CoCo Vandeweghe On Balancing Multiple Inputs Throughout Her Career
CoCo Vandeweghe discusses the importance of listening to different voices – from parents to various coaches – throughout her career during a press conference at the Australian Open.
CoCo Vandeweghe discusses the importance of listening to different voices – from parents to various coaches – throughout her career during a press conference at the Australian Open.
The Australian Open draw is out – where’s your favorite? And who’s got the toughest quarter – Serena Williams, Simona Halep, Garbiñe Muguruza or Agnieszka Radwanska?
Top seeds Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sania Mirza eased into the last eight of the Australian Open mixed doubles event with Mike Bryan and Ivan Dodig, respectively.
MELBOURNE, Australia – On the eve of the Australian Open – where they’ll be going for their third straight Grand Slam title together – Martina Hingis has joined Sania Mirza as co-World No.1.
With Hingis and Mirza now having their best 11 results over the last 12 months as a team – they just won their 11th WTA doubles title together in Sydney – they are finally No.1 in the world together.
Hingis’ first 35 weeks at No.1 in doubles came in six stints, from June 8 to August 2, 1998 (8 weeks), August 17 to October 25, 1998 (10 weeks), November 2 to 22, 1998 (3 weeks), June 7 to July 4, 1999 (4 weeks), August 2 to 22, 1999 (3 weeks) and January 31 to March 19, 2000 (7 weeks).
She will now begin her 36th career week at the top, while Mirza earns her 41st.
“It’s a really nice feeling having that No.1 ahead of your name,” Hingis said after the final in Sydney on Friday. “It’s definitely something I was aiming for, and with Sania I felt like I had the opportunity to get there. When she became No.1 in Charleston I was just as happy as when I did it myself.
“Being the No.1 team for the last 10 months – we’ve proven it with two Slams and the WTA Finals in Singapore – we definitely belong there. It was just a question of time to get that No.1 ranking.”
“I’m so happy for her that 16 years later she’s become No.1 again!” Mirza, who first rose to No.1 last April, commented. “But regardless of what the ranking was, we were the No.1 team in the world.
“I’m so happy that we’re together now not just as the No.1 team, but as individuals as well.”
The Swiss-Indian duo is on a 30-match winning streak that has brought them seven straight titles at the US Open, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Beijing and WTA Finals in 2015, and Brisbane and Sydney this year.
They’ll take that streak – the longest since 1990 – into the Australian Open this fortnight.
Hingis and Mirza are the 11th co-World No.1s in WTA Doubles Rankings history. The full list:
127 weeks – Cara Black & Liezel Huber
82 weeks – Sara Errani & Roberta Vinci
39 weeks – Lisa Raymond & Sam Stosur
20 weeks – Liezel Huber & Lisa Raymond
10 weeks – Kveta Peschke & Katarina Srebotnik
8 weeks – Serena Williams & Venus Williams
7 weeks – Gisela Dulko & Flavia Pennetta
5 weeks – Hsieh Su-Wei & Peng Shuai
3 weeks – Lisa Raymond & Rennae Stubbs
3 weeks – Virginia Ruano Pascual & Paola Suárez
1 week – Martina Hingis & Sania Mirza
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – The first round of the Olympic tennis event wraps up on Sunday with all of the top seeded women headlining the action, including Serena Williams and Garbiñe Muguruza.
Sunday, First Round
Centre Court
[1] Serena Williams (USA #1) vs Daria Gavrilova (AUS #46)
Head-to-head: Williams leads 1-0
It’s been a somewhat quiet season for Australia’s Daria Gavrilova. Since last year’s breakthrough, she’s succumbed to a string of first and second losses, results at odds with the 22-year-old’s big game and even bigger promise. But despite the early exits, Gavrilova’s reputation as a giant-killer remains intact – she owns four wins over Top 20 players so far, including victories over Petra Kvitova and Simona Halep.
She’ll have to bring every ounce of her dogged belief and determination against what would be the biggest opponent of all: World No.1 Serena Williams. The American is in killer form this year, having played six events and reaching the final in all but one. She’s also fresh off a monumental Wimbledon win, where she won her record-tying 22nd Grand Slam title, and comes to Rio once again chasing history and vying to become the first tennis player – male or female – to win five Olympic medals.
Court 1
Mariana Duque-Mariño (COL #82) vs [2] Angelique Kerber (GER #3)
Head-to-head: Duque-Mariño leads 1-0
Mariana Duque-Mariño got her first taste of gold at last year’s Pan Am Games in Toronto when she became Colombia’s first women’s tennis player to bring home the medal. Since then, Duque-Mariño has toiled through qualifying rounds and posted her career second appearance at a WTA final in Nurnberg earlier this year.
The Colombian has fond memories of the last time she played against her first-round opponent; Duque-Mariño defeated Angelique Kerber to win the title in Bogota, her hometown, back in 2010.
