Tennis News

World No.2 Garbiñe Muguruza lifted her first major title just two weeks ago at Roland Garros and the 22-year-old Spaniard is set to return to Wimbledon where she finished as runner-up last year. But just how far can she go? The question was put to Chris Evert during an ESPN conference call with reporters on Tuesday.

“I mean, who is going to be next, the next No.1 player, after Serena is gone? You’ve got to put your money on Muguruza because first of all, you have to have power in today’s game.”

While Muguruza became the third consecutive first-time Grand Slam winner, it’s the Spaniard’s power, Evert contends, that separates her from the field of rising WTA stars.

“When I look at the next three, I look at Radwanska, Kerber and Halep. I don’t think either of those three are going to end up No.1 in the world. They don’t have that sort of overwhelming power. Muguruza does have it, very much like Serena, following in her footsteps.

“Muguruza, she still has to mature a little bit. She’s still young. She still has to probably get a little more consistent with her results in the smaller tournaments. But when I look at winning Grand Slams, you’d have to say Muguruza, you’d have to look at Madison Keys, Victoria Azarenka, and Petra Kvitova – the power players more now more so than the consistent counter-punchers.”

While the expectations remain lofty for Muguruza, Evert also tempered expectations, citing the difficulties of making the immediate adjustment from clay to grass. There’s a reason why only seven players have won the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year. Muguruza played one grass court tournament before Wimbledon, losing in the opening round to former Wimbledon semifinalist Kirsten Flipkens at the Mallorca Open.

“She’s come a long way,” Evert said. “I think she’s going to have a tough Wimbledon. It’s very hard to carry that momentum. Very few people have won the French and Wimbledon back-to-back, especially at that young of an age.

“That will be a real curiosity for me if she can carry that momentum and confidence and do well, think about last year reaching the finals, or is she going to have a hard time resetting, especially in dealing with people’s expectations.”

LONDON, England – On Thursday morning The All England Club announced the seeds for the most historic tournament on the tennis calendar, Wimbledon. Here is the full list:

Updated 6/23/16 to reflect the withdrawal of No.6 seed Victoria Azarenka (knee injury):

(1) Serena Williams (USA #1)
(2) Garbiñe Muguruza (ESP #2)
(3) Agnieszka Radwanska (POL #3)
(4) Angelique Kerber (GER #4)
(5) Simona Halep (ROU #5)
(6) Roberta Vinci (ITA #7) 
(7) Belinda Bencic (SUI #8)
(8) Venus Williams (USA #9) 
(9) Madison Keys (USA #10)
(10) Petra Kvitova (CZE #11) 
(11) Timea Bacsinszky (SUI #12)
(12) Carla Suárez Navarro (ESP #13)
(13) Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS #14)
(14) Samantha Stosur (AUS #16)
(15) Karolina Pliskova (CZE #17)
(16) Johanna Konta (GBR #18) 

(17) Elina Svitolina (UKR #19)
(18) Sloane Stephens (USA #20)
(19) Dominika Cibulkova (SVK #21)
(20) Sara Errani (ITA #22)
(21)Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS #23)
(22) Jelena Jankovic (SRB #24)
(23) Ana Ivanovic (SRB #25)
(24) Barbora Strycova (CZE #26)
(25) Irina-Camelia Begu (ROU #27)
(26) Kiki Bertens (NED #28)
(27) CoCo Vandeweghe (USA #29)
(28) Lucie Safarova (CZE #30)
(29) Daria Kasatkina (RUS #31)
(30) Caroline Garcia (FRA #32)
(31) Kristina Mladenovic (FRA #33)
(32) Andrea Petkovic (GER #34)

There are some dangerous floaters among those to have missed the cut, including Caroline Wozniacki and former finalists Sabine Lisicki and Eugenie Bouchard.

Qualifying at Roehampton’s Bank of England Club finishes later this week, with main draw action starting on Monday June 27.

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.

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.

And this is how I feel at @AegonTennisEB!!! ?????????????? ?????????? the best feeling!! pic.twitter.com/ghKKhCod2b

— Dominika Cibulkova (@Cibulkova) June 24, 2016

LONDON, England – Venus Williams moved one step closer to a sixth Wimbledon crown after a straight set win over Yaroslava Shvedova in Tuesday’s quarterfinals.

Playing her 12th quarterfinal at the All England Club, Williams’ experience came to the fore as she withstood some early difficulty to run out an ultimately comfortable, 7-6(5), 6-2 winner.

“What a tough day on court! The first set I had so many opportunities but she played so well,” Williams said. “When you walk to the net as the winner that’s the goal.

“To play so well when it’s your first quarterfinal is a credit to her. I love playing the game, always have. And when you’re winning matches it’s so much sweeter. Wins and losses lead to these moments. Everyone has to take the losses. Unless you’re Serena Williams!”

At 36, Williams is the oldest player to make it this far at a major since Martina Navratilova finished runner-up at Wimbledon in 1994.

“I love playing the game,” Williams said in her post-match interview with the BBC. “When you’re winning matches it makes it that much sweeter.”

Shvedova had her chances, most notably in the first set tie-break which she led 5-2, but found herself faced with an opponent who refused to wilt. Williams pinched the set when Shvedova fired long and tightened her grip of the contest thereafter, a run of four straight games plotting a path into the last four.

“What a tough day on the court,” Williams added. “The tie-breaker, it felt like she would win. I felt like my opponent was on fire. I felt like the crowd enjoyed all the great points. She got them involved in the last game. We gave them good tennis today.”

Remarkably, it is Williams’ first major semifinal since the 2010 US Open. There she will face No.4 Angelique Kerber, who saw off Simona Halep, 7-5, 7-6(2).

“The road was six years. They go by fast thankfully. But I’ve been blessed, been really blessed, to have an opportunity to be here, have had an opportunity in the past to do this. I don’t have any regrets about anything that’s taken place in between. It’s been a journey, but it’s made me stronger,” Williams said.

Williams’ evergreen showing also raises the tantalizing prospect of another showdown with sister Serena – who won her quarterfinal with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 6-4, 6-4, over on Centre Court – in south-west London. The siblings have met six times at Wimbledon – more than at any other tournament – although Williams has no intention of looking beyond Kerber.

“We don’t really talk about [the final] because we are focused on the next match. Even though we both won today, our opponents played really well. We actually have to get out there and play well to win. So it’s very focused.

“We get out there and we’re focused on that moment because we have to be. So the talk about what could happen is not as important as what’s happening in that round.”

My respect for @Venuseswilliams just keeps growing ! So happy to see her in the semi-finals again. ???

— Kim Clijsters (@Clijsterskim) July 5, 2016