Tennis News

Radwanska and Halep sound off: Losing will never sit well with any player. Losing when feeling like your health has been put at risk? That will result in some angry players.

Both No.2 seed Agnieszka Radwanska and No.6 seed Simona Halep were the favorites to win their suspended matches from Sunday, with both women holding an advantage on the scoreboard when play resumed in their fourth round matches on Tuesday. Radwanska led No.102 Tsvetana Pironkova 6-2, 3-0 and Halep led No.21 seed Sam Stosur 5-3 in the first set.

After a late start due to the never-ending rain that triggered the first washout at Roland Garros in 16 years on Monday, the players took to their respective courts with rain and drizzle still coming down. Fans in the stadium had their umbrellas up and ponchos on, and the damp conditions clearly got into Radwanska and Halep’s heads.

Radwanska lost 10 consecutive games on the restart and lost to Pironkova 2-6, 6-3, 6-3. Halep struggled to find a way to solve a top-form Stosur, who rallied to win 7-6(0), 6-3. Afterwards, the women on the losing ends let their frustration out.

“I’m just so surprised and angry, that we have to play in the rain,” Radwanska said. “It’s not a $10,000 tournament. It’s a Grand Slam. How can you allow players to play in the rain? I cannot play in that conditions.”

Radwanska called a medical timeout at 0-4 in the third set for her right hand, which required surgery a few years ago. “Playing with those balls in that kind of court is pretty much impossible,” she said. “So, I mean, I tried. Maybe I played worse, did worse things other days than when we start to play that match, but it definitely shouldn’t be like this. We shouldn’t play in that kind of rain. Why? We still have couple of days of tournament. What’s the point?”

Halep said she did not feel safe on the court from the moment they walked out. “I don’t care that I lost the match today, but I was close to get injured with my back, so that’s a big problem.”

“I mean, in my opinion [Stosur] played really well and she deserved to win. Her ball was very heavy to return, and her serve especially. She did a great match.”

Radwanska voiced her concerns to the umpire when it began to drizzle again in the third set, but Halep did not raise any concerns until after the match in her press conference. Both women complained about the wet balls and slippery conditions. When told the men’s matches that followed theirs ended when the players complained to the umpire and supervisor and ultimately walked off the court, Halep gave them the literal ‘thumbs up’. “Well done to them.”

“I have no words,” Halep said. “It was impossible to play, in my opinion. And to play tennis matches during the rain I think it’s a bit too much. But everyone was in the same situation, and who was stronger won today.”

Asked why she believed the players were put on court despite the damp weather, Halep deferred to tournament organizers. “Maybe they are scared because the tournament is going, the days are going on and they don’t play matches.

“But is not our fault. Is not their fault. But the decisions were not, I think, the best.”

Samantha Stosur returns to the quarterfinals: For the first time since 2012, Stosur is back into the quarterfinals of a major. The 32-year-old, who made the final here in 2010, backed up her big third round win over Lucie Safarova with another self-assured performance to beat Halep for her first Top 10 win since 2014.

“I don’t typically like the heavy, wet, damp conditions, but today I was able to use them I think a lot better, I think, than she was,” Stosur said. “I didn’t necessarily think about hitting with heavy spin, but more higher over the net I guess to get the same kind of result.

“Having a slice backhand I can then hit it a bit shorter, keep it low over the net. The court is dead and wet. If you keep it low it doesn’t bounce that much. I think that really kept her off-balance when I was hitting my slice, whether I was going deep or short. Yeah, when it’s harder to move, that makes it just that a little bit harder. Like I said, then with my forehand, just that little bit of extra height to push her back was working well for me.”

As for the court conditions, Stosur did as an Aussie does: She sucked it up and just played. “I guess in this situation they need – every minute counts, and I’m just playing,” the 2011 US Open champion said. “If the umpire says we’re stopping, we’re stopping. I don’t know what the forecast is. I know what it feels like out there and I know it was raining for the first time we went out today, but the court was okay for the most part.

Samantha Stosur est en quarts de finale après sa victoire contre Simona Halep 7-6 6-3 #RG16 https://t.co/SV1bmkbnbo

— Roland Garros (@rolandgarros) May 31, 2016

“I don’t think Simona was complaining about it. Again, we’re told to play, we play. If it gets too wet you’ve got to say something. Yeah, I mean, like it’s not good out there, but it was fine for us.”

