Australian Open: Naomi Osaka v Johanna Konta
Johanna Konta takes on Naomi Osaka in the second round of the Australian Open.
Johanna Konta takes on Naomi Osaka in the second round of the Australian Open.
Serena Williams discusses what ‘being Serena’ means in her post-match press conference at the Australian Open.
WTA Podcast Episode 15: Ker-Pow! Angelique Kerber wins the Australian Open
On this Episode 15, WTA Insider Senior Writer Courtney Nguyen recaps the stunning result Down Under, as New World No.2 Angelique Kerber became the first German woman to win a major since Steffi Graff in 1999, stunning No.1 Serena Williams 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to win the Australian Open.
Joining Courtney to discuss Kerber’s mind-bending run to her first major title as as well as the two weeks that were here in Melbourne, is Reem Abuleil, tennis correspondent for Sport360, a daily sports newspaper based in Dubai.
Finally, in the Champion’s Corner you’ll hear from the Kerber herself. She spoke to Nguyen a day after winning the title about what inspired her chilly jump into the Yarra River and how her work ethic and perseverance made the victory all the sweeter.
Kerber: “I think I’m a person that needs a little bit of time. Of course, I believed in myself, but I had a lot of up and downs in my career where I was thinking, is this the right way? Could I reach my goals? But I had a great team around me always telling me that, ‘You’re a great player and you’re practicing and working so hard. One day you will deserve it.’ I was trusting my team more than myself.”
Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or any podcast app of your choice. Reviews are always helpful so if you like what you’re hearing, leave us a review. You can also get new episode alerts by following us on Twitter @WTA_Insider.
Watch Daria Gavrilova’s practice session at the Australian Open.
When: This year’s Olympic tennis event begins on Saturday, August 6th, one week after the Rogers Cup in Montreal, Canada. The gold medal women’s doubles match will be played on Saturday, August 13th. The gold medal singles and mixed doubles matches will take place on Sunday, August 14th.
The Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, Ohio begins a day later on Monday August 15th. The US Open begins on August 29th.
Where: Unlike the 2012 Olympics, where the tennis event was held at the All England Club, the tennis event in Rio takes place right in the heart of the Olympics. The event will take place on hardcourts at the Olympic Tennis Centre in Barra Olympic Park. The Centre Court seats 10,000, with nine secondary courts ranging in 250-5,000 in capacity.
Defending champions: 2012 London Olympics results.
Singles:
Gold: Serena Williams (USA), Silver: Maria Sharapova (RUS), Bronze: Victoria Azarenka (BLR).
Doubles
Gold: Serena Williams/Venus Williams (USA), Lucie Hradecka/Andrea Hlavackova (CZE), Bronze: Maria Kirilenko/Nadia Petrova (RUS).
Mixed Doubles:
Gold: Victoria Azarenka/Max Mirnyi (BLR), Silver: Laura Robson/Andy Murray (GBR), Bronze: Lisa Raymond/Mike Bryan (USA)
Format: The women’s singles event will be a 64-player draw. The women’s doubles event is a 32-team draw and the Mixed Doubles will be a 16-team draw. Players are entitled to enter all three events if they qualify. There are no wildcards at the Olympics.
Singles: Best of 3 tiebreak sets (Note: Men’s final will be best of 5 tiebreak sets)
Doubles: Best of 3 tiebreak sets.
Mixed Doubles: Best of 3 sets (tiebreak in first 2 sets, match tiebreak in the third set).
No WTA ranking points will be offered.
Player Eligibility:
To be eligible for the Olympics, a player must be part of the final Fed Cup team at the time of the draw and be present at the tie a minimum of three times in the four-year Olympic cycle. One of those ties must occur in either 2015 or 2016.
Alternatively, a player may be part of just two ties during the Olympic cycle, provided one of those ties occurred in 2015 or 2016, if she (a) reaches the milestone of 20 weeks in her Fed Cup career (Francesca Schiavone, Sam Stosur, and Daniela Hantuchova qualify for this exemption) or (b) if a nation plays a zone group round robin event for at least three of the four years in the current Olympic cycle, a player from that country only needs to be nominated twice. For example, Caroline Wozniacki has played just one tie for Denmark in the current Olympic cycle, which means she needs to play in Denmark’s upcoming zonal tie to be eligible.
All athletes must be in good standing with their national tennis federation and the ITF. The ITF may also take into consideration the following special circumstances when determining a player’s eligibility: (1) a player is injured or otherwise unable to compete in any authorized tennis tournament for a minimum of six months; (2) A player only reaches a ranking level sufficient for Fed Cup selection by her federation during the latter part of an Olympic cycle; or (3) A nation has a large number of highly-ranked players resulting in strict competition for selection, or its Fed Cup selection policy limits the opportunities for singles players.
