Tennis News

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.”

3rd Set!!@Simona_Halep saves a match point to force a decider vs Stosur 4-6, 7-5! #MiamiOpen pic.twitter.com/s103xofKtn

— WTA (@WTA) 28 de marzo de 2017

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.

Comeback Complete✔️@Simona_Halep saves a MATCH POINT to edge Stosur 4-6, 7-5, 6-2! #MiamiOpen pic.twitter.com/0qeasy9VQ4

— WTA (@WTA) 28 de marzo de 2017

“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.”

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.

.@KaPliskova seals the first set 6-3! #MiamiOpen pic.twitter.com/QmSdSzhHFj

— WTA (@WTA) March 28, 2017

“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.

Not a bad way to save break point @KaPliskova! ? #MiamiOpen pic.twitter.com/drHjF0D8tI

— WTA (@WTA) March 28, 2017

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.”

.@KaPliskova is first through to the @MiamiOpen Semifinals!

Skips past Lucic-Baroni 6-3, 6-4! pic.twitter.com/XybPo6IfNJ

— WTA (@WTA) March 28, 2017

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.”

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

The Australian revealed the news on social media.

This is one of my favorite post I could share with y'all! With joy and pride we would love to share that there will be a little Wolfe soon ❤ pic.twitter.com/JNEIpeNSeL

— Jarmila Wolfe (@tennis_jarkag) March 28, 2017

Unsurprisingly, she was immediately deluged with congratulations.

Congratulations Jarka and Adam! We can't wait to meet the little Wolfe ? https://t.co/6cZdpqGDTN

— TennisAustralia (@TennisAustralia) March 29, 2017

Wolfe retired from tennis at the start of 2017.

Vote: March’s WTA Shot Of The Month

April 03, 2017

Kirsten Flipkens, Elena Vesnina, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Venus Williams, and Caroline Wozniacki – who will win March’s WTA Shot Of The Month presented by Cambridge Global Payments? Vote now!

Ready? Set? Go! The third major of 2016 is about to get underway, and we’ve got your Wimbledon Day One preview right here at WTATennis.com, courtesy of contributor Chris Oddo.

Monday

First Round

[2] Garbiñe Muguruza (ESP #2) vs. Camila Giorgi (ITA #68)
Head-to-head: Giorgi leads, 2-1
Key Stat: Giorgi owns a 6-7 record against the Top 10, but has gone 1-6 against the Top 5.

How will Garbiñe Muguruza handle the pressure of playing the first women’s match on Wimbledon’s fabled Centre Court on Monday? All indications are that she’ll be fine. “Nothing has changed for me to look at Wimbledon different,” Muguruza confidently told a roomful of reporters on Saturday in London when she was asked about coming to Wimbledon as a Grand Slam champion for the first time. “I’m going for the first match, like everyone else, from zero.” Muguruza will have to find a way to block out all external expectations so that she may focus on getting past a very dangerous first-round opponent in Camila Giorgi. The Italian has successfully passed the first round in her last four appearances at Wimbledon and she owns a 17-11 record on grass despite losses in her last three tilts on the surface. Giorgi will certainly take her shots at using her explosive serve and flat ground strokes to expose Muguruza’s movement on the grass, but can the 24-year-old do it well enough to knock off one of the game’s rising forces on Day One?

Pick: Muguruza in three.

[8] Venus Williams (USA #9) vs. Donna Vekic (CRO #112)
Head-to-head: First meeting
Key Stat: Williams is 4^th on the Open Era win list at Wimbledon with 76.

Venus Williams and Wimbledon’s grass have been a perfect fit for 19 years running, and on Monday the five-time Wimbledon champion will look to cash in on her experience and grass-court karma when she takes on Croatia’s Donna Vekic for the first time. Vekic was predicted to have a bright future on the grass when she reached the Birmingham final in 2013, but the former World No.62 has struggled of late, losing five of six on the grass since then, and producing a disappointing 4-12 record on all surfaces in 2016. Williams, meanwhile, is hoping to put up back-to-back beauties at the majors. The 36-year-old reached the second week at Roland Garros for the first time since 2010 in Paris this spring and will look to begin what could potentially be a run for the ages here at Wimbledon.

Pick: Williams in two.

Many thought that Great Britain’s Laura Robson would be a fixture in Wimbledon’s second week for years to come when she produced a rousing run to the round of 16 in 2013 as a 19-year-old. But injuries have since sabotaged the progress of the promising Brit. Still working her way back to becoming a steady participant at the tour-level, world No.294 Robson will be in for a stern test on Monday as she faces Germany’s Angelique Kerber. Grass may not be Kerber’s greatest love, but she has racked up some very notable Wimbledon wins. She knocked off Kim Clijsters and Sabine Lisicki en route to the semifinals in 2012, and stunned Maria Sharapova during a quarterfinal run in 2014. Sounds like even years work well for Kerber at Wimbledon; does this year’s Australian Open champion have another deep run up her sleeve in 2016?

Pick: Kerber in two.

Sabine Lisicki (GER #81) vs. Shelby Rogers (USA #61)
Head-to-head: Lisicki leads, 1-0
Key Stat: Lisicki owns a 25-7 lifetime record at Wimbledon. She’s 28-24 lifetime in the other three majors, combined.

Welcome to another edition of Sabine Lisicki, Wimbledon fairy tale. Lisicki is a top pro on all surfaces and at all majors, but on the grass of Wimbledon the German takes her game – and emotions – to a higher level. “The first time that I was here, I don’t remember when it was, but when I was here I fell in love with Wimbledon,” Lisicki said in 2013 during her magical run to the final. The love affair has been mutual. Fans in London have warmed to Lisicki, who reached the quarterfinals or better at Wimbledon for five consecutive years until finally having that streak stopped by Timea Bacsinszky in the third round last year. In order to begin another streak, the German will have to find her way past rising American Shelby Rogers. The Charleston, S.C. native will look to notch her first career win at Wimbledon on Monday, but she’ll have to create her own fairy tale at SW19 to do so.

Pick: Lisicki in three.

Around the Grounds: They’ve always been great friends, even on the court where they’ve won two major doubles titles together, but on Monday Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova will meet on the singles court for the first time since 2010 on Court 8. Simona Halep will open Wimbledon accounts on Monday with a first-round tussle with Anna Karolina Schmiedlova on Court 2. Schmiedlova has gone 3-16 this season after breaking out in 2015 with a career-best 37 wins.

By the Numbers:

51 – Number of consecutive Grand Slams played by Jelena Jankovic, who now holds the active record in that category. Ai Sugiyama holds the all-time record with 62.

3 – Three Americans (Keys, Serena Williams, Venus Williams) are seeded at a major for the first time since the 2005 U.S. Open (Davenport, Serena Williams, Venus Williams).

120 – The all-time record for Wimbledon wins, held by Martina Navratilova. Serena Williams leads all active players with 79.