Brisbane: Azarenka vs Bonaventure
Victoria Azarenka takes on Ysaline Bonaventure in the second round of the Brisbane International.
Victoria Azarenka takes on Ysaline Bonaventure in the second round of the Brisbane International.
MONTRÉAL, Canada – Madison Keys bounced back from her All England Club disappointment with a confident win over Elena Vesnina in the first round of the Rogers Cup.
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Going into Wimbledon, Keys was tipped as a dark horse for the title, but saw her hopes dashed in the fourth round by Simona Halep. If the disappointment has lingered, the American hid it well against Vesnina, rattling off the final nine games of the match to complete a 6-4, 6-0 victory.
While Keys’ memories of Wimbledon 2016 will be tinged with disappointment, for Vesnina it was the best fortnight of her career. The Russian defeated a number of higher-ranked players to become the first unseeded semifinalist for five years.
Against Keys, she started brightly enough, confidently holding her opening four service games. However, her opponent’s booming delivery was equally dominant and when she wavered in the ninth game, tugging a couple of forehands into the tramlines, it triggered a sea-change in fortune.
Keys closed out the first set before breaking again in a marathon opening game of the second. As Vesnina’s head dropped, the No.10 seed ruthlessly pounced to book a second-round meeting against Madison Brengle.
Konta Too Good For Rogers
Less than 48 hours on from upsetting Venus Williams to lift her maiden WTA title, Johanna Konta was back on court facing another American, Shelby Rogers.
While the performance this time was less spectacular, the result was the same, Konta’s 6-4, 6-2 win setting up a second-round meeting against either Vania King or Timea Babos.
The Briton started strongly and while unable to secure an insurance break she successfully kept Rogers at arm’s length to take the opening set. In the second both players struggled to hold serve, but once again it was Konta coming out on top at the crucial moments.
This time last year, Konta – then ranked well outside the Top 100 – was competing in the less salubrious surroundings of nearby Granby. She ended up leaving with the trophy, a feat she repeated at another ITF Circuit event the following week in Vancouver before really announcing herself by reaching the fourth round of the US Open.
Now the Top 10 beckons. Only three other British players – Virginia Wade, Sue Barker and Jo Durie – have achieved this feat, and should Konta keep this latest winning run alive – and other results go in her favor – she could join the club in Montréal.
Russians March On
Another player with an outside chance of reaching the Top 10 in the not-too-distant future is Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. At Wimbledon, the gifted Russian reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal since 2011, falling in two tight sets to eventual champion Serena Williams.
At the Stade Uniprix, Pavlyuchenkova was given a real scare, conjuring up a miraculous drop volley to save match point in the final set of her 6-4, 1-6, 7-5 win over Yulia Putintseva. Also taken the distance in their opening round outings were compatriots Alla Kudryavtseva and Daria Kasatkina.
Kudryavtseva, who came through qualifying, upset Kristina Mladenovic, 7-6(5), 1-6, 6-3, while Kastakina shook off a slow start to defeat the in-form Misaki Doi, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1.
MONTRÉAL, Canada – Reigning Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber acquitted herself well in her first hardcourt match since Miami; despite a second set wobble, the No.2 seed stood tall in the end to defeat unseeded Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 in the second round of the Rogers Cup.
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“It was a really tough match. She played really strong and tough, and I knew it would be a tough match. But I was trying to keep focusing until the last point, and staying in the match. I’m really happy about my first match here.”
Playing just her second match since after reaching the Wimbledon final – having pulled out of the Ericsson Open due to an elbow injury – but played the crucial points well against an in-form Lucic-Baroni on Wednesday night.
“I knew she was playing well, but I was trying to focus on my game. It was a good match.”
Getting out to a quick 5-2 lead in the opening set, Kerber was suddenly confounded by the Croatian No.1, who broke serve in the opening game of the second and never looked back to force a decider.
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“In the second set, she played great and won the important points. I wanted to come back strong in the third set and play my game.
