Tennis News

Eugenie Bouchard and Bethanie Mattek-Sands out in three sets: Lucie Hradecka’s hard-hitting game came online just in time in the final set as she ousted No.45 Bouchard 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 in the 1st round of the Miami Open. Polish qualifier Magda Linette rallied to beat Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-4, 6-7(7), 6-3.

Must-see second rounds set: With the first round of the Miami Open complete, here are the matches to watch in the second round: Garbiñe Muguruza vs. Dominika Cibulkova, Angelique Kerber vs. Barbora Strycova, Andrea Petkovic vs. Caroline Garcia, Sloane Stephens vs. Heather Watson, Daria Kasatkina vs. Simona Halep, Elina Svitolina vs. Zhang Shuai, Alize Cornet vs. Agnieszka Radwanska, Sara Errani vs. Naomi Osaka, Timea Bacsinszky vs. Margarita Gasparyan, Julia Goerges vs. Sam Stosur, Venus Williams vs. Elena Vesnina, Kristina Mladenovic vs. Nicole Gibbs.

Billie Jean King and Chris Evert hold court: The two legends called a press conference on Wednesday afternoon in response to the discussion of equal prize money kicked off by former BNP Paribas Open CEO Raymond Moore on Sunday. Moore has since resigned. King and Evert told reporters they had since been inundated with media requests and decided a press conference would be more efficient.

Here are some of the highlights:

– Chris Evert recalls the 70s: While King spoke about the future, Evert spoke of the importance of understanding the past in order to understand just how far women’s tennis has come.

Many of you were too young to even know what happened in the early ’70s. Some of you weren’t born. But there were a lot of struggles and there were a lot of sacrifices being made in the early 70s, and I think I’m going to talk a little bit about those.

In the early ’70s, the men had it really easy. Men athletes were very respected, admired, looked up to, and there was something almost unsettling about a strong, muscular athletic woman running around the court sweating. That was the early ’70s and that was the stigma.

Then Billie Jean King came into the picture with the Original 9. First of all, Billie Jean scared me to death with her forward thinking. She was bold and she was aggressive and she was damn smart. That was very intimidating to me, a teenager at that point.

In my mind, she was right up there with Gloria Steinem. At that point, every time I turned on the TV I saw demonstrations and I saw bra burning and I saw rallies. I sensed at my young age that there was a revolution of some kind going on. I sensed also that it was very, very important for women.

But I still couldn’t relate to her. I mean, I was a teenager. I was a kid in Ft. Lauderdale growing up in a culture where dads worked and moms stayed home and worked in the home and took care of the kids.

In the early ’70s I was lucky enough to see how hard these women tried to sell the sport of tennis. The clinics and the cocktail parties and press conferences and the endless WTA meetings. Even bucking the establishment, who were at the time the USTA, when they threatened to be banned from US Open.

In 1974, when I was a teenager, I played Billie Jean in a tournament in San Francisco in the finals and lost to her quite easily. The next weekend, because we were No. 1 and No. 2 in the world, I played her in Sarasota, Florida and beat her quite easily. I openly wondered why she was so sluggish and just didn’t seem to play her best out there.

I was informed that the day of the finals Billie Jean had flown out from Sarasota and spent the whole day in New York City doing meetings with potential sponsors, and then she flew back to Sarasota at 5:30. Didn’t even warm up and just went on the court and played.

She put the tour before her career so many times. How many men or women do that? Ask yourself that. By the way, she and her husband at that time, Larry King, took me to Dairy Queen after. (Laughter.) Billie Jean loves her ice cream.

This was the era in the early ’70s of no coaches, no entourages, no agents. We practiced together; we traveled together; we hung out together. We were all friends, comrades, and we had each other’s backs. We were family. It was the best time in tennis. Ever.

So if there is a silver lining to all this that’s gone on in the last week, it’s the fact that there has been such outrage from the players and from the media and from the public defending the women’s game.

