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Radwanska At Peace On Grass

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

The grass court season has been a time of respite and opportunity for Agnieszka Radwanska. This year she comes into Wimbledon with less pause and more purpose. The World No.3 limited her clay court schedule this year, an aggressive signal that the 27-year-old is more about quality than quantity these days. Her focus now is to take advantage of the surface that has always been good to her.

The 2012 Wimbledon finalist has made the semifinals or better at two of her last three trips to the All England Club. While she grew up playing on fake grass back home in Poland, she did not step foot on the real thing until 2005. That year she would go on to win Junior Wimbledon.

“I was really comfortable on that from the first day,” Radwanska said. “Since then I had this feeling I feel really good on the surface. I feel really comfortable and I can do whatever I want there. It hasn’t changed since then.”

Heading into Wimbledon, Radwanska has played 10 events this year (including Fed Cup), four fewer than in each of her last two seasons and her fewest since 2011. And yet she’s in the midst of one of her strongest 12-month runs, winning four tournaments, including the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global, and making the Australian Open semifinals.

“If you ask me five years ago I would say, Yeah, it’s very scary [to play less] and I would feel weird not to play hundred matches,” Radwanska said. “Here it’s a different story.

“Every year you have a different experience and now when you’re older then you really have to think [about] it twice. So I really feel much better. It’s still not over, it’s just half the season. There’s still a few months to go with the Olympics and two Grand Slams so you you really need to think about the whole season.”

As a result, Radwanska has been the healthiest she’s ever been at this point of the season. As she joked in Paris, she’s not being held together by tape and she’s been able to play freely without much concern. This week she’s already into the quarterfinals at the Aegon International, where she was finalist last year, and will go into Wimbledon with a few quality matches under her belt. Regardless of whether she wins the title in Eastbourne, Radwanska has rediscovered her comfort level on grass.

“Sometimes I lost in the first round at Eastbourne and then I made the finals and semifinals at Wimbledon, not once but three times,” she said. “But I really want to take advantage of the fact that I really like grass. It’s good to have a couple matches before the Grand Slams.”

Click here to read more about this year’s Wimbledon Contenders, courtesy of WTA Insider.

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Cibulkova Routs Puig For Final Spot

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

EASTBOURNE, England – Dominika Cibulkova rounded off a busy afternoon at the Aegon International Eastbourne by brushing aside Monica Puig to book her place in the final.

Watch live action from Eastbourne this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!

Having begun the day with a stirring comeback win over top seed Agnieszka Radwanska, Cibulkova could have been forgiven for showing a few signs of physical and mental fatigue when she stepped back on court just a few hours later.

However, if the Slovak was feeling the effects of the backed-up scheduling, she hid it well, easing to a 6-2, 6-1 victory in little over an hour on court.

Peppering Puig’s baseline with her flat groundstrokes, Cibulkova threatened to break on a couple of occasions before finally striking in the sixth game, following up a well-disguised drop shot with a thumping forehand winner.

Desperately searching for a response to her opponent’s brilliance, Puig was forced out of her comfort zone, surrendering the set on the back of a couple of uncharacteristically errant backhands. 

The second set was even more one-sided, Cibulkova rattling off the final three games to reach her first grass court final. “I would say this is my best day on a grass court,” Cibulkova said afterwards. “I’m extremely happy – I’m playing so well. She was really tough to play against because she’s playing completely different tennis to Radwanska, she played well today but I was just better.”

On court, Cibulkova’s fiery style starved Puig the opportunity to find any rhythm. And a similarly frenetic approach served her well in dealing with the quick turnaround: “I stretched, went to the ice bath and then I had to warm up again. It was a really quick one!”

In the final, she will face Karolina Pliskova after she defeated home favorite Johanna Konta, 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-3.

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June's WTA Fashion Favorites

June's WTA Fashion Favorites

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

Already during the tournaments opening the grass-court season we had an opportunity to see some nice new designs ready for the upcoming Wimbledon, but before tennis fashion completely switches to pure whites let’s have a look at the colorful clothes that graced the WTA courts in the period leading to the most traditional Grand Slam.