Kerber’s season skidded a bit after the high of winning her first Grand Slam title in Australia, but rumors of her downfall were greatly exaggerated. The German has reached the semifinals or better at seven events this year, including an appearance at the Wimbledon final and her run to the semifinal of the Rogers Cup just last week. Despite facing travel difficulties, the German arrived to her second Olympic Games in good form and primed for another deep run.
Around the grounds…
No.3 seed Garbiñe Muguruza kick starts her Olympics campaign against former No.1 Jelena Jankovic on Centre Court. Meanwhile No.11 seed Petra Kvitova and No.13 seed Samantha Stosur take to Court 2 to face off against Timea Babos and Jelena Ostapenko, respectively.
MELBOURNE, Australia – No.2 seeds Sania Mirza and Ivan Dodig overcame a stern test from the unseeded Gabriela Dabrowski and Rohan Bopanna to move into the semifinals of the mixed doubles competition at the Australian Open.
Mirza and Dodig needed one hour and seven minutes to complete the 6-4, 3-6, (12-10) victory despite hitting 19 winners to Dabrowski and Bopanna’s 32.
It was an interesting match for Mirza in particular, as the last time she shared a court with Bopanna they were on the same side of the net at the Olympic tennis event in Rio representing India in doubles. They finished fourth in the competition after losing the bronze medal match.
Up next for Mirza and Dodig will be a potential clash with another familiar pair of faces for the Indian World No.2, as they’ll take on either Mirza’s former doubles partner Martina Hingis and fellow Indian star Leander Paes or the Aussie duo Samantha Stosur and Sam Groth.
Also through to the semifinals are the unseeded duo of Abigail Spears and Juan Sebastian Cabal, who defeated Michaella Krajicek and Raven Klaasen, 6-4 6-3. They’ll face the winners between the top-seeded Americans Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Mike Bryan or Elina Svitolina and Chris Guccione.
MELBOURNE, Australia – When the top half of the 2016 Australian Open women’s singles draw gets rolling on Monday in Melbourne, fans won’t be left wanting for star power. Four Top 6 seeds will take the court, led by six-time champion Serena Williams and 2008 champion Maria Sharapova. Here’s a rundown of key matches to see.
Monday, Day 1
First Round
[1] Serena Williams (USA #1) vs. Camila Giorgi (ITA # 36)
Head-to-head: Williams leads 2-0
Key Stat: Williams has won 8 of 14 major titles since Patrick Mouratoglou became her coach.
Four words can neatly summarize Serena Williams’ mood as she prepares her Australian Open title defense. “I don’t look back,” says Williams, who is ready, willing and able to kick off her 2016 with a continuation of a march to history that was temporarily halted in New York last season. But her first challenge, against the highest-ranked unseeded player in the draw, promises to be a tricky one.
Italy’s Camila Giorgi pushed Williams to a tie-break during Fed Cup action last season, and she’ll hope to take advantage of the 34-year-old’s lack of match play- Williams pulled out of Hopman Cup with knee inflammation but says she’s injury-free in Melbourne – to gain an early upper hand. But Williams knows a thing or two about overcoming challenges early in Slams. She holds a 60-1 lifetime record in first rounds at majors, and has never lost one in Australia.
Pick: Williams in three
[25] Samantha Stosur (AUS #27) vs. [Q] Kristyna Pliskova (CZE # 114)
Head-to-head: First meeting
Key Stat: Stosur has never been past the round of 16 at Melbourne.
One of the most beloved Aussie athletes in recent history has yet to find her mojo at the Happy Slam, but hope springs eternal as former US Open champion Sam Stosur prepares to make her 14th career appearance in Melbourne. Though she’s only made the second week twice (and not since 2010), the experienced Stosur knows that if she plays her tennis she’ll have an opportunity to rack up a win over the talented yet unheralded Pliskova. “I want to handle myself well, play well, do the things that I need to be doing, put myself in good positions hopefully to win many matches,” Stosur said. “If I can do all that and play to my ability, then I’ll be happy.” Pliskova, the identical twin of No.9 seed Karolina Pliskova, has mustered a 5-9 lifetime record at majors, and has not appeared in the main draw of the Australian Open since 2013.
Pick: Stosur in three
[4] Agnieszka Radwanska (POL #4) vs. Christina McHale (USA # 65)
Head-to-head: Radwanska leads, 3-0
Key Stat: Radwanska has dropped only seven games in three matches versus McHale.
Many pundits are predicting a big year for Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska, and the 26-year-old has already started on the right foot by taking the Shenzhen title without the loss of a set. Radwanska, a semifinalist at Melbourne (2014) and a five-time quarterfinalist here, will face a player that has given her very little trouble in the past. The youthful, talented McHale has been troubled by the Radwanska match-up, and with red-hot Radwanska having won 22 of 26 matches dating back to last year, the challenge of coping with the unorthodox stylings of the crafty Pole promises to be even more difficult for the American.
