Ten years after her second and last Grand Slam title, Viktoria Azarenka has played her way back into the limelight in Melbourne. The now 33-year-old talks about panic attacks and fear of failure on the sidelines of the Australian Open and explains: “Tennis courts trigger these fears.”
“Really? From this sponsorship sign to the next?” In disbelief, Viktoria Azarenka asks her fitness trainer and adds with a thoroughly critical undertone: “They’re a bit far away.” The 33-year-old Belarusian is a mature athlete. Not only the PR consultants of the WTA tour regularly feel this during press conferences – when they address sensitive topics. The 33-year-old sometimes creates more work for her own team and questions things, as the game-free Wednesday at the Melbourne facility showed. had to Francis Bougy During a warm-up exercise before tennis training, Azarenka explained exactly why the corridor in which she had to anticipate tennis balls and then catch them with one hand left and right was so big. The coach simply replied: “Yes, you can do it”.
After almost two weeks on the east coast of Australia, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that she didn’t seem to do much wrong during the following training session. Azarenka is in the semi-finals for the first time since her two titles in Melbourne in 2012 and 2013. She defeated former tournament champion Sofia Kenin, seeded Madison Keys and highly traded number three of the tournament, Jessica Pegula, so all greats of the WTA tour. Now the Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, who eliminated the number one in the world with Iga Swiatek, is waiting on Thursday morning German time for what is perhaps the most difficult task in women’s tennis these days.
Azarenka on panic attacks: “Tennis courts trigger it”
Instead of sport, Azarenka’s press conference was about other things: panic attacks and fear of failure. Some will have immediately remembered last year’s Miami Open. At that time she left her young opponent Linda Fruhvirtova during the match, shook her hand and disappeared. She later regretted this appearance publicly. “To be in such an uncomfortable situation is scary“Azarenka explained now that success is back. “Tennis courts, probably for everyone, but especially for me, trigger those fears a lot.” It took her a long time to really perceive and deal with them.
Your team around trainer Maxime Tchoutakian is now a support to her. The Frenchman is 28 years old, was among the top 600 in the world rankings five years ago, and completed his coaching license at the renowned Mouratoglou-Academy in Nice. There, two years ago, he built trust with Azarenka, who promoted him to sole coach ahead of the 2021 US Open. With fitness trainer Francis Bougy and physiotherapist Alan Obst present them Down Under as a closed unit. Azarenka looks solid.
Azarenka on sexualized violence “Happens left and right”
That wasn’t the case for a long time. The Belarusian has lived in California for many years. After the birth of her son Leo six years ago, there was a custody battle with her father, which is why she was not allowed to leave the state for a long time and missed so many tournaments, including twice the Australian Open.
As a result, there were no great successes, but she still took responsibility in the WTA players’ council. During the US Open last year, she was the first to clearly report on sexualized violence on the women’s tour, reported on toxic player-coach relationships, dangers for young players and demanded new rules for better protection from those responsible. “Something happens left and right on the tour”, said Azarenka. Allegations of rape against a former coach of French player Fiona Ferro had previously become public.
“Ten damn years to get over this”
So now just one more step to the finale of Australian Open. Like ten years ago, 2013, unforgettable. In the semifinals against Sloane Stephens she took an extensive medical break at the time, she was gone for ten minutes and then secured victory. Then she got bogged down in a TV interview and later in the press round with two different declarations of injury. The media echo was accordingly negative. “It was one of the worst experiences of my career, the way I was treated in public after that, how I had to explain myself until 10:30 p.m. because nobody would believe me. It took me ten damn years to get over it.”
In this world there is sometimes an incredibly great desire for stories that contain heroes but also villains. In this regard, she has to agree with Novak Djokovic, who revealed something similar. “But we’re not villains”Azarenka clarified. “We’re not heroes either. We’re normal people going through so, so many things.”