Conserving her energy well throughout the one hour, 38 minute match, the World No.2 didn’t face a break point in the final set, breaking serve on her second opportunity – ultimately clinching the match on her own serve at love.
“It’s just great to be here. I love to play here in Montréal. The fans are amazing; it’s always full and they always stay until the end!”
Up next for Kerber is No.17 seed Elina Svitolina, who outlasted Canadian wildcard Francoise Abanda, 7-6(2), 7-6(3) early on Wednesday. Svitolina is currently working with Justine Henin, who appeared as her on-court coach during the match.
“It was my first match on hard court after a long time. It was not so easy.” – Angelique Kerber pic.twitter.com/mG745ZuMyW
— Coupe Rogers (@CoupeRogers) July 28, 2016
Simona Halep neutralized Karolina Pliskova’s big serve in her 6-3, 6-3 win Thursday to reach the Rogers Cup quarterfinals.
During the match, Halep won 51% of return points that were put in play against Pliskova, the WTA ace leader, who has won 62% of her service points this season.
SAP Coaches View shows Halep moved in when facing Pliskova’s second serve, playing 48% of them from inside the baseline. She won 62% of second serve points in the match, including 22% of points which she returned from inside the baseline.
Halep took advantage of her opportunities to break Pliskova. She won 57% of the games in which she held a break chance, breaking four times in seven games.
This performance is in keeping with how Halep has played all season. She stands second on the WTA for return points won in 2016 at 49%.
The SAP Coaches View combines scoring information direct from the chair umpire with tracking data from HawkEye to allow for an in depth look at five different aspects of a match. Each tracking option can be filtered to narrow the focus to specific situations within a match, such as break points. This information is available directly to coaches in real-time during a match on their SAP tablet and also available to them online after matches.
“Return of serve” tracking shows where each service return was struck, differentiating between first and second serves, with an emphasis on how many serves are returned from inside the baseline. This data can be filtered by a particular score.
Halep returned to a second straight Rogers Cup quarterfinal thanks to her return game.
NEWPORT, RI, USA – Former World No.1 and six-time Grand Slam champion Kim Clijsters has been elected to receive induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
“I feel very, very honored to be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame,” the Belgian said in a video statement that will play during a special ceremony at the Australian Open on Tuesday. “It is a huge honor to be amongst a list of so many great tennis players who I admired when I was growing up, and some great players who I played with in my tennis career as well.”
Joining Clijsters in the Hall of Fame Class of 2017 will be 2003 US Open champion Andy Roddick, Monique Kalkman-van den Bosch, a 4-time Paralympic medalist in wheelchair tennis, being honored for her remarkable career.
Additionally, two individuals will be inducted in the Contributor Category. Steve Flink, a distinguished tennis historian and journalist has been elected for induction. Vic Braden, a groundbreaking tennis instructor who was among the first to apply sports science to his instructional tactics will be inducted posthumously.
“It’s a real pleasure to welcome these five remarkable individuals into the Hall of Fame. Kim, Andy, and Monique compiled outstanding careers, winning the game’s biggest titles and ascending to the world No. 1 ranking,” remarked International Tennis Hall of Fame President and 1987 Hall of Famer Stan Smith.
The Class of 2017 will be officially inducted on July 22, during Rolex Hall of Fame Enshrinement Weekend at the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island. Tickets for the Induction Ceremony will go on sale in early February. In addition, the class will be celebrated in a tribute exhibit opening in June in the Museum at the International Tennis Hall of Fame, which will be displayed for one year.
One of six women in tennis history to simultaneously top the world rankings in singles and doubles, Clijsters was the world No. 1 player for 19 weeks and was ranked within the World’s Top 5 for 250 weeks during her career. She is a three-time US Open champion (2005, 2009, 2010) and she was also the 2011 Australian Open champion. Clijsters won two major doubles titles, capturing both the French Open and Wimbledon titles in 2003.
