first match point at 5-2 up, but made no mistake when the chance opened up again in her next service game.
Azarenka will face another Kazakhstani opponent in the last four after Elena Rybakina outlasted eighth seed Maria Sakkari in another marathon clash 7-5 6-7 (4) 6-4.
The match was held up for a period after the line-calling technology broke down and Azarenka didn’t try to hide her annoyance as she marched off court until the problem was fixed.
“Learning patience is my biggest challenge, for sure, being a parent rather than being on the tennis court,” she stated as she reflected on the technology meltdown.
“So those situations are definitely frustrating, and as I said, it’s not necessarily of what happened is that when you are on the court you have no idea what we need to do, like, you sit on the court or you can go out of the court, are we going to continue to play, are we going to play with line umpires?
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“It was just a very uncertain situation, and I think in the situation where you are kind of already at high nerves during the match, it probably adds to it. The frustration feeds that.”
Azarenka went on to suggest the presence of her little son is inspiring her to succeed, as she wants him to see her thrive on court.
“After I achieved being No. 1, winning Grand Slams, winning gold medal, and so many titles, and probably also becoming a parent, like, that motivation was not a priority for me. It’s not something that made me, you know, turn on, like, beast mode,” she added.
“So I needed to find what it is I don’t need to prove people wrong. I mean, I have a big resume to not do that but to shift and find what it is that’s going to motivate me. I wouldn’t say it has b een a challenge, but it’s definitely a searching process.
“I feel like this year, especially like after the kind of pretty challenging last year, I was able to at least find that space, and I’m working through that.
“It’s not an overnight thing and, you know, once you got it everything goes smoothly, but I feel like I’m in a good place where I’m on a good track.
“I am hungry, and my hunger comes from that I want to learn more and I’m trying new things and I’m okay with those.
“I feel like I’m accepting a little bit better, not failing but trial-and-error concept. It’s not easy, because I want to win all the time in everything I do.
“I have a little boy who is mirroring me, so I can understand how intense that can be. But yeah, so for me, I would use those in two different concepts.”
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