Doha: Shot Of The Match (Ostapenko)
Jelena Ostapenko had the shot of the match in the third round at the Qatar Total Open.
Jelena Ostapenko had the shot of the match in the third round at the Qatar Total Open.
An interview with Jelena Ostapenko after her win in the quarterfinals of the Qatar Total Open.
CoCo Vandeweghe discusses her quarterfinal win over Garbine Muguruza in a press conference at the Australian Open.
Andrea Petkovic readies for Jelena Ostapenko: No one would have slated this semifinal when the draw came out. 18-year-old Ostapenko had won just on main draw match all year and came to the Qatar Total Open thinking she would have to play through qualifying. But she paved her own way, knocking out No.5 seed Petra Kvitova and then Zheng Saisai on Thursday to become the third 18-year-old to advance to a semifinal this year.
Watch live action from Doha & Acapulco this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!
Can Ostapenko go one further? She’s already into the Top 60 by virtue of her career-best run at a Premier tournament and could move into the Top 50 if she makes the final. She’ll face Andrea Petkovic, who played a top-notch match to beat No.3 Garbiñe Muguruza 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 for her first Top 5 win since 2013. It will be the first meeting between Petkovic and Ostapenko, but the German admitted to taking notice of Ostapenko late last year.
“I saw her playing qualifying in Linz last year, and I said to myself, Wow, this girl’s really talented,” Petkovic told reporters. “I think she’s going to do some damage on tour. It’s really nice to see I have a great [prediction skills].”
Agnieszka Radwanska and Roberta Vinci put on a clinic: Remember this match at the end of the year when you’re asked for the best WTA matches of the season. This will be on the short list.
Any fan thirsty for the days of all-court tennis need look no further than the shot-making extravaganza put on between Radwanska and Vinci. Radwanska came back from a set down to win 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 to advance to her third straight semifinal this season — she still has just one loss to her name, to Serena Williams at the Australian Open – but as stadium announcer Andy Taylor said, she broke the internet with her highlights. Catch up on all the happenings here.
Hope you enjoyed that one as much as me ?
— Aga Radwanska (@ARadwanska) February 25, 2016
One of the most notable trends of the day in Doha: Net play. Zheng Saisai started off the morning with some net-rushing – how great was it to see a Sneak Attack By Saisai? – Muguruza continued the trend with over 30 forays into the forecourt, and Radwanska and Vinci combined for over 100 net points between them.
Radwanska-Vinci final stats.
Look at the net numbers. pic.twitter.com/hVk4EmU1Gr
— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) February 25, 2016
Carla Suárez Navarro returns to the Top 10: The Spaniard beat Elena Vesnina 6-3, 7-6(3) to advance to her second semifinal of the season (Brisbane). She’ll play Radwanska next, but Thursday’s win means Suárez Navarro will knock Flavia Pennetta out of the Top 10 on Monday, and she could move as high as No.6 if she wins on Friday.
Love means nothing: Few players give as thoughtful post-match interviews as Petkovic and she didn’t disappoint after her quarterfinal win. Here she is reflecting on her career so far:
“Tennis has always been a great love and hate story for me,” Petkovic said. “I love it so much that I hate it at the same time. I guess love and hate are very close together. It’s torn me apart, but it has also given me the most beautiful moments of my life. I wouldn’t want to miss anything of it.”
Garbiñe Muguruza makes progress: It was undoubtedly a disappointing and frustrating result for Muguruza, who looked to have the match back on her terms early in the third set before getting broken and letting her frustration get the best of her. But Muguruza played her best tennis of the year this week in Doha and there was a lot to like about how committed she was on her returns and getting herself at the net. The negatives? She picked up a left thigh injury during the match and Petkovic exposed her weak low volley.
Just win, baby: Petkovic is sharing her coach Jan de Witt with ATP veteran Gilles Simon. The two trained together during the off-season at de Witt’s academy in Halle and she says she’s trying to get over her penchant for perfectionism and just focus on winning.
“I actually learned quite a few things with Jan and Gilles, both of them, because men approach the game much differently than women,” she explained. “They are just less emotional and much more rational.
