Rome Saturday: Perfect Timing
All four semifinalists at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia are rounding into form at just the right time. But who will be the one to sign-off ahead of Roland Garros with the silverware.
All four semifinalists at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia are rounding into form at just the right time. But who will be the one to sign-off ahead of Roland Garros with the silverware.
ROME, Italy – Serena Williams returned to the final of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia after a comfortable victory over the unseeded Irina-Camelia Begu on Saturday.
Watch highlights, interviews and more video from Rome right here on wtatennis.com!
The Foro Italico has historically been a happy hunting ground for Williams, who has reached the semifinals or better on eight occasions. Three times she has gone on to lift the trophy at the famous old venue, and judging by her performances this week she is in the mood to add to this tally.
Following on from the World No.1’s awe-inspiring display against Svetlana Kuznetsova on Friday evening, few gave Begu much hope of springing an upset. However, the Romanian has been enjoying a fine clay court season and acquitted herself well early on, recovering from an early break to draw level at 4-4.
Unfortunately for Begu, this was as good as it got. Two games later, a sequence of smart returns gave Williams the set and from there she rarely looked like being caught, wrapping up victory after an hour and 26 minutes by ghosting in to punch away a smart volley.
Standing between Williams and her 70th WTA title is fellow American Madison Keys. Earlier in the day Keys maintained her composure after a lengthy rain delay to defeat No.3 seed Garbiñe Muguruza, 7-6(5), 6-4.
Since losing to her sister Venus at Montréal in 2014, Williams has won 15 straight matches against Americans. Her match against Keys will be the first all-American final at the Foro in 46 years.
“I think it will be wonderful because, like I said last time I was in here, I feel like Madison is one of the players that really can be great and she has that potential, and now she’s showing that on all surfaces,” Williams said.
“You know, we’re an all-American final on the clay. It’s been a minute since that’s happened. That’s just – it’s great. It’s really exciting.”
SINGAPORE – Dominika Cibulkova is staying optimistic. Even though she has lost her first two matches at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global, she still has a slim chance of qualifying for the semifinals.
That’s if she can beat Simona Halep in straight sets – and that’s always going to be tough to do.
“I have to see it in a good way,” she said after her 6-1, 6-4 loss to Madison Keys. “If I see it in a bad way that I lost two matches then I will be really down.
“It’s a big challenge for me. [It’s my] first time playing here…I want to give 100 per cent on the court. Knowing this, that I can still go into semifinals, I will…be as positive as I can and to win my match against Halep.”
Cibulkova will need to be quick off the mark against the Romanian – and she struggled to do that against Keys.
“I tried,” she recalled. “In the second set I tried to change something. Even my coach came. He helped me with the strategy a little bit. [We] tried to change, but it was still not enough. Maybe I needed a little bit more time. It was too late when I started to get into the match the right way where I wanted.”
Cibulkova did not have the best start to her match against Keys when she forgot to walk out with her ball kid and had to go back for her.
“I was just waving to the people around and forgot!” she admitted. “I didn’t see the ball kid. And then from my box they tell me, like, ‘You forgot the ball kid.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, my God, no way.’ So I went for her bag and I took her bag, so it was nice.”
She is, of course, enjoying the opportunity of competing in Singapore, but there is a hint of disappointment in her reflection on her matches so far – losing to Keys after having lost to Angelique Kerber
“I’m happy I’m experiencing this for the first time,” she explained. “It is different. You feel like, ‘Okay, this is only eight top players in the world,’ and you want to try to play your best tennis. Of course it’s different because you can lose two matches and now the situation – I can win the third one and still can go on [to the semifinals].
“So it’s [a] very new experience for me. I’m happy to be here and to see and to live it, but I’m hoping to win a match. I will do everything to win a match this year.”
ROME, Italy – Serena Williams emerged victorious in the first all-American final since 2012 – the first on red clay since 2002 – defeating countrywoman Madison Keys, 7-6(5), 6-3, to snap a nine-month title drought and win the Internazionali BNL d’Italia for the fourth time in her illustrious career.
