Victoria Azarenka

Titles Won (3):

(2009) Brisbane, Memphis, Miami

Victoria Azarenka is a female professional tennis player from Belarus. She is currently coached by Antonio Van Grichen and considers hard courts to be her favourite surface. As a junior she won the ITF Junior Girls World Champion award after a year in which she won Grand Slam singles titles at the Australian Open (d. Szavay) and the US Open (d. Glatch). She also won doubles titles at Wimbledon in 2004 (w/Govortsova), and at Roland Garros and Wimbledon in 2005, partnered with Szavay. Having turned professional in 2003, Azarenka played a comination of junior and ITF events. In 2005, she played in her first two Tour main draw events, falling in the first round at Kolkata but reaching the semi-final at Gaungzhou (l. Yan). In 2006, Azarenka finished inside the Top 100 for the first time. Her highlights included reaching the semi-final at Tashkent (l. Sun) and making her Grand Slam debut at all four majors, including reaching the third round at the US Open, losing to Chakvetadze. She also won one WTA doubles title. Her breakthrough season came in 2007 and she started the year by reaching the third round at the Australian Open (l. Jankovic). In April she reached her first WTA final on the clay courts of Estoril, losing to Greta Arn of Hungary in three sets. In her next event, she reached the semi-final at Prague (l. Morigami). At Wimbledon she made the third round, losing to world number ten Nicole Vaidisova. In August, Azarenka reached the quarter final at Los Angeles (l. Jankovic) and the fourth round at the US Open (l. Kuznetsova). In her final three events of the season, Azarenka reached two quarter finals at Luxembourg (l. Zvonareva) and Moscow (l. Dementieva) and advancing to her second WTA final of the season at Tashkent, where she lost to Pauline Parmentier 7-5, 6-2.

In 2008, Azarenka finished the season in the Top 20 for the first time in her career, highlighted by reaching two finals, three semi-finals and two quarter finals. She started the season in fine form by reaching the final at the WTA event in the Gold Coast in build up to the Australian Open, losing to China's Na Li in three sets. At the Australian Open she progressed to the third round but lost to 7th seed Serena Williams. In April she reached her second final of the season, losing to Russia's Vera Zvonareva who was the number one seed. Just a week later she made the semi-final at Berlin, defeating Chakvetadze, Dulko and Bondarenko en route before falling to Dinara Safina. At the French Open, she achieved a career best fourth round, losing to an in form Svetlana Kuznetsova. Starting off the North American hard court season, Azarenka reached the quarter final at Los Angeles and the semi-final at Montreal, losing to Safina on both occasions. At the Olympic games in Beijing, China, Azarenka represented Belarus and reached the third round before losing to Venus Williams. At Stuttgart in September, Azarenka reached her third semi-final of the season but lost to Nadia Petrova. In 2009, Azarenka continued to improve and this culminated in her first Top 10 finish (at No.7). In her first event of the season she won her first WTA title at Brisbane, defeating Marion Bartoli in the final 6-3, 6-1. At the Australian Open she advanced to the fourth round, defeating Amelie Mauresmo en route before falling to Serena Williams. She responded by winning her next WTA event in Memphis, defeating number one seed Caroline Wozniacki in the final 6-1, 6-3. At Indian Wells, Azarenka reached the semi-final, defeating world number two Dinara Safina before falling to Vera Zvonareva. At Miami, Azarenka won her third WTA title of the season in just five events, defeating world number one Serena Williams in the final 6-3, 6-1. In Rome she added another semi-final (l. Kuznetsova) and then reached her first Grand Slam quarter final at Roland Garros defeating previous winner Ana Ivanovic en route before losing to Safina in three sets. At Wimbledon she reached her second successive Grand Slam quarter final, losing to eventual champion Serena Williams. In the second half of the season she reached the third round of the US Open (l. Schiavone) and the quarter final at Tokyo (l. Li) to reach her first end of year Tour Championships in which she was knocked out ar the round-robin stages.