Tennis News

Garbiñe Muguruza

2016 Quick Hits
Week 1 Ranking: No.3
Year-End Ranking: No.7
Season Highlights: Title at Roland Garros, semifinals in Rome and Cincinnati
Best Major Result: Champion (French Open)

2017 Outlook

World No.7 Garbiñe Muguruza’s 2016 season was a study in contrasts.

Following up and down results at the start of the year, the 23-year-old peaked at the right time to stun the world and claim her maiden major at the French Open.

But she didn’t advance past the third round at any other Grand Slam, and didn’t reach a WTA final all year long, with her best results coming in the form of semifinals appearances at Rome and Cincinnati.

The mercurial Spaniard was the first to acknowledge the mental toll of her season’s extreme highs and lows.

“Winning Roland Garros has been the best and worst part of the year,” Muguruza admitted to Marca in October ahead of the WTA Finals. “It might sound strange but it was like a double-edged sword.

“I won Roland Garros, but at other tournaments it was hard for me to play at the same level… I felt more responsibility, more pressure, more eyes on me, more of a feeling that you have to win because it’s what is expected of you.”

Looking ahead to 2017, Muguruza will look to step off the rollercoaster and regain the one aspect missing from her world-beater game: consistency.

“[My objective after winning Roland Garros] is to never believe that at 25 years old you will have achieved everything that you want, because in the end no player reaches their highest level at 22.

“I’ll take my time with everything. And if it doesn’t come next year, well, so it goes. That’s how I try to reassure myself.”

Tenis. Tennis. Tenis. Tennis….¡Trabajando duro! Working hard! https://t.co/JO4k6DixaC pic.twitter.com/HDtiM1la2G

— Garbiñe Muguruza (@GarbiMuguruza) December 9, 2016

1) Caroline Wozniacki is back in action.
A right ankle injury sidelined Wozniacki for all of the clay season, and the Dane is looking to make her comeback in Nottingham. She hasn’t played a WTA match since Miami and her ranking has plunged to No.34 – can she start her comeback on grass?

2) Can Cagla Buyukakcay keep making history?
The 26-year-old Turk is one to watch at the Aegon Open Nottingham: after making Turkish history in Istanbul and Paris, Buyukakcay starts her Wimbledon tune up at Nottingham, where she’s set to meet No.3 seed Caroline Wozniacki in the first round.

3) Defending champion Ana Konjuh faces a setback.
2015 Nottingham champion Ana Konjuh looked to be in good form after her run at the WTA Bol Open 125K before a lower back injury forced her to retire in the semifinals. Will she be recovered in time for Nottingham?

4) Don’t call it a comeback for Vicky Duval…
The American Vicky Duval is entering her second tournament of 2016 at Nottingham after undergoing knee surgery following the Australian Open. She’s up against the No.2 seed Johanna Konta in the first round.

5) …Or for Laura Robson.
With a clean bill of health and back on home soil again, former British No.1 Laura Robson is looking to make the best of her protected ranking at Nottingham. First up for the wildcard? Defending champion Ana Konjuh.

6) Belinda Bencic returns to Den Bosch going for one better…
No.1 seed Belinda Bencic is hoping to improve her run to the final in ‘s-Hertogenbosch last year.

7) …And she’s not the only one.
Besides Bencic, there are two other former ‘s-Hertogenbosch finalists in the draw: Kirsten Flipkens (2013) and Jelena Jankovic (2007) are both looking for their first title at the Ricoh Open. 2014 champion CoCo Vandeweghe is back as well.

8) It’s anyone’s game in Den Bosch.
With defending champion Camila Giorgi and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova out due to injury, No.8 Belinda Bencic is the highest ranked player at the Ricoh Open. Can Bencic capitalize on the opportunity or will a new name make her mark?

9) Can Kiki Bertens keep up the momentum?
The on-fire Bertens has built up quite the winning streak: she’s won 12 of 13 matches by claiming her second WTA title at Nurnberg and reaching her first Grand Slam final at Roland Garros. But as the season turns to grass, can Bertens keep it up?

10) And see where you can watch action from Nottingham and ‘s-Hertogenbosch on TennisTV!

