Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka were among the favorites to win this edition of the French Open, but eventually they couldn’t even reach the 3rd round for different reasons.
Sadly, Serena had to withdraw from the competition before playing the 2nd round against Tsvetana Pironkova because of the Achilles injury that she sustained when she played Vika Azarenka in the US Open semifinal.
Vika was widely considered as one of the most in-form players of the last couple of months. However, she unexpectedly lost 6-2 6-2 to Karolina Anna Schmiedlova that in the previous round also stunned Venus Williams 6-4 6-4.
Vika commented:
“I felt like I was trying a lot, trying different things, but today things were not working. I felt like nothing really was working, but I still had to find a way to win, and I didn’t. So it’s a lesson for me to learn how to be more courageous, to go for more.”
Serena and Vika seemed to be destined to face off in the 4th round in Paris, but that is not going to happen.
Serena Williams at the French Open, ranking, and results in 2020
Now the world no.9, Serena has a 17-5 win-loss record in 2020. Serena Williams is competing at the French Open where she toppled Kristie Ahn 7-62 6-0.
The American has won 1 title in 2020 in Auckland.
Serena won 73 titles in her career: 43 on hard courts, 13 on clay courts, 7 on indoor courts, 2 on carpet courts and 8 on grass courts. (See the list of her titles)
Victoria Azarenka in 2020
Now ranked no.14, the Belarussian played her last match on the 30th of September when she was defeated by Karolina Anna Schmiedlova 6-2 6-2 in the 2nd round of the French Open.
Presently, this year Azarenka has a 15-5 win-loss record. Victoria has won 1 title in New York. The Belarussian got to the final at the U.S. Open.
Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka played each other 23 times. The head to head is 18-5 for Williams. The last time that they competed against each other, Victoria Azarenka won 1-6 6-3 6-3 in the semifinal in New York (U.S. Open) on the 10th of September 2020.
You can watch the highlights in the following video.