Marija Zivlak of Women’s Tennis Blog gives us an overview of the best outfits we’ve had this June.

Belinda Bencic

We had missed Belinda Bencic on tennis courts since Charleston, with the Swiss nurturing a back injury, but the 19-year-old made a stylish comeback this month at the Ricoh Open, wearing this ice grey and orange color-block dress, another refreshingly youthful and sporty Yonex design. The thick orange stripe below chest provides a figure-slimming effect and Yonex made sure to match it with Belinda’s visor, wristbands and company logo.

Besides nice subtle colors, the dress stands out with its wide supportive criss-crossed tank straps. Moreover, a coordinating ball short is included in the design.

Barbora Strycova

Czech Barbora Strycova progressed all the way to the Aegon Classic Birmingham final in singles and to the champion’s trophy in doubles, feeling comfortable in her Sergio Tacchini Phoenix Dress. A dotted pattern adorns the chest and racerback area, matching a solid red side panel at right hip.

Agnieszka Radwanska

Agnieszka Radwanska brought a lot of color to the grey Eastbourne weather with the flowers of the Lotto Twice Dress. What makes this piece of clothing special is that it’s actually reversible, so when you don’t feel like wearing an eye-catching print, you can easily opt for the solid blue marine side. Other features of the dress include moisture management, spaghetti straps and ruffled hem.

Yanina Wickmayer

For her grasscourt campaign in Birmingham, where she had played the finals back in 2008, Belgium’s Yanina Wickmayer opted for the Lotto Moonride Tank from the company’s running range. This is not the first time that Lotto-sponsored athletes are putting aside their tennis clothes — the floral fitness and training Ursula line worn by Carla Suarez Navarro made my February’s fashion favorites.

Wickmayer cheered up the rainy British environment with the colorful tank top dominated by purple tones. Strategically-placed side color-blocks nicely accentuate the waist, while back keyhole cutout allows a sports bra to stylishly peek through. Being a running tank, the item also features a reflective bar down the back that provides visibility in low-light conditions.

Asics

Timea Bacsinszky, Daria Gavrilova and Johanna Konta have been sporting the pool blue Asics Club Dress this June, whose mesh panels and moisture-wicking fabric are keeping players cool and comfortable, while built-in sprinter tights ensure the necessary support. Just like most tennis apparel companies, Asics opted for a racerback design, providing players with ultimate mobility that allows them to hit the ball harder and faster.

– Photos courtesy of Getty Images and Jimmie48 Photography 

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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

MIAMI, FL, USA – No.7 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova overcame a slow start and an inspired Taylor Townsend to beat the American qualifier, 6-4, 6-2, joining No.10 seed Johanna Konta, who beat Pauline Parmentier, 6-4, 6-0 in the fourth round of the Miami Open.

Townsend has long been a talented prospect, having won the 2013 Australian Open junior title and finishing runner-up to Belinda Bencic at that year’s Wimbledon Championships. Qualifying for the main draw and upsetting Roberta Vinci in her previous match, the American looked on course for another upset as she took the first break from Kuznetsova in the opening set.

“I’d never played her before, but still, to face her it’s a bit different,” she told WTA Insider after the match. “It took me time to adjust to her game. I got broken right away, and I was serving against the sun, so it was a little bit difficult.”

But Kuznetsova is in good form herself, reaching the final at last week’s BNP Paribas Open; relaxed and focused, the Russian took four straight games to reclaim the break and the opening set from Townsend, who put up quite a fight in the final game before dropping serve.

“She plays good tennis, different than other girls. I took time to adjust, changed my strategy, and in the end it worked pretty well. But she’s very talented.”

The 2006 champion and 2016 finalist raced ahead to start the second and never looked back, despite some impressive variety from the 20-year-old.

Up next for Kuznetsova is either former No.1 Venus Williams or qualifier Patricia Maria Tig, who stunned No.22 seed and Top 20 debutante Kristina Mladenovic in the preceding round.

“It’s a great match-up, and it’s great to play Venus again, one more time. We’re both having great results, so I’m looking forward to that match.”

