Dubai: Angelique Kerber Interview
An interview with Angelique Kerber before her opening round match at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
An interview with Angelique Kerber before her opening round match at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
KATOWICE, Poland – She needed six match points and more than two hours but No.5 seed Camila Giorgi is through to the quarterfinals of the Katowice Open with a win over Russian qualifier Ekaterina Alexandrova, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.
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The big-hitting Italian was under pressure from the word go, dropping her opening service game and letting slip five break back opportunities in the next game to allow Alexandrova an early lead. History repeated itself, but this this time in favor of Giorgi – the Italian broke Alexandrova’s serve then saved four break points to even up the score at 3-3. Aided by her huge first serves – she hit nine aces during the match – the Russian took the first set 6-4.
But Alexandrova, who was playing in her career first WTA main draw, couldn’t keep up the intensity against the two-time Katowice finalist. Giorgi quickly took back the second set, and the two traded breaks early in the deciding set. Alexandrova showed plenty of fight while serving to stay in the match – she relied on her heavy first serves to keep her in as Giorgi brought up match point after match point. In the end, the Italian converted on her sixth opportunity, booking her spot into the Katowice quarterfinals with a hard-fought win.
“I’m really happy for this win today,” Giorgi said. “It wasn’t easy in the third set and I really want to say thank you to the fans for all the support. I hope everyone can come back on Friday [for my quarterfinal] and I can keep going in the tournament.”
Giorgi is set to play No.9 seed Kirsten Flipkens, who also made her way to the quarterfinals today with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Andreea Mitu, in the next round.
Things were more difficult for No.2 seed Anna Karolina Schmiedlova after Pauline Parmentier dealt her the biggest upset of the day. The Frenchwoman defeated her soundly 6-2, 6-0 and sent the defending Katowice champion crashing out in the first round in less than an hour.
“I was very focused from the beginning of the match,” Parmentier said. “After breaking straight away in the first game, I was really feeling good in my game. I served good, was really aggressive, and obviously it worked perfect today.”
The rest of the seeds at the Katowice Open advanced with ease, with Dominika Cibulkova, Jelena Ostapenko and Timea Babos notching straight sets wins.
SINGAPORE – Madison Keys is set to make her debut appearance at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global. As a result of her stellar performance throughout the Asian Swing, the American becomes the seventh player to qualify, joining Angelique Kerber, Simona Halep, Agnieszka Radwanska, Karolina Pliskova, Garbiñe Muguruza and Dominika Cibulkova in the star-studded singles field.
“I couldn’t be more excited to qualify for my first WTA Finals,” said Madison Keys. “I’ve worked harder than ever this year both on and off the court and I am happy that the hard work is paying off. I look forward to finishing my season strong in Singapore.”
Keys is enjoying a career-best season, breaking into the WTA Top 10 in June, and becoming the first American to enter the elite ranking bracket since Serena Williams in 1999. By advancing to the semifinals at the China Open, Keys reached a new career-high ranking of No.7 on Monday, October 10. The American won her second WTA title this year at the Aegon Classic Birmingham, as well as finishing runner-up at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, and Rogers Cup.
Other season highlights for the American include competing in her first Olympic Games, where she advanced to the semifinals, narrowly missing out on the bronze medal. She was one of just four players to reach the round of 16 at all of the Grand Slams this year, and advanced to the quarterfinals at the Miami Open and Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open.
The current Road to Singapore Leaderboard as follows (as of October 10, 2016):
DUBAI, UAE – Kristina Mladenovic set up a second-round showdown with Qatar Total Open champion Karolina Pliskova after defeating Katerina Siniakova 6-3, 6-3 at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
“It was a very difficult match, I think she is about a similar ranking to me and I never won against her so the score may have looked easy but we played for an hour and a half,” said Mladenovic. “I am very happy about my performance and very glad to be back in Dubai, I have great memories especially winning the doubles here last year and it’s a home tournament for me. I moved here a couple of years ago and I’m loving it.”
