Victoria Azarenka had no trouble winning the Brisbane International final for a second time, defeating fourth seed Angelique Kerber in straight sets.
REPORT: AZARENKA BREAKS DROUGHT AT BRISBANE
Azarenka finished the tournament without having lost a set and losing only seventeen games on her path to victory, the equal-least ever by a women’s singles champion in Brisbane, tied with Serena Williams.
Final score
Victoria Azarenka def. Angelique Kerber 6-3, 6-1.
Can Victoria Azarenka claim her first Brisbane International title since 2009 or will fourth seed Angelique Kerber stop her? Join The Roar for live scores from around 8:30pm (AEDT).
Victoria Azarenka is back to her best after she was fortunately spared the challenge of facing first seed Simona Halep who pulled out due to injury.
The 2009 champion started her tournament with a win in straight sets over Elena Vesnina 6-2, 6-0 during the first round before cruising through against lucky loser Ysaline Bonaventure 6-3, 6-2.
Azarenka’s only seeded opponent so far came during the quarter finals when the Belarusian met with eighth seed Roberta Vinci whom she knocked off in straight sets 6-1, 6-2.
To add to her impressive record, Azarenka stormed into the final with a win over young American qualifier and tournament surprise packet Samantha Crawford in straight sets 6-0, 6-3 with Vika the only player to have won every set, losing just 13 games from four matches.
Victoria came into the tournament unseeded and has won eight of her last ten matches with her only losses at the hands of Johanna Konta when she was forced to retire at Wuhan and Simona Halep whom she lost to during the quarter-finals at the US Open in three sets.
Azarenka shapes not only as the favourite to win the Brisbane International but now also looms as a dark horse to take out the Australian Open with world number one Serena Williams, world number two Simona Halep and world number four Maria Sharapova all yet to play a full match this summer.
Fourth seed German Angelique Kerber has only dropped one set all tournament and has been a standout performer in her first hit out for the 2016 season.
After losing the first set of her first round match-up with Camila Giorgi, Kerber battled back for a win 6-7, 6-3, 6-0 and set up a second round fixture with young American Madison Brengle whom she stunned in straight sets 6-3, 6-0.
The German continued to dominate with a quarter final win over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in straight sets 6-4, 6-4 before defeating sixth seed Carla Suarez Navarro yesterday in the first semi-final and setting up a final with a 6-2, 6-3 straight sets victory.
Kerber has managed seven wins in her last ten matches with her only losses coming at the hands of Garbine Muguruza and Lucie Safarova during the round robin stages of the end of year WTA Championships, and Jelena Jankovic who she went down to in the final of Hong Kong after winning the first set.
The two finalists have played each other six times with Kerber only managing one win. Their hard court record stands at 4-1 in favour of Azarenka who won both of their meetings in 2015, the first at Doha when the Belarusian cruised through to the second round with a straight sets victory 6-0, 6-3 and the most recent at last year’s US Open in a grueling three set match 7-6, 2-6, 6-4.
Prediction
Azarenka has finally returned to form and will become only the fourth to win two titles at Brisbane after Ai Sugiyama, Patty Schnyder and current world number one Serena Williams.
Azarenka in three sets.
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