St. Petersburg: Vinci vs. Babos
Roberta Vinci takes on Timea Babos in the quarterfinals at the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy.
Roberta Vinci takes on Timea Babos in the quarterfinals at the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy.
MELBOURNE, Australia – No.7 seed Garbiñe Muguruza moved confidently into her first Australian Open quarterfinal with a straight-set win over Sorana Cirstea on Sunday.
Breaks at the start of both sets sent Muguruza on her way to a 6-2, 6-3 win and a meeting against CoCo Vandeweghe.
Muguruza fell at the last 16 in both 2014 and 2015, but never looked in danger of suffering another disappointment, making light of her ongoing leg injury to strike 18 winners in little over an hour on court.
The ups and downs of previous rounds were conspicuous by their absence as the Spaniard hit the front early and rode this momentum all the way to the finishing line.
“I am very happy. I went through the match very concentrated, looking to play positively,” Muguruza said. “Was an important match for me. A couple of times in the last three years, I’ve lost in this round. Was the first time I go through. I’m in the quarterfinals. So I’m very excited about that, and I’m still excited!”
Muguruza is arguably playing her best tennis since winning Roland Garros last spring. But with the World No.1’s conqueror up next, she insists a repeat result is still some way off: “I think it’s a very different surface. It’s already a long time since that tournament. I feel that’s very far away. Honestly, I would not compare the level.
“I’ve played CoCo a couple of times. It’s 1-1 head-to-head. She’s a tricky player. She has a lot of power, full shots, serve, everything. She can play very well.”
MELBOURNE, Australia – The second week continues at the Australian Open. On Day 8, can No.2 seed Serena Williams and No.5 seed Karolina Pliskova book two of the four remaining spots in the quarterfinals?
We preview all the day’s biggest matchups right here on wtatennis.com.
Monday, Fourth Round
[2] Serena Williams (USA #2) vs [16] Barbora Strycova (CZE #16)
Head-to-head: Serena leads, 2-0
Key Stat: Neither Serena nor Strycova have dropped a set en route to the second week.
Serena Williams saw her hopes of reclaiming World No.1 brighten when defending champion Angelique Kerber went out at the hands of CoCo Vandeweghe on Sunday. But before she can think of returning to the top of the WTA rankings, she’ll have to get past a fiery veteran in Barbora Strycova, who is in the fourth round of the Australian Open for a second straight year.
Strycova roared back from a 5-3 deficit in the second set, and will be looking to pull of the biggest upset of her career in her first encounter with the 22-time Grand Slam champion since 2012.
Serena has already dispatched former Top 10 players Belinda Bencic and Lucie Safarova along the way; can she continue to improve as Grand Slam No.23 draws closer?
[5] Karolina Pliskova (CZE #5) vs [22] Daria Gavrilova (AUS #26)
Head-to-head: Pliskova leads, 2-0
Key Stat: Pliskova is aiming for her second straight (and second career) Grand Slam quarterfinal.
Brisbane International champion Karolina Pliskova remains undefeated for the season, and takes on another young hopeful in Daria Gavrilova. The Aussie reached the fourth round Down Under for the second year in a row, winning a three-set thriller of her own against Timea Bacsinszky.
Pliskova showed few signs of vulnerability in her first two rounds, but found herself on the brink of defeat against Latvian youngster Jelena Ostapenko, who served for the match in the final set. Fresh off an early pick for best match of 2017, the No.5 seed is back in the second week of a major tournament and will look to widen her head-to-head advantage against Gavrilova, against whom she’s never dropped a set.
The 22-year-old has tended to save her best tennis for her adopted home soil; can she stun Pliskova and earn a career-best Grand Slam result?
Around the Grounds…
No.9 seed Johanna Konta renews her rivalry with No.30 seed Ekaterina Makarova, who pushed the Brit to an 8-6 final set at this very tournament one year ago. A battle of underdogs completes the fourth round line-up as qualifier Jennifer Brady takes on ageless wonder Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, who earned her best-ever result at the Australian Open at 34 years old.
The doubles tounament also continues in Melbourne, with No.2 seeds Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova taking on Apia International Sydney champs Timea Babos and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, while top seeds Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic face No.13 seeds Katarina Srebotnik and Zheng Saisai in the third round.
Roberta Vinci has Saturday’s shot of the day at the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy.
SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO – Monica Puig received a welcome fit for a national hero when she landed in her home country of Puerto Rico after bringing them their first Olympic gold medal.
Puig touched down in style into San Juan’s Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport on Saturday – she was at the helm of a private plane and even got to help taxi it down the runway.
Hola Puerto Rico!!!!! This is your pilot speaking ❤️✈️??? #HomeSweetHome pic.twitter.com/zWMaYZhPCv
— Monica Puig (@MonicaAce93) August 20, 2016
She was met on the tarmac by the governor of Puerto Rico, Alejandro García Padilla, who greeted her and personally welcomed her to the island.
EN DIRECTO: Gobernador recibe e @MonicaAce93 en la pista #BienvenidaMonica – https://t.co/j0Hs9j9t85 pic.twitter.com/egACljmB8R
— Telenoticias (@TelenoticiasPR) August 20, 2016
From there Puig met the media in a press conference, then went outside to wave hello to a massive crowd of fans.
