Victoria Azarenka kept up her scintillating form on Day 8 of the US Open by moving past American Varvara Lepchenko, 6-3, 6-4, but her strange tape job had many wondering if she had picked up yet another injury in New York.
As it turns out it was nothing but a rash that Azarenka picked up from rubbing against her Nike kit. She jokingly told the US Open crowd that she wanted to look more like a football player, which is why she had the strange tape job. Then she smiled and admitted that her Nike kit had caused some chafing.
Whatever the nature of the injury, it didn’t keep Azarenka from reaching back-to-back quarterfinals at a major for the first time in nearly two years (2013 US Open final, 2014 Australian Open quarterfinal). The Belarussian will next face the winner of today’s fourth-round match between Simona Halep and Sabine Lisicki.
Azarenka clocked 19 winners against 16 unforced errors and converted five of eight break points against Lepchenko. She failed to serve the match out on her first attempt but broke in the next game to clinch the victory in one hour and 38 minutes.
Azarenka improves to 32-11 on the season. The two-time US Open runner-up is seeded 20th this year, but is considered by many to be the player with the biggest chance to take out Serena Williams in New York. If she is to have that chance she’ll need to get through two more matches first.