Victoria Azarenka thrashed American teenager Catherine Bellis 6-3 6-0 in the Miami Open first round in only her third match back after an enforced absence from the WTA tour.
After competing at Wimbledon last year, the Belarussian, 28, did not enter any tournaments for eight months while she was involved in custody proceedings regarding her son Leo.
But Azarenka’s game showed few signs of rust against Bellis, as she took complete control of the match after a mixed start to win 10 of the last 11 games and seal victory.
It will be a tough loss to take for the young American, who looked increasingly frustrated as the match went on and her efforts to compete with the Belarussian proved ineffective.
As she has so often done in her career, Azarenka dominated proceedings with her brilliant return of serve. She attacked Bellis’ second serve throughout and won 77% of points against it.
This level of control over the Bellis serve enabled Azarenka to break the youngster a remarkable seven times in the match.
Room to improve
“I’m very happy with today’s performance,” Azarenka said in her on-court interview. “First matches are always tough and I haven’t played in such a long time, so to be able to keep that intensity throughout the whole match without really dropping the level was really good.”
“But I’m such a perfectionist that I want to do better and better and keep working on the things that weren’t so good today,” Azarenka continued. “There were some unforced errors where my feet could have been working a little bit better. And I would like to start the next match a little bit better.”
Her son’s ‘superhero’
Azarenka also talked about what it was like being a tennis mother. She said, “My perspective has completely changed. It’s all about my little boy. I feel extra responsibility to make sure I set a good example.”
“I can’t live with myself if I tell my son, ‘hey honey, you can’t do that’, and then he shows me, ‘hey mum, but you’ve done that’. I want to be the best example possible and be my son’s superhero, so I hope I live up to those expectations.”
Mattek-Sands returns after severe injury
Elsewhere in Miami, Bethanie Mattek-Sands made her return to singles action after suffering a horrific knee injury at Wimbledon last year but lost 6-2 7-5 to Alize Cornet, who will now play Anastasija Sevastova.
Ekaterina Makarova withstood a stern test from Timea Bacsinzsky to win 6-2 2-6 6-4 and earn a second-round clash with Karolina Pliskova.
Despite retiring from her final qualifying match after twisting her ankle, Oceane Dodin accepted a lucky loser place in the main draw and won a close encounter 6-4 6-7(3) 6-3 against Veronica Cepede Royg. She will now face Indian Wells finalist Daria Kasatkina in round two.
Alison Riske recovered from a set down to beat Magda Linette 1-6 6-0 6-2, Su-Wei Hsieh overcame Britain’s Katie Boulter 6-4 7-5 and Monica Niculescu eased past Yulia Putintseva 6-4 6-2.
