Tennis News

MIAMI, FL, USA – The Miami Open gets underway on Tuesday, with a couple of inter-generational battles headlining the order of play on Grandstand and Court 1.

Tuesday, First Round

Grandstand
[WC] Laura Robson (GBR #504) vs. Kirsten Flipkens (BEL #65)
Head-to-head: Flipkens leads 1-0
When Laura Robson came off court nursing her wrist following a humbling first-round defeat to Kirsten Flipkens at the 2014 Australian Open, even in her worst nightmares she cannot have envisaged what was to follow. Two years of injury woe have derailed one of the game’s brightest young talents, leaving her kicking her heels at home as junior and domestic rivals have stepped into the limelight. Using her protected ranking at Indian Wells, Robson played well for a set before losing to eventual quarterfinalist Magdalena Rybarikova.

In Miami, she renews acquaintances with Flipkens, whose similarly anachronistic game could stymie the Brit’s search to rediscover her competitive groove. Since reaching the quarterfinals at Miami, semifinals at Wimbledon and coming within touching distance of the Top 10 in 2013, Flipkens has been forced to battle her own demons. Having dropped out of the Top 100 last year, the Belgian has been enigmatic this time around, promising showings in Auckland and Monterrey punctuated by several early exits.

Court 1
Kateryna Bondarenko (UKR #59) vs. Daria Kasatkina (RUS #36)
Head-to-head: first meeting
With superb groundstrokes, excellent movement and an impressive temperament, Daria Kasatkina has all the tools to make it to the top of the game. This much was obvious when she shocked Venus Williams in the opening week of the new season to make the tennis world really stand up and take notice. Since then Kasatkina has gone from strength to strength, reaching the third round at the Australian Open, the semifinals at St. Petersburg and, just last week, a quarterfinal at Indian Wells.

On her Miami debut, she takes on Kateryna Bondarenko, another upwardly mobile player – albeit at a very different stage in her career. Since returning to the tour following the birth of her first child a couple of years ago, Bondarenko has been making up for lost time, building on a strong finish to 2015 with credible showings at several big events, highlighted by her run through qualifying to the fourth round at Indian Wells.

Also on court…
Preceding Robson and Flipkens on Grandstand will be a couple of home hopes, Madison Brengle and Nicole Gibbs, who take on Camila Giorgi and Yulia Putintseva, respectively. On Court 1, Barbora Strycova faces Anna-Lena Friedsam, and Margarita Gasparyan meets Annika Beck.

HOBART, Australia – Kiki Bertens recovered from a second-set break to defeat Galina Voskoboeva, 6-1, 6-4, to reach the quarterfinals of the Hobart International.

“It’s always tough to get some matches at the beginning of the season, so I’m happy I won two matches here and I hope to go even farther,” Bertens said in her post-match press conference.

Voskoboeva spent two years off the tour nursing persistent foot injuries, and had just won her first WTA main draw match since 2014 ahead of her clash with Bertens. The top seed, by contrast, is in the midst of a career-best 12 months, having reached the semifinals of the French Open to qualify for her first Olympic tennis event.

“It was an OK match today; she helped me a lot in the beginning with a lot of mistakes, but in the second she played really well. I had to fight for it and there were some tough conditions with the wind, but I’m happy I got through.

“I really need some matches; my body needs matches to play better. You saw what happened last year in Paris: I won a tournament the week before and was in the semis the week after!”

Bertens rushed out to a 4-0 lead to start the match, serving out the opening set before things got complicated in the second. The Kazakh pushed Bertens to the brink on multiple occasions, leading by a late break in the sixth game. But the Dutch star roared back, winning the last three games to book an encounter with qualifier Elise Mertens.

“I know her well; she’s a great young player with a good run last year. I’ll have to be more aggressive than today but hopefully I can get the win.”

Earlier in the day, another qualifier got a big win over former World No.5, Lucie Safarova. Risa Ozaki came back from a set down to defeat the 2015 French Open finalist, 2-6, 6-3, 7-5.

“In the first set, she played well and I couldn’t hit a strong ball,” she explained after the match. “After that, I tried to focus on my forehand and things got better from there.”

Safarova won a titanic sixth game in the first set and broke to start the second, but the 22-year-old won six of the last seven games to level the match.