I think from time to time we all need a reminder of the evolution of women’s tennis and sacrifices every generation has had to make, from Billie Jean to myself and Martina, Steffi to Monica, to the Williams sisters. What we’ve done to get the credibility, the respect, and equality that we have now.

– Progress made, more progress needed:

To hear the men and women weighing in, tennis players just having this dialog, a discussion, is actually progress. To have Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka say that about their daughters, that’s progress.

So this next generation of men are going to make a huge difference. We need them, but they need us. We need each other. I think if we can just keep that in our minds all the time, then we’re going to win. The WTA and the ATP, ITF, USTA in this country, we all have an opportunity to help make the world a better place. I just hope that’s what we’re going to do.

.@ChrissieEvert & I had a great talk w/ @DjokerNole today at @MiamiOpen. He's a class act and a true champion. pic.twitter.com/6Ow8nBkKEl

— Billie Jean King (@BillieJeanKing) March 23, 2016

– Equality over all: King emphasized her position is not about women vs. men but about equality and continuing to use tennis’ platform to effect change.

We represent tennis. Because we have men and women’s, we are one of the few that can lead globally on these issues. That is what my life is about and what I care about. Tennis was secondary to me. The reason I would go and do the sponsor meetings is tennis was secondary.

This, inclusion, when it’s about all of us, is everything. We have a chance to continue to lead. To have equal prize money in the majors sends a message. It’s not about the money, it’s about the message. Any time you discount another human being by gender, race, disability, however, we’re not helping ourselves.

You want everyone to make a lot. At least I do. We want to make the pie bigger, the marketplace bigger for all, for all of you so you have jobs. To argue over the prize money issue, what about when Chris and Martina were playing and their ratings were better than the men? We didn’t go, Oh, we deserve more than the men. No. Let’s just keep it equal and help each other.

So anyway, let’s have some fun. It’s not a “he” thing or a “she” thing; it’s a “we” thing. I’m telling you, this is the only way the world is going to make it.

– Nicole Gibbs weighs in: The American has been a vocal defender (and explainer) of the concept of equal prize money on Twitter, and she was in the audience listening to King and Evert’s remarks when King called on her to chime in:

NICOLE GIBBS: First of all, I just want to thank you guys for your words today. You guys have been such mentors to me throughout my career just with your tennis, but also using your platform, which I think is so, so important.

I was just talking to Jeff over here. I got into a little spat on Twitter last night. I wouldn’t call it a spat but I was just hearing some negative opinions towards women on court with some statistics and some of my own thoughts about equality and finding a way everybody can support one another, like you said.

I had multiple girls in the locker room come up to me and say, Hey, I saw your tweets last night, your messages, but my coach told me not to get involved, or I didn’t think it was smart for me to get involved.

BILLIE JEAN KING: Really?

NICOLE GIBBS: I’m not going to name names, but it’s really disappointing. It’s like, Okay, so you see me out there putting myself out there and trying to give myself an opportunity to use my platform, and you think, Oh, I have an opportunity to use mine too but I’m not going to do that because maybe the media won’t like it or maybe even men who are following me who have these opinions won’t like it.

I think there is far too much worrying about what other people are going to think when you’re campaigning for equality as a woman. I think it’s really important for us to do as you’re saying, use our platform and really just fight the good fight.

BILLIE JEAN KING: What do you say to the ones that say they don’t want to get involved or get committed to this?

NICOLE GIBBS: You know, I try not to be too heavy- handed because…

BILLIE JEAN KING: That doesn’t work. You’re right.

NICOLE GIBBS: Yeah, like you’re saying, though, you can never really fully put yourself in someone else’s shoes, so I’m not going to say, You need to do this…

What I’ll say is, Hey, I would really appreciate some support on that. Or, Hey, I’m writing a blog in the next couple weeks. Would you be willing to give a quote for that that’s authentic and unfiltered?

