Victoria Azarenka continued her march back at the Miami Open with a well profound performance in the quarterfinals Tuesday night. The three time champion defeated Karolina Pliskova in straight sets 7-5, 6-3 on Stadium court at Crandon Park Tennis Center. It was her first top ten win since Miami in 2016 with the momentum going her way once again.
This was a fourth meeting for the two superstars with Azarenka leading the series since Indian Wells in 2016. They went a second straight match to the distance where the Belorussian came out victorious in a third set hold before going on to win the first of the sunshine double that year. The Czech hasn’t had a strong start to 2018 but sees a second consecutive semifinal within reach if she can put a stop to Azarenka’s hard fight back into the sport. While the Belorussian had an easy Monday against Agnieszka Radwanska in straight sets the same went for Pliskova dispatching Zarina Diyas allowing three game wins. She wouldn’t get the same chance against her opponent but would find a good fight on her hands.
The set began with a break to Azarenka who returned the ball well against Pliskova’s serve creating some backspin on the ball that led to errors in the rallies. The ground strokes of the Belorussian came off strong in the second capturing the first service hold and a two-game lead. Pliskova got right on point to notch her first service hold making her offensive statement clear to Azarenka in the third that it would harder to keep her down for long.
With the service holds in succession, the gap remained for Azarenka who made good of it in the fourth. She gave every effort to break the Czech but the wind didn’t help to get a second under her belt. After containing the sixth, the former number one took down Pliskova with an aggressive style of play that awarded her a second break of the set. With a three-game margin for herself, but a slip early in the eighth with Pliskova fighting to stay alive saw the set continue with a double fault.
She redeemed her mistakes attacking Pliskova with the return but found her two set point attempts blown by errors. It led to deuce where the Czech set up difficult returns firing in the corner for Azarenka. After three breaks, she found a way of redirecting the shots of Pliskova but saw the tables turned once again blowing a third set point. After the fifth deuce the Czech earned a shot at securing the game and did so taking nine minutes to do it.
With a second attempt at ending the same to her name, Azarenka completely dropped it handing her opponent every point sending them further on in the set. Pliskova dictated the 11th until the Belorussian battled back to force deuce. When it looked as if the serve of the Czech could get out of the game with a win, she handed the game to the three-time champion double faulting on the AD point. It was the fourth of the set as the second serve struggled to come together.
Azarenka began to find her strengths return serving for the set a third time where she had some moments of struggle but avoided another force of deuce to get it done on her 5th set point attempt. Things finished in 57 minutes with neither one holding a strong serve together. Azarenka had a second serve that came up big during critical moments against Pliskova’s serve showing her more as the match went on.
The 28-year-old came out guns blazing picking up her first break to love of the Czech. She followed suit holding Azarenka in the second keeping things leveled in the second. It was clearly tough for either one of them to hold serve as the Belorussian showed a full show of aggression beating down Pliskova in the third. Through five, the breaks went on until the very next game when things got serious for the 2016 champion of the tournament. With a big push from her return game on Pliskova, the 28-year-old got the first hold of the set taking a 4-2 lead in the process.
Azarenka watched her opponent follow along with the pace and keep within a game on the scoreboard unready to let the set get away from her. The Belorussian had something to say about it in the eighth holding together for her first shot at the match. The former number one started with an attack of a cross court shot that fooled Pliskova. A double fault from the server made it 30-0 for Azarenka before coming back with a drop shot near the net.
She forced deuce but the pressure was all on her ending the match after a break with a shot wide of the net bringing a close after 1 hour and 36 minutes. “It wasn’t easy,” Azarenka said to Andrew Krasny after the match. “Karolina is a very good player and I felt like I had a very good lead and I let it go a little bit. She really stepped it up so I had to fight back and it wasn’t easy with the wind conditions. Both of us are pretty hard hitters so I had to adjust to it and play with a little bit with more touch and play a little bit safer. I moved pretty well which helped me a lot today.”
She’ll try to keep a spot in the finals against Sloane Stephens who she didn’t have a good outing against back at Indian Wells. “I need play better for sure than I did last time,” she said. “I have to keep my unforced errors down. Last time I made quite a few of those but she’s such a terrific player. She’s been playing amazing, especially since the U.S. Open. I think I need to play my best tennis but also want to focus on myself and keep enjoying it.”
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