Belarussian Victoria Azarenka secured the year-end world number one ranking after winning two matches at the WTA Championships in Istanbul, Turkey. Though she crashed out of the semifinals, Azarenka’s wins against Angelique Kerber and Li Na in the round robin stage mean that whatever the turnout of the tournament will be, she’ll stay atop of the women’s rankings.
The Sunday’s final showed world number three Serena Williams beating number two Maria Sharapova to seal her third WTA Championships title.
“If you look at the list of these people, its kind of difficult to believe that a little girl from Belarus is on that list,” said Azarenka, who was beaten by Sharapova in the semifinals.
“But it’s really incredible achievement. When I started to play tennis I had this big picture in my head that I want to be there. Back then it’s so far away. It’s like pretty much touching the sky I’m here sitting kind of in the sky, so its really incredible feeling. I don’t think you realize that once you maybe stop playing tennis, you can fully appreciate what you have done. Living in the moment, I think you lose that sense of those great achievements,” she added.
Azarenka joins Serena Williams, Jelena Jankovic, Justin Henin and Caroline Wozniacki as year-end number ones from year 2000 onwards.