Earlier in the day, Konta worked through a tense opening set to roll through against Parmentier.

“I’m happy to have come through that,” Konta said after the match. “Although the scoreline doesn’t show it in the second set, I still had to work hard within every single point. I really tried hard not to take my foot off the gas and stay focused on what I wanted to achieve.”

The Frenchwoman has displayed impresisve tennis of late, and nearly beat World No.1 Angelique Kerber in Indian Wells.

“She’s been very strong with her forehand, and her serve is actually quite a big weapon, as well. I was quite happy with how I could neutralize it and look towards having good variety on my returns. I also made it difficult for her to find her spots on the forehand; I didn’t give her too many opportunities to set up, because when she does, she can be very tough to play.”

With 19 winners to just five unforced errors to advance, it was night and day for the British No.1 on Sunday after her tough opening round win over Aliaksandra Sasnovich, which went deep into a third set.

“The bonus of getting through any match is having the opportunity to play again. I have another opportunity to get better and to perform well.

“Those stats obviously look better on paper, and that’s good to hear. There’s other moving factors in a match, but I was still very happy I was able to stick with my plan and not divert from that in any way.

“Each match puts forward different challenges, so it’s hard to compare and decide which has been my best performance. My first round was very good, for example, because I could get through a difficult situation. Today was a cleaner match, so in that sense, it was also a good performance.”

Standing between Konta and a second straight quarterfinal in Miami will be the winner of No.8 seed Madison Keys and Lara Arruabarrena.

“I played Madison in Beijing last year. I think I played Lara once before, but not for many years. We all know Madison has a big game, so if I end up playing her, I’ll be expecting to play someone with a lot of weight of shot. I haven’t watched Lara play too much, but she’s been around a while and won a title at the end of last year. She’s a tough player, so either way it’ll be a tough match.”

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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

MIAMI, FL, USA – No.3 seed Simona Halep barreled into the fourth round of the Miami Open, conquering Estonian qualifier Anett Kontaveit, 6-3, 6-0.

“I think I played my best match of the year,” Halep told WTA Insider after the match. “I was confident, and knew what I had to do: push and make her run. I hit some winners, which was very good for me. I was moving well, so I think everything went pretty well for me tonight.”

The Romanian has been plagued by knee issues throughout the 2017 season, forced to pull out of the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy and the Middle East Swing to heal the injury.

Coming into Miami, the former French Open finalist had yet to win back-to-back matches this year, but struck down that stat in decisive fashion on Sunday night, rolling past Kontaveit in 55 minutes.

“I felt good when I came to site, and was sure that it was going to come together because I work every day. At one point, it has to come.

“I felt the best that I have this year. I can move without pain or anything, and I’m confident, which is the most important thing.”

Kontaveit is a talented youngster in her own right, a former junior Slam finalist who knocked out No.32 seed Ekaterina Makarova en route to the third round, but had no answers to her opponent’s unstoppable form, her 17 winnes undone by 24 errors in total.

“My first match here was close,” she said of her opener against Naomi Osaka. “I had some trouble in the first match. After that, I saw that I could resist and stay strong. Today, everything was flowing. I didn’t plan anything, and I won’t plan anything else. I just want to go there and give my best.”

Incredibly aggressive under the lights, Halep struck 19 winners to just 13 unforced errors and broke serve five times to book a round of 16 match-up with 2011 US Open champion Samantha Stosur.

“It’s going to be a tough match, for sure. I know how I have to play, because she’s very dangerous. Her forehand is strong, and so is her serve. I’m here to do my job, and to try to win because that’s what I want.

“Nothing special. I just expect a tough one and I’ll go there to fight.”

Halep and Stosur last played at Roland Garros 10 months ago, when the Aussie won on a wet and rainy day in Paris, locking up their head-to-head at four wins apiece.

The former World No.2 has won their last four hardcourt matches, though two of those three required a third set. But Halep might have a secret weapon.

“Something is waiting for me already, a Nutella crepe. I’ve eaten one every day, and maybe that’s why I’m winning!”

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