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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia – Yulia Putintseva made another thrilling comeback at the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy, shocking BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global champion and No.2 seed Dominika Cibulkova, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. The Kazakh’s first Top 5 win helps reach her first WTA final where she’ll face Kristina Mladenovic, who also triumphed in three sets against Russia’s Natalia Vikhlyantseva, 4-6, 6-2, 6-2.

“It’s unbelievable,” Putintseva said after the match. “I’m very happy that the crowd was behind me this time around. Yesterday they supported more Svetlana and today they cheered for me. I want to thank them from the bottom of my heart.”

Putintseva was playing her first Premier-level semifinal and coming off her third career Top 10 win over No.3 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, giving the more experienced Cibulkova the upper hand from the start. The Slovak worked through a few tense opening games to edge ahead by a break and take the opening set with the help of nine winners.

Cibulkova fell behind a break to start the second, but after winning three straight games to level the set, a first final of 2017, a career-high ranking of No.4, and a 399th career win all appeared on the cards for the reigning WTA Finals champion.

But the unseeded 22-year-old had other ideas, holding and breaking serve in quick succession to level the match, cleaning up her side of the stat sheet with 12 winners to only eight unforced errors; Cibulkova maintained an almost exact inverse, hitting eight winners to 13 errors.

The final set was reminiscent of Friday’s quarterfinal between Putintseva and Kuznetsova, as the World No.5 twice led by a break, getting within two points of a 5-3 lead.

“I never give up and always try to dictate my game no matter what. And this is what I was trying to do throughout this match.

But Putintseva continued to play her best tennis when her back was up against the wall, winning four straight games to book her first-ever WTA final in two hours and 19 minutes.

By match’s end, it was clear that consistency had gotten the job done for Putintseva, who matched Cibulkova in winners (27 each), but hit 11 fewer errors (43 to 32).

“It’s my first WTA final, but actually I don’t feel any pressure here. I am enjoying every moment I spend on the court.”

Waiting for her in the championship match will be Mladenovic, herself enjoying a career-best run that began with an emphatic win over Australian Open runner-up Venus Williams. The Frenchwoman back up the upset by dethroning defending champion Roberta Vinci and remained composed after losing the first set to Vikhlyantseva, a rising Russian set to make her Top 100 debut after reaching her first semifinal at a WTA Premier event.

“She’s really powerful, and all credit to her in the first set,” Mladenovic said after the match. “I was like, ‘Geez, this is going very fast.’ She was playing very heavy with her groundstrokes, and hitting a lot of winners.

“I just dug really deep and I was trying to stay positive. I said to myself that if she managed to maintain this high energy and intensity for the whole match, good job. But I’m very happy to have stayed in the match long enough to turn it around.”

An unfamiliar opponent to many, Vikhlyantseva had previously pushed Mladenovic to three sets in ‘s-Hertogenbosch last summer, helping the unseeded Frenchwoman prepare for what became a three set battle.

“I think it was a very good match, high intensity from both of us. I think the difference today was my ability to maintain that intensity from first point to last. I felt that way mentally the whole match, but I could sense her start to drop her level physically, be it with footwork, and the legs. She became less precise, and because she takes so many risks from the baseline, she started to make more unforced errors.

Mladenovic and Putintseva have played four times before, splitting their head-to-head at two wins apiece; Putintseva won their most recent meeting last year at the BNP Paribas Open in straight sets.

“She’s in great form, playing really well. She’s a big fighter, who runs down a lot of balls. I’ll have to keep playing the same way I have all week, being aggressive, coming forward, and trying to dictate play with my forehand. I’ll try to find angles and try to find my game towards the net.”

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Halep: WTA Diamond Aces Award Winner

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

SINGAPORE – Simona Halep has won the Jerry Diamond ACES Award for 2016.

The Diamond ACES Award was first introduced in 1995, in memory of former WTA CEO Jerry Diamond. The award is presented to the player who consistently goes above and beyond in promoting the sport of women’s tennis to fans, media, and local communities by performing off-court promotional and charitable activities.

The Romanian has earned the ACES award for the first time in her career, having participated in numerous kids’ clinics throughout the globe, charitable activities such as the Charity Day Clinic in Madrid, as well as fan friendly events, including the Sydney Festival, to help bring the game closer to the community. 

WTA Diamond Aces Award Winners
2016: Simona Halep
2015: Caroline Wozniacki
2014: Petra Kvitova
2013: Victoria Azarenka
2012: Victoria Azarenka
2011: Caroline Wozniacki
2010: Samantha Stosur
2009: Elena Dementieva
2008: Ana Ivanovic
2007: Jelena Jankovic
2006: Svetlana Kuznetsova

Complete listing of the historical WTA Awards.

