Victoria Azarenka Back with a Winner
Tuesday, September 28th, 2010Victoria Azarenka marked her first match back on the WTA Tour since collapsing at the US Open with a straight-sets victory over Lucie Safarova in Tokyo.
The number eight seed safely booked her place in the third round of the Pan Pacific Open women with a routine 6-1 6-3 triumph.
After receiving a bye in the opening round, Azarenka, who was forced out of the US Open after collapsing during her second round match with Gisela Dulko, showed no ill-effects of that setback with a confident display.
“Sometimes things happen unfortunately in this way,” Azarenka said.
“I cannot look back. I try to forget about it as much as I can, but people still remind me. For me, it’s important to move forward.
Impressive
“I think it was a very good start for me. I hadn’t played for three weeks, so I was a little bit nervous to get into the match and see what I could do.
“I did pretty well and I’m happy with my game and with the way I moved. My serve was a little bit inconsistent, but still I think I put a lot of pressure, winning a lot of points,” she said.
In the third round, 21-year-old Azarenka will take on 11th seed Marion Bartoli after she overcame former world number one Ana Ivanovic 6-2 6-1.
US Open runner-up Vera Zvonareva continued her impressive end to the season with a 6-3 6-3 victory over Sara Errani to reach round three.
And fellow seed Elena Dementieva also progressed, the Russian seventh seed powering past Yaroslava Shvedova 6-0 6-1.
The highest-ranked casualty on Tuesday was number four seed Sam Stosur. The powerful Australian was on the receiving end of a 7-5 6-3 defeat to Germany’s Julia Goerges.
