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News | WTA Tennis English

News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

MIAMI, FL, USA – The Miami Open doubles tournament kicked into high gear on Saturday as two of the Top 4 seeds took the court to begin their respective campaigns. Before the storm clouds rolled in for the third straight day, No.2 seeds Ekaterina Makarova & Elena Vesnina and No.4 seeds Andrea Hlavackova & Peng Shuai both advanced into the second round, each in straight sets.

The two teams last met in the finals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, which the Russians won in a tense match tie-break, and could potentially meet in the semifinals of Miami.

Hlavackova and Peng have nonetheless enjoyed a strong start to 2017, reaching the finals of the Australian Open and briefly leading the pack at the top of the Road to Singapore leaderboard.

“The doubles game is improving a lot,” Hlavackova told WTA Insider. “A lot of singles players are playing doubles, and most of the top teams are made up of singles players, so it’s very tough competition. We are very happy to start the season so well; I think it’s pretty special to start the team so well as a new team. We just want to keep going.”

Peng Shuai, Andrea Hlavackova

Up against a young team in Naomi Osaka and Monica Puig, the duo edged through a close opening set to roll through, 7-6(6), 6-1, and book a second round clash with Shuko Aoyama and Yang Zhaoxuan.

“They started very strong in the first set. They served really fast and played a very fast baseline game. It was very important to not panic and keep playing and find out time and moment. We got the tie-break and started from there, even better.”

Osaka and Puig each produced exciting results in singles last year, but have yet to hit the same heights on the doubles court.

“They’re young; when they get to our age, they’ll have experience!” joked Peng.

“I think they’re a great team. They play strong and fast. In the first set, we were almost lucky to get the tie-break, but in the second set, we got a break quickly, so the feeling was different.”

Elena Vesnina, Ekaterina Makarova

Earlier in the day, Makarova and Vesnina each shrugged off tough singles losses on Friday to power through their first doubles match in Miami, ousting Oksana Kalashnikova and Asia Muhammad, 6-0, 6-2.

“We both had crazy singles matches yesterday,” Vesnina said. “I texted her after the match, because I knew she was crying and she was tired. I told her, ‘Katya, don’t even put yourself down. We have a tough sport, but it’s not the end of the world. Cry for another five, ten minutes, and just pack your stuff, go back to the hotel, get sleep, and tomorrow we’ll kick some asses on the court!’

“We needed to regroup and forget our tough losses because it’s tough. You can have a black line in your life, white line in your life, and there can be moments where there are more black lines than white, but you still need to find the positivity though the negative. Sometimes, what doesn’t kill you makes you strong.”

The dynamic duo are set to celebrate their fifth anniversary of doubles at the Mutua Madrid Open, but may leave Crandon Park with an unexpected present; should they win the tournament, they will rise to Co-World No.1 – as long as Bethanie Mattek-Sands falls before the semifinals and Kristina Mladenovic fails to reach the final.

“Before you told me, I didn’t even know! We’ll take it match by match. Katya and I always do that; we’ll just focus on our doubles. We lost our singles, so we’ll try our best to do good in doubles because this is a big tournament.

“Miami is very prestigious and it’s a huge event; we’ve been in the final twice. This year we’ll try to go all the way.”

Up next for the Olympic Gold medalists and reigning BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global champions is the unseeded and dangeous pairing of Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Kveta Peschke.

All photos courtesy of Getty Images.

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Williams & Sharapova Kick Off Round 2

Williams & Sharapova Kick Off Round 2

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

A blockbuster second-round match between Agnieszka Radwanska and Eugenie Bouchard highlights the Day 3 schedule down under, but that’s not all we’ll be keeping an eye on.

Wednesday, Day 3
Second Round

[4] Agnieszka Radwanska (POL #4) vs. Eugenie Bouchard (CAN # 37)
Head-to-head: Radwanska leads, 1-0
Key Stat: Radwanska has won 23 of her last 28 matches.