Watch highlights, interviews and more video from Rome right here on wtatennis.com!
“I feel like it was important for me to just go out there like usual,” she said in her post-match press conference. “It’s a totally new match, it’s a different week, you know, and hopefully just win one. If not, hope for next time, next week.”
Playing in her third final of 2016, Williams had spent the season in search of her first title since the Western & Southern Open last summer, and was the heavy favorite to break that duck against Keys, who was playing the biggest final of her career on what had hitherto been her least favorite surface.
“I think no matter how many times you play Serena, you always go in and you can just feel her presence,” Keys said after the match. “That’s always an extra thing that you have to be worried about during the match.
“But for me today it really wasn’t so much about how big the tournament was or anything like that. It was really just wanting to go out and do my best and give my best performance.”
None of that seemed to matter from the outset as Keys unlocked the early break, leading 3-1 in the first set. Williams steadied from there, winning the next three games and later grabbing the opening set in a tie-break.
“I think she’s such a powerful player,” Williams said, backing up her praise of Keys at net, when she predicted her opponent could be a future World No.1. “Obviously going in, I knew that, but I was just trying. I think I was pretty much able to just get back what I could, you know, and that’s all I was trying to do was just to go out there and be consistent, and, yeah, make my shots.”
Serving for the match in the second, there would be one final momentum shift as the 21-time Grand Slam champion was broken one game from the win, but the break was swiftly repaid in kind and Williams was the winner of a 70th career title – the fifth woman to achieve such a total in singles after Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Steffi Graf, and Margaret Court. In all, she hit four fewer winners than Keys (13 to 17), but also eight fewer errors (24 to 32), and converted all but one of her six break point chances to seal the match in just under 90 minutes.
“I'm so proud of you. You can get to World No.1.”@SerenaWilliams to @Madison_Keys #ibi16 pic.twitter.com/LA7lzmOcC3
— WTA (@WTA) May 15, 2016
Missing the Mutua Madrid Open due to illness, Williams was playing her first red clay event of the season; the win in Rome sets her up in good stead to defend her French Open title as she attempts to win her fourth crown there, as well.
“I have tried to defend there once, twice, three times before. Didn’t quite work so well. But this year is different. I’m going to definitely go in there and I feel more calm and I don’t feel stress to, like, have to win. You know, I feel like I just am happy to be out here.”
For Keys, it was a breakthrough run; recently pairing with new coach Thomas Hogstedt, the 21-year-old is set to re-enter the Top 20 at No.17 – not too far from her career-high of No.16.
“I think having a couple of Top 10 wins this week was really big for me and playing people who have done very well in Roland Garros and just on clay in general. But I think the biggest thing is just how calm I have stayed on court and really, even in tough situations, stayed calm and collected and just really focused on my game, and I feel like I’m just playing much smarter tennis.”
INCREDIBLE court coverage @SerenaWilliams! ? #ibi16 https://t.co/aOYNs2ggSI
— WTA (@WTA) May 15, 2016
SINGAPORE – No.4 seeds Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina withstood a late fightback to defeat Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka and take their place in the semifinals of the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.
Watch interviews and highlights from Singapore on the WTA Facebook page!
A break in the penultimate game of the match allowed the Russians to close out a 6-2, 7-5 victory, setting up a showdown with defending champions, Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza.
Makarova and Vesnina have been one of the form teams in the second half of 2016, winning Olympic gold and reaching the US Open semifinals, and their confidence was apparent from the off, threatening an immediate break with some typically forceful net play. In the end, the breakthrough owed more to good fortune, Hlavackova getting her feet in a muddle after Vesnina scraped a return back.
They made the most of this stroke of luck, forging ahead before Makarova closed out the first set with an ace down the middle.
