Victoria Azarenka is once again going through an extremely stressful period in her private life and is finding it hard to focus on competition. The single mom abruptly retired from her third-round match at the Miami Open and afterwards stated that deciding to play on Sunday was a mistake.
The 12th-seeded Azarenka was trailing 6-2 3-0 against 16-year-old wildcard Linda Fruhvirtova when she unexpectedly walked off the court, leaving everyone in shock. The two-time Grand Slam champion explained that she wanted to play the Miami Open so badly, but in the end it turned out to be a wrong decision, as she’s going through a very tough period in her personal life.
During her match against the world No.279 Fruhvirtova, Azarenka was heard saying “why am I here?” directed at her coaching box. About 45 minutes into the match, the former world No.1 simply shook hands with her opponent and proceeded to leave, even though the umpire told her to wait for the trainer.
“The last few weeks have been extremely stressful in my personal life,” Azarenka explained. “Last match took so much out of me, but I wanted to play in front of a great audience as they helped me pull through my first match. I wanted to go out there and try but it was a mistake.”
Earlier this month at the BNP Paribas Open, in the third round against Elena Rybakina, Azarenka was distressed as well and confused her opponent while delaying play and taking a moment to herself.
Idk if anyone posted this or not but after hitting a df, Victoria Azarenka broke down into tears and looked in distress (when umpire asked her if she wanted to see a physio she said no) today her twitter and Instagram are gone. Hope everything is fine with her https://t.co/u9SyoNqJcb pic.twitter.com/VDazf7vQaw
— NoFirstName claycourtdal (@SMSTNS) March 15, 2022
The Miami Open incident was Azarenka’s seventh mid-tournament retirement or withdrawal in the past 14 months. It is uncertain what her personal problems are related to. From what we know, her long-term custody battle over her son Leo was resolved a long time ago. Since she is Belarusian, it may also be something related to the current conflict between Ukraine and Russia. When Azarenka calms down and the situation resolves, she will probably explain what the problem was. (source: BBC)
