Don't Miss

India's CWG 2026 Medal Tally Lowest In 24 Years, Yet Among The Best

Tactical Self-Destruction: How England Threw Away Their World Cup Final Dream

Bundesliga Blueprint: How Zee Plans To Complete India's Football Jigsaw

Manuel Neuer Doesn't Know Where To Stop: Not On The Pitch, Not In His Career

Advertisement

ENG

Login

Dark / Light mode

Oct 10,2026 05:16 AM IST

Sparks Fly as Williams Upends a Rival

facebook

twitter

WhatsApp

Settings

Select Language

Dark / Light mode

Search

Tennis

arrow-down reddit snapchat twitter facebook comments email printer search bell top-nav reddit-fill snapchat-fill twitter-fill facebook-fill share whatsapp-fill bookmark arrow-rgt arrow-next arrow-up refresh close link cog star book zap cricket football tennis formula-1 badminton hockey golf boxing ndtv-n check left-arrow right-arrow

Live Cricket Matches

India Matches

IPL 2026

Football Matches

ISL

EPL

All Matches

India Matches

EPL

Sports Home Tennis News Sparks Fly as Williams Upends a Rival

Related Articles

Story ProgressBack to home

Sparks Fly as Williams Upends a Rival

Twice in the last month, Victoria Azarenka, the former world No. 1, has had Williams, the current No. 1, in her grasp only to see victory slip through her clutches.

Read Time: 4 min

Serena Williams in action at the French Open.© AFP

Paris:

Her latest match with Serena Williams had been over for more than an hour, and Victoria Azarenka was still shaking her head in disbelief as she sat at a table in the French Open players' lounge Saturday night.

Azarenka said she had broken a chair in anger in the locker room. That seemed both understandable and fitting in light of the circumstances, which included a dubious ruling from chair umpire Kader Nouni at the end of the second set. (Match report | Pics)

Twice in the last month, Azarenka, the former world No. 1, has had Williams, the current No. 1, in her grasp only to see victory slip through her clutches.

"I don't know how she does it," Azarenka said of Williams. "When she plays against me and Maria, her level is not at all the same as when she plays against some of the others."

Williams, a 19-time Grand Slam singles champion who will next face Sloane Stephens in the fourth round of this French Open, has had her shock defeats in Paris and elsewhere. She flirted with another shock defeat in the second round, playing an abysmal match by her standards before rallying to beat the 105th-ranked Anna-Lena Friedsman in three sets.

But Williams, 33, has long reserved her best, most focused tennis for the big occasions and the most dangerous opponents. That has never been truer than in these latter stages of her career.

Saturday's 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory gave Williams a 16-3 record against Azarenka and a 9-0 record against her in Grand Slam tournaments.

Williams is 17-2 against Maria Sharapova, currently the world No. 2 and, on merit, clearly the second-best women's player of this generation.

But while Williams' career records against Azarenka and Sharapova are similar, the matchups with Azarenka have felt much more like a rivalry.

This third-round plot twister, played early in the evening as the last match on the Philippe Chatrier Court, will do nothing to change that.

Earlier this month, in the round of 16 in Madrid, Azarenka served for the match and squandered three match points against Williams before losing the third set in a tiebreaker. This time, Azarenka was up, 6-3, 4-2, before faltering with plenty of help from Williams, who began striking the ball with much more conviction and accuracy, particularly on the move.

Williams broke Azarenka back to 4-4, held to take a 5-4 lead and then jumped out to an 0-40 lead on Azarenka's next service game. Azarenka, with some clutch serving, saved three set points to get back to deuce but then hit an ill-advised backhand drop shot to give Williams another set point.

This time, Azarenka struck a deep forehand that appeared to land on the line. Williams missed a forehand into the net but quickly turned to look at the linesman after she made contact. The call of out came after her shot was completed, and the call was wrong, as Williams soon discovered, looking down at the ball mark.

Nouni, whose baritone voice is worthy of James Earl Jones, descended from his chair to inspect the mark and announced that the point would be replayed.

"It's always up to the umpire," Williams said, acknowledging that the call from the linesman had come late. "He didn't put his arm out until like five minutes later. But yeah, I mean this is tennis. This happens all the time. I even said: 'No, don't worry. The ball is in. We'll just replay the point.'"

But Nouni also had the option of giving Azarenka the point outright, which definitely seemed like the best option considering that Williams had struck her errant shot when no call had yet been made.

Azarenka, up at the net, was upset with Nouni and then exchanged words with Williams, finally putting up her hand  and waving Williams off before returning to her baseline as Williams waved her off, too, and shouted in her direction.

Williams then quickly leveled the match at one set all with a forehand winner. As Azarenka walked to her chair, she was given a code violation for "visible obscenity" from Nouni.

Asked later if she thought she was "robbed" of the point that was replayed, Azarenka used another obscenity to describe the ruling.

"And everybody knows it," she said. "But it's part of the game. Sometimes it happens this way, but I think it wasn't a fair call."

As for the exchange with Williams, Azarenka said: "It's emotions. You know, during the match it's difficult to react or not react in that moment. So I think that in that moment, I don't know if it depended too much on her. You can always give your opinion, but in the end, it was the chair umpire's call. So that was his mistake."

Azarenka later said that she "would have handled it differently" than Williams, but both also emphasized that they are friendly off the court (afterward, Azarenka gave Williams a pair of her shorts that Williams coveted).

But in the end, though Azarenka, with the French crowd behind her, won the first two games of the third set, Williams - back in command of her considerable tennis powers - won the next six games to sweep to victory.

Williams has won some major matches on the Chatrier Court, including the French Open singles titles in 2002 and 2013. Where did this match rank?

"I put that one pretty high, because I was just really down and out," she said. "And I just feel like I just really zeroed in."

© 2015 New York Times News Service

Featured Video Of The Day

India Ends CWG Boxing Campaign With Record-Breaking Seven Gold Medals

Topics mentioned in this article

Victoria Azarenka Serena Williams Tennis

Get the Latest Cricket, Asian Games 2026, Football , Hockey, Badminton Scores, F1 Results at NDTV Sports. Like Us On Facebook Or Follow Us On Twitter For More Sports Updates. You Can Also Download The NDTV Cricket App For Android Or iOS.

Advertisement

Listen to the latest songs, only on JioSaavn.com

Advertisement

Asian Games 2026 Medals Tally

No. Country G S B Total 1

People's Republic of China

People's Republic of China 169 89 83 341 2

Japan

Japan 83 95 91 269 3

Republic of Korea

Republic of Korea 39 43 68 150 4

India

India 21 27 37 85 5

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan 21 25 24 70

Full Medals Table

Advertisement

Now Trending

Advertisement

Trending Links

Follow us on:

facebook

twitter

Cricket

Football

More Sports

Formula 1 Tennis Hockey Badminton Golf Nba Kabaddi Shooting Swimming Table Tennis

This website follows the DNPA Code of Ethics © Copyright NDTV Convergence Limited 2026. All rights reserved.