Victoria Azarenka solves the Zidansek riddle in Madrid

Victoria Azarenka started badly but found a solution to the Tamara Zidansek riddle in Madrid winning 3-6 6-1 6-3.

The Belarussian player found herself in trouble early in this match against a very inspired player from Slovenia who was playing strong tennis. Zidansek is a noted clay specialist and she certainly looked that way early in this match against Azarenka who was missing badly. Azarenka was down 0-4 in the first set but battled back to a one break deficit. The Slovenian player still finished it off with 6-3.

Azarenka did not serve well to start the match and that was part of the problem. Once she improved that in the 2nd set and once she actually started attacking more as opposed to allowing Zidansek to take the lead in rallies, she was back in the match. The 2nd set was a proper trashing as Vika grew more comfortable with her opponent and her play.

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Rallies were being finished by her winners and she was simply too dominant 6-1. Things were quite impressive in the 2nd set as well. Zidansek was starting to doubt herself and errors started piling up. Azarenka also served better overall and she jumped out to an early 2-0 lead. From there it turned into a 4-0 lead and ultimately a 6-3 victory.

A great comeback by Azarenka who looked in a lot of trouble early in this match.