Williams Beats Azarenka. VENUS Williams!

Wow! Unsurprisingly, a Williams sister beat World #2 Victoria Azarenka in Japan yesterday. The surprise is that it was Venus Williams who did it, and the score was 6-2 6-4. Even more surprising comes the remarkable news that Venus has now never lost to Azarenka, and this was their third meeting. Azarenka has been feeling sick for the last three days and was clearly not at her best:

Azarenka talked about her physical condition afterwards in her post-match press conference.

"I haven't been feeling well the last few days and haven't been able to practice," Azarenka said. "It has been very frustrating. But I got out there for the people. Everyone was waiting a long time for this match, so there was no way I wasn't going to go out there. I appreciate people coming out and paying for the tickets - they should see the players play. And I tried my best. I did whatever I could do today.

"But you have to be at your best to play against a top player like her. So all the credit to her."

Williams scored her first win over a Top 2 player since beating Dinara Safina at Wimbledon in 2009.

"I don't think Victoria was feeling her best - hopefully she'll be feeling better and ready for Beijing - Lord knows I know what it's like not to feel great," Williams said. "But other than that, obviously it's great to win today, but the tournament's not over, it just started, so I have to continue playing well now."

Williams and Azarenka's other two meetings came at the Olympics in 2008 (Williams won, 63 62) and Dubai in 2010 (Williams won, 63 75). Williams improves to 3-0 in her head-to-head against Azarenka.

World #1 Serena Williams is not playing in the Pan Pacific Open (and probably will skip the entire Asian swing) but will most likely return to the WTA Tour just to play the WTA Year End Championships in Istanbul next month, where she is the defending champion.

Serena turns 32 years old on Thursday. Two weekends ago she beat Azarenka to win her 17th major title at the 2013 US Open.

Hat/tip to the Daily Bagel