Tennis News

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Elina Svitolina survived a stormy Sunday final against an inspired Eugenie Bouchard to capture her fourth career title at the BMW Malaysian Open, 6-7(5), 6-4, 7-5.

“Emotionally, I’m really exhausted now,” she said in her post-match press conference.

Svitolina recently hired former No.1 Justine Henin as part of her coaching team, and the Ukranian has enjoyed a flying start to their partnership with a run to the semifinals at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships and was looking for her first title of the season in Kuala Lumpur.

There were few signs of the rain-interrupted epic this match would become at the start, and Bouchard, who is in the midst of a resurgence following a disappointing 2015, broke through after the first rain delay to win the first set in a tie-break.

“It was a long day. The first set was really tough and she was playing really well, but I was 5-3 up, so I was disappointed to lose the first set after such a tough fight. After we stopped a couple of times because of the rain, it was up and down.”

Svitolina had never lost to the Canadian in three prior meetings, and her frustration at failing to serve out the opening set shown through as she fell behind 4-2 in the second. The No.2 seed soon caught fire once more, winning the last four games of the set to level the match before rain came once more.

“Honestly, I don’t remember much of the second set now because my emotions are over the moon. I just remember that it was so tough and I was 2-4 down and came back to win that set.

“During the match, I tried to change something in my game plan; I tried to adapt. When I’m not winning, why should I do the same thing?”

Bouchard looked to have the momentum when it counted, emerging from the final interruption to serve for the match in the tenth game. But the former Wimbledon finalist lost serve to love and Svitolina, who was forced to save a break point at 5-5, engineered an efficient service break to clinch the victory just before midnight.

“Many people would think the match is over, but I like to surprise everyone,” she said with a laugh. “Honestly, I was just trying to play my game; there was nothing special, just when I lost my serve I was 30-0 up, and emotionally I was struggling a bit because I lost my serve in such a big moment.

“I said to myself that I needed to just play my game and forget everything that happened in the last game. I did a great job; I played amazing returns, and she was really under pressure. This was the key in that moment.”

Winning in Kuala Lumpur brings Svitolina up to a career-high ranking of No.14, and back into the Top 15 for the first time since last summer.

“Thank you very much for staying that late to watch our final,” Svitolina said in her victory speech. “I want to thank Genie for a great final, it was a really tough one.”

“Hopefully I can come back next year!”

Earlier in the day, the unseeded pairing of Varatchaya Wongteanchai and Yang Zhaoxuan upset top seeds Liang Cheng and Wang Yafan, 4-6, 6-4, 10-7; for both winners, Sunday’s win marks the first WTA title of any kind.

“In the first set we played well,” Liang said after the match. “But didn’t play our best game from the second set. I felt very sorry to my partner for my double fault in the end. But we’ll move on and and continue to work hard.”

 All photos courtesy of BMW Malaysian Oepn 2016.

Full Circle For Santina: Co-No.1s Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza paired up for the very first time at last year’s BNP Paribas Open, winning the event and prompting a 15-match winning streak through Miami and Charleston. The summer following their first Grand Slam victory at Wimbledon proved even more fruitful, taking Santina on a 41-match win streak that included nine titles and two more majors at the US Open and Australian Open.

That incredible run came to an end in the quarterfinals of the Qatar Total Open, three matches shy of tying the longest winning streak since 1990 – when Jana Novotna and Helena Sukova won 44 matches in a row – forcing Hingis and Mirza to celebrate their one year anniversary on a decidedly unexpected one-match losing streak.

Turning that around won’t be an easy ask for the best team in the world; in a jam-packed draw, Santina are set to play a first round against Casey Dellacqua – the current World No.4 who reached the US Open final with Yaroslava Shvedova – and former No.1 Samantha Stosur. Also in their section are Elena Vesnina and Daria Kasatkina, the very team who beat them in Doha.

But bear in mind: Hingis and Mirza haven’t done a whole lot of losing in the last 12 months; should they pass these early hurdles, they could easily catch fire once more and capture their fifth title of 2016.

