Victoria Azarenko

She swears with foul words and makes quite loud screams when she hits the ball with her racket. The athlete herself is not ashamed of her emotions. The tennis player tries to be herself and not to hide from the public. For example, her Instagram account is full of funny photos and videos of Azarenka "fooling around" with her son and friends. Victoria was born in Minsk July 31, 1989. The girl was the second child in the family - she has an older brother, Maxim. Sports in her biography appeared thanks to her mother, a methodist at the Olympic Tennis Training Center in Belarus.

At the age of 7 she took Mukha (as neighbors nicknamed Victoria) to the coach Valentina Rzhanykh. The hard-working girl spent all her time on the court. At 15, she left home and moved first to a tennis school in Spain, where she trained under her former mentor Steffi Graf, and later in the United States with Antonio van Grihin.

Personal life

The first serious passion of the tennis player (height 1.83 m, weight 66 kg) was the singer RedFoo. Young people met in 2012, and a romantic relationship arose already in a month. The lovers appeared everywhere together and almost never parted. The boyfriend proposed to Victoria, but it did not come to the wedding. They separated in 2014, explaining their breakup by being too busy.

In 2016, it became known that the Belarusian tennis player is pregnant. The father of the child turned out to be Billy McKeague, a hockey player from America. On December 20, the newly formed couple became parents. Victoria and Billy had a son, who was named Leo Alexander. The birth took place in the United States, which gave the child the right to dual citizenship.

Leo's parents never became husband and wife, so after the breakup of the romantic relationship, they did not have to file for divorce. Upon returning to America, McKeague filed a petition with the court demanding that custody of the child be awarded to his father. The athlete's ex-boyfriend claimed that she took her son out of the country without his knowledge.

The court sided with McKeague, ruling that while the case was pending, Leo must not leave the state and live in Billy's home. Victoria, who was caught off guard by the situation, tried to move her son's custody proceedings to Belarus. In January 2018, it became known that the U.S. court granted the tennis player's request to move the hearing to her home country. In turn, representatives of the authorities in Minsk assigned custody of her son Azarenka.

Since the Belarusian court had failed to properly notify the father of the hearing and McKeague himself did not agree with the decision, the proceedings in the United States began anew. The boy's father appealed to the California court, which overturned the mother's custody of his son. During the legal battle, both parents were to have custody of the child, and Leo was not allowed to leave the city of Los Angeles.

That ruling made it impossible for Azarenka to continue her career: she wouldn't be able to attend the games. The athlete sued her former boyfriend and demanded that he compensate her for all of the $10 million she lost.

According to the final decision of the U.S. court, Victoria was appointed Leo's primary guardian in 2019, and his primary place of residence was the Republic of Belarus. You can admire a photo of Azarenka with her son on the athlete's Twitter account.

Tennis

An adult professional career for Victoria began with small matches in Israel in 2003. Already in 2 years she was in the top 300 famous athletes and won the unofficial title of "The Best Young Tennis Player of 2005".

In 2006 the girl got her first victory over a really tough opponent. She defeated Nicole Vaidishova, one of the top 20 tennis players in the world. Azarenka's victory over Anastasia Myskina was no less surprising in the sports world.

By early 2007 Victoria had broken into the world's top 100 rackets, though she only ranked 97th. Another achievement was her success in the mixed doubles - together with Maksim Mirny she reached the semifinals of the Grand Slam.

The most important event of 2008 was the WTA tournament in Prague where she got to the finals without a single defeat, but lost it to Vera Zvonareva. At the end of 2009 Victoria was already ranked No.7 in the world. The tennis player had 45 wins and lost 15 matches.

The next year the whole world watched as Azarenka fainted and fell during her match against Hicela Dulko at the US Championships. It was later found out that the cause of her malaise was a blow to the head, which she received during the warm-up. Health problems pushed the tennis player to the bottom of the world rankings, but she did not stay out of the game for long.

The most successful year for the athlete was 2012. She went to the Olympics, where she won gold in the mixtape. Azarenka was partnered by the already proven Maksim Mirny, and in singles the tennis player from Belarus won a bronze medal. Victoria showed just as much skill at Wimbledon, reaching the finals and losing her final battle to Serena Williams.

At the Championships in Beijing Azarenka reached the semifinals and lost to Maria Sharapova. According to analysts, the defeat was caused by a right shoulder injury, the condition of which was still bothering doctors. At the end of the year, Victoria was recognized as the first racket of the world.

After the incredible triumph, the athlete began to lose form. The tennis player missed out on the prestigious title, losing the first lines to Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova. No less frustrating were leg injuries, which forced Azarenka to miss important championships.

The tennis player started 2014 already on the 4th line of the world ranking. She decided to suspend her competitive career to take care of her injured legs and feet.

Her return to competition in 2016 was marked by a victory at the tournament in Brisbane and a rather defiant defeat of Serena Williams at the Premier Mandatory. Azarenka had another Olympic Games ahead of her, but she withdrew for family reasons.

In April the Belarusian went to Spain to participate in the Premier Mandatory, but crashed out of the bout in the 2nd round after failing to cope with Karolina Pliskova.

In May, Azarenka lost at Roland Garros, not even making it to the second round. She lost to Katerina Siniakova. In the same month she lost her first game at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia to Naomi Osaka.

In July 2018, Victoria reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon together with Jamie Murray. And at the tournament, held in Mallorca, in the 2nd round she lost to Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic.

In April 2019 at the Monterrey Open, Azarenka reached the final, but could not beat Spain's Garbiña Muguruza.

In May, together with Australia's Ashley Barty, Victoria added the Italian Open to her list of victories. But in the same lineup, as in singles, failed to win at Roland Garros.

As for the Wimbledon tournament, the Belarusian tennis player managed to beat Alize Corne and Ayla Tomljanovic, but she lost to Simona Halep.

At the US Open Azarenka and Barty reached the doubles finals, losing to Arina Sobolenko and Elise Mertens. In singles, Victoria already lost to Sobolenko in the 1st round.

Victoria Azarenka now

In 2020, the athlete missed the Australian Open because of legal proceedings for custody of her son.

At the 2020 Western & Southern Open games in August, Victoria reached the final, defeating Donna Vekic, Caroline Garcia, Alize Corne, Uns Jabir and Johanna Konta. Her opponent for the final match was going to be Naomi Osaka. The Japanese player refused to play, so Azarenka got another win at WTA tournaments.

At the US Open Victoria reached the semifinals of the Grand Slam singles, beating Arina Sobolenko, Karolina Mukhova, Elise Mertens and Serena Williams. In the US Open final in New York, Naomi Osaka won.

At the Italian Open tennis tournament in Rome in the 1/8 finals the Belarusian got a technical victory over Daria Kasatkina, who could not finish the match because of injury.