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News | WTA Tennis English

News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

WTA Charities Charleston & Monterrey

Doi, Jurak & Ostapenko Visit Children’s Hospital

Earlier in the week, Misaki Doi, Darija Jurak and later Jelena Ostapenko stopped by the MUSC Medical Center to visit kids in the hospital. The players hung out and played with the kids in the atrium of the children’s wing.

WTA Charities In Charleston

WTA Charities In Charleston

WTA Charities In Charleston

Atawo Hosts Special Olympics Tennis Clinic

Meanwhile, Raquel Atawo went and hit with the tennis players from the Special Olympics South Carolina. They ran through some drills and she gave them pointers on their game, and later answered all their questions at a Q&A session.

WTA Charities In Charleston

WTA Charities In Charleston

WTA Charities In Charleston

Also as a part of WTA Charities initiatives in Charleston, Ons Jabeur acted as a celebrity server at a fundraiser for special needs and disabilities and Kayla Day also paid a visit to Joint Base Charleston, a military base housing the United States and Charleston’s Navy and Air Force facilities.

Suárez Navarro Visits Monterrey Hospital

Meanwhile in Monterrey, Carla Suárez Navarro took time out of preparation for the Abierto GNP Seguros to visit the Christus Muguerza Hospital.

The Spaniard got the chance to meet and chat with the young patients there, who were in recovery from advanced scoliosis, and even signed some tennis balls for them as a keepsake.

See more photos of Suárez Navarro’s visit here!

Carla Suárez Navarro

Americans Get Artsy With Special Needs Athletes

Ashley Weinhold and Caitlin Whoriskey spent Tuesday morning with a group of athletes that are part of the Special Needs Athletes Association of Nuevo Leon.

The American players helped the athletes paste small scraps of tissue paper on a banner filling the Abierto GNP Seguros logo with bright colors, and the morning ended with everyone enjoying some tasty tacos.

Click here to see the finished product!

Monterrey WTA Charities

– All photos courtesy of Volvo Car Open and Abierto GNP Seguros

WTA Charities is the WTA’s global philanthropic organization dedicated to making a positive impact across the globe. Our mission is to be a social responsibility vehicle built on the WTA’s values to empower and provide for a better future. We’re dedicated to combining, strengthening and enhancing the community and charitable efforts of the WTA through its members (players, alumnae and tournaments), along with our partners.

Click here to see more WTA Charities activities!

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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

BIEL/BIENNE, Switzerland – 17-year-old Czech qualifier Marketa Vondrousova put together a commanding performance to stun Kristyna Pliskova, 6-2, 7-5 and reach the first WTA semifinals of her career at the Ladies Open Biel Bienne.

Earlier in the week, Vondrousova was named to the Czech Republic’s Fed Cup squad, set to make her debut as the defending champions take on the United States in World Group semifinals. Now Vondrousova’s backed up yesterday’s upset over Annika Beck with a win over a player ranked spots above her to prove why team captain Petr Pala made the right choice.

“It’s so super, because I didn’t even know I could play that good!” Vondrousova said after the victory. “I’ve had a great season so far, and I played qualies here and I’m so glad I made it through and keep playing so good.

“I’m just trying to focus on every match, every point, and just play like I have nothing to lose. I am calm and I feel confident.”

Playing in her first WTA quarterfinal, Vondrousova wasn’t cowed by the occasion or by the big Pliskova serve. She set the tone early on, breaking in Pliskova’s opening service game and keeping her under pressure through the match. She brought up 12 break opportunities across both sets and converted five to put away her countrywoman in an hour and 20 minutes.

She joins Anett Kontaveit and Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the semifinals and awaits the winner between top seed Barbora Strycova and No.7 seed Julia Goerges,

Earlier in the day, Kontaveit survived a complicated three-set battle against the fast-rising Elise Mertens to advance 7-5, 6-7(2), 6-1.

