Dubai: Zhang Kai-Lin's Shot Of The Day
Zhang Kai-Lin had Sunday’s shot of the day at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
Zhang Kai-Lin had Sunday’s shot of the day at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
Alison Riske takes on CoCo Vandeweghe in the first round of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
Watch the best moments from Caroline Wozniacki’s press conference after her first round victory at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
In today’s SAP Stat Of The Day, Kristina Mladenovic scored a milestone win at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
Halep Books Return to Singapore
Just two days after celebrating her 25th birthday, Simona Halep secured her spot in Singapore for the third consecutive year by reaching the semifinal with a win over Madison Keys. Halep joins Angelique Kerber and Serena Williams in the Singapore lineup with the final five spots up for grabs.
Cibulkova, Kuznetsova Deliver Under Pressure
Dominika Cibulkova delivered in a big way with wins over Karolina Pliskova and Barbora Strycova on Thursday to set up a semifinal match against Svetlana Kuznetsova. The victories position her among the Top 8 on the Road to Singapore Leaderboard and also confirm her return to the WTA Top 10 when the latest rankings are released after Wuhan.
Kuznetsova, who now sits at No.10 on the Leaderboard, has enjoyed a late-career resurgence as she will reach her highest ranking since the 2010 French Open after Wuhan. Both players are jockeying for position on the Leaderboard, and a semifinal win will add 235 points to their totals.
Cibulkova has a chance this week to move as high as No.6 on the Leaderboard, overtaking French Open champion Garbiñe Muguruza. Kuznetsova, on the other hand, has a chance to climb into the Top 8 if she can capture the title in Wuhan.
Late Season Push for Kvitova
Petra Kvitova scored a win over current WTA World No.1 Angelique Kerber in the third round, which, arguably, could be considered the WTA match of the year.
Kvitova entered the week at No.21 on the Road to Singapore Leaderboard. Projected to climb to No.18 with her results so far, a run to a second Wuhan final – she was the inaugural Wuhan champion in 2014 – would push her to around No.12. If Kvitova, also a finalist in 2014 at Beijing, could complete a Wuhan/Beijing double, she would vault into the Top 8 and be in position to qualify for the WTA Finals for the sixth straight year.
WTA FINALS – ROAD TO SINGAPORE UPDATE – Thursday, September 29th
SINGLES:
Qualified: Angelique Kerber, Serena Williams, Simona Halep
Next to Qualify: No more qualifiers this week. All eyes will be on Beijing
Current Projected Top 8 (Remaining 5 Spots)
Contenders for Top 8 in Action:
(Current projected cut off is 3,137; points trailing the current projected cutoff)
DOUBLES:
Qualified: Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic, Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza, Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina
Next to Qualify: It is possible for two of three teams to qualify this week – Timea Babos and Yaroslava Shvedova will qualify if they defeat Sania Mirza and Barbora Strycova in quarterfinal, and either Chan Hao-Ching and Chan Yung-Jan or Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova will book their ticket to Singapore with the title
Current Projected Top 8 (Remaining 5 Teams)
|
Babos/Shvedova |
3975 |
QF vs. Mirza/Strycova |
|
Hlavackova/Hradecka |
3775 |
lost 2R vs Bondarenko/Chuang |
|
Chan/Chan |
3760 |
SF vs winner of Babos/Shvedova & Mirza/Strycova |
|
Mattek-Sands/Safarova |
3676 |
No.5 seed, SF vs McHale/Peng |
|
Goerges/Pliskova |
3270 |
lost to Atawo/Spears in 2R |
Contenders for Top 8 in Action:
(Current projected cut off is 3,270; points trailing the current projected cutoff)
|
Atawo/Spears |
-575 |
lost to Chan Sisters in QF |
|
Xu/Zheng |
-600 |
lost Atawo/Spears in 1R |
|
Klepac/Srebotnik |
-1130 |
lost No.2 seed Chan Sisters in 2R |
|
Mirza/Strycova |
-1280 |
QF vs Babos/Shvedova |
BUDAPEST, Hungary – Top seed Timea Babos kicks off her Hungarian Ladies Open campaign with a solid victory in front of her home crowd, knocking out Turkish wildcard Ipek Soylu in straight sets to move into the second round.
“I’m just happy to play here at home,” Babos enthused after the match. “It’s very special for me, it motivates me a lot – I’m very happy to have this first win.”
With the support of the vocal home fans, Babos powered her way to a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Soylu, breaking her serve five times and needing just an hour and twenty minutes to advance.
