Tennis News

CHARLESTON, SC, USA – In the first all-teen WTA final since 2009, Daria Kasatkina knocked out former junior colleague Jelena Ostapenko, 6-3, 6-1, to win her first WTA title at the Volvo Car Open.

“It’s very difficult to describe my feeling now,” she said in her post-victory press conference. “I feel I’m just sleeping and everything is not real. I’m so happy. Really.”

Kasatkina and Ostapenko took back-to-back Grand Slam titles back in 2014, the Russian winning the girls’ French Open while the Latvian swept the junior Wimbledon Championships, and the two have been on a collision course since making their WTA debuts the following year.

Ostapenko was in her third career final after finishing runner-up at the Tournoi de Québec in 2015 and the Qatar Total Open in 2016, and won their only previous tour-level meeting last year at the Aegon International in Eastbourne.

But Kasatkina proved far more at home on clay after earning wins over Olympic champion Monica Puig, good friend Daria Gavrilova, No.10 seed Irina-Camelia Begu, and clay court specialist Laura Siegemund en route to her first final.

“Yesterday evening and all night I couldn’t sleep. I woke up during the whole night like two or three times. I was so nervous, you cannot imagine. I was feeling like, I want to just go on the court and everything, let’s finish, play. I cannot feeling this anymore. But now it was worth it.”

.@DKasatkina turns defense into attack! #VolvoCarOpen pic.twitter.com/f1CRBWoXoG

— WTA (@WTA) April 9, 2017

The pair exchanged early breaks to start the match; Ostapenko won a long sixth game to level the opening set only to see Kasatkina run away with the contest from there, losing just one more game in the 66-minute match.

“I was ready to be on the court five, six hours. Because it’s a final, I have to be ready for everything, but I’m happy that I finished it in, let’s say, an easy way. So I am very happy and proud of myself.

“When I won the last ball, everything like closed and I just feel like I’m dreaming.” 

Playing clean, consistent tennis, Kasatkina struck just six winners to the Latvian’s 25, but also only seven unforced errors to Ostapenko’s 38, and converted five of seven break point chances over two sets.

“Today, the tactic was to be a little bit more defensive, go back, spin, slice the ball because it’s clay, and she’s playing really aggressive. Usually she beats aggressive players because she likes this type of game, everything. So we decided that I have to go back and make her tired. It was a good tactic, I think.”

“I was playing good all the days this week,” Ostapenko said after the match. “I beat some great players, but today was really not my day, and I just didn’t feel the ball that well. I was missing too much, and because she was defending during the whole match. It was just probably not my day.

“I think I got a bit more consistent on clay, and I think I improved my serve and I’m moving better, but I still have a lot of things to work on. I think it’s pretty good because now I can climb in the ranking.”

First #WTA Title!@DKasatkina races past Ostapenko 6-3, 6-1 to win @VolvoCarOpen! pic.twitter.com/yYmKy299Qp

— WTA (@WTA) April 9, 2017

The Russian will move back into the Top 30 after the win as she aims to return to Roland Garros as a seed for the second straight year, while Ostapenko returns to the Top 50 following her impressive week and wins over former No.1 Caroline Wozniacki and Australian Open semifinalist Mirjana Lucic-Baroni.

Kasatkina joins an illustrious list of former champions, including Stefanie Graf, Martina Navratilova, Martina Hingis, and Venus Williams. None of that had quite sunk in with the 19-year-old so soon after the match.

“I need to prepare for these things. It never happened to me before. So little bit makeup for the pictures!” she said when asked about a post-victory portrait.

“I don’t realize it yet, so I’m just enjoying it every moment, every second. And really, when I was on the court after the last point, I just wanted the moment to stop because it was one of the best moments in my life.”

.@DKasatkina fights back the tears during champion's speech #VolvoCarOpen pic.twitter.com/g5SW68mjMD

— WTA (@WTA) April 9, 2017

Earlier in the day, World No.1 Bethanie Mattek-Sands took her third title of the year, and second with partner Lucie Safarova, overcoming a tough test from BNP Paribas Open finalists Lucie Hradecka and Katerina Siniakova, 6-1, 4-6, 10-7.

All photos courtesy of the Volvo Car Open.

The WTA’s Top 9 stayed the same after a week of action on the green clay of Charleston, where Daria Kasatkina took home her maiden title at the Volvo Car Open, and in Monterrey where Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova powered to a fourth Abierto GNP Seguros title.

The only major change in the Top 10 is the return of Madison Keys, who knocked out Venus Williams and leapfrogged Caroline Wozniacki to rise from No.11 to No.10.

Wozniacki was a win away from returning to the Top 10 for the first time since September 2015, but she was denied the chance by an inspired Jelena Ostapenko in the Charleston quarterfinals.

Here are the biggest ranking movers this week after Charleston and Monterrey:

Jelena Ostapenko +16 (No.66 to No.50): 19-year-old Ostapenko reached the third final of her career – and her first final on clay – at the Volvo Car Open this week. She took down a pair of seeds along the way, knocking out No.5 Caroline Wozniacki and No.11 Mirjana Lucic-Baroni. As a result, she’s earned herself a spot back inside the WTA’s Top 50.

Daria Kasatkina +13 (No.42 to No.29): Not only did 19-year-old Kasatkina reach her first WTA singles final in Charleston, but she also went all the way and took home her maiden WTA after a commanding win over Ostapenko. Her impressive performance sends her rocketing up the rankings, landing inside the Top 30 at No.29.

