Doha: Suárez Navarro Interview
An interview with Carla Suárez Navarro after her win in the final of the Qatar Total Open.
An interview with Carla Suárez Navarro after her win in the final of the Qatar Total Open.
Zhang Shuai takes on Timea Babos in the group stage at the Huajin Securities WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai.
ZHUHAI, China – Three of the four semifinal spots at the Huajin Securities WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai could be decided as Elina Svitolina, Elena Vesnina and Sam Stosur take the court on Day 3. Preview all the singles action right here on wtatennis.com!
Thursday
Camellia Group
[13/Alt] Timea Babos (HUN #25) vs [12/WC] Zhang Shuai (CHN #28)
Head-to-head: Babos leads 1-0 (first meeting at tour level)
Stat: Zhang can advance to semifinals if she wins four games
The two lowest-ranked players at the WTA Elite Trophy will meet on Thursday with the same goal in mind, but facing very different scenarios. Last-minute singles alternate Timea Babos sits at the bottom of her group after suffering a straight sets defeat against Timea Bacsinszky, but she would have to pull off a massive performance in to advance to the semifinals. Her opponent, Zhang Shuai, needs to win just four games in order to clinch the Camellia Group semifinal spot. And considering the way China’s Zhang was able to leverage the support of her home fans in her 6-1, 6-1 thumping of Bacsinszky, Babos seems to be facing an uphill battle.
Azalea Group
[8] Sam Stosur (AUS #20) vs [11] Caroline Garcia (FRA #23)
Head-to-head: First meeting
Stat: Garcia owns a 1-7 record against Top 20 opponents in 2016
After suffering a straight-sets defeat against Britain’s Johanna Konta, Sam Stosur has one last shot to keep her semifinal hopes alive in Zhuhai. She’s up against Caroline Garcia and needs to win without dropping a set in order to stay alive in the Azalea Group. Stosur is more battle-tested than Frenchwoman, who is making her Zhuhai debut on Thursday, but she can’t afford another slow start against her big-hitting opponent.
“I’m playing another player I have never played before, so that’s I guess kind of unique these days out on tour,” Stosur mused in her post-match press conference. “I know that she plays aggressive tennis, got a big serve, really goes for it. She hits the ball hard.
“In a lot of ways it’s kind of similar to [playing Konta]. I need to, no doubt, get off to better starts. You can’t be giving these girls head starts by four games and expect to be able to come back every single time.”
Rose Group
[4] Elina Svitolina (UKR #14) vs [7] Elena Vesnina (RUS #19)
Head-to-head: Vesnina leads 2-1
Stat: Svitolina needs to win against Vesnina to advance to semifinals
Elena Vesnina is flying high after her doubles victory at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global, but she’ll have to hit the ground running in her first singles match at Zhuhai. Her opponent, Elina Svitolina, has her work cut out for her; she needs to beat Svitolina in order to advance to the semifinals, but Vesnina could knock her out if she wins in straight sets.
“[Vesnina] of course really confident, I think, at the moment after winning doubles in Singapore,” Svitolina assessed in her post-match press conference. “I will try just to stick to my game. It’s a new match, new challenge. There will be new opportunities. I will try to create of course opportunities for myself.”
Semifinal Scenarios
Camellia Group: Zhang advances if she wins 4 games vs. Babos on Thursday
Peony Group: Winner of Strycova vs Kvitova (on Friday) advances
Azalea Group: Stosur (vs. Garcia on Thursday) needs to win in straight sets to keep chances of advancing alive.
Rose Group: Svitolina advances with a win over Vesnina on Thursday. If Vesnina wins in straight sets, then Svitolina is out, with Friday’s match between Bertens and Vesnina determining the group winner; Bertens would need to win in straight sets to win the group.
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.
An interview with Petra Kvitova after her win in the semifinals at the Huajin Securities WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Elina Svitolina booked her place in the quarterfinals of the BMW Malaysian Open with a topsy-turvy win over qualifier Risa Ozaki on Thursday evening.
Watch live action from Monterrey & Kuala Lumpur this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!
After breezing through her opening match, Svitolina, the No.2 seed, seemed on course for another routine victory when she took a one-sided opening set.
However, in the end she was made to sweat – by both Ozaki and the Malaysian capital’s humidity – before running away with the match, 6-1, 3-6, 6-0.
Struggling with a preexisting back problem, Svitolina lost a series of tit for tat games to drop the second set to her unheralded opponent. A visit from the trainer helped alleviate her discomfort and refocus the mind as the Ukrainian nipped the potential upset in the bud.
“My back was a bit sore. I had an injury at the Australian Open so I need to take care of it and that’s why today I was worrying a bit about my back,” Svitolina said. “After the timeout I came out strong and was playing great and playing my game. So I’m really happy and it was good that I came back strong.
“I was a little bit injured, a little bit off my game. But she started playing well and that’s why I was a little bit struggling. All the games were advantage, deuce, advantage, deuce, so it was just a few points the difference. But this happens sometimes so I was just trying to be focused – and of course the conditions were not easy, too.”