I get a lot of positive responses, so I think it’s appealing to people in a way that scares them.

CHRIS EVERT: If I could give you some advice: Never be fearful of telling your truth. I think I’m saying that because in my generation there was always so much fear about telling the truth and about consequences and about image and about how you’ll look and how you’ll sound.

You know what? It’s all wrong. It’s all wrong. So I admire you for speaking out as a current player. Just keep doing it.

NICOLE GIBBS: Thank you. Hopefully I can get past 74 in the world so I can have a little higher platform.

BILLIE JEAN KING: Doesn’t matter. You have a platform because we’re global now. We weren’t global when we started. This is fantastic.

To clarify, my statements today were meant to address the undercurrent of fear of speaking out that some WTA players experience…

— Nicole Gibbs (@Gibbsyyyy) March 24, 2016

…myself included at times. Not to talk down about anyone else!! Came to my attention that maybe it would be read differently.

— Nicole Gibbs (@Gibbsyyyy) March 24, 2016

U r a future leader, girl… You've got what it takes.. https://t.co/WubgvGOmPD

— Chris Evert (@ChrissieEvert) March 24, 2016

Cake not crumbs: King recalled her early interactions with an all-male press corp, and how they struggled to grapple with a strong, outspoken woman advocating for equality.

You have to remember, when I would go to a press conference, and I don’t know about you, Chris, but there wasn’t one woman sportswriter.

There wouldn’t have been one woman in the crowd my whole life. When I played Bobby Riggs, there wasn’t one women sportswriter there. I grew up with guys. It was fun actually. They were funny. We got laughing a lot.

I used to ask them before we started the press conference, I would like each person here to tell me what it means to be a feminist. It was hilarious. All the guys start thinking about it. Whoa, whoa. Let’s go to each [person]. If I say that word, I want to make sure we’re on the same page.

You cannot believe the differences. It was hilarious. Nobody was really sure what they thought. So I just said equal rights and opportunities for boys and girls. Exactly what I’ve said since I was 12. Just means equality. Everybody gets their knickers in a twist. Oh, oh. What are the girls asking for? No, we just want the same. Not more.

Everyone thinks women should be thrilled when we get crumbs. I want women to have the cake, the icing, the cherry on top, too. And every man and every women and every — now we have more than just men and women, so however they self- identify. I have to honor that. I just think every single human being deserves the cake and the icing and everything. Okay? Everyone. Everyone.

Insider Podcast: Lastly, check out WTA Insider’s look ahead to the Miami Open draw in the latest episode of the WTA Insider Podcast:

All photos courtesy of Getty Images.

As an athlete, top 25 doubles star Alla Kudryavtseva has long been in pursuit of physical excellence, but holds intellectual acument in equal standing, earning an online Bachelor’s of Science in Communications, her second degree and first at Indiana University East.

“I’ve always loved to learn,” she told WTA Insider from LaGuardia Airport on Monday. “I’m always trying to read and learn something, so I thought, ‘I’m doing all these things. Why don’t I try to get a degree?’

Kudryavtseva previously earned a degree in physical education back in Moscow, but was inspired to return to school by then-doubles partner Anastasia Rodionova, who is also at IU East studying business administration.

“Communications is a diverse degree, one that you can use in many different areas. I’m not quite sure what I want to do when I stop playing, so it just seemed like a good fit. Everything you do these days is with communications. Physical education was interesting at the time and very applicable to what I do as an athlete. I found this degree very applicable as well when it came to things like negotiations and persuasion, or even things like dissecting the news and what we see in media.

“It has been a really interesting journey and I learned a lot.”

“Alla was one of our finest students in the Communication Studies program and within the entirety of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences,” noted Ross Alexander, IU East’s Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. “Her professors consistently lauded her stellar work, professionalism, and the global perspective she brought to all her courses. She is among the very best we have at IU East.”

