Victoria Azarenka opens up on being accused of ‘cheating’ and anxiety after reaching Australian Open semi-finals

Victoria Azarenka said only now is she “finally over” being accused of “cheating” after suffering a panic attack at the Australian Open 10 years ago.

The last time Azarenka was at this stage of the tournament was in 2013.

“It was one of the worst things I have ever gone through in my professional career, the way I was treated after that moment, the way I had to explain myself until 10.30pm at night because people didn’t want to believe me.

“Nobody is there to see the full story and it didn’t matter how many times I said my story, it did not cut through…it took me 10 f***ing years to get over it and I am finally over that.”

She added in the same press conference:

“I have been called that I am cheating, that I am faking, trying to throw people off their game. It’s everything that is so wrong about my character if somebody actually knows me.

“I have heard [people say]: ‘She has this thing [that] is bad, or this thing is bad’ or whatever. At some point you are like, ‘really? Am I’, so those doubts start to creep in.

“Now I just don’t care. I am more and more confident with what I know about myself and I am at peace. Those comments and judgements are there and I notice them, but I don’t care.”

Azarenka said on court after her win over Pegula that in 2022 she wasn’t “really mentally there” and “played with a lot of fear, a lot of anxiety”.

Asked about her anxiety in her post-match press conference, the former world No. 1 said: “I don’t think you recognise it straight away, I think it builds up until you hit a pretty bad spot where nothing makes sense, you feel kind of lost and I was at the point where I couldn’t find anything that I felt good about myself, not even one sentence.

“I broke a few racquets after my match in Ostrava [three-set defeat to Ekaterina Alexandrova], that was a very tough moment for me and from then I tried to take it more simple. I started with not trying to be positive and just trying to be neutral, not to go negative, accepting the anxiety and fear I have and working through it.

“That was step by step and I kept trying to go a little step forward, another challenge or another step forward. I learned how to build the process that is step by step instead of jumping to a conclusion or a result, and really focusing on step by step which is really hard to do I think. It requires a lot of daily work that I am doing.

“I am pretty happy that the process that I am going through makes me feel confident about myself, happy about myself and helps me to be more open, be more accepting, be compassionate, compassionate was a very hard word for me to understand.”

Azarenka next faces Wimbledon winner Elena Rybakina for a place in the final.

“Too far to think about that. It’s there obviously flying around, the thoughts, but I don’t want to take my mind there, I want to focus on something that works for me and keeps me calm and at peace.

“I think that is a very important part for me, to be at peace.”

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