Monday, October 08, 2012 Wk.40- I Wish I Was in the Land of Vika Why has Backspin come to love Vika Azarenka more and more? Let me count the ways... One - Because fans in Beijing can play "Tic-Tac-Vika" with placards emblazoned with her face. How can that NOT be great? ============================= Two - Because of the athletic strut. It's so... so... well, "Vika." ============================= Three - Because of the hoodie and earphones... just because so many other people DON'T like it. ============================= Four - Because of the gone-but-not-forgotten white shorts, of course. No self-respecting Belarusian-born world #1 should ever put them away FOREVER, though... no matter how much swag the sponsors provide. I have faith that they will return! One day. Not that the normally-hideous black leggings with black skirt and black top that Vika was seen sporting in Beijing isn't something that she -- and maybe ONLY she -- can pull off without looking like a tennis fashion disaster, mostly because she always tends to give off an air that she just put on whatever clothes were strewn around her hotel room before heading off to the court. Because, come on, they're just going to get sweaty anyway, right? ============================= Five - Because, on Sunday, Azarenka's total dominance of Maria Sharapova in the Beijing final sort of made Tennis Channel commentator Lindsay Davenport sound more-than-silly for having noted that in "the WTA pecking order," first comes Serena Williams (no argument there), but that second came Azarenka's Stuttgart "bump-mate"