Behind The Tour: Tournament Directors
Go inside a day in the life of Anne Worchester, tournament director at the Connecticut Open, and see what goes into running a WTA tournament.
Go inside a day in the life of Anne Worchester, tournament director at the Connecticut Open, and see what goes into running a WTA tournament.
December 14, 2016
Spelling challenges, emoji challenges, cracker challenges, selfie challenges and, of course, the WTA Frame Challenge – which video was the best of the year? Click here to vote!
Elina Svitolina
2016 Quick Hits
Week 1 Ranking: No.20
Year-End Ranking: No.14 (Career-High No.14, March 7)
Season Highlights: Title at Kuala Lumpur, finals at New Haven & Zhuhai
Best Major Result: QF (French Open)
14 Days until the 2017 #WTA season! pic.twitter.com/DIIg2qWhUX
— WTA (@WTA) 18 de diciembre de 2016
2017 Outlook
Some players adhere to the policy of “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it,” but Elina Svitolina isn’t one of those people.
After a career-best season – which saw her rise to her highest ranking of No.14, upset two different WTA World No.1s, pocket a title at Kuala Lumpur and reach the finals at New Haven and Zhuhai – the always-improving Svitolina announced a new coaching team with the goal of getting herself past the final hurdles and cementing her spot at the game’s upper echelons.
A busy off-season schedule in 2015 stunted Svitolina’s progress earlier this year, but she learned her lesson and heads into 2017 with a clear objective:
“Of course, the main goal is to be Top 10,” Svitolina told WTA Insider at the Huajin Securities WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai. “I’ll try to have a normal off-season this time, work really hard physically, and mentally. It’s all about the small details, so I’ll be trying to work on those and make little changes.”
Looking ahead to 2017, Ukraine’s No.1 player will start out the year rested and in prime position to make big gains. With just a handful of points to defend in the first two months of the year, Svitolina looks ever closer to a big leap into the WTA’s highest rankings.
An interview with Garbiñe Muguruza ahead of her participation in the Toray Pan Pacific Open.
Chan Yung-Jan and Chan Hao-Ching took to the culture heart of Singapore during the WTA Finals, even attempting to create traditional dress worn throughout Southeast Asia.
TOKYO, Japan – World No.107 Aliaksandra Sasnovich caused the first major shock of this year’s Toray Pan Pacific Open, knocking out No.3 seed Karolina Pliskova in straight sets.
Watch live action from Tokyo this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!
Less than a fortnight after contesting the US Open final, Pliskova was brought down to earth with a bump, slipping to a 6-4, 6-2 defeat in little over an hour.
“I was expecting now to be going to Wuhan for the next tournament because I know Karolina is a really good player and I didn’t expect to win today,” Sasnovich said. “But you know it’s life and it’s tennis, the ball is round!”
Sasnovich’s reward for her maiden Top 10 win is a meeting with home favorite Naomi Osaka in the quarterfinals.
“I have a lot of emotion. It was my first win over a Top 10 player, I’m really happy with it and looking forward to the next round,” she added.
Joining her there will be fellow qualifier Magda Linette, who saved two match points to defeat Yulia Putintseva, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.
More to follow…
Elina Svitolina takes on Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the second round of the Toray Pan Pacific Open.
“I’m feeling much more comfortable in my skin, how I am, and how to work,” Kerber said in the latest WTA Insider Podcast. “It’s because of the experience; I now know how to deal with the pressure, with things I have to do off-court.”
Kerber got to celebrate her No.1 breakthrough alongside her US Open victory, taking part in a pair of photoshoots with each trophy commemorating her dual achievements.
“This gives me a lot of confidence to dress up, come out, speaking, working, being how I am! It took a little while to get there, but it was great work getting there.”
The first of two women to qualify for the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global – alongside 22-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams – Kerber kicks off her Asian Swing as the top seed at the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open. The World No.1 has played Wuhan since its inaugural event in 2014, reaching the semiifnals last year.
Kerber leads the field with 54 match wins this year, and will be in search of her fourth title of the season. Taking home three titles thus far, two have been on the game’s biggest stages at the Australian Open and US Open, while the third came at home at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart.
