[1/3]Victoria Azarenka of Belarus reacts to a missed point during her Brisbane International tennis tournament first round loss to Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic in Brisbane January 5, 2015.

It was after 2am in Melbourne when Azarenka triumphed over Zhu Lin, with the former world number one admitting she was staring at a fourth-round exit before clawing her way back into the match.

For Serena, it was her fourth three-set match in a row and that seemed to take a toll on her body. The 39-year-old had to call a full medical timeout while serving at 40-40, with Azarenka up 1-0 ...

Since a quarterfinal run in Australia in 2016, Azarenka lost first-round matches last year and in 2019, and missed the hard-court tournament in 2017, 2018 and 2020.

Azarenka held, somehow, and broke to get to 4-3, then stood and stretched during the ensuing changeover. But Osaka regained control, breaking to start a match-ending run of three games, covering ...

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - JANUARY 21: Victoria Azarenka of Belarus in action during her third-round singles match against Elina Svitolina of Ukraine at the 2022 Australian Open at Melbourne Park on ...