Tennis News

MOSCOW, Russia – Svetlana Kuznetsova kept up her chances of qualifying for the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global by beating Elina Svitolina, 6-1, 6-7(2), 6-4, in Friday’s Kremlin Cup semifinals.

Watch live action from Moscow & Luxembourg this week at WTA Live Powered By TennisTV!

The Russian must win the tournament to overtake WTA Most Improved Player of the Year Johanna Konta and secure a spot in Singapore.

After Svitolina started the match with a routine hold, the Ukrainian squandered three chances to move a break ahead and the Russian never looked back in the first set.

In the second set, however, the World No.15 provided much sterner opposition, breaking to love in the fifth game. Kuznetsova broke back immediately but once again fell behind a break in the very next game, despite saving two break points.

Svitolina tightened up when serving for the set, falling 0-40 behind in flash. She saved all three but succumbed to the pressure on the fourth.

However, she was not left to rue her profligacy and she claimed a highly attritional tie-break convincingly after producing a series of excellent groundstrokes, with Kuznetsova making some untimely unforced errors.

Kuznetsova appeared to be tiring but soon stopped Svitolina’s march. After a lengthy break before the decider, the top seed returned with renewed vigour, sending down a series of vicious shots to break in the opening game.

The 31-year-old saved two break points in the following game to consolidate her advantage but from there she was well on top and Svitolina was unable to get back in the match as Kuznetsova got her WTA-leading 20th three-set match win of 2016.

Kuznetsova has won 20 3-set matches in 2016. She won 17 3-set matches in 2014 and 2015 COMBINED https://t.co/kdPEISJspn

— Kevin Fischer (@Kfish_WTA) October 21, 2016

“I knew what I had to do but in the second set I stopped playing the ‘right’ tennis. I realized what was going on, I understood it was wrong but couldn’t do anything about it. And I had to play three sets,” Kuznetsova said in her post-match press conference.

Kuznetsova will face Daria Gavrilova in the final after she overcame Julia Goerges, 7-5, 6-1. Gavrilova, who was born in Moscow, received plenty of support from the Russian crowd, helping her through a rollercoaster first set and into the first final of her career.

“When I arrived in Hong Kong a few weeks ago, I didn’t expect to be finishing the season so well,” Gavrilova told wtatennis.com. “Playing here in Moscow I’m getting a lot of support – I have a lot of friends and family in the crowd – and even though I’m very tired this helped me come through the difficult moments in the match today.

“In the final I know Sveta will get a lot of support, but this is normal. It has been a great week and I am playing with no pressure so I will go out and play my game and see what happens.”

Dominika Cibulkova’s hopes of qualifying for a debut appearance at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global came down to the wire. The Slovak needed to win the Generali Ladies Linz to assure herself a spot among the Greatest Eight, and did just that.

“It was really important for me that I won there,” she said in Singapore. “It’s not every day that I’m coming to a tournament and I have to win it to get somewhere, and then I actually won the whole thing.

“It was just a great week for me, and all happened so quickly. In two days I flew here.”

Cibulkova turned around a tough start in the round robin stage to stun 2014 finalist Simona Halep in straight sets, and overcame a 1/16 longshot of qualifying for the semifinals to knock out Svetlana Kuznetsova in the semis before overcoming World No.1 Angelique Kerber in the championship match.

“I cannot find the right word in English, but in the first match I played against Angelique, that gave me confidence that I can beat her,” she said of avenging her round robin loss in the final.

“My game is good enough to beat the World No.1. I was going into this final with these thoughts and I was feeling it from the first point until the last point.”

By beating the Australian Open and US Open champion, Cibulkova assured herself of a career-high ranking and a Top 5 finish for 2016, a place she sees as a launch pad for even greater success.

“Right now I don’t doubt myself anymore. I never doubted myself this year at all. I always had my coach to motivate me, to put the bigger goals for me. That was something I was dealing with; I never saw myself as such a great player, or a consistent player, somebody who could be Top 5.

“My coach said, ‘Domi, you had a great half of the season, but you’re able to have a great second half of the season. You just have to still stay focused and work hard. You can be Top 5 at the end of the year’.

“I really, really believed him for the first time in my life. I believed, ‘Okay, this is something I can do, I want to do.’

“I’m not saying I was coming to this tournament to win it, but when I was so close before the finals, I was convinced that I can beat Angie today.”

That new sense of determination paid off in Singapore, and it certainly helped her earn her the mantle of October’s WTA Player of the Month!

Final Results for October’s WTA Player Of The Month

1. Dominika Cibulkova (55%)
2. Agnieszka Radwanska (33%)
3. Angelique Kerber (12%)

2016 WTA Player of the Month Winners

January: Angelique Kerber
February: Carla Suárez Navarro
March: Victoria Azarenka
April: Angelique Kerber
May: Garbiñe Muguruza
June: Serena Williams
July: Simona Halep
August: Monica Puig
September: Petra Kvitova

How it works:

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

The third edition of the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global featured first-time champions in singles and doubles, a new year-end singles World No.1 in Angelique Kerber and the crowning of Sania Mirza as the top doubles player of the year. The 2016 Finals also set records off the court thanks to an unprecedented increase in social media engagement.

Dominika Cibulkova’s unexpected run to the final on her tournament debut was experienced by more fans than ever. Compared to the 2015 tournament, Facebook video views were up 571%, engagement on WTA-operated social media platforms increased by 247% and wtatennis.com referrals from social media improved by 167%.

The upsurge in engagement was driven by a ‘social first’ content strategy featuring on and off-court action, humorous player videos, match reporting, opinion editorials, innovative design and behind the scenes video on Facebook Live, Instagram Stories and Snapchat. The best-performing content pieces included the moment Cibulkova won title, a Facebook Live fan Q&A with Indian superstar Mirza, Svetlana Kuznetsova’s on-court haircut and live coverage of the iconic photoshoot, draw and gala dinner.

