Tennis News

ISTANBUL, Turkey – Greek qualifier Maria Sakkari notched the biggest win of her career in the first round of the TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Cup, knocking out the No.1 seed Anna Karolina Schmiedlova in straight sets for her first ever Top 50 win.

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No.34-ranked Schmiedlova, who was playing as the top seed at a WTA event for the first time, was looking to reverse a disappointing run of form that has seen her win just one WTA match in 2016.

Meanwhile, the on-the-rise Sakkari has been knocking on the door all year, coming within a few points of a breakthrough twice previously. At the Australian Open, she made it through qualifying to reach the second round in her first appearance at the event, where she pushed the No.10 seed Carla Suárez Navarro to three sets. At the San Antonio 125K event she struck again, coming within two points of knocking out top-seeded Daria Gavrilova.

In the red clay of Istanbul’s Garanti Koza Arena, it seemed like Sakkari would be made to wait again; Schmiedlova quickly broke Sakkari’s serve in the first game, then consolidated comfortably for a 2-0 lead.

But instead of shrinking away, the 20-year-old qualifier turned up the pressure, varied the pace of her heavy groundstrokes and rattled off six straight games to take the set and leave the top seed reeling. Schmiedlova managed to get on board in the second set, but it wasn’t enough as Sakkari continued to attack the Slovak’s vulnerable second serve – she didn’t win any second serve points in the first set and only three all match long. Sakkari closed the match winning 6-2, 6-3.

“It´s the best win of my career. I am so happy,” Sakkari said after the match. “I like playing in Turkey. It feels like home here, people make me feel very welcome. I’m looking forward to my next match and hope to continue to play well.”

Sakkari will go on to play Hsieh Su-Wei in the next round. The Taiwanese player defeated Karin Knapp, 6-7(3), 7-5, 6-1.

No.8 seed Johanna Larsson also advanced to the second round after a stern challenge from Ukrainian qualifier Maryna Zanevska, who took her to within one point of defeat, 6-2, 2-6, 7-6(5). Zanevska held two match points while serving at 6-5 in the third set, but Larsson broke her to send the match into a tiebreaker, emerging victorious after a tense two hours and forty minutes.

Local favorite Cagla Buyukakcay cruised against Russian qualifier Marina Melnikova, winning 6-3, 6-3 in her opening match. She commemorated the win by delighting the crowd with a quick post-match hitting session, signing dozens of autographs and, of course, taking several selfies.

Irina Falconi did not know what to expect when she arrived in Bogota, Colombia for the Claro Open. Ranked No.92, the former Georgia Tech standout had lost seven of her last eight matches and she was about to play in tricky conditions on her least favorite surface, clay.

Then after advancing to the semifinals without dropping a set, the Ecuadorian-born American woke up on Saturday to the news that a 7.8 magnitude earthquake had torn through Portoviejo, Ecuador, the very city in which she was born. Somehow she was able to focus on the tournament and beat two clay-court stalwarts in Lara Arruabarrena and Sílvia Soler Espinosa to win her first 1st career title and boosted her ranking back up to No.67.

After the match, Falconi dedicated the win to the victims and survivors in Ecuador, but she’s vowed to do more.

WTA Insider spoke to Falconi on Monday. No surprise here: It’s been a difficult few days for the Falconi family.

Insider: How surprised are you that your first WTA title was on clay?
Falconi: Yeah, I’m pretty surprised. It’s funny because when people ask me what my favorite surface is I always say grass, and then hard court. To be the first American to win this tournament is pretty exciting.

I knew that coming in I had points to defend, which is a weekly struggle. I knew it was going to be tough with the altitude. There were going to be some challenges going there. It was more emotional. I wouldn’t say it was surprising because I know I put in the work to succeed on the court. But I would say it was just emotional.

Insider: At what point during the week did you think “Hey, I’m playing well. I could win this?”
Falconi: I think I thought that maybe at the first Championship Point. I knew that Lara Arruabarrena in the semis was going to be tough. I know Catalina Pella was going to be tough in the quarterfinals. She had just beaten the defending champion. I knew she was playing well. Then Sherazad Reix was going to be tough. She gets a lot of balls back and she can be tough being a lefty. And in the first round, as a 15 year-old you can come out and just swing away. My whole mentality the entire week was every single point. Be present at every single point. That really helped me.

I still couldn’t believe it after I won. It took three match points. There are still moments when I’ll be – like today I was walking through the airport, and I’m like ‘Oh wow, that’s really cool that happened.’

