It sure wasn’t the way she would have scripted it. Her first title in four years the result of a walkover, Naomi Osaka unable to contest their final due to a hamstring injury. But Victoria Azarenka was more than happy to raise the trophy on Saturday at the Western & Southern Open. After all, for the two-time Grand Slam champion and former No. 1, it’s been a long (and often frustrating) wait.
“It’s pretty significant. It's my first title as a mom,” said Azarenka, whose son, Leo, was born in 2016. “That part is special for me.”
The 31-year-old Belarusian will certainly carry some added confidence into the 2020 US Open, which gets underway on Monday at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. At times, she flashed the kind of form that sent her to back-to-back finals in Flushing Meadows in 2012 and 2013. She dispatched Donna Vekic (6-2, 6-3), Caroline Garcia (6-2, 7-6), Alize Cornet (6-4, 7-5), Ons Jabeur (7-6, 6-2) and eighth-seed Johanna Konta (4-6, 6-4, 6-1) en route to the title match.
“It's a good feeling going into the tournament, knowing that you've been playing well,” said the 59th-ranked Azarenka, who will face Austria’s Barbara Haas in the opening round. “We all know two weeks are long. Three weeks to hold the form is also long. So I need to kind of stay a little bit grounded and focus on what to do. I'm excited to go out there and play.”
Azarenka has faced numerous challenges since becoming a first-time mom, both on and off the court. She hasn’t tried to hide that, even admitting that, at times, she’s struggled with motivation. But it’s the results, like her run at the Cincinnati-turned-New York event, that have her rediscovering the kind of passion she once possessed as a Top-10 mainstay.
“I think I started to finally enjoy myself on the court,” she said this week. “It took a lot of work. It wasn't a one-day miracle, that I read something or I got on a super gluten-free diet or whatever. It was just constant work that I kept putting in on a daily basis and perspective and your mentality. That's it. There is no magic thing. I know sometimes when you have results, people are looking for some magic trick that you're doing, but there is no magic. There's just work, consistent work.”
Her quarter of the US Open draw won’t be an easy one to navigate. She could be destined for a rematch with Konta in the fourth round. Fifth-seed Aryna Sabalenka and 2020 Australian Open champ Sofia Kenin are also lurking. But her performance this week is scoreboard proof that, after a trying stretch, she’s back where she belongs. That consistent work, that self-belief, is finally paying off.
“I deserve to be where I am today,” she said.
