No respect for weak-minded Vika Anymore!

WTA World No. 1 Victoria will always be 

remembered for the controversial  'cheat injury timeout' 

in her Aussie Open semifinal win over American Sloane Stephens.

Maybe it's me Eye On Sports fans, but the fact of the matter is that I have never, ever, in nearly five decades of both, viewing and covering professional sports all over the globe, seen anything quite like the farce that World No. 1 WTA Tour player Victoria Azarenka got away with in her semifinal match against blossoming young American Sloane Stephens.

After taking the first set 6-1 in solid fashion, Azarenka led 5-3 in the second before suffering one of the on-court meltdowns she had been know for prior to last season. With five match points in hand, Azarenka clearly began "to choke" as she put it in her own words. The now, mentally-constricted, native of Belarus then proceeded to hit one recreation-caliber shot after another either into the net - or far off court in a display that left the Australian Open crowd wildly rooting on the young American.

With the momentum clearly on Stephens' side - and the multi-faceted African-American phenom set to serve in an effort to tie the set, Azarenka, called for a trainer, though she had shown absolutely no signs of being physically injured prior to that.

After leaving court for 10 minutes, the equivalent of two successive injury timeouts, Azarenka returned and promptly proceeded to break Stephens and win the match.

However, it was what she said after the match, in her on-court interview, that got her labeled a cheat by many, including some of her own WTA and ATP Tour counterparts.

After claiming she "almost did the choke of the year" Azarenka admitted that she was nervous and needed time to gather her composure, which left the attending Aussie Open crowd, both stunned - and apparently pissed off (like me and many others). 

Shortly thereafter, Azarenka claimed she "misunderstood the question" and answered it "incorrectly" stating that she did in fact, have a legitimate injury.

Blossoming young American Sloane Stephens has one of the 

brightest futures of any young female player  on the WTA Tour.

"There was a little bit of my bad. But just a rib got locked and kept getting worse. I had to have it adjusted," Azarenka said.

Oh yeah Eye on Sports fans, the ever-famous "my rib locked" up story. 

By the way, if any Eye on Sports reader can tell me how a rib "locks up" please, feel free to let me know how with a comment. 

"When you cannot breathe you start to panic," she said."I was really panicking, not because I couldn't convert my match point (yeah, right). That's not the case, I'm experienced enough to go over those emotions.

"But when you cannot breathe, when something's really blocking you, the stress, that was the stress I was talking about. I just couldn't realize what was going on with me. "I couldn't breathe, I couldn't swing. I think it was pretty obvious that my shots were a little bit different. "It was just so stressing me out the pain that I had that you know, maybe it was overreaction, but I just really couldn't breathe."

Maybe Azarenka will never admit it, but the fact of the matter is that she is describing a "panic attack" which can happen when you're massively nervous like she was against Stephens. Not being able to breathe correctly and a high heart rate are classic symptoms of nervousness that every athlete on the face of the planet has had to deal with at one time or another. 

Whether Victoria Azarenka ever admits it or not, the fact of the matter is that she is now always going to be remembered as the first athlete to ever be allowed a timeout because they were 'nervous' in the midst of competition. 

Now, the next time some MLB pitcher is holding on for dear life with his team leading by a run in the bottom of the ninth inning - and he needs a timeout - precedence has been set by Victoria Azarenka that a 'fake' injury timeout is apparently acceptable - though any athlete that pulls this sad stunt now knows they will be labeled a weak-minded cheat, like Victoria Azarenka...likely forever.