Insider: How different are the conditions in Bogota? You have the altitude but it’s also clay. It must be a very unique court.
Falconi: After 11 days being on it I can probably play on it now (laughs). I hit a drop shot the first day that ended up being a lob. That gives you an idea of what we’re dealing with. A kick serve can go over your head. You try and lob someone and it could end up in the stands. But both players have to deal with it.

Insider: I’m always curious about how players put together their schedules. Why did you choose to play Bogota?
Falconi: I won two matches there last year. I lost to Elina Svitolina in a really tough match. I knew I could play on the surface and in the conditions.

Honestly, I had a pretty crappy couple of weeks before that. I think I maybe won just one match in five weeks. So I thought, ‘Ok, let’s try and get some matches and get some momentum going.’

Insider: Tennis players lose pretty much every week. How do you stay positive when you’re stuck in a rut and your form isn’t delivering the results you’re after?
Falconi: At the end of the day you’re a week away. You’re a week away from getting your mojo back, cracking the Top 100, getting into a main draw at a Slam. You’re one good week away from hitting your career high. My coach and I always say, you need five good weeks out of the whole year to be Top 100. Five good weeks. Then you have a few ok weeks, and then you have 10 bad weeks, and you can be Top 100 in the world.

Above all you have to have that mentality that it does take a few matches until you can find your rhythm. You never know what could happen. If you would have told me a few weeks ago that this would happen, that I would win this, I would have been like “Right, sure, have you seen my record this year?”

Insider: Are you the type of person who finds it easy to stay positive? Or do you skew negative?
Falconi: It can get extremely tough if you allow it to. If you ask anyone I try to stay super positive. I’ve dealt with friends, players, co-workers I guess who are in the same boat as me, they’re toxic sometimes because they’re so negative.

It’s just a matter of instilling in your own mindset and other people’s mindset that I understand what you’re going through but you have to see it in a positive. Obviously it’s hard to stay positive after losing four first rounds in a row. But at the end of the day if you just continue chipping away and you know what you’re doing is good, it all pays off in the end.

Insider: You were born in Portoviejo, Ecuador, which was one of the most heavily affected cities in the earthquake. You still have a lot of family there. I believe after the match that your father was actually in Ecuador when the earthquake hit on Saturday?
Falconi: He actually happened to leave just the day before it happened. A good chunk of my family is still there. A lot has been affected by everything but thankfully there have been no casualties. The house I was born in that I happened to see for the first time last year, is gone. It’s been really bittersweet because at the end of the day, ‘Oh yay you won a tournament,’ but people are dying.

It’s really tough because people are asking me what message I have for the people there and…what can I possibly say to them? Obviously I’m sending so many prayers and my team and I are looking to see how we can donate and help the victims and families over there. At the end of the day all you can do is continue praying and hope everyone is ok.

I understand there are a lot of people who have lost loved ones. It’s been really tough, to be honest. I spoke with a few family members and they can’t stop crying. How am I going to be gloating [about a title] around that?

I won a title but believe it or not I’ve been really low key about it. One of my friends Shelby Rogers asked me how things are going over there. It puts everything in perspective. Oh you won a WTA tournament. Then you talk to someone and they just lost their home where they’ve grown up all their life. It’s just been bittersweet to say the least. There’s been a lot of angst and, to be honest, there’s no right way how to act.

Insider: How did you find out about the earthquake and how hard was it to focus on tennis?
Falconi: I got the news the morning of the semifinal match on Saturday. We have a Whatsapp group with over 100 family members and we started getting a bunch of messages and I didn’t know what to think at first. I was trying to focus on the match. But my mom couldn’t get a hold of my dad. It was really scary. There’s no wi-fi, there’s no light, there’s no water. And it just happened to be my birthplace, my hometown, where I grew up for three years, that was the most affected.

Insider: You said you’re working through some ideas on how to help the victims and survivors in Ecuador. Do you have a sense of what you want to do yet?
Falconi: I’m still working through it with my family and my team. I’d just ask people to keep tabs on me and I’ll announce what I plan to do donation-wise and how people can help.

Follow Irina on Twitter @IrinaFalconi.

