VIDEO: Best Matches of 2021 - Badosa v Azarenka (Indian Wells Final)

The 2021 WTA Indian Wells was a very memorable event with some stellar tennis. The two best players over the course of the event were Paula Badosa and Victoria Azarenka. The Spaniard ultimately won the event after a brilliant performance in a great match that we will remember today. The final was one of the best matches of the year and this is how it went.

The first set was a very close one that finished in the tiebreak which again was very close. The rallies were dominated by strong play by both from the baseline. Both hit the ball extremely hard and we saw many great winners and very long rallies. Badosa found a breakthrough with a crushing forehand winner taking a 5-3 lead. That ultimately proved enough to win the tiebreak with 7-5.

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Azarenka stormed back with a furious set where she completely outplayed Badosa. She returned well and forced Badosa into making a lot of mistakes from the baseline which gave the Belarussian an early 3-1 lead. It snowballed from there and very soon Azarenka tied it up with a 6-2 2nd set victory. The final set featured a lot of brilliant points with both very close to a break point but neither quite getting it.

Azarenka was the first one to find a breakthrough taking a lead which she could have converted into a match with ar 5-4. She served for the match but Badosa broke her to make it 5-5. We ended up in another tiebreak and once again it was Badosa who proved better taking it 7-2.