Tennis News

MIAMI, FL, USA – After more than a week of compelling tennis, Johanna Konta and Caroline Wozniacki are the last two standing at the Miami Open, as both women look to raise the trophy for the first time at the WTA Premier Mandatory event.

Here are 10 things to know before Saturday’s championship showdown.

Johanna Konta (GBR #11) vs. Caroline Wozniacki (DEN #14)
Head-to-head: Konta leads, 1-0

1) Maiden (in) Miami.
Both players will break new ground in their careers when they set foot on court on Saturday, as each is competing in her first-ever final at the Miami Open. Playing in Miami for the 10th time, Wozniacki’s best result previously came in 2012, when she reached the semifinals. Konta is playing in Miami for just the second time in her career, and reached the quarterfinals in her 2016 debut.

2) Wozniacki Goes Four for Four.
Wozniacki has reached the final of all four Premier Mandatory events in her career with her success in Miami this week. The former World No.1 first was runner-up at the 2009 Mutua Madrid Open; won the BNP Paribas Open in 2011; and won the China Open in 2010. Konta will contest her second final at Premier Mandatory level out of her last three, finishing runner-up to Agnieszka Radwanska in Beijing last fall.

Caroline Wozniacki has now made the final of all 4 Premier Mandatories, 6 in all.

More: https://t.co/vkUOl0CPfY pic.twitter.com/LUgZPYo3Q8

— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) March 30, 2017

3) Comebacks – and upsets (on paper).
Over the course of the week, both women have recorded wins over higher-ranked players en route to the final. Konta ousted No.3 seed Simona Halep in a marathon quarterfinal match, 3-6, 7-6(7), 6-2, after the Romanian served for the match in the second set, and was two points away from victory. Wozniacki also rallied from a set down to defeat No.2 seed Karolina Pliskova in Thursday’s semifinals.

.@JoKonta91 advances to @MiamiOpen Semifinals!

Battles past Halep 3-6, 7-6(7), 6-2! pic.twitter.com/nm3n99u6s8

— WTA (@WTA) March 29, 2017

4) Third Time’s the Charm?
While Miami marks both Wozniacki and Konta’s first Premier Mandatory final of the season, both players have already reached finals this year. Wozniacki will contest her third final of 2017 after Doha and Dubai, the most on tour this season. While the Dane is looking to win her first title of the year, Konta is appearing in her second final after winning the Apia International Sydney.

5) Lucky Number…45.
With this result, Wozniacki becomes just the fourth active player to reach 45 career finals on the WTA Tour; the 26-year-old has reached at least one final every year since the 2008 season.

#SAPStatOfTheDay: @CaroWozniacki reaches 45th career #WTA Final! #MiamiOpen pic.twitter.com/cLjFZidk2X

— WTA (@WTA) March 31, 2017

6) Recent History, Down Under.
The two have only met once before just two months ago at the Australian Open. In the third round match, Konta broke serve four times en route to a 6-3, 6-1 victory in one hour, 17 minutes.

7) Top 10 Implications.
Regardless of Saturday’s result, Konta is assured of returning to the WTA Top 10. With a victory, the Brit will rise to a new career-high of No.7, bettering her previous of No.9 from last fall. For Wozniacki, only a victory in the final will get her back inside the Top 10 for the first time since 2015, with a rise to No.8 in the rankings.

By advancing to @MiamiOpen final, @JoKonta91 will re-enter the Top 10 on Monday. Venus also moves into Top 10 UNLESS Woz wins the title.

— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) March 31, 2017

8) The Road to the Final.
Combined, both players have dropped three sets this week. Konta had a battle on her hands in her first match of the week against qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich before her quarterfinal comeback against Halep. By contrast, Wozniacki rolled through her first four matches without losing a set until the semifinals.

9) A Bit of British History.
Konta is looking to become the first British woman to not only win the title in Miami, but also win a WTA Premier Mandatory event.

.@JoKonta91 is the first ?? to make a @MiamiOpen Final! pic.twitter.com/6hSG38HiaI

— WTA (@WTA) March 31, 2017

10) Singapore Shakeup.
A win for Wozniacki would see her rise to No.1 on the Road to Singapore leaderboard, ahead of Karolina Pliskova and Serena Williams, while Konta would sit in fifth.  Should Konta win the title, she will sit behind Pliskova in second, while Wozniacki will rise to third.

BOL, Croatia – Ana Konjuh, the Croatian No.5 seed at the inaugural Bol Open 125K, continues to cruise in her home country. She booked her spot into the quarterfinals with a commanding win over Turkish trailblazer Ipek Soylu, 6-2, 6-1.

Watch free live streaming from Bol, Croatia all week right here on wtatennis.com!

Awaiting Konjuh in the quarterfinals is fellow Croat Tereza Mrdeza. A wildcard entry, Mrdeza beat Belgium’s Ysaline Bonaventure, 6-3, 6-3.

Mandy Minella had to pull double duty on her way to the Bol Open 125K quarterfinals. When yesterday’s rain delay interrupted play, Minella’s first round match against Evgeniya Rodina left her down a set but rallying back at 3-6, 4-1. She stormed all the way back to complete the comeback, 3-6, 6-1, 7-5, but her day was not over yet.

