Victoria Azarenka qualified this Tuesday for the semifinals of the WTA 1000 in Miamihis first appearance at this level in two and a half years.
The Belarusian, former world number 1 at the age of 19 on the WTA circuit, returned at the end of her career at the age of 34, and She will face Kazakh Elena Rybakina in the semifinals on Thursday.
She won a marathon match of almost three hours against another Kazakh, Yulia Putintseva by 7-6 (7/4), 1-6 and 6-3to reach the semifinals of a WTA 1000 tournament for the first time since Paris-Bercy in October 2021.
The two-time Grand Slam winner (Australian Open 2012 and 2013), now ranked 32nd in the world rankings, already has a record 199 WTA 1000 titles on her record and will be looking for her 200th this Thursday at his attempt to reach the title. end of Miami, a tournament he has won three times (2009, 2011 and 2016).
To surpass Putintseva (68th in the world), Azarenka had to face a long interruption caused by a power outage in the fourth game of the first set.
In the women’s tournament where Iga Swiatek (world number 1), Aryna Sabalenka (number 2) and Coco Gauff (number 3) lost, Azarenka can dream big, but first she has to face Rybakina, world number 4 .
The 24-year-old Kazakh battled for 2 hours and 48 minutes to beat Greek Maria Sakkari 7-5, 6-7 (4/7) and 6-4, who saved four match points, two of them in the second set, before finally succumbing.
Source: La Verdad
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