Player Entry Rules:
Singles entry: The Top 56 eligible players will be entered as Direct Acceptances based on their WTA rankings on June 6th, 2016. This does not mean the main draw cut-off is at No.56. In the event a player ranked in the Top 56 is otherwise ineligible, the next highest-ranked player will earn main draw entry.
Six Qualification Entries will be allocated by the ITF according to the following priority (“Qualification System”): 1) host nation (if no Brazilian qualifies via direct acceptance, the top-ranked player will be entered), 2) Regional Representation (if one of the six ITF Regions has no representation, the highest-ranked player from that region will be entered if they are in the top 300), 3) Gold Medalist/Grand Slam Champion (a maximum of two singles gold medalists and Slam champions will be entered if they are ranked in the top 200), 4) Universality (if any places remain they will be allocated to the next best ranked player from a National Olympic Committee (NOC) that has no representation in that singles event).
The remaining two places will be allocated by the Tripartite Commission.
Doubles and Mixed Doubles entry: 24 doubles teams and 12 mixed doubles teams will qualify directly based on their combined rankings. To determine their combined ranking for the purposes of entry, each player may use the best of their singles or doubles ranking. An additional eight doubles teams and four mixed doubles teams will be given entry based on the ITF’s Qualification System.
Automatic Top 10 Rule: Doubles players ranked in the Top 10 will earn direct entry so long as their partner has a recognized ranking, they are entered by their respective NOC, and their nomination does not bring the number of athletes for that NOC to more than 6 men/women.
For example, if Sania Mirza is still ranked in the top 10 on June 6th, she could choose any player from India as her doubles partner so long as they have a tour ranking and satisfy all other eligibility requirements. That’s a powerful tool given India has no singles player ranked in the Top 300 and no doubles player ranked in the Top 250.
This rule does not apply to the mixed doubles competition. For mixed doubles, entry is determined solely by a team’s combined ranking.
On Site Rule: In addition, any player entered in singles is automatically eligible for the doubles and mixed doubles events, though direct entry is not guaranteed.
National Team Composition:
A national team may consist of a maximum of six women per country, of which a maximum of four women may compete in singles, and a maximum of two doubles teams may compete in doubles.
If a country has more than four players eligible for direct acceptance into the singles event it must select its four highest-ranked eligible players based on the WTA rankings.
This rule impacts the heavily represented countries in the Top 50, including the United States (7 in the Top 60), Germany (7 in the Top 60), Czech Republic (5 in the Top 60), and Russia (5 in the Top 60). And that’s with more players pushing up from behind. For these countries, the race to qualify doesn’t just mean being Top 56, but being one of the top four players from your country. This is the race we’ll be keeping an eye on over the next five months.
A maximum of two mixed doubles teams from any country may compete in the mixed doubles event.
Full Qualification and Entry Rules can be found here.
All photos courtesy of Getty Images.
An interview with Monica Puig after winning the gold medal at the Olympic tennis event in Rio.
MELBOURNE, Australia – Six years after her four-hour epic against Francesca Schiavone at this very tournament, No.8 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova came out on the winning side of Friday’s titanic three-setter against former No.1 Jelena Jankovic, 6-4, 5-7, 9-7, to reach the fourth round at the Australian Open.
“It was crazy,” Kuznetsova admitted in her inimitable way after the match. “I was up set and 4-1 with a double break. Then I found myself down 3-0 and 15-40 on my serve in third set.
“It was a bit insane, but it’s a tennis match, anything can happen; it’s never done until you shake the hand.”
Kuznetsova is no stranger to long matches in Australia, having narrowly lost to Schiavone, 6-4, 1-6, 16-14 in what remains the longest Grand Slam match in WTA history back at four hours and 44 minutes in 2011.
There were few signs from the outset that her encounter against Jankovic would approach that duration, as the Russian raced out to a set and double break lead, serving for the match at 5-4 in the second set. Jankovic turned the tables on Kuznetsova at the 11th hour to win the final three games of the second set and force a decider.
Serving second in the final set, the No.8 seed twice fell behind a break as Jankovic served for a 5-2 lead. Kuznetsova promptly broke back and earned a chance to serve out the match; not to be outdone, Jankovic leveled proceedings at five games apiece and kept things on serve until the fateful 15th game.
“It’s so tough, especially after three and a half hours of playing, that one of us had to lose,” Jankovic said after the match. “Unfortunately, it was me. I’m quite disappointed after such a battle, and it’s not easy to accept. I had my chances and I gave myself the opportunity to win the match.