Watch the video below to hear the incredible reception that Puerto Rican fans gave her:
.@MonicaAce93 arrives in Puerto Rico for the 1st time since winning her country's 1st ever Olympic Gold Medal. pic.twitter.com/Pxajjlea6p
— IMG Tennis (@IMGTennis) August 21, 2016
Check out some of the best photos of Puig’s arrival below, courtesy of Getty Images.
No.5 seed Karolina Pliskova ended home hopes at this year’s Australian Open with a comfortable win over Daria Gavrilova.
Venus Williams takes on Misaki Doi in the final of the Taiwan Open.
NEW YORK, NY, USA – It has been an axiomatic to the point of cliché statement about Serena Williams’ prospects at any tournament, that if she is physically fit and motivated, she’s the overwhelming favorite at every tournament she enters.
But it’s true. This year there are no questions about motivation as she heads to the last Slam of the season. Once again she will be playing for history, but this year it will be history on two fronts.
Serena is aiming to break the record she currently holds with Stefanie Graf for the most major singles titles in the Open Era. She matched that record in July by winning her seventh Wimbledon title and 22nd major overall. A seventh US Open victory here would give Serena sole possession of the modern record.
“I’m cheering her on, yes,” Graf told CNN’s Open Court. “Because it’s great for the sport. Why not? She’s done so much for the sport. She’s out there working hard.”
Regardless of what happens over the next two weeks, Serena will also leave New York having tied Graf’s record for consecutive weeks at No.1 at 186 weeks. But with the top ranking under threat from No.2 Angelique Kerber, No.3 Garbiñe Muguruza, and No.4 Agnieszka Radwanska, Serena must make at least the semifinals to have a chance of remaining in the top spot on the Monday after the tournament. If she can secure the No.1 ranking after the US Open she will break Graf’s record outright and add to an era-defining resume that already spans the length of the new Arthur Ashe Stadium roof.
“I’m happy for her, I’m excited for her,” Graf said. “It’s cool that records are being broken, that’s what they’re there for. She’s been phenomenal for the sport of tennis, it has been great to watch. I hope she does break it.”
The questions concerning Serena surround the state of her right shoulder. She withdrew from the Rogers Cup earlier this month with shoulder inflammation and was clearly compromised in her third round loss to Elina Svitolina at the Olympic tennis event. For the first time since 2009, Serena heads to the US Open without a summer hard court title under her belt, having played just three singles matches since Wimbledon.
Her withdrawal from the Western & Southern Open last week was particularly worrisome. Serena was not originally entered in the event but took a late wildcard a few days before the tournament. She came to Cincinnati, cut her first practice short after less than an hour and subsequently withdrew, again citing shoulder inflammation.
Serena doesn’t lose often in New York, and a good draw that would give her time to play herself into form and confidence might be all that she needs. Since coming back from injury and illness in 2011, the World No.1 is 32-2, adding three more US Open titles to her major haul. Since returning to No.1 in 2013, Serena has never lost to a Top 10 player in New York, though the last time she faced a Top 10 player here was back in 2013, an indication of just how frequently the draw has been breaking the last two years.
To do it all Serena’s serve will need to be at the ready, and all eyes will be on that singular shot during the first week of the tournament. Notably, she will have a day’s rest between singles matches, which was not the case in Rio. If the scheduling breaks her way and she’s able to get the rest and recovery time she needs between matches, No.23 is well within striking distance.
MELBOURNE, Australia – The clock hasn’t struck midnight on Mirjana Lucic-Baroni yet; in fact, the night may have only just begun for the 34-year-old Croat, who stunned No.5 seed Karolina Pliskova at the Australian Open, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, to reach her first Grand Slam semifinal in 18 years.
Lucic-Baroni was 17 years old when she blasted past the likes of Monica Seles and Nathalie Tauziat to push Stefanie Graf to three sets at the All England Club in 1999, but has had to overcome much since then, sidelined due to personal and financial issues for much of the ensuing decade.
She started from scratch and was back in the Top 100 by 2010, earning big wins over Simona Halep at two of three consecutive major tournaments in 2014 and 2015. Still, the upper echelons of the game that had once seemed assured eluded her until she arrived in Melbourne last week, blasting past No.3 seed Agnieszka Radwanska after winning her first Australian Open main draw match since 1998.
In Pliskova, she played a younger version of herself, whose big serve and groundstrokes helped her start the season by winning the Brisbane International and earn a career-high ranking of No.5 in the world.
None of that mattered on Wednesday, as Lucic-Baroni recovered from an early deficit to roar thorugh the opening set hitting 12 winners and dropping just four points behind her first serve.
Pliskova appeared on the brink of elimination as she fell behind a break to start the second set, but pulled off a comeback reminiscent of her match against Jelena Ostapaneko in the third round to level the match and take necessary momentum into the decider.
Mirjana #LucicBaroni is through to the SF #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/ywsCOXuXpz
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 25, 2017
Lucic-Baroni proved undaunted, however, and despite a medical timeout after the seventh game, she emerged stronger than ever to win 12 of the final 13 points of the match to book her second major semifinal after an hour and 47 minutes on the court.
By match’s end, the veteran hit a spellbinding nine aces and 45 winners to 35 unforced errors, finishing with a positive differential for the third time in five matches – a testament to just how cleanly the big-hitter has been playing in Melbourne.
Standing between Lucic-Baroni and a maiden Grand Slam final is either No.9 seed Johanna Konta or 22-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams.
“This has truly made my life…it has made it okay.” #LucicBaroni #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/SeE9ePoqOo
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 25, 2017
More to come…