Doha: Thursday Highlights
Highlights from quarterfinal action at the Qatar Total Open.
BRISBANE, Australia – Dominika Cibulkova starts the 2017 season at a career-high ranking following her year-end triumph at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global. Still, the Slovak found time to assist the efforts of the newly formed WTA Charities before kicking off her campaign at the Brisbane International.
Partnering with the Ronald McDonald House South East Queensland and the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital, Cibulkova met a group of sick children who came prepared to ask the World No.5 questions about her life and career in Brisbane.
“They were really nice kids, asking good questions,” Cibulkova said after the event. “It was nice to meet them and I’m happy I can do this kind of thing.”
Asked what other sports she played, the former Australian Open finalist talked about the gymnastics she did as a child, but now enjoys skiing when she’s not on the tennis court. She also issued a challenge to Andre Agassi when asked which player she’d like to play.
“It’s cool that kids can get to know us a bit more, and I think they’ll follow tennis more intensely now, because when you know one of the players, you get more involved and more emotional. I think that’s really nice.”
Launched at the start of 2017, the mission of WTA Charities is to be a social responsibility vehicle built on the WTA’s values to empower and provide for a better future. WTA Charities is dedicated to combining, strengthening and enhancing the community and charitable efforts of the WTA through its members (players, alumnae and tournaments), along with its partners.
Cibulkova is the No.2 seed in Brisbane and will play her opening round match against Zhang Shuai.
Thanks to @Cibulkova for taking time out to meet these special kids from @RMHSEQ and Lady Cilento Children's Hospital ? #BrisbaneTennis pic.twitter.com/S68SoVCv9j
— #BrisbaneTennis (@BrisbaneTennis) January 1, 2017
MONTERREY, Mexico – Francesca Schiavone and Johanna Konta – two of the Abierto Monterrey Afirme’s top seeds – went to downtown Monterrey to play street tennis right outside the Palacio Municipal. They put on an exhibition match for the crowd and gave the fans a taste what’s to come this week in Monterey.
See the best photos – including some trick shots from Schiavone – right here, courtesy of the Abierto Monterrey Afirme.
AUCKLAND, New Zealand – World No.2 Serena Williams is back in action for the first time in five months at the ASB Classic, playing her first ever match in Auckland. She’s not the only big name hitting the court, though, with Venus Williams and Caroline Wozniacki also starting out 2017 in New Zealand.
Click here for the complete Auckland singles and doubles draws.
POSSIBLE QUARTERFINALS:
[1] Serena Williams vs [7] Jelena Ostapenko
‘NEW EXPERIENCES’ KEY FOR SERENA:
It’s been over five months since Serena played a tour-level tennis match, after falling to Karolina Pliskova at the US Open semifinals. She ended her season rehabbing a troublesome shoulder injury that kept her out of the WTA Finals in Singapore.
Now that she’s back in action, No.1 seed Serena admits to relishing new experiences – on and off the court.
“I’ve never been in Auckland and so I’ve never had an opportunity to be first in the world to welcome in this New Year,” she said at a charity event ahead of her opening match.
“This is a new experience for me and the fact that I’m still having new experiences this deep into my career makes me feel really good.”
Competing at the ASB Classic for the first time, the newly-engaged Serena will have the chance to collect her first win in Auckland as she opens the day session on Tuesday against France’s Pauline Parmentier for the pair’s first tour-level match.
Later tonight, No.2 seed Venus is set to take on local wildcard Jade Lewis, while No.3 seed Wozniacki will close out the night session against Nicole Gibbs.
– Photos courtesy of Tennis Auckland
LOS ANGELES, CA, USA – Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova are legends on the court and megastars off of it and on Sunday night they took a break from their Indian Wells preparations, stepping out for the star-studded 2016 Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Los Angeles.
On the tennis court, white dresses are typically reserved for the lawns of Wimbledon, but the players changed things up for the world-famous after-party. Sharapova turned heads in her Preen By Thornton Bregazzi dress and Williams sported a dramatic Galia Lahav lace gown, along with a sleek new haircut.
Check out the night’s best pictures as Sharapova and Williams rubbed elbows with Caitlyn Jenner, Kate Upton, Kerry Washington and more, courtesy of Getty Images and Vanity Fair:
The Oscars also played out on social media, too, with everyone weighing in and showing plenty of love for the night’s biggest winners.
Check out what WTA players had to say about Leonardo DiCaprio, who took home his first Academy Award for Best Actor:
Congrats @LeoDiCaprio for your Oscar last night! #Oscars2016 #deserved
— Angelique Kerber (@AngeliqueKerber) February 29, 2016
So happy for @LeoDiCaprio !!? After waiting this long, he can speak for as long as he wants! #celebritycrush
— Caroline Wozniacki (@CaroWozniacki) February 29, 2016
Life made. @LeoDiCaprio has won an Oscar and gives the speech of the evening. Good night.
