Rome: Konta Interview
An interview with Johanna Konta after her win in the second round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.
An interview with Johanna Konta after her win in the second round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.
CoCo Vandeweghe discusses her quarterfinal win over Garbine Muguruza in a press conference at the Australian Open.
Venus and Serena Williams are in the final of the Australian Open, the first all-Williams Grand Slam final since 2009. So how did we get here? Take a look back at the best photos of the fortnight!
Top seed Serena Williams and a pair of top Spaniards lead the top half of the draw as the field begins fighting for spots in the quarterfinals. Who will advance first into the final eight?
MELBOURNE, Australia – The bottom half of the Australian Open draw concludes the quarterfinal match-ups in Melbourne, featuring the much-anticipated clash between six-time champion Serena Williams and Johanna Konta, the in-form semifinalist from last year. No.5 seed Karolina Pliskova also hopes to continue her unbeaten run in 2017 against Cinderella story Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, who is into her first major quarterfinal in nearly two decades.
We preview all the Day 10 matchups right here on wtatennis.com.
Wednesday, Quarterfinals
[5] Karolina Pliskova (CZE #5) vs Mirjana Lucic-Baroni (CRO #79)
Head-to-head: Pliskova leads, 3-2
Key Stat: Both Pliskova and Lucic-Baroni are playing in their second Grand Slam quarterfinals (Pliskova, 2016 US Open, Lucic-Baroni, 1999 Wimbledon).
Pliskova made her first 17 Grand Slam appearances without making the second week, but the Brisbane International champion is making up for lost time in her second straight major quarterfinal since reaching the US Open final.
It was a much longer drought for Lucic-Baroni, who needed 18 years to back up her breakthrough run at the 1999 Wimbledon Championships after a mix of personal and financial problems kept her off the tour for almost a decade.
The 34-year-old veteran takes on Pliskova for the first time since the 2015, when the two split their two meetings that season; Lucic-Baroni lost their most recent encounter in a third-set tie-break at the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open.
Pliskova has dropped just two sets all season, emerging victorious from a 10-8 final set against Latvian youngster Jelena Ostapenko to brush aside No.22 seed Daria Gavrilova in front of her home crowd.
Can Lucic-Baroni win the battle of big hitters to continue her fairytale run, or will Pliskova continue her newfound dominance at majors and reach another semifinal?
[9] Johanna Konta (GBR #9) vs [2] Serena Williams (USA #2)
Head-to-head: First meeting
Key Stat: Konta has dropped serve twice in four matches (tournament leader).
With defending champion Angelique Kerber out at the hands of CoCo Vandeweghe, Serena Williams suddenly found herself in a solid position to reclaim the No.1 ranking from her rival. To do it, she’ll also need to take home the Open Era record of 23 Grand Slam titles and her seventh Down Under.
Standing between her and the semifinals is an unfamiliar foe in Johanna Konta, the fastest rising force in women’s tennis since her initial 16-match winning streak in the summer of 2015.
Konta has been ruthless through four rounds, knocking out former No.1 Caroline Wozniacki and 2015 semifinalist Ekaterina Makarova en route to her second straight quarterfinal in Melbourne.
Serena has taken out on-fire opponents in the past; can she solve the unflappable Brit on Rod Laver Arena, or will Konta keep up her potentially Slam-winning form into the final four?
Around the Grounds…
The women’s and mixed doubles events are rounding into form, and both feature doubles No.1 Bethanie Mattek-Sands. The American rejoins Lucie Safarova to take on the unseeded Japanese duo of Eri Hozumi and Miyu Kato. Meanwhile, top seeds Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic will need to turn around from their three-set thriller over Aussies Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua to play No.12 seeds Andrea Hlavackova and Peng Shuai, who dispatched reigning Olympic champions Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in two tight sets on Tuesday.
In mixed, No.2 seed Sania Mirza will partner Ivan Dodig for a second day in a row as they try to reach a second straight Australian Open semifinal; aiming to stop them are an unseeded pair in Gabriela Dabrowski and Mirza’s countryman, Rohan Bopanna.
All photos courtesy of Getty Images.
ROME, Italy – Madison Keys gritted through a tough opening set to battle past Timea Babos, 7-6(2), 6-3, to achieve a career-best result at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.
Watch highlights, interviews and more video from Rome right here on wtatennis.com!
There was little between the two in the opening set, as the Hungarian forced a tie-break to conclude a run of 12 straight service holds.
