Tags:
Journalism of Courage
World number one Victoria Azarenka won the Olympic bronze medal in the women’s singles with a 6-3,6-4 victory over Russian 14th seed Maria Kirilenko at Wimbledon today.
It was a first Olympic medal for Belarus’s Azarenka,who celebrated by wrapping herself in her country’s red and green flag.
The 23-year-old,beaten in the semi-finals by Serena Williams,could yet leave the All England Club with two medals as she is competing in the mixed doubles with compatriot Max Mirnyi.
The pair were one set up on India’s Leander Paes and Sania Mirza before bad light forced their quarter-final to be suspended on Friday and the match will be played to a finish later on Saturday.
The bronze success is just the latest memorable moment in 2012 for Azarenka,who is enjoying the best year of her career after winning the Australian Open in January and reaching the Wimbledon semi-finals last month.
It would have been an even better campaign if the Belarusian hadn’t had the misfortune to run into Serena Williams in the Wimbledon and Olympic semi-finals over the last month.
But there was no hangover from her latest loss to Williams as Azarenka broke twice to take the first set in convincing fashion.
Azarenka broke again in the opening game of the second set and when a wayward Kirilenko forehand conceded another break in the third game,the Russian’s frustration boiled over and she slammed her racquet into the turf.
Kirilenko then broke twice to recover from 3-0 down,but it was only a brief blip for Azarenka.
She took the match with one more break and sealed her first medal by kissing the Belarus badge on her dress.
