Andy Murray 2015 Barclays ATP World Tour Finals Preview
Despite a busy end of the season, Andy Murray is rested and ready to perform in front of his countrymen.
Despite a busy end of the season, Andy Murray is rested and ready to perform in front of his countrymen.
Sania Mirza has Sunday’s doubles shot of the day at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.
History was on the line for Serena Williams – three Slams in a row, 20 total, the Aussie-French double…
And Lucie Safarova was hungry for an upset, playing the tennis of her life to make her first major final.
It was their ninth career meeting, and Williams had a big advantage – she was 8-0 against the Czech.
And it looked like that pattern would continue on Court Philippe Chatrier on a sunny Saturday afternoon.
Williams stormed out to a 6-3, 4-1 lead in little over an hour, with points for a 6-3, 5-1 lead.
Safarova, who hadn’t dropped a set in six matches en route to the final, looked very down and out…
But there’s a reason she took out players like Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic earlier in the fortnight.
The No.13 seed came alive down 6-3, 4-1, 40-15, clawing back and taking the second set in a tie-break.
Williams was on the defense – Safarova not only took that middle set, she raced out to 2-0 in the third.
But the No.1 seed turned it around from there, reeling off six games in a row to sneak out the victory.
Williams edged Safarova out in front of an enthralled Court Philippe Chatrier crowd, 6-3, 6-7(2), 6-2.
She had her third straight Slam, her 20th overall Slam and that coveted Australian-French Open double.
She also improved to 9-0 against Safarova, though four of those nine meetings have been three-setters.
Williams will now have a massive 4,421-point lead over Petra Kvitova at the top of the WTA Rankings.
She will also extend her lead over Maria Sharapova and Simona Halep on the Road To Singapore leaderboard.
A former tennis champion became tennis’ greatest champion as the sport moved into the Open Era. Mike Davies, a man who modernized the game – first with the World Championship Tennis league, and later as part of the Association of Tennis Professionals and International Tennis Federation – passed away last Monday at 79 years old.
The Brit modeled his game after some of the best Australian men to play the game, including Ken Rosewall, Roy Emerson, and Fred Stolle. But the Amateur Era in which he first played lacked the modern elements necessary to make tennis a twentieth century sport, so he made a then-controversial decision to turn professional. Before the Open Era began, only amateurs were eligible to play tournaments like Wimbledon and the US Open; Davies was thus barred from the tournaments he would go on to help.
A year after his playing days came to an end, he joined the team that made up the World Championship Tennis, where he worked tirelessly to make tennis TV-friendly as executive director. The yellow ball and 90-second changeovers all come back to Davies, who ushered in a golden era of the game that was bigger and better than any in the tennis world had ever seen before. In 1972, for example, the WCT final – played by Rosewall and Rod Laver – drew in 21 million viewers thanks to his TV contracts.
Davies later worked as the Marketing Director at both the ATP and ITF, reviving the former and tripling revnue at the latter – creating the Grand Slam Committee which holds court over the four major tournaments he’d been unable to play. In 2012, he was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
“Mike was one of the true pioneers of our sport,” said WTA CEO Steve Simon. “His vision and appetite for innovation laid the foundation for the presentation of professional tennis as know it today.
“His passion and commitment will be greatly missed.”
Agnieszka Radwanska has Sunday’s singles shot of the day at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.
Celebrate Maria Sharapova’s birthday with a gallery of all of her WTA titles – starting with Tokyo in 2003.
It didn’t take long for her to win WTA title No.2 – she conquered Québec City shortly after winning Tokyo.
Sharapova defeated Tatiana Golovin in the Birmingham final in 2004 – the third-youngest WTA final ever.
And then, probably her most famous title – Sharapova took Wimbledon by storm just a few weeks later.
Sharapova came alive in the fall for the second straight year, beginning with a title run in Seoul…
![... and another one shortly afterwards at Tokyo [Japan Open], beating Mashona Washington in the final.](https://www.wtatennis.com/javaImages/60/d2/0,,12781~12767840,00.jpg "... and another one shortly afterwards at Tokyo [Japan Open], beating Mashona Washington in the final.")
… and another one shortly afterwards at Tokyo [Japan Open], beating Mashona Washington in the final.
She then battled back from 4-0 down in the third set to beat Serena Williams in the WTA Finals final.