“The first set was definitely back and forth, just big serving,” Keys said in her post-match press conference. “Neither one of us could kind of get a read on where the other person was serving. But there was a couple of points in the tiebreaker where I really kind of put the point together a little bit better.”
But Keys took the initiative from there, racing out to a 5-1 lead in the sudden death and didn’t look back, taking the match in 82 minutes behind 26 winners to 22 unforced errors.
“Then after that, I just got a little bit more rhythm and confidence, and then from there I was able to break early in the second. That definitely helped the momentum kind of go more towards my side.”
Great hands, @TimeaBabos! #ibi16 https://t.co/J3SnXQ15sM
— WTA (@WTA) May 12, 2016
Both had earned upsets during Wednesday’s night session, but Babos’ nearly three hour win over former No.1 Venus Williams seemed to take its toll in the second set, as the Hungarian could only muster 16 winners and 26 unforced errors, only engineering one break point opportunity in two sets.
“I usually don’t do great here,” Keys continued. “And so, you know, putting a couple wins together felt really good. I’m not going to jinx it,” she said, knocking on wood.
“It feels like I’m kind of figuring it out just a little bit better. From there, you know, I’m putting more points together and kind of putting it all together a little bit better than before.
Awaiting Keys in her first Premier 5 clay court quarterfinal is Barbora Strycova, who played a perfect match to dismantle Eugenie Bouchard, 6-1, 6-0.
“It’s easy to get ahead of yourself and overthink things and put yourself in a round before you’ve actually even played,” Keys said. “I think it happens to everyone at times.
“So just really being focused on each match and doing what you need to do in that match has been a big thing for me.”
Bouchard was coming off of her first Top 5 win since 2014, having upset World No.2 and reigning Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber in three sets. But Strycova, who won their most recent encounter at last year’s Mutua Madrid Open, played flawless tennis from start to finish, hitting 18 winners to only 15 unforced errors and breaking serve six times to take the match in just over an hour.
“I saw the ball like a football! I enjoyed the court; it was very nice, and the spectators stayed. It was a good evening,” an elated Strycova said after the match.
“I was playing my game very well; I was pretty confident on court, hitting the ball. It was pretty cold, so I had to get my body moving at the beginning.”
Going from strength to strength as the match wore on, Strycova’s confidence was evident with every winner she hit, several on the run and from defensive positions. Into her second Premier 5 quarterfinal of 2016, Strycova will look to avenge last week’s Madrid loss to Keys, who defeated her in straight sets.
“Clay isn’t my favorite surface, until now!” she said with a laugh. “I’m trying to like it; I was working hard before Prague. I’m enjoying myself, enjoying Rome.
“[Keys] is such a big hitter, and I’m so small, so I have to be ready to try to return her serves. I’ll have to run and catch some fast balls!”
.@BaraStrycova races through the opening set vs Bouchard 6-1! #ibi16 https://t.co/fWi0V9114i
— WTA (@WTA) May 12, 2016
MELBOURNE, Australia – When we think of fairytales, we think of magic. Fairytales are, after all, an attempt to explain the unthinkable. To do so they dip into the supernatural – glass slippers, fairy godmothers, conjured spells and potions – all to explain why, despite the odds against them, good things happen to good people.
Fairytales are nice, but the real thing is better. So much better. And tennis, a sport that gives you a chance for redemption every week, has offered up a story that not even Disney could inspire.
On Wednesday, 34-year-old Mirjana Lucic-Baroni scored her second Top 5 win of the Australian Open, beating No.5 seed Karolina Pliskova, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to advance to her first Slam semifinal in 18 years. With a left leg bearing rounds of tape and a rosary around her neck, Lucic-Baroni made good on her promises that she had more to do in tennis. And she did it not with the help of magic or spells, but by pure, unadulterated hard work.
#LucicBaroni in tears: “I never could dream about being here again. I will never forget this day.” #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/0xSL6HCol8
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 25, 2017
“It’s just perseverance,” Lucic-Baroni said. “It’s just kind of ignoring everything and just pushing forward and kind of going through the wall. It’s not going but you keep pushing and you keep pushing, and nothing is working, and you keep pushing. That belief that eventually it will change.
“I think that’s what perseverance is, and I feel like that’s what helped me get here.
“This is what I’ve been dreaming about, this is what I’ve been training for. At 34 years old, like I said before, I have a wonderful home. I’m happily married. I would be perfectly okay being at home enjoying my family.
