In a packed schedule on Wednesday, Victoria Azarenka was one of the first big-name casualties to fall at this year's Internazionali BNL d'Italia, running into an in-form Irina-Camelia Begu. Our contributor René Denfeld recaps the straight-sets opening loss of the fourth seed straight from the courts in Rome.
The second-round encounter between Victoria Azarenka and Irina-Camelia Begu had been circled in by more than just a handful of people as a difficult draw for the Indian Wells & Miami champion — particularly considering Azarenka was forced to withdraw from the previous tournament of Madrid with a back issue after having tweaked something in her first-round match in the Spanish capital.