Despite a good run to the final of the J&T Banka Prague Open, where she lost to Safarova, and the semifinals of the Madrid Open, where she lost to Halep, Stosur came into Paris under the radar. She withdrew from the Internationaux de Strasbourg quarterfinals with a left wrist injury, which clouded her chances here at her, arguably, best Slam. Clearly it hasn’t been an issue. She’s hitting her backhand and slice better than ever.

“Yeah, look, I didn’t know what kind of result or performance I was going to have regardless of the wrist injury,” Stosur said with a laugh, “but I did exactly what I needed to do for that and sort it out and came here early.

“It was unfortunate I had to pull out of Strasbourg, but I needed those days to recover. Thankfully, touch wood, it’s been okay so far. I’m not struggling with it at all. I’m not even thinking about it now. I still have it taped, but it’s not bothering me and I’m able to play some of my best tennis.”

Tsvetana Pironkova sheds her grass court label: The conventional book on the Bulgarian was she was a danger on fast, low-bouncing surfaces like grass. She was a Wimbledon semifinalist in 2010, quarterfinalist in 2011, and made the Round of 16 in 2013. Two years ago she came out of nowhere to win the Sydney International, another fast hardcourt event, as a qualifier.

But muddy, wet, heavy clay? As even Pironkova admitted, “It’s not my thing.”

“I’m not a player who likes slow courts, heavy balls, obviously, but I kind of tried to leave the fact that it’s raining out of my mind and just focus on each and every point. Obviously that worked.”

Ranked No.102, Pironkova hasn’t shown the results to telegraph her first quarterfinal run at Roland Garros, but results can be deceiving.

“I could say I’m surprised, but I think coming to the tournament I was in a very good shape,” Pironkova said. “My results in the previous tournaments didn’t show it, but I was feeling good. Every time someone from the media or my friends asked me, How are you feeling? I was like, It’s strange, but I feel very good.

“So obviously the time came, and right now I showed that actually I’m feeling in a good form.”

Her win over Radwanska was her first Top 10 win since that run to the Sydney title in 2014, and it backed up a dominant win over No.19 seed Sloane Stephens, 6-2, 6-1, in the third round. But it was her opening win over 2012 finalist Sara Errani in the first round that made her believe something big could happen in Paris.

“I played really well, and that match showed me that I have the chance and I should fight for it,” she said.

Update: The R16 match between Svitolina and Serena has been postponed until Wednesday. #RG16 pic.twitter.com/3qz02MxpC4

— Roland Garros (@rolandgarros) May 31, 2016

Rain postpones completion of the Round of 16: The tournament was able to get just over two-hours of play in the books before play was eventually called for rain before 7pm. While the bottom half quarterfinals are now set (Shelby Rogers vs. Garbiñe Muguruza, Samantha Stosur vs. Tsvetana Pironkova), the remaining four fourth round matches – Serena Williams vs. Elina Svitolina, Venus Williams vs. Timea Bacsinszky, Carla Suárez Navarro vs. Yulia Putintseva, and Madison Keys vs. Kiki Bertens – were pushed to Wednesday.

Any Given Week: Fortunes can change in a heartbeat in tennis, and we’ve seen that play out week after week in 2016. Stosur lost to Safarova and Halep in the two biggest results of her clay court run up. She avenged both loses in back-to-back matches in Paris. A couple of forehands here, an ace on break point there, a backhand that floats in instead of long, the margins in the sport are tiny.

“Tennis is something – it can change quickly,” Stosur said. “I was reading the other day, Shelby Rogers, she lost in qualifying in Strasbourg and now she’s in the quarters. One tournament to the next, smallest tournament on tour and the biggest one. She’s had polar opposite results. Shows how quickly things can turn around. Also, the margins are so small. You can make big changes very quickly if you’re prepared to, you know, take them.”

All photos courtesy of Getty Images.

MELBOURNE, Australia – Johanna Konta will play the biggest match of her career on Wednesday when she faces six-time champion Serena Williams in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. By all accounts, the 25-year-old doesn’t even see it that way.

Konta, who is riding an eight-match winning streak after taking the Apia International Sydney title, has won her last 18 sets of tennis. Her serve, a weapon that has emerged as the cornerstone of her game, has been broken just twice in Melbourne. There’s no reason for Konta to be short of confidence going into her first career meeting against Serena, but the humble Brit’s approach to her tennis these days is what sets her apart from the pack.

