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!
Garbiñe Muguruza takes on Timea Babos in the third round of the Qatar Total Open.
WTA Insider | Courtney Nguyen and David Kane reconvene to decide who will win their first Miami Open title: Johanna Konta or Caroline Wozniacki?
All of the best shots of the third round at the Qatar Total Open.
MIAMI, FL, USA – Winning the Miami Open trophy after a rollercoaster two weeks of action was hard enough, but Johanna Konta’s work wasn’t done yet – there’s always the traditional champions Key Biscayne photo shoot.
After a quick chat with WTA Insider on the way to the shoot, Konta was ready to relax and pose in front of a throng of photographers as she celebrated the win at Cape Florida Light, Key Biscayne’s iconic lighthouse.
Here’s a few photos of Konta with the Miami Open trophy, all courtesy of Getty Images:
DOHA, Qatar – Jelena Ostapenko prevailed in Thursday’s battle of the giant killers at the Qatar Total Open, seeing off Zheng Saisai in straight sets.
Watch live action from Doha & Acapulco this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!
Twenty-four hours on from her dismissal of two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, Ostapenko produced another scintillating display of baseline aggression to blow away Zheng, 6-4, 6-3, in an hour and 38 minutes.
While Zheng was unable to replicate the standards she set in upsetting top seed Angelique Kerber last time out, she battled away gamely throughout. After weathering early onslaughts in both sets – she trailed 3-0 in the first and 4-1 in the second – Zheng clung onto her teenage foe’s coattails to remain competitive.
However, her resistance was finally broken in a titanic penultimate game, Ostapenko converting her fifth break point when a clubbing backhand landed on the baseline. Moments later the Latvian arrived at match point, converting with another pin-point winner.
“First I thought I was going to be playing qualies, but then I was second in and got into the main draw,” Ostapenko said. “Then win by win, I was playing better and better. I’m so happy I’m still here!”
Ostapenko was prepared to take risks – 33 winners were outnumbered by 45 unforced errors – and her reward is a maiden Premier semifinal, where she will meet either Garbiñe Muguruza or Andrea Petkovic.
“They are both great players, so I’ll probably watch today how they’ll play and I’m looking forward to playing tomorrow.”
In the following match, Carla Suárez Navarro restored a sense of order with a 6-3, 7-6(3) win over qualifier Elena Vesnina. The result takes Suárez Navarro into her second semifinal in Doha and also back into the Top 10.
The Spaniard has been one of the most consistent performers on tour in recent years and has been vocal about her hopes of rising even higher.
“Today was very tough, she has won a lot of matches and is playing really well,” Suárez Navarro said. “In the second set she was amazing! But I just fight and I also played a good match.
“It’s tough on tour, but I feel good on tour and this year I feel ready to go further.”
CHARLESTON, SC, USA — Monica Puig was the first of two main draw winners as the Volvo Car Open got underway in Charleston on Monday, as Katerina Siniakova was forced to retire with a back injury in the final set.
Siniakova received medical attention earlier in the match, and retired as the match hit the two-hour mark, trailing 6-4, 2-6, 1-4 to send the Puerto Rican in to the second round.
“It’s always nice to come back and play on the clay again — unfortunately she had to retire there in the third set,” Puig said after the match. “I thought it was some pretty good, high-quality tennis up until that point.
“She was definitely holding, clutching her back a little bit there in the second set, so I was obviously a little bit aware something was going on. I had to try and keep focus because sometimes when a player is feeling a little bit of discomfort, they start hitting the ball hard, going for their shots a little more. I had to really focus and pay attention.”
Puig, who reached the third round in Charleston last season, fell behind early as Siniakova broke in the first game and rode the advantage to a one-set lead. She flipped the script in the second set, breaking Siniakova at the first opportunity to open up a 3-0 lead en route to sending the match to a decider. While the Czech fought through valiantly in the decider, she dropped serve in the fourth game and was unable to continue much further from there.
.@MonicaAce93 is first through to @VolvoCarOpen Second round!
Siniakova retires due to injury pic.twitter.com/xcJH4OUG9S
— WTA (@WTA) April 3, 2017
The Puerto Rican played her first WTA main draw in Charleston in 2011 after coming through qualifying and the World No.40 is eager to use one of her most successful tour stops as a springboard on the road to the French Open
“I love the clay. I really enjoy playing on it. Not so much the green clay because you don’t really notice that you’re on clay as much as the red clay — I love getting off the court and seeing I’m all dirty!” she joked.
“You don’t really have to change up your game style, but you have to adjust to what you have to do as far as tactics and things like that,” Puig assessed, as she’ll face the winner of the match between Daria Kasatkina and Danka Kovinic in the second round. “That’s what my coach and I were trying to work on coming into this clay season, just to really be smart of there.”
Joining Puig in the second round as an early winner was Japan’s Naomi Osaka, who rallied for her first career main draw win in Charleston after dropping the first set against Johanna Larsson, 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-2.
Check out the rest of the opening round results here.
Agnieszka Radwanska takes on Roberta Vinci in the quarterfinals of the Qatar Total Open.
MONTERREY, Mexico – Hundreds of Monterrey locals got a chance to be up close with the WTA’s biggest stars as the Abierto GNP Seguros put on a colorful display at one of the city’s most popular avenues, San Pedro de Pinta.
World No.1 and Monterrey top seed Angelique Kerber joined Donna Vekic in a mini-tennis exhibition match, before covering each other – and the crowd – in colorful powdered paint.
The pair even took to the stage afterwards, joining a local band to sing some tunes at Monterrey’s weekly festival.
Check out the best photos below, courtesy of the Abierto GNP Seguros!
