Tennis News

MIAMI, FL, USA – No.4 seeds Timea Babos and Yaroslava Shvedova secured their place in the Miami Open doubles final with a hard-fought win over Margarita Gasparyan and Monica Niculescu on Friday.

Gasparyan and Niculescu have been the tournament’s surprise package, knocking out a number of more seasoned teams, including top seeds and defending champions Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza. However, Babos and Shvedova were determined not to add their names to the list of upsets, digging deep to close out a 7-5, 4-6, 10-8 victory in an hour and 41 minutes.

“It was a tough match because the girls played well – they’ve proved through this two weeks that they’re a very good team – and it was not easy,” Shvedova said. “The conditions were windy and Monica has a special style of playing, so we needed to be patient and keep working hard.”

The outcome of a see-saw encounter remained in the balance until the very last, Gasparyan and Niculescu rallying from 8-5 down in the match tie-break to come within two points of victory. “It’s our style, we were down in both sets and then almost in the super tie-break, too,” Babos added.

“But we enjoy playing with each other – on my part, for sure! – and this makes it a lot easier to fight for every point and as it shows in doubles anything can happen. Basically they didn’t do any mistakes but we were fighting and coming back, taking it point by point and in the end we got the tie-break.”

Having lifted the Tashkent title in their first outing together two and a half years ago, Babos and Shvedova reunited for Indian Wells, where they proceeded to make the semifinals before being edged out by Bethanie Mattek-Sands and CoCo Vandeweghe.

Sunday’s final at Crandon Park presents a shot at – partial – revenge, after Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova prevailed, 6-2, 6-1, in their clash against Zheng Saisai and Xu Yi-Fan.

“It was a great match, we knew we had to play well, but I love the night match atmosphere – a lot of fans stayed after the men’s match – and it’s great because we really had a lot of fan support and they were cheering for some great tennis,” Mattek-Sands said.

The result means that Mattek-Sands remains on course to become just the third player to win Indian Wells and Miami in the same year with different partners; Natasha Zvereva triumphed alongside Lindsay Davenport at Indian Wells and Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario at Miami, in 1997, before Martina Hingis repeated the feat two years later, teaming up with Anna Kournikova at Indian Wells and Jana Novotna at Miami.

The top half of the draw will round out the semifinals on Wednesday in Miami.

Wednesday

Quarterfinals

[3] Simona Halep (ROU #5) vs. [10] Johanna Konta (GBR #11)
Head-to-head: Konta leads, 1-0
Key Stat: Halep can climb back to No.4 in the rankings by reaching the final in Miami.

Not only has Simona Halep won consecutive matches for the first time all season this week in Miami, now the Romanian is also pulling rabbits out of hats. Halep saved a match point in the second set to edge No.14-seeded Sam Stosur 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 on Monday to book a clash with Johanna Konta in the quarterfinals. Could this inspirational victory be a turning point for Halep in 2017? Maybe, but first and foremost the Romanian is just happy to be showing the world that she can still play at a high level. “Match point down and I came back,” she said after the win. “I’m happy about this, shows I can still play some tennis.”

As for the challenge of facing red-hot Johanna Konta, Halep is cautious, but eager for the test. “It will be tough,” Halep said. “She’s in a good form now, she’s near Top 10. And she plays great. It’s going to be a tough one, but here every match is tough so I don’t expect an easy one.” Konta improved to 16-3 with her Round of 16 win over Spain’s Lara Arruabarrena. The British No.1 was pleased about how she was able to find her level against the World No.72 on Monday. “As the match went on, I felt clearer and clearer on how I wanted to play and what I wanted to do out there from my perspective,” Konta told reporters afterwards.

Konta defeated Halep in their lone meeting at Wuhan in 2015 when she was still outside of the Top 50. She would break into the Top 50 the following week and never look back. Will she continue her climb up the rankings by reaching her first Miami Open semifinal, or will Halep build on her momentum with another noteworthy win?

Pick: Konta in three

[1] Angelique Kerber (GER #1) vs. [11] Venus Williams (USA #12)
Head-to-head: Kerber leads, 4-2
Key Stat: Kerber is 0-3 against Top 20 competition this season.

Two former Grand Slam champions will clash in a marquee quarterfinal on Wednesday as World No.1 Angelique Kerber and Venus Williams lock horns for the seventh time. It was Kerber who emerged victorious when the pair last met at last year’s Wimbledon semifinals. The German executed very well in that contest, winning 43 percent of first-serve return points and breaking Williams’ serve five times on eleven opportunities. She was aggressive, because she knew she had to be. “I was trying to move her,” Kerber said. “That was the plan. That is always the plan when you play against Venus because when she has the ball on the racquet she just hits the ball from left to right, and you just run.”

Nine months later it will be interesting to see if Kerber can implement and execute a similar gameplan. The German has struggled to summon her best tennis this season, and she has lost six of eight matches against Top 50 opponents. Will she have the confidence to attack an in-form Williams?

Williams was in stellar form on Monday as she worked her way past No.7-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova in straight sets. The American saved three of four break points and won 78 of her first-serve points, and she’ll need to be strong on serve again in order to defeat Kerber and earn her first win over a Reigning World No.1 since 2014.

Pick: Williams in three

By the Numbers
1 – Number of unseeded players to reach the quarterfinals this year at Miami (Safarova).
2 – Konta has reached the quarterfinals at Miami in her two career appearances at the event.
3 – Venus Williams is the only former remaining champion remaining in the draw. The three-time champion last won the title in Miami in 2001.
9 – Halep snapped a nine-match losing streak when losing the first set on Monday when she defeated Samantha Stosur in three.
13 – Williams owns 13 wins over reigning World No.1s, seven of which have come against Martina Hingis.