In preparation for the third grand slam of the year, both ATP and WTA players are part of some grass court events happening in Germany and London this week. At the WTA Berlin Open, former world number one Victoria Azarenka has made a solid start to her grass campaign and reached the quarter-finals.
The two-time grand slam champion, who made an enormous comeback to the WTA tour last year at the US Open series, has given a couple of consistent performances this year so far. At the recently concluded French Open, the Belarusian was defeated in the fourth round by Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Playing at her first grass court event in Berlin, Azarenka defeated Andrea Petkovic and Angelique Kerber to reach the last eight. In the quarters, she met the American Jessica Pegula. The duo has already faced each other a couple of times this year.
While Azarenka won their first head-to-head meeting, she later gave a walkover to Pegula in the second round of Madrid Open as she pulled out of the tournament citing an injury.
Let’s how the match progressed.
Victoria Azarenka dominated the first set but Pegula edged past her to clinch the second
Azarenka meant business right from the start as she served extremely well in the first couple of games to show her command on the match. On the other hand, the American took time to adjust her game to Azarenka’s game-play but lost the first set, 2-6.
As the second set began, both the players were at the top of their games and exchanged a few breaks of serve. The result of the set was decided on a tie-breaker where a vulnerable serve from the Belarusian gave a slight advantage to Pegula.
Capitalizing on the mini-break, Jessica Pegula clinched the tie-breaker to level the match.
Azarenka took the third set after a tough fight from Jessica Pegula
In the deciding final set, the former world number one wasted no time and used her big-match experience to break the American’s initial service game. But, Pegula was too good to give up and broke back immediately.
After exchanging a couple of breaks more in the set, the Belarusian finally broke the serve of Pegula for the sixth time in the match. Between the two players, the stat which created an impact was the break-point conversion.
While Azarenka converted 6 out of the 9 break point opportunities given to her, the American only managed to convert only 4 out of 10 chances.
Serving for the match at 5-4 in the third, the two-time grand slam champion didn’t hesitate to hit sharp first-serves and over-powered Jessica Pegula in three sets, 6-2,6-7, 6-4.
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