Victoria Azarenka had never won a match at Wimbledon after losing the first set and today history repeated itself, even though it was undecided until the last moment. The eighth-seeded Belarusian fought hard, but fell to Serbia’s Bojana Jovanovski in two hours and nine minutes, 3-6 6-3 7-5, in the second round.
In the first set, both players earned two break points, but Azarenka converted none, while Jovanovski won one and it was enough for her to take the set in 33 minutes. In the second set Azarenka was the first to establish a lead, 3-1, and in a long game that followed Jovanovski had a chance to approach her to 2-3, but the Belarusian didn’t permit a break and ended up extending her lead to 4-1. The rest of the set was plotted by Azarenka and even though Jovanovski managed to hold her serve at 5-2 40-0 down, in the next game Azarenka served out the set to love on her fourth set point.
The decider included 56 minutes of thrilling exchanges. The unseeded Jovanovski left behind her loss of the second set by taking a 2-0 lead in the third and after an exchange of breaks and a love hold she was again leading, this time 4-1. However, Azarenka kept suspense in the match by leveling to 4-all. Still, Jovanovski held her nerve and at 0-40 in that final game which was on Azarenka’s serve she managed to win five straight points and capitalize on her first match point for the big triumph. (photo: Jimmie48)