Look no further than the final game she played to beat Ekaterina Makarova, 6-1, 6-4 in the Round of 16 on Monday. Serving to close out the match, Konta found herself down 0-40, a point away from finding herself back on serve against the talented Russian. She saved the first break point with an unreturnable first serve, the second with a forehand winner, and the third with an ace, cool as you like. Four points later, the match was over.

Closing out matches, handling one’s nerves with so much on the line, these are the marks of a resilient competitor. Just 48 hours earlier, 19-year-old Jelena Ostapenko had No.5 seed Karolina Pliskova on the ropes and twice failed to serve out the match, blowing a 5-2 lead and losing. The young Latvian immediately copped to her nerves, saying she was impossibly tight as she stared down the biggest win of her career. Konta, serving for a spot in her second career quarterfinal, didn’t even flinch.

So how did Konta do it? Here’s her eloquent response from the interview room after the match:

Q. You said the other day that you were surprised how you close out sets and matches as if it was any routine service game. Where do you draw that confidence in those big moments?
JOHANNA KONTA: I think more than anything it’s more trying to disassociate myself from the importance of the moment. I think it’s more keeping things in perspective and not panicking if I were to lose that service game or that point.

I think just keeping things in good perspective and just having trust in myself that however the match will swing, I will always be there to give my best and to always try to leave it all out on court and fight till the very end.

So nice to finally meet @JoKonta91 fun chat & Jo has great vision & a positive attitude to the future of her tennis. Exciting times pic.twitter.com/06HjbPn2gG

— Jo Durie (@Jodurie) January 23, 2017

Q. When you talk about disassociating yourself from the big moments, obviously a lot of players struggle to do it, and I’m sure you struggled to do it five years ago. Why is that so difficult for most players? Why was it difficult early on to kind of be able to not be overwhelmed by the importance of moments in a match?
JOHANNA KONTA: I think it’s difficult, because you have also got to put things in perspective. Everyone you see playing has been playing since they were a little girl. And it’s no secret that to get to whatever sport or even whatever area of life, if you want to be part of the elite and if you want to get to the top of your field, there will be numerous sacrifices you’ll need to make.

And I think when you get to a position where you might see a glimmer of what you have dreamed of as a little girl or what you hoped for, what you’ve worked so hard for, it can feel kind of an all-or-nothing moment or what if I never get this chance again?

I think it’s more a bit of possibly fear of being able to replicate the position you’re in more than anything, but then I think that’s where you have also got to have a good perspective on things, and you’ve got to keep, I guess, the simple things in mind of what’s important to you.

Are you healthy? Is your family healthy? Do you have people around you that you love? Do you have people around you that love you?

I know it might sound really mundane and simple, but I guess you’ve got to go back to things that have got substance, and then in the end just trust in the work that you do, if it’s in the cards for you that you will get another opportunity or you won’t. I think [you have to] really love the sport for what it is and be grateful for the opportunities that it brings you, not necessarily what you wish it would.

Q. Going back to the separating yourself from the importance of the moment, in that nanosecond where the little voice in your ear goes, Psst, it’s match point, what is the trigger that you can shut that voice out, and how long does that take for it to become automatic?
JOHANNA KONTA: I don’t think it’s about necessarily, for me personally, anyway, about shutting it out. It’s more accepting that, Oh, I have got a little bit of tension. Or accepting that my mind might be yapping away, not necessarily fighting against it, but relaxing into it and saying, It’s absolutely normal to think like this.

I think it’s then easier for your motions to take over more than anything because you’ve got to trust the tennis in you, the motions in you, years and years of playing that I’m all of a sudden not going to forget how to serve. I have been doing it, I don’t even know how long, so I think it’s more just having that trust in the repetitions that you’ve had over the years.

Konta’s transformation over the last 18 months has been one of the most confounding stories in the women’s game. How does a player, one who was once a terrible closer who would let her emotions impede her game, suddenly learn to set it all aside and trust the tennis within her? Experience and maturity certainly play a role, as does Konta’s work with a sports psychologist.

But the rapidity of the change and her unwavering commitment and belief in herself is remarkable and a fantastic example to players up and down the rankings. Asked whether she believed she could beat Serena, Konta dismissed the premise of the question.

“I believe in my own ability,” she said. “I believe in the good things that I bring to the court, and I believe in my ability to fight till the very end.