Siniakova had won the previous two meetings between the players but it was the 2017 St Petersburg champion who started faster, breaking her younger opponent in the opening game and twice more to win opening set 6-3.
.@KiKiMladenovic in full flight! #DDFTennis pic.twitter.com/Fz8tMKyVMg
— WTA (@WTA) February 20, 2017
The Czech began the season by winning her maiden WTA Tour title in Shenzhen but had no answer to Mladenovic’s effective all-court game, the Frenchwoman breaking early in the second set and hanging on to secure an intriguing second-round tie against in-form Pliskova.
“First of all she is a good friend of mine and we always had tough battles in the past, especially in the final of the Fed Cup I think we played four hours,” added Mladenovic. “Everybody knows about Kara, she’s on fire, winning last week for her second title of the season.
“For sure, it’s going to be a difficult match but I’m going to prepare the best I can. She just won in Doha, so she will feel great, obviously. And here, the conditions are also great for her. I will need to play a bit better than today.”
CHARLESTON, SC, USA – Unseeded at the Volvo Car Open, Yulia Putintseva earned one of the biggest wins of her young career – and her second Top 20 win of 2016 – by taking out former No.1 Venus Williams, 7-6(5), 2-6, 6-4, to reach the quarterfinals in Charleston.
Watch highlights, interviews and more video from Charleston right here on wtatennis.com!
Putintseva had played the elder of the Williams sisters thrice before in her career – most recently in the semifinals of Kaohsiung – but the two-time junior Grand Slam finalist had never won a set against the five-time Wimbledon winner. Saving some of her best tennis for the first set tie-break, Putintseva broke the duck off of a stunning lob and moved one set to the good.
Williams has been sporting a wrap on her left leg throughout her week in Charleston, but hardly looked hindered in the second set, winning six games in a row to level the match and break serve to start the decider.
“In the second set, Venus really played great tennis and I didn’t think that I had a chance to win or make it close,” Putintseva said after the match. “I had some chances but in the end she was making winners. In the third set, I just told myself, ‘Try not to make any errors, and if you have an opportunity, try to move her from side to side.'”
Ever undaunted, Putintseva survived several long games to break back twice in succession and, despite losing a 4-2 lead of her own, clinched the upset on her first match point, putting her into the last eight in Charleston in what is only her third main draw appearance. Hitting 26 winners and 30 unforced errors, the Kazakh kept her side of the stat sheet far cleaner compared to Williams, who hit 64 unforced errors and 50 winners.
The typically demonstrative youngster was speechless during her on-court interview with Andrew Krasny.
“I don’t know!” she said when asked how she pulled off the win. “Just believing in myself, keep pushing and saying that I can do it.”
“I tried and she always seemed to have an answer,” Venus said after the match, adding, “and you know a lot of shots were just too tough. So what can you do?”
Using her drop shot to good effect on the green clay courts, Putintseva will need all of her guile against Sara Errani, who converted all eight of her break point opportunities to defeat 2010 champion Samantha Stosur, 6-4, 7-6(5).
“It’s another great chance to see how I’m improving and try to make something happen and play my best tennis.”
That winning feeling ? ? ? pic.twitter.com/z9L30jjLgH
— WTA (@WTA) April 7, 2016
Russian qualifier Elena Vesnina backed up her emphatic win over No.2 seed Belinda Bencic on Thursday with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Lourdes Domínguez Lino. The Spanish veteran took out an ailing Eugenie Bouchard in the second round, and though she pushed Vesnina through multiple deuce games in the second set, the 2011 runner-up held her nerve to reach her fifth quarterfinal on green clay – including back-to-back semifinal appearances at the former WTA tournament in Ponta Vedra Beach.
“I love green clay!” she told Nick McCarvel during her on-court interview. “It’s too bad we only play on it once a year.”
