We have been really close to an epic upset.
Vika is definately one of the super favourite to win this title, but she was so close to crashed out at the very beginning.
The match looked a bit uneven from the very beginning… just seeing the two opponents by the net.
From one side we had the super fit and mega self-confident Azarenka. A stunning 23 years old that is dominating the tour on every possible surface.
On the other side there was Alberta Brianti. An almost entirely unknown Italian, 32 years old, ranked 105, almost 20cm shorter than the Bielarusian amazon, with a terrible 0-4 record at the French Open.
The first 2 games were so embarassing with Vika just humiliating her opponent with a smashing tennis and 300% clear superiority. It was 2-0 and lot’s of …. “poor Italian…this is going to be ugly”.
Then Alberta did something extraordinary that many top players fail to do with better opponent. “Are you much better than me on clear shots on the baseline? OK… I don’t give that to you any more”. Basically the Italian changed the rule of the game with huge variations that did completely upset Vika’s game.
The world no.1 started to struggle to incredibly lose the first set at the tie break. OK.. no problem… Vika will crash the Italian in the second set. Right? Wrong!!!
Alberta kept on playing her huge variations to get an astoundsing 4-0 lead. Azarenka was somewhere else and she was struggling to cope with her nerves.
The turning point? Vika was 0-4 down, she was facing a break point and she missed the second serve. She was definately scared to commit another double fault (6 in the match) to give a decisive 5-0 lead to the Italian. She closed her eyes to blast a second serve just in the corner: ace! On second serve!
Then she saved another couple of break points to be back to her usuall tennis and win the set 6-4 and then cruise in the third.
The final score was 7-6 (6) 6-4 6-2.
“Sometimes I felt it was not my day. Sometimes I thought, `Yeah, maybe I still fight, I still have a chance,”’ Azarenka said. “Sometimes it was like, you know what? Forget it. I don’t want to do it.”
“I think it says it all. Bad days happen,” Azarenka added. “Unfortunately today I had way more mistakes than I usually do, but, you know, it happens sometimes.”
Vika got through doing 60 unforced errors (wow!).
In the other matches Li Na trashed Soriana Cirstea 6-2 6-1, Radwanska demolished Jovanovsky 6-1 6-0 and Bartoli breezed past Pliskova 6-3 6-3
