I think the last 18 months have kind of shook the world.

As I told you, in Qatar, it's very emotional, very, very emotional.

And by the very nature of your passport, you were banned from Wimbledon last year.

You know, your brain doesn't really know if it's life of death, but in, it's like, oh, it's just a tennis match,

right? Has I ever felt like the occasion is too big for me? No. I was very long. It's very

lonely at the top. This is up front with me, Simon Jordan. I believe there are a lot of vacuous,

uninformed, unchallenged opinions out there. I want to get to the bottom line and cut through the nonsense. So with this podcast with William Hill, I'm going to get people with strong views who think they can stand them up

to proper scrutiny. There's a good chance I might learn something along the way, and more importantly,

so might you. Joining me in today's episode, a world number one at the age of 22, a two-time

grand slam winner with a fierce backhand,

competing on the biggest stages in the US, Australia, France and here at Wimbledom. But now,

in the way of tensions as the political and sporting worlds intertwine. Victoria Azarenka,

welcome to Up Front. Thank you. Thank you for having me.

My pleasure.

Listen, two-time Grand Slam winner, three Grand Slam finals, Grand Slam

semifinals, sixth, allegedly the sixth highest earning women tennis player from court

revenues.

Not bad from a young lady from Belarus, from Minsk in Belarus.

Yeah, I'm never, I'm always quite surprised by statistics when somebody like read out my bio or

what I've done because I feel like I'm still kind of living in the moment and I have a hard time to reflect on what I've done.

And it's always been like kind of mentality of, okay, what's the next thing?

What's the next goal?

...