![Sharapova captured three WTA titles in 2005, beginning with the Premier-level Tokyo [Pan Pacific] crown.](https://www.wtatennis.com/javaImages/64/d2/0,,12781~12767844,00.jpg "Sharapova captured three WTA titles in 2005, beginning with the Premier-level Tokyo [Pan Pacific] crown.")
Sharapova captured three WTA titles in 2005, beginning with the Premier-level Tokyo [Pan Pacific] crown.
She then followed it up with another Premier-level title a few weeks later, prevailing over in Doha, Qatar.
Sharapova’s 10th WTA title came at Birmingham in 2005, beating fellow future World No.1 Jelena Jankovic.
Five more WTA titles followed for Sharapova in 2006, beginning with her first career Indian Wells crown.
The Russian then kicked her summer hardcourt season into high gear with a title run in San Diego.
And she peaked at just the right time – Sharapova won her second Grand Slam title at the US Open.
But she wasn’t done for 2006 – she took the fall indoor season by storm too, first conquering Zürich…
… and then capturing her 15th WTA title in Linz, just before the season-ending WTA Finals in Los Angeles.
Though she finished the year in the Top 5, Sharapova brought in only one WTA title in 2007, at San Diego.
She began 2008 with a bang Down Under though, winning her third Grand Slam title at the Aussie Open.
And she then kept her winning streak alive in Doha – her second time winning that Premier-level event.
In April, Sharapova defeated Dominika Cibulkova at Amelia Island for her maiden WTA clay court title.
![It took a while after shoulder surgery, but Sharapova won her 20th WTA title at Tokyo [Pan Pacific] in 2009.](https://www.wtatennis.com/javaImages/7e/d2/0,,12781~12767870,00.jpg "It took a while after shoulder surgery, but Sharapova won her 20th WTA title at Tokyo [Pan Pacific] in 2009.")
It took a while after shoulder surgery, but Sharapova won her 20th WTA title at Tokyo [Pan Pacific] in 2009.
She got back to title-winning regularity with two International-level titles in 2010, starting with Memphis…
And then Strasbourg – the second WTA clay court title of her career after conquering Amelia Island in 2008.
She got back to the Premier-level winner’s circle in 2011, beginning on the slow clay courts of Rome.
And then a dramatic victory against Jankovic brought her another Premier-level title over in Cincinnati.
Sharapova’s domination of the 2012 clay court season brought her three WTA titles – first, Stuttgart.
And then her first successful WTA title defense in five years in Rome, edging Li Na in a nail-biting final.
Sharapova then became the second active player to complete a Career Grand Slam at Roland Garros.
Sharapova’s 2013 season brought her two Premier-level titles, beginning with Indian Wells in March…
And then another triumph on the clay of Stuttgart, beating Chinese trailblazer Li in the final.
Sharapova won four WTA titles in 2014, beginning with her milestone 30th career WTA title in Stuttgart.
She then continued her domination of the clay court season with a Premier Mandatory triumph in Madrid.
And she wrapped it up at the big one, capturing her second French Open – and fifth overall major title.
Sharapova won her fourth WTA title of 2014 at another Premier Mandatory-level tournament – Beijing.
The Russian megastar kicked off her 2015 campaign with the 34th WTA title of her career at Brisbane.
She captured her milestone 35th WTA title at the 2015 edition of her beloved Internazionali BNL d’Italia.
PALM BEACH GARDENS, FL, USA – She clinched it during the US Open, but this week it’s official – Serena Williams has the WTA Year-End World No.1 Singles Ranking presented by Dubai Duty Free.
It was another phenomenal year for Williams, of course highlighted by winning her 19th, 20th and 21st Grand Slam titles at the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon, putting her even closer to Steffi Graf’s Open Era record of 22 Grand Slam titles and Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24.
But there was so much more, including a 53-3 win-loss record, the only losses coming to Petra Kvitova (Madrid semifinals), Belinda Bencic (Toronto semifinals) and Roberta Vinci (US Open semifinals). She now has the two best season winning percentages on the tour since 1990 (.951 in 2013, .946 in 2015).
Williams also achieved a whole new level of dominance on the WTA Rankings in the summer – for six weeks the World No.1 actually had more than twice as many ranking points as the World No.2, which had never happened before in WTA Rankings history. Maria Sharapova was No.2 for three of those weeks (July 13 to August 2) and Simona Halep the other three weeks (August 24 to September 13).
