Tennis News

ROME, Italy – Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic overcame a mid-match wobble to defeat Anabel Medina Garrigues and Arantxa Parra Santonja in the second round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia on Thursday.

In their opening match, Garcia and Mladenovic came within two points of defeat, and they once again sailed close to the wind, eventually coming through, 7-6(4), 1-6, 10-7.

A chance for Olympic glory prompted the union between Garcia and Mladenovic, who had previously been in successful partnerships with Katarina Srebotnik and Timea Babos, respectively. And while the French duo took a handful of events to gel, the partnership has flourished on the clay.

Victory over Garrigues and Parra Santonja extends their unbeaten streak to 15 matches, a run taking in tournament victories in Charleston, Stuttgart and Madrid. No.4 seeds Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka are the next team hoping to end the run, securing their quarterfinal place with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Sara Errani and Lara Arruabarrena.

Elsewhere, there were mixed fortunes for two of the other leading teams. Andreja Klepac and Katarina Srebotnik followed up their surprise win over the Williams sisters by knocking out No.2 seeds Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova, 6-3, 6-4.

No.3 seeds Timea Babos and Yaroslava Shvedova had no such trouble, overcoming Italian wildcards Claudia Giovine and Angelica Moratelli, 6-3, 6-2.

Dominika Cibulkova, the reigning WTA Tour Finals champion, is gearing up for Doha and Dubai as she looks for her first tournament win of 2017.

The Slovak’s unprecedented success last year, in which she won tournaments in Katowice, Eastbourne and Linz before taking the title at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global, saw her rise to No.5 in the World Rankings. Now, she goes to the Qatar Total Open as the third seed in a star-studded field.

“This is my highest ranking,” the 27-year-old told Gulf Today. “You can feel the expectation and the pressure. This is something I’m trying to deal with.”

Cibulkova is among the favourites to win in Doha and is confident she knows how to handle the heat. “I have my rituals,” she said. “What I do during the match, I just want to focus on tennis, on the tactics. You put away the wrong thoughts you have on the court, like, I should win, or, I don’t want to lose.”

Doha has not traditionally been a happy hunting ground for the 2014 Australian Open finalist. Her best result came in her first visit in 2008, when she reached the quarterfinals before being beaten in three sets by Agnieszka Radwanska.

However the first Slovak to reach a Grand Slam final has broken into the top 10 of the WTA Rankings for the first time and is confident the weight of expectation for her to improve her record will not prove a burden. “You just put it away,” she said, “and you focus on the right things.”