The increase in exposure was not just limited to web platforms with the 2016 Finals yielding a 4% increase in global TV household reach compared to 2015, thanks to increased exposure in Russia, Germany and Austria.

In addition to Cibulkova’s upset victory over Kerber, Olympic gold medalists Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina broke Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova’s 18-match winning streak to lift the Martina Navratilova WTA Finals Doubles Trophy. Mirza finished as year-end World No.1 doubles player for a second consecutive season. Mirza has held the No.1 ranking for 83 consecutive weeks.

Melissa Pine, Vice-President of WTA Asia-Pacific and Tournament Director of the WTA Finals, said, “The Road to Singapore this year has been yet another exciting race to the finish line and the tennis action at the WTA Finals has truly reflected the top quality level of play among the greatest eight of 2016. We are thrilled with how the fans in Singapore and around the world have warmly embraced the event as well as shown their enthusiasm for women’s tennis.”

SINGAPORE – No.3 seed Simona Halep kicked off her season-ending campaign with a 6-2, 6-4 win over No.6 seed Madison Keys on Day 1 of the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.

Read how the match unfolded in the WTA Insider Live Blog.

– Simona Halep relishes this match-up.

Halep moves to 1-0 in the Red Group after a remarkably clean performance against Keys, a player she knows how to beat. The two played three times this year, all in the second half of the season, and Halep won all three matches, two of which came on hard courts. There’s just something about Halep’s game that continues to puzzle Keys, who has yet to find the sweet spot between minimizing errors by not going for too much and being the first-strike aggressor.

“I think one of her strengths is making you feel like you have to go for more and taking the risk,” Keys said. “I think just going in and knowing she’s going to get the balls back but continuing to play my game is the big thing. I think sometimes she makes me uncomfortable and I back away from playing my game and start going for things in a way that I shouldn’t.”

On paper, Keys should be able to take advantage of Halep’s serve with her forehand return and open up the court with her heavy cross-court shots. But Halep always seems one step ahead of Keys. The Romanian, who is now 6-5 against Top 10 players this year, has a fairly simple game plan against the American: Keep the ball on Keys’ backhand, minimize errors, and, most importantly, run. Even in straight sets, these are physical matches for Halep, but she seems to have unshakable faith in her gameplan and she’s now 5-1 against Keys.

– Positivity the key for Halep.

After taking the first set in 27 minutes — with a big help from Keys, who hit 18 unforced errors in the set — Halep had looks to break early in the second set and did not capitalize. You could see her frustration begin to set in. The clouds began to gather in her head, but she snapped out of it after a great coaching timeout with Darren Cahill at 2-1.

Coach @darren_cahill talks to @simona_halep, encouraging her to keep her level, before closing with a “Sorry, Sorry!” #WTAFinals pic.twitter.com/fnjhI1GEvf

— WTA (@WTA) October 23, 2016

“First game of the second set I had two break points and I missed that forehand very easy,” Halep said. “Yeah, I was a little bit pissed. I called Darren at 2-1. He told me to calm down, so [that’s] everything that I did.

“Then I just stayed more focused. I felt that she’s coming back, she’s playing better and better, so I had to stay for every point there. With Madison it’s always important to play every point and win every point.”

Halep immediately broke in the next game and took control from there. Even after Keys broke back to level to 4-4, Halep again stayed positive and got the break with the shot of the match:

A sensational backhand pass from @Simona_Halep to now serve for the match! #WTAFinals pic.twitter.com/Na7q8vXvfF

— WTA (@WTA) October 23, 2016

– Never underestimate the nerves of a first-timer.

If you successfully qualify for the WTA Finals, chances are you’ve gone through a few years on tour, so going to a new tournament in a new place is a rare experience. For a debutante like Keys, her experience in her first WTA Finals was markedly foreign. And it showed.

“It was obviously a very new feeling for me,” Keys said. “Then once I got on the court I definitely felt the nerves of the occasion.

“Definitely doesn’t feel like any other tournament. I think it’s been a while since I’ve gone to a tournament and it’s all felt new and it was new nerves and new occasion. So that was kind of difficult to deal with. I think at the beginning of the second set I felt like I settled in a little better.”

– Keys will likely need to beat Kerber for a chance to qualify for the semifinals.

Keys finished the match with 41 errors to just 16 winners. In a very telling stat, she hit just one ace in the match. Her return let her down in a big way, as she struggled to put any pressure on Halep’s serve, earning just two break points in the match. The Keys return against the Halep serve should go the way of the American, but her execution tonight was poor.

“I think today a big thing was this court stays really low,” Keys said. “The ball doesn’t bounce up very high. I think for me I was definitely getting caught either too far behind the ball or kind of running into it. I wasn’t timing it super well.”

The loss means her next two matches against Kerber and Cibulkova are virtually must-win matches. While she’s 3-0 against Cibulkova, she’s 1-5 against the World No.1.

– Halep could be the favorite to qualify out of the Red Group.

In a group that includes No.1 Angelique Kerber, Dominika Cibulkova, and Keys, Halep sent a strong message to the field with her steady play tonight. In addition to her performance tonight, Halep already had the best combined record against the Red Group. Going into this match, Halep held a 10-7 head-to-head advantage in the Red Group compared to Kerber (8-13), Cibulkova (7-9) and Keys (5-9).

“It’s not about the pressure,” Halep said, when asked about the effect of getting a win in your first match of group play. “I think it’s about the confidence. [Winning] gives you confidence. If you win you are more positive. When you go to the second one you say that you feel the game. You feel the court. You feel great here. So I can play my best tennis and…give everything without thinking of the score.”