“I think girls — I don’t know, maybe I’m leaving myself out the window right now — but I think girls, they always want to play the perfect match. For example, I think especially Gilles Simon, because he’s also this type of player, he’s totally fine winning a match where the other guy has 65 unforced errors. He still sees his positives, what he did to the other guy that he did unforced errors.
“I think the girls, they win 6-2, 6-3, and the one missed a lot of balls, and they’re like, Yeah, I didn’t play so well. The other girl was bad. Putting so much pressure on this perfectionism that women I think a lot of time have.
“It’s really nice to get this other side, Yeah, I won, good for me. I think it’s good to have this attitude about just pushing through and winning matches no matter how ugly or how good they are.”
Called it: Earlier in the week, I highlighted the team of Elena Vesnina and Daria Kasatkina as a potential darkhorse Olympic doubles team. The two have already won a title in Moscow and made the quarterfinals two weeks ago in St. Petersburg. On Thursday they snapped Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza’s 41-match win streak, knocking out the Co-No.1s 2-6, 6-4, 10-5 to advance to the Doha semifinals.
Highlights from @EVesnina001/@DKasatkina post-match interview. DK over the moon, to say the least: pic.twitter.com/POjOr2vH06
— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) February 25, 2016
Yanina Wickmayer? Yanina Wickmayer!: The Belgian announced on Facebook that she has a memoir coming out soon.
Yanina Wickmayer has a book coming out. https://t.co/Tsi1ORjz1J
— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) February 25, 2016
She’s also into the Acapulco semifinals after beating No.3 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-3, 7-6(3). Wickmayer will play No.2 seed Sloane Stephens, who held off a solid challenge from Naomi Osaka, winning 6-3, 7-5.
Petko jokes: Here’s exchange between Petkovic and the stadium announcer:
Petko: U look young, what did u do?
Me: Grew a beard.
Petko: Really?
Me: Yep.
Petko: I would totally do that if it made me look younger
— Andy Taylor (@StadiumAndy) February 25, 2016
Venus and Serena Williams are in the final of the Australian Open, the first all-Williams Grand Slam final since 2009. So how did we get here? Take a look back at the best photos of the fortnight!
DOHA, Qatar – Carla Suárez Navarro returned to the main stage of the Qatar Total Open to play the doubles final with Sara Errani, having just won the singles title over Jelena Ostapenko a mere hours before. Pushing No.4 seeds Chan Yung-Jan and Chan Hao-Ching tough over two sets, the sisters ultimately defeated the Spaniard and Italian, 6-3, 6-3, to win their second tournament of 2016.
“Today’s match wasn’t easy, despite the score,” elder sister Yung-Jan said during the on-court interview. “They’re for sure very tough opponents who’ve been playing really well. I was sick and having a fever, coughing, but we’re happy to make it until the last match!”
The Chans won their home tournament just two weeks ago at the Taiwan Open, donating their prize money to their country’s hurricane relief effort, and played a near-perfect final against Errani and Suárez Navarro, hitting 21 winners to only 10 errors – a far cleaner match than their opponents, who hit 19 winners and 22 unforced.
“It’s the first time we’ve played together at the Qatar Open, but we’re the champions!” Hao-Ching said. “So we’re very happy and would like to come back next year.”
For the runners-up, it’s still a stellar Middle East Swing, as Errani already walked away with the title at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships while Suárez Navarro won Doha, and the pair reached the semifinals in Dubai’s doubles event, as well.
“It was two very nice weeks for us,” Errani said. “I’m very happy to play doubles with Carla; it’s amazing. She did an unbelievably great job playing singles and doubles.”
“I cannot wait to play our next tournament together. We had fun here and played well,” Suárez added.
As for the Chans, the win in Doha propels them to No.2 on the Road to Singapore standings, one behind Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza; until this week’s loss to Elena Vesnina and Daria Kasatkina, the No.4 seeds were the last team to beat Santina before they went on a 41-match winning streak.
“Already No.2? I think that’s a pretty good start to the year!” Yung-Jan said.
“We’re very happy, but we didn’t check before the match, so it’s a surprise for us!” Hao-Ching said as the sisters shared a laugh during the trophy ceremony.
MELBOURNE, Australia – The bottom half of the Australian Open draw concludes the quarterfinal match-ups in Melbourne, featuring the much-anticipated clash between six-time champion Serena Williams and Johanna Konta, the in-form semifinalist from last year. No.5 seed Karolina Pliskova also hopes to continue her unbeaten run in 2017 against Cinderella story Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, who is into her first major quarterfinal in nearly two decades.