— Johanna Konta (@JoKonta91) February 29, 2016
Leo with that speech. Drop the mic!!! Yes
— victoria azarenka (@vika7) February 29, 2016
What a great #Oscar acceptance speach from @LeoDiCaprio! ????#SpreadAwareness #climatechange #startwithonething
— Tsvetana Pironkova (@TPironkova) February 29, 2016
The best speech from the whole night Leonardo Dicaprio well-deserved!!! #oscars2016
— Varvara Lepchenko (@Varunchik1) February 29, 2016
Congratulations to @LeoDiCaprio for his Oscar last night! Well deserved and well overdue! #Oscars2016
— Ana Ivanovic (@AnaIvanovic) February 29, 2016
? pic.twitter.com/WBXC5O11qC
— Daria Gavrilova (@Daria_gav) February 29, 2016
No more photoshop memes for #LeonardoDiCaprio #Oscars2016 pic.twitter.com/oxLkeqsqFg
— Elina Svitolina (@ElinaSvitolina) February 29, 2016
Leo FINALLY got it… I don't think there would have a better moment to literally drop the mike… #LeonardoDiCaprio #Oscars
— Bethanie MattekSands (@BMATTEK) February 29, 2016
NEW YORK, NY, USA – A journey which began waiting around at the tournament supervisor’s office ended with Laura Siegemund and Mate Pavic hoisting aloft their first Grand Slam trophy on tennis’ grandest stage.
In front of an unashamedly partisan Arthur Ashe crowd, Siegemund and Pavic spoiled the party by upsetting No.7 seeds CoCo Vandeweghe and Rajeev Ram, 6-4, 6-4.
“I’m just stunned a little bit at this point. I’m very happy. I think we played a great match today, Siegemund said. “We did play a great tournament. All the other matches were, yeah, very solid also in the important situations, although we never played together.
“So it’s just amazing that even in the finals we could just play the same, you know, stay focused and stick to the system that was working the whole week. He was, as the British say, cool as a cucumber. He was cooler than me maybe at times. I was very glad about that.”
Despite both teams carving out several chances, the first set went on serve until 4-4, before a mistake at the net from Vandeweghe leading to the ultimately decisive break. The unseeded duo continued to exert the pressure in the second set breaking Vandeweghe to secure a milestone victory.
“In all the matches that we played, we broke the guy’s serve a lot of times,” Pavic said. “Like even today Rajeev was serving big and we broke his serve twice.
“We were putting the balls back, returning good, makes the them feel pressure and then it’s not easy to make the point. So I think that make a huge difference in all the matches that we played so far.”
They had never met before.
They didn't know who one another was.
But now Siegemund-Pavic are in Mixed Dubs Final. pic.twitter.com/Kw6W3yjXCp— ESPNTennis (@ESPNTennis) September 9, 2016
More to follow…
WTA Insider Courtney Nguyen | In the latest WTA Insider Podcast, hear from famed coach David Kotyza on his work with Karolina Pliskova to start the 2017 season in Brisbane.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – World No.153 Chang Kai-Chen provided further evidence of the current strength in depth on tour by knocking out Roberta Vinci in the first round of the BMW Malaysian Open.
Watch live action from Monterrey & Kuala Lumpur this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!
Following a succession of surprise results during the WTA’s recent double-header in Dubai and Doha, Chang became the latest underdog to have her day, producing a rousing early evening comeback to defeat top seed Vinci, 5-7, 6-2, 6-1.
The result, though, is by no means an isolated one. In fact, Chang has made a habit of defeating Top 10 players, Vinci joining a list that also includes Dinara Safina, Marion Bartoli and Samantha Stosur.
“It’s always an honor to play a Top 10 player and I really enjoyed the whole match,” Chang said. “I told myself after the first set to be more patient, so I slowed everything down, kept more balls in and just played with her. The result came out well!
“She’s very difficult to play because she slices and spins it, and I’m very happy I could win this match.”
No.2 seed Elina Svitolina fared better rather better in her first-round outing, requiring only 47 minutes to defeat qualifier Miyu Kato.
There were mixed fortunes for Svitolina in the Middle East, as a semifinal in Dubai was followed by a surprise first-round loss to Denisa Allertova in Doha. And Svitolina took out her frustration on qualifier Kato, breaking five times, whilst giving up just seven points on her own serve, en route to a 6-1, 6-1 victory.
