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As was the case 12 months ago, Louis Armstrong Stadium was the setting for another Battle of Belarus, a US Open match between compatriots Aryna Sabalenka and Victoria Azarenka. Last year they’d met in the first round. Sabalenka that evening won a lively slugfest, 6-4 in the third. The natural order of things appeared to have arrived in the form of future star Sabalenka, nine years younger than Azarenka and armed with far more power – on her good days, as much raw heat as any woman in the game.

Tonight’s match was a second rounder. Like many a sequel, it was nowhere near as compelling as the first. But while second efforts are also often bloated, this one was much shorter, lasting 67 brisk minutes, half as long as last year’s. If the outcome wasn’t entirely surprising, the process jolted, the veteran Azarenka shoving the upstart to the curb, 6-1, 6-3.  Or perhaps more accurately, the fifth-seeded Sabalenka tossed herself into the gutter.

The tone was set early, albeit rather bizarrely. Despite commencing with a sharp 96 mph wide ace and rapidly going up 40-love in the opening game, Sabalenka frittered that lead and was soon broken. Azarenka held and broke again at love. In the first three games, Sabalenka committed 12 unforced errors and four double-faults.

“Try to be one of those on whom nothing is lost,” the writer Henry James had advised.  That was Azarenka this evening, the quality of her play reminiscent of the glory days of 2012 and ’13 when she’d won a pair of Australian Opens, and held the number one ranking for 51 weeks. Said Azarenka,“I felt like I stepped on the court and I was really making her earn every single point that we played. That was my goal to be really, really strong. If you hit a good shot, it's a good shot, but I'm going to make you work a little harder.”

Battle of Belarus Part II – Azarenka power punches past Sabalenka

Battle of Belarus Part II – Azarenka power punches past Sabalenka

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Azarenka’s balance and recovery this evening were first-rate. She constantly struck the ball with just enough depth and direction to relentlessly befuddle Sabalenka. Then again, Sabalenka heartily contributed to her demise. If power appears to come naturally to Sabalenka, discipline with footwork is definitely an upside. So often in this match, she would arrive at the ball ill-equipped to strike it effectively. With Sabalenka’s options limited, she could do little but flail, making the kind of poor shot selection decisions that bring a smile to an opponent’s face. Random attempts at down-the-line winners and service returns flagged long were just two major gifts Sabalenka repeatedly donated.

The start of the second set offered new hope for Sabalenka, when she took a love-30 lead on Azarenka’s serve and earned a pair of ads to break serve. These two opportunities revealed further improvement areas – one a complete misfiring of overheads and a netted forehand volley, the second an awkward attempt at a forehand approach shot. Reprieved yet again, Azarenka held and broke. A year ago, she’d also been up a set and 2-0, only to lose her serve and watch the match slip through her fingertips. Tonight, serving at 6-1, 3-1, Azarenka was broken. For the second year in a row, was the past going to give way to the future?

Here Sabalenka made yet another bewildering choice. Serving at 2-3, 30-all, she was in a fine place to at last spar on equal terms with Azarenka and hold significant momentum.  Wouldn’t now be the time to serve wisely and demonstrate faith in her arsenal? Sorry, not happening.  Instead, Sabalenka attempted a second serve ace that went wide to hand Azarenka a break point. Call that 30-40 point, Vintage Vika: a deep crosscourt backhand return that opened up the court for a down-the-line backhand winner to take a 4-2 lead.  Sabalenka had pried the window open, but slammed it on her fingers. Fittingly, with  Azarenka serving at 5-3, 40-15, Sabalenka sprayed a forehand wide, her 27th unforced error of the match, compared to a stingy nine for Azarenka.

Asked to assess what’s helped her resurgence this year, Azarenka spoke with a new level of wisdom, gained to some degree by becoming a mother, to another by maturity and pandemic era exile from competition. “It’s really funny to me when people do that,” she said, “when they try to ask the one thing that you're like, I'm going to tell you and you will be, Oh, that's the thing that changed everything, you know, this one — but it really isn't.  It's really just a lot — I'm not going to lie.  I have changed the way I do practice, for example. I took the fear of failing away from myself, which has been really powerful for me to progress.”

Though Azarenka had learned a few things from losing to Sabalenka a year ago, perhaps the bigger keys to tonight’s triumph were the lessons she’d learned from herself.