Tennis News

Chapter four of tennis’ history as a modern day Olympic sport was written in Sydney as the Games entered the new millennium and a new generation of stars looked to make their mark…

Sydney, Australia, 2000
Sydney Olympic Park Tennis Center
Hardcourt

The Olympic motto inscribed above the player’s entrance to the Sydney Olympic Tennis Center reads “Citius, altius, fortius”, and it is fitting that the player who moved faster, jumped higher and hit stronger than any other in 2000 was the one with a gold medal draped round her neck at the end of the Games.

Looking back, it is strange to think that going into the 2000 season there were question marks hanging over Venus Williams. Since breaking through at the 1997 US Open, Williams had struggled to deliver the results her talent deserved, watching her rivals – Martina Hingis, Lindsay Davenport and even sister, Serena – take home the major prizes.

This all changed in 2000 as Williams finally shook off her tag as tennis’ nearly woman by winning Wimbledon and the US Open. On the back of these triumphs, she arrived Down Under riding high on a 26-match winning streak and, despite not being on top of the rankings, was definitely the player to beat.

Her principal rivals for gold in Sydney were compatriots Lindsay Davenport and Monica Seles as the United States looked to continue its dominance of tennis at the Games.

However, for Davenport, who struck gold four years earlier, the Games would end early, when a foot injury forced her to withdraw prior to her second round-match with Rossana de los Ríos.

Seles, meanwhile, eager to make up for the disappointment of a quarterfinal exit in Atlanta, was in fearsome form, racing past her first four opponents and into the semifinals. Waiting for her there was Williams.

In four previous meetings between the two, Seles has won a solitary set and her fortunes were not about to change; despite a mid-match walkabout on serve, Williams always had the upper hand, eventually winning in three.

The final itself proved to be something of an anticlimax.

Few expected 18-year-old Elena Dementieva to make it that far, and for the first set she looked in a state of shock herself. By the time she did settle, it was too late, Williams had found her groove and was racing off towards the finish line.

The harder the Russian tried, the better Williams played. Whatever she attempted – inside out forehands, down the line backhands all came back with interest – merely succeeded in inspiring the American.

Before long match point had arrived, and moments later Williams was dancing round the court, racquet in one hand, flag in the other. A memorable end to a memorable summer.

——

Olympic Memories: Atlanta
Olympic Memories: Barcelona
Olympic Memories: Seoul

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – Kirsten Flipkens saved her best tennis for the end of the day, taking out four-time Olympic gold medalist Venus Williams in a three hour marathon, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(5) to close out the opening day of the Olympic tennis event in Rio.

“My dream was to come to Rio, but to beat one of the greatest champions, that’s a second dream coming true,” Flipkens said after the match.

The unseeded Belgian, a first-time Olympian, split sets with Williams as the American took the opening set by imposing her powerful baseline game, but Flipkens battled back aggressive on the return and broke Williams’ serve four times to take the second.

In the deciding set, Flipkens surrendered the first break in the fourth game as Williams built up a 4-2 lead. But just as Williams was serving for the match at 5-3, weariness began to take its toll as the match neared the three-hour mark. Flipkens fought back and the match went to a tiebreak, where Williams’ errors at the net ended up costing her the match.

“I was already thinking in the third set that it was one of the most epic matches I’ve ever played,” Flipkens said. “I said to myself before the match that I would just enjoy the match and give 200% on each point.”

“I felt like I could win the match but at the same time I was enjoying it so much it was hard to keep focused. You’re playing Venus Williams, not some junior.”

Earlier in the day, another American was knocked out of the competition as Eugenie Bouchard defeated Sloane Stephens 6-3, 6-3.

“I felt good out there, I was just trying to be very solid and I think I did that well,” Bouchard said. “I don’t think I gave her too many chances. I was there on every one of the return games. I was pushing her and I was close to breaking her a couple of times, so I am happy mentally. I was very focused.”

Bouchard grabbed the decisive break early on in both sets, and backed them up with aggressive play to book her spot in round two after an hour and fifteen minutes.

KEY INFORMATION:
Tournament Level: Premier 5
Prize Money: $2,804,000
Draw Size: 48 main draw (16 byes)/48 qualifying
Main Draw Ceremony: Friday, August 12, 5.30pm EDT
Qualifying Dates: Saturday, August 13 – Sunday, August 14 
First Day of Main Draw: Monday, August 15
Singles Final: Sunday, August 21, 2pm EDT
Doubles Final: TBC – Sunday, August 21, 12.15pm EDT on Grandstand

MUST FOLLOW SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS:
@WTA
@WTA_Insider – WTA Insider, Senior Writer Courtney Nguyen
@CinyTennis – official tournament handle
Get involved in conversations with the official hashtags, #CincyTennis and #WTA.

