Pregnancy poses the threat of having a negative impact on a woman’s physical fitness, but Victoria Azarenka believes it has had the opposite effect on her.
The two-time Australian Open champion gave birth to her first son 15 months ago. Since then, the Belarusian has only been able to play in a total of four tournaments. Her initial return last summer was halted by a lengthy legal dispute with her former partner over the custody of their son. Returning to the tour from maternity leave is a challenge, but Azarenka believes that she is in a better shape following her pregnancy.
“I feel like physically I kind of surprised myself with the transformation that I have achieved after giving birth to my son. I became in much better shape, which usually happens otherwise for a woman sometimes, but I’m glad that it worked out for me much better.” She told reporters on Tuesday.
“I feel physically pretty well. I think I still need to improve. I want to get faster. I want to get stronger to be able to cover the court and cut the balls much better.
“But overall I think I’m in pretty good shape. I just need to get better tournament-fit and matches-fit.“
It is hard to dispute Azarenka’s claims given her current run at the Miami Open. In the quarter-finals she knocked out fifth seed Karolina Pliskova 7-5, 6-3, during a roller coaster encounter. The world No.186 lost a 5-2 lead at the start of the match and then failed to hold serve two consecutive times at the start of the second set before prevailing.
“It was tricky, definitely tricky conditions, but something that’s the same for both players, so it’s not something that you can take and say this was bothering me or something.” She said after the match.
“I thought that in those conditions that I adjusted really well. I had to adjust. I had to be a little bit, give a little bit of a bigger margin than maybe I usually do.”
Hitting a total of 18 winners, Azarenka has recorded her first win over a top 10 player since 2016. Coincidentally, it is also the first time she has reached the semifinals of a WTA Tournament since winning the Miami title two years ago.
Standing in the way of a place in the final is Sloane Stephens. The Reigning US Open champion dismissed Angelique Kerber 6-1, 6-2. In doing so, Stephens has secured her entry into the top 10 of the WTA Rankings for the first time in her career. Earlier this month Azarenka crashed out in straight sets to the 25-year-old in Indian Wells. A loss she hopes to avenge.
“I played Sloane in Indian Wells, and I think it’s going to be a little bit of a different story here, I hope, because I didn’t play well there.” Admits Azarenka.
“But she’s been showing really good tennis here, and I want to continue to focus on myself and try to progress as well as I have been doing so far this tournament, but I definitely need to play better than the last time.”
The semifinal clash between Azarenka and Stephens in Miami will take place on Thursday.
