Serena Williams faces her toughest test of the week against Victoria Azarenka tonight at the Rogers Cup.
It has been far from vintage Williams this week but she's got the job done so far, with the help of the Toronto crowd who have been relishing the sight of the 13 time Grand Slam champion in action. That support has been crucial in the past couple of rounds as Williams has battled back from a set down to see off first Jie Zheng and then Lucie Safarova.
She found herself in all sorts of trouble against Safarova's powerful leftie game early on, saying, "Lefties are different too, and it took getting used to. I hadn't played Lucie in a long time. I forgot how she plays, and she's a great player and doing so well. Once I got used to it, it was better."
However she's going to have to raise her level tonight as Azarenka has been brilliant all week. She double bagelled Canada's Stephanie Dubois in the second round and has yet to drop more than 3 games in a match.
"She's the better ranked player and she's had a fantastic tournament," Williams said. "She's a power player. She's smart, she's young, she has fresh legs. She has everything going for her right now. And me, I'm just going to do my best."
However while Azarenka may be playing the better tennis this week, Williams has that all important aura about her and after all the struggles she's had in the past year, she wants this bad.
"I saw her play in Stanford," Azarenka mused. "She played great. It doesn't matter if she didn't play for a year, she's done it before. She knows how to play tennis."
Serena has won four of their five matches, Azarenka's sole win coming in the Miami final two years ago. As well as she's playing, you would be a fool not to back Serena to come through this one.
