Guest post by Phillip:
Victoria Azarenka, star of the near future

The 2009 French Open has thrown up many surprises, but the breakthrough of Victoria Azarenka should not be considered one of them. The Belarusian reached her first Grand Slam quarter final in 14 attempts and came close to knocking out in-form world number one Dinara Safina.

Safina eventually won a three-set encounter, but not before being blown away 6-1 in the first set. Azarenka was in stunning form early on, serving at 93% on her first serve and hitting 10 winners and only one unforced error.

The Russian had only lost five games in her four matches before facing Azarenka but looked lost for a response against her opponent’s aggressive approach.

The form Azarenka presented against Safina did not come out of the blue. She has been in great form all year, winning at Brisbane, Memphis and most notably the Sony Ericsson Open, where she beat Serena Williams in the final.

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This has helped Azarenka into the top 10 of the world rankings and her progress can be expected to continue, although she needs to address the problems that contributed to her defeat by Safina.

Azarenka has always been an emotional, temperamental player, but she lost control against Safina and allowed frustration to shake her focus. This was manifested by a series of costly double faults that only served to add her to dissatisfaction.

There is a large pool of young talent in the women’s game, with many players capable of beating the top stars. Azarenka, junior world champion in 2005, will soon be considered one of the players to be beat rather than one capable of causing an upset. She is one player I will be following closely at Wimbledon.