Is Eugenie Bouchard ready to make a play for a return back to the WTA’s elite? We’ll likely have a clearer answer to that question after Wednesday’s tussle with red-hot Agnieszka Radwanska. The Pole has been in rude form thus far in 2016, wining her first six matches without the loss of a set, but she knows she’ll be in for a tough challenge when she faces Bouchard for the second time in her career. The Canadian has already won seven matches in 2016—something it took her until May to do last year—and she played scintillating tennis in taking down Aleksandra Krunic on Day 1. This promises to be a thrilling encounter between two in-form players, and the winner should be well positioned for a run deep into the second week.

Pick: Bouchard in three

[6] Petra Kvitova (CZE # 6) vs. Daria Gavrilova (AUS # 39)
Head-to-head: Kvitova leads, 1-0
Key Stat: Gavrilova served for the match in the pair’s first meeting at Wuhan last year.

Petra Kvitova erased a lot of doubts about her form on Day 1 in Melbourne when she avenged her shock upset in 2014 to Thailand’s Luksika Kumkhum with a routine straight-sets win. But Kvitova is in for another challenge when she squares off against the feisty Daria Gavrilova in round two. Playing under the Aussie flag for the first time at a major, the 21-year-old eased past accomplished veteran Lucie Hradecka in straight sets on Monday. Gavrilova was close to Kvitova in their first tour-level meeting, actually serving for the match, and she hopes to take that experience into Wednesday’s tilt. “I got pretty close,” she told reporters in Melbourne on Monday. “I was serving for it in China. I was up 5-3, and I think I lost in like two minutes the next four games. She hits the ball pretty hard; has a good serve. I’ll have to work very hard and run a lot.”

Pick: Kvitova in three

[5] Maria Sharapova (RUS #5) vs. Aliaksandra Sasnovich (BLR # 105)
Head-to-head: First meeting
Key Stat: Sasnovich has never played a top-10 player before.

Maria Sharapova shook the rust off in style on Monday, firing 11 aces and clocking 28 winners to down Japan’s Nao Hibino in straight sets. The Russian will face a relatively unknown quantity in Belarus’s Sasnovich on Wednesday, but Sharapova knows that if she plays to her potential her chances of advancing are good. “I try not to focus so much on the opponent or the atmosphere and just really focus on myself and try to bring the positives of a good training week, just try to execute that,” she said. Sasnovich, 21, made a run to the Seoul final as a qualifier last season, and while she’s never beaten a player inside the top 30, she’s proven to be tough on big occasions. She won 11 consecutive finals at the Challenger and Futures level between 2011 and 2014.

Pick: Sharapova in two

[1] Serena Williams (USA #1) vs. Hsieh Su-Wei  (TPE # 90)
Head-to-head: First meeting
Key Stat: Hsieh reached the Australian’s second week as a qualifier in 2008, but has only won two matches here since.

21-time major champion Williams came out firing on Monday and quickly found that her opponent, Italy’s Camila Giorgi, was firing back. But the American, who had not competed in a tour-level match since last year’s U.S. Open, proved to be up to the challenge. She kept the hard-hitting Giorgi at bay with her lethal serve, dropping only four first-serve points and facing just one break point, and demonstrated no signs of the injury to her left knee that forced her out of Hopman Cup. Though the crafty, cerebral Hsieh isn’t much of a match on paper for the six-time Australian Open champion, at this point in Williams’ quest for major No. 22, she’s not ready to take anything for granted. “You know, everyone is here to win,” Williams said. “Everyone is here to play their hardest. Yeah, I can’t look past anyone.”

Pick: Serena in two

Around the Grounds: Belinda Bencic will look to advance to the third round in Melbourne for the first time when she meets Hungary’s Timea Babos. Babos, an elite doubles player, appears to be upping her singles game as well. She took out Great Britain’s Heather Watson in three sets on Day 1… Russian Daria Kasatkina is a player on the rise. She knocked off 27th-seeded Anna Karolina Schmiedlova on Monday and has risen more ranking spots than any other player in the top-100 in the last year (from 350 to 69). Kasatkina will square off in a battle of promising 18-year-olds on Wednesday when she meets Croatia’s Ana Konjuh.