Vesnina will next play German veteran Laura Siegemund, who won a battle of unseeded opposition by taking out Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, 7-5, 6-2. Lucic-Baroni had just won a marathon match over No.11 seed Kristina Mladenovic, but still had her opponent on the ropes in the final game, holding four break points before Siegemund closed it out on her second match point.
Qualifier @EVesnina001 takes the win over Dominguez Lino. Her best result here since finals in 2011. #VCO2016 pic.twitter.com/sststF7tZI
— Volvo Car Open (@VolvoCarOpen) April 7, 2016
Moscow, Russia – Elina Svitolina has admitted that she did not believe that her triumph over Serena Williams at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics was possible.
The Ukrainian knocked out the 22-time Grand Slam winner in the third round of the games, beating her 6-4, 6-3 before being beaten 6-2, 6-0 by Petra Kvitova.
However, the 22-year-old, who has enjoyed her most successful year on the WTA tour to date, said the full extent of her achievements did not sink in until afterwards.
“It wasn’t really a dream but a big challenge,” she said.
“Maybe subconsciously I thought it to be impossible. When Serena plays at her best level, it’s impossible to beat her. I didn’t really think about it. The fact that it happened during the Olympics… I played very well that day, it was unexpected.
“Maybe she didn’t expect me to play that well, and she said she was very surprised and congratulated me. For a player it’s important to defeat your opponent but also to play well. I didn’t make many unforced errors and attacked every ball. I think that’s what she meant.
“I tried not to think about it because I had to play a match the next day but it was cancelled due to rain. Maybe after the tournament I tried not to be upset because defeating her was quite a big achievement.
“I understood that I made something for my country. Playing for the country is always a pleasure because your country supports you. But I couldn’t win a medal.”
After Angelique Kerber usurped Williams as World No.1, Svitolina also defeated her but she says she has no tips for beating the best players in the world.
“I don’t have any secrets. We had some tough matches. I won the first set pretty easily and served twice for the match. It was an important match for me because if I play at my best, we play with her at a quite same level.
“That win was not a win against the No.1 but against Angelique Kerber. If she gives an opportunity, I can beat her. She had an amazing year winning two Grand Slams, it’s unbelievable. In the beginning of the year not a lot of people thought she could manage it.
“But she did and became No.1. It’s an unbelievable achievement.”
Svitolina also believes that her game has come on a lot since the start of 2016, when she knocked out in the second round of the Australian Open by Naomi Osaka.
“The beginning was not so well. In Australia I lost a match to Osaka and it was painful and then I got injured. I couldn’t play at 100 per cent. Then it was better. I felt better, both health- and game-wise. I came back to a stable level and the results followed. It was a transitional season. I changed my game and I think in the end of the year played well. I still have to play here and in Zhuhai.”
Svitolina believes that some of her success has come as a result of the close working relationship she has with Justine Henin.
“It’s a priceless experience for me. I guess what we achieved was over my expectations. It’s good that she shares her moments on court,” she explained.
“She shared what she felt when she played the finals of Grand Slams. I am not here yet. But it very interesting. And she could tell me what were the mistakes she made back then so that I don’t repeat them. We changed some moments in the preparations and practices. I guess it became more professional.”
DUBAI, UAE – Reigning Olympic Gold medalist Monica Puig continued her solid February form, beating Yaroslava Shvedova, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 to advance at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
After a slow start to the season, which saw her go 1-3 in January, Puig opted to refocus her training on the practice courts after the Australian summer. Out of the spotlight and back at her base in Boca Raton, Florida, the 23-year-old was able to put in the work that was missing in the pre-season.
“I think post-Australian Open was a really big change for me, because I really just buckled down and I said, ‘Look, this can go one of two ways: It can go really bad or it can go really well.'” she told press after the match. “I’m just going to work as hard as I can. If I lose, at least I know that I’m doing everything in my power to come out and win. And then I go back to the drawing board and just fix it.”
The hard work paid off immediately. In her first tournament since Melbourne, she made the semifinals of the Qatar Total Open last week, her first semifinal since the Olympic tennis event in Rio de Janeiro.
