Vika falls to Francesca, ousted in US Open third round

Victoria Azarenka joined Elena Dementieva, Jelena Jankovic and a plethora of top seeds on the sidelines in another upset at the US Open.

The Belarussian eighth seed overplayed and couldn't cope with the variety of Francesca Schiavone in their third round match eventually succumbing to the Italian 6-4, 2-6, 2-6. Vika ended the match in style hitting a double fault and smashing her HEAD to the ground. Nice.

But the stats tell the tale: she hit 46 errors against only 18 winners while the Italian had much cleaner numbers hitting 32 errors balanced against 30 winners. Francesca will next face Na Li for a spot in the quarterfinals.


As I mentioned in my ladies' preview I've been waiting for a major breakthrough from Vika but I didn't think it would happen here. She's mental toast at the moment and understandably so: it's been her best year to date winning her first career title at Brisbane and capturing her biggest title at Miami defeating a hobbled Serena Williams.

If she wants to take the next step and contend for majors, though, she'll need to keep her emotions in check and have a better attitude on court. Vika has to realize she'll make errors with her go-for-broke game but if she can still control the points and set herself up for winning shots she'll end up with the big W.

Besides, why abuse your HEAD? It's the only way you'll get there.

(Photo: Getty)