With no Miami Open this week, Baseline is looking back at some of the biggest upsets from the tournament during the 2000s.
After finishing 2005 as the top-ranked junior in the world, Victoria Azarenka’s transition to the pros was fairly seamless, with the Belarussian steadily climbing up the rankings and making her Top 10 debut in 2009.
That momentous rise only set the stage for what would happen in 2012.
Kicking off the season in Sydney, Australia, she would go on to win the title, and follow it up with her first Grand Slam triumph at the Australian Open. The win also took her to No. 1 in the world. Another title followed in Doha, then a triumph in Indian Wells to run her record to 23-0.
After breezing through her first two matches at her next event, the Miami Open, Azarenka was almost bounced out of the tournament by Dominika Cibulkova in the fourth round. The 16th seed went up 6-1, 5-1—but couldn’t close out the match.
Next up would be Marion Bartoli, who was tested in her first two matches, but was coming off a rather routine straight-sets win in the fourth round against Maria Kirilenko, the 22nd seed.
From their first meeting back in 2007 until the end of 2010, Bartoli dropped all six of her encounters with Azarenka, including a notable one in 2009 in Brisbane, Australia. Facing each other in the final of that tournament, Azarenka won to clinch her first career singles title.
In 2011, though, Bartoli made a breakthrough of her own as she stopped the losing skid in the final in Eastbourne, England, on grass, when Azarenka retired during the match. The Frenchwoman gained another victory at the end of the year at the WTA Finals, but started off 2012 with Azarenka gaining the upper hand once again in Sydney.
In this match, though, Bartoli came out firing from the start. Catching the ball early with her two-handed groundstrokes on both sides, the seventh seed notched a comfortable 6-3 first-set win. Her momentum carried over to the start of the second set as she broke Azarenka right off the bat. However, as Bartoli was changing sides, she received a warning for coaching, which appeared to unsettle her: Azarenka took the next three games to go up 3-1.
That was it for the world No. 1, though: Bartoli got back on track to take the next five games and clinch the match. It was another of her several career victories over a world No. 1—and helped ease the sting of some of those earlier losses against her higher-ranked foe.