Victoria Azarenka underlined her credentials as an Australian Open title contender, if not a crowd favourite, with a ruthless 6-1, 6-0 demolition of local wildcard Casey Dellacqua in the second round on Wednesday.
The Belarussian's loud grunts inspired a string of mocking imitators in the partisan crowd on Rod Laver Arena but the third seed ignored the jibes to brush aside her opponent in just 57 minutes.
Azarenka, who won the title against a strong field at the Sydney warm-up tournament last week, was simply too sharp, too accurate and too mobile for the 126th-ranked Dellacqua.
The 22-year-old, one of four players who could emerge from the year's first grand slam as world number one, pointed a single finger into the night sky after setting up a third-round meeting with Mona Barthel of Germany.
"I'm loud always, I guess," Azarenka said.
"I played really well. She came out really aggressive and I just waited for my shots."
Dellacqua saved a break point to win her first service game but the traffic was all one way after that.
A former top-40 player still battling her way back after missing most of 2009 and 2010 because of injury, the 26-year-old failed to win consecutive points on her serve all night and it was her 33rd unforced error that handed Azarenka victory.
"It was great to see Casey out there again," Azarenka said.
"I think it's just amazing what she's done."
Azarenka, a semi-finalist at Wimbledon last year, also conceded just one game in her first-round victory over Heather Watson of Britain on Monday.
Reuters
Tags: sport, tennis, melbourne-3000, vic, australia First posted January 19, 2012 00:08:13
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