Belarus’ Victoria Azarenka celebrates after winning the match against Switzerland’s Jil Teichmann during their women’s singles match on day three of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on January 19, 2022. (Photo by Brandon MALONE / AFP) / — IMAGE RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE – STRICTLY NO COMMERCIAL USE —
To see detailed h2h stats and predictions for Madison Keys vs Victoria Azarenka, see our Stevegtennis head to head prediction here.
While not seen as a contender at this stage, Victoria Azarenka is the only player in the women’s draw with an Australian Open title to her name. The two-time champion will play Madison Keys to begin Friday’s night session with the winner going on to play either Lin Zhu or Maria Sakkari. Azarenka does lead the head-to-head and more interestingly, all three wins have come after the Belarussian’s return to the tour following the birth of her son.
Keys remains a dangerous opponent when she is dialled in and her current results do show a player in form. She is yet to lose this year, having won all her matches as part of USA’s dominant United Cup victory and adding to that with two wins here, most recently against Xinyu Wang. Although she will want to improve on the conversion rate, she manufactured a total of 17 break points in her 6-3 6-2 win and was impressive on return throughout.
Azarenka took less than an hour to seal her 150th slam win, demolishing Nadia Podoroska 6-1 6-0 in round two. She will be happy with her improvements in Melbourne having suffered back-to-back losses against Veronika Kudermetova and Linda Noskova during the two Adelaide tournaments.
Azarenka is still good enough to play solid tennis long enough for Keys to implode, as has happened with their recent meetings. “Try not to make dumb decisions mostly, which is still a work in progress,” Keys said when asked on what she can do to improve on that. “But, I mean, for me it’s really just trying to let myself rely on making balls because I have become a much better mover, and I can stay in points, and I don’t necessarily have to be the aggressor all of the time.
Prediction – Victoria Azarenka in straight sets
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