Making a much-awaited return from the maternity leave in the first round of the Mallorca Open, Victoria Azarenka managed to turn around her two-day three-setter against Risa Ozaki and record a stunning 6-3 4-6 7-6(7) victory, showing that the fighting spirit of a champion doesn’t need much warm-up!
When the encounter was halted due to darkness on Tuesday evening, the world No.74 Ozaki was serving for the match at 5-4 in the third set, the lead earned by her great play aided by Azarenka’s errors and frustration. On resumption, however, Azarenka broke to level at 5-5 and even though Ozaki managed to get in the position to again serve for the match, the two-time Grand Slam champion forced a tiebreak by saving three match points and edged it to successfully kick off the big return to tennis.
The way things started, it looked like Azarenka would comfortably win her opener at the Mallorca Open, but as the match progressed, Ozaki really had the upper hand and when I saw that the battle would not finish on the same day, I thought that it was over for Azarenka, but the new WTA mom proved me wrong, staging a spectacular comeback that takes her to the second round of the Spanish grasscourt tournament. Good job!
What a comeback from Vika! Hope she wins Mallorca.