“Right now that’s on my mind is just trying to become the best I can be, and I know that the only way to do that is by working. I don’t mind staying on the tennis court a little while longer.”
Puig’s motivation has never been in doubt but she has been candid about how her incredible run to the gold medal last summer led to a cloud of pressure and negativity that bled into her game.
“It was a great week for me in Rio, and it was really good, but the fact of the matter is I didn’t back it up afterward,” she said. “So right now I’m just trying to get back to feeling comfortable, playing at that level consistently. And right now I’m doing a great job, I think. I’m working really hard. I’m giving my 100% in tennis, and I’m just focused on this right now. This is consuming my whole life.
“I just really want this really bad. So I’m going to do whatever it takes. If that’s training more, if that’s fixing the little things, it doesn’t matter for me. I really love what I do and I really love playing tennis. I’m just going to work really hard to accomplish some more of my dreams.”
In order to plug into her game, Puig has had to unplug from social media. In January, Puig told WTA Insider that the constant negativity she received on social media after her sub-par finish to the season dragged her down. After a three-week break from social media platform during the off-season, Puig took a concerted effort to take a step back.
“My New Year’s resolution is to not get caught up in what other people say about me,” Puig said in January. “I can go lingering into social media and that’s not a good thing. I have gotten a lot of negative comments. I have a lot of people who don’t really like me. I look at it and it’s really bad.
“They don’t know what we’re going through, they don’t know the struggles. They don’t know what goes on behind the scenes and they don’t know how hard we work. If they were put in our position maybe they would appreciate it a little bit more. So this year I’m trying to block the noises outside the court that affect me negatively.”
“It used to make me happy,” Puig added of social media. “All of a sudden it makes me miserable. So why should I continue to do something that makes feel this way. I just don’t really want to be there anymore. I get on it when I need to post something or if I get a notification of something I have to do, then ok. But I don’t really like to get caught up in it too much.
“My main goal this year is to be happy. Even though I won Rio, there were a lot of moments at the end of 2016 when I was very unhappy when I let the results get the best of me and I let the negative voices get the best of me and that brought me down into a little bit of a depression.”
“I’m doing what I love for a living and if I’m not happy, what am I doing?”
Slowly but surely, Puig is finding the answers by focusing on the basics and simplifying her outlook. The gold medal from Rio sits in her home and she still brushes it off every now and then to remind herself that anything is possible on any given week. But for now, it’s more about working and less about dreaming.
“I do have my goals and I have them set, but right now I think the biggest thing is focusing on the process, because if I get too result-oriented, then I lose sight of what’s important,” Puig said. “And right now what’s important is to continue to grow as a tennis player and as a person.
“I feel like maturity is something that I have to work on and that I’m going to continue to work on. I’m in no rush to get anywhere. I proved that to myself that anything great can happen at any time. I just have to work really hard to get there.”
Puig next plays No.15 seed Caroline Garcia in the second round.
All photos courtesy of Getty Images.
An interview with Sloane Stephens after her win in the quarterfinals of the Volvo Car Open.
DUBAI, UAE – No.10 seed and 2011 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships winner Caroline Wozniacki kept up her Middle East momentum on Monday, moving past rising Russian Daria Kasatkina, 6-2, 7-5 to advance into the second round.
“I knew it was going to be a tough match,” Wozniacki said during her on-court interview. “She mixes up the pace a lot and she has great hands and serves well. For me, it was important to play my own game and speed things up. I was pleased with my win.
“It’s much different conditions here,” she continued in her post-match press conference. “The ball is flying. The court is faster than in Doha.
“I didn’t really know how I was going to play to start off with. Generally, I was pleased with my game. Some serves were flying a little bit. I kind of have to adjust that for tomorrow.”
From WAY BEHIND the baseline to the net @CaroWozniacki! ?? #DDFTennis pic.twitter.com/VHTbHkYPDc
— WTA (@WTA) February 20, 2017
Kasatkina has been one of the players to watch over the last 12 months, and the Russian has backed up the hype with a pair of wins over Angelique Kerber at the Apia International Sydney and last week at the Qatar Total Open.