Awaiting her in the Round of 16 was the well-rested No.2 seeded American Varvara Lepchenko. She didn’t face a single break point in the first set and quickly grabbed a 6-1 lead, but Lepchenko won the second in a tiebreak to ensure the match went the distance. Despite narrowing Minella’s 4-2 lead to 5-4, the No.2 seed was no match for the on-form Luxembourger, who stormed into the quarterfinals 6-1, 6-7(4), 6-4 after two hours and twenty-three minutes.

Lepchenko wasn’t the only American who faltered today in Bol; despite a strong Day 1 showing, all of the Americans in the draw were defeated today, with Sachia Vickery, Jennifer Brady and Anna Tatishvili all bowing out. Marina Erakovic defeated Vickery 6-4, 6-4; Stefanie Voegele edged Brady 6-4, 4-6, 7-5; and Kristina Kucova downed Tatishvili 6-7(1), 6-2, 6-4.

The two other remaining seeds in the draw, No.7 Polona Hercog and No.4 Nao Hibino, both advanced in straight sets to reach the quarterfinalist. Hercog needed just over an hour to down Bulgarian qualifier Elitsa Kostova 6-1, 6-0, while Hibino overcame a late resistance from Ivana Jorovic on her way to a 6-2, 7-6(5) victory.

MIAMI, FL, USA – The British media celebrated Johanna Konta’s win at the Miami Open with plenty of print space and air time – and are hoping she’ll rise even further up the rankings than her current career high of No.7.

Konta said in her post-match press conference that she hoped her journey in the tournament would garner lots of attention for the sport.

“If the coverage has been good then it’s great for us,” said the British No.1. “It’s promoting tennis, and hopefully promoting more people to play.”

And so it has proved – starting with a front-page splash in the Sunday Times. 

No stunts required – win as big as Konta is starting to, it gets attention. Front page of the Sunday Times. pic.twitter.com/VQKgSUsnt9

— DavidLaw (@DavidLawTennis) April 2, 2017

Comparisons are inevitably being drawn with Virginia Wade, Britain’s last female singles Slam winner – but Konta has played that down, although she admitted she would love to win Wimbledon.

The Daily Mail reported that she said: “It does sound quite monumental but winning Wimbledon is a dream and hopefully one day I will get an opportunity to play for such a title.” 

An unforgettable two weeks for @JoKonta91 at the @MiamiOpen! ? pic.twitter.com/XuN5Snv16F

— WTA (@WTA) April 2, 2017

The Daily Telegraph’s tennis correspondent Simon Briggs assessed Konta’s chances of a Slam title thus: “How much further, then, can this late-blooming champion climb? Two years ago, Konta was ranked around the 150-mark, which did not even earn her a spot in the qualifying tournament here. Now she stands alongside Pliskova and world No 1 Angelique Kerber as one of the women most likely to worry Serena Williams.”

In the Guardian, Kevin Mitchell wrote: “Konta was clearly the better player in this match as well as the one in Melbourne. That was such a clear indicator of how far the British No1 has come in a relatively short time. There would not have been many takers backing Konta to beat Wozniacki even a couple of years ago. Now she has to set her sights higher.”

And of course Konta’s Fed Cup teammates were also thrilled for her – Naomi Broady and Heather Watson were straight on Twitter to publicly congratulate their friend.

She came, she saw, she 'kontad' ? best tweet I've seen today! Killing it JK ? @JoKonta91

— Naomi Broady (@NaomiBroady) April 2, 2017

Congrats @JoKonta91 ! ?????? #killinit

— Heather Watson (@HeatherWatson92) April 1, 2017

With the French Open officially in the books, how do the rankings stand as the tour heads into the third major tournament of the season?

Defending champion Serena Williams remains No.1 for a 174th straight week, a streak that began all the way back on February 18th, 2013, after reaching the final of the Qatar Total Open.

Garbiñe Muguruza is not too far behind at her career-high ranking of No.2, trailing the 21-time Grand Slam champion by 1564 points thanks to her maiden major title at Roland Garros, where she defeated Serena in the final.

Muguruza became the first Spanish woman ranked inside the Top 2 since Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario in December 1996; Sanchez-Vicario is also the first and most recent Spanish woman to be ranked No.1 back in 1995.

Ahead of the grass court season, Wimbledon finalists Serena and Muguruza have the greatest number of points to defend, with 2000 and 1356, respectively. World No.3 Agnieszka Radwanska fell to Muguruza in last year’s semifinal and is defending 1195 points, having also made the semifinals of Nottingham and the final of Eastbourne, where she lost to Belinda Bencic.

Bencic is making her return from a lower back injury, one which precluded her from nearly all of the clay court season. The Swiss star reached the fourth round of Wimbledon and the final of the Ricoh Open, and is defending 920 points. 

Who made the biggest leaps during the clay court season?

By reaching the second week of the French Open, Bertens rocketed up into Olympic contention, as did quarterfinalist Tsvetana Pironkova, who now has a chance to qualify for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Yulia Putintseva made her career-best ranking and Top 35 debut by reaching the last eight in Paris, pushing Serena to three sets. Venus Williams also made her return to the Top 10 on the back of her best French Open result since 2010, reaching the fourth round.