Tennis News

SYDNEY/HOBART, Australia – With the Brisbane International and ASB Classic in the books, one week stands between the WTA stars and the Australian Open, giving fans the chance to see how their favorites are shaping up ahead of the first major tournament of the year at the Apia International Sydney and the Hobart International.

Sydney’s top seed is Simona Halep; the World No.2 led the field at the Brisbane International, but was forced to withdraw before her heavily-anticipated second round match with Victoria Azarenka due to a recurring Achilles injury. Looking strong in practice with coach Darren Cahill at the helm, Halep will have to hit the ground running in Sydney, with her first match of the year against Caroline Garcia. Garcia has yet to lose a match in 2016, winning her opening round on Sunday against compatriot Kristina Mladenovic to go with three wins at the invitational Hopman Cup.

Halep’s hopes of coming into the Australian Open with a title under her belt went up significantly when news of Petra Kvitova and Agnieszka Radwanska’s withdrawals hit. Kvitova is still struggling with the GI illness that took her out of Shenzhen while Radwanska, who went on to win the tournament in China, is opting not to push a lower leg injury sustained in practice.

Looming for the Romanian in the quarterfinals, however, is the big hitting Karolina Pliskova. The Czech boomed 14 aces in her first round against wildcard and former No.1 Ana Ivanovic, 6-4, 6-2, and played Halep tough in the final of last year’s Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. Experienced veterans in Svetlana Kuznetsova and Jelena Jankovic are also in Halep’s half of the draw, as well.

The bottom half of the draw features the young and talented Belinda Bencic, who outlasted Halep in the final of last year’s Rogers Cup after defeating World No.1 Serena Williams in the semifinals. A potential quarterfinal opponent for Bencic is Angelique Kerber, who comes to Sydney after a successful week in Brisbane that saw her reach the final. Look out for another youngster in Daria Gavrilova; the hometown favorite just won Australia’s first Hopman Cup title since 1999 with the help of Nick Kyrgios, beating Elina Svitolina in the final.

Over in Hobart, the women’s draw lost top seed Sloane Stephens, who came down with a viral illness after winning her second career title at the ASB Classic, but nonetheless sports several names to know. No.2 seed Camila Giorgi is a threat on any given day with her booming ground game; the Italian is already in the second round after surviving Zarina Diyas in three sets.

In her half of the draw is Dominika Cibulkova; the 2014 Australian Open finalist is still getting her rhythm back after leg surgery took her off the tour for much of last year. She’ll be in for a tough battle against Johanna Konta in the first round; Konta was one of the biggest stories of the second half of the season, rising from relative obscurity to make the second week of the US Open and take out Halep at the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open.

Though unseeded, Eugenie Bouchard played some of her best tennis in months to reach the quarterfinals of last week’s Shenzhen Open. Feeling no pressure, the Canadian is just happy to be back on the court after missing much of the fall due to a concussion.

Which WTA star will gain precious momentum heading into Melbourne?

On this episode WTA Insider Senior Writer Courtney Nguyen recaps the action in Week 1, which culminated with Victoria Azarenka, Agnieszka Radwanska, and Sloane Stephens emerging from an otherwise fraught week, as champions. You’ll hear from Brisbane International champions Azarenka and Sania Mirza, both of whom look primed for a momentous season.

Azarenka on maturing and changing her perspective: “I think my ego dropped a lot. I dropped it. I didn’t want to be the type of player that is so full of themselves. I want to be understanding. I want to be available. Because tennis is more than just about results to me. It’s the process.”

Mirza on the prospect of completing the non-Calendar Grand Slam: “Sure, we’re halfway there. But halfway there and halfway to go is a long way off. It’s a Grand Slam for a reason. There’s a reason to win one in your lifetime and we were lucky enough to win two in a row.”

Listen below:

Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or on any podcast app of your choice and reviews are always helpful, so if you like what you’ve heard so far, leave us one. You can also get new episode alerts by following us on Twitter @WTA_Insider.

SYDNEY, Australia – Simona Halep made a winning start to the 2016 season on Tuesday night, grinding past giant-killer Caroline Garcia in her opening match at the Apia International Sydney.

Watch highlights, interviews and more video from Sydney right here on wtatennis.com!

Things didn’t go completely smoothly for Halep – after taking the first set, she watched on as Garcia came alive, ripping more than three times as many winners (10 to 3) to run away with the second set.

But the World No.2 regrouped in a big way, kicking her aggression up a notch – and pulling off some awe-inspiring winners off the ground – to close the unseeded Frenchwoman out, 6-4, 2-6, 6-1.

“It was a tough match. I actually expected a tough match because I know her pretty well. She’s strong and she hits the ball strong. She has a good serve,” Halep said. “I think I did well today though. Especially in the third set I think I was strong and solid – I played my best tennis in the third set.

“In the second set I did a step behind the baseline. Maybe that’s why she dominated me. But then I went closer to the baseline and hit the ball earlier, opened the court and made the points shorter.”

Halep was set to make her 2016 debut at the Brisbane International last week but had to pull out right before her first match there due to a left leg injury. Before playing her Sydney opener, she discussed the injury – and declared she was ready to get her 2016 season going in Sydney this week.

Next up for the No.1-seeded Halep will be No.5-seeded Karolina Pliskova, who played a near-flawless second set to run away with it against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova earlier in the day, 6-3, 6-0.

Halep has beaten Pliskova in both of their previous meetings, though both were tight two-setters.

There were mixed fortunes for the other two seeds in action on Tuesday, with No.4 seed Angelique Kerber having to withdraw from the tournament due to illness prior to her match against Ekaterina Makarova, but No.8 seed Belinda Bencic outdoing Bulgarian wildcard Tsvetana Pironkova, 6-3, 6-3.

Round out the winners were Sara Errani, who saved seven set points in the second set to edge Jelena Jankovic, 7-6(3), 7-6(8), Svetlana Kuznetsova, who outlasted Sabine Lisicki, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, Samantha Stosur, who gave her Aussie home crowd something to cheer about with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Daniela Hantuchova, and Puerto Rican qualifier Monica Puig, who beat Anna Karolina Schmiedlova, 6-1, 6-0.

All four quarterfinals of the Premier-level tournament will take the courts on Wednesday.

Sorry that I had to withdraw from @SydneyTennis it is always great to play in this city#sydney now recovery and getting ready for melbourne?

— Angelique Kerber (@AngeliqueKerber) January 12, 2016