Victoria Azarenka speeds her way into round four at Wimbledon

Victoria Azarenka smahes a forehand shot to Daraia Kasatkina during thier third round match at the Championships Wimbledon. 

Daria Kasatkina had a lot of problems with the service that broke down her efforts at the Championships Wimbledon Friday. The 26-year-old couldn’t keep up with the pace, that Victoria Azarenka brought to the No. 12 court, going down in a 6-2, 6-4 score at the All England Tennis Club. The 33-year-old rushed through the games early in the first and kept the pressure on her opponent to clinch her place in the round of 16.

The 11th seed did well in her second appearance back on center court, beating down Jodie Burrage in straight sets. Kasatkina allowed the Brit two wins in the second round to set up her fourth meeting against the 19th seed. Azarenka notched her first multi-win run of the season after eight consecutive tournaments. Despite her time on court against Yuan Yue, the 33-year-old fared better against Nadia Podoroska, allowing the Argentine three games. Azarenka won every meeting, including Kasatkina’s devastating retirement in Rome three years ago. As sportsmanship sat well between the two, the fight to make the round of 16 was on.  

Azarenka won the right to serve open the match, holding the 26-year-old back from forcing deuce. The 11th seed put on a great display of attacks from her service to remain level early on. She earned breakpoints in the third on flat returns by Azarenka, who delivered the change in scoring on a long return behind the baseline of Kasatkina. The 33-year-old turned it around, in the shape of a break to love in the fourth, sitting even on the score.

After holding serve to gain the lead back, the 19th seed captured the double break in the sixth, jumping ahead two games on Kasatkina. The former world number one got into a great position to win on serve in the seventh but gave up free points to bring the 11th seed to deuce. A great cross-court winner from the forehand brought up the first AD point, placing the next winner out of reach for the 26-year-old.

Leading 5-2, Kasatkina sat on the verge of going down a set in the eighth, suffering errors and two double faults that handed the 19th seed the match lead. It was a 32-minute result in favor of Azarenka, who won four of six from the net and landed 92 percent of her first serve shots. The 11th seed underperformed consistently, and her two double faults didn’t help slipping off the pace.

The 33-year-old was gifted an easy service on three backhanded errors from Kasatkina, who managed to hold serve in the following game. Azarenka worked hard to hold serve in the third and delivered the challenge back to the 26-year-old, who dropped the service. She countered in the fifth with a break back and leveled the score to prevent another runaway by Azarenka. Kasatkina stepped up the offense, achieving a serve to love in the eighth, which kept her in the point.

As they moved into the business end of the second set, Azarenka put together a good hold to attain a slender lead. The 11th seed served to keep the hopes of a decider alive, trying to keep the ball speed slow. Azarenka didn’t want to sit with that pace and pushed Kasatkina to err and bring up a match point. 

A lengthy rally ended with Kasatkina slicing one wide of the tramlines to give the 19th seed the clincher after 1 hour and 16 minutes. Kasatkina had four double faults and a second serve at 31 percent that was not good enough to challenge on the day. Azarenka took her terrific performance to save enough for her match Sunday against the winner between Sofia Kenin and Elina Svitolina.