Equally impressive was Svitolina’s next opponent, Risa Ozaki, who defeated Elizaveta Kulichkova, 6-0, 6-2.
“I’ll try and do the same thing – play the ball and not the opponent, which is the most important thing to me,” Svitolina said. “I think she’s playing well. She had a good win today and it’s always tough to play a qualifier, because they’ve had a couple of matches and it’s completely different conditions here than to Doha and Dubai.”
A fixture inside the Top 20 for the best part of a year now, Svitolina is flying the flag for Ukrainian tennis and this summer will have the opportunity to represent her motherland on the greatest sporting stage of all.
“The Olympics is a big event. It’s the first time for me so it’s going to be a really different experience and it’s amazing that I’m going to represent my country and play for Ukraine. It’s just a great thing.”
After last year’s French Open, Svitolina overtook Alona Bondarenko as Ukraine’s highest-ranked player of all time, a status that is a source of great pride: “It feels really great since I am the highest ever Ukrainian woman. So for me it was a big thing after Roland Garros when I became one of the highest.”
Elsewhere there were wins for Naomi Broady, Zarina Diyas and Yang Zhaoxuan.
Diyas caused the day’s biggest upset, knocking out No.4 seed Annika Beck, 7-5, 6-3. Broady, meanwhile, fired down 17 aces to win a see-saw encounter with Klara Koukalova, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, and Zhaoxuan fought back to defeat No.8 seed Zheng Saisai, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.
BRISBANE, Australia – For the second time in as many days, Garbiñe Muguruza came back from the brink to keep her hopes alive at the Brisbane International.
Muguruza entertained a record crowd at the Queensland Tennis Centre on Tuesday night, coming from match point down for to defeat the courageous Daria Kasatkina, 7-5, 3-6, 7-6(7), in one minute shy of three hours.
“What a match! It was terrible, I was suffering until last moment, but I think we were both playing amazing,” Muguruza said in her on-court interview. “The tie break is just a few points where it will be decided. I don’t know how I won but I’m glad I did it.
Another huge moment!@DKasatkina breaks back after this phenomenal challenge! pic.twitter.com/wWC8Oa8tNG
— WTA (@WTA) January 3, 2017
In a match that ebbed and flowed until the last, Kasatkina came roaring back from 4-1 down in the deciding set only to stumble when she was then presented with the opportunity to serve for it. Muguruza, somehow maintained her composure in the subsequent tie-break, wiping out a match point at 6-7 with a pin-point forehand before eventually making her weary limbs across the finishing line.
The previous evening, the Spaniard had been involved in an equally dramatic contest against home favorite Samantha Stosur. By her own admission, it is an atmosphere she revels in.
“I love to play in this type of court when the crowd is so into the match. I like to make them enjoy and suffer like me!”
This match?? @BrisbaneTennis
— Elena Vesnina (@EVesnina001) January 3, 2017
In the quarterfinals, Muguruza will face either Svetlana Kuznetsova or Destanee Aiava.
Another seed put through the ringer was Elina Svitolina, who eventually saw off Shelby Rogers, 7-5, 2-6, 7-5.
MONTERREY, México – Heather Watson produced her best tennis of the season to defeat Caroline Wozniacki and take a place in the semifinals of the Abierto Monterrey Afirme.
Watch live action from Monterrey & Kuala Lumpur this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!
A battle between two of the WTA’s sprightliest movers produced no shortage of entertaining exchanges, yet it was Watson, not the former No.1 on the other side of the net, setting the tone.
In a sparkling display, Watson took the game to Wozniacki from the off, eventually getting her reward with a break in the penultimate game of the opening set. Even a slow start to the second failed to discourage the Briton as she came roaring back, a couple of heavy-duty forehands kick-starting a run of four straight games.
Wozniacki, as ever, battled gamely to end, but she had no answer to her opponent’s inspired tennis, spraying a forehand wide to slip to a 7-5, 6-4 defeat.
“I’m very happy with how I played today. I thought I played very well – I needed to against Caroline because she’s a great player – and I had to fight to the end because I knew she would,” Watson said during her on-court interview. “I just took it point by point and didn’t look too far ahead.
“I think one of her main traits is that she is such a fighter. She makes a lot of balls and makes you really win it. I knew I was going to have to finish a lot of points today, come to net and not be too passive.”
Meeting Watson for a place in the final will be either Caroline Garcia or Pauline Parmentier.
On the other side of the draw, hopes for an all-British final were dashed when Kirsten Flipkens upset No.4 seed Johanna Konta, 6-3, 6-7(2), 6-1. Her reward is a meeting with another unseeded player, Anett Kontaveit, a 6-1, 6-4 winner over Nicole Gibbs.