“But I really knew deep down in my soul that I have these results in me. To now be here and actually live these moments, it’s incredible.”
“This time it's incredibly special…it's fun to prove everyone wrong.”
Mirjana Lucic-Baroni on contrasting Semifinal appearances #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/XuafFZy1Qj
— WTA (@WTA) January 25, 2017
What does that feel like, to have that belief at your core that there is still greatness within you? It’s easy to understand that conviction when you’re young. The eyes are brighter, the heart full of optimism and hope. The world has not yet had the time to cruelly sap it out of you and turn you cynical and jaded. The body feels fresh and ready to jump at every chance, on any command. Ambition is easy when the failures are few.
“When I was younger, I just believed because I won a lot and it was that confidence you simply have because you’re winning all the time,” Lucic-Baroni said.
With Lucic-Baroni reaching her second ever Grand Slam semi-final, we're throwing it back to her first at #Wimbledon 1999…
Those rallies ? pic.twitter.com/ZaZUlg4hvi
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) January 25, 2017
She would know. Lucic-Baroni was a two-time junior Slam champion by the time she was 14-years-old, won two matches in her Grand Slam debut at 15 years old, and was into the Wimbledon semifinals at 17. She was a prodigy in an era of prodigies. And then it was taken away from her for reasons not in her control.
“When you stop winning as much and you don’t play for a long time, you definitely lose it a little bit,” she said. “Not even lose it, you forget it. You forget deep down kind of who you are on the court. That has happened to me a little bit, where I struggled for a few years. And I’m really glad that I remembered.”
Mirjana #LucicBaroni is through to the SF #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/ywsCOXuXpz
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 25, 2017
The circumstances surrounding Lucic-Baroni’s fade during the early 2000s due to her abusive father have been well-documented. Though there has been rampant speculation regarding the details, she has opted not to discuss it.
“A part of it is I just want to say because people assume a lot, and people don’t know,” she explained. “That irritates me when people assume things like injuries and things like that and people write about it. I understand it’s your guys’ job to write about it. A lot of it is speculation.
“At other times I really want to keep those things to myself, and I don’t want to tell anybody anything, and I don’t want to focus so much on that.
“I kind of want to be known as amazing fighter, a person who persevered against everything, against all odds. And that’s what I take pride in.”
“This has truly made my life…it has made it okay.” #LucicBaroni #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/SeE9ePoqOo
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 25, 2017
There was no more poignant moment during her emotional post-match interview than when a tearful Lucic-Baroni was asked what her two weeks in Melbourne – which was already a feel-good story after she won her first round match, her first Australian Open win in 19 years – has meant to her.
“I know it means a lot to every player to reach the semifinals but to me this is overwhelming,” she said through the tears. “This has truly made my life and everything bad that happened, it has made it ok. Just that I was this strong and it was worth fighting this hard, it’s just really incredible.”
Incredible is the word. Lucic-Baroni has gone from a cautionary tale to one of the game’s inspiring pillars. She has every right to be bitter in the face of her tragic history. But there are no dark clouds around her. She has a sunny disposition, eager to discuss her tennis and on-court struggles, while offering a wise perspective to her career. She has no clothing sponsor. She’s not on Twitter. There is no air of self-pity or entitlement. There is only a purity of desire and defiance, to take back what was taken from her and show the world that she has what it takes. That she always had what it takes.
After beating No.3 Agnieszka Radwanska in the second round, Lucic-Baroni made it clear that she wasn’t out here just to have fun. She was still toiling away with a purpose. “I didn’t go to see the court and enjoy,” she said. “I’m way too old and I’ve been around way too long to just gain experience. I came there to win the match. Feelings like tonight are incredible on court. You can’t replicate it anywhere else in life.”
Regardless of what happens over the next few days, she will rise to a career-high ranking on Monday, surpassing the No.32 she peaked at nearly two decades ago. When she faces Serena on Thursday, the two will be facing off for the first time since Wimbledon back in 1998.
Mirjana Lucic(-Baroni) and Serena Williams will face off in 2017 #AusOpen semifinals. Here they are in their last match: Wimbledon 1998! pic.twitter.com/vEtPtxnUnN
— History of Tennis (@HistoryOfTennis) January 25, 2017
“I’m really happy for Mirjana,” Serena said. “I was there when she first started. To see her be able to never give up actually is super inspiring to me. It’s a wonderful story.”
