Ashleigh Barty grabbed her place in the quarterfinals of the Alya Malaysian Open, brushing aside fellow qualifier Miyu Kato, and then with Casey Dellacqua booked a semifinal spot in the doubles.
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia – Doubles star Elena Vesnina has won three Grand Slams in doubles – most recently a maiden mixed doubles trophy at the Australian Open with Bruno Soares – but the former No.3 in doubles (No.21 in singles) hit an extra-special milestone over the off-season when she married fiance Pavel Tubanstov in Moscow.
Joined by bridesmaid and longtime doubles partner Ekaterina Makarova – with whom she won the 2013 French Open and 2014 US Open – and a plethora of Russia’s tennis elite, Vesnina enjoyed a fairytale wedding in the Russian capital.
Back in her home country to play the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy, Vesnina reached the second round of the singles event as a wildcard, and will try to snap Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza’s 37-match winning streak in doubles alongside rising Russian star, Daria Kasatkina.
Until then, check out some of the best photos from Vesnina’s November nuptials below:
CINCINNATI, OH, USA – Angelique Kerber fought back to defeat Carla Suárez Navarro at the Western & Southern Open and move within touching distance of claiming the No.1 ranking.
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By winning the title in Cincinnati, Kerber will end Serena Williams’ 183-week reign as World No.1, and she kept the dream alive with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 victory on Friday aftrnoon.
Earlier this summer Suárez Navarro edged Kerber in a high-quality encounter in Birmingham. While the rematch failed to scale these heights, for a set and a half it looked like the result would go the same way.
The chase for top spot has now seen Kerber play 21 matches since the start of June, and at times against Suárez Navarro she appeared to be running on empty. Her usual consistency from the back of the court conspicuous by its absence, the No.2 seed committed 17 unforced errors in dropping the opening set.
Fortunately for the German, the soaring temperatures and a leg injury caused her opponent to fall away spectacularly, struggling in vain to keep fatigue at bay. The turning point came midway through the second set, a scrappy game giving Kerber a 4-2 and some much-needed momentum.
Willing herself forward, she hung onto this lead, swinging a serve out wide and beyond Suárez Navarro’s reach to level the match. This positivity continued into the decider, a brilliant angled backhand bringing an immediate break as she hurtled towards a semifinal meeting with either Simona Halep.
“I think I changed a little bit my game in the second set: I was trying to go for it when I have the chance and to making the rallies a little bit shorter,” Kerber said. “I was still thinking that I can turn around the match even after losing the first set and going down a break early in the next set.”
ACAPULCO, Mexico – No.2 seed Kristina Mladenovic suffered no letdown after her three hour thriller against Heather Watson, dispatching Belgium’s Kirsten Flipkens, 6-4, 6-3, to reach the final four at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel.
“I’m very happy,” the French star said after the match. “I had great sensations when I woke up this morning; I was very satisfied with my effort last night because the work is paying off for me to win a three and a half hour battle and wake up pretty fine. My physio did a good job as well.
“We finished very late, but the advantage of playing here in Acapulco is getting to have most of the next day to work and rest. I came out very strong and didn’t even warm-up today – just fitness after three and a half hours of tennis.”
Mladenovic recovered well from playing the second longest match of the season, hitting 21 winners to just 13 unforced errors in the 82 minute match.
Solid slice from @KiKiMladenovic ? #AMT2017 pic.twitter.com/dssgWkzPzp
— WTA (@WTA) March 3, 2017
“It was similar conditions today, and I think I played really good. I fixed the big problem I had on my serve yesterday, when I hit 20 double faults! Only five today! I think overall it was a great match; I had to be very consistent but also aggressive because Kirsten has a lot of variety, and it’s not easy to control her slices here.
“The ball is flying here, but I think I did a good job playing aggressive but also being patient with her tricky game. I’m just very happy to come back after yesterday’s tough win.”
The St. Petersburg champion earned big leads to start each set, winning the first three games of the match and racing out to a quick 4-0 lead to start the second set, but Flipkens – a 2013 Wimbledon semifinalist – gave Mladenovic all she could as the match headed to a dramatic conclusion.
Powerful backhand shot from @KiKiMladenovic ? #AMT2017 pic.twitter.com/cywlI0Zhc3
— WTA (@WTA) March 3, 2017
“The first was very close, and I continued on the same path. She might have wanted to change her game at the start of the second, so she tried going for more and ended up giving me a few more unforced errors that made the difference.
