Miami Open 2019:- Victoria Azarenka Fights Through To Her First Victory

Published 03/20/2019, 2:55 PM EDT

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The Belarusian, Victoria Azarenka progressed into the second round of the Miami Open 2019 and she claimed the fifth match victory of the year. She defeated the World Number 34, Dominika Cibulkova 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 in the inaugural match of the Hard Rock Stadium. Cibulkova broke when Azarenka was serving for the match and in the very next game Azarenka closed out her opening round on the Slovak’s serve.

via Imago

The three-time Miami Open champion, Azarenka was all geared up for the second ‘Double Sunshine’ event. It took about 151 minutes for the Belarusian to conclude the match with her vintage tennis. The former World Number one was firm with her returns and incessantly attacked on Cibulkova’s serve.

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She denied Cibulkova from winning their seventh three-set match in the Miami Open 2019. Now, they have met ten times in their career and Azarenka has pulled off 70 per cent of their matches. In the opening set of the Miami Open 2019, she won 86% of her first serve points and the Belarusian grabbed the opening break with an astute backhand winner.

via Imago

Azarenka dropped the second set as Cibulkova enhanced her play with aggression. The match got intense in the decider as Azarenka exhibited her valorous forehands. Cibulkova gained her premier break of serve of the deciding set and took a 3-2 lead. However, the World Number 46 retaliated with her ferocious forehands and kept the entertainment on. Cibulkova’s two double faults in her next service game cost her heavy and Azarenka made good use of it by breaking her again with a backhand winner.

The show was still not over the Slovakian broke the former World Number one when she was serving for the match with a creative forehand winner and a drop shot and kept her presence in the Miami Open 2019 firm.

However, Azarenka encountered her first match point with a forehand return winner and smashed the tennis ball to see off the Slovak. Up next, Azarenka will meet nineteenth seed Caroline Garcia in the second round of the Miami Open 2019. Besides that, the Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga failed to qualify for the Miami Open 2019.

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Mahalakshmi Murali

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Mahalakshmi Murali joined EssentiallySports in 2018 as a tennis author and has gone on to pen more than 1800 engaging articles, probing into various aspects of the sport and its illustrious players. With her expertise on the sport, Mahalakshmi has interviewed stalwarts from the sport such as Serena WIlliams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou and Kevin Anderson’s physio, Carlos Costa. Equipped with her vast experience and a keen understanding of the sport, Mahalakshmi now co-heads the tennis department.
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