Victoria Azarenka holds off Kuznetsova in first round fight at the French Open

Victoria Azarenka clenches her fist during her first-round match at the French Open against Svetlana Kuznetsova Sunday. 

Victoria Azarenka had to fight through every point to come out on top at the French Open Sunday. The former world number one went the distance with Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova, who forced a third to play only to come up short in a 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 result on Philippe Chatrier court at Roland Garros. 

Both veterans of the sport returned to Roland Garros facing one another for the 11^th time in their careers. The match marked their second at the grand slam since 2008 as both enter the opening round with very little action this season on red clay. Azarenka got two matches back in Madrid, but advancing past the second round wasn’t in the cards. Kuznetsova didn’t record a single game leading up to Paris, putting her in a position where her experience would be the only thing to help her against the Belorussian. With one meeting already in the books this season, the two would try to make the meeting on the center stage stand out as important. 

Azarenka opened service with a defense that allowed her to come through her service forcing an unforced error on the Russian. She went on to break her in the second as errors racked up for the 35-year-old. The early conversion of the breakpoint gave the Belorussian an early lead, but she was broke back to love in the third. they played the next four games break each other’s serves until a fight in the eighth ensued. 

In her quest to level the score, Kuznetsova forced deuce on an error from her opponent and drew another from her to hold. While it was a well-played service, she failed to take anything away from the 31-year-old, who went on to serve to love the ninth and break Kuznetsova for the set win. It was a 41-minute success by the former world number one, who had three double faults but did better on the first serve winning 9 of 16 compared to Kuznetsova’s 9 of 22. 

She turned things around in the onset of the second, breaking Azarenka, who double-faulted three times. The Russian backed up the following game with a hold, before adding a third victory with three winners coming into action. The Russian continued backing up the breaks on Azarenka with service holds until she had a 5-0 grip. 

Azarenka managed to etch out a break to love in the sixth and consolidated thereafter. Despite the short winning streak, Kuznetsova put the set to rest in the eighth, overcoming an unforced error to hit a winner that forced deuce and another to take the second in 37 minutes. The five double faults Azarenka recorded did a number on her earlier run but calling her out was not a sight to be seen with the decider left to play. 

It was there that she put her best foot forward, drawing errors from Kuznetsova to take the game. She topped that off with a break of the Russian, who double-faulted, sat 40-0 down, and never recovered. Azarenka had a 3-0 run thanks to three more errors from the Russian that consolidated the second. The  35-year-old limited the errors and got into the fourth with a hold that put the Belorussian on notice. 

She reacted in the fifth with a push to 30-all before drawing an error that led to her taking a 4-1 lead. Breaking Kuznetsova was big for the Belorussian, who drew three errors in the game that put her in place to serve for the match. Her opponent refused to let her do so on serve, gaining an edge after a double fault with two return winners that broke Azarenka. The eighth was a huge fight with Azarenka scoring a winner for match point but erred to blow her first opportunity. 

With deuce in play, Kuznetsova worked through four breaks to hold on to an error from the 31-year-old. While it was another stop from the inevitable, Azarenka got into place scoring a winner to force deuce and another that brought up her second match point, ending it on an error from Kuznetsova to end a two-hour bout on the court.