When the 36-year-old Belarusian star Azarenka was avenged in two sets by China's golden flower Zheng Qinwen in the second round of the 2025 Indian Wells Tournament, fans holding "Always Love Vika" banners on the sidelines may have been accustomed to this kind of ending. The two-time Australian Open champion has dropped to No. 35 in the rankings and has not reached the semi-finals of a Grand Slam in nearly two years, with a total technical degradation and physical constraints making her a "second-rate player". However, this controversial figure, who was once nicknamed the "Fraud Queen", showed moving persistence in the twilight of his career. Her non-retirement is not only a continuation of her personal obsession, but also a complex narrative of competitive sports and human nature.

Azarenka's career has been torn apart by two major turning points. The first occurred after defending her title at the 2013 Australian Open, when frequent ankle and knee injuries caught her in a "scam injury" controversy. In 2016, she temporarily left tennis due to pregnancy. At that time, she had just won two consecutive crown tournament titles by defeating Serena Williams, and she could have made a name for herself in history, but she was unexpectedly pregnant at her peak and temporarily retired from tennis. This decision was seen as "self-destructive" by the outside world, but the motivation behind it was not understood until many years later: "I want my son to see that women can have both a career and a family". The second twist was the struggle after her comeback: in 2017, she had a years-long dispute with her ex-boyfriend, and a U.S. court overturned a custody decision for Belarusians, forcing her to travel frequently between courtroom and the court. This experience not only took her competitive edge, but also changed her public image from a "fighting player" to a "resilient mother". While Sharapova, who is the same age, has long since retired to build a business empire, Azarenka is still fighting for the custody of her son and the dual battlefield of professional tennis.

The core motivation for Azarenka's persistence comes from her son Leo. She once confessed: "Every time I lose, my son will say, 'Mom, you did your best', which makes me understand that the meaning of the game is more than just winning or losing." This emotional bond has reshaped her competitive philosophy from "fighting for the title" to "fighting for the role model." In Charleston 2024 against Pegula, she cried bitterly after saving four match points in the deciding set, but calmly said after the match: "I want Leo to see that failure is a lesson in life. This maternal drive even influenced her tactical choices. When she was young, she was known for her fast-paced line-changing on the baseline, but now she relies more on experience and ball intelligence. In the first round of the 2025 Australian Open, although she was suppressed by Bronzetti's fast attack, she still mobilized her opponent by cutting and shortening the ball, and her stubborn resistance to tie-break in the second set made the commentator sigh: "This is the last lesson a mother teaches her child - dignity is more important than the score." ”

Azarenka's career has always been marked by emotional twists and turns. From an unsuccessful romance with the son of a pole vaulter and rapper to a custody battle with Leo's biological father, the turmoil in her private life continues to erode her professional stability. In 2017, she was forced to withdraw from the US Open due to a custody lawsuit, and after her comeback, she confessed: "In those years, I used to train every day, thinking that if I lost the lawsuit, I might never see my son." "This psychological pressure is far more deadly than technological degradation. In addition, the low commercial value of Belarusian citizenship exacerbates her existential woes. Compared to Sharapova's annual endorsement income of tens of millions of dollars, Azarenka's sponsors have always been limited to regional brands. Even when she returns to the semi-finals at the 2023 Australian Open, her commercial value has not increased significantly – the political environment has led to international brands shunning her. This "invisible discrimination" forced her to rely on the prize money of the tournament to make ends meet, and she did not dare to retire even if she fell in the rankings.

Azarenka's early career was fraught with moral controversy. In the early years, she was questioned for "fraudulent injury" due to frequent injury retirement, and in the 2012 Doha semi-finals, she pretended to be sick in the lead and staged a drama of being "disrespected" by her good friend A Radwanska, and the semi-final against Stephens at the 2013 Australian Open made her the title of "actress"; During the 2022 US Open, Ukraine's Kostyuk refused to shake her hand, drawing her into a geopolitical vortex, events that once made her a "villain" in tennis. However, her new role as an advocate for motherhood and fertility funds has allowed her to reconstruct her public image. As a representative of the WTA Players' Council, she pushed for the creation of paid maternity leave, publicly stating: "Childbirth should not be the end of a woman's career. This shift from "self-interest" to "altruism" has made her persistence transcend personal success or failure, and has become a symbol of equal rights in women's tennis.

The essence of Azarenka's predicament is the systematic disregard for older female athletes in professional sports. The 35-year-old Federer is still enjoying the "farewell tour", while her age struggles for a place in the qualifying rounds of every race. When Zheng Qinwen and other new generations swept the court with power tennis, her technical versatility has become a "classical legacy" - before the 2025 Indian Wells tournament, coach Zheng Qinwen bluntly said: "Her experience is worth learning, but we have found a way to crack her tactics." ”

However, this "obsolescence" is precisely what constitutes her unique value. In the world of tennis, where utilitarianism prevails, Azarenka uses her twilight years to interpret another standard of success: when the commercial value, the number of championships, and the popularity of public opinion have faded, every swing of a mother player is writing an eternal proposition about love, responsibility and dignity. Perhaps, as she said on her son's birthday, "I want Leo to know that the most important victory in life is to never bow to fate." This may be the final answer to her refusal to retire - in the twilight of tennis, she is using the most simple persistence to complete the double transcendence of herself and the times.(Source: Tennis Home Author: Xiaodi)