Top seed Victoria Azarenka took 55 minutes to book her place in the third round of the Australian Open on Thursday with a 6-1 6-0 win over Eleni Daniilidou. The defending champion was too strong for Daniilidou on Rod Laver Arena, wrapping up a one-sided win in double-quick time.
Getting off court so swiftly will be a relief for Azarenka with temperatures in Melbourne pushing 100F by midday.
Having struggled to put away her first-round opponent Monica Niculescu on Tuesday, Azarenka was in no mood to offer any freebies to Greek Daniilidou, who won their only previous meeting in 2008.
Azarenka has developed into one of the major forces in the women’s game since then and the gulf in class was evident from the outset.
Daniilidou did not get on the board until the sixth game and the broad grin and raised finger suggested she was already accepting of her fate.
Azarenka won the first set in 24 minutes and although the second was marginally more competitive, despite the scoreline, there was only ever going to be one winner as the Belarusian advanced to a clash with either Thai qualifier Luksika Kumkhum or American Jamie Hampton. “Today [Thursday] was much better,” said the world number one. “I am back in competitive mode, 100%, and was really focused. That was the best part of the game for me.”
