The beef between Agnieszka Radwanska and Victoria Azarenka began two years ago, when Aga accused Vika of exaggerating an ankle injury, even as she was beating her in a match in Doha. When the two met on Friday in Montreal, Azarenka was injured her again—this time it was her right knee—but there was no chance of a repeat performance. Vika began to limp at the end of the first set, and kept limping the rest of the way, before Radwanska put her out of her misery, 6-2, 6-2.
Azarenka’s physical problems compromised her, but Radwanska was on her game and controlling the points from the start. Radwanska used her serve well—she hit four aces, a respectable number for her—and moved Azarenka back and forth across the baseline. She also couldn’t resist throwing in her quota of surprising angles and drop shot-lob combinations. Radwanska finished with four errors, compared to Azarenka’s 29.
"Everything was going right on my side,” Aga said afterward.
As for Vika’s side, even when she would did set up a point, she couldn’t finish—she was six of 16 at the net, and a couple of swing volley misses left her exasperated. A few other misses, especially from the forehand side, left Azarenka’s racquet in pieces. Sadly, it appears that she has yet another injury to deal with, just as she was supposed to be making her comeback from another. Now she’ll have to decide whether to try to play Cincinnati next week, before trying to defend her runner-up points at the U.S. Open.
Radwanska has now won two straight over Azarenka, after a string of defeats. Tomorrow she’ll try to turn the tables on another recent nemesis, Ekaterina Makarova, who beat her last year at the U.S. Open and this year at Wimbledon. As Aga said with a smile tonight, “I think it’s a good chance to revenge.”