Victoria Azarenka revels in her rivalry with Serena Williams and she could recapture the world No 1 ranking from the 15-time Grand Slam winner at the Dubai WTA Open this week.

The Belarussian scored a rare victory on Monday over the American, who nevertheless took away her world No 1 ranking 24 hours later, a rather contradictory setback for Azarenka that has not prevented her celebrating their relationship on and off court.

"Any tournament I'm happy to play against Serena, I feel like we're pushing each other to go to the limit every time, to step up, to improve, and that's tremendous motivation to have," Azarenka said.