“I was watching her play last week during my rain delay and she was still playing a bit. I thought, ‘Gosh, she’s so young!’ I remember when I was 19, I thought I was all grown up, but she definitely has a great career ahead of her.”
.@DKasatkina with the jumping backhand! ? #DDFTennis pic.twitter.com/Dw46MDQ3Nd
— WTA (@WTA) February 20, 2017
Coming off a run to the Qatar Total Open final, Wozniacki’s experience and consistency proved too much for the flashy Kasatkina, hitting 17 winners to just 20 unforced errors – compared to 43 from the Russian teenager.
“I feel I can generate a lot of pace on these courts. I get to a lot of balls, too, which I think is frustrating for the other players that I can kind of go from defense to offense and really hurt them with that when they play a short ball.”
The Dane saved her best tennis for the key points, converting five of seven break point opportunities en route to the 90 minute victory.
“I won her back in 2011, and I’ve made many semifinals here, so I’ve had great matches here. It’s a lot of fun for me to be back; I was sorry to miss last year because of injury, but that makes coming back even better!”
Up next for the former World No.1 is Switzerland’s Viktorija Golubic, who ousted Turkish wildcard Cagla Buyukakcay in three tough sets on Sunday.
“I saw her name at a tournament somewhere last year at the end of last year,” she said of the Gstaad champion. “I think she played the finals, but that’s basically it.
“I know how she looks like, but I don’t know anything about her game. I will have to just scout some matches and go from there.”
.@CaroWozniacki happy to be back at @DDFTennis! pic.twitter.com/YhEYAbveOt
— WTA (@WTA) February 20, 2017
Watch live action from Moscow & Luxembourg this week at WTA Live Powered By TennisTV!
The World No.12 knew she had to win the tournament, which is also being contested by Singapore rival Svetlana Kuznetsova, to reach the finals, but was trailing the Australian, 6-3, 3-0, when she pulled out.
It was Suárez Navarro who made the brighter start, finding her range in rallies from the off and breaking after Gavrilova sent a forehand long. The Australian had a chance to get back on terms immediately but squandered three break points and the Spaniard recovered to hold.
The No.3 seed missed an opportunity to extend her lead in the third game of the match but both players settled after the frantic opening and became more comfortable on serve.
With Suárez Navarro serving at 4-3, Gavrilova rallied, producing some stunning winners to finally draw level after a marathon game. The World No.37 ground out a hold and soon found herself with two set points on the Suárez Navarro serve; she took the second thanks a forehand into the tramlines.
Suárez Navarro, who had to undergo treatment between sets, had the chance to get on the front foot at the start of the second but sent a routine backhand wide on break point. A string of unforced errors then handed Gavrilova a break to love and the Australian soon had a clear lead.
After Suárez Navarro missed a further chance to break the Gavrilova serve and slumped to a 3-0 deficit in the second set, she announced to the umpires that she was retiring, ending her chances of reaching Singapore.
The last @WTAFinalsSG spot is down to Jo Konta or Svetlana Kuznetsova. Scenario is simple: If Sveta wins Moscow, she's in. If not, Jo is in.
— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) October 19, 2016
“I thought I played pretty well, it was a tough battle, I’ve practised with her a lot of times,” Gavrilova said after the match.
“[There were] a few pretty tough games, I think we played the first four games for like 40 minutes, and then I found momentum.
“I lost my serve at the very beginning, but I felt like I was still in it and I had a lot of chances and then finally it all worked out.
“I feel very different to how I felt last year; I was really tired last year. This year, I had a few days off after the US Open and regrouped and had my training in Melbourne and now I’m just enjoying the last few tournaments.”
Suárez Navarro’s withdrawal means that only Kuznetsova can prevent Johanna Konta from filling the final spot in Singapore.