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Chirico First Into Madrid Semifinals

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

MADRID, Spain – Qualifier Louisa Chirico continued her run at the Mutua Madrid Open, coming out on top in Thursday’s quarterfinal encounter with fellow surprise package Daria Gavrilova.

Watch highlights, interviews and more video from Madrid right here on wtatennis.com!

Prior to the start of the tournament World No.130 Chirico was not even sure she would make it into the qualifying draw, but after sneaking in thanks to a couple of late withdrawals she has grasped her opportunity with both hands.

Considering the American was contesting only her second WTA quarterfinal – and first at a Premier event – she cut a remarkably relaxed figure throughout, finishing strongly to close out a 7-6(1), 6-2 victory.

“It’s been pretty cool from the beginning really,” Chirico said in her post-match press conference. “I actually wasn’t in the draw. I don’t know – yeah, I wasn’t in qualies when I landed in Madrid.

“We landed at 10 minutes to 4pm, which is when the cut closes. We were like, ‘Can you call the supervisor? Am I in?’ Lucky enough to make it in and then qualify and get to where I am now. So it’s been a really exciting ride so far, but I’m not finished.”

Having profited from late withdrawal of Victoria Azarenka in the previous round, Chirico’s freshness told as the contest wore on. In the first set tie-break, the 19-year-old played the more assured tennis and in the second upped the ante, finding the lines with increasing frequency – she finished with an impressive 27 winners – to canter towards the finishing post.

Chirico is the first American teenager to make the last four of a Premier clay court event since Ashley Harkleroad at Charleston in 2003. There she will face either Dominika Cibulkova or Sorana Cirstea.

Regardless of the result in that match, Chirico is guaranteed a place in the Top 100 next week. Although for the time being her attention is on the here and now.

“I haven’t actually looked at any of the rankings or the points yet, so I usually don’t do that in the tournament until afterwards,” she added. “But, yeah, so I am just focusing on what I have to do for my next match really. All that stuff will take care of itself – afterwards I’ll enjoy that.”

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News | WTA Tennis English

News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

The clay season is underway in Bogota, where defending champion Irina Falconi will fight off a determined field led by Kiki Bertens. But for those still not ready to switch surfaces, the inaugural Ladies Open Biel Bienne – staged on indoor hardcourts – kicks off with a world-class field including Barbora Strycova and Carla Suárez Navarro.

Here’s what’s on tap for this week on the WTA:

CURRENT TOURNAMENTS:

Claro Open Colsanitas – Bogota

Tournament Level: International
Prize Money: $226,750
Draw Size: 32 main draw/24 qualifying
Surface: Clay, Outdoors

Qualifying Dates: Saturday, April 8 – Sunday, April 9
First Day of Main Draw: Monday, April 10

Singles Final: Saturday, April 15, NB 1:30 pm COT
Doubles Final: Saturday, April 15, 11:00 am COT

Top-ranked players: Kiki Bertens, Katerina Siniakova, Johanna Larsson, Lara Arruabarrena
Defending Champion: Irina Falconi

TALKING POINTS:

– Reigning Claro Open Colsanitas champion Irina Falconi is back after winning her first WTA singles title here in 2016. She’s joined by two other former Bogota champions: Lara Arruabarrena (2012) and Mariana Duque-Mariño (2010).

– Former Roland Garros champion Francesca Schiavone, playing her last season on tour, received one of the three main draw wildcards

– One to Watch: Sara Sorribes Tormo is the latest Spaniard to start making waves on tour, winning a handful of main draw matches – including over former Top 10 player Ekaterina Makarova at Indian Wells – and recently breaking into the Top 100 for the first time

Irina Falconi

Ladies Open Biel Bienne
Tournament Level: International
Prize Money: $226,750
Draw Size: 32 main draw/32 qualifying
Surface: Indoor Hard

Qualifying Dates: Saturday, April 8 – Monday, April 10
First Day of Main Draw: Monday, April 10

Singles Final: Sunday, April 16, NB 3:00 pm CEST
Doubles Final: Sunday, April 16, 12:00 pm CEST

Top-ranked players: Barbora Strycova, Carla Suárez Navarro, Timea Babos, Roberta Vinci, Laura Siegemund
Defending Champion: None, first staging

TALKING POINTS:

