Making a much-awaited return from the maternity leave in the first round of the Mallorca Open, Victoria Azarenka managed to turn around her two-day three-setter against Risa Ozaki and record a stunning 6-3 4-6 7-6(7) victory, showing that the fighting spirit of a champion doesn’t need much warm-up!
When the encounter was halted due to darkness on Tuesday evening, the world No.74 Ozaki was serving for the match at 5-4 in the third set, the lead earned by her great play aided by Azarenka’s errors and frustration. On resumption, however, Azarenka broke to level at 5-5 and even though Ozaki managed to get in the position to again serve for the match, the two-time Grand Slam champion forced a tiebreak by saving three match points and edged it to successfully kick off the big return to tennis.