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Vote: March's Player Of The Month

Vote: March's Player Of The Month

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

It’s time to vote for March’s WTA Player of the Month!

Have a look at the nominees and cast your vote before Thursday at 11:59pm ET! The winner will be announced Friday, April 8.

March 2016 WTA Player Of The Month Finalists

Victoria Azarenka: Former No.1 Victoria Azarenka became the third woman in WTA history to capture the elusive Indian Wells-Miami “Sunshine” Double – joining Steffi Graf (1994, 1996) and Kim Clijsters). Azarenka showed grit and determination through the BNP Paribas Open, edging past Samantha Stosur and Karolina Pliskova in a pair of tight three-setters before stunning World No.1 Serena Williams in the final, defeating the 21-time Grand Slam champion for the first time since 2013 (Cincinnati). The two-time Australian Open champion backed up her two weeks in Indian Wells by a near-perfect display at the Miami Open, racing through six matches without dropping a set and avenging her Australian Open quarterfinal loss to Angelique Kerber in the semis. With two more titles under her belt for a tour-leading three in 2016, Azarenka is back in the Top 5 for the first time since 2014 and regains the top spot on the Road to Singapore leaderboard.

Serena Williams: Williams continued her solid start to the season with a run to the finals Indian Wells, her first since 2001. The American didn’t drop a set heading into a final but ran into an inspired Azarenka in the final; even then, the American nearly pulled off one of her signature second set comebacks in winning three straight games towards the end of the match. Her quest for a ninth Miami Open title ended in the fourth round at the hands of Svetlana Kuznetsova, who went on to reach the final. Her successful month of March ends with her still atop the WTA rankings and No.3 on the Road to Singapore leaderboard

Svetlana Kuznetsova: Kuznetsova has been another one of the in form players to start 2016. Having already won a title at the Apia International Sydney, Kuznetsova served out a third career victory over Serena Williams and won a total of four three-set matches to reach her first Miami final since she won the title in 2006. Her best match of the tournament, however, came in a two-set victory over Timea Bacsinszky when she overcame multiple break points to defeat the resurgent Swiss in the semifinals.

WTA March POM

2016 Winners

January: Angelique Kerber
February: Carla Suárez Navarro

How it works:

Finalists are selected by wtatennis.com
Winner is then determined by a fan vote on wtatennis.com

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Flipkens Flips In Katowice

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

KATOWICE, Poland – Kirsten Flipkens has only been in Katowice a few days but it has already been a highly productive stay.

At Sunday’s player party she took home the much-coveted Katowice Open frame juggling title, before getting back to the business in hand the following evening, booking a second-round spot with a brisk win over Donna Vekic.

However, not content, the Belgian spent her day off in search of another prize: the Ricoh camera on offer for the player who could hit the most ‘tweeners’ in 30 seconds.

After completing seven in the allotted time, Flipkens found herself tied for first place with Demi Schuurs. In the subsequent tie-break, things did not go entirely to plan…

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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

MIAMI, FL, USA – No.3 seed Simona Halep was pushed to the brink in a late night epic against Sam Stosur, needing to come back from a set down and save match point to book her spot into the Miami Open quarterfinals.

Halep books a blockbuster battle against Johanna Konta after emerging victorious in the two-hour-and-ten minute thriller, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.

“It was a tough match, like I expected,” Halep told press after the match. “But the comeback was pretty good, and I’m really happy about that.

“The last comeback like this for me was in 2014, my first match in Doha against Kanepi. Match point down and I came back. I’m happy about this, shows I can still play some tennis.”

The Romanian targeted the Aussie’s backhand throughout the early exchanges in the opening set, and was rewarded with an early break. She built up a solid 4-2 lead and looked set to wrap up the opening set, but Stosur had other plans.

Stosur got her heavy topspin forehand going and wreaking havoc on Halep’s game plan, and reeled off four straight games to snatch away the opening set. She went on a tear in the second, recovering from an early break and winning five of the next six games to serve for the match.

She even held a match point, at 5-4 on Halep’s serve, but the Romanian chose that moment to start mounting her epic comeback. A handful of loose errors from Stosur on key moments let Halep back into the set, and she took the next seven games in a row to take the second set and a break lead in the third.

With Stosur flagging and letting her aggression dip slightly, it was Halep who bossed the rallies and dictated play to extend the lead to 4-1. The Aussie didn’t have another comeback left in her, and Halep completed the comeback to move into the Miami quarterfinals.

“When I was down, I wasn’t thinking about anything, nothing about the score,” Halep said. “I just wanted to fight. I didn’t give up, and I believed in my chance. I was maybe a little bit lucky because I came back from match point down, but still I fought for this.”

Halep will be rewarded for her efforts with another battle in the next round, this time against Britain’s No.1, Konta.

“It will be tough. She’s in a good form now, she’s near Top 10. And she plays great. It’s going to be a tough one, but here every match is tough so I don’t expect an easy one.

“I have my chance here to try my best and try to win, and of course tomorrow will help me to recover. Then I will go on court with confidence.”

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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

MIAMI, FL, USA – No.2 seed Karolina Pliskova took down an on-form Mirjana Lucic-Baroni to book the first spot into the Miami Open semifinals, notching a 6-2, 6-4 victory after an hour and 12 minutes.

The win sends her into the Miami semifinals for the first time, where she awaits the winner between No.12 seed Caroline Wozniacki and Lucie Safarova.

She also gets her hard-earned revenge on the player who knocked her out of the Australian Open, where she fell 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to the Croatian in the quarterfinals.

“I think I played much better here than I was playing [in Melbourne],” Pliskova said in her post-match press conference. “Also, the conditions here are different, and she was playing better tennis there because it was faster. It suited her better in Australia.

“So definitely I was feeling more confident with this match. I had a different game plan today.”

For her part, Lucic-Baroni – who was into her second Miami quarterfinal and the first since the tournament became a Premier Mandatory – made a strong start to the match, which featured lots of short rallies and plenty of first-strike tennis.

Lucic-Baroni’s fearless returning helped her neutralize powerful Pliskova serve during the early exchanges, but she wasn’t able to back it up with her own serves. She hit nine double faults during the opening set – including on set point – and was broken four times to surrender the first set in 28 minutes.

The Croat continued to attack Pliskova’s serve emphatically and was rewarded with the first break of the second set, building up a 4-2 lead as her service game began to click.

But with her serve under fire, Pliskova relied on her other weapons – her big forehand and her improved court movement – and bailed herself out of trouble. The Czech reeled off four games in a row to erase Lucic-Baroni’s lead and close out the match.

“The difference was in the first set,” Lucic-Baroni told WTA Insider afterwards. “I started out great but then I couldn’t find my serve. The more I was making mistakes the worse I was getting.

“I was able to calm down and fix it in the second, but then I just had a lot of bad luck after 4-2. But she played great, a pretty flawless match. It was still pretty close, but it just didn’t go my way today.”

With the win Pliskova is through to her fourth semifinal of 2017, and she’ll face either Safarova or Wozniacki for a spot in the final.

“Lucie obviously I know pretty well,” Pliskova assessed. “It will not be something really surprising for me there. I will be really confident coming into this one but it’s Czech against Czech so anything can happen.

“Obviously against Caroline, we played in Doha also, so a little bit different conditions than here. I would expect tough one because I know she has been playing quite good here in last few years.”

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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

Jarmila Wolfe has announced that she and her husband are expecting a baby.

The Australian revealed the news on social media.

Unsurprisingly, she was immediately deluged with congratulations.

Wolfe retired from tennis at the start of 2017.

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