New York: Former world number one Victoria Azarenka refused to blame a pedestrian performance in her US Open quarter-final defeat on Wednesday on food poisoning suffered the day before. Azarenka, bidding to reach a third straight Flushing Meadows final, fell 6-4, 6-2 to Russian lefty Ekaterina Makaraova, who reached the first Grand Slam semi-final of her career.


Victoria Azarenka and Ekaterina Makarova 

Her spokesman said after the match that she'd battled food poisoning the day before, but the Belarusian -- already fed up with fielding questions about injuries earlier this season -- declined to discuss it.