“It gave me a big lead, but she kept fighting until the end, and came up with some incredible shots at the end. I had to really dig deep there, especially at 4-2 on my serve. I was in danger most of the game, but I survived and held, which was very important because had I lost serve, it would have been a different match.
JUST clips the line! ?
Impressive stuff from @FlipperKF! #AMT2017 pic.twitter.com/H19v2cohLX
— WTA (@WTA) March 3, 2017
“The last game wasn’t easy to close out either; I could feel like she was playing freely at that point and she was going for her shots. It’s obviously a great feeling to be in the semifinals here, especially after such an epic match. It feels like I’ve been in the office all day long.”
.@KiKiMladenovic defeats Flipkens 6-4, 6-3!
Sets @AbiertoTelcel Semifinal vs @ChristinaMcHale! #AMT2017 pic.twitter.com/nNfA4kVQzP
— WTA (@WTA) March 3, 2017
Up next for Mladenovic is Christina McHale, a 2014 finalist in Acapulco who ousted reigning Olympic Gold medalist Monica Puig in straight sets in the first quarterfinal. The pair last played at this very tournament, with McHale winning en route to the final.
? & a ? from @KiKiMladenovic! #AMT2017 pic.twitter.com/JccEXKygn9
— WTA (@WTA) March 3, 2017
Highlights of the second round action at the Taiwan Open.
CINCINNATI, OH, USA – Top seed Angelique Kerber kept her bid for the WTA’s top ranking alive after defeating Simona Halep 6-3, 6-4 to reach the final at the Western & Southern Open.
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With back to back titles at Bucharest and Montréal, Halep came into the matchup on the back of a 13-match winning streak, and without ever having lost to Kerber on hardcourts. They’d played six times previously and while Kerber owns one win on clay and one on grass, Halep had won all four of their hardcourt matches, including their last meeting in the semifinals of the Rogers Cup.
The players traded breaks to open the match. Halep was playing fast, going for quick winners but earning loose unforced errors, instead. The conditions didn’t help, either, as the win wreaked havoc on her normally sharp timing.
Another spot of Cincinnati’s rain came down again and suspended play for half an hour with both players on serve and Kerber leading 4-3. Upon resumption, Halep’s woes continued as she was quickly broken. The German rattled off five straight games to take the opening set and carve out a 4-0 lead in the second.
Follow live game-by-game analysis from Cincinnati semifinals day on WTA Insider’s Live Blog.
Calmer now in the second set despite the deficit, Halep began leaning into her backhand and taking control of the points. She rattled off three games in a row to narrow Kerber’s lead to just one break. But the German slammed the door on a Halep comeback, saving break point at 5-3 and outrallying her to draw out two errors from the Romanian.
With the finish line in sight, the match had one final hurdle for the World No.2: Kerber broke her string on match point, but a misplaced lob from Halep drifted wide to give Kerber the win anyways.
.@AngeliqueKerber is ONE win away from becoming World No.1! #CincyTennis https://t.co/ii3DU83AYF
— WTA (@WTA) August 20, 2016
“My strings have never broken! And it just broke during the match, and on match point. I was just hoping the ball would go in because I don’t know what to do with the racquet!”
Although Halep hit more winners than Kerber – 21 to Kerber’s 12 – she also hit a whopping 50 unforced errors against Kerber’s 21. The Romanian also struck five double faults and converted just three of five break points, while Kerber won five out of 15.
With the win, Kerber returns to the final of the Western & Southern Open for the first time since 2012, but there’s an even bigger prize up for grabs than just the Cincy title.
Should Kerber win in tomorrow’s final, the reigning Australian Open champion would overtake Serena Williams as WTA World No.1, snapping the American’s streak at 306 consecutive weeks.
“I think of course I’m playing now some of my best tennis,” Kerber said of the possibility of taking the top spot. “It’s one of the best years in my career. I had a lot of up and downs in the last few years and I had a lot of experience from which I learned.
“I think now I’m showing that I’m really one of the best tennis players.
“It’s still one match away, but it’s still a long match. I will not thinking about this yet. It’s a new opponent, a new day, and after that we will see what happened yeah, it’s not over yet. Still one match to go.”
Only Karolina Pliskova stands between Kerber and the top spot, and the No-17-ranked Czech is up for the challenge.
