WHAT HAPPENED: Victoria Azarenka and Wang Yafan might have guessed that they’d be on court awhile after their first and only meeting earlier this summer in Washington, D.C., a 2 hour, 36 minute battle that Azarenka won in three sets. Their Round 3 meeting here at the 2024 US Open went slightly shorter, but this time Wang rode steady strokes and steadier nerves to upset the No. 20 seed, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 and reach her first Round 4 in 17 majors.
Though it seemed that Wang didn’t have many weapons that could hurt Azarenka, the player from China kept chasing down everything and waiting for Azarenka to make mistakes. In the end, Azarenka nearly doubled Wang’s unforced errors 32 to 17. Hearing cheers throughout from Chinese fans, she said in the on-court interview afterward, “I feel like I’m playing at home.”
In game nine of the first set, Wang put Azarenka on the defensive with dropshots and strong court coverage to convert on a second break point. Serving for the set, she worked a 40-0 cushion and won the second set point when an Azarenka forehand flew wide.
After being broken in the first game of the second set, Azarenka received a warning for pounding her racquet on the court. The urgency seemed to focus her, as she swung more freely and benefited from a break point net cord that caused Wang to rush the net and push the ball long for the break back. Even up again, Azarenka held at love, then broke Wang to go up 3-1. In the sixth game, Wang held tensely when consecutive net-cord shots by Azarenka dropped back on her side to preserve Wang’s serve. Azarenka then held to the finish of the set.
Azarenka seemed buoyed by the set win, bopping along in her courtside seat to the music during the bathroom break.
“We get to the third set and I know I need to play very, very focused,” Wang said in the on-court interview after the match. And she was, as she fashioned a two-break lead to go up, 4-0. The mistakes kept piling up for Azarenka, leading her team to tell her to “Change it, change it” at 40-0 in the fifth game.
She won three straight points to get to deuce. A forehand winner got her to a break point and another forehand winner took it. But Wang broke her again to lead 5-1 and serve for the match. There, she built a 40-0 lead and Azarenka fought off two match points, but floated a forehand wide on the third and Wang advanced to her first Round 4 at a major.
WHAT IT MEANS: Wang’s next opponent, Paula Badosa, also survived a tough three-setter, but Wang may be the better rested of the two—plus Wang emerged victorious from their 2019 meeting in Seoul.
Through her first two rounds she spent only a little more than two hours on court, winning her first-round match when No. 9 seed Maria Sakkari retired after one set and defeating Diane Parry, 6-0, 6-4 in an hour and a half. Wang also has the confidence of knowing that she has beaten Badosa before.
MATCH POINT: Wang showed deft hands at the net, winning 13 of 19 attempts.
