Awesome: Son of gun backs Mum to plough on

Before Victoria Azarenka had a chance to analyse the player she would meet next, a question was posed to her son about the two-time Australian Open champion’s thirdround performance.

Five-year-old Leo, wearing his sunglasses in the news conference room and sitting on his mother’s knee, responded succinctly: “Awesome!”

Thanks, kid. Azarenka’s own highlights from her 6-0, 6-2 win over 15th-seeded Elina Svitolina yesterday included the “amount of aggressivity I could bring point after point, applying a lot of pressure, the consistency. The break points I faced, I played really strong.

“Taking control of my end of the court,” she added. “I think that’s what I’m more happy about.”

She’ll next play French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova, who rallied from a set and a break down against 26th seed Jelena Ostapenko to win 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 and advance to the fourth round in singles at Melbourne Park for the first time.

The 24th-seeded Azarenka, who won the title at Melbourne Park in

2012 and 2013 and has been a US Open finalist three times, is into the fourth round in Australia for the first time since 2016 after extending her record to 5-0 against Svitolina.

She accumulated nearly twice as many winners, 17, as unforced errors, nine, and never faced a break point. Svitolina made mistake after mistake,

26 unforced errors in all.

Since a quarter-final run in Australia in 2016, Azarenka lost firstround matches last year and in

2019, and missed the hard-court tournament in 2017, 2018 and 2020.

The 32-year-old former world No 1 from Belarus is feeling comfortable, fulfilling the dual roles of player and mother in Melbourne.

Azarenka was asked if it was more demanding, distracting or relaxing to have her son with her on the tour.

“All of the above,” she said, laughing.

“It’s definitely not a distraction, I will never say that. Being a parent is not easy. He’s full of personality — I don’t know where he gets it from!

“I always feel privileged that I’m able to have him here. These kind of moments are really priceless for me. To be able for me to share that with my son is pretty incredible.”

In other results on day five, fifthseeded Maria Sakkari beat No 28 Veronika Kudermetova 6-4, 6-1 to move into a fourth-round match against 21st seed Jessica Pegula of the US, who beat Nuria Parrizas Diaz 7-6 (3), 6-2.

Eighth-seeded Paula Badosa advanced with a 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 win over Marta Kostyuk and Madison Keys came from a set down to beat Qiang Wang 4-6 6-3 7-6 (2).