World number one Victoria Azarenka has celebrated winning the 2013 Australian Open over Li Na but conceded all the negative attention she’s received has been hard to deal with.
The Chinese was clearly the crowd favourite in Saturday’s decider, which Azarenka clinched in three sets, with the Belarussian not endearing herself to the Australian fans following the fallout from her controversial semi-final win over Sloane Stephens.
Azarenka called for an injury timeout in the final set against Stephens after failing to take five match points and later was unconvincing in her explanation of why she’d needed the break.
However, Azarenka triumphed on Saturday and said it was great to come out the other side as a winner.
“You have to go through rough patches to achieve great things,” Azarenka said.
“It’s been tough but I am happy here right now. There were new experiences for me in the last couple of days. I have to say thanks to my team for being so supportive.”
On the lack of crowd support, she added: “But what can you do? You just have to go out and play your tennis. It was definitely not easy with all the attention, with all the press around.
“But it was definitely a new experience for me that I think I handled quite well. I can only learn from this experience and move forward and try to improve as a player and as a person.”