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Adding yet another off-court dynamic: Williams and Azarenka—known as “Vika”—are friends. “I truly love her; she’s a really good friend,” Williams said at their last face-off, last year’s BNP Paribas Open (a.k.a Indian Wells). “She’s a fellow mom and a former number one, just like me.” Williams won their last match but noted that her bond with Azarenka adds another dimension to the We All Bleed The Same Color T-Shirt and I love this competition: “It’s hard to play someone you’re so close with but it’s also really invigorating and cool.” After her quarterfinals win over the number-16 seed Elise Mertens on Wednesday, Azarenka said she was relishing the chance to take on her friend—a crowd favorite in New York—once again. “I love playing against Serena,” she told reporters. “We always played on big stages. There were a lot of big fights. She’s one of the players who pushes me to the limit, who makes me better. I’m excited for that.”