“After 3-0, I wasn’t making as many first serves in; I don’t know if it was because I got tired spending a lot of hours out there. I haven’t competed much, and my percentage of first serves went down, so I couldn’t hold my serve for a while.
“I still have to work hard to get back to my best level, but at the end, Sveta was fitter than me in the end. I tried so hard, but I couldn’t move anymore and she was the one still standing.”
Svetlana #Kuznetsova is through after 3 hours and 36 mins #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/kMr2owinb5
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 20, 2017
The third time proved lucky for the three-time Australian Open quarterfinalist, who served out the win on her first match point after three hours and 36 minutes on court.
Up next for Kuznetsova is No.24 seed and compatriot Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who earned the biggest upset thus far on Day 5 by knocking out No.11 seed Elina Svitolina in three sets.
4R awaits Svetlana #Kuznetsova #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/qyd07fiQcp
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 20, 2017
Two-time Olympian Caroline Wozniacki will make a third trip to the Games this summer in Rio, and this time will be leading out the Danish team during the opening ceremony.
Former World No.1 Wozniacki was unveiled as her nation’s flag bearer during a press conference at Copenhagen City Hall on Friday afternoon, where she was presented with the Danish flag by Crown Prince Frederik.
“It’s an honor for me! The Olympics mean a lot to me, and I have some fantastic memories from my two previous appearances,” Wozniacki said. “I enjoy competing for the Danish team and feel the team spirit, which I do not get to experience in my everyday life.
“Carrying the flag in Rio will be one of the highlights of my career and something I will never forget.”
In both of her previous Olympic appearances, Wozniacki fell to the eventual Gold medalist: Serena Williams at the 2012 London Games in the quarterfinals, and Elena Dementieva in the third round in Beijing four years earlier.
Wozniacki, 25, will be the fifth WTA player to carry their country’s flag at the Games, following in the footsteps of Maria Sharapova, Agnieszka Radwanska, Stephanie Vogt, and Claudine Schaul.
Such a dream come true!! Was chosen to be the Danish flag bearer at the opening ceremony at the Rio Olympics! ?? pic.twitter.com/mIfFj0pnPz
— Caroline Wozniacki (@CaroWozniacki) February 5, 2016
Karolina Pliskova takes on Jelena Ostapenko in the second round of the Western & Southern Open.
MELBOURNE, Australia – The second week is about to get underway at the Australian Open, and World No.1 Angelique Kerber and French Open champion Garbiñe Muguruza headlining Day 7 Down Under.
We preview all the day’s biggest matchups right here on wtatennis.com.
Sunday, Fourth Round
[1] Angelique Kerber (GER #1) vs CoCo Vandeweghe (USA #35)
Head-to-head: Kerber leads, 2-0
Key Stat: Vandeweghe is one of four Americans in the Round of 16.
After two tough matches to start her title defense, Kerber looked much stronger in an emphatic third round win over Kristyna Pliskova. The top seed faced down the Czech youngster’s intimidating serve by winning more than half of her points on return as she advanced into the second week for the second straight year.
Her next opponent is into the second week of a major tournament for just the second time in her career, as CoCo Vandeweghe recovered from 4-2 in the final set against Eugenie Bouchard to pull off the win. Vandeweghe hit 11 aces and won 85% of her first serve to topple the former World No.5, and will need a similarly efficient serving day against the defending champion.
Can Kerber keep her hopes of a third Grand Slam title alive?
Sorana Cirstea (ROU #78) vs [7] Garbiñe Muguruza (ESP #7)
Head-to-head: First meeting
Key Stat: Cirstea is enjoying her best Grand Slam finish since the 2009 French Open.
Muguruza’s first week in Melbourne could well serve as a microcosm of her ups and downs since winning her maiden major title last spring. While the Spaniard hasn’t dropped a set through three wins, she still had a scare halfway through her first round, when she took a medical timeout for fear of exascerbating the right thigh injury that forced her to retire at the Brisbane International.
Despite the hiccup, Muguruza has played her best tennis at a major tournament since last year’s Roland Garros, and will be a tough out for Cirstea, a former World No.21.
The Romanian appeared to be at the height of her career just three years ago when she roared into the Rogers Cup final, but a shoulder injury stunted her progress and led her to re-work her service motion. Winning her first matches in Melbourne since 2014, Cirstea bettered her previous best finish Down Under with wins over Irina Khromacheva, No.10 seed Carla Suárez Navarro, and an in-form Alison Riske.
Can Cirstea cause the first big upset of the second week?
Around the Grounds…
Starting off Day 7 on Rod Laver Arena is an all-Russian affair between No.8 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova and rival No.24 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who stunned No.11 seed Elina Svitolina in three sets. No.13 seed Venus Williams follows on Laver against qualifier Mona Barthel.