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St. Petersburg Friday: QF Preview

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia – With the toils and warmth of the Australian summer drifting into the distance, and after a frenetic Fed Cup weekend, the manic month of February on the WTA calendar has begun, with many of the top female stars heading to Russia for the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy.

Four of the WTA’s Top 20 took their place in the singles draw this week – Grand Slam winner Ana Ivanovic, Slam finalists Caroline Wozniacki and Roberta Vinci, and top-seeded Belinda Bencic – and three have successfully negotiated their way into the last eight. Let’s analyze the four Friday match-ups which will attempt to wow the home Russian crowd…

[1] Belinda Bencic (SUI #11) vs. [5] Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS #26)
In her first tournament as the No.1 seed, Belinda Bencic certainly struggled early-doors in her opener against Annika Beck. But, as top players do even on an off day, the Swiss battled through in straight sets, 7-6(3), 6-3.

At just 18, Bencic already has 11 victories over Top-10 opponents – most recently over Angelique Kerber in last weekend’s Fed Cup – and now sits on the verge of making that breakthrough into the Top 10 herself. Two more wins this week would propel the Swiss past Carla Suárez Navarro and into the No.10 spot for the first time in her young career.

First though, she’ll have to get past home favorite Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in Friday’s quarterfinals, after the Russian defeated Carina Witthoeft, 6-1, 7-5, in the second round.

Bencic and Pavlyuchenkova have clashed twice before, with the meetings split one apiece. The latter won most recently in Washington in 2015, while Bencic triumphed on the Rome clay in three sets the year before.

Dominika Cibulkova (SVK #66) vs. Daria Kasatkina (RUS #63)
Eighteen-year-old Russian Daria Kasatkina is certainly raising some eyebrows in the tennis world right now, with many billing her as a potential elite player for the next decade.

She’s leaping up the rankings: at the end of 2014, she sat at No.370; by 2015’s close, she had sprung up to No.72. As a lucky loser at the US Open last year, she won through to the third round. Then, in Moscow she came through qualifying to reach the semis.

After scoring her first Top-10 win in Auckland (over Venus Williams), Kasatkina is at it again at home in Russia, storming through to the last eight to face former World No.10 Dominika Cibulkova.

Cibulkova, the 2014 Australian Open finalist, has been the dangerous, unseeded landmine in tournament draws for a year or so now, after her ranking dropped through injury. The Slovakian inflicted another blow on Caroline Wozniacki’s stuttering start to 2016, with a 6-4, 7-5 win on Thursday.

This should be a fascinating match-up between two players of similar ranking but with hugely different experiences on a tennis court to date. Both bring controlled aggression on their groundstrokes so it’ll be intriguing to see who can rein in the errors to gain the upper hand from the baseline.

[Q] Kateryna Kozlova (UKR #177) vs. [3] Ana Ivanovic (SRB #20)
Moving to the draw’s bottom half, 21-year-old World No.177 Kateryna Kozlova is undoubtedly the week’s surprise package thus far. The Ukrainian qualified for the main draw and now finds herself in the quarterfinals after impressive wins over Barbora Strycova and Elena Vesnina.

After loitering around on the ITF circuit for the past few years, she now finds herself up against one of the game’s iconic names. After storming back up the rankings in 2014, Ana Ivanovic had a disappointing year at the showpiece events in 2015; excluding a run to the semis at Roland Garros, she only won one more match at the other three majors combined.

She started well at the Australian Open but endured a difficult third-round contest with Madison Keys, as British coach Nigel Sears collapsed during play and had to be taken to hospital. The Serb was subsequently beaten in three sets by the young American.

But Sears is back in business now and so is his charge, as Ivanovic dealt well with talented Russian Margarita Gasparyan in the second round in St. Petersburg. Ivanovic will likely have too much experience and firepower for the young Ukrainian, as they match-up for the first time on Friday.

Timea Babos (HUN #51) vs. [2] Roberta Vinci (ITA #16)
After that captivating run to the US Open final last year, Roberta Vinci wouldn’t have been thrilled to exit Melbourne in the third round to Germany’s Anna-Lena Friedsam. So the Italian will be looking to have a strong couple of months now to build on the back end of 2015, starting in St. Petersburg.

This is a tussle between two high-quality doubles players, who have actually met in a Grand Slam final, back in 2014 at Wimbledon (where Vinci and Sara Errani defeated Babos and Kristina Mladenovic in straight sets). Both are comfortable playing all over the court, which should produce a match full of variety. Vinci will look to unsettle Babos’ power game though with her slice, as she famously did to Serena Williams in New York.

World No.51 Babos will be at a new career-high ranking whatever happens next week, after a good win over No.9 seed Monica Niculescu in the second round. She had a decent run in Shenzhen before the Australian Open too, reaching the semis.

Vinci leads the head-to-head between them 3-1, winning their last encounter on the Bucharest clay in 2015.

Who’re your picks to make the semifinals?

Join us in St. Petersburg on Friday and watch all four quarterfinals from the inaugural St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy on WTA Live powered by TennisTV.

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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

MELBOURNE, Australia – No.2 seeds Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova survived a tense three-setter against the newly formed pairing of Andrea Hlavackova and Peng Shuai to win their second Slam in a row, winning the 2017 Australian Open women’s doubles title, 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-3.

“We were celebrating like five-year-old kids out there,” Mattek-Sands said after the match. “I mean, it still feels amazing to win it. It’s a Grand Slam. When we got the trophy, we saw our names written on it. We know we get it written on there again. It’s just special.