Olympic Fever: Dellacqua/Stosur and Vesnina/Kasatkina aren’t the only mono-country pairings to form this season, as half of the Indian Wells doubles field is comprised of women playing with their compatriots.

Four of them – No.4 seeds Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka, No.7 seeds Garbiñe Muguruza and Carla Suárez Navarro, No.8 seeds Raquel Atawo (née Kops-Jones) and Abigail Spears, and No.2 seeds Chan Hao-Ching and Chan Yung-Jan – qualified for BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global just a few months ago.

The Czechs have the most experience under their belts, including two Grand Slams and an Olympic silver medal, while the Spaniards finished runner-up to Hingis and Mirza in Singapore, and the Americans played some of their best tennis in 2015. The Chan sisters were the story of the second half of the season, and reversed a slow start with back-to-back titles in Taiwan and Doha.

No.6 seeds Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic were both in Singapore with other partners – Katarina Srebotnik and Timea Babos, respectively – but teamed up to start the season with the Olympics in mind. The two have already reached two finals in Sydney and Doha – beating the Chans and pushing Santina to a match tie-break in the former.

A trio of potential Olympic pairs remain unseeded and looming in the California desert. Anabel Medina Garrigues and Arantxa Parra Santonja came together on a more permanent basis last summer, and have been bastions of consistency throughout 2016. Making the semifinals or better at seven of their last eight events, the Spaniards – who open against Mladenovic and Garcia – swept the Central American swing with titles in Acapulco and Monterrey.

By contrast, wildcards Andrea Petkovic and reigning Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber are playing just their second tournament together and will have to hit the ground running against the Chans, but they may yet build on their reputation as the “best worst team ever,” one that took them into the finals of the Brisbane International.

Bethanie Mattek-Sands has been in search of a consistent partner since injuries and illness felled partner and co-Australian and French Open champion, Lucie Safarova. The Czech is back in action at Indian Wells, but instead playing with Ekaterina Makarova – Vesnina’s former partner. Mattek-Sands began the year alongside Sabine Lisicki and Yaroslava Shvedova, but is revisiting a successful Fed Cup partnership with CoCo Vandeweghe; the Americans won their doubles rubber against Poland’s Paula Kania and Klaudia Jans-Ignacik in straight sets.

Equal and Opposite: With 2015 partners Dellacqua and Mladenovic chasing after Olympic glory, Shevedova and Babos have decided to team up for the time being. Babos had enjoyed success with Julia Goerges in the Middle East, but after opting out of her original arrangement with Katarina Srebotnik, the Hungarian youngster admitted it was tough to find a consistent partner at this point in the season.

“I still have big goals in doubles, and we had a goal with Kata,” she told WTA Insider in Monterrey, “But after two tournaments, we realized it wouldn’t be so easy to make it, and our games weren’t matching so well. After Australia, I tried to find someone who I could play with every week, but it’s not easy to find someone who is still free and can be a good partner when the season’s already started.”

Comeback Kids: Peng Shuai began her wade back into the competitive pool in Australia, playing doubles in her first tournaments since a back enjury ended her 2015 season at the French Open. Making her highly-anticipated singles return at the BNP Paribas Open, Peng is also reforming her most successful partnership by reuniting with Hsieh Su-Wei.

The former No.1s burst onto the scene nearly three years ago with wins at Wimbledon, the French Open, and the WTA Finals. Unseeded in the Mladenovic/Garcia section, Peng and Hsieh drew Sara Errani and Oksana Kalashnikova – Hsieh’s most recent partner. Errani is coming off of a solid Middle East Swing, reaching the finals of Doha with Suárez Navarro.

Elsewhere in the draw is Galina Voskoboeva, who made her WTA return at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel in doubles with Anastasia Rodionova. Winning one match before losing in a valiant effort to Hobart International champions Christina McHale and Han Xinyun, Voskoboeva had been off the tour for almost two years and has solid history with the Aussie, reaching the semifinals of the Rogers Cup back in 2012. Their tournament begins with a first round encounter with Kasatkina and Vesnina.

