Victoria Azarenka wins Australian Open 2013
Victoria Azarenka had the bulk of the crowd against her. The fireworks were fizzling out, and when she looked over the net, she saw Li Na crashing to the court and almost knocking herself out.
Considering the cascading criticism she’d encountered after her previous win, Azarenka didn’t need the focus of the Australian Open final to be on another medical timeout.
So after defending her title with a 4:6, 6:4, 6:3 victory over the sixth-seeded Li in one of the most unusual finals ever at Melbourne Park, Azarenka understandably dropped her racket and cried tears of relief late Saturday night.
She heaved as she sobbed into a towel beside the court, before regaining her composure to collect the trophy.
“It isn’t easy, that’s for sure, but I knew what I had to do” – the 23-year-old Belarussian said. “I had to stay calm. I had to stay positive. I just had to deal with the things that came onto me.”
There were a lot of those things squeezed into the 2-hour-40-minute match. Li (who was playing her second Australian Open final in three years) twisted her ankle and tumbled to the court in the second and third sets.
Victoria Azarenka.
The woman who wins the Australian Open receives the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup. It is etched with the player’s name and the initials of her home country. Or, in the case of 2013 champion Victoria Azarenka, who won a three-set thriller against Li Na on Saturday, it’s etched with a player’s name and the initials of a country that’s close on the alphabetical list to their home country, but isn’t their native land.
Azarenka is from Belarus. So when her trophy says “VICTORIA AZARENKA (BEL),” there doesn’t appear to be much wrong. Belarus into “BEL.” Makes sense.
Then you look back at recent names on the trophy and realize Kim Clijsters is also from BEL and she’s from Belgium, not Belarus. That’s when it hits you – Belarus may look like BEL is a good abbreviation, but that’s already taken by the kingdom in Western Europe. The actual abbreviation for Belarus is BLR.
We have yet to expect the runner-up trophy to see whether Li Na is from CHI (Chile) or CHN (China, her actual home).
After the tears and the explanations, Victoria Azarenka was expecting to be the finalist with the biggest obstacles to surmount Saturday.
She has been far from her relentless best at this Australian Open for reasons that remain unclear, and she expected to be greeted with hostility after an emotional two days in which she was widely criticized for seeking medical attention at a pivotal phase of her semifinal victory over the American teenager Sloane Stephens.
But as it turned out at Rod Laver Arena, Li Na was the finalist who was in for the more traumatic evening, and in a momentum-swinging final interrupted by fireworks and, yes, more medical timeouts, Azarenka successfully defended her title by rallying to win, 4:6, 6:4, 6:3.
Li (the 30-year-old Chinese star who was also a finalist here in 2011) twisted her ankle twice and even said she blacked out for a moment after the back of her head slammed onto the court early in the third set after her second tumble.
“Maybe if I’m not falling down, it’s another story” – Li said of her defeat. “You never know. But the truth: I was falling down, so nothing can change.”