“So many great teams are on there. We played a lot of great teams to get to the finals. Part of it is really enjoying the journey, enjoying each match. Really, the celebrations kind of go quick. We’re going to make sure we enjoy this moment for a little bit.”

Mattek-Sands and Safarova have been the team to beat since last summer, when they won what was then their third Grand Slam title at the US Open and rode an 18-match winning streak into the final of the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.

“We go out there and have a blast. I mean, I think our first one here in 2015, I hadn’t played a lot of doubles the year before. Lucie and I had never played together as a team. We came out strong. I think it really has clicked from the beginning. It really hasn’t stopped. I think it’s gotten better.

“Lucie is one of my best friends off the court. We talk about life. We talk about tennis. I think more life stuff. But there’s a little tennis in there every once in a while.”

The American in particular had a career-best year in doubles last season, winning the elusive Sunshine Double at the BNP Paribas Open and the Miami Open with CoCo Vandeweghe and Safarova, respectovely, and became the top-ranked doubles player after starting 2017 with a win at the Brisbane International with Sania Mirza.

Dropping just one set en route to the final, Mattek-Sands and Safarova looked more confident after each victory, dancing through off-days with the help of fitness guru Shuan T.

Across the net on Friday’s final was a familiar foe in Hlavackova, who was playing her second straight final in Melbourne, but with a new partner in Peng Shuai. Hlavackova and Peng had played together just five times heading into the first Slam of the season, but had an impressive record with three titles already under their belt, including the Shenzhen Open in the first week of the year.

Making their major debut as a team, Hlavackova and Peng earned back-to-back wins over top teams in No.3 seeds Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in the quarterfinals, and top seeds Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic. Coincidentally, Vesnina, Garcia and Mladenovic were the only three women who could have usurped Mattek-Sands’ No.1 ranking, and their losses guaranteed her the top spot befor taking the court for the final. 

Hlavackova and Peng exchanged breaks with Team Bucie to kick off the match, eventually edging through a 53-minute first-set tie-break and appearing on course for a big win on Rod Laver Arena.

“I think we were improving throughout the first set,” Safarova said. “I felt like our game was throughout the match getting better and better. We stick together. We were positive. Never doubted that we would be able to pull it out.”

But Mattek-Sands and Safarova dug in their heels, racing out to a double break lead to start the second and continued breaking serve to stay ahead and level the match.

“I think we really balance each other out,” Mattek-Sands added. “We talk a lot during points, on the changeovers. It’s all positive. I know there was a couple games we were up 40-love and we lost them. It’s easy to think you had an opportunity and you missed it. But it’s not the case.

“We play every point new, fresh, and we play our game.”

The decider came down to one break, which the American/Czech duo earned in the fourth game and held on in a marathon fifth game to remain in the lead and eventually serve out the win in two hours and 14 minutes.

“It’s not like you would expect it, but after what we’ve been through, I also feel like our game got better and better,” Safarova said. “I believe we are one of the best teams out there.

“If we play our game, we are positive, keep like sticking together, pulling it out, I think we are going to hopefully get even more.”

After the trophy ceremony, Mattek-Sands and Safarova dusted off their dance moves to thrill the Aussie crowd one more time:

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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

MELBOURNE, Australia – No.11 seed Marta Kostyuk captured her maiden major title on Saturday, ousting top seed Rebeka Masarova, 7-5, 1-6, 6-4 in the Australian Open girl’s singles final.

“I was more excited yesterday when I go through the semis,” she admitted in her post-match press conference.

Masarova made a breakout run last spring when she defeated Amanda Anisimova to win the the junior French Open crown, and arrived in Australia aiming to wrest the No.1 ITF ranking from Anastasia Potapova, who did not play this week.

Kostyuk, by contrast, was playing her third season on the junior circuit and had posted consistent, if unremarkable, results at the biggest events – making back-to-back quarterfinal appearances at Eddie Herr and the Orange Bowl.

But things started to change last spring when she began working with manager Ivan Ljubicic, a former ATP pro who coaches Roger Federer.

“I improved a lot, and I feel it. Maybe the biggest improvement period was in May when Ivan invited me to practice in Monte Carlo for ten days. And after that I won Grade Two.

“After that I start to work on my serve a little more and practice more and more. That’s when I signed with Ivan and start to practice in Cannes, in Kiev, so everywhere. It was fine. And I’m trying to work hard.”

Currently coached by her mother, Kostyuk credited Ljubicic with helping her rise so quickly, and with helping her meet Federer during her stay in Melbourne.

“He did a lot. He give me a bit of his experience and big tennis. And I met finally Roger today. He congratulated me. And I took a photo with him, so I was very excited.”

The 15-year-old took a 5-2 lead to start Satuday’s final, only to see Masarova save four set points and level the opening set. Undaunted, the Ukrainian reeled off eight of the final 10 points to take a one set lead.

Still, Masarova was undoubtedly in the match by then, and made her presence known in the second set, breaking four times to force a decider.

“I won first set, but it was very tight, like it was 5-2. I had four set points, and I finished just on the score 6-5,” she explained.

“Maybe when we start to play second set, her consistency was like a bit more than mine, and she was more in the game. And I just lost a little bit of this.

“When I started to play second set, I just started to think how it was good that I almost won. And that what didn’t really helped me.”

The pair exchanged four straight breaks to begin the final set, with Kostyuk ultimately breaking in the crucial ninth game to serve out the biggest title of her young career in one hour and 55 minutes.

“Maybe when score was 3-1, I just stopped thinking and started to play again, so I was ready for the third set.”

The doubles final took place 24 hours prior and saw No.3 seeds Bianca Andreescu and Carson Branstine defeat the Polish pair of Maja Chwalinska and Iga Swiatek.

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