Courtney Nguyen, Point: For the second straight season, Carla Suárez Navarro has started the year by playing her best tennis. And yet, 2016 feels different. The Spaniard was the most consistent player in the first half of 2015, making the quarterfinals or better at 10 of her first 11 tournaments. Yet she had no titles to show for it, and most importantly, she struggled mightily at the majors. She lost in the first round of three of the four majors.
With her dominant 6-2, 6-0 win over World No.3 Agnieszka Radwanska, Suárez Navarro has backed up yet another strong start and is one win away from the biggest title of her career at the Qatar Total Open. Her run in Doha comes off a great January, which saw her make the semifinals at the Brisbane International and the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. With a more aggressive mindset and renewed calm – she has been working with a sports psychologist – the Canary Islands native has reversed her trend and is now finding her best tennis at the sport’s biggest events.
On Monday she will rise to a career-high ranking at No.6, just one spot short of her pre-season goal of cracking the Top 5. If she wins the title she will rise to No.2 in the Road to Singapore behind Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber.
As the women around her fell to upset, Suárez Navarro has been been workmanlike in her effort and consistency. She has not dropped a set in her four matches, with wins over Donna Vekic, Timea Bacsinszky, Elena Vesnina, and Radwanska. Not even a scary fall late in the first set against Radwanska could derail her.
But she goes from being largely overlooked at the start of the week, to the underdog in her semifinal, to the overwhelming favorite in Saturday’s final. Suárez Navarro is the first to admit that the nerves can get to her in the big occasions. With 18-year-old Jelena Ostapenko playing her first Premier final on Saturday, Suárez Navarro is the one with the experience. Just last year she made finals at the Miami Open and Italian Open.
But unlike the rest of the women Ostapenko stunned this week, Suárez Navarro knows exactly what to expect against the Latvian. Ostapenko steamrolled her last year in the first round at Wimbledon, 6-2, 6-0, in a loss that sent the Spaniard reeling for the remainder of the season.
“She played really fast, really fast,” Suárez Navarro told reporters in Doha. “She knows how to play tennis. She play also solid here this week, I saw her. But in the final, you never know what going to be happen. A lot of emotions, nervous sometimes. Will be tough.”
“I need to be ready, because I know how she plays. If she plays good, will be tough for me.”
I don’t put much stock in that Wimbledon loss. A junior Wimbledon champion, Ostapenko’s game is well suited for grass and fast surfaces, while it is by far the Spaniard’s worst surface. The Spaniard also came into that tournament exhausted from the first six months of the season. It’s a different story this week.
This is no gimme for Suárez Navarro, but she’s shown no sign of weakness all tournament. In fact, she’s played better and better with every match. Against Radwanska, she held her position on the baseline with ease and took the ball clean and early. As she told the crowd afterwards, she was feeling the ball good. She could put the ball wherever she wanted.
Ostapenko offers a completely different challenge. She hits a big flat ball. She’s far more offensive-minded than Radwanska and the depth and weight of her shot can push her opponents off the baseline. She also can struggle with consistency and rack up errors quickly. If Suárez Navarro can play her game and move Ostapenko deep into the corners, she should be able to outsteady her more erratic opponent.
David Kane, Counterpoint: Jelena Ostapenko came to Doha having won just one main draw match since reaching her first WTA final at the Coupe Banque Nationale in September. Two players out of the main draw, the 18-year-old Latvian was merely gearing herself up for another bout of qualifying at the start of the week.
“First, it was like second round of qualies, and I was just really happy that I got main draw,” she said on Friday. “In my first match, I was just trying to play my best tennis. Match by match, I played better and better.”
Elevating her game for some stiff opposition, Ostapenko earned back-to-back wins over Svetlana Kuznetsova and No.5 seed Petra Kvitova.
“I beat some players in the Top 10, some Grand Slam champions, as well. I get confidence from that. I’m able to see that I can also play on that level.
“It’s better for me because with every match I get more and more confident.”
She outhit Zheng Saisai in the quarterfinals and refused to buckle in the semis, even as she fell behind 5-1 in the first set against Andrea Petkovic. Narrowly losing some tight early games to the German, Ostapenko found her range off her booming forehand – one reminiscent of Ana Ivanovic or even Anna Kournikova – just as her opponent began to struggle with a left thigh injury, retiring after losing seven games in a row.
“I was just trying to stay consistent and to not miss easy balls, because she was playing amazing in the first set. I was just trying to fight for every point and I think it helped me.
“I feel pity for Andrea that she couldn’t finish the match. I hope she recovers better. After when she’s in a good form, we can have a great match.”
Unafraid of big stages, she won main draw matches in her Grand Slam main draw debuts at Wimbledon and the US Open, trouncing Suárez Navarro, 6-2, 6-0, at the former.
“It was a great match for me because it was my first win against a Top 10 player, and grass is my favorite surface. I felt really good there.
“She’s playing really great this week. It’s going to be a tough match tomorrow.”
Her run in Doha already guarantees her of a Top 50 debut, joining fellow 18-year-olds Belinda Bencic and Daria Kasatkina – the largest cohort of teens since 2009. While Bencic and Kasatkina rely more on consistency, Ostapenko is a streaky player, and has been on one heck of a streak in Qatar, dropping just one set in five matches.
Playing one of the biggest matches of her career, she can certainly hit through the Spanish veteran – proving as much at the All England Club – and so the question will be whether the young Latvian will be able to hold her nerve and keep control of her powerhouse game.
As bluntly precise in press as she is on the court, the youngster sees things even more simply.
“I will try to show my best tennis.”
All photos courtesy of Getty Images.