Victoria Azarenka had a very impressive 6-2, 6-4 victory over Barbora Strycova on Monday in Melbourne, to advance to the Australian Open quarterfinals.
After the match ended, Azarenka had one thing on her mind… and it wasn’t about tennis: did the Denver Broncos beat the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game? When Azarenka found out the answer was “yes”, she was quite happy:
So happy yesssssss 🏈🏈🏈 https://t.co/r2rwzrSzco
— victoria azarenka (@vika7) January 25, 2016
“Can somebody please tell me: Did Broncos win?” she said in taking over her on-court TV interview. When she heard the Denver Broncos had beaten the New England Patriots 20-18, she shouted “Yesss!!” She stepped back and raised both arms. “I’m so happy now.”
“I turned on TV while I was having breakfast, and I just couldn’t look over there because I’m a huge sports fan, so when I’m a fan of somebody, I’m a die-hard,” she said. “I’ll get nervous. I get emotional. I understand like all that because it’s something that when I play, I’m in control. I’m in control of my body, of my emotions. That’s all on me.
“When it’s somebody else doing it and I have absolutely no control, I go loco. I will scream. I will scream on TV. It’s good I didn’t watch it because it was a close game. I would probably break the TV or something.”
“I didn’t want to know the result,” she said. “As you can see, I’m a crazy sports fanatic, so I understand you guys when you get all nervous and stuff, because I felt that.”
Pretty fantastic fan reaction from Azarenka, right after she just won a huge tennis match. You certainly would’ve never known by her performance on the court that she had a headache going into her match from stressing about the Broncos’ game.
Azarenka also hit the dab Cam Newton-style after the match, as she’s done the entire tournament.
.@vika7 wins, hits the dab again pic.twitter.com/5GC2lt3NvI
— The Cauldron (@TheCauldron) January 25, 2016
So naturally she was even happier to find out the Broncos would be playing Cam and the Panthers in the Super Bowl.
Told of the Panthers’ 49-15 win over the Cardinals in the NFC decider, Azarenka said, “I’m sitting this one out. Let the best team win. This was my dream final, to be honest, and so I can’t wait to actually see them both. I think it’s Cam’s dream, and Peyton, so deep in his career, it’s definitely a dream again. It’s going to be awesome.”
Azarenka will now play No. 7 seed Angelique Kerber over the next couple of days, and won’t have to worry about an NFL distraction for that match.
[ESPN]