The Soda Room: Tennis superstar Victoria Azarenka’s Adelaide connection

Former world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka talks to Mark Soderstrom about motherhood, inspiring a new generation and an Adelaide connection.

Former world No. 1 tennis player Victoria Azarenka, from Belarus, talks to Mark Soderstrom about motherhood, inspiring a generation of young tennis players, approaching random strangers with theatre tickets and going undercover in Paris to restore her mental health.

Welcome back to Australia. How much do you love it here, because obviously you’ve had such wonderful success over many, many years.

Well, I mean, it goes back all the way to juniors. The first time I came to Australia was as a 15 year old. I became the number one junior player here. I became the number one professional tennis player here as well. But what really makes me feel comfortable? It’s just the people, like the mentality of people is really laid back. You guys love sports so much and really appreciate and come out and really support, no matter where you are from. I’ve had a lot of success obviously but that’s not only the reason why I feel really great here. I think the whole atmosphere with people really keeps me excited to come back and play here. Also being at the first event of the year, it’s always really nice. So I have wonderful memories.

How old were you when you first got into tennis?

I started playing tennis when I was seven years old and you know looking back at it It’s like “how in the world did that become my destiny?”. Nobody in my family ever played tennis. Nobody knew what tennis was. Nobody knew what the score was. Nobody watched tennis at all. And my mom started working in the tennis centre, just doing a regular administrative job.

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I went to first grade and, after school, I would come and visit my mom at work and when I was little, I was very close to my mom like I wouldn’t want to go anywhere so I wouldn’t let her work. So she had to find a way to distract me. And so she could work, she gave me a tennis racket. And there was a small gymnasium and I went to start playing against the wall. And one of the coaches saw me and they had a group class. So she’s like, Oh, do you want to join? And I was so shy. I was like “No”. I just ran away. And then my mom was like, “Hey, just try just and play with other kids”. So when I started playing tennis, I didn’t even see a tennis court for the first year and we were all in the gymnasium playing against the wall doing these kind of different drills and learning to co-ordinate. And then we start going to the court like three times a week with 40 kids, you know, and then it’s 20 kids so you know slowly there’s less and less … When you’re a six year old or a seven year old … it never felt like a job really. It really felt like “Okay, it’s my passion”. And I have fun with it. I play with my heart. I don’t really calculate too much. It’s based on instinct. That all developed really when I was really little.

So what did you want to be if it wasn’t a tennis player?

I wanted to be doing music, I was playing different sports as well. I was really good at playing piano. And I had a teacher who really wanted me to be a pianist. And he was very upset when I had to choose between tennis and piano because I couldn’t do both. They wanted me to go to music school, And I said no, it’s going to be tennis and he didn’t speak to me after that he was so upset.

Victoria Azarenka with the 2013 Australian Open Women's Singles championship trophy.

Victoria Azarenka and her son Lo. Picture: Twitter

So at what point did you think tennis could actually be a career?

There was an unconscious dream from the beginning and that’s why I say it had to be a destiny, it wasn’t an accident. It wasn’t like a plan. To make it from where I come from, was a very, very long shot. And when I started to think I was good. I always played up above my age group, so I’ve been humbled quite a lot. But it also helped me grow a lot. I would play against anybody. It didn’t matter if it was somebody better or somebody worse than me. I just wanted to play and compete. And I’ve heard a lot of no’s that I’m not going to make it in school, because tennis is not a career. But I did. I just really enjoyed playing and I think I was really lucky because I don’t think my parents saw me as “That’s our way to make it in the world”. They really just wanted me to just do whatever I could enjoy. So I didn’t think until maybe about 15 that it was going to be my career. It was just going naturally. I also never felt like tennis was my only thing. I always had a lot of interests.

Tell us about what happens when you become the first Belarusian to win a Grand Slam in Australia in 2012.

It was obviously a monumental event. The emotions of people were super exciting. I didn’t have a chance to go home at that moment and really soak it in because the good and the bad part about tennis is like you win and then next week is another tournament and it’s such a quick turnaround. So I’ve never really experienced a homecoming win or homecoming experience. So even though I know how so many people were excited and happy for me and proud of me. I didn’t I never got a chance for that. The same thing with the Olympics. I didn’t have that homecoming thing which now like looking at you know, just now World Cup with Argentina like, that is so exciting.

But I think that the biggest joy is to see more players coming out of Belarus and playing at the high level and the girls you know, our team is very, very strong. A lot of young girls are playing well for such a small country, which is pretty impressive. So I think that win is hopefully part of the effect of what is happening in tennis now.

I can only imagine that there would be thousands and thousands of boys and girls who picked up a racket there purely because you picked up a racket at your mom’s work.

I would like to think that. Especially at this stage in my career, that’s the motivation. The big motivation is to inspire people to live a life of what you want to do. And follow your dreams and work hard. I kind of embrace that through being a parent as well. It’s like, you know, showing my son, not tell him what to do but kind of show him what to do. That’s how I am with people. If somebody says “Do this” I’m like, “Okay, well show me”. So it’s a different approach.

