Tennis News

BEIJING, China – World No.3 Garbiñe Muguruza kicked off her Beijing title defense with a hard-fought win over Irina Camelia Begu, emerging victorious from the early test to move into the second round of the China Open.

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Though a spate of unforced errors from the forehand wing left Muguruza vulnerable and allowed Begu to grab the first set, the Spaniard recovered and notched a 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory after an hour and fifty minutes.

“I think it’s very, very satisfying when you go to a tournament where you know you played well, you feel welcome,” Muguruza said after the match. “But honestly, this was last year. Nobody really is thinking about who won last year. It’s all about who is going to win this year, who is winning.

“I’m just going for my match, just concentrating the next one.”

Muguruza also kept her bid for Singapore on track as she eyes a return to the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.

“Definitely Singapore was a great motivation to try to find my spot,” Muguruza admitted. “Well, Beijing is one of the biggest tournaments we have, so for sure I have a great opportunity to do it well and qualify.”

Also into the second round, Belinda Bencic advanced past Annicka Beck in straight sets. In a match that featured 10 breaks of serve, it was Bencic who edged through 6-3, 6-2 after an hour and 17 minutes.

Wildcard Sabine Lisicki had a more straightforward path, powering past Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 6-2, 6-2. Yulia Putintseva and Yanina Wickmayer are also through, with Putintseva weathering a stern challenge from 19-year-old wunderkind Jelena Ostapenko to advance 6-1, 3-6, 7-5. Meanwhile, Wickmayer added to Monica Puig’s post-Olympic woes, beating the Puerto Rican 6-2, 6-0 and handing her the worst defeat since the Olympic tennis event in Rio.

MIAMI, FL, USA – The Miami Open doubles tournament kicked into high gear on Saturday as two of the Top 4 seeds took the court to begin their respective campaigns. Before the storm clouds rolled in for the third straight day, No.2 seeds Ekaterina Makarova & Elena Vesnina and No.4 seeds Andrea Hlavackova & Peng Shuai both advanced into the second round, each in straight sets.

The two teams last met in the finals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, which the Russians won in a tense match tie-break, and could potentially meet in the semifinals of Miami.

Hlavackova and Peng have nonetheless enjoyed a strong start to 2017, reaching the finals of the Australian Open and briefly leading the pack at the top of the Road to Singapore leaderboard.

“The doubles game is improving a lot,” Hlavackova told WTA Insider. “A lot of singles players are playing doubles, and most of the top teams are made up of singles players, so it’s very tough competition. We are very happy to start the season so well; I think it’s pretty special to start the team so well as a new team. We just want to keep going.”

Up against a young team in Naomi Osaka and Monica Puig, the duo edged through a close opening set to roll through, 7-6(6), 6-1, and book a second round clash with Shuko Aoyama and Yang Zhaoxuan.

“They started very strong in the first set. They served really fast and played a very fast baseline game. It was very important to not panic and keep playing and find out time and moment. We got the tie-break and started from there, even better.”

Osaka and Puig each produced exciting results in singles last year, but have yet to hit the same heights on the doubles court.

“They’re young; when they get to our age, they’ll have experience!” joked Peng.

“I think they’re a great team. They play strong and fast. In the first set, we were almost lucky to get the tie-break, but in the second set, we got a break quickly, so the feeling was different.”

Earlier in the day, Makarova and Vesnina each shrugged off tough singles losses on Friday to power through their first doubles match in Miami, ousting Oksana Kalashnikova and Asia Muhammad, 6-0, 6-2.

“We both had crazy singles matches yesterday,” Vesnina said. “I texted her after the match, because I knew she was crying and she was tired. I told her, ‘Katya, don’t even put yourself down. We have a tough sport, but it’s not the end of the world. Cry for another five, ten minutes, and just pack your stuff, go back to the hotel, get sleep, and tomorrow we’ll kick some asses on the court!’

“We needed to regroup and forget our tough losses because it’s tough. You can have a black line in your life, white line in your life, and there can be moments where there are more black lines than white, but you still need to find the positivity though the negative. Sometimes, what doesn’t kill you makes you strong.”

The dynamic duo are set to celebrate their fifth anniversary of doubles at the Mutua Madrid Open, but may leave Crandon Park with an unexpected present; should they win the tournament, they will rise to Co-World No.1 – as long as Bethanie Mattek-Sands falls before the semifinals and Kristina Mladenovic fails to reach the final.

“Before you told me, I didn’t even know! We’ll take it match by match. Katya and I always do that; we’ll just focus on our doubles. We lost our singles, so we’ll try our best to do good in doubles because this is a big tournament.

“Miami is very prestigious and it’s a huge event; we’ve been in the final twice. This year we’ll try to go all the way.”

Up next for the Olympic Gold medalists and reigning BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global champions is the unseeded and dangeous pairing of Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Kveta Peschke.

All photos courtesy of Getty Images.

Welcome to WTA Finals month. Here are the updated scenarios after 24 hours to digest the Beijing draw for singles and doubles…

ROAD TO SINGAPORE UPDATE – Saturday, October 1st