Also advancing in Svitolina’s half of the draw was qualifier Zhu Lin, a 7-5, 6-2 winner over Zarina Diyas.
In the top half, there was success for a couple more unseeded players, Naomi Broady and Cagla Buyukakcay. Broady beat Yang Zhaoxuan, 6-4, 6-3, while Buyakakcay defeated top seed Roberta Vinci’s conqueror, Chang Kai-Chen, 7-5, 6-3.
Tennis legend and WTA Elite Trophy ambassador Steffi Graf arrived in Zhuhai and paid a visit to one of the city’s most impressive landmarks, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge!
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Eugenie Bouchard’s resurgent form continued at the BMW Malaysian Open, where she’s into the final without dropping a set so far after a win over Naomi Broady, 6-4, 6-3.
Watch live action from Monterrey & Kuala Lumpur this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!
Earlier in the day, Elina Svitolina made her way to the final with a win over Zhu Lin, the No.2 seed dispatching the Chinese qualifier in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3.
More to come…
NEW YORK, NY, USA – Some players make their tennis breakthrough in a blaze of glory. For others, the path to the top is a slow and steady one.
Angelique Kerber has taken the second route and this Monday arrived at her destination: World No.1. As far as possible successors to Serena Williams at the summit of the women’s game, Kerber was not top of many people’s lists, even after her breakthrough victory at this year’s Australian Open.
By her own admission, the German has been something of a late bloomer – she did not win her first silverware or break into the Top 10 until her mid-20s. However, just four months from her 29th birthday, she is scaling new heights.
“I’ve had a lot of ups and downs in my career, but I’m having the best year of my career and it’s still not over,” Kerber said earlier this summer. “It’s amazing what’s happened in the last few months – it’s just incredible!”
In January she stunned the tennis world by beating Williams to the Australian Open title, and after taking a while to come to terms with her achievement is now reveling in the limelight; at Wimbledon, she reached her second Grand Slam final, losing narrowly to Williams, following this up with a semifinal in Montréal, a silver medal at the Rio Olympics and now a second major, at the US Open.
Making light of this hectic summer schedule, Kerber was her usual indefatigable self in the final against Williams’ conqueror, Karolina Pliskova, scurrying to track down a succession of seemingly lost causes. This application served her well in the final set, hanging onto the Czech’s flying coattails before producing a characteristic late surge, winning 24 of the last 34 points, to claim the trophy.
Victory saw Kerber become only the second woman to win her first two major championships after turning 28. She is also the oldest player to make their debut at No.1, and there will be few quibbling that she is not there on merit.
“I knew that I have the game to beat the best players if I was just patient and worked really hard,” she said after the final in New York. “And now to see that the work pays off, this is actually the best feeling. Because I was a lot of hours on the practice courts, sweating and everything, and you are just playing for this moment to being on the center court in the final and with the amazing crowd. So this is what I was always dreaming for.”
It is fitting that her coronation came at Flushing Meadows, the venue where it first became obvious that she had something to separate her from the pack. Five years ago, Kerber, then ranked No.92, overcame Agnieszka Radwanska and Flavia Pennetta en route to an unlikely semifinal.
The following year, Kerber proved she would be no one-Slam wonder, consolidating herself at tennis’ top table with 60 wins, two titles and a Top 10 debut. For the next couple of seasons it looked like she had hit her ceiling, bobbing in and around the Top 10, registering the odd noteworthy result yet never launching sustained challenge for any of the game’s major prizes.
A familiar story seemed to be playing out at the start of 2016. After losing out to Victoria Azarenka for the Brisbane title, sixth-seeded Kerber found herself match point down to the unheralded Misaki Doi in the first round of the Australian Open.
What happened over the next hour – and then fortnight – will go down in German sporting folklore, Kerber negotiating a way out of this cul-de-sac, eventually going on to lift the most unexpected of titles.
However, even after the 2,000-point boost to her ranking tally, an assault at the No.1 ranking looked improbable. Indeed, at this point she still trailed Williams by over 3,500 points, making little inroads on this total as she struggled to come to terms with her newfound status over the coming months, a string of early exits culminating in a first-round exit to Kiki Bertens at Roland Garros.
This all changed over the summer months, a maiden Wimbledon final – in which she delivered a credible showing against a destiny-driven Williams – the start of a sequence of results that steadily chipped away at a once insurmountable lead.
By Cincinnati, top spot was in the crosshairs. While she missed out there, losing to Pliskova in the final, she made no mistake in New York, handling the pressure admirably.
“I think I’m ready to have this pressure on my shoulder, because I think I get used to all of this, especially after my first Grand Slam in Australia,” Kerber said.
Famed for work-ethic off the court, the WTA’s new queen bee is unlikely to rest on her laurels. “I had so much pressure after the title. And to being No.1, of course now everybody will try to beat me and have nothing to lose. I will try to take this challenge, because it will be a little bit new situation for me. But at the end, I was always practicing and working hard to be No.1. Now I can also take the next step and try to stay as long as I can there.”
Petra Kvitova continued her stellar second half of 2016 with a two-set win over Chinese No.1 Zhang Shuai, putting her into the final of the Huajin Securities WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai.