Issue link: http://itf.uberflip.com/i/117483
In defending her crown, Victoria Azarenka captured her second Grand Slam title It was Andy Murray���s third successive Grand Slam final www.itftennis.com ���The era of suffering in men���s tennis,��� proclaimed Jim Courier. Certainly, the final proved as ���incredibly physical, tough, pretty painful at times��� as Murray had predicted. The first two sets both ran over an hour, and even Murray���s mentor Ivan Lendl couldn���t stifle a yawn. Not until the 32nd game ��� after two hours and 51 minutes of play ��� did we see a break of serve. Once Djokovic prised that 5-3 lead, he was always ahead. Murray paid the price for his tough scrap with Federer. He took a six-minute time-out in the final to treat a blistered foot and was also carrying a hamstring niggle. No doubt he���d expended plenty of nervous energy in the semis too for the ageing king did not go quietly. There were some snarly moments ��� but even when the great champion lifted his level to save the match in the fourth set, the fifth was always on Murray���s racket. Federer had dazzled through the first week, his drubbings of new-generation stars Bernard Tomic and Milos Raonic producing a stunning stat: one break point between them. But the 31-year-old was uneven in a five-set win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarters. In his tenth straight Australian semifinal, Federer���s fabled genius couldn���t overcome the brute force of Murray. As he left to a huge ovation, the maestro looked decidedly mortal. Djokovic astounded anew with his eye-popping flexibility and miraculous powers of recovery. The champion���s shirt-ripping gladiator moment this year came the previous Sunday night in a five-hour epic with Stan Wawrinka, easily the match of the tournament. From 61 5-2 down Djokovic effected a Houdini escape, 12-10 in the fifth. ���Body feels great, it���s only five hours,��� the Djoker kidded. Or not. For Djokovic emerged fresh as a daisy to frustrate Tomas Berdych in four sets. He then humbled new world No. 4 David Ferrer 62 62 61 in their semi. So untaxed was Djokovic that he returned to Rod Laver Arena for a Carry On Doctor-type skit during a legends��� doubles. Victoria Azarenka was no less convincing and arguably more ruthless in defending her realm, 46 64 63, over crowd favourite Li Na, runner-up also in 2011. The intense Belarusian was engulfed in the controversy of the tournament against Sloane Stephens in the semifinals ��� a ten-minute injury time-out at 61 5-4 after spectacularly blowing five match points. Whether the treatment was for a ���locked rib���, as she put it, or a panic attack, the upshot was that a calmed Azarenka broke serve after the long delay to take the match. Stephens gave Azarenka the benefit of the doubt, but former players were critical and a hostile crowd painted Vika the villain in the final, which added to the chilly atmosphere. In a disjointed, fluctuating encounter, Li called injury time-outs in the second and third sets after jarring her left ankle ��� in the second mishap, she bumped her head on the court as well and was assessed for concussion. In between the slips and slides was a nine-minute break for Australia Day fireworks. Li gamely soldiered on but was playing catch-up thereafter. ITFWORLD SPRING 2013 25