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Sharapova Sails Into Third Round

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

2008 Australian Open champion Maria Sharapova faced few problems under the roof in Rod Laver Arena, progressing past Aliaksandra Sasnovich in straight sets.

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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

MIAMI, FL, USA – World No.1 Angelique Kerber steamrolled past Japanese qualifier Risa Ozaki in barely an hour to move into the Miami Open quarterfinals for the third time in her career.

Kerber broke the Ozaki serve six times and hit 17 winners to Ozaki’s seven on her way to the 6-2, 6-2 victory.

“I think that she’s played a good tournament,” Kerber praised her opponent in post-match press. “She came through the qualies, she beat good players. I was ready for it.

“I talked with my team and I know that she’s moving good and bringing a lot of balls back. I was trying to play my game and be aggressive.”

After a tentative start, with both players feeling each other out in their first encounter, it all went the German’s way as her powerful game started to click together. She dictated with the forehand, breaking Ozaki twice for a 4-1 lead. The 22-year-old Japanese earned one of the breaks back, but it wasn’t enough to halt Kerber’s momentum as she steamrolled to the opening set.

The same pattern emerged in the final set; Kerber rolled ahead to a 5-0, triple break lead, but faltered for a moment against Ozaki’s slices and the Japanese grabbed one of the breaks back. Kerber stayed solid, though, and wrapped up the match moments later.

Despite the result, 22-year-old Ozaki will still have reason to celebrate. After reaching the main draw in her Miami Open debut, Ozaki is set to rise to a career-high ranking on Monday, projected to land inside the Top 75.

For Kerber, the challenge continues in the next round as she’ll face the winner between WTA veterans Venus Williams and Svetlana Kuznetsova for a spot in the semifinals.

“I think it doesn’t matter against who because they are both amazing players,” Kerber said. “Playing against Venus, I’m looking forward [to it] if it’s Venus. But as well if it’s Sveta, she’s played great tennis in the last few weeks. She reached the final in Indian Wells. She’s on fire, but also Venus, she played amazing this year so far.

“I’m looking forward to playing against them. We’ll see tonight.”

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Sharapova & Williams Clash In Rematch

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

A blockbuster battle between Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova highlights the Day 9 schedule in Melbourne as quarterfinal action begins. Here’s a preview of what’s on tap.

Tuesday, Day 9
Quarterfinals

[1] Serena Williams (USA #1) vs. [5] Maria Sharapova (RUS # 5)
Head-to-head: Williams leads, 18-2
Key Stat: Williams has won 17 straight decisions against Sharapova, a streak that dates back more than a decade.

There’s no denying that the numbers make a case for a predictable outcome. Serena Williams has—quite remarkably—defeated Maria Sharapova on 17 consecutive occasions and only lost three of her last 37 sets against the Russian, and yet when these two iconic forces meet there is always an air of electricity surrounding the affair. That can be chalked up to several factors. One, starpower; Two, sheer athleticism; Three, competitive fire. Both Sharapova and Williams possess all three of the aforementioned entities in spades, and plenty of Grand Slam hardware to boot. And even though Williams has thoroughly dominated this rivalry over the last 11 years, the one-sidedness has not detracted from the intrigue. “Every match is new,” Williams said of the upcoming quarterfinal with Sharapova. “You know, she always brings in something new and something special.”

Williams remains confident in her game after four breezy wins in Melbourne but she admits that the psychology of having such a long winning streak against a formidable opponent creates a strange dynamic. “I think the person who is winning could definitely feel the pressure because there is a lot of expectations,” she says. Meanwhile, Sharapova enters the matchup with a sense of brimming hope. She’s serving as well as she ever has, as 37 aces in her last two matches can attest, and she’s upped the aggression in her ground game, which could help her avoid having her movement exposed by the quicker Williams. “You’re always trying to improve,” Sharapova said on Sunday after her fourth-round win over Belinda Bencic. “I got myself into the quarterfinal of a Grand Slam. There is no reason I shouldn’t be looking to improve and to getting my game in a better position.” Could these new wrinkles help Sharapova finally get over the hump against Williams? Or will Williams once again prove to be an unsolvable puzzle for the hard-hitting Russian?

