Top seed Victoria Azarenka takes on Dominika Cibulkova with a place in the quarter-final at stake. The Belarusian world no.1 should have too much for her Slovakian opponent, but Cibulkova has looked in excellent shape at Roland Garros this year. A top-class match is in prospect.
Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka has her sights on adding the French Open to her Grand Slam collection, and with good reason. The tall Minsk native has taken her game to new heights this year, winning three WTA titles, rising to number one in the world in the process and winning her first major.
A product of the Bollettieri Academy in Bradenton, Florida which brought the likes of Maria Sharapova, Andre Agassi, Jim Courier and Monica Seles to the top of the sport, Azarenka had a fiery temper when younger but is able to keep that under wraps now. Instead she channels that energy into her crunching ground strokes that wear her opponents down. One of only a handful of six-footers on the WTA circuit, ‘Vika’ uses that height to her advantage when serving, finding speed and angles that send players scurrying.
Azarenka is going about winning over the Roland Garros crowd in just the right way. Working with Brittany-born Sam Sumyk who married US former player Meilen Tu (who is Vika's agent), she has a French hitting partner and medical staff and recently asked Amelie Mauresmo to join her team as a consultant. The Belarusian has even started tweeting in French!
Dominika Cibulkova is without a coach at the moment after splitting from Zelkjo Krajan. The smallest player in top 100 at 5'3", the Slovak is a former Wimbledon and US Open quarter-finalist and French Open semi-finalist, in 2009, when she reached a career high of 12th in the world.
A finalist in Barcelona back in April, Cibulkova has been ruthless in her three matches so far here this year, conceding a mere eight games in total. She comes into this match with her confidence high, knowing she has nothing to lose and much to gain. The Budapest resident loves Paris, and clay is her favourite surface. She will hope she catches Azarenka on an off-day, as Alberta Brianti did in the first round, when she came very close to upsetting the top seed.
Though Azarenka dominates their head-to-head encounters, they have shared the two matches they have played on clay, and Cibulkova also went through to the quarter-finals in Rome last month at the Belarusian’s expense. This was a result of Vika withdrawing as a result of an injury to her right shoulder – another factor which should give Dominika more than a glimmer of hope.
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