Strength.

No, we’re not going to post the video but if you care to watch it (warning: you’ll probably cry), you can view it here. We’re also not going to post any pictures of Victoria Azarenka after she collapsed on the hot court of the Grandstand or while she was being wheeled off by the medical trainers.

You know what happened. And by now, you probably know why.

We picked Victoria to go all the way this Grand Slam. Her summer performance in the US Open Series proved she was a top contender for the title. Heck, even Brad Gilbert agreed with us. It saddens us how an accident while warming up can change everything.

We know she can hang with the big players. Today reminded us of when she was close to defeating (yes, you heard us) Serena Williams in the 2009 Australian Open, but had to retire up a set due to illness. She, later that year, defeated Williams in the Sony Ericsson Open, proving she has what it takes to beat the best.

What seemed like a heat stroke today, at first, turned out to be just a stroke of bad luck. While everyone’s shocked that a contender has now left the draw, no one has stopped to admire the strength and courage it took to go out on court in the first place. Only she knows what really happened during her warmup accident. But after reading her statement, one can only think “if that happened to me, I would have gone home.” Instead, Azarenka did what she came to do – compete. For that, instead of our usual “Photo Of The Day” post, we give you only our thoughts, in honor of Azarenka.

The same goes for her competitor, Argentina’s Gisela Dulko. Deep-down she’s probably very relieved she made it through to the next round, but you wouldn’t have thought that when she ran to the other side of the court to attend to Azarenka, and asked for ice to help her ailing opponent.

Guess this will all be just a bump in the road for Azarenka, as she moves toward winning her first Grand Slam title – because we know she will.