Pick: Williams in three

[4] Agnieszka Radwanska (POL #4) vs. [10] Carla Suárez Navarro (ESP # 11)
Head-to-head: Radwanska leads, 3-1 (counting Fed Cup)
Key Stat: Radwanska is currently on a 12-match winning streak that dates back to last year’s WTA Finals in Singapore.

Two of the tour’s most cherished players will duke it out for a coveted semifinal slot at the year’s first major. Radwanska, a semifinalist in 2014 in Melbourne, has won three of four matches against Suárez Navarro, but dropped the pair’s last meeting in Miami last year. Though the Pole comes in as the hottest player on the WTA Tour at the moment, she knows she’ll be in for a tough, physical encounter against the resourceful Suárez Navarro. As for the 27-year-old Spaniard, she’s quite familiar with Radwanska’s tactics and form, and knows she’ll have to be on point in order to reach her first career Grand Slam semifinal. “We had really tough matches in the past,” Suárez Navarro said of matching up with Radwanska after dispatching Daria Gavrilova on Day 7. “I know it will be tough for me. I know that because of her style, you have to run a lot, you have to think every point what to do.”
Radwanska had to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat on Sunday, reeling off five consecutive games in the final set to defeat Germany’s Anna-Lena Friedsam, and the magical finish has her thinking that she could be destined for a career-best run down under. “I’m just very happy that I could win the last point,” she said, adding: “I just hope I can go further and do one step forward, make the final.”

Pick: Radwanska in three

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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

MIAMI, FL, USA – One lucky tennis fan got their hands on one of Caroline Wozniacki’s Stella McCartney-designed Adidas tennis dresses after the Dane marched into the semifinals of the Miami Open on Tuesday.

Wozniacki had just defeated Lucie Safarova 6-4, 6-3 and was clearly in the mood to make someone’s day after her impressive display.

“Any girls that play tennis want this skirt?” offered Wozniacki, before handing one of her red dresses to a very grateful fan.

Victory for Wozniacki means that she now faces Karolina Pliskova for a place in the final, having previously defeated Dominika Cibulkova in straight sets.

Wozniacki enjoys a 3-1 head-to-head against Pliskova, but it was the Czech who won the last encounter, having defeated her in the finals of the Qatar Total Open.

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Cool Konta Beats The Buzz

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

MELBOURNE, Australia – She originally immigrated to the UK at the age of 14 because of the distance between Australia and her new tennis training base in Europe. But throughout the Australian Open fortnight, that same distance has served well to keep the pressure off of the shoulders of British semifinalist Johanna Konta.

“The UK is a number of thousands of miles away and a completely different time zone, which in this case it might be quite nice,” Konta said, speaking of the growing buzz around her wins Down Under. “I think whatever pressure or whatever buzz there is outside, it only affects me as much as I let it.”

The always-cool Konta might remain unaffected, but there’s good reason for all the buzz.

She was the first British player since Jo Durie in 1984 to reach the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam, and with her win over Zheng Shuai she’s matched another of Durie’s milestones: making a Grand Slam final four, which Durie achieved at the 1983 US Open.

Now, she’s one win away from becoming the first British finalist in a Slam since Virginia Wade won Wimbledon in 1977.

“I don’t know Jo Durie or Sue Barker or any of the others who’ve been this far,” Konta admitted to the press after her win against Zhang. “But I’ll definitely make a concerted effort to find out more about them. It’s on the to-do list to become more informed.”

Konta displayed her potential with her impressive 2015 performance, improving her ranking by 103 spots to end the year at No.47 and produced several upsets along the way, notching wins over Garbiñe Muguruza and Andrea Petkovic at the US Open and over Victoria Azarenka and Simona Halep in Wuhan.

But for Konta, who was nominated for WTA Most Improved Player, the focus isn’t on making history or headlines- just continuing her steady upward climb to the top.

“I’m not really thinking about accumulating ‘wow’ moments, just solid experiences,” Konta said. “I just look at the way I live every single day and the way I want to compete in every single match. It’s about doing my job.”

