Victoria Azarenka - Nobody's favourite

Victoria Azarenka has a lot of things going for her. The Belarusian is the World No. 1 and a Grand Slam champion. And in an era where the packaging is almost as important as the product, Azarenka is blonde and good looking, speaks English fluently, and is pretty cool. Azarenka walks on to court listening to music on her iPod, and she interacts with fans on social media sites. All in all, Azarenka should be a favourite with the fans, you would think.

Think again. The Belarusian may be favored to win the Australian Open title over World No. 6 Li Na on Saturday, but when it comes to public appeal, Azarenka lags far behind her Chinese rival.

In any tennis stadium, one can find two types of fans – the casual tennis fan and the hard-core tennis junkie. To the casual tennis fan, Azarenka’s grunting and her fiery temper make it hard for them to root for her. Azarenka is surely not the first player to have a loud grunt. Monica Seles had one, and so does current World No. 2 Maria Sharapova – but both of them (including Seles in her pre-stabbing days) have been a favourite with the public. What annoys fans about Azarenka’ grunt is not just its loudness but also its longness. At times, it can be heard many seconds after she has hit the ball, and almost up to the point when her opponent is about to strike the ball.

On the other hand, that fiery temper of hers, mostly seen when things are not going her way, brings out the jeers as well. Azarenka is often seen screaming at herself or throwing her racket in a fit of anger or frustration. And while we may demand that our tennis players show more personality on the court, only a John McEnroe could throw a fit on court and still manage to keep the fans in his corner.

Meanwhile, for the tennis junkie, Azarenka’s reputation precedes her. The Belarusian comes with a history of withdrawing from events due to niggling injuries. In 2010 and 2011, Azarenka retired from matches on 10 different occasions (one other time in that same period, she withdrew before starting the match). Several of those retirements came when she was down in the matches – leading to theories surfacing that Azarenka was trying to protect herself from losses – granting hollow victories to her opponents. Champions are supposed to dig deep and play through the niggling injuries, right? But not Azarenka. Or perhaps, she knows best on just how serious those niggles actually were.

Azarenka has not only lost fans but also friends on the circuit. World No. 4 Agnieszka Radwanska, a good friend of the Belarusian from their junior days, questioned Azarenka’s injury during the Dubai Open final last year (which Azarenka went on to win), saying her antics on court were not good for the image of the sport. The relationship between the two has remained cold since then. And those antics were back in focus on Thursday when the Belarusian took a medical time out in her semi-final at the Australian Open against 19 year old American Sloane Stephens.

After choking away five matchpoints at 6-1, 5-3, Azarenka decided to call for the trainer and then went off the court to receive medical treatment. After a lengthy medical time out, Azarenka came back and promptly broke Stephens to complete the 6-1, 6-4 win.

While tournament officials and doctors have maintained that Azarenka did have a legitimate injury, several players (current and past) and tennis commentators have blasted the Belarusian, accusing her of using the medical time out to get her nerves to calm down after wasting those match points. And Azarenka is partly to blame herself for the backlash. In her on-court interview immediately after the match, Azarenka did not speak of any physical injury but said that she was finding it difficult to breathe after choking away so many match points. That foot in the mouth syndrome was also evident earlier in the tournament, when after beating a visibly injured Jamie Hampton, Azarenka joked in her on-court interview that she would like to have the same back injury Hampton had, since her opponent played great tennis after being hampered with the injury. The crowd’s reaction to that joke was cold, just like their rapport with the World No. 1.

And while that may be tough to deal with for a young woman of Azarenka’s age, her problems are only going to get compounded in Saturday’s final when she takes on China’s Li Na, who is not only in top form but has also become one of the darlings of the Melbourne crowd.

Li Na is not blonde, not good looking, speaks broken English, and at 30, she is not exactly young. But there’s no doubt that the crowd will be in her corner as she attempts to win her second Grand Slam title following her historic win in Paris. Ever since her breakthrough run to the finals here two years ago, Li Na has become a tennis sensation. Her on-court interviews, in which she responds in her not so fluent English, have endeared her to the public in Melbourne and across the world. Li is witty, funny and charming without trying to put on an act. Her real persona shines through when she communicates with her fans, which is a lot more than what can be said about Azarenka.

If Azarenka wins the title on Saturday, she will gain her second Grand Slam title and retain the World No.1 ranking. But the love of the fans is something that she will have to work much harder for.