Azarenka Blames Toe For Withdrawal, Gets Booed In Brisbane

By Louise Belcourt

A toe injury forced the world number one Victoria Azarenka to withdraw from her semi-final clash with Serena Williams at the Brisbane International tennis event tonight.

A disappointed Azarenka said she had an infected right big toe following a pedicure gone wrong. Her doctor performed minor surgery yesterday, and advised her not to play on it for at least 2 days.

“It’s the right toe infection. It’s been there for about ten days. It’s just been getting worse a little bit.”

“I had to take action on it, which I did yesterday. Unfortunately I don’t have enough time to recover to be able to play today.”

“It just got infected from a bad pedicure experience. I had somebody who gave me infection.”

Audible boos fleeted around the stadium when Azarenka arrived on court after the full house learnt that a toe injury would mean the much anticipated re-match of the US Open final contest was not to be repeated. Like how she plays when bombarded with big servers and groundstrokes, Azarenka seemed unconcerned speaking to the crowd before hitting personally autographed tennis balls into the stands.
“Very disappointed about that because I was really looking forward to it. I tried really everything I could to make it happen. I couldn’t compromise my health.”

Williams, the world number 3, was all too familiar with Azarenka’s predicament. “Had that toe problem just a couple weeks ago and it’s painful. God, it’s so painful. Doesn’t sound painful, but it is. You can’t walk with that.”

Azarenka has lost 11 of 12 encounters with Williams, and it seems a sore toe nail was the only thing standing in the way of Williams making it 12 out of 13. Williams game has proven in the past to be just too big for the Belarussian to handle. Her dominant dismissal of Alize Cornet of France and Sloane Stephens of USA in the first two round of the Brisbane International suggested that she would have downed the world number one as well.

The withdrawal sees Williams take on world number 36 Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the final tomorrow night.

So the clash between Williams and Azarenka will have to wait at least til the Australian Open that starts on the 14th of January in Melbourne. Azarenka will be attempting to defend her maiden and only grand slam she won in Australia last year. Whilst Williams is after a golden “Serena slam”, having won Wimbledon, the London Olympics and the US Open in 2012. If Williams manages to keep her composure and focus in the early rounds of the Australian Open, I believe she will be difficult to beat.

Azarenka is an abysmal 1-11 vs. Serena

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