After the match, Victoria Azarenka opened up about how she managed to learn a new mindset by ‘trying to be neutral, not to go negative; accepting the anxiety that I have; accepting the fear that I have’
On the court at Rod Laver Arena on Tuesday night, Victoria Azarenka – the athlete – displayed the same confident brand of take-the-ball-early, hard-hitting tennis that carried her to two Australian Open titles and the No. 1 ranking a decade ago.
And that, too, she explained, allowed her to deal with a fear of failure and play once again to the very best of her considerable abilities, which she certainly did against Pegula, who hadn’t dropped a set in the tournament and ceded only 18 games through four matches until Tuesday.“I don’t think that one goes without the other. I feel like a tennis court – probably for everybody, but for me, especially – triggers a lot of those fears, a lot of anxiety,” she continued.
The No. 24-seeded Azarenka’s semi-final opponent will be No. 22 Elena Rybakina, the reigning Wimbledon champion, who defeated 2017 French Open winner Jelena Ostapenko 6-2, 6-4. Khachanov will face No. 3 Stefanos Tsitsipas, a 6-3, 7-6 , 6-4 winner over Jiri Lehecka, for a berth in the men’s final. Tsitsipas, a finalist at the 2021 French Open, got to the semi-finals in Melbourne for the fourth time by saving all eight break points he faced.
“Just made it tough for me to feel like I could really pressure her,” Pegula said. “Felt like she was pressuring me constantly.”
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