Belarusian Victoria Azarenka, former world number 1 and current number 16, announced this Sunday that she is “living a moment of extreme stress” in her personal life and that she needs to “take a break” from tennis, with the desire to “be able to return” to compete. This was announced by Azarenka in official statements provided by the Miami tournament after will withdraw from the third-round match against the Czech Linda Fruhvirtova (no. 279) when he was losing 6-3 and 3-0.
“I shouldn’t have jumped on the track today. The last few weeks have been extremely stressful in my personal life. The last match was exhausting for me, but I wanted to play in front of this big crowd because it helped me a lot in my first match. I wanted to jump on the track and try, but it was a mistake.”Azarenka said. “I hope to take a break and be able to come back,” she added.
The Belarusian had had a lackluster stint in Indian Wells two weeks ago, when she broke down in tears during a match due to an emotional comedown. “I feel sorry for the fans for what happened, because they were fantastic cheering me on. They were the only reason I came out to compete. I always look for challenges and pressure, but today was too much. I have to learn from this,” he said. “I would like to congratulate my rival and wish him the best of luck in this tournament and in the beginning of his professional career,” he concluded.