As always in doubles, watch out at the net! #WTAFinals pic.twitter.com/fIbQ6A3T8L
— WTA (@WTA) October 28, 2016
The second set proved o be far more competitive. But just as a tie-break loomed, the gold medalists struck, Makarova swatting the ball away after wrong-footing Hradecka with the initial volley. Serving for the match, Makarova made no mistake, swinging a serve out wide on match point before calmly finding the open court.
“It’s bouncing so low, so we need to stay down and in the second set we had some tough moments,” Makarova said in her on-court interview with Andrew Krasny. “In the end, I said to Lena, ‘Let’s stay as low as we can all the time!'”
Runners-up three years ago, they will next take on the defending champions, Hingis and Mirza. Despite the high stakes, Vesnina is not envisaging a change in approach: “We’re obviously having fun on and off the court. Even if someone has a bad moment, we’re trying to support and it gives us so much help knowing we have this support.”
Serena Williams’ fourth Internazionali BNL d’Italia title provided an emphatic riposte to any doubting Thomases heading into the defense of her French Open crown
A series of sure-footed showings on the clay, particularly a semifinal dismantling of Svetlana Kuznetsova, underlined her status as the woman to beat at the year’s second major. The 900 points collected from her week in the Eternal City also saw Williams leapfrog Agnieszka Radwanska into third place on the Road To Singapore leaderboard.
By her own very high standards, Williams arrived in Rome on the back of a disappointing start to 2016, failing to collect silverware from her outings in Melbourne, Indian Wells or Miami. Nevertheless, she remained in the thick of the hunt for a place at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global, a position she has consolidated with her 70th career title.
The American, a five-time WTA Finals winner, is now within striking distance of the leaderboard’s early pacesetters, Angelique Kerber and Victoria Azarenka, and with 2,000 points up for grabs in Paris, there is remains the likelihood for further shuffling at the top of the pack.
Last week also provided the platform for a couple of other players to lay claim to a place in Singapore. The aforementioned Kuznetsova built on her Miami run with another encouraging showing that promoted her to the No.7 spot on the leaderboard, while Timea Bacsinszky’s is up to No.10 after reaching the quarterfinals
The week’s biggest mover, though, was eventual runner-up Madison Keys, whose wins over Petra Kvitova and Garbiñe Muguruza helped propel her from No.38 to No.12.
RTS Ranking Movers
Madison Keys: No.38 to No.12 (+26)
Irina-Camelia Begu: No.52 to No.26 (+26)
Misaki Doi: No.54 to No.35 (+19)
Garbiñe Muguruza: No.35 to No.17 (+18)
Click here to see the full Road To Singapore leaderboard standings heading into Paris.
SINGAPORE – No.2 seeds and defending champions Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza won their first match as a pair since splitting in August, defeating Chan Yung-Jan and Chan Hao-Ching, 7-6(10), 7-5, to reach the semifinals at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global and help keep Mirza’s hopes of finishing 2016 at World No.1 alive.
Watch interviews and highlights from Singapore on the WTA Facebook page!
“It’s great to be back in Singapore,” Mirza said during their on-court interview. “It’s also great to be back with Martina, and it’s good to get that win.”
The team formerly known as “Santina” started the season as the team to beat, riding a 41-match winning streak into the Middle East Swing and winning their third straight Grand Slam title at the Australian Open. Splitting in August, Hingis and Mirza vowed to defend their WTA Finals crown at year’s end, and the two were true to their word come Friday afternoon.
“Our bond is what made us so strong, to win those tough points in the past,” Hingis said. “No matter how you play, or what’s happening on the court, you have to work through the tough moments and get the momentum going. It’s been two months since we were last on court together, and it was great to be back out there with Sania.”
Across the net were the Chan sisters, who came to Singapore having won their third title of the season at the Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open; a formidable team in their own right, they were the last team to beat Hingis and Mirza before they began their aforementioned winning streak, the longest since Jana Novotna and Helena Sukova’s 44 in 1990.
Vintage rally from #SanTina! ? #WTAFinals pic.twitter.com/8sokm9Oc1e
— WTA (@WTA) October 28, 2016
The Chans pushed the No.2 seeds into a tense first set tie-break, one that saw each team engineer three set points before the defending champions converted to take the opening set in just over an hour.