SHENZHEN, China – Top seed and defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska came back from the brink to defeat an inspired Duan Ying-Ying in the first round of the Shenzhen Open.

Having romped through the opening set, Radwanska looked on course for a straightforward outing against the World No.103. However, it proved to be anything but, the Pole eventually scraping through, 6-2, 6-7(4), 7-5, after saving three match points.

“It was not my best tennis, but I’m very happy that I got the win, and on the important points I was doing a good job, which was the most important thing today,” Radwanska said.

“The match points were of course big moments, but also the tie-break in the second set. I came from 4-1 down that set but in the tie-break I didn’t play good enough and it slipped away. I was still on court for another hour after that.”

Duan, who required a wildcard into the main draw, grabbed her opportunity with both hands, recovering from the loss of the opening four games to gradually overwhelm the World No.3. In the final set it looked like she would claim a famous victory, breaking in the ninth game to serve for the match.

To the disappointment of the upset-hungry crowd, she could not find the finishing blow, three times coming within a point of victory only to be denied each time.

.@ARadwanska is fighting with all her might and has now saved three match points! pic.twitter.com/kej2g35CZ7

— WTA (@WTA) January 2, 2017

Radwanska made the most of her escape, taking the next two games to book a meeting with Sorana Cirstea.

“It’s always tough to play someone for the first time – I didn’t know what to expect. But she’s a very powerful player and solid from the back,” Radwanska said. “She also served very well and had nothing to lose. It was a very close match, even at the beginning.”

Elsewhere there were contrasting fortunes for her fellow seeds, Timea Babos and Anastasija Sevastova, both of whom slipped to surprise defeats. Babos failed to make the most of a flying start, losing 1-6, 7-5, 6-2, to Nina Stojanovic, while Sevastova fell to Kristyna Pliskova, 1-6, 6-3, 7-6(6), despite holding a couple of match points in the tie-break.

Minutes after her tough 7-5, 6-4 loss to Garbiñe Muguruza in the Roland Garros final, Serena Williams walked directly into her post-match press conference. She was as open and honest as she felt she could be after minimal time to process the match, the loss, and her emotions.

Q: Are you the type of person who can kind of let this match go quickly, or will you beat yourself up about it for a few days?

SERENA WILLIAMS: I don’t really know right now. I’m just — obviously it’s not something I’m like, Oh, it’s over with. It’s definitely something I want to dissect and see what I can learn from that and what can I do to get better from it. That’s the only way to keep improving.

On Wednesday, Serena turned to social media to tell the world how she really felt. “I was pissed, I have to admit,” she said in a video posted by Uninterrupted. “I thought I could’ve played better, I thought I could’ve competed better, I thought I could’ve really done everything five times better. And I didn’t, and I was so pissed that I actually abandoned my rackets in France after maybe a few smashes of the racket bag.”

VIDEO: @SerenaWilliams on French Open loss: “I'm going to take a moment to be super honest … I was really pissed.”https://t.co/qJzaGOjrJZ

— UNINTERRUPTED (@uninterrupted) June 8, 2016

Thankfully Serena’s speech did not end there. Not to worry, tennis fans. The World No.1 is already back on court preparing for her assault on Wimbledon, where she will once again be the defending champion and aim to match the Open Era record of 22 major titles.

Said Serena: “I’m out here [on court] by myself because sometimes by yourself is when the great things really happen.”

Here’s what Serena said in its entirety:

“So I’m going to take a moment to be super candid and super honest.

“After Paris, the final, which is great, you know, for everyone on this planet with the exception of me — I don’t do what everyone else does — I was really pissed, I have to admit. I thought I could’ve played better, I thought I could’ve competed better, I thought I could’ve really done everything five times better. And I didn’t, and I was so pissed that I actually abandoned my rackets in France after maybe a few smashes of the racket bag. I felt like if I was going to play that awful and that crappy, that maybe I don’t need rackets. Maybe I can just show up to a tournament, and maybe I can get to a final without playing great, and without practice.

“But obviously that doesn’t work and sometimes you have to work extra hard. So I’m out here by myself because sometimes by yourself is when the great things really happen.”