“Already for the first round to have such a great crowd and such a big number of fans, it’s an amazing feeling. Hopefully this week I can continue that, and playing singles and doubles will bring out plenty of people.”
Besides being Babos’ first victory in Budapest since 2013, it’s also the Hungarian’s first main draw win of the year after a disappointing string of first-round losses stretching back to October 2016.
“It was not an easy season so far for me,” Babos reflected. “I started to play better at the St. Petersburg Ladies Open, but I played a lot of Top 30 players. I lost some tough three-setters.
“But then I had Fed Cup, which helped a lot. I played very, very consistent and I beat some Top 30 players and started to feel better.”
Also in action, No.8 seed Annika Beck had to fight against the home crowd on her way to the quarterfinals against Hungarian wildcard Fanny Stollar.
Yesterday, Stollar thrilled the local fans by notching her first ever WTA main draw victory against Danka Kovinic, but the No.282 was unable to back it up and fell to Beck, 6-2, 6-0.
“It was a very good match and she started off pretty well,” Beck said afterwards. “I backed off a bit at the start and fought my way through the games. I got on top of her and was able to finish it off, even with the score it was still a close match since the games were close.”
“It’s my first quarterfinal of the year, I’m just happy I can keep up the good results and have more success on the court.”
Joining Beck in the quarterfinals is No.2 seed Lucie Safarova, who needed just 56 minutes to sweep past Hsieh Su-Wei, 6-2, 6-1. The 2015 French Open finalist took an early lead in both sets, opening with a break in each to control the match and battle past the No.102 Taiwanese.
“It’s always nice to play the tournaments which are close to home so more friends and family can come,” Safarova said. “This week my coach’s family and little kids are here. Those are my friends! It’s nice and I’m enjoying it.”
Rounding out the quarterfinals are No.3 seed Julia Goerges, who defeated Donna Vekic 6-2, 6-2 in less than an hour, and Belarusian qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich, who scored another upset to knock out No.6 seed Pauline Parmentier, 7-6(3), 6-4.
Petra Kvitova takes on Dominika Cibulkova in the final of the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open.
DUBAI, UAE – No.6 seeds Andrea Hlavackova and Peng Shaui continued their solid start to 2017, knocking out Mandy Minella and Anastasija Sevastova, 7-5, 6-2, to reach the quarterfinals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
Peng shook off a disappointing singles loss to Sevastova to pair Hlavackova, with whom she reached the Australian Open final, to get her revenge on the Latvian in doubles.
“It’s not always easy to play after Shuai loses in singles on the same day,” Hlavackova said after the match. “Obviously, you’re sad, but it’s nice that we were able to work as a team and just fight for the doubles anyway. That’s what I felt today. We were just better players but they played very solidly. Sevastova’s having a good week so she was playing unbelievable serves and forehands. It was always close so I’m happy we got through.”
The duo raced out to a 4-1 lead to start, and survived a surge from Sevastova and Minella to clinch the opening set and ride the momentum to a one hour and six minute victory.
“It seems like it’s going well. We always had good results together, so it’s not a huge surprise for both of us. But nothing is guaranteed, so we’ve worked hard for every win.
“We’re looking forward to playing more big events like these. We play very well together.”
Hlavackova is coming off a longterm partnership with Lucie Hradecka, with whom she qualified for the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global the last two years in a row. What do Hradecka and Peng have in common? A two-handed forehand.
“Maybe I like their mentality, but whatever happens I guess I need to keep looking for more double-handed players!” joked the Czech veteran.
Up next for Hlavackova and Peng are No.4 seeds Martina Hingis and Chan Yung-Jan, a newly formed team who reached the semifinals just last week at the Qatar Total Open.
Earlier in the day, top seeds Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic recovered from 0-4 in the match tie-break to oust Viktorija Golubic and Kristyna Pliskova, 7-5, 4-6, 10-5. Mladenovic had to shake off a singles loss of her own to reunite with Garcia in time to reach the quarterfinals, where they’ll play No.5 seeds Chan Hao-Ching and Yaroslava Shvedova, who defeated Irina-Camelia Begu and Daria Kasatkina, 6-3, 6-3.
No.3 seeds Sania Mirza and Barbora Strycova also advanced on Wednesday, easing past Kiki Bertens and Johanna Larsson, 6-3, 7-5; they’ll next face No.7 seeds Abigail Spears and Katarina Srebotnik.
An interview with Venus Williams before her first round match at the China Open.
A clip from Caroline Wozniacki’s press conference after her quarterfinals win at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.