Shelby Rogers +3 (No.52 to No.49): It was an emotional week for Charleston native Rogers. She entered her home tournament with just one main draw win under her belt and admitted to struggling in front of her home crowd. But all that changed this week, where she put together an inspiring run to the quarterfinals, posting back-to-back wins over top seed Madison Keys and Naomi Osaka along the way. She lands at No.49, just one spot removed from her career-high of No.48.

Carla Suárez Navarro +2 (No.25 to No.23): After spending the last few years inside the WTA’s Top 20, Suárez Navarro’s ranking took a hit when a shoulder injury forced her off the tennis courts at the start of 2017. The Spaniard missed the Australian and Middle Eastern swings, and found herself outside the Top 20 for the first time since 2013. She turned it all around in Monterrey, halting her slide down the rankings with an impressive run to the semifinals.

Click here to check out the updated WTA rankings as of April 10.

PRAGUE, Czech Republic – Lucie Safarova’s clay court revival at the J&T Banka Prague Open gathered further momentum on Thursday with a straight set win over Hsieh Su-Wei.

Watch live action from Prague & Rabat this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!

Going into her home tournament, Safarova had not registered a win all season, but after unraveling Hsieh’s unorthodox game in two tight sets she now has three in as many days.

In a topsy-turvy encounter, Safarova failed to serve out the opening set at 5-4, before coming within a few points of losing it two games later. In the tie-break, it was the Czech that held her nerve, taking it when Hsieh miscued a backhand into the tramlines.

Hsieh continued to pose problems in the second set, but once again it was Safarova that came out on top at the crucial moments, returning from a late rain delay to reach the semifinals 

Safarova’s 7-6(3), 7-5 victory followed on from an even more impressive performance from her compatriot and next opponent, Karolina Pliskova. Eager to minimize her time exposed to the elements on another chilly day in the Czech capital, defending champion Pliskova blew away Camila Giorgi, 6-2, 6-1, in just 51 minutes.

Pliskova and Safarova met only last week in Stuttgart, the former coming through a third set shootout, to add to victories over her Fed Cup teammate the previous year in Antwerp and Dubai.

Following her showing in Stuttgart and her run this week Safarova is feeling positive heading into the rematch. “I was on the way back already in Stuttgart, where I had a great match, and I was hoping the results would come. I’m happy and excited that it’s going this well.

“It was a tough match today; she’s always a very tricky player, defending the court very well and I’m very excited to be through to the semis.”

PRAGUE, Czech Republic – Lucie Safarova saw off Fed Cup teammate Karolina Pliskova in two tight sets on Friday to reach the final of the J&T Banka Prague Open.

Watch live action from Prague & Rabat this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!

After taking a tight opening set, No.2 seed Safarova came from a break down in the second to complete a 6-4, 7-6(4) victory.

In the final she will face Samantha Stosur, after she profited from the last-minute withdrawal of top seed Svetlana Kuznetsova.

More to follow…

WTA Insider Senior Writer Courtney Nguyen checks in from the Foro Italico in Rome where the Internazionali BNL d’Italia is already underway. She recaps the the weekend in Madrid, where Simona Halep capped off a big week for Romanian tennis by winning her first title of the season. Hear from Halep as she discusses her surprising week and how it all came together in the Champion’s Corner.

You’ll also hear from 30-year-old Czech veteran Barbora Strycova. The World No.38 joins the podcast to discuss her career, which was nearly ended by a failed drug test in 2012. After serving a six-moth ban for negligently ingesting a banned substance, Strycova came one match away from ending her career. It’s a good thing she didn’t.

Strycova candidly opens up about her ban — the lowest moment of her career — as well as her redemptive run to the 2014 Wimbledon quarterfinals. Self-aware, honest, and funny, it’s a conversation you won’t want to miss.

Halep on being reluctant to handicap her chances at the start of the week: It’s amazing that I could win this tournament. I feel that I had everything in my hands, every match. I felt that I played my best tennis in every match and kind of deserving the title because I won it. I didn’t receive presents during the matches. Day by day I believed more that I had a chance to win it.

At the beginning of the tournament it’s normal to feel that you hesitate a little bit because it’s just the start and you don’t know actually what’s going to happen in the first round because the first round is always the toughest in the tournament. And after my months before coming here, it was tough to believe I could win it.

Halep on the rise of her fellow Romanians: I didn’t read anything since a long time ago and I’m not going to start to read again. I heard a tough story about my joke about “the Easter present” about the second set [bagel against Irina-Camelia Begu]. They make everything negative so I’m not going to read.

But in my opinion it’s a big thing that many Romanians are playing in the last matches here in this tournament – also men’s doubles – so it’s a good point point for our country and maybe it will help our juniors.

Strycova on picking tennis over figure skating: At age 12, I had to decide if I wanted to stick with figure skating, because I was pretty good at it, or tennis. I chose tennis because it was my choice, and nobody was pushing it. I was last on the ice a year ago; I can do some small jumps but you have to be careful because you can fall down and break a leg! I love that sport, and I still like to listen to my favorite music and be on the ice, doing what I used to do when I was young. It’s really relaxing.

Strycova on whether her on-court intensity dates back to her childhood: Oh my god, so much! You would see such a crazy Bara, you would not believel I am so emotional. I’m intense. I love to win and hate to lose. Back then, I was crabby. On one side, I was very positive, but also very negative. I’d throw racquets, screaming, crying. My whole career, I’ve been fighting to be positive and calmer. But I need that sometimes, I just need to know how to deal with it, and make sure it’s not hurting you.

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. Get new episode alerts by following us on Twitter @WTA_Insider.