Editor’s Note: Falconi has created a donation page to raise money for the Ecuador Earthquake relief effort, and shared the following details on her Twitter account:

Hey guys, as you know I’m raising money to be donated for Ecuador Earthquake relief…

— Irina Falconi (@IrinaFalconi) April 20, 2016

The goal is $5,000 but I'm willing to match the total donation number, up to $5,000!…

— Irina Falconi (@IrinaFalconi) April 20, 2016

Also, the highest single donation will receive the shoes and racquet that I used to win the WTA title in Bogota…

— Irina Falconi (@IrinaFalconi) April 20, 2016

THIS IS THE LINK TO DONATE MONEY FOR ECUADOR EARTHQUAKE RELIEF! https://t.co/aiDFjjOoVP
Please share and know that every bit helps <3

— Irina Falconi (@IrinaFalconi) April 20, 2016

 – All photos courtesy of Claro Open Colsanitas

A change will do you good. For Julia Goerges, it was time for a new voice. After finishing the 2015 season ranked No.50, her highest season-ending rank since her breakout 2011-2012 seasons, the 27-year-old German ended her seven-year partnership with coach Sascha Nensel and brought on Michael Geserer. The decision has paid off and as the European clay court season begins, Goerges is shaping up to be one of the more dangerous unseeded player in the draws.

Goerges knew Geserer from club tennis in Germany, where he had been coaching her club team in Regensburg. Geserer made his mark by coaching Germany’s No.1 male player Philipp Kohlschreiber for years but had since chosen to step away from the tour to focus on family.

“I was playing for this club for the last two years, and I’m still playing,” Goerges told WTA Insider in March. “He was coaching me on the bench there for some matches. I’d gotten to know him for a bit longer before, and I really liked his way of saying things, very calm and has a good plan behind it. He sees a lot of good things, and tactically-wise he’s also very good.

“I thought I was going to ask him, but I didn’t really expect a yes because I knew he doesn’t want to travel anymore because he has two kids and a wife at home, so it’s not easy. I said, ‘Ok, why not ask? You can only get a no!’ He thought about it, and luckily, he changed his mind.”

In order to give Geserer as much time at home as possible, Goerges also brought on a second coach, Mathias Mischka, who works with her eight weeks out of the year. The entire team lives just five minutes from each other in Regensburg, 50 minutes outside of Munich. Goerges relocated to Regensburg from Hamburg during the off-season.

“It’s not very new for me because my mom was originally from there. It’s kind of like my childhood area! It’s very exciting and we all live close together so it’s very nice. We don’t need to travel to train somewhere, so we’re able to stay home. It’s very focused.”

Goerges’ signature seasons saw her reach a career-high ranking of No. 15 in 2012 and put together a stunning run to the title at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in 2011; Stuttgart remains her biggest title to date.

Gifted with incredible power off the ground and on serve, she struggled with her consistency in the ensuing years and failed to replicate her earlier results. But after making the fourth round at two majors last season (Australian Open, French Open) Goerges found herself back on the right path. Which is why her off-season decision to swap coaches came, at first blush, as a surprise.

“I was working with my team before for seven years, and I thought this was a time when I needed to change something because I’d just turned 27, and I think I still have some good years ahead of me, and that’s the best time to change something – in the middle of your best age of your career.

“After seven years, I think you need to hear a different voice sometimes. I said, ‘Ok, I’ll take this new path, and looking for a new team.’ I took the right decision, in my opinion, because it’s always good to have a new team around, one you can put your trust into and it’s working pretty good, I can say.”

Goerges started the season by making her first final since 2012, losing to Sloane Stephens at the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand. She’s also notched quality wins over Svetlana Kuznetsova at the Dubai Duty Free Championships and Samantha Stosur at the Miami Open. This week she joined the flurry of Germans into the second round of Stuttgart with a 6-4, 6-0 win over Alizé Cornet. Working with Geserer and Mischka hasn’t transformed her game, but it’s reinvigorated her emotionally.

“It’s probably not that different, but sometimes it’s just the voice that makes it different,” she said when asked about the differences between teams. “It’s probably the same things that we’re working on, but a new voice gets to other parts in the brain.

“I’m completely feeling like a new human being. I’m much more positive and forgiving myself of a lot of mistakes, what I haven’t done in past years. That’s something that’s working well.

“With a final at the beginning of the year, I think nobody expected that to happen in the first week. I know that I’m capable of playing in finals, but for it to happen in the first week of the year was a nice bonus. We’d been working together for just six weeks during the off-season, and it’s nice to have a good result like this. Also, with the doubles now, it’s kind of all working together, because even those doubles matches are helping me for singles.”