The last Brit to make the Australian Open semifinals was Sue Barker in 1977, back when the tournament was held in December and the 32-player draw was dominated by Australians.

How does Barker feel about Konta batting away so many long-held records?

“I feel sorry for her having so many records thrown at her and it’s upsetting that it has taken so long to break the ones that were set in my era,” Sue Barker said to The Times. “Most other countries would be upset if they didn’t have a woman in a quarterfinal for a couple of years.”

“There has been a void in British women’s tennis for so long but now Johanna Konta has filled it.”

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Christina McHale: From Melbourne To Maui

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

A tennis career plays out on a myriad of stages. One minute, American Christina McHale is headlining Margaret Court Arena and battling Agnieszka Radwanska, the reigning WTA Finals champion, in the first round of the Australian Open.

The next, she finds herself far from Melbourne’s spotlight and bringing new meaning to the word “battle” in an ITF 50K Challenger tournament in Maui.

“I felt like I needed more match play, because I didn’t get enough matches in Australia,” McHale told WTA Insider on Sunday.

A former World No.24, McHale went 1-3 in her first three events of the season, but rather than retreat to the practice courts – and the cold New Jersey winter – she made the rare decision to enter an ITF event during the second week of the Australian Open.

“I’d just had a really long off-season and I was doing a lot of practicing. I saw there were a bunch of tournaments, and Maui seemed like a good place because it’s on the way home; it seemed like a good place to stop. Luckily, I got a wildcard at the last minute, so everything worked out.”

Top seed at an event that featured Brisbane International semifinalist Samantha Crawford and ASB Classic quarterfinalist Naomi Broady, McHale hardly cruised through a Valley Isle vacation at her first ITF event since 2013.

“It’s definitely different. The nice part of it was that it was in Hawaii, and the hotel was right at the courts, so it was easy to walk to.

“The first day I was waiting for the schedule to be emailed to me, because that’s how it normally is at WTA tournaments, and then I remembered that’s not how it works in ITFs! We didn’t have ball kids, and we didn’t have a full set of line judges on some of the courts.

“It took some getting used to.”

After fighting through a tricky opening round against former World No.7 Nicole Vaidisova, she needed three sets in the semifinals against the big-serving Broady and American teenager Raveena Kingsley, who had taken out Crawford and Jessica Pegula to reach the final.

“I had some really tough matches here; my semifinal was really difficult and so was my match today. The level of play was quite high. In terms of getting good match play in, it was tough.”

The American had started her 2016 season with a first career WTA doubles title in Hobart, but Maui was her first title of any kind in singles, having reached one WTA final in 2014 and two ITF finals at the very start of her career in 2007 and 2009.

Ranked solidly in the Top 70, McHale considers herself lucky to be able to play an ITF knowing the doors to the most prestigious tournaments remain open to her.

“It definitely makes you appreciate a lot of the things I take for granted when playing WTA tournaments. It might have even been a little bit of a wake up call. But everyone here was really nice, and all of the volunteers that helped put this tournament together did a good job. I don’t want to take away from that.”

Indeed, McHale takes away only positives from her winning week in Maui, getting some much-needed match play, all with a tropical backdrop at her disposal.

“My fitness trainer Rodney Marshall is a USTA fitness coach; he was here and so I kind of used it as a training week, as well. I was able to do some work outs on the beach; it’s really cold back home so it was nice to be in this warmer weather for the week. It was good to have a men and women’s tournament, so there were a lot of players here to practice with.

“Just being in Hawaii was really nice.”

Heading home before resuming a full slate of WTA events in Rio, Acapulco, Monterrey, and Indian Wells, a confident McHale hopes to have kick-started her season with the wind at her back and a sunkissed trophy in her hand.

“It’s definitely very motivating. This week served its purpose, because I came here trying to get matches and work on my fitness. In that regard, it was really good.

“It does make you appreciate all of the Slams and the other big tournaments that we go to.”

Follow Christina on Twitter @ChristinaMcHale!

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