Victoria Azarenka enters second week defeating Madison Keys at the French Open

 

Victoria Azarenka waves to the crowd after her third-round win against Madison Keys at the French Open. 

Victoria Azarenka used experience and consistent power from the forehand that moved her back to the round of 16 at the French Open. The Belorussian took Madison Keys out of the running early, winning in straight sets 6-2, 6-2 on Philippe Chatrier Court at Roland Garros. The former world number one ended a drought of not making the second week that lasted six years. 

The two met only once in their careers, with Azarenka playing only one full set against the American in Miami. The Belorussian did well against Clara Tauson, keeping her back to win in straight sets. Keys matched what Azarenka did in her last two matches when she took out Layla Fernandez. Since the two didn’t get a full match in when they met three years ago, the time came on the clay courts, with Azarenka looking to get back to the round of 16 since 2013. 

The American opened service knowing the forehand how to be powerful against the 31-year-old. Azarenka fired back with the same level of strength to stay even on the scoreboard with Keys. It wasn’t until the fifth that the 15^th seed found a way to break the pace and take a 3-2 lead. Azarenka backed up the break on serve to double her lead even while avoiding slipping up with a committed double fault. 

Keys ran into problems with her forehand which no longer stood where it started and her opponent’s return game focused upon that. She was down 0-40 with two unforced errors but managed to come back and force deuce on serve. Despite her efforts to close the gap, the Belorussian slammed the door with a winner on the first break to go up 5-2. With the double break in hand, Azarenka closed out the set with the help of two unforced errors from Keys to win on serve in 29 minutes. 

The American had 15 errors through eight games which were costly against the Belorussian, who had a four-game winning streak under her belt. Knowing that something had to change in the second set, Keys came into the opening game with a different tactic to force deuce in the first. Despite her attempts on serve, Azarenka managed to work through the problem and break her for a fifth consecutive victory. 

After backing up her service in the second, the 15^th seed followed the third with another double break of Keys, who continued to struggle to find a way to dig in. After losing seven games, the American miraculously broke back in the fourth, turning things around with a new form of tactics that allowed her to break the streak and create one of her own. Azarenka didn’t let the break of her grip become a major issue as she held the sixth and broke Keys again to sit up 5-2. 

After having made her point clear, the Belorussian served for the match in the eighth firing big crosscourt shots but watching Keys answer them. The American pushed the game to deuce where after three breaks, a try at gaining the AD point was not on the horizon. She suffered a forced error on Azarenka’s third attempt to end the match in 1 hour and 10 minutes. 

“Right from the beginning, I knew that it was going to be intense” Azarenka said after her match. “Madison plays a lot of really heavy balls and serves well so I had to try to make as many opportunities as I could and be really solid and try to put a lot of pressure on her so she doesn’t dictate the game so much.”