It has been more than seven months since Serena Williams last won a title, her longest drought since 2012.
Who would have seen this coming last August, when the world No 1, following her victory in Cincinnati, headed towards Flushing Meadows, confident in her quest to become the first tennis player – male or female – to win all four grand slams in the same season since Steffi Graf in 1989?
Roberta Vinci, however, played an unlikely spoilsport in the US Open semis and Williams has since lost to Angelique Kerber in the Australian Open final, to Victoria Azarenka in the Indian Wells final and Svetlana Kuznetsova in the fourth round in Miami.
Since the start of 2016, we have watched Azarenka climb 17 positions in the rankings and return to the top five after two years in the wilderness. The Belarusian has lost just once in 23 matches this season and has won three titles, including the sunshine double of Indians Wells and Miami, becoming only the third woman to achieve that rare double after Steffi Graf (1994, 1996) and Kim Clijsters (2005).
Read more: Victoria Azarenka completes Miami-Indian Wells double to surge into world's top five
Her braggadocio is back, as well as that swagger. And why not? Over the past two weeks, Azarenka, 26, has defeated three of the WTA’s top-ranked players – Williams, Garbine Muguruza and Angelique Kerber – all in straight sets.
This, then, seems like the much-promised return we have been waiting for. And this could be the passing of the torch as well. Williams is still the queen, but Azarenka’s performance over the past three months has reconfirmed the belief that she could be the true contender for the throne.
Over the past 24 months, during Azarenka’s absence from the top of the rankings through injuries and a heartbreak, we have counted more than a few challengers – Simona Halep, Eugenie Bouchard, Muguruza – but none of them have to have Azarenka’s intensity, or fight, nor do they relish their battles with Williams like she does.
“I’ve always been a fighter, since a really young age,” Azarenka said in a recent interview with the WTA website. “I think I was born this way, and where I came from, there was no other way. It was always, ‘If you want it, you have to fight for it’.
“It’s as simple as being hungry. I had no food sometimes, and that’s something that to this day in my life, it leaves an impact on me. You will never see me not finish one of my meals.”
That hunger is visible on the court as well, as a feisty Azarenka tries to make up for lost time. She was world No 1 before Williams took her spot in the summer of 2013, but she was still the second-best player in the world. Then, in 2014, a foot injury reduced her season to nine tournaments and only 24 matches.
“I was struggling with injuries, mentally, with everything, but I was brave enough to do something about it,” said Azarenka, who has been brave enough to take on Williams as well, and challenge herself to become as good as the American.
“Serena is one of the players who makes me push myself and with the stats and records; she owns pretty much all the records there,” Azarenka said after her Miami triumph. “She’s the toughest competitor there is. And for me there’s a great challenge to have her because it will always push me to improve.”
Interesting times lie ahead for women’s tennis. Williams will certainly be pushing herself in the coming months as she looks for that record-equalling 22nd grand slam, while Azarenka will be determined to stop her.
“I’m not here to help make history,” Azarenka had said at the US Open last year, when asked about Williams’s bid for a calendar Grand Slam and her chase of Graf’s record haul of 22 major titles.
That attitude sets Azarenka apart from the crowd. It is the reason why she is considered the real deal and the only true contender to Williams’s throne.
arizvi@thenational.ae
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