Victoria Azarenka has withdrawn from #Wimbledon due to a knee injury. Get well soon, @vika7. pic.twitter.com/Zkt8m36aLJ

— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) June 23, 2016

Victoria Azarenka showed a lot of fight in 2015 and was willing to compete with Serena Williams even if she came up on the losing end of a number of tough 3 set matches.  Vika entered 2016 by winning Brisbane, her first title in 2 years, and played well in reaching the quarterfinal round before losing to eventual Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber.

Azarenka followed her solid Australian swing up with titles at Indian Wells and Miami. Given how  well Vika was playing in 2016 and how hard she competed on clay and grass in 2015, it was not far fetched to predict a big year for Azarenka.  This seemed especially true given that Serena Williams’ level has dipped a bit since 2015.  Injuries have hampered any of those plans as Azarenka’s 2016 clay court season was cut short by injuries and her 2016 grass court season is non-existent.

Given Vika’s strong career hard court results and the Rio games and US Open being held on hard courts, it is not impossible for the promise seen in Miami and Indian Wells to be recaptured, but certainly Vika’s 2016 looked brighter at the close of Miami than it does on the cusp of Wimbledon.