– This is the tournament’s inaugural staging, joining Switzerland’s other event, July’s Ladies Championship Gstaad, on the WTA calendar

– Eight players ranked in the Top 50 are competing at the 2017 Ladies Open Biel Bienne – No.18 Barbora Strycova, No. 25 Carla Suárez Navarro, No.30 Timea Babos, No.34 Roberta Vinci, No.37 Laura Siegemund, No.44 Alizé Cornet, No.46 Julia Goerges and No.47 Monica Niculescu

– Swiss No.1 Timea Bacsinszky is not competing in singles but will team up with compatriot and multiple Grand Slam winner Martina Hingis in doubles

-Former Top 10 player Belinda Bencic required a wildcard to play in Biel, having slipped to No.130 following an injury-affected 2016

Biel-Bienne

UPCOMING TOURNAMENTS:

Porsche Tennis Grand Prix – Stuttgart
Premier | $710,900 | Indoor Clay
Monday, April 24 – Sunday, April 30
Top-ranked players: Angelique Kerber, Karolina Pliskova, Simona Halep, Dominika Cibulkova, Agnieszka Radwanska
Defending champion: Angelique Kerber

TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Cup
International | $226,750 | Clay
Monday, April 24 – Sunday, April 30
Top-ranked players: Elina Svitolina, Timea Babos, Yulia Putintseva, Irina-Camelia Begu, Eugenie Bouchard
Defending champion: Cagla Buyukakcay

Grand Prix SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem – Rabat
International | $226,750 | Clay
Monday, May 1 – Saturday, May 6
Top-ranked players: Timea Bacsinszky, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Caroline Garcia, Timea Babos, Daria Gavrilova
Defending champion: Timea Bacsinszky

J&T Banka Prague Open
International | $226,750 | Clay
Monday, May 1 – Saturday, May 6
Top-ranked players: Karolina Pliskova, Caroline Wozniacki, Samantha Stosur, Barbora Strycova
Defending champion: Lucie Safarova

Barbora Strycova

TOP 20 PLAYERS’ SCHEDULES:
1. Angelique Kerber – Stuttgart
2. Serena Williams
3. Karolina Pliskova – Stuttgart, Prague
4. Dominika Cibulkova – Stuttgart
5. Simona Halep – Stuttgart
6. Garbiñe Muguruza – Stuttgart
7. Johanna Konta
8. Agnieszka Radwanska – Stuttgart
9. Svetlana Kuznetsova – Stuttgart
10. Madison Keys
11. Caroline Wozniacki – Prague
12. Venus Williams
13. Elina Svitolina – Istanbul
14. Petra Kvitova
15. Elena Vesnina – Stuttgart
16. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova – Rabat
17. Samantha Stosur – Stuttgart, Prague
18. Barbora Strycova – Biel, Stuttgart, Prague
19. Kristina Mladenovic – Stuttgart
20. Kiki Bertens – Bogota, Stuttgart

Risa Ozaki

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
Best wishes to those celebrating birthdays this week:

Risa Ozaki (JPN) – April 10, 1994
Elizaveta Kulichkova (RUS) – April 12, 1996
Richel Hogenkamp (NED) – April 16, 1992
Taylor Townsend (USA) – April 16, 1996

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WTA Breakthrough Of The Month: Buyukakcay

WTA Breakthrough Of The Month: Buyukakcay

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

Cagla Buyukakcay

Cagla Buyukakcay rewrote enough pages of WTA history to fill a whole book. The Turkish star became the first from her country to reach a WTA semfinal, final, and capture a title – all in one week in front of her home country at the TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Cup.

“It’s an incredible week for me to win the title at home, to break into the Top 100 with this tournament, to play against someone with my crowd,” she said after the match. “It was an amazing atmosphere today. I was playing better and better every day, but of course every day is another day, so I didn’t expect to win at the beginning of the week. I’m so excited and so happy for today.

The winning week at home also helped her become the first Turkish woman to enter the Top 100, and earned her the most fan votes for April’s WTA Breakthrough of the Month with over 40,000 votes.

For all of those reasons, Buyukakcay is your Breakthrough Player of the Month!

