“These kind of moments are really priceless for me. To be able for me to share that with my son is pretty incredible,” WTA pro and mother Victoria Azarenka said back in 2022, during her Australian Open campaign. Her eight-year-old son, Leo, was present with her. The 35-year-old adores him and has, time and again, echoed this sentiment. Their bond is simply inseparable; perhaps that’s why she takes him on each of her tennis tours. While the spotlight mostly remains on Azarenka’s on-court performance, her son also gets to have his own moments of grabbing attention. How? Take, for example, his adorable gesture at the Miami Open. But what did he do?
Azarenka is currently competing at the 2025 Miami Open. The two-time Grand Slam winner started her campaign on a winning note. In the R128, on Wednesday, she beat Ukraine’s Anhelina Kalinina with a score line of 6-3, 6-1. With that, Azarenka also registered her 79th combined win in women’s singles matches across Indian Wells and Miami Open, colloquially known as the Sunshine Double. She’s now leveled with former American pro Lindsay Davenport. Azarenka is now only behind the Williams sisters. 23-time Slam queen Serena and 7-time Major champion Venus lead the elite list with 102 and 88 Sunshine Double wins, respectively. In the next round, Azarenka will face Czechia’s Karolina Muchova on Friday.
While Azarenka’s victory was the highlight on Wednesday, her son Leo also didn’t leave a chance to steal the spotlight. After the match, the mother gave him an opportunity to leave a message on the courtside camera’s lens. It’s a common ritual that winning players do. Grabbing this opportunity, Leo ended up writing a sweet and cute message: “Hello World”, “Oh that’s cute”, reacted Azarenka.
Hey Leo! @vika7 | #MiamiOpen pic.twitter.com/TKFwut7h5S
— wta (@WTA) March 20, 2025
But it’s not the first time Leo has grabbed the eyeballs with his cute behavior. Remember his funny, yet inevitably sweet antics from Azarenka’s campaign in Charleston last season?
When Leo took an ‘ice cream’ break during mother Victoria Azarenka’s match
Back in April 2024, during the Charleston Open, Victoria Azarenka played against another tennis mom, two-time doubles Major champion Taylor Townsend. They were fighting it out in the R16 to advance to the next stage. The battle was intense, as Townsend clinched the first set, and then Azarenka took the next, pushing the result into a decider. Later, Azarenka managed to snatch the win with a score of 5-7, 6-3, 6-4.
But guess what? Something hilarious happened early in the match that threw all the attention onto Leo. How? Do you know what he did when his mother lost the opening set and was busy trying to beat Townsend? Well, the little one was busy enjoying an ice cream!
“I needed an ice cream break. I really needed it. I was too hot,” the 8-year-old later revealed, as reported by Tennis Channel last April. To make the situation even funnier, her mom added, “I went to the bathroom and took the ice cream break, too,”
“It just probably sums up the whole match. It was so dramatic,” she said on her performance against Townsend. “Taylor played great, she hit so many lines. Her serve was really tough. I feel like especially in the second set, I got a really important break and got a little better energy, better rhythm there.”
But what about Leo’s reaction to his mom’s victory? According to him, it was just “Amazing.” And that’s everything a mother wants to hear, right? It’s just pure bliss to see this loving bond between Azarenka and her little one. What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below.
The post Victoria Azarenka’s 8YO Son Steals the Show With an Irresistibly Adorable Gesture at the Miami Open appeared first on EssentiallySports.