We preview all the Day 10 matchups right here on wtatennis.com.
Wednesday, Quarterfinals
[5] Karolina Pliskova (CZE #5) vs Mirjana Lucic-Baroni (CRO #79)
Head-to-head: Pliskova leads, 3-2
Key Stat: Both Pliskova and Lucic-Baroni are playing in their second Grand Slam quarterfinals (Pliskova, 2016 US Open, Lucic-Baroni, 1999 Wimbledon).
Pliskova made her first 17 Grand Slam appearances without making the second week, but the Brisbane International champion is making up for lost time in her second straight major quarterfinal since reaching the US Open final.
It was a much longer drought for Lucic-Baroni, who needed 18 years to back up her breakthrough run at the 1999 Wimbledon Championships after a mix of personal and financial problems kept her off the tour for almost a decade.
The 34-year-old veteran takes on Pliskova for the first time since the 2015, when the two split their two meetings that season; Lucic-Baroni lost their most recent encounter in a third-set tie-break at the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open.
Pliskova has dropped just two sets all season, emerging victorious from a 10-8 final set against Latvian youngster Jelena Ostapenko to brush aside No.22 seed Daria Gavrilova in front of her home crowd.
Can Lucic-Baroni win the battle of big hitters to continue her fairytale run, or will Pliskova continue her newfound dominance at majors and reach another semifinal?
[9] Johanna Konta (GBR #9) vs [2] Serena Williams (USA #2)
Head-to-head: First meeting
Key Stat: Konta has dropped serve twice in four matches (tournament leader).
With defending champion Angelique Kerber out at the hands of CoCo Vandeweghe, Serena Williams suddenly found herself in a solid position to reclaim the No.1 ranking from her rival. To do it, she’ll also need to take home the Open Era record of 23 Grand Slam titles and her seventh Down Under.
Standing between her and the semifinals is an unfamiliar foe in Johanna Konta, the fastest rising force in women’s tennis since her initial 16-match winning streak in the summer of 2015.
Konta has been ruthless through four rounds, knocking out former No.1 Caroline Wozniacki and 2015 semifinalist Ekaterina Makarova en route to her second straight quarterfinal in Melbourne.
Serena has taken out on-fire opponents in the past; can she solve the unflappable Brit on Rod Laver Arena, or will Konta keep up her potentially Slam-winning form into the final four?
Around the Grounds…
The women’s and mixed doubles events are rounding into form, and both feature doubles No.1 Bethanie Mattek-Sands. The American rejoins Lucie Safarova to take on the unseeded Japanese duo of Eri Hozumi and Miyu Kato. Meanwhile, top seeds Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic will need to turn around from their three-set thriller over Aussies Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua to play No.12 seeds Andrea Hlavackova and Peng Shuai, who dispatched reigning Olympic champions Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in two tight sets on Tuesday.
In mixed, No.2 seed Sania Mirza will partner Ivan Dodig for a second day in a row as they try to reach a second straight Australian Open semifinal; aiming to stop them are an unseeded pair in Gabriela Dabrowski and Mirza’s countryman, Rohan Bopanna.
All photos courtesy of Getty Images.
An interview with Carla Suárez Navarro after her win in the final of the Qatar Total Open.
MELBOURNE, Australia – When we think of fairytales, we think of magic. Fairytales are, after all, an attempt to explain the unthinkable. To do so they dip into the supernatural – glass slippers, fairy godmothers, conjured spells and potions – all to explain why, despite the odds against them, good things happen to good people.
Fairytales are nice, but the real thing is better. So much better. And tennis, a sport that gives you a chance for redemption every week, has offered up a story that not even Disney could inspire.
On Wednesday, 34-year-old Mirjana Lucic-Baroni scored her second Top 5 win of the Australian Open, beating No.5 seed Karolina Pliskova, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to advance to her first Slam semifinal in 18 years. With a left leg bearing rounds of tape and a rosary around her neck, Lucic-Baroni made good on her promises that she had more to do in tennis. And she did it not with the help of magic or spells, but by pure, unadulterated hard work.
