Belarusian-born professional tennis star Victoria Azarenka has powered through injuries, a public custody battle for her child, and a controversial medical time-out that painted her as a villain and followed her for a decade. A former world number one in singles, she has won 21 World Tennis Association titles, including two Grand Slam singles titles at the 2012 and 2013 Australian Open. She is the first Belarusian player, male or female, to win a Grand Slam tournament singles title.
Azarenka is also a three-time major finalist at the US Open, finishing runner-up to Serena Williams in both 2012 and 2013. She finished with a year-end top ten singles ranking for five consecutive years between 2009 and 2013. She has also found success in her doubles tournaments, winning nine WTA doubles titles, including two Premier Mandatory and two Premier 5 titles, and reached four Grand Slam finals in women's doubles.
Azarenka was born in Minsk in 1989 and idolized Steffi Graff growing up. She was first introduced to tennis at the age of seven by her mother and at 15 moved to Scottsdale, Arizona where she trained and lived with friends of her family. She enjoyed a successful early career with a spot in the semi-finals at Wimbledon and two junior Grand Slam wins. She ended the 2005 season as the junior world number one and was named the 2005 World Champion by the International Tennis Federation junior council, becoming the first Belarusian to do so.
Azarenka is known for her aggressive playing style with a two-handed backstroke being her favorite shot. Her strong return game, mental fortitude, and preference for hard courts has earned her comparison to Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic, whom she has recently defended in the media after he came under fire for doubts about his hamstring injury. Azarenka experienced similar criticism in 2013 for taking a lengthy, controversial medical timeout in a match against Sloane Stephens. Accused of dramatizing her injury, the scrutiny led to years of anxiety and panic attacks that she fought for a decade to overcome.
“I’ve been called that I’m cheating, that I’m faking, that I was trying to throw people off their game,” she said to The Guardian. “Now I just don’t care. I am more and more confident in what I know about myself, and I’m at peace with that. Those comments, judgments, they’re there – I notice them, but I don’t care.”