It was the most alarming on-court moment of 2010: Amidst temperatures that soared beyond 100 degrees, Victoria Azarenka — in Serena Williams‘ absence considered among the U.S. Open favorites — collapsed during her second-round match against Giseka Dulko and was wheeled off the Grandstand Court.
Trailing 5-1 in the first set, the Belarusian meekly stroked a backhand before wobbling behind the baseline, where she crashed to the court. Just 34 minutes into the match, Azarenka was done, hustled off the court in a wheelchair, her neck supported and her head held upright.
Immediate speculation was that Azarenka might have been a victim of heat exhaustion. After all, heat had played a major factor in her default loss to Serena in the fourth round of the ’09 Australian Open. But it was later revealed that Azarenka suffered a mild concussion during a pre-match warm-up session when she fell off a treadmill.
“I fell while running a sprint,” Azarenka later revealed. “I fell forward and hit my arm and head. I was checked by the medical team before I went on court and they were courtside for monitoring. I felt worse as the match went on, having a headache and feeling dizzy. I also started having trouble seeing and felt weak before I fell.”
The 5-foot-10 supershrieker, who rode some momentum into Flushing Meadows after winning Stanford and reaching the semis in Montreal, suddenly looked as if she would be out of action the remainder of the year. But the match-tough blonde returned to reach the Tokyo semis, and by reaching the Kremlin Cup quarters on Wednesday, became the final singles player to qualify for the Oct. 26-31 WTA Championships in Doha, replacing Serena, who was forced to withdraw after re-tearing the tendon in her right foot.
Azarenka joins Caroline Wozniacki, Vera Zvonareva, Kim Clijsters, Samantha Stosur, Francesca Schiavone, Jelena Jankovic, Elena Dementieva and the doubles teams of Dulko/Flavia Pennetta, Kveta Peschke/Katarina Srebotnik, Lisa Raymond/Rennae Stubbs and Vania King/Yaroslava Shvedova.
“I am so happy,” said Azarenka, who is Azarenka is headed to the WTA Championships for the second year in a row. “I’m finally there. It’s a load off my shoulders.”
