Victoria Azarenka reveals she was accused of ‘cheating’ and anxiety after reaching Australian Open semi-final

Victoria Azarenka says her accusations of “cheating” after having a panic attack at the Australian Open 10 years ago are “finally over”.

Azarenka was last in this stage of the tournament in 2013.

“It was one of the worst things I have ever experienced in my professional career. , because people didn’t want to believe me.

“No one is there to see the full story. No matter how many times I told my story, they didn’t understand it… It took me a decade to get over it. And I I finally got over it.”

At the same press conference she added:

“I have been called cheating, lying and trying to get people out of the game. There is

“I have heard [people say]: ‘She has this [that] Bad or this is bad” or whatever. At some point, you start to have the question “really?

“Now I don’t care. I’m more and more confident in what I know about myself and I’m at peace. I won’t do it.”

Azarenka said on the court after her win over Pegula that she was “really mentally unstable” in 2022 and “played with a lot of fear and anxiety.”

When asked about her anxiety at the post-match press conference, the former world number one said: She was kind of at a loss, and she had come to the point where she couldn’t find a penny in herself.

“I broke some rackets after the match in Ostrava. [three-set defeat to Ekaterina Alexandrova]that was a very tough moment for me and since then I have tried to keep it simpler. I was.

“It was step by step, and I kept trying to move forward bit by bit. Another challenge, or another step. Building the process step by step instead of jumping to conclusions or results.” I learned how, I find it really hard to really focus on step by step, it takes a lot of the daily work that I do.

“I am so happy that the process I am going through has made me feel more confident in myself, feel better about myself, become more open, more receptive and compassionate. Compassion was a very difficult word for me to understand.”

Azarenka will next face Wimbledon winner Jelena Ryvakina in the final.

“It’s too far away to think about it. Clearly there’s a lot of thoughts flying around, but I don’t want to get bogged down in it. I want to focus on what works for me and keep things calm and peaceful.”

“I think being peaceful is a very important part for me.”

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