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Working mother Victoria Azarenka is a grasp multi-tasker.
The previous world No. 1 fended off feisty Yulia Putintseva, fatigue and her personal frustration scoring certainly one of her greatest wins of the 12 months.
Three-time champion Azarenka topped Putintseva 7-6(4), 1-6, 6-3 to turn out to be the second-oldest Miami Open semifinalist in historical past at the moment.
This was a two hour, 55-minute journey with a greater than 50-minute energy outage delaying play early within the first set, missed alternatives, audacious drop photographs, prolonged exchanges, a mixed 25 break factors, tossed racquets and F-bombs flying round at numerous factors.
When the 34-year-old Azarenka transformed her second match level to lastly finish this epic, she pointed an index finger to her temple signifying the psychological energy it took to outlive on a day when her finest tennis typically eluded her. It’s Azarenka’s fifth profession Miami Open semifinal.
Reduction for @vika7 👉🧠
The three-time champion is into her fifth Miami semifinal with a decided win over Putintseva!#MiamiOpen pic.twitter.com/R3XCAZTmgf
— wta (@WTA) March 26, 2024
“It was actually robust match; simply the primary set was like an hour and a half I used to be like God it’s gonna be an extended day,” Azarenka advised Tennis Channel’s Prakash Amritraj afterward. “Yulia performed some nice tennis. I really feel like she performed very well in Indian Wells and had some actually good wins right here. I do know she’s an important competitor and going to combat till the final ball, however I really feel like she additionally improved rather a lot this 12 months.
“She’s taking part in extra aggressive, she will be able to combine up the balls so it was undoubtedly robust. Second set, I began a bit flat, had some possibilities and didn’t convert them and my legs began to present in a bit bit. I used to be completely happy I used to be capable of reset, regroup, come on the market and simply put my head collectively, be extra aggressive and attempt to comply with a bit bit extra and never let her do what she love to do.”
It was Azarenka’s 199th profession WTA 1000 win and sends her into her twenty fourth WTA 1000 semifinal look. That places Azarenka third on the Open Period record for many WTA 1000 semis behind solely Simona Halep (29) and Serena Williams (26).
The Twenty seventh-seeded Azarenka awaits the winner of tonight’s quarterfinal between 2022 Wimbledon winner Elena Rybakina and Indian Wells finalist Maria Sakkari “I’m by no means gonna surrender both: If I’m on one leg or two legs, no matter,” Azarenka stated. “I got here out on the courtroom making an attempt to play one level at a time and see how I can flip it round. Not to consider how robust it’s gonna be, simply level by level. I attempted to deal with what I can do and what I must execute.”
After a 53 minute delay that knocked out the scoreboard and chair umpire Marija Cicak’s microphone, energy was restored and play resumed with Putintseva serving up 2-1, 30-love.
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