“I started the match really well,” Safarova echoed in her post-match press conference. “I had some game points to go 3-0, but things started going the other way. It wasn’t easy conditions with the wind; she started to pressure me more and make fewer mistakes. I lost my rhythm; I tried to hang in there but it was always tough serving in this wind.”

The Czech veteran showed signs of life late in the match, breaking Ozaki as she served for the upset, but the Japanese youngster broke serve one last time, reaching her third career WTA quarterfinal in two hours, 22 minutes.

“These conditions don’t really suit my game because I like to be aggressive, but I was making too many mistakes. She was putting a lot of balls back; she ran and served well, especially at the end. This isn’t the result I would have liked, but it’s tennis and things happen. It’s good that I got an extra two matches before Melbourne. Hopefully I’ll peak there.”

MIAMI, FL, USA – Daria Kasatkina continued her productive trip stateside with victory in a see-saw encounter against Kateryna Bondarenko on the first day of the Miami Open.

Watch live action from Miami this fortnight on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!

In the opening months of 2016, Kasatkina has been making great strides up the rankings, gatecrashing the Top 40 for the first time after her quarterfinal run in Indian Wells.

The young Russian carried this form into the early stages of her first-round meeting with Bondarenko, breaking three times to wrap up the first set in 27 minutes. When she then broke in the opening game of the second, a routine victory looked on the cards.

However, such thoughts were soon parked as Bondarenko capitalized on some uncharacteristically sloppy mistakes to level to contest in emphatic fashion. In the decider Kasatkina struck first, before exhibiting tremendous poise to hold onto her own serve in a titanic sixth game and close out a 6-2, 1-6, 6-2 victory.

“I started the match well, but in the second set I started to give her some chances and she came back,” Kasatkina said. “It was really tough to get the momentum back, but I did it and I’m very happy because it’s my first time in Miami.”

Twelve months ago, Kasatkina, then ranked well outside the Top 200, had just qualified for an ITF Circuit event on the other side of Florida, in Palm Harbour. Since then her rise has been rapid, but the 18-year-old is eager for the perks of an even loftier ranking: “Nothing really changed – because I’m still not seeded! It’s just a ranking. If I was seeded I would get a bye, but it’s one more match I have to play.”

Her reward is a meeting with No.5 seed Simona Halep on Thursday. “She’s great player for sure so it will be difficult, but I will watch matches with my coach and we will talk about how to play her.”

Among the other early winners were Barbora Strycova, Teliana Pereira and Zhang Shuai. Strycova needed less than an hour to see off Anna-Lena Friedsam, 6-2, 6-0, while Zhang was nearly as swift in dispatching junior Wimbledon champion Sofya Zhuk, 6-1, 6-2.

In the tournament’s opening match on Grandstand, Pereira had more difficulty winning her all-Brazilian clash with Beatriz Haddad Maia, eventually prevailing 7-6(2), 6-1.

MIAMI, FL, USA – No. 5 seed Simona Halep found her form in time to halt a late surge from Daria Kasatkina and book her spot in the third round of the Miami Open.

Watch live action from Miami this fortnight on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!

Kasatkina’s run to last week’s Indian Wells quarterfinals turned heads, but on Thursday night against the dominant Romanian she just couldn’t come up with the same brand of giant-slaying tennis that has seen her climb up the rankings.

But right as it seemed like Halep would have a smooth path to victory, the Russian took advantage of her momentary lapse in the second set to begin to mount a comeback.

“I think I complicated it a bit in the end of the match,” Halep admitted afterwards. “I did a few mistakes and I was rushing a little bit.

“I did everything – I win and lose the points. That was it.”

With a 5-2 lead for Halep in the second set, a handful of unforced errors from the Romanian gifted Kasatkina a hold to stay in the match. The Russian took off from there, taking the next two games and looking ready to send the match into a deciding set.

Halep had other ideas though, and proved why she scored more hardcourt wins last year than any other player by finding another gear in time to stop the surge and clinch the victory, 6-3, 7-5. Halep’s 24 winners were too much for Kasatkina, who hit just 10 winners to 41 unforced errors.

Despite the near-scare, the Romanian had nothing but praise for her 18-year-old opponent:

“She’s a young player, she plays really well,” Halep said. “She has time to improve her game.”

Halep sets up a third round clash against Julia Goerges, who came back from a set down to upset the No.26 seeded Samantha Stosur, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.