But back to the present day, and it’s all about year-end No.1 – and this is the fifth time Williams has achieved that honor, making her just the fourth player in WTA history to do it five or more times.
Here’s the full list of players to have held year-end No.1 and the years they did it:
8 – Steffi Graf (1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996)
7 – Martina Navratilova (1978, 1979, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986)
5 – Chris Evert (1975, 1976, 1977, 1980, 1981)
5 – Serena Williams (2002, 2009, 2013, 2014, 2015)
4 – Lindsay Davenport (1998, 2001, 2004, 2005)
3 – Justine Henin (2003, 2006, 2007)
3 – Martina Hingis (1997, 1999, 2000)
2 – Monica Seles (1991, 1992)
2 – Caroline Wozniacki (2010, 2011)
1 – Victoria Azarenka (2012)
1 – Jelena Jankovic (2008)
This article used insights from WTA partner SAP, a worldwide leader in enterprise software.
Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza take on Garbiñe Muguruza and Carla Suárez Navarro in the doubles final of the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.
The defending French Open champions posed for an iconic photo at the Roland Garros player party.
Maria Sharapova has won here two of the last three years – she’s won 20 of her last 21 matches here.
Simona Halep reached the first Grand Slam final of her blossoming career at Roland Garros a year ago.
It’s a very special place for Ana Ivanovic too – she won her first Grand Slam title here in 2008.
That year, Carla Suárez Navarro made the quarterfinals in her first main draw at a Grand Slam event.
Alizé Cornet has a lot of home support at the French Open – she’s the No.1 player in France, after all.
Alla Kudryavtseva and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova also headed to the Eiffel Tower for the player party.
WTA Rising Star Monica Puig loves France – she won her first WTA title in Strasbourg a year ago.
Another Frenchwoman, Alizé Lim, at the party. Lim faced Serena Williams first round here last year.
And two more Frenchwomen, Mathilde Johansson and Pauline Parmentier, looking sharp at the Eiffel Tower.
PRAGUE, Czech Republic – This weekend, Maria Sharapova and her Russian teammates will step into the lion’s den, attempting to prise the Fed Cup from the Czech Republic’s grasp.
While the competition may have lost some of its lustre in the increasingly crowded tennis calendar, there is no doubting its importance to Petr Pala’s all-conquering team. Since Petra Kvitova spearheaded the Czechs to a first title as an independent nation in 2011 – Czechoslovakia triumphed four times in the 1980s – they have dominated the event, winning three more times in the next four years.
Two-time Wimbledon champion Kvitova remains the side’s figurehead, but she has been ably backed by a revolving support cast. Underpinning their success has been a level of camaraderie conspicuous by its absence at many of tennis’ other flagship events.
Speaking at the recent BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global, Kvitova – who will be joined in Prague by Lucie Safarova, Karolina Pliskova and Barbora Strycova – explained the importance of fostering this in-camp atmosphere.
“Sometimes I ask myself ‘why didn’t I play a team sport?’ because I really like it.” she said. “On the other side because we don’t have much team competition [in tennis] I enjoy it more.
“For me personally, when I’m playing and I see the bench supporting me, it helps bring a little bit more energy. We’re always able to bring our best in the moment.”
And they will need to be at their best at the capital’s O2 Arena if they are to see off a strong Russian side led by World No.4 Sharapova.
In Singapore, Sharapova – who missed virtually the entire second half of the season due to injury – produced a timely reminder of her ability to shine on the game’s grandest stages, winning all three of her round robin matches before being edged out by an on-song Kvitova in the semifinals.
Like their hosts, Russia has a strong recent record in the competition, its golden generation winning the cup in 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008. Sharapova, however, missed out on all four of these campaigns and is relishing the opportunity to add the trophy to her collection.
“I am looking forward to the final. It’s something I’ve never been a part of before, so I don’t really know what to expect,” she said.
Having played in Russia’s first round win over Poland, injury ruled Sharapova out from the semifinal with Germany. In her absence, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Elena Vesnina won the decisive doubles rubber, both of whom will return, along with Ekaterina Makarova, for the final.
“I was really proud of how the team came through in Germany, because I knew they were the underdogs coming into that match,” Sharapova added. “I’m really glad that I have another chance to compete and be part of the team. I had a really terrific experience in Poland with everyone.
“Nastia [Myskina, the team captain] was a really great team leader and I’m excited to be a part of it again.”