“I don’t know if she would be a little bit in stress or something, but I would love to have her as a No. 1 after few years. But I’ll do anything for her to not getting there,” Pliskova said.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Magda Linette will play Nao Hibino for a place in the Alya Malaysian Open final after seeing off Duan Ying-Ying in three sets, winning 7-6, 4-6, 6-1.
An extremely tight opening set saw not a single break point against the serve and it was no surprise to see it decided by a tiebreak. And it was the Pole who grabbed the opening mini-break before a piece of extraordinary luck saw her shot, going well wide, grip the net cord and divert back in court.
First Semifinal since 2015!@MagdaLinette edges Duan 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-1 for a spot in @alyawtamo Semifinals! pic.twitter.com/lkq9ZXIDYp
— WTA (@WTA) March 3, 2017
Despite her first serve percentage teetering at around 50%, Linette made the most of her good fortune to take the breaker 7-3 and with it the set as Duan fired long.
The pair had met just once previously, Linette coming out on top in straight sets in the 2015 Wuhan Open. But this was a much tighter affair and it was the fifth seed who grabbed the opening break of the match, sufficient for the Chinese to take it all the way.
Although the momentum was seemingly turning towards Duan, it was Linette who took the initiative in the decider, breaking twice in the final set to make only her second WTA final and perhaps even go one better than in the 2014 Tokyo Open.
During the match, Linette appeared to be irritated by a series of close calls that seemed to go against her and after the match she apologised for not reacting in the way she should have.
“It was difficult to stay focused, it was very late,” said Linette after the rain-interrupted tussle. “You go onto the court and then you go off the court. You think maybe you’re not going to play the match. It’s never easy like this and you could see I was very nervous and I was not behaving well but I’m glad that after the second set I could start from the beginning and actually show my best tennis at the end and make up a little bit for my bad behaviour.”
She next faces the challenge of Japan’s Hibino, a 7-6, 6-3 victor over qualifier Lesley Kerkhove.
“I haven’t played her before so I don’t know how she plays,” said Hibino. “I will talk with my coach and figure out a game plan.”
Dominika Cibulkova takes on Caroline Wozniacki in the second round of the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy.
CINCINNATI, OH, USA – World Co-No.1s Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis reached the Western & Southern Open final, but found themselves on opposite sides of the net as Mirza and new partner Barbora Strycova recovered from 5-1 in the opening set to beat Hingis and CoCo Vandeweghe, 7-5, 6-4.
“I’m not going to lie,” Mirza said after the match. “It’s a very difficult situation. It’s not easy because, A, because we are still good friends, so it’s never easy. The first we tournament we split and we come and we have to play each other. Of course there is no better match to play than the final, so was difficult, I think. for both of us.
“But having said that we are professional tennis players. We have to come out and we have to give our best and we have to try and win. That’s all we can do, and we both tried to do that.
“It was going to happen eventually. We had to play against each other at some point. I think it’s better that it happened earlier, as soon as we came out, because next time it’s obviously less difficult to play.”
Hingis and Mirza were indeed playing their first tournament apart since officially confirming their split last week, and with both women advancing into the championship match, only one could remain No.1 as the points earned this week would be counted among their best results that make up their WTA ranking total.
Not that the notion bothered Mirza.
“As cliche as it sounds, a ranking is really just a number. At the end of the day you have to come out and you have to play your best tennis. That’s what we did, and we feel like that’s why we won the tournament.
“For us it’s important to win every time we play. We both fight; we both like to play and we both like tennis obviously.”
In Strycova, Mirza found another great partner, one who’d arrived in Cincinnati having just earned an Olympic bronze medal in women’s doubles.
“She was obviously one of my first choices because I felt like we could play well together given our games.
“We know each other. To be honest, we have not been like friends so to say, but we know each other since we were 15 years old. We’ve always had mutual respect for each other and our games. At least I have had.”
“Me too,” Strycova added.
Enjoying a career-best season with solid results in both disciplines, the Czech veteran admits she enjoys doubles on both a tactical and emotional level.
“I’m very emotional player. I need the communication. I need to put the emotions away.
“But you have to see the balance when it hurts me or when it or helps me. I’m 30 years old and didn’t still find it, but I’m working on it!”
In front of a packed house (and playing together for 1st time), Mirza/Strycova win the doubles title.#CincyTennis pic.twitter.com/9oPKL3aqlU
— W&S Open (@CincyTennis) August 21, 2016
Check out the best shots from the week’s action at the ALYA Malaysian Open.