The former World No.56 had more than her share of setbacks in her final two semesters – inucrring an ACL injury just before finals – but perservered to receive her diploma on Tuesday at the Richmond campus’ Student Events and Activites Center. Through her various academic endeavors, this will be the first to have any proverbial pomp and circumstance.

“It has been a pleasure to host Alla on her first trip to the Richmond campus,” said IU East Chancellor Kathryn Cruz-Uribe. “We are honored to present her with her diploma. As an alumna, she will join a network of over 9,000 IU East graduates,” Cruz-Uribe said.

“I just turned 29, and from middle school to university, I’ve never been to an actual graduation ceremony,” Kudryavtseva admitted. “I always came to the office, picked up the diploma, and thank you very much!

“It’s difficult to be a student athlete; it takes a lot of discipline and commitment. No one is there to push you, so you’ve got to push yourself, and make sure you’re leaving appropriate time for assignments and reading. When grades start rolling in, that also adds stress, but luckily I’ve been a straight-A student, so I didn’t have to worry about anything.”

Kudryavtseva joins a growing cohort that includes former World No.1 Venus Williams, who became the first WTA player to graduate under the tour’s agreement with IU East. Current students include Olympic Gold medalist Monica Puig, Sloane Stephens, and Arina Rodionova. Also earning her diploma later this month is Irina Falconi; the former Georgia Tech standout won her first WTA title earlier this year in Bogota, and credited Lisa Grattan of the Women’s Tennis Benefits Association (WTBA) as one who encouraged her to return to the online classroom.

“Once I heard about how good of an opportunity it was, I realized I had to jump on it,” she explained in an email. “I was motivated to go the moment I heard about it! I know that having a degree is something important to me, so I knew I wanted to get it done.”

Like Rodionova, Falconi is also studying business administration, a field the American saw as a natural selection for one already balancing the business of athletics.

“I like to think that I am already a running business. I wanted to really learn everything there is to know about running a sound business, making budgets, and marketing myself.”

A second set of deadlines can prove daunting to the already-overloaded athletes, but Falconi found a way to make the grade through her tenure at IU East. 

“When I started the program four years ago, WiFi wasn’t everywhere and wasn’t reliable, so there were a few late nights where I had to drive or walk to a coffee shop to make sure I submitted something before the deadline.”

Both Falconi and Kudryavtseva stressed the importance of education, arguing it helped give them a better sense not only of their future, but also their present.

“My capstone project was a 40 page paper on athletic retirements, and that was a very interesting topic to choose,” Kudryavtseva said. “I learned about all the difficulties athletes face: loss of identity, and how unprepared many are for what comes next. An athlete’s network can affects them a lot, because it gets to a point where everyone they know is somehow involved in their sport.

“That made me evaluate my own circle of friends and I realized just how many people I know have played or do play or are somehow connected to the WTA or even ATP tour or college tennis. When I was younger, I thought I’d want to disconnect from the tennis world when I retired, but getting older, I don’t think I want to. You learn so much over a 15 year career that I couldn’t have this level of expertise in any other field; it’d be a waste if I completely disconnected.”

“I know that tennis won’t last forever, so I knew that having a degree in my back pocket would benefit me in the long run,” Falconi added. “I think that some players may be a bit intimidated by the idea of online schooling, but if you set your mind to it, you can accomplish it!”

All photos courtesy of Getty Images.

Ana Ivanovic announced her retirement from professional tennis on Wednesday. The former No.1 and 2008 Roland Garros champion cited her ongoing injuries and desire to move on and begin a new chapter in her tennis career, which will see her give back to the sport that gave her so much.

After her announcement, which was streamed on Facebook, WTA Insider caught up with Ivanovic via telephone to reflect on her unforgettable career.

WTA Insider: So first question, how are you feeling after making the announcement?

Ivanovic: It was a little bit nerve-breaking but I’m doing well, thank you.

WTA Insider: Can you talk through how you came to the decision to retire?