Clijsters is a three-time champion at the WTA Finals (2002, 2003, 2010). She won 41 singles titles, and was a dedicated Belgian Fed Cup team member, leading the team to their first Fed Cup title in 2001 and into the finals again in 2006.
Clijsters retired from tennis in 2007, and then embarked on a second career in tennis with a comeback in 2009. That year, she went on to win the US Open, in what was just her third tournament back on the tour. She was unranked, unseeded, and a wild card entry to the event. Two years later, in 2011, she once again reached the world No. 1 ranking, five years after she had last been there.
Since retirement, Clijsters, now a mother of three, has been focused on her family. She remains engaged in tennis through Kim Clijsters Academy in Belgium, where many juniors train and through competing in Legends events at the Grand Slams.
All photos courtesy of Getty Images.
BRISBANE, Australia – Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza won their 10th WTA doubles title together in Brisbane and have now won 26 matches in a row – the longest doubles winning streak in 22 years.
Saturday’s final was a tight affair early on, as Hingis and Mirza’s opponents in the final, Angelique Kerber and Andrea Petkovic, rebounded from a 2-0 deficit with four games of their own to build a 4-2 lead. But the No.1-seeded Swiss-Indian combo flipped the script completely from there, rattling off 11 of the last 13 games of the match to get by the German wildcard pairing in straight sets, 7-5, 6-1.
“They’re obviously very good players, so we knew we had to come out and play our best,” Mirza said. “We let the lead go a little bit after 2-0, and we were both trying to find our form again on the court. It was big we broke on the deuce point at 6-5, and after that the tide really changed in our favor.”
Though she came out on the losing end, Kerber still made history – she’s the first player in the tournament’s history to reach both the singles and doubles finals. She was runner-up in singles too.
“It wasn’t my night tonight. I lost two finals,” she said at the trophy ceremony. “But it was still a great week, and congratulations to Sania and Martina – you are the best, good luck in Melbourne!”
And so, Hingis and Mirza’s winning streak lives on – at 26 matches in a row it’s the longest doubles winning streak since Gigi Fernández and Natasha Zvereva won 28 matches in a row together in 1994.
Hingis and Mirza also hit double digit WTA doubles titles together – Indian Wells, Miami, Charleston, Wimbledon, US Open, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Beijing and WTA Finals in 2015, and now Brisbane.
Even more impressive? Hingis and Mirza are actually 10-1 in WTA doubles finals together.
They’re playing again this week coming up, at the Apia International Sydney – again as top seeds.
“Every match at the beginning of the season is a good match, just trying to get that confidence going,” Hingis said. “It’s great we already have this Brisbane title in our pockets, and we’re really looking forward to Sydney. We’ll get a couple days off before we play and then we will start again.
“I always have such great support in Australia so I really look forward to the next tournaments.”
#Hingis/#Mirza with their hardware! Their 10th tournament title together ?????????? #BrisbaneTennis pic.twitter.com/eRsqqDOod8
— Brisbane Intl (@BrisbaneTennis) January 9, 2016
MONTRÉAL, Canada – No.10 seed Madison Keys edged past Venus Williams in a tight three sets to snap up one of the last quarterfinal spots in the Rogers Cup.
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Keys has looked dominant in all of her matches so far in Montréal, her first tournament since her run to the fourth round of Wimbledon. Although she went into the match against Williams trailing 2-1 in their head to head, she had the added confidence of splitting their last two matches on hard courts – both of which were three-set battles.
“I’m excited,” the 21-year-old said yesterday at the prospect of playing Williams. “It’s always tough playing her.She’s obviously a great player.
“She did well last week, so it’s going to be a tough match. But I’m looking forward to it.”
Williams started out shaky in the opening set as her service woes reared their head once again. She’s struggled with normally trusty shot all tournament long, and in the first few games barely managed to crack the 90 miles per hour mark. Keys, a strong returner, took advantage of the lapse and stayed aggressive to take the opening set 6-1 in just 20 minutes.