Victoria Azarenka competes against Qinwen Zheng of China during day five of the 2023 Adelaide International at Memorial Drive. Picture: Sarah Reed/Getty Images

So going back to Belarus, is there a Victoria Azarenka statue there for their tennis star?

I hope not. Those things are really not important to me. Because I don’t like the fame part of my job. I like to be recognised for my achievements, obviously, I think that is fulfilling for me. But anything outside of that, I just treasure normalcy in my life. I have the ability to go anywhere I want and not necessarily be bothered. There are people who come up to me, but it’s not a bother thing, but there are obviously stars who cannot go anywhere.

So you can be relatively anonymous at times?

Especially like off the court. You know, I play with my braids and everybody who kind of meets me outside of tennis is like ‘Oh, you look different’. And I’m like ‘I hope so’.

My mum told me they’d done some stamps with me on them. And she was like “That’s so exciting”, but for me it’s like “Yeah, I guess?”.

It’s not that I don’t appreciate it, it just doesn’t change the way I feel about my life.

And it’s the same thing with trophies. Like I don’t like trophies. My trophies are in storage. I like to win them and, once that’s done, I don’t ever touch them again.

Your son Leo has just turned 6. How does the world change when you become a mother or a parent?

I don’t remember anything before that. Like I was like, what did I do? Like what the hell was I doing during the day? It just feels like my life was kind of empty. And it’s not a remark to somebody who doesn’t have kids, it’s just my own feelings. Like what was I doing? In the off-season, I have zero free time because I don’t want to miss things with him. I want to be present. I want him to feel my presence as a parent there. So when I had him, everything changed from the priority of myself, to myself being the last person. I like to take care of people before I take care of myself, but this was another level.

I struggled to find that balance between still doing something for me to play and then to be there for Leo. It was a very difficult emotional thing to figure out.

But it also gave me a perspective of life that is something bigger than your job or you know, money or whatever.

Victoria Azarenka of Belarus poses with the Australian Open women's singles trophy in 2012: Picture: Torsten Blackwood.

Are you different now?

I don’t look at myself as a celebrity and real moments to me (with people) are very, very important. So over the years that has shifted for me a lot and when I become a mum. I have a lot more things in common with people that I can relate to. It’s hard for me to relate to everybody you know from being a tennis player. Being a parent, there’s so much more you can relate to so many similarities that people experience and I think that has connected me to a lot more people. And I feel like I’m evolving in that way. On the court, I still have that hunger and desire. But I have definitely become more empathetic, especially off the court. I try to understand people and how they see things from their side. I don’t always do a great job of it, but I feel like I’m doing more and more of that. On the court, I still have the fire and still have things I want to improve. That keeps me hungry.

You had a bad foot injury and a challenging time, physically and mentally in 2014. How did you get through that?

At that time, it was hard for me to honestly do anything. Sometimes I would sleep 14,16 hours a day. I didn’t want to get out of bed. And it was real but what I think in the silver lining in the end was to find it back. You know that feeling of wanting to exercise, wanting to do something, wanting to go outside, wanting to go get a coffee, or wanting to go see your friends because in the moment of a really hard time you don’t want to see anybody, you’re just really disconnecting yourself.

I went to Paris for like two months by myself. I had a bit of therapy and I’ve done it actually before quite a lot. I would go to someplace where nobody knows who I am. I don’t know anybody. And I like to connect with people. I like to get to know people and their stories because I think everybody’s quite unique and they have something interesting to say. And I would do that with random places in Paris. I’ll just go live there for like two and a half months. And I got to like an apartment, a little apartment, a hotel apartment. And I just was going to different places in Paris. I would go to a French bakery and I would talk to the person then they’ll talk to somebody else and I would meet a friend through a friend and then and then go on like that. I met in New York in a similar way. I had two tickets to Hamilton. And the person who I was going with couldn’t make it. I was in Times Square. I just walked to a random person. Okay. Do you want to go to Hamilton? Okay, no problem. And it was a girl and she went with me to Hamilton and that’s it. I meet very random people all the time.

Physiotherapist and former AFL footballer Alan Obst with his wife Jamie. Picture: Emma Brasier.

So how did Adelaide boy Alan Obst (former North Melbourne and Central District footballer) become your travelling physio?

I was looking for some help (last year playing in Adelaide) and they said we have somebody here, he’s very highly recommended. And then I did the treatment and it was like, “Oh, I don’t really have anybody going with me to Melbourne”. So I asked him, he’s like, “You know, I can help you through this week, but I’m actually getting married on Sunday”. And I was like, “Okay, well, Monday then … can you meet me in Melbourne?” “Well, let me go talk to my wife” … and then he’s like, “Yeah, I can meet you in Melbourne”. And in Melbourne, we just we really connected. And I was like, “Hey, do you do want to travel?” And he was like, “Oh, I don’t know”. So I convinced him because I’m pretty good at that. And yeah, we travelled throughout the year. And yeah, we have a great relationship.