#LucicBaroni in tears: “I never could dream about being here again. I will never forget this day.” #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/0xSL6HCol8
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 25, 2017
“It’s just perseverance,” Lucic-Baroni said. “It’s just kind of ignoring everything and just pushing forward and kind of going through the wall. It’s not going but you keep pushing and you keep pushing, and nothing is working, and you keep pushing. That belief that eventually it will change.
“I think that’s what perseverance is, and I feel like that’s what helped me get here.
“This is what I’ve been dreaming about, this is what I’ve been training for. At 34 years old, like I said before, I have a wonderful home. I’m happily married. I would be perfectly okay being at home enjoying my family.
“But I really knew deep down in my soul that I have these results in me. To now be here and actually live these moments, it’s incredible.”
“This time it's incredibly special…it's fun to prove everyone wrong.”
Mirjana Lucic-Baroni on contrasting Semifinal appearances #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/XuafFZy1Qj
— WTA (@WTA) January 25, 2017
What does that feel like, to have that belief at your core that there is still greatness within you? It’s easy to understand that conviction when you’re young. The eyes are brighter, the heart full of optimism and hope. The world has not yet had the time to cruelly sap it out of you and turn you cynical and jaded. The body feels fresh and ready to jump at every chance, on any command. Ambition is easy when the failures are few.
“When I was younger, I just believed because I won a lot and it was that confidence you simply have because you’re winning all the time,” Lucic-Baroni said.
With Lucic-Baroni reaching her second ever Grand Slam semi-final, we're throwing it back to her first at #Wimbledon 1999…
Those rallies ? pic.twitter.com/ZaZUlg4hvi
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) January 25, 2017
She would know. Lucic-Baroni was a two-time junior Slam champion by the time she was 14-years-old, won two matches in her Grand Slam debut at 15 years old, and was into the Wimbledon semifinals at 17. She was a prodigy in an era of prodigies. And then it was taken away from her for reasons not in her control.
“When you stop winning as much and you don’t play for a long time, you definitely lose it a little bit,” she said. “Not even lose it, you forget it. You forget deep down kind of who you are on the court. That has happened to me a little bit, where I struggled for a few years. And I’m really glad that I remembered.”
Mirjana #LucicBaroni is through to the SF #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/ywsCOXuXpz
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 25, 2017
The circumstances surrounding Lucic-Baroni’s fade during the early 2000s due to her abusive father have been well-documented. Though there has been rampant speculation regarding the details, she has opted not to discuss it.
“A part of it is I just want to say because people assume a lot, and people don’t know,” she explained. “That irritates me when people assume things like injuries and things like that and people write about it. I understand it’s your guys’ job to write about it. A lot of it is speculation.
“At other times I really want to keep those things to myself, and I don’t want to tell anybody anything, and I don’t want to focus so much on that.
“I kind of want to be known as amazing fighter, a person who persevered against everything, against all odds. And that’s what I take pride in.”
“This has truly made my life…it has made it okay.” #LucicBaroni #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/SeE9ePoqOo
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 25, 2017
There was no more poignant moment during her emotional post-match interview than when a tearful Lucic-Baroni was asked what her two weeks in Melbourne – which was already a feel-good story after she won her first round match, her first Australian Open win in 19 years – has meant to her.
“I know it means a lot to every player to reach the semifinals but to me this is overwhelming,” she said through the tears. “This has truly made my life and everything bad that happened, it has made it ok. Just that I was this strong and it was worth fighting this hard, it’s just really incredible.”
Incredible is the word. Lucic-Baroni has gone from a cautionary tale to one of the game’s inspiring pillars. She has every right to be bitter in the face of her tragic history. But there are no dark clouds around her. She has a sunny disposition, eager to discuss her tennis and on-court struggles, while offering a wise perspective to her career. She has no clothing sponsor. She’s not on Twitter. There is no air of self-pity or entitlement. There is only a purity of desire and defiance, to take back what was taken from her and show the world that she has what it takes. That she always had what it takes.
After beating No.3 Agnieszka Radwanska in the second round, Lucic-Baroni made it clear that she wasn’t out here just to have fun. She was still toiling away with a purpose. “I didn’t go to see the court and enjoy,” she said. “I’m way too old and I’ve been around way too long to just gain experience. I came there to win the match. Feelings like tonight are incredible on court. You can’t replicate it anywhere else in life.”