Success at the Grand Slams and consistency elsewhere is what helped Kerber end Serena’s 186 straight weeks at No.1; the first German No.1 since Stefanie Graf – and the first lefty since WTA Finals Tournament Ambassador Monica Seles – Kerber has reached the quarterfinals or better in six of her last seven tournaments, finishing runner-up at Wimbledon, the Western & Southern Open, and the Olympic tennis event (earning no ranking points at the latter).
Now that she’s earned the No.1 ranking, the question becomes how long Kerber can keep it. Williams announced her withdrawal from Wuhan and Beijing, meaning her rival needs to earn 1500 points to assure herself of the Year-End No.1.
“My motivation is still really high, especially after this title in New York. I will still try to improve my game because I know I could still improve my serve and a few other things in my game. It’s what I plan to do in the next in the next few weeks and in my pre-season for next year. There are still a few things where I know I can be better, and that gives me confidence too, to know I can still play better, more aggressively, or move better.
With a total of 900 points awarded to the winner at Wuhan and another 1,000 next week in Beijing, she could go a long way towards accomplishing that goal before even heading to Singapore – potentially locking down the Year-End No.1 ranking with a good two weeks on Chinese soil.
“Angie won’t stop wanting to get better,” said Torben Beltz, Kerber’s longtime coach who reunited with her just before her rise towards the top of the game last spring. “She doesn’t just want to practice for an hour and that’s it’ she wants to get better, and even have some input in the practice. She wants to get better, hit harder; these are things she wants to do, and we’ll work on that together.”
Kerber would join a select group of 11 women to have finished the year as No.1, and become the 12th to do so. Serena has earned the distinction five times (2002, 2009, 2013-2015), the third-most in WTA history behind Graf at eight (1987-1990, 1993-1996), and Martina Navratilova at seven (1978-1979, 1982-1986). Kerber would be the first woman not named Serena to finish the year No.1 since Victoria Azarenka, who ended her only season as leader of the pack in 2012.
It’s already been a year to remember for Angelique Kerber, but it’s not over yet, and the sky seems to remain the limit for the new No.1.
“Of course, I’m playing the best tennis of my career, but I’m still trying to be better and better,” Kerber said. “That’s what motivates me during my practices and matches. I still hope to play my best tennis over the next few months.”
All photos courtesy of Getty Images.
Simona Halep
2016 Quick Hits
Week 1 Ranking: No.2
Year-End Ranking: No.4
Season Highlights: Madrid, Bucharest, Montréal Champion, Singapore RR
Best Major Result: QF (Wimbledon, US Open)
2017 Outlook
An injury-addled off-season left Halep unprepared for the season to come, and tough losses at the Australian Open and Middle East left many to question what was to come next from the former World No.2
Halep began to slowly silence the doubters by March, reaching back-to-back quarterfinals in Indian Wells and Miami, and truly soared once she hit her beloved clay, winning her second Premier Mandatory title at the Mutua Madrid Open. The Romanian star credited the success at one of her favorite tournaments – run by fellow Romanian Ion Tiriac – with a new approach alongisde coach Darren Cahill.
“I had many days training with Darren,” she explained to WTA Insider. “I wanted that. I asked him when he made the schedule in January that I wanted this week to prepare with him here in Madrid. So I knew what I want to do.
“It’s much better to come a few days earlier. You feel the courts, you feel the atmosphere of the tournament, and you feel like you are into it already when the tournament starts.”
Halep continued to feel the courts this summer, winning two more titles at home in Bucharest and Montréal, where she also paired Monica Niculescu to reach the doubles final.
“It was very different because I’m not used to playing doubles,” she said in her Rogers Cup Champions Corner. “I got a little bit tired in the end. But it also helped me to play some doubles matches because I practiced the return, the serve. That helped me a lot in singles; I had tough opponents there. It’s been a great week.”
The former French Open finalist played one of her most impressive matches in Flushing, pushing then-World No.1 Serena Williams to the brink at the US Open.
“It was tough,” she said of the loss. “It is tough. I’m a little bit sad, but I have just to take the positives, because I have a lot going ahead.”
For the youngest woman in the Top 4, there is certainly still more ahead, and plenty more to come in 2017.
An interview with Karolina Pliskova after her third round win at the BNP Paribas Open.