“Her first serve was definitely slower than normal,” Keys acknowledged after the match. “But it was funny, her second serve was a lot slower, but because of the court it was bouncing a lot higher than normal. So while her first serve was a little easier to return, her second serve was really tough.”
Williams looked in trouble again in the second set as she quickly went down a break, but the 2014 champion shook off the disappointing start. Keys allowed more errors to spray from her racquet as Williams backed up her vulnerable serve with pinpoint groundstrokes – especially off of the forehand wing. She dominated the tiebreak to force a deciding set.
But after the enormous effort it took to get back on course, it just didn’t look like Williams had any more left in the tank for the final set. She couldn’t maintain her level, allowing Keys to get back to her attacking ways. Keys broke early on in the set and relied on her serve to keep her nose ahead until she took the match 6-1, 6-7(2), 6-3.
She’s set to face Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the next round, whose monumental effort against Agnieszka Radwanska earned her a spot in the quarterfinals.
“It’s going to be a tough match,” Keys said of her always-aggressive Russian opponent. “She’s always tricky because she definitely fights till the end and she’s going to hit a lot of winners.
“I think it will be similar to today, you know, kind of deciding when to just get the ball back in a good, neutral spot, or when to kind of pull the trigger and be a little bit more aggressive.”
Serena Williams talks about the length of her career – and how she feels when her contemporaries retire from the sport…
MELBOURNE, Australia – After winning the biggest title of her career at the WTA Finals at the end of the 2015 season, Agnieszka Radwanska made a big declaration – that she would do everything in her power to win a Grand Slam title in 2016 (check out the full interview with CNN Open Court here).
But Radwanska hasn’t just been talking the talk of a future Grand Slam champion – she’s been walking the walk, big time. Since losing early at the US Open she’s been doing a heck of a lot of winning, capturing four of the six tournaments she’s played – Tokyo [Pan Pacific], Tianjin, the WTA Finals in Singapore and Shenzhen this past week – and putting together a more than impressive 22-4 record.
And by winning Shenzhen, Radwanska also secured a rise from No.5 to No.4 on the WTA Rankings, meaning she’ll have a Top 4 seed at the Australian Open, which, in turn, means she won’t have to play Serena Williams until at least the semifinals – a good break given she’s 0-8 against the World No.1.
But the question remains: Why could the Australian Open be Radwanska’s first Grand Slam title?
Well, there’s actually a very good reason Radwanska could make her breakthrough at the Grand Slam of the Asia-Pacific – she’s won 10 of her 18 career WTA titles in the Asia-Pacific**:
2016 – Shenzhen
2015 – Tokyo [Pan Pacific], Tianjin, WTA Finals [Singapore]2014 – Montréal
2013 – Auckland, Sydney, Seoul
2012 – Dubai, Miami, Brussels
2011 – Carlsbad, Tokyo [Pan Pacific], Beijing
2008 – Pattaya City, Istanbul, Eastbourne
2007 – Stockholm
Radwanska was asked why she always does so well in the Asia-Pacific during her week in Shenzhen.
“That’s a good question – I’m not sure!” she replied. “I’m always feeling good on the court here, and I’m always playing great tennis. And you can’t ignore the results – that’s really a lot of tournaments.
“Hopefully there will be even more tournaments to play in the Asia-Pacific in the future!”
Many would pick Wimbledon to be Radwanska’s best major – she reached her first Grand Slam final there in 2012, after all – but she’s been to the quarterfinals or better at the Australian Open just as many times as at Wimbledon (five). Her best result in Melbourne was the semifinals back in 2014.
Can the World No.4, a former World No.2, go all the way this time? Stay tuned on wtatennis.com!
** The general definition for Asia-Pacific is East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Oceania
Simona Halep takes on Karolina Pliskova in the third round of the Rogers Cup.