Victoria Azarenka didn’t have the right answers to move on at the Wimbledon Championships Monday. The former number one fell hard in the second set against Simona Halep to quickly bring her run at the All England Tennis Club to an end 7-6(3), 6-2 on Court Two. The win put the Romanian in a terrific spot to become the number one player in the world with the advancement into the quarterfinals.
The two superstars of the sport get back in each other’s faces for the first time in two years. The Romanian won their last meeting which became her lone win against the Belorussian at the US Open. They had yet to faceoff on the grass courts giving both an even shot at making the quarterfinals. Azarenka continued to impress in just her fifth match played in over a year. The thrill of center court against Heather Watson nearly got her but the former number one held through three sets. Halep hasn’t lost a set against anyone in her way and knew that beating the comeback star would be huge to return to the quarterfinals for a third time.
The Belorussian forced out a strong serve to begin the match with the Romanian attempting to follow suit. She had a 40-0 run on Azarenka but the former number one fought all the way back to deuce winning it on a well-deserved break that had her out front. Halep recovered from the small deficit but the fifth game saw Azarenka outduel the second seed and consolidated it with a break of the second seed.
The Romanian recovered from the short deficit and rallied to get into a race to the finish line with Azarenka. Halep got some control to go her way and forced the Belorussian into a five all tie that sent the pressure high on both players going forward. Azarenka took the 11th with an important hold that put the pressure on Halep to match. She got it done in the 12 making the tiebreaker an extremely hard but critical point for one of the players to be the frontrunner.
For the second seed, it was hers to win as she dominated the Belorussian with a 5-1 push. Azarenka tried to come back but her efforts were silenced who gained the final two points to cap the opening set in 52 minutes. The unforced errors were the biggest downfall for Azarenka who had 20 in the set that gave Halep enough to take care of business.
The second set was all in favor of the second seeded Romanian as she opened the gap on Azarenka to the point of gaining five consecutive games on her. When it looked as if she’d pull off the bagel against the former number one, Azarenka had the only answer she was willing to give. She did everything to hang on and win the sixth game surprising some to believe that a comeback from her was possible. She added a second straight on the break of Halep but the margin was too big for her to make a full recovery with the second seed still on top of her game. Halep put an end to the fight of her opponent and locked down the win in 56 minutes.
With manic Monday at an end for the women’s draw, the second seed would have her eyes set on facing British star Johanna Konta in a fierce match taking place this week.
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