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Victoria Azarenka’s return to tennis came to an abrupt halt at the Mallorca Open Thursday. 19 year old Ana Konjuh of Croatia put on the best performance of the week as she dominated the former number one 6-1, 6-3 on Pista Central at Santa Ponza Tennis Club. The quick actions from the seventh seed brought the Belorussian’s return to tennis to an end as she couldn’t get dug in to be a competitive force.
The two haven’t played one another before making it an excited match not only for the Belorussian but the Croatian who pulled off an exciting win against Ons Jabeur Tuesday. Azarenka wasn’t lucky enough to finish hers in the same but her will to win her first of the season took three dramatic games that ended in a 9-7 tiebreaker. With the jitters out of the way, the former number one needed consistency to come into action quickly or face hard times ahead.
She didn’t find anyway right away as Konjuh dictated the start of the set and never looked back. Her strategy of not letting Azarenka get a footing on serve or on the returns led her to a dramatic 4-0 run on the former number one. The first sign of a challenge came in the fifth where the two went to deuce but the Croatian dealt with the adversity like a pro and kept her opponent scoreless. As she sat a game from handing Azarenka the bagel, the former number one tried to pull out a win on serve in her last chance. She pulled off a key ace followed by a winner that helped her secure the win and avoid the shutout from Konjuh.
The lone game would be all that she could attain from the 19-year-old as the Croatian kept the set in her end and finished off with a good hold of the seventh to complete a great start after just 34 minutes. The seventh seed had 18 winners in her early success while minimizing the unforced errors. Her show of dominance clearly had Azarenka at a loss of response with the hope of turning it around in the second set.
Konjuh kept her foot on the gas, breaking Azarenka on her opening serve to begin the set. As the Croatian reached a second game, the Belorussian let out a scream of frustration that seemed to help. She made the third game hers to own and shut out Konjuh for her first love service of the match. The Croatian took over from the small point of Azarenka’s to march forward to her ultimate goal of succeeding. It was 4-1 with the seventh seed on the ball during the sixth game where she faltered enough to give the former number one her third game winner.
The margin was just a game between the two but as Konjuh served in the eighth, the seventh seed made her game count and won her way to play for the match in the ninth. Despite finding her way to another battle on deuce, the 19-year-old reached a second match point to put away the match in stunning fashion that took 1 hour and 11 minutes to complete.
With so much momentum in her end, the young Croatian would go into Friday’s quarterfinal taking of Latvia’s Anastasija Sevastova.
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