“Now, there’s that and then there’s also an opponent out there, and this one’s going to be Serena Williams. I think it’s about playing, me going out there and doing what I want to do against her, and it will be about just staying focused on that. And if that brings me good things on that day, and if that puts me in a position to come through, then that’s great.

“But I’ve got to focus on the work and not think of whether I can or cannot beat her. I just need to stay on the work.”

All photos courtesy of Getty Images.

PARIS, France – World No.1 Serena Williams survived a scare from No.60 Yulia Putintseva, while No.58 Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands continued her incredible run in Paris, stunning No.8 seed Timea Bacsinszky.

Kiki Bertens puts cancer scare behind her: Confession time: Heading into the quarterfinal round of Roland Garros, there was only one permutation of results that was going to leave me truly shocked in Paris. Yulia Puntintseva beating Serena Williams? I could understand that. Tsvetana Pironkova beating Samantha Stosur or Shelby Rogers beating Garbiñe Muguruza? I could see a situation where that could happen.

But Kiki Bertens knocking out No.8 seed Timea Bacsinszky in straight sets to make her first Slam semifinal? No, that one I did not see coming. Neither did Bertens. Or her family. On match point she fell to the ground in disbelief, stood up, and looked at her box, which was full of family and friends.

She shrugged.

“I was like, Can you believe it?” Bertens beamed, while speaking to reporters. “Because I cannot. And also my parents were like, No, this is not happening.

“But, yeah, it is.”

Yeah. It is.

On yet another cold wet day in Paris, Bertens became the first Dutch woman since 1971 to advance to the French Open semifinal, beating Bacsinszky, 7-5, 6-2, to score her 12th consecutive win. She’ll face World No.1 Serena Williams on Friday. Behind in much of the first set, Bertens battled back from a break down time after time until she was able to reel off the last three games to take the set. She continued her roll in the second set, racing to a 4-0 lead, before holding off Bacsinszky for the win.

“The circumstances were really tough,” Bertens said. “The court is really slow. The balls are heavy. It’s really tough to play aggressive, and especially with Timea. She is like changing a lot, like with some slower balls and some higher ones, so it was pretty tough for me.

“But I think afterwards I was 4-2 down, and then I was just like, Okay, we are just gonna be calm and try to fight for each point. I did it and I won the first set.”

It sounds so simple. It’s been anything but.

“The last two years were pretty hard for me,” Bertens said. “First I had my ankle surgery and afterwards I had some issues with my health, so that was like pretty tough two years. But since this season we worked really hard to be healthy again, to be fit again. So, yeah, I feel really good now.”

It was a year ago here at Roland Garros, after a 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 first round loss to Svetlana Kuznetsova, that Bertens gave a tearful interview to the Dutch press revealing a cancer scare that had plagued her for over a year. According to the Dutch press, Bertens went in for a WTA health exam during the Miami Open in 2014 and a WTA physiotherapist discovered a lump on her thyroid gland.

Bertens sought out tests in the Netherlands but continued to play for over a year not knowing if the lump was cancerous or not. She had scheduled surgery on the lump after the French Open that year but after a miracle run to the fourth round as a qualifier, she canceled the surgery for fear of the risks.

The stress led to sleepless nights and anxiety. She told Dutch reporters that she was resigned to the idea that she had cancer, trying to prepare herself for the worst. But the uncertainty continued to eat at her. It wasn’t until last year, right before Roland Garros, that she got the green light. She had done a test in America and the lump was benign. The tears she shed with reporters were tears of relief and joy. She could finally move on.

“Now I can start again at zero,” she said last year at Roland Garros. “Stress does so much with your body. I have not slept for a year.”

But Bertens’ struggles didn’t end there. Due to the stress of the cancer scare she was unable to train at an elite level and her fitness slipped. She struggled to get through matches for the rest of the year. She lost 6-1, 6-0 to Petra Kvitova in the first round a few weeks later. With her ranking outside the Top 100, she played mainly on the ITF Circuit, popping up only a the tour’s lower level events.

Last September she hired Raemon Sluiter, a former ATP player, as her new coach. Their off-season priority was to get her back to a top-level of fitness.

“In the preseason I did a lot of work,” Bertens said. “Like the first three weeks was only physical practices, like two, sometimes three times a day. It was hell really, but I’m really glad we did it. Like with my whole team we were like working every day like really hard.”