Perserverance has been the theme of the 2017 Australian Open. Along with Venus Williams and Serena Williams, this has been a tournament carried by prodigies-turned-veterans, who continue to reset the perceived age barrier in tennis. While Serena continues to chase history and grapple at the top of the game, Venus has now made the semifinals in two of her last three Slams.
After making her first Australian Open semifinal since 2003 on Tuesday, Venus was asked why she’s still in the game at age 36. “I have a lot to give,” she said. “I have a lot to give to the game. I feel like I have a lot of great tennis in me. So any time you feel that way, you continue.
“Why not? I have nothing to lose, literally.”
Left: Lucic-Baroni, 17 y/o Semifinalist at WImbledon.
Right: Lucic-Baroni, 34 y/o Semifinalist at #AusOpen.
How can you not love this sport? pic.twitter.com/ikVNCTjeX1— Tennis Hall of Fame (@TennisHalloFame) January 25, 2017
“This time, it’s incredibly special, especially since it’s been so long since the last time I’ve been in semifinals,” Lucic-Baroni said. “And the struggle has been so much bigger, and nobody in this world thought I could ever be here again, beside my closest family, my coach, and my brothers, my sisters, my husband, my mom. Beside my little circle, I don’t think anybody believed that I could do it. And it’s really fun.
“It’s fun to prove everybody wrong, and it’s fun to enjoy this for myself and live these incredible moments. It’s more special this time, for sure.”
A strong serving performance led Serena Williams to a 6-2 6-0 victory over Svetlana Kuznetsova in the Rome quarterfinals. According to SAP Tennis Analytics for Coaches, Williams exceeded her season averages in every serving category in her 51 minute victory Friday.
Six weeks ago, Kuznetsova defeated the World No.1 as Williams struggled with her service in Miami. In Rome, the Williams serve was vastly improved.
Williams put 78% of her first serves in play Friday, up considerably from her season average of 60%. The SAP Coaches View analytics also show that percentage was just 63% in the Miami match, which included a combined 56% in the final two sets, which Williams lost.
At 74%, Williams leads the WTA in first serve points won. On Friday, she did even better, winning 81% of first serve points. That is also a significant improvement over the Miami match in which she won only 60% of first serve points, and that dipped to 53% in her two losing sets.
She was also improved on second serves, winning 56 percent of those points, compared to her season percentage of 50%. In the Miami loss, Williams won only 39% of those points in total, and just 28% in the final two sets.
The SAP Coaches View combines scoring information direct from the chair umpire with tracking data from HawkEye to allow for an in depth look at five different aspects of a match. Each tracking option can be filtered to narrow the focus to specific situations within a match, such as break points. This information is available directly to coaches in real-time during a match on their SAP tablet and also available to them online after matches.
“Service” tracking shows the landing point for all serves. The display differentiates between first serves, second serves and aces. Additional data on the screen shows the percentage of overall service points won as well as looking specifically at first and second serves.
For Serena Williams on Friday, there were many positives to take from this data.
ROME, Italy – Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza moved confidently into their third consecutive clay court final with a straight set win over Irina-Camelia Begu and Monica Niculescu on Saturday evening.
For the first time since teaming up, Hingis and Mirza have found their status as the most talked about team on tour under threat in recent weeks. Defeats to emerging rivals Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic in Stuttgart and Madrid saw the World No.1s arrive in Rome with a point to prove.
At the Foro Italico, though, Hingis and Mirza have been faultless, negotiating a tricky draw with consummate ease. Against Begu and Niculescu they raced into a 4-0 lead, and while this level proved unsustainable the top seeds still ran out comfortable 6-3, 6-4 winners.
Standing between them and a fifth title of 2016 will be No.7 seeds Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina.
Form and fitness problems have seen the Russians slip down the rankings, but judging by performances this week they are rounding into form at just the right time. Against No.4 seeds Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka they were particularly impressive, withstanding a late charge to run out 6-2, 7-5 winners.
Let's rewatch @mhingis and @MirzaSania's match point! They are going straight to the #ibi16 doubles final! #WTA pic.twitter.com/1Pg7ATVZZ7
— Internazionali Bnl (@InteBNLdItalia) May 14, 2016
For the 28th time in history Venus and Serena Williams will compete against each other. Take a look back at every single encounter of their historic rivalry, right here!