Victoria Azarenka

Next, I will be analyzing Victoria Azarenka, the shrieking Belarussian.

Name: Victoria Azarenka

Country: Belarus

Rank: 4

Coach: Sam Sumyk


Analysis: Victoria Azarenka's claim to fame is her return of serve. Although she doesn't hit as many winners on her return of serve as Sharapova or Kvitova do, her return of serve is considered to be the best in the game. She is great at reading her opponent's serve and cutting off angles to return even fast serves.

If only her serve were as good as her return of serve. Her first serve is pretty slow, and it usually comes at less than 100 MPH. Her second serve is even weaker, and it is easily attackable. Because she doesn't have great defensive skills, she often has trouble getting back into points against stronger players.

Her groundstrokes are decent; her backhand is her stronger side. However, she is not a huge hitter by any means. Because she doesn't very much variety in her game, she usually struggles against harder hitters. In the past couple of months, her netplay has improved, and she is making more journeys to net.

In the past, Azarenka's biggest problem was her mental game. She would choke leads away, and she retired often from matches. Although the latter still happens, she has more mental strength now, and her play is more consistent. However, she needs to work on strategy. If she wants to win a grand slam, she will need to figure out how to beat the big hitters like Kvitova and Li who defeated her at the past three slams.

Although Azarenka hasn't had the greatest success at the Grand Slams, she is improving all aspects of her game, and she has shown excellent results this year winning Miami and Marbella. I think that if she can figure out a way to beat the stronger players even when they're playing well, a slam is in her future.