Svetlana Kuznetsova says one of the reasons why Victoria Azarenka was able to reach No. 1 is because she’s settled down mentally. The two will meet in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open.
“I think she just got calmer,” Kuznetsova said. “She’s consistent. She works differently. She has different goals. She improve definitely in many shots. But I think it was her head was letting her down all the time before. Some moments she always would go crazy in the match. You would always know. She changed and just became so stable, and good hitter.”
Azarenka agreed that she has matured: “I tend to be a little bit more emotional before,” she said. “I just try to control my emotions much better. It takes time to learn. I’ve been doing it over last couple years. But I’m always going to be an emotional player. It’s just the matter of how well you can control your bad emotions.”