 

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SAP Revolutionizes WTA Coaching

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

When the WTA and SAP announced a multi-year sponsorship in 2013, most of us in tennis wondered what the technology company’s ultimate deliverable would look like. Flash forward three years and SAP’s vision on how its data solutions could elevate the women’s game has become clear: start with the on-court product.

After a full year of data collection from matches and opening up the development process to players and coaches, SAP launched its on-court coaching tablet last August. The tablet, which had to be retrofitted to work in tennis’ grueling sun and heat conditions, allows coaches to track real-time match data from the coach’s box and, if needed, use the tablet as a visual aid during on-court coaching timeouts.

“When SAP looked to partner with the WTA this was one of the main reasons why women’s sport was something that we were interested in,” said Jenni Lewis, head of tennis technology at SAP. “Because we saw we could work together in impacting the sport in a positive way with technology. Playing by the rules, but still being able to say there was a gap there we could fill. The On Court Coaching rule has been there for a long time. Now we have the ability to bring in some facts to that conversation.”

But there’s only so much information a coach and player can process during a match. Using feedback from coaches with respect to the data points they are most interested in during matches, SAP worked to curate the tablet experience to make sure they had what they needed at their fingertips.

Away from the matches, coaches and players now have access to a robust Tournament Performance Center, an online portal that provides access to even more data and information which can be configured by each user. While the coaching tablet has been heavily refined so as to not overwhelm the coaches with information while they are trying to manage the match, the TPC unlocks a wealth of information for coaches to use in analysis, scouting, and preparation. The courtside solution is only accessible via a WTA authorized tablet. The TPC can be used on a website, tablet, or mobile device.

“I think it’s a game changer,” said Nicole Pratt, who currently coaches Daria Gavrilova, “The data that’s now available to the coaches and what the coaches are giving back to the players.”

The hope is that access to information will give coaches the tools to become better coaches and result in better players and a better on-court product. As Pratt told WTA Insider last year, the hard data helps solidify the player/coach relationship and cuts through the debate as to what did or did not happen in a match so both can focus on reinforcing solutions or diagnosing the problems.

“Sometimes you see the player and the coach arguing on court,” Pratt said. “With this data you cannot have that argument on court because it’s real. It’s right in front of them.”

The result is an uptick in efficiency, driven by the needs of the coaches.

“The platform gives us the flexibility, but the people give us the ideas,” Lewis said. “So we’ve been very lucky to have that access and also the buy-in from the coaches and the players about telling us. We took some time because we wanted to make sure the adoption happened.”

The current databases are built off automated data from the umpire’s electronic scoring devices, meaning there is a guaranteed minimum threshold of data points for every match on tour, as well as Hawkeye data where available. In the future, Lewis hopes to be able to incorporate racquet technology and data generated from wearables into the full dataset. In the meantime, the next step is to provide more analytical tools for broadcast and media to be able to use the data to enhance their storytelling abilities.

Speaking to reporters at the Miami Open, WTA President Micky Lawler highlighted the potential health benefits of SAP’s work as well. The more data the tour has on the physical effects of game on the players’ bodies could impact everything from the tour’s Sports Science and Medicine team to how best to reconfigure the circuit structure to protect the athletes.

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Panova Escapes Past Perrin In Bogota

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

BOGOTA, Colombia – Alexandra Panova was taken to the limit twice by a determined opponent but the Russian continued her run at the Claro Open Colsanitas, overcoming Conny Perrin 7-6(7), 7-6(7) for a spot in the quarterfinals.

Panova was the author of one the first round’s most dramatic upsets, emerging victorious in a rain-delayed three set comeback against the No.1 seed Elina Svitolina.

In the second round against Swiss qualifier Perrin, Panova was taken to two very tight sets. She built up a 5-2 lead in both sets before the Swiss came back twice to force a tiebreak in each one. Perrin held set points in both sets, but each time Panova was able to find a way shut her out.

“My opponent played really well, she has a really heavy forehand,” Panova said about 20-year-old Perrin. “I got really unlucky when I was trying to close it out with 5-2, but she was playing really well, nothing I could do. Just fight.”

Bogota’s high altitude and sharp change in climate – today being the first hot and sunny day after a week of cold and rainy weather – was almost too much for the Russian, who had to receive treatment during the second set due to dizziness.

“I felt fatigue, I felt like fainting. I couldn’t look up,” Panova said afterwards. “It was cold yesterday, today it’s hot. It’s still a high altitude and even if I’m in great shape and very fit, it’s very difficult.”

Also into the quarterfinals are Amra Sadikovic – who’s enjoying a successful return to competition in her first WTA tournament since her 2014 retirement – along with Sílvia Soler-Espinosa and Sachia Vickery.

 

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