Belarus' Victoria Azarenka celebrates after victory against China's Zhu Lin during their women's singles match on day seven of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on January 22, 2023. (Photo by Paul CROCK / AFP)
Melbourne: Former world number one Victoria Azarenka reached her first Austalian Open quarter-final for seven years as she fended off China's Zhu Lin 4-6 6-1 6-4 in the early hours of Monday.
Azarenka, twice a winner of the title in Melbourne, started slowly and lost the opening set but stormed through the second to take the fourth round match into a decider.
Neither player could hold serve in the third set but Azarenka's greater experience finally pulled her through.
The Belarusian wobbled when serving for the match at 5-4 but hit back from 15-40 to complete the victory at 2.15am local time with an angled crosscourt backhand winner.
Azarenka, 33, will face third-seeded American Jessica Pegula for a place in the semi-finals.
"I feel so relieved, it was complete pressure, lots of momentum shifts, there was everything in this match," 24th seed Azarenka said on a sparsely-populated Rod Laver Arena.
"Happy I could handle everything and take my chances and went for it. I've had a couple of close matches this year that didn't go my way so I'm really proud of myself."
Looking ahead to her quarter-final she said it would be a more familiar opponent, having known liitle about Zhu Lin.
"I've practised a lot with Jess and I'm going to enjoy that one. If I do lose I would rather lose to Jess, but I'm going to give her hell!"