Regardless of what happens over the next few days, she will rise to a career-high ranking on Monday, surpassing the No.32 she peaked at nearly two decades ago. When she faces Serena on Thursday, the two will be facing off for the first time since Wimbledon back in 1998.
Mirjana Lucic(-Baroni) and Serena Williams will face off in 2017 #AusOpen semifinals. Here they are in their last match: Wimbledon 1998! pic.twitter.com/vEtPtxnUnN
— History of Tennis (@HistoryOfTennis) January 25, 2017
“I’m really happy for Mirjana,” Serena said. “I was there when she first started. To see her be able to never give up actually is super inspiring to me. It’s a wonderful story.”
Perserverance has been the theme of the 2017 Australian Open. Along with Venus Williams and Serena Williams, this has been a tournament carried by prodigies-turned-veterans, who continue to reset the perceived age barrier in tennis. While Serena continues to chase history and grapple at the top of the game, Venus has now made the semifinals in two of her last three Slams.
After making her first Australian Open semifinal since 2003 on Tuesday, Venus was asked why she’s still in the game at age 36. “I have a lot to give,” she said. “I have a lot to give to the game. I feel like I have a lot of great tennis in me. So any time you feel that way, you continue.
“Why not? I have nothing to lose, literally.”
Left: Lucic-Baroni, 17 y/o Semifinalist at WImbledon.
Right: Lucic-Baroni, 34 y/o Semifinalist at #AusOpen.
How can you not love this sport? pic.twitter.com/ikVNCTjeX1— Tennis Hall of Fame (@TennisHalloFame) January 25, 2017
“This time, it’s incredibly special, especially since it’s been so long since the last time I’ve been in semifinals,” Lucic-Baroni said. “And the struggle has been so much bigger, and nobody in this world thought I could ever be here again, beside my closest family, my coach, and my brothers, my sisters, my husband, my mom. Beside my little circle, I don’t think anybody believed that I could do it. And it’s really fun.
“It’s fun to prove everybody wrong, and it’s fun to enjoy this for myself and live these incredible moments. It’s more special this time, for sure.”
INDIAN WELLS, CALIFORNIA, USA – Former World No.5 Daniela Hantuchova has earned a wildcard into the main draw of the upcoming BNP Paribas Open. Other wildcard entrants will include Australian Open quarterfinalist Zhang Shuai, Heather Watson, and Americans Shelby Rogers, Samantha Crawford, Lauren Davis, Alison Riske, and Jamie Loeb.
The Slovak made her big breakthrough back in 2002 when she upset Martina Hingis for the title, and came back in 2007 to win a second time – defeating Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final. Hantuchova also reached the semifinals of the Australian Open back in 2008, but with her ranking currently outside the Top 100, the seven-time WTA titlist could not enter the main draw without a wildcard.
Joining Hantuchova in the main draw is Zhang Shuai, the Chinese No.2 who enjoyed a Cinderella run to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open; a qualifier in Melbourne, she won her first-ever Grand Slam main draw match in emphatic fashion when she dismissed then-World No.2 Simona Halep in straight sets. Zhang took that momentum all the way into the final eight, where she fell to Johanna Konta; far from a one week wonder, she took turned that form and momentum into a title run last week at an ITF Challenger in Rancho Santa Fe.
Watson enjoyed a solid start to the year by reaching the quarterfinals of the Hobart International as defending champion, and is currently in the quarterfinals of the Abierto Monterrey Afirme – one of three Brits to reach WTA quarterfinals this week, and the largest number since 1978.
Of the five Americans awarded wildcards, Samantha Crawford raced into the semifinals of the Brisbane International as a qualifier, while Shelby Rogers recently reached the finals of the Rio Open – falling to former French Open champion Francesca Schiavone in straight sets. Alison Riske started 2016 brightly with a run to the finals of the Shenzhen Open, and Lauren Davis pushed former No.1 Maria Sharapova to three sets at the Australian Open. Finally, former NCAA champion Jamie Loeb has played solid tennis on the Challenger level, reaching the quarterfinals of a 100K and winning a 25K.
Read more about the wildcards set to play Indian Wells here.
All photos courtesy of Getty Images.