Ivanovic: It’s a mix of things, obviously. It hasn’t been an overnight decision. It’s been on my mind for a little bit but I tried to also follow my heart because for me, it’s proven to be the best way.

I started to play tennis because I loved the game. Now I still love the game but I feel it’s time to move on for various reasons. I’ve been a little bit unfortunate with some injuries that I had. Being back in the Top 10 two years ago, and then fighting injuries, I was going back and forth a lot with my fitness. Then last year I really did a great pre-season, invested a lot of work, my team as well, and again I just kept getting these little niggles back and forth.

So I really felt now it’s time to just give back. Coming from Serbia, everything that I’ve been through in my life and my career, so far my parents and my brother with me, they made it all possible. I feel very fortunate and so I want to give back and maybe help others be as fortunate as I was.

WTA Insider: As you spent time reflecting on your career, what do you make of it?

Ivanovic: To be honest I’ve been going over it a lot of times and it does get me emotional because I know how I hard I worked to get everything I got. From where I came from, when I look back I am just very very proud of myself and everyone around me who helped me achieve these things.

But it’s not just about achieving these things, it’s also about being the person you are. I think all those setbacks, all those good moments, bad moments, they all make you a person, and in my case, a stronger person. I feel so blessed and so lucky to have gone through all that. I learned more about myself through not only good times but also through bad times. You learn who your real friends are, you know what you need to do to fight back. These are the lessons tennis taught me from such a young age. I feel lucky to experience all that. In life it’s not always good or bad, or black or white. So that’s why I think all these ups and downs actually helped me be the person that I am today.

WTA Insider: Speaking of that evolution, how is the Ana Ivanovic I’m talking to now differ from the one with the braces that held up that trophy in Canberra in 2005?

Ivanovic: More experienced, that’s for sure (laughs).

When I looked back at what I achieved, my development was one of the things I looked at. I was just a girl playing tennis, enjoying the game, and I wasn’t thinking about consequences. I was just playing the game and not relying on past experiences or worrying about consequences. Over time you learn there is pressure, there are expectations, there are your own expectations on top of all that, that’s when you stop playing free. Now looking back, that was the case.

I don’t think you’re ever prepared for the success, but maybe I needed a more experienced team around me to help me deal with that time of new pressures. But that all helped me become the person I am and now I know I can come back from anything. I’ve been low, I’ve been high, and I know that I can survive it all. That’s what gives me strength.

WTA Insider: You won the French Open and got to No.1 in 2008. The years after that weren’t easy for you on court. Given everything you went through, how important was 2014, when you got back in the Top 10, and 2015, when you made the French Open semifinal, for you?

Ivanovic: It was very, very important for me. I know and my team knows how much I fought every day. Even when I was winning all those matches in 2014, sometimes I was struggling with injuries. But I was mentally so strong, fighting my body and getting through these matches. The French Open semifinal was amazing. It’s always so special.

WTA Insider: What will you miss the most about tour life?

Ivanovic: I will definitely miss my friends that I’ve made along the way, but I always hope I’ll meet them again, just as I hope to see you again someday.

The irony actually is that I will miss traveling. That’s the part that I’m also looking forward to the most, that I’ll get to be home more. But I will miss traveling a little bit because I enjoy going to nice places and Australia, in particular, is on top of that list.

WTA Insider: For my last question I’m going to ask you something I’ve asked you throughout your career at various times: As you embark on retired life, what book are you reading?

Ivanovic: Actually I’m reading Inferno by Dan Brown because I realized that’s the only one I haven’t read. The movie is coming out and my brother wants to see it so I told him Ok, let me read the book first and then we can go watch.

WTA Insider: That’s very kind of you, as always. So will we see you at any tournaments this year?

Ivanovic: Yes, I’m sure. I’m already making some plans. I have some people who I promised to see so I look forward to seeing everyone around soon.

All photos courtesy of Getty Images.