Final Results for April’s WTA Breakthrough Performance Of The Month

1. Cagla Buyukakcay (92%)
2. Laura Siegemund (5%)
3. Irina Falconi (3%)

2016 Breakthrough Player Of The Month

January: Zhang Shuai
February: Jelena Ostapenko
March: Nicole Gibbs

How it works:

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

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Cibulkova & McHale Talk Tennis Fashion

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

Fashion and sports go hand in hand when it comes to women’s tennis attire, so it’s no surprise that when the popular street style blog Who What Wear needed some tennis fashion advice they turned to the experts: Christina McHale and Dominika Cibulkova.

The WTA-stars-turned-fashion-experts gave Who What Wear their best tips for on court fashion.

“For me, it’s not so much the color combination that makes me feel confident in my outfit, but rather it’s the way the outfit fits me that makes me feel good in it,” McHale said on the outfits that inspire her.

You can find all of Cibulkova and McHale tennis attire right here on Tennis Warehouse.

 

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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

BOGOTA, Colombia — Lara Arruabarrena is back in the semifinals of the Claro Open Colsanitas, after surviving a marathon against Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic, 7-5, 5-7, 6-2 in Thursday’s quarterfinals.

The 2012 champion has reached at least the quarterfinals in each of her five career appearances in the Colombian capital, and returns to the last four for the second straight season after falling to eventual champion Irina Falconi in 2016.

Playing for the first time, the two players traded early breaks in the opening set before it went with serve for nearly the duration, showing off some classic clay-court tennis in the forecourt and from the baseline.

After saving two break points in the ninth game, Arruabarrena carved out her first chances on the Krunic serve since 3-3 in the final game, before the Serb double faulted to hand the No.4 seed a one set lead.

Though Krunic picked up an early break in the second, it was a series of four straight breaks of serve that proved to be the deciding margin in the second set. At 5-5, Krunic claimed a lengthy game on the Arruabarrena serve, winning it on her fourth opportunity, before serving out the set comfortably to send the match to a decider.

After splitting the first two sets in two hours of play, it was Arruabarrena who was the fresher of the two in the decider as she claimed the first five games en route to the two hour, 37-minute victory.

More to come…

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Cibulkova Marks Birthday With SF Win

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

MADRID, Spain – Dominika Cibulkova marked her 27th birthday with a brilliant display against qualifier Louisa Chirico in the semifinals of the Mutua Madrid Open.

Watch highlights, interviews and more video from Madrid right here on wtatennis.com!

Midday showers in the Spanish capital forced the roof to be shut on Manolo Santana and Cibulkova found the change much to her liking. While Chirico was getting used the unfamiliar conditions, Cibulkova was busy building a lead.

In Chirico’s first service game, the Slovak earned an immediate break point, which she converted when she skipped around to crack a fizzing forehand. She soon stretched her advantage to 5-0 and while the American belatedly got on the scoreboard, it was too little too late, Cibulkova closing out the set with a delicate drop shot.

The second set was a similar story, Cibulkova embroidering a heavy-duty baseline assault with some feathery touches around the net. As the on-court clock approached the hour mark she arrived at match point, rounding off the 6-1, 6-1 triumph by thumping a 24th winner past the helpless Chirico.

Considering the one-sided nature of the encounter, Cibulkova was surprisingly emotional as she saluted her camp: “Of course I’m always more emotional when I win. Even during the match. So it’s part of me. But I was really, really happy, because today’s match was not easy. I made it look easy.

“But I was playing just really well. I was dominating on the court and I was mentally very strong.”

This strength has been on full display this week, the former Australian Open finalist coming through a series of grueling encounters.

“I started today’s match in the best way – I was really aggressive,” she added. “I know what I want to play and I was just going for it. I didn’t wait what’s going to happen on the court.

“I really know the beginning will be really important because she’s new in this situation, so I want to take advantage of it, to be ready for it. That’s what I did perfectly. You know, even I had some chances today, I was just really, really solid. I had my plan and I was really doing what I had to do.”

Cibulkova has never previously reached the final of a Premier Mandatory event, and there she will face either Simona Halep or Samantha Stosur.

“We’ll see. This is the best way. I know I’m in the finals and the opponent is going to play so I can watch them a little bit. Either way I don’t like to choose opponent. It’s going to be whoever plays better tonight.

“I’m just ready. I’m playing good tennis and I want to keep going and playing this way. Doesn’t matter who’s on the other side.”

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