“They’re a really tough team and we’ve played them a bunch of times,” Mirza said. “But it was so important to win that first set. The momentum was in our favor after that, but it so tough and we had to stay mentally tough. I’m glad we got through.”
Edging ahead an early break in the second, Santina appeared on course for a straightforward victory before the No.6 seeds roared back from a 2-4 deficit, winning three games in a row to get within one game of a match tie-break.
Big forehand from World No.1 @MirzaSania ?#WTAFinals pic.twitter.com/HjokXZ6VHK
— WTA (@WTA) October 28, 2016
Undaunted, Hingis and Mirza won the last three games to advance into their second straight semifinal in Singapore. Awaiting them in the final four will be either Olympic Gold medalists and No.4 seeds, Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina, or 2012 WTA Finals runner-ups Andrea Hlavackova or Lucie Hradecka.
Battle For Year-End No.1 Continues
Friday’s win keeps Mirza in the hunt to retain her No.1 ranking through the end of the season,
Mirza is up against top seeds Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic along with No.3 seed Bethanie Mattek-Sands, all of whom have a change to take the top spot.
The French must go one round better than Mirza, while Mattek-Sands will have to win the title to unseat the Indian star.
Garcia/Mladenovic and Mattek-Sands (with partner Lucie Safarova) all advanced into the semifinals on Thursday.
.@mhingis & @MirzaSania chat with @AndrewKrasny after a big win!#WTAFinals pic.twitter.com/pMCYT75drB
— WTA (@WTA) October 28, 2016
STRASBOURG, France – Monica Puig recovered from a one-set deficit to upend top seed Sara Errani, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1, to advance to the second round of the Internationaux de Strasbourg.
Puig had never lost to the 2012 French Open finalist in their two previous encounters, and though their first match-up on clay looked to give the Italian an advantage, the ultimate result wasn’t any different as the Puerto Rican star and 2014 champion hit six aces en route to a one hour and 45 minute victory.
“I’m really pleased to get the win here in Strasbourg, and it’s nice coming back as a former Champion,” she said after the match. “Errani is a really tough competitor, and after the first set, my head could have gone down, but I kept fighting and was really pleased with the victory, especially the third set score.”
For Errani, it marks the end of a difficult red clay swing; after a promising start and a run to the semifinals of the Volvo Car Open, the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship winner went 0-3 in Madrid, Rome, and Strasbourg.
“I tried my best today but sometimes it just doesn’t go your way,” Errani said. “I felt strong after the first set but my game was a little off and I found the conditions tough.
“There was a time in the second set when it went 4-2 and I knew I was struggling. Then the third set happened. It’s never nice to go out in the first round but that’s tennis.”
Undaunted, the No.1 seed tried to find a silver lining in her early defeat.
“I haven’t had time to see the city yet but maybe before I go to Paris.”
Puig will next play lucky loser and former World No.16 Virginie Razzano, who defeated 2010 French Open quarterfinalist Yaroslava Shvedova, 6-3, 6-3.
Earlier in the day, No.3 seed Samantha Stosur continued her successful clay court season with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over American qualifier Lauren Davis, while No.8 seed Timea Babos went through Olga Govortsova 6-4, 6-1. No.10 seed Caroline Garcia was imperious in a 6-1, 6-2 win over Kirsten Flipkens, while qualifier Mirjana Lucic-Baroni won a see-sawing 6-2, 2-6, 6-1 match against Qiang Wang.
No.2 seed Sloane Stephens had just leveled her first round match with Donna Vekic at one set apiece before the match was suspended, first due to rain, then darkness at 7-5, 2-6.
An interview with Dominika Cibulkova after her semifinal win at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.
WTA Insider | In the second WTA Insider Live Blog of Semifinal Saturday, World No.1 Angelique Kerber defeated defending WTA Finals champion Agnieszka Radwanska.