The hard work has paid off. Along with a new diet – she doesn’t eat carbohydrates in the evening and says she’s sleeping better and has more energy in the mornings – Bertens looks as fit as ever. It’s translated directly into her game. When the tour transitioned to her favorite clay, the wins began to come in bunches.

She beat Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic in Fed Cup, then proceeded to make the semifinals of Rabat, where she had match point to make the final but lost to Marina Erakovic.

“I had match point there I [lost] the match and in my head I was so stressed and all the time and we were like talking with my coach after that match for so long. I think after that match I just was so calm in my head and just trying to go out there every day and just give everything and then just do my own thing. I think that’s the most important thing.”

Then came Nürnberg. Playing the week before the French Open, Bertens won the title as a qualifier, her first trophy since Fes in 2012. Heading into the French Open only Samantha Stosur had more clay court wins than Bertens this year. Back in action immediately in Paris, she scored the biggest win of her career, beating No.3 Angelique Kerber in the first round and has since knocked out Camila Giorgi, No.29 Daria Kasatkina, No.15 Madison Keys, and now No.8 Bacsinszky.

“Mentally I feel pretty good,” Bertens said. “But physically, yeah, it was tough today out there. I think I had some problems with my calf today, so especially in the second set it was really hard to push off with the serve.”

Her physically state will surely be tested against Serena. Bertens took a medical timeout after the first set against Bacsinszky to get her calf taped. Regardless of how the match turns out, this has been the most surprising of fortnights for Bertens.

Bacsinszky undone: Timea Bacsinszky has spent much of the last two months adapting to the conditions and her opponents. But she couldn’t solve the puzzle of Kiki Bertens. The Swiss struggled in the heavier conditions and simply couldn’t execute her game plan to keep Bertens off-balance.

“The conditions, they were heavier than yesterday,” Bacsinszky said. “I was really struggling with my ball length, so I couldn’t really find a good spot to bother her. Well, she was probably having also a great momentum.

“So I think we played kind of equal all the first set. I mean, I could have won also those games. It could have gone either way. And it was the same in the second set, too. So congrats to her, because she she was able to win the important points.”

After the match, Bacsinszky pointed out that she hasn’t been as in the zone as people think.

“People think, Okay, you get to win many matches and it’s like, Oh, just playing too good and you’re just feeling it. Last year I was mentioning two matches that I had my eyes shut and everything was going in. But all year long, like this year, it didn’t happen yet for me to have such a match. So many times I was feeling kind of not that well in the match but I was able to turn it around.

“Luckily for me it doesn’t happen quite often that I cannot turn it around, but this time I really couldn’t.”

Serena Williams fends off The Feisty One: To paraphrase Andy Murray after the 2012 Wimbledon final, “She’s getting closer.” Yulia Putintseva had twice taken Serena Williams to a first set tie-break only to see the American run away with the match in straight sets. This time Putintseva played a fantastic match to keep Serena off-balance, taking the first set 7-5 and earning break point late in the second set for a chance to serve out the match, only to see Serena roar back to win, 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 in the quarterfinals.

“I think I have more experience now, because I played two times before with Serena on the big courts,” Putintseva said. “This time I was just more confident when I was serving for a set. I was just not thinking. I was just doing it and it went well.”

As for Serena, it wasn’t her best day. It was a frustrating performance from the American, who is trying to defend her French Open title and match Steffi Graf’s Open Era record of 22 major titles. “I just was not playing my best,” Serena said. “I kept missing, just misfiring. Honestly, at one point I didn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. I guess I was not the most positive mentally, but obviously I didn’t want to stop.”

Despite coming so close to a massive upset – she was just five points away from the win and joked afterwards that a couple of let-cord winners would have sealed it – Putintseva took nothing but positives from her performance.

“I think the match was very close and very far from being on my side,” Putintseva said. “I was trying to do everything what I can, to run, to cover, to attack when I can, to go forward. But it just was unlucky situation end of the second set for me. But it’s okay. I mean, still have some years to play Grand Slams.”

Simultaneous Semifinals Set for Friday: Starting at 1pm it will be Serena vs. Bertens on Court Philippe Chatrier. Garbiñe Muguruza vs. Samantha Stosur will also start at 1pm on Court Suzanne Lenglen.

In the doubles, the semifinals are also set. No.5 seed Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic take on Margarita Gasparyan and Svetlana Kuznetsova, while No.7 seeds and 2013 champions Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina play Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova.

All photos courtesy of Getty Images.