Kontaveit was two points away from the match while serving at 5-4 in the second set when Mertens came roaring back to force a tiebreaker and a deciding set. But the Estonian stayed calm to break three times and reel off six games in a row in the final set to shut down the comeback and move into the Biel/Bienne semifinals.

Also through to the semifinals is Belarusian qualifier Sasnovich, who diffused the fast-paced Camila Giorgi in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4.

The Italian led by a break in each set – she was up 3-1 in the first and 4-2 in the second – but couldn’t hang on to the lead. Her eight double faults proved costly, coming at crucial times and allowing Sasnovich to break six times during the match.

More to follow…

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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

BIEL/BIENNE, Switerzland – Top seed Barbora Strycova is into her second semifinal of the season after No.7 seed Julia Goerges was forced to retire one game into the third set of their quarterfinal at the Ladies Open Biel Bienne, with the Czech prevailing 4-6, 6-3, 1-0 (ret.). Strycova will face fellow Czech Marketa Vondrousova in Saturday’s semifinals.

The 31-year-old rallied from a set down with some gritty defending and resilience in the second set. After holding in a 15-minute game at 2-all in the second set, Strycova slowly grabbed the momentum back her way to take the second set.

Goerges, who had seen her forehand misfire regularly throughout the latter half of the second set, called the trainer after the second set and took a medical timeout to get her right arm massaged. Strycova won the first game after the changeover and the German was forced to call it a day, citing a right wrist injury.

“We had always tough matches against each other,” Strycova said. “It’s very tough to play against Julia because we know each other very well, we used to play doubles together, and we are going to play again a little bit. It’s never easy, but we both want to win.

“I’m happy that I won, but not in this way because it’s always very hard to see someone injured and have to walk off from the match.”

It was a bad luck ending to a great week for No.46 Goerges, who dominated much of the match against Strycova before succumbing to injury. The 28-year-old fired 18 winners to just 6 unforced errors in the first set, smothering Strycova with her heavy hitting despite the retirement, finished with 33 winners to 21 unforced errors. Strycova hit 8 winners to 11 unforced errors for the match.

Despite being besieged by Goerges’ offense, Strycova found a way to problem-solve the match, throwing in a good amount of variety with dropshots, slices, and the occasional serve and volley to keep the German uncomfortable.

“It feels nice,” Strycova said. “The court is very comfortable to play on, the ball is coming to you very nice. It took me some matches to get used to it but I feel good.”

Next up for Strycova is her 17-year-old compatriot Vondrousova.

“Another young gun from Czech! I saw her play here already and she’s playing very well,” Strycova said. “She’s playing from the qualifying so she has a lot of matches under her belt. It will be a tough one because she’s young and she wants to play the best tennis she can so I have to be ready so I have to play my best tennis as well.”

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10 Things To Know: Dubai & Rio

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

Every week wtatennis.com brings you 10 Things To Know about the week – who is playing, where and much more. This week the Road To Singapore goes through Dubai and Rio de Janeiro…

1) Dubai is a significant stop on the Road To Singapore.
The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships is a Premier event and part one of the WTA’s fortnightly tour of the Middle East – part two is the Qatar Total Open. There’s over $2 million on the line, with the winner pocketing $465,480 and 470 points for the Road To Singapore leaderboard.

2) A strong line-up has made the trip to Dubai.
Even with a couple a high-profile withdrawals, four Top 10 players – and 10 of the Top 20 players in the world – are in Dubai, with the Top 8 seeds being Simona Halep, Garbiñe Muguruza, Carla Suárez Navarro, Petra Kvitova, Belinda Bencic, Karolina Pliskova, Roberta Vinci and Svetlana Kuznetsova.