TOURNAMENT NOTES:
· Serena Williams bids to win a third straight Cincinnati title after accepting a late wildcard. She is the only player in the Open Era to win multiple times at the event.
· Since the tournament’s return to the tour in 2004, there have been 11 different winners of the tournament, although Serena is the only returning champion in the field this year. There are a couple of former runner-ups – Simona Halep (2015), Ana Ivanovic (2014) and Angelique Kerber (2012).
· The WTA’s current Top 5-ranked players are all in attendance: Serena, Kerber, Halep, Garbiñe Muguruza and Agnieszka Radwanska.
· Halep arrives on a 10-match winning streak, having won her past two tournaments, in Bucharest and Montréal.
· Lucie Safarova and Andrea Petkovic could both register their 400th career win by reaching the second round and quarterfinals, respectively.
· For the full draw click here.

WILDCARDS:
Serena Williams (USA), Christina McHale (USA), Louisa Chirico (SVK)

WITHDRAWALS:
Sloane Stephens (right foot), Jelena Jankovic (right shoulder)

CINCINNATI, OH, USA – One of the biggest events of the US hardcourt swing begins in full force on Monday. It’s the Western & Southern Open from Cincinnati and we’re previewing Day 1’s enticing match-ups on wtatennis.com.

Monday, First Round

Center Court
Sara Errani (ITA #32) vs. CoCo Vandeweghe (USA #33)
Head-to-head: Errani leads, 1-0
Key Stat: Monday’s winner faces fourth-seeded Garbiñe Muguruza in the second round.

American CoCo Vandeweghe will try to continue the momentum she built during the grass court season when she faces Italy’s Sara Errani on Center Court at the Lindner Family Tennis Center on Monday. It won’t be easy. Vandeweghe has won 12 of her last 15 WTA-level matches, but she has only played two matches since Wimbledon, winning one and losing one at Stanford. Vandeweghe will have to hit the mark early and often to avoid getting dragged into too many protracted rallies against the super-fit World No.24 from Bologna. It was Errani who won the only career meeting between the two at Wimbledon, but that was just over four years ago and the 24-year-old Vandeweghe has evolved since then, particularly after pairing with coach Craig Kardon last season. Errani reached the round of 16 at the Olympics, but she has only managed a 7-9 record against the Top 50 this season.

Pick: Errani in three

Ana Ivanovic (SRB #25) vs. [Q] Donna Vekic (CRO #121)
Head-to-head: Ivanovic leads, 1-0
Key Stat: Ivanovic has won seven of her last nine matches at Cincinnati, losing only to Serena Williams.

It has been a fantastic year on a personal level for former World No.1 Ana Ivanovic, marrying German footballer Bastian Schweinsteiger this July, but in order to make it a fantastic year professionally Ivanovic requires a summer resurgence on the US hard courts. After dropping a three-setter to Carla Suárez Navarro at the Olympics the Serb has now lost three straight and is barely hovering above the .500 mark for the season at 15-14. The 2014 Western & Southern Open runner-up will open up with a winnable contest against 20-year-old Croatian Donna Vekic. Long on promise, the former World No.62 has struggled to string together victories and will make her Cincinnati debut in the midst of a nine-match WTA-level losing streak.

Pick: Ivanovic in two

Grandstand
Caroline Garcia (FRA #30) vs. [Q] Daria Gavrilova (AUS #47)
Head-to-head: Gavrilova leads, 1-0
Key Stat: Garcia recorded her only career Top 5 win at Cincinnati last season.

A pair of highly-touted 22-year-olds will clash for the first time in a WTA main draw – they met five years ago on the ITF Circuit – on Monday in Cincinnati, as Caroline Garcia and Daria Gavrilova are set to lock horns in the second match on Grandstand. Garcia has lost four of six since winning her first career grass court title at Mallorca, but she is back at the scene of her first career Top 5 win, which came last season over Petra Kvitova during a quarterfinal run here at Cincinnati. The Frenchwoman doesn’t lack for talent, but consistency has been a limiting factor ever since she cracked the WTA’s Top 50 a little over two years ago. The same could be said about her opponent of late. Gavrilova’s breakout season came in 2015, and she’s done a solid job of maintaining a Top 50 ranking this season, but she has managed only two quarterfinals in 15 events this campaign.

Pick: Gavrilova in three

By the numbers…
400 – Both Andrea Petkovic and Lucie Safarova have a shot at winning their 400th WTA match at Cincinnati this week.
19 – The age of Jelena Ostapenko, the youngest player in this year’s draw. The Latvian will face Anna Karolina Schmiedlova on Grandstand on Monday.
0 – Spain’s Garbiñe Muguruza is appearing at Cincinnati for the third time but is still searching for her first victory. She will face the winner of Vandeweghe versus Errani after a first-round bye.

In her downtime in Montréal a few weeks ago at the Rogers Cup, Petra Kvitova paid a visit to the WTA Media TV truck to find out a little bit more about the people who broadcast her matches all around the world.

She learned about everything that goes into producing a tennis match, from switching between the eight to 12 cameras per court, keeping match stats, creating slow motion replays, and much more.

“It’s amazing how many cameras there are at the same time on the same court!” Kvitova said. “When I play, sometimes I just see one camera!”

A joint venture between the WTA and Perform Group, WTA Media will produce all main draw singles matches and semifinals and finals of all doubles matches from 2017.