Victoria Azarenka fights to win in straight sets against Clara Tauson

Victoria Azarenka clenches her fist during a second-round match at the French Open Wednesday

Victoria Azarenka was through to the third round after a ton of effort needed at the French Open Wednesday. The Belorussian faced a tough opponent in Clara Tauson, who gave it her all to stay with the former world number one but fell in straight sets 7-5, 6-4 on Court Simone Mathieu at Roland Garros. 

After another meeting against a tennis veteran, the Belorussian got the feeling of being back in the first round when facing a brand new opponent. The Dane made good in her second run at Roland Garros, doing well in her previous match where she allowed her opponent just six combined game wins. With her back in the second round, Tauson taking on a former world number one stepped things up. Though she has never faced someone of Azarenka’s magnitude, the teen had a good of chance as any to pull off an upset and improve her personal best. 

The Dane tried to put a good serve together but double-faulted that allowed Azarenka to break. After saving her own game, the Belorussian scored an ace to go on through deuce to hold, but erred during Tauson’s serve to go back a game down. The Dane made it an even game when the Belorussian double faulted to give her the break back. They got back into the groove of holding serves through the next four games which saw Azarenka score a shutout in the eighth, hoping to perform well in the late stages of the set. 

Tauson made the first act to press to a 5-4 lead keeping the pressure back during the critical moments of her service. The 31-year-old tactfully worked through her game to level at five-all before scoring the break in the 11^th to serve for the set. Though it was still a challenge against the teenage Dane, the former world number one got through to score the set in 55 minutes. It was a very close match with Azarenka and Tauson recording the same amount of winners (11) and close on unforced errors committed. 

With Tauson doing so well to keep up with the 15^th seed, she played every point but came up short when opening the second set. She managed to keep the fight on and break Azarenka in the second, hoping she could return to her performance pace on serve. Consolidating the serve in the third gave her the lead back, but the Dane knew it was going to be a close race to the end of the set. Azarenka responded with tying the score and going for a break in the fifth. Tauson had to fight back to force deuce where after three breaks and two breakpoints saved, she locked things down to keep ahead. 

Azarenka leveled back in the sixth, pulling off the same feat Tauson did in the previous game. She fired shots big in the seventh producing three breakpoints early on. Tauson saved two of them but ended up falling behind. The Dane managed to break back to get back to level terms with the Belorussian, but as the business end was near, every point was critical to win. Her game was once again under attack as Azarenka opened a 40-0 lead. Tauson fought to try and force deuce but came up short giving the 15^th seed a shot at serving for the match. 

The tenth saw them trade off points until an unforced error from the Dane brought up two match points. The teen answered with saving one of them by painting the line but couldn’t level things up. The 31-year-old closed out her time on the court watching a return from Clauson hit into the net to end the match in 1 hour and 48 minutes.