Victoria Azarenka not attending the Australian Open 2020
The two-time Australian Open winner Victoria Azarenka has to do without a start in the new season in Melbourne.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Dec 16, 2019, 09:16 am
The 30-year-old Belarusian gave "personal reasons" for her absence from the Australian Open 2020.
Already in the previous week it was striking that Azarenka did not appear in the entry list for Melbourne , so now the official announcement came. Azarenka did not state exactly what the reasons were. However, it seems possible that she cannot travel to Australia due to her family situation - Azarenka also did not report any of the tournaments in the run-up to Melbourne. At the end of 2016, Azarenka had become a mother for the first time, but after the separation from her father Billy McKeague in the summer of 2017, a custody battle broke out over son Leo, which caused Azarenka to be unable to leave California without him. Therefore, she missed many tournament starts. The dispute should have been resolved in 2018, Azarenka has been on tour again regularly since then, although she often had to cancel injuries.
Azarenka in Melbourne with great success
Azarenka won the Australian Open in 2012 (in the final against Maria Sharapova) and in 2013 (against Li Na), celebrating her two Grand Slam tournament victories. After her success in 2012, she also became number 1 in the tennis world rankings for the first time.
After her mixed and interrupted comeback after the birth of Leo, however, it was at the Australian Open this year that Azarenka looked deep into her soul life after her first-round defeats against Laura Siegemund . In the subsequent press conference, Azarenka burst into tears. "I've been through a lot in my life and sometimes I wonder why I'm doing this to myself," said Azarenka after the 7: 6, 4: 6, 2: 6 against the German. "I play really well in training, but I can't do it in a match."
Over the course of the year, however, Azarenka increased, among other things, she reached the final of Monterrey and again played among the top 40 in the world. However, she has to wait another year for a new start at the "Happy Slam".