Pick: Radwanska in two.
[5] Maria Sharapova (RUS #5) vs. Nao Hibino (JPN # 56)
Head-to-head: First meeting
Key Stat: Sharapova has played just seven tour-level matches since Wimbledon 2015.
Can Maria Sharapova shake the rust off in time to get past rapidly-rising Nao Hibino on Monday in Melbourne? The Russian has not played since the Fed Cup final last November, but she is confident that her short, sweet off-season training block and her experience will help get her through the early rounds in Melbourne. “Yes I might be more rusty,” Sharapova told reporters on Saturday, “but I’ve always been someone who treats practice as meaningful and I can take that into matches. I’m ready to go.” In Hibino, Sharapova will face one of the breakout performers of 2015. The 21-year-old won her first WTA title at Tashkent and finished a season inside the Top 100 for the first time.
Pick: Sharapova in two.
More must-see tennis: Eugenie Bouchard will look to continue her fine run of form against the always-dangerous Aleksandra Krunic in the pair’s first-ever meeting. Bouchard reached her first WTA final in well over a year over the weekend in Hobart… Italy’s Roberta Vinci begins her final Grand Slam season with a battle against Austria’s Tamira Paszek. Though Paszek is ranked more than 100 places lower than Vinci, she owns a 2-0 record versus the Italian and has never dropped a set against Vinci… Luksika Kumkhum pulled one of the biggest upsets of the 2014 Australian Open when she upset sixth-seeded Petra Kvitova in the first round. Will lightning strike twice for the Thai qualifier, or will Kvitova get her revenge… France’s Kristina Mladenovic got an exceptionally tough draw this year at Melbourne. Seeded for the first time at the Aussie Open, she drew former finalist Dominika Cibulkova, whom she has lost all five previous encounters against.
Action is hot and heavy in Rio on Monday as all 16 second-round clashes will take place. Wtatennis.com contributor Chris Oddo previews the action.
MELBOURNE, Australia – The last time Yulia Putintseva played on Hisense Arena, she pushed Agnieszka Radwanska to the brink in a topsy-turvy three-setter back in 2014; on Monday afternoon she went one better against former No.1 Caroline Wozniacki, recovering from a set and break deficit to defeat the Dane, 1-6, 7-6(3), 6-4.
The Kazakh, a former junior finalist at the 2012 Australian Open, recently turned 21, but hadn’t won a WTA main draw match since last summer, and appeared close to another defeat when she fell behind a set and 4-2 to her more experienced opponent.
Yet, Putintseva displayed impressive resolve to turn the tables in a second set tie-break and weathered a final set surge from Wozniacki to serve out the win in just over three hours.
In her on-court interview, the smiling youngster admitted she was dealing with cramps from early in the third set, and played some impressive mind games to keep calm when it came time to complete the upset.
“I tried to keep my emotions inside, and actually imagine I was losing. It’s easier that way.”
Ending the match with a whopping 42 winners, Putintseva also out-aced Wozniacki, hitting two back-to-back in the middle of the second set tie-break while maintaining an impressive 74% first serve percentage.
For Wozniacki, the loss completes a string of progressively disappointing losses in Melbourne; since reaching the semifinals in 2011 – when she had a match point against Li Na – she has ended her tournament one round worse in each successive year, a pattern that was on her mind as early as last year, when she fell in the second round to Victoria Azarenka.
“I think it’s a curse I’ve gotten here,” she said in 2015. “Hopefully, I’m going to break that next year and start going the other way.”
In the same section of the draw as World No.1 Serena Williams, Putintseva not only takes out one of the American’s closest rivals, but she next plays China’s Han Xinyun, who benefitted from the 6-2, 2-1 retirement of Mariana Duque-Mariño.
Putintseva pulls off upset win on Hisense Arena #ausopen https://t.co/Rq8mh1PKlz
— Australian Open (@AustralianOpen) January 18, 2016
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – The top three seeds will battle for quarterfinal slots on Day 4 of the Rio Games. Chris Oddo breaks down the key Olympic match-ups at wtatennis.com.
Tuesday, Third Round
Centre Court
[7] Madison Keys (USA #9) vs. [9] Carla Suárez Navarro (ESP #12)
Head-to-head: Keys leads, 2-0
Key Stat: Keys played the longest match of this year’s Olympic Games on Monday, taking out Kristina Mladenovic in three hours and 14 minutes.
