Victoria Azarenka blasts away Tereza Martincova in straight sets at US Open

Victoria Azarenka came out blazing midway through her opening round match at the US Open. 

Victoria Azarenka came through a tight first set to dominate at the US Open Monday. The Belorussian finished strong at the tail end of the opening set and won nine straight games against Tereza Martincova to win 6-4, 6-0 on Grandstand Court at the Billy Jean King National Tennis Center. 

The 2020 finalist returned for her 14^th appearance at the Open with a new player in her midst. The 26-year-old Czech was in for her third attempt to get out of the first round but managed to find the Belorussian standing in her way. Martincova won two matches at Montreal and Chicago that proved to be good preparation before the final calendar slam. With the odds stacked well against her, Martincova would need her game to be at 100 percent to topple the three-time finalist. 

She gained a two-game lead with her side of the court faring well and Azarenka’s rusty. The Belorussian went down swinging with the break to love going to the Czech. When it was her turn to serve, Martincova didn’t let up in her work to make it 3-0 against the former world number one. Azarenka got on the board with an ace to finish her strong service game in the fourth. The Czech answered back with a win on serve, putting her three-game lead back in place. 

The 32-year-old built upon her lone win and added a second on serve to cut into Martincova’s lead. She added a break of the Czech that put her on the right track to get her out front. The next two wins went the way of Azarenka that gave her the shot to swipe the set away from the 26-year-old. She reached a set point on an error from Martincova, who managed to force deuce on a forehand error from the Belorussian. A backhand error from the Czech brought up the AD point set point that clinched the victory for Azarenka ending the first in 37 minutes. 

The 18^th seed won 71 percent from her first serve and seven of eight points won near the net. Despite having the two double faults, the 32-year-old finished strong to take her momentum into the second set. It was there that she broke Martincova to open the second and followed it up with a hold of serve. Azarenka added another for good measure making it six consecutive wins in the match. 

The momentum did not falter for the 18^th seed as she cruised through to add the triple break of Martincova to her accomplishment. Azarenka served for the match but had to get to deuce to keep her hope of a shutout alive. With a match point attempt, the ball went long of the baseline on the second break. Her second attempt fared better as a slice shot from Martincova went into the net that put her singles run to rest in one hour and nine minutes. 

With such a dominant stride that Azarenka carried with her through the remainder of the match, it gave her a boost to prepare for the second round. The winner between Jasmine Paolini and Yaroslava Shvedova would be her next opponent on Wednesday.