Timely coaching encouragement sparked a comeback by second seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus in the Brisbane International quarterfinals on Thursday.
The world No.16 was staring down the barrel of an embarrassing defeat when she trailed Czech Lucie Safarova 5-1 in the opening set.
Safarova had already been broken three times – including her first two service games of the match.
Enter her coach Antonio Van Grichen.
His choice words at a change of ends worked a treat as Azarenka, 19, went on to win the next five games on the way to clinching a gutsy 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 victory in almost two hours.
“He’s the best coach. He always knows when to say something,” Azarenka said.
“He just told me to keep going, just keep trying. There was not much more to say.”
With her mentor’s well-time words still ringing in her ears, the Belarusian clicked into another gear to save a set point in the eighth game on her way to taking an unlikely 6-5 first set lead against a shellshocked Safarova.
World No.61 Safarova, 21, finally held her serve to force a tiebreak but Azarenka would not be denied, taking it 7-5.
Azarenka broke in the fifth game of the second set but squandered five match points in a marathon ninth game which went to deuce an incredible 10 times.
The Belarusian finally converted her sixth match point in the next game to book a semi-final showdown with the winner of Italian Sara Errani’s clash with Belarusian Olga Govortsova on Thursday.
It was the second straight tough scrap for Azarenka who had to dig deep to hold out Slovakian-born, Australian-based Jamila Gadjosova 7-6 (7-4) 7-5 in the second round.
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