2015 US Open Day 6: Victoria Azarenka Wins Epic Match Against Angelique Kerber; Eugenie Bouchard Off-Court Injury

Victoria Azarenka (click to enlarge)

Victoria Azarenka and Angelique Kerber combined in the third round of the 2015 US Open to give fans the best women’s match so far of the tournament. It was a high quality, high drama face-off between two women fully capable of going a long way at this Major. If there is one stat that illustrates just how high quality this match was it’s winner to unforced error ratio. When a player is hitting out and going for winners, an even 1 to 1 ration is considered good. Often, a player like Maria Sharapova will have a winner to unforced error stat that looks something like 21 winners to 20 errors in a two set win. Even if the stat were 21 winners to 24 errors, that’s not bad…depending on when those errors happened. Angelique Kerber is more of a counter puncher who doesn’t rack up big winner stats, but once Vika realized she couldn’t sit back and wait for Angie to make mistakes, Azarenka had to go for winners, Kerber was forced to match Vika’s aggression. Vika finished with a terrific 51 winners to 33 unforced errors. That is fantastic. Angie wasn’t too far behind with 46 winners to 31 unforced errors. In the end, Vika was able to edge Angie at the finish line, 7-5 2-6 6-4. Some think this win marks Vika as Serena Williams’ greatest threat at this event. Let’s wait and see. I’ve witnessed Azarenka play like her former self on a few occassions this year only to follow with less than spectacular efforts.

Eugenie Bouchard (click to enlarge)

Unfortunately, Eugenie Bouchard has pulled out of women’s doubles and mixed doubles due to a locker room injury. Apparently, she slipped, fell and hit her head. Obviously, I feel badly for Genie, but also I feel badly for her women’s double partner, Elena Vesnina. Unlike her mixed doubles partner, Nick Kyrgios, Elena makes much of her tour money from doubles, so exiting a Major…with a huge amount of money on the line…hurts Vesnina more than Bouchard or Kyrgios. That aside, I just hope Genie is ok. Event medical staff will continue to treat her. A decision, as of this post, has yet to be made about whether Bouchard will play her 4th round match against Roberta Vinci.