Finally, Vania King is back at Indian Wells for the first time since 2014 – when she played, oddly enough, with Voskoboeva. Using her protected ranking, King is coming off of a run to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open with Alla Kudryavtseva, where they earned consecutive upsets over Shvedova and Stosur and Vesnina and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. In the Santina section of the draw, King and Kudryavtseva will play their first round against Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Barbora Strycova.

All photos courtesy of the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy and Getty Images.

MELBOURNE, Australia – Revenge is the name of the game on Day 5 at the Australian Open: No.7 seed Garbiñe Muguruza is set to face Anastasija Sevastova, who sent her crashing out in the second round of last year’s US Open. Also in action is World No.1 Angelique Kerber, taking on another big-serving Czech, while Svetlana Kuznetsova and Jelena Jankovic are facing off for the 14th time in their careers.

We preview all the day’s biggest matchups right here on wtatennis.com.

Friday, Third Round

[32] Anastasija Sevastova (LAT #33) vs [7] Garbiñe Muguruza (ESP #7)
Head-to-head: Series tied at 1-1
Key Stat: Muguruza (No.3) is the highest ranked player Sevastova has ever defeated

When Anastasija Sevastova had her big breakthrough at last year’s US Open, Garbiñe Muguruza was the first one to find out. Then ranked No.48, the Latvian stunned Muguruza in the second round en route to the quarterfinals, her best showing ever at a Grand Slam.

Though the Spaniard eventually got her revenge at the Toray Pan Pacific Open, seeing Sevastova’s name in her corner of the draw has to sting. But this time she comes into the matchup with building rhythm and a pair of hard-fought victories under her belt.

“Honestly, I think every match is completely different,” Muguruza told press after her straight-sets victory over Samantha Crawford. “For sure it helps [having two matches under my belt].

“But my next round is a tricky match, I look forward for it. It helped me, playing two matches. I’m going to try to use that.”

Jelena Jankovic (SRB #54) vs [8] Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS #10)
Head-to-head: Jankovic leads 8-6
Key Stat: Jankovic holds the longest active streak for consecutive Grand Slam main draw appearances (53)

Svetlana Kuznetsova faces her first big test in this Australian Open in the form of long-time rival Jelena Jankovic. Having dropped a combined four games across her previous two matches, Kuznetsova has eased into the third round and conserved precious energy under the draining Aussie summer sun.

But that joyride will get much tougher against fellow WTA veteran and former World No.1 Jankovic as they square up for the 15th time in their careers. Jankovic holds the edge in their head-to-head record at 8-6, but their last match came in 2015 and with Kuznetsova now back inside the Top 10, the Russian is looking to narrow the gap between them.

“My career has been… too long!” Kuznetsova reflected in an on-court interview. “I’ve only been to Australia like 17 times, each January. I just enjoy the game, I have passion for it and still it’s great.”

[1] Angelique Kerber (GER #1) vs Kristyna Pliskova (CZE #58)
Head-to-head: First meeting
Key Stat: Kerber is bidding to be the first player to defend her Australian Open title since Azarenka in 2012-2013

Angelique Kerber is set to face down the booming Pliskova serve once again, but this time it’s not the one she’s used to seeing. Her third-round opponent is Kristyna Pliskova, twin sister of World No.5 Karolina Pliskova.

Apart from the famously powerful serve that runs in the family, it’ll be a whole different match for Kerber. For one, Kristyna is a lefty (Karolina is right-handed) and, ranked No.58, Kristyna has never reached the same heights that her twin has achieved in her career. Without that giant-killing experience under her belt, it’ll be a tough ask for the Czech to complete the huge upset on Rod Laver Arena.

“I don’t know if it’s weird,” Kerber contemplated the prospect of playing against twins. “I mean, [Karolina] is right and [Kristyna] is left-handed. So this is the difference.

“I know that she has a great serve, as well. So, yeah, will looking forward to play against her.”