3) Halep is looking to get back on track.
Defending champion Halep arrives in Dubai on the back of an indifferent start to 2016. After a surprise semifinal loss to Kuznetsova in Sydney, the Romanian suffered an even bigger shock at the Australian Open, crashing out to qualifier Zhang Shuai in the first round. She then split her two singles rubbers on Fed Cup duty against the Czech Republic, beating Kvitova but falling to Pliskova. Will she get back on track in Dubai?

4) Back-to-back titles no easy task.
Halep is looking to become just the third player to defend their title at Al Garhoud Street. The other two are Venus Williams (2009-10) and Justine Henin (2003-04, 2006-07).

5) If Kvitova clears early hurdles, watch out.
Kvitova has failed to win back-to-back matches here in four of her five appearances, in 2009 (to Julia Schruff), 2011 (to Ayumi Morita), 2014 (to Suárez Navarro) and 2015 (to Suárez Navarro). But in her only other try she went all the way to the title, in 2013 (beating Caroline Wozniacki, Ana Ivanovic and Agnieszka Radwanska along the way).

6) Welcome to the club, Belinda.
By reaching the final last week in St. Petersburg, Belinda Bencic guaranteed herself a place inside the Top 10 for the first time in her career. Bencic is the 116th player to break into the elite bracket since computer rankings were introduced in 1975.

7) Halfway across the globe, the Latin American spring kicks off in Rio.
The Latin American leg of the tour kicks off this week with the Rio Open. Headlining the draw is home favorite and No.1 seed Teliana Pereira, who will be joined by Johanna Larsson, Danka Kovinic and Christina McHale.

8) Pereira hungry for WTA hat-trick.
Last April, Pereira became the first Brazilian in 27 years to win a WTA title when she triumphed at the Claro Open Colsanitas, in Bogotá. Eager to prove this was no flash in the pan, title number two soon followed at Florianopolis’ Brasil Tennis Cup. Will she score a hat-trick in Rio?

9) Hunting down Maria’s record.
No, not that Maria. In Bogotá, Pereira is the third Brazilian in the Open Era to win a WTA title, after Maria Bueno (who won three) and Neige Dias (two). A Brazilian winning in Brazil is even rarer, though. Pereira is just the second Brazilian in the Open Era to win a WTA title on home soil – Dias achieved the feat once, doing it over in Guaruja in 1987.

10) Find out where you can watch live action this week.

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Wozniacki In Body Paint For SI Swimsuit

Wozniacki In Body Paint For SI Swimsuit

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

Caroline Wozniacki joined a number of megastar athletes, including Ronda Rousey and Lindsay Vonn, in newsstands this week for the 2016 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition.

The World No.19 made the trip to the island of Petit St. Vincent in the Caribbean to take part in the annual shoot and for this year’s issue, Wozniacki was photographed in a different kind of swimsuit – she wore a body-painted swimsuit inspired by For Love and Lemons. The body paint alone took about 15 hours to complete.

“I had a blast, this was so much fun!” Wozniacki said of the photoshoot. “I love my body paint. This has been such an unbelievable experience.”

It’s not the first time Wozniacki has donned a swimsuit for SI – she made her swimsuit issue debut last year.

Check out a behind-the-scenes video of the shoot and the best pictures below, courtesy of SI.com:

Caroline Wozniacki

Caroline Wozniacki

Caroline Wozniacki

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Champion's Corner: Roberta Vinci

Champion's Corner: Roberta Vinci

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

Ok, maybe all that retirement talk was premature.

On Sunday, Roberta Vinci ended a two-and-a-half year title drought, beating Belinda Bencic 6-4, 6-3 to win the inaugural St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy. The title, her first since Palermo in 2013 and her first-ever on the Premier level, brought her career tally to 10 titles and punctuated a dreamy six-month span that has seen Vinci play the best tennis of her career. She will rise to No.13 on Monday; with little to defend until August, a Top 10 debut could be coming soon.

