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Halep Unlocks Keys Comeback

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

No.5 seed Simona Halep overcame defeat in a tense first set tie-break to end No.9 seed Madison Keys’ eight match winning streak on grass to reach the last eight at Wimbledon.

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Quotable Quotes: Wimbledon QFs

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

LONDON, England – Tuesday afternoon at the All England Club saw the WTA’s finest take center stage. The on-court entertainment did not disappoint, and neither did the press conferences afterwards.

Serena Williams downplays her peerless serve…
“My serve is usually really good. I don’t know how it came about, though. Like, I’m not as tall as all the other players. So it’s strange that I have such a strong, hard serve.

“But I have to say what I think really is my game is my mental toughness because just not only to be able to play, to win, but to be able to come back when I’m down. Both on the court and after tough losses, just to continue to come back and continue to fight, it’s something that takes a lot of tenacity.”

Elena Vesnina on hatching a plan to topple the World No.1…
“First of all, you need to be consistent with Serena. You don’t need to give her a lot of free points. You have to be very, very strong mentally, and, as I said, put pressure on her on the baseline, to show her you can actually beat her.

“I was watching her final against Angelique in Australian Open on the court. It was great atmosphere over there. I saw how Angelique, she was sticking into her game from the first till the last. She was not giving up. Yeah, maybe Serena didn’t play her best tennis, and that was the key, and Angelique used her chances on that moment. Maybe that’s going to be the key for me as well.”

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova reflects on her first quarterfinal at Wimbledon…
“I’ve always been saying that I’ve never liked grass and I’ve always been quite negative in terms of grass and playing at Wimbledon. But I think right now I’ll change my mind!”

Venus Williams on her journey back to a Grand Slam semifinal…
“The road was six years. They go by fast, thankfully. But I’ve been blessed. Been really blessed to have an opportunity to be here, had an opportunity in the past to do this. And I don’t have any regrets about anything that has taken place in between. It’s been a journey, but it’s something I’ve had to do and it’s made me stronger.

“The good part is I’ve always felt like I had the game. So this is always a plus when you know you have the game. So you just have to keep working until things fall into place. It’s never a given, everyone plays well. I mean today, she played so well and there were so many times where we were just dead even it felt like. It’s never a given. She could have easily won that match as well. So just grateful.”

Angelique Kerber on her recreating her Melbourne magic…
“When I arrived in Paris, I was feeling much more pressure. I did it actually by myself, to put a lot of pressure on me. Also, I was not handling all the off court things so well. It was too much of everything, I think.

“When I arrived here, I was telling myself, just like in Australia, Just be relaxed, playing round by round, not making things actually too much complicated, not putting pressure on myself.
So that was actually what I changed, what I learn also from Paris. Just being also focusing on the tennis thing, on my practice, being more relaxed.”

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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

MELBOURNE, Australia – Top seeds Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic overcame a sluggish start to defeat home hopes Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua on Tuesday night.

In the last of the quarterfinals, Barty and Dellacqua briefly looked liked springing an upset before the French turned the match on its head to run out 1-6, 6-2, 6-1 winners.

Barty and Dellacqua were finalists at their home major four years ago and, as they had against Martina Hingis and CoCo Vandeweghe the previous round, lit up the Rod Laver Arena with some sparkling tennis early on.

However, the favorites began to turn the tide midway through the second set, producing two clean winners to break Barty’s serve for a 4-2 lead. From this point on it was one-way traffic, Garcia and Mladenovic easing into a maiden Melbourne park semifinal, where they will face No.12 seeds Andrea Hlavackova and Peng Shuai.

Garcia and Mladenovic could reach the top of the rankings by reaching the final, but they will have their work cut out against Hlavackova and Peng, impressive 7-5, 7-6(5) winners over No.3 seeds Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina.

On the other side of the draw reigning World No.1 Bethanie Mattek-Sands and her partner Lucie Safarova laid down a marker by swatting aside No.11 seeds Raquel Atawo and Xu Yifan, 6-1, 6-1, in under an hour. Their reward is a meeting with the draw’s surprise package, Eri Hozumi and Miyu Kato, after they overcame Mirjana Lucic-Baroni and Andrea Petkovic, 6-3, 6-3.

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