Victoria Azarenka has had a small prestige success on European soil just before her first tournament participation in less than a year. The Belarusian, who was not allowed to leave the USA for a long time because of a custody dispute over her one-year-old son Leo, won a charity event in the run-up to the Mutua Madrid Open in the team of the Spaniard Feliciano Lopez.
Azarenka won the Mutua Charity Manolo Santana show fight on Thursday evening together with local hero Feliciano Lopez, Kiki Mladenovic and Richard Gasquet (both from France). Two teams of four – two women and two men each – competed against each other for a prize of 100,000 euros. The proceeds went to a foundation that intends to use donations to combat domestic violence.
The losers included industry leader and Madrid defending champion Simona Halep (Romania), Carla Suarez Navarro (Spain), Juan Martin del Potro (Argentina) and Jack Sock (USA). “It was a lot of fun, I’m happy to be here,” said Azarenka, who kept joking with “Feli” Lopez.
The 28-year-old was delighted at almost every rally in the Caja Mágica sports complex. No wonder: “Vika” had her last appearance at a European tournament last July in Wimbledon. On Church Road, the former world number one in the round of 16 was defeated by Simona Halep.
After that, Azarenka had not competed in tournaments outside the United States for her ex-boyfriend Billy McKeague’s custody of her son Leo. The reason: Her offspring were not allowed to leave the United States, so she decided not to participate in the events in order to be there for Leo.
This season Azarenka has only played two tournaments so far because of the legal disputes that now seem to have been settled. In Indian Wells in March, the 2012 and 2013 Australian Open winner did not make it beyond the second round – but it wasn’t until a little later in Miami that she lost to US Open Champion Sloane Stephens (USA) in the semi-finals.
The Spanish capital is actually a good place for Azarenka: in 2011 and 2012, the 20-time WTA title winner at the Mutua Madrid Open reached the finals. Anyway, son Leo feels visibly comfortable in Espana.
“And it is most important to me that my son is well,” said Azarenka, who competed in the last two hard court tournaments with shoes bearing the words “Leo”.