Vinci was ranked outside the Top 50 last summer when she made a run to the Rogers Cup quarterfinals, losing in straight sets to Serena Williams. Of course, we know what’s happened since then. One month later she upended Serena at the US Open to make her first major final and continued that momentum into the fall, where she made the semifinals at the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open and Huajin Securities WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai, losing to eventual champion Venus Williams both times.

At the end of the season, Vinci told reporters in Zhuhai that 2016 would be her final season. Now, after beating both Bencic and Ana Ivanovic to win St. Petersburg, Vinci admits she may have to revisit the decision later this season. “I could change my mind,” Vinci told WTA Insider. “I don’t want to play more than two or three years for sure. But yeah, maybe not this is my last year. We will see at the end of the season.”

WTA Insider caught up with Vinci after her St. Petersburg victory to discuss the current state of her game, more retirement thoughts, and the surprising reason she doesn’t consider herself “a real Italian.”

Roberta Vinci

WTA Insider: St. Petersburg is a brand new tournament on the calendar this year. What made you decide to play here?
Vinci: Why not? It was a new tournament. I prefer to play. After the Australian Open I spent 10 days off at home. No Fed Cup for me. Just good preparation to come here and I won a great tournament.

WTA Insider: When you returned home after Melbourne, how did you assess your start to the season? Was it a good January or a disappointing one?
Vinci: No, it was a good start of the season. I always play so bad in Australia. This year I played so good in Brisbane, Sydney too. I reached the third round of the Australian Open. For me it was a good start and I’m really happy that I’m confident and in good form and I won here.

WTA Insider: What does it mean for you to win your first title since 2013?
Vinci: It’s a lot for me. It’s an amazing moment. I’m not young. I’m almost done. I’m really happy. I always tried to my best. It’s not easy to practice every single day. For me this tournament was a fantastic moment.

WTA Insider: You keep saying that you’re almost done. When I asked you in Wuhan you said this would be your last season. Any thoughts about changing your mind now?
Vinci: I don’t want to think about this right now. We are in February. Of course I could change my mind. I don’t want to play more than two or three years for sure.
But yeah, maybe not this is my last year. We will see at the end of the season. If I can still motivate and I’m still good, why not? But I don’t want to think about it right now. I just want to enjoy my victory here.

WTA Insider: You’re playing the best tennis of your career right now. What’s the difference? What’s changed?
Vinci: I don’t know the difference but I’ve been playing so good since Toronto of last year. So many points, so many results. I don’t have a secret. Maybe just relaxed outside the court and enjoy.

Roberta Vinci

WTA Insider: You’re up to No.13 now and getting close to breaking into the Top 10.
Vinci: I don’t want to think about the ranking. I’m almost Top 10 but we will see. So happy to be No.13 and we will see.

WTA Insider: One thing that’s clear is you seem so much fitter now compared to 10 years ago. Do you think you’re fitter now?
Vinci: Yeah, much more better than 10 years ago. I lost some kilos and I run a lot more than when I was young.

WTA Insider: Why do you think you’re fitter now at 33 than when you were in your early 20s?
Vinci: I don’t know. When I was young maybe it was difficult for me to practice and stay focused every single day. Now for me it’s much better. I have more experience. I feel more mature, much more than when I was young that’s for sure.

WTA Insider: So what will you to celebrate? Are you still headed to Dubai for next week’s Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships?
Vinci: Tomorrow I will go to Dubai and I will arrive late there and I will play the next day. I’m a little bit tired but happy. Tonight there is a tournament party and we will celebrate there. And then go to bed.

WTA Insider: What’s your celebratory drink of choice? Beer? Wine?
Vinci: I don’t like beer or wine! Just a Coca-Cola. I’m not a real Italian!

WTA Insider: Really? You’re breaking my heart, Roberta…
Vinci: Maybe tonight I can drink a little bit of wine. Maybe.

WTA Insider: It’s Valentine’s Day, you know.
Vinci: It’s true. Ok. One glass of wine. Just one.

All photos courtesy of Getty Images.

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