Madison Keys is one of the few players in Rio who has a big enough game to hit through the slow-playing hardcourts. She’ll have to do just that and then some if she intends to get past the gritty Carla Suárez Navarro on Tuesday. Keys won the pair’s two previous meetings, but both of them have gone three sets. If Keys is going to make it three in a row against the Spaniard, she’ll have to do what she could not against Simona Halep in the Montréal final. In that match Keys struggled to win the longer rallies and didn’t serve well enough to keep the majority of points short. Against a deft baseliner like Suárez Navarro, who defeated Ana Konjuh, 7-6(5), 6-3 on Monday, Keys will have to avoid making this match a physical encounter. After three hours and 14 minutes in the Rio heat on Monday, will Keys have the energy left to execute her game plan?
Pick: Suárez Navarro in three
[1] Serena Williams (USA #1) vs. Elina Svitolina (UKR #20)
Head-to-head: Williams leads, 4-0
Key Stat: Williams is bidding to be the first Woman in history to successfully defend an Olympic singles title.
In her Olympic debut, Elina Svitolina has reeled off back-to-back three-set victories, over Andrea Petkovic and Heather Watson, to book her spot in the sweet 16. But the World No.20 will run into a much stiffer challenge on Tuesday when she faces defending Olympic gold medalist Serena Williams. The last four meetings between Svitolina and Williams have seen Svitolina gain some moral victories, but the truth of the matter is that her defensive approach leaves her far too vulnerable against an offensive juggernaut like Williams. Will Svitolina step out of her shell and try to take the game to Williams, or will the Ukrainian be content to leave the match on Serena’s racquet in the hopes that the mighty American might falter? Williams struggled against Alizé Cornet on Monday, but eventually prevailed in straight sets. She could be tested by Svitolina on Tuesday, but expect Williams to sharpen her focus as the medal rounds draw nearer.
Pick: Williams in two
Court 1
[2] Angelique Kerber (GER #2) vs. [13] Samantha Stosur (AUS #17)
Head-to-head: Tied, 3-3
Key Stat: Kerber is bidding to become the first German woman to win a medal at the Olympics since Steffi Graf in 1992.
How impressive has Angelique Kerber’s 2016 been? A maiden Grand Slam title and a Wimbledon final have thrust the cagey German close to the top of the rankings and she’s gunning for more precious hardware here in Rio. Kerber made relatively light work of Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard on Monday and appears to be primed for another deep run in this her coming-of-age season. But standing in her way on Tuesday will be the determined Sam Stosur, a player who is tailor-made for the gritty, slow-paced Rio hardcourts. Stosur has done most of her damage on clay this year, but she just might have a shot to upend Kerber if she can dictate with her serve and play without fear in the pair’s seventh career meeting. Stosur was strong in her straight-sets victory over Japan’s Misaki Doi on Monday, but she’ll have to be even stronger if she hopes to snap her three-match losing streak to Kerber on hardcourts.
Pick: Kerber in three
Court 2
[3] Garbiñe Muguruza (ESP #4) vs. Monica Puig (PUR #34)
Head-to-head: First Meeting
Key Stat: Neither player has dropped a set this week in Rio.
It looks like Garbiñe Muguruza is turning the page on a disappointing grass court season and reverting back to the elite form that saw her claim her maiden Grand Slam title at Roland Garros this spring. It may seem like a long time ago, but Muguruza’s performance in Paris left no doubt about her talent, mindset and belief. Now the challenge is to be more consistent. Muguruza, who plastered Japan’s Nao Hibino, 6-1, 6-1, on Monday, is the only seeded player left in her quarter. This is a tremendous opportunity for the Spaniard to open her hardcourt season in style, but she’ll have to get past the dangerous Monica Puig to keep her medal hopes alive. Puig has had a successful season on all surfaces, but the Puerto Rican has had very little experience against the WTA’s elite. She’s only played five Top 10 players in her career, losing four. Can she send a message and create a stir with a big upset in Rio?
Pick: Muguruza in three
Around the grounds…
Great Britain’s Johanna Konta’s magical season continues in Rio. The 25-year-old has yet to drop a set ahead of her round of 16 encounter with Svetlana Kuznetsova. But she’ll be tested in a big way by the resurgent Russian when the pair meets for the first time on Tuesday. Doubles action will also take center stage on Tuesday, as Garbiñe Muguruza, Carla Suárez Navarro, Sara Errani, Kirsten Flipkens, and Ekaterina Makarova will all pull double duty.
By the numbers…
19 – The age of Russia’s Daria Kasatkina, who is the youngest player left in the draw. Kasatkina will face Italy’s Sara Errani on Day 4. The Italian defeated Kasatkina in three sets in their only previous meeting.
11-1 – Serena record in Olympic singles matches. If she wins the title, Williams will tie Steffi Graf (15-1) for the most Olympic singles victories of all-time.
3 – Russia leads the way with three players (Kasatkina, Makarova, Kuznetsova) into the round of 16. The United States, Spain and Germany each have two alive in the draw, with 11 nations represented in total.
1 – Number of Olympic singles champions remaining in the draw (Serena).