Tennis players will be quick to tell you that winning is winning. It doesn’t matter at what level of tournament or whether it’s in singles or doubles. For Goerges, her pairing with Karolina Pliskova in doubles has led to quick success too. The two have yet to win a title but since pairing last fall in Asia they made the quarterfinals in Wuhan and Beijing, the Australian Open semifinals – losing to eventual champions Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza – and the Indian Wells final. It’s a partnership that could see the two book a spot into the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global at the end of the season.

“I asked Kaja last year in Canada or Cincinnati if she wanted to play Wuhan and Beijing. She was always waiting for her sister to combine for doubles and play. I said, ‘If you want to play, we can. If not, I’ll look for someone else.’ At the end, we said we would play Wuhan and Beijing. We made the quarters of both and only lost to the No.2 and No.1 teams in the world.

“We had a lot of fun. She’s a very lovely girl and she’s very relaxed, which I like because it’s always about good communication in doubles and good connection. I have to be around positive energy, and it’s not easy if you’ve been playing singles for a while and go back into doubles. So you really have to have someone who can keep you up.

“Off the court, we get along very well and that’s something that makes me think I’ve found a really, really good partner. We just want to play the big tournaments this year, and if we do well and have a chance to go to the [WTA Finals], we’ll play some more. So far, we’ve taken it very seriously in the two events this year. We’re just enjoying it and having a very good time together, on and off the court.”

After an off-season that saw her focus primarily on fitness, Goerges says she’s much calmer on the court these days. She has confidence in her physicality and her ability to hang in the rally, which allows her to be more patient. At her worst, Goerges can pull the trigger early and recklessly in the rally, spraying the ball mightily with her fluid but extreme forehand grip. At her best she’s an all court player, something she’s been focusing on getting back to.

“For me, it’s important to find the balance between being aggressive and being a solid player. I have the capability to play with a lot of spin on my ball, which makes it a bit different for the other girls because a lot of women are playing flat, flat, flat, and hard, hard, hard.

“For me, it’s important to get the spin on the ball, have the control over the ball, and really mixing it up between flat and aggressive with spin. This is something where I say, ‘If I really play well, I don’t make many mistakes, but am still being aggressive at the same time, which makes it really tough for the opponent to have a good depth on the ball. But at the same time, I can really flatten out the ball as well.’

Goerges plays her second round match in Stuttgart against sixth-seed Roberta Vinci on Thursday.

All photos courtesy of Getty Images.

ISTANBUL, Turkey – On Friday afternoon, Cagla Buyukakcay created a little piece of history when she swatted aside No.6 seed Nao Hibino in the quarterfinals of the TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Cup.

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In a display of poise and passion, Buyukakcay delighted a bumper crowd with a 6-1, 6-2 victory that sees her become the first Turkish player to reach the semifinals of a WTA tournament.

After her first-round match, Hibino admitted to being a relative novice on the clay and it was a chastening experience against a visibly motivated opponent. Slipping and sliding to all corners of the court, the Japanese player was powerless to stop Buyukakcay romping through the opening set.

A pin-point backhand brought an early break in the second and from there Buyukakcay rode a wave of emotion all the way to the winning post.

“I’m so happy to be in the semifinals at home. Before I was feeling pressure at home and this year I’m enjoying the atmosphere,” Buyukakcay said. “For my career, obviously it’s important to compete at a high level and have good wins. It was one of my best performances and I’m happy it was at home – I’m even more hungry for the next match.”

There she will face another unseeded player, Stefanie Voegele, who defeated Kristina Kucova, 7-5, 6-2, in the following match on court.

“I don’t have anything to lose out there,” Buyukakcay added. “Of course I will do my best and I hope to reach the final. She has beaten some great players, so for sure it will be tough.”

Also through to the last four is No.5 seed Danka Kovinic, who overcame a disastrous start to see off qualifier Maria Sakkari, 1-6, 6-1, 6-2. “Since last year I think I was in seven quarterfinals and finally I am in a semifinal,” Kovinic said. “I didn’t start very well – a lot of unforced errors and she didn’t miss – but after I tried to make more pressure on her, my balls were deeper on the baseline and I think that was the key.

“The third set was a battle, a lot of pressure but maybe I was a bit lucky. But I stayed positive and did not make a lot of mistakes at the end of the match.”

Meeting Kovinic for a place in the final will be Kateryna Kozlova after she defeated Anastasija Sevastova, 6-2, 6-3, in the evening session.