Tennis News

The World No.1 team of Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza have split, according to multiple reports. Mirza and Hingis – self-dubbed “Santina” – dominated the doubles tour for over a year, having joined forces for the first time at the 2015 BNP Paribas Open. Together the pair won 13 titles over a 16-month span, including three consecutive majors at 2015 Wimbledon, the 2015 US Open, and 2016 Australian Open, as well as the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global last fall.

But ever since their 41-match winning streak was snapped in February at the Qatar Total Open by Elena Vesnina and Daria Kasatkina, the team never fully recovered. After their lightening start to 2016, winning their first four tournaments of the year, Hingis and Mirza have won just one title since. As defending champions they lost in the second round at both the BNP Paribas Open and Miami Open this spring and lost back-to-back finals at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix and Mutua Madrid Open to the No.2 team of Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic.

After winning their first title in nearly three months at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, Hingis and Mirza took two surprising straight-set exits at the French Open and Wimbledon. In all, they failed to make it past the quarterfinals of their last four events.

So what does this mean for Hingis and Martina going forward?

Who will they play with now?

According to reports out of India, Hingis will pair with CoCo Vandeweghe and Mirza with Barbora Strycova. Mirza will link up with Strycova at next week’s Western & Southern Open before partnering with Bethanie Mattek-Sands at the Connecticut Open. The plan is to re-team with Strycova at the US Open.

What about the No.1 ranking?

The pairing was a milestone launcher for Mirza. She became the first Indian woman to hold the No.1 ranking after the pair won their third straight title last year at the Volvo Car Open and she won her first major doubles title at Wimbledon a few months later. The two became joint No.1s in January of this year and they will continue to hold the top spot through the US Open unless one of them either reaches the Cincinnati final or wins New Haven.

What does this mean for the WTA Finals in Singapore?

Hingis and Mirza were the first doubles team to qualify for this year’s WTA Finals. Despite their struggles over the last four months they still sit atop the Road to Singapore. Under WTA Rules, Hingis and Mirza can still play as a team in Singapore, but if one of them qualifies with another partner, that player may then choose which team she competes with for the WTA Finals. The player she chooses not to complete with will then be ineligible unless that player has also qualified as part of another team.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – History is on the line in Rio on Saturday as Angelique Keber and Monica Puig chase Olympic gold. But before the two face off on Centre Court, here are 10 points to ponder…

 (2) Angelique Kerber (GER #2) vs Monica Puig (PUR #34)
Head-To-Head: Kerber leads Puig, 2-0

1) Kerber holds the head-to-head bragging rights.
The players’ two encounters on tour could not have been more different. Perhaps crucially on a psychological level, though, both have gone the German’s way. The first saw Kerber come within two points of defeat against a very green Puig three years ago in Brisbane, eventually prevailing on a third set tie-break. The second, last summer in Toronto, was rather more one-sided, Kerber dropping just five games against the young Puerto Rican.  

2) On top of their game.
Both Kerber and Puig have enjoyed campaigns to remember. After a slight lull following January’s memorable Australian Open triumph, Kerber has enjoyed a productive summer, reaching the Wimbledon final and winning 15 of her past 17 matches. Puig, meanwhile, has been quietly impressive all year long, reaching the biggest final of her career, in Sydney, the Eastbourne semifinals and posting a career-best 46 match wins.

3) Kerber holds a decided edge in big-match experience.
For all her recent improvement, Puig has still only ever appeared in two finals. Kerber, meanwhile, is becoming an old hand at the business end of tennis’ flagship events, having appeared in two major finals and lifted six Premier titles.

4) History in the making.
Puig has a chance to write her name in the history books as the first athlete in any sport from Puerto Rico to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games. As it is, she is already guaranteed to go down as the island’s first female medalist.

5) Kerber was eight months old the last time a German won Olympic gold.
If Kerber wins, she will be the first German woman to win Olympic tennis gold title since Steffi Graf in 1988. Graf returned to the final four years later only to lose out to an inspired Jennifer Capriati in Barcelona.

6) Consistency the Kerber’s key to success.
Kerber has improved as she has progressed in Rio, something born out in her increasingly stingy unforced error count. After hitting 31 in her first-round win over Mariana Duque-Mariño, Kerber’s totals for her subsequent matches were 19, 14, 11 and just eight against Madison Keys in the semifinals.

7) Ready for another upset?
Puig had only registered one win over a member of the Top 10 before arriving in Rio. This came against No.5 Sara Errani at Wimbledon in 2013. She doubled this tally thanks to her magnificent third-round upset of Garbiñe Muguruza. Is she ready to make it three?

8) Olympic outsider.
Puig is the first unseeded singles finalist since tennis’ reintroduction to the Olympics in 1988. The lowest-ranked player to appear in the gold medal match up until now was then-No.17 Elena Dementieva in 2000.

9) Kerber’s unblemished record.
Kerber has not dropped a set on her way to the final. London 2012 gold medalist Serena Williams is the only player to win the competition since without dropping a set since the sport’s reintroduction to the Olympics.

10) The exclusive leftie club.
By defeating Keys, Kerber ensured she will become just the second left-hander to win an Olympic singles medal since tennis’ return. The other was 2000 bronze medalist Monica Seles.

CINCINNATI, OH, USA – Jelena Ostapenko produced a stunning comeback to defeat Anna Karolina Schmiedlova in a rollercoaster opening round at the Western & Southern Open.

Watch live action from Cincinnati this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!

Trailing by a set and double break, it looked for all the world that Ostapenko’s debut at the Lindner Family Tennis Center was going to end in defeat. However, the bleakness of the situation seemed to rouse the Latvian into life, as she rescued the second set before conjuring an even more miraculous escapology act in the third to triumph, 1-6, 7-6(6), 7-6(5).

Ostapenko, a former junior Wimbledon champion, has been ascending the professional ranks fast, establishing herself as the youngest player in the Top 50. Against Schmiedlova the baseline firepower was once again present – she finished with 45 winners. Unfortunately for the teenager, the unforced error count was even higher, and very nearly proved her undoing.

Schmiedlova, meanwhile, was far less flashy, and for the best part of an hour her consistency looked destined to triumph. “I’m sorry about the first set – I couldn’t put a ball in the court – but I’m really happy I saved two match points on her serve and fought to the end and that I could finish the match,” Ostapenko said.

This first set lasted less than 20 minutes, and when Ostapenko slipped 4-1 behind the second appeared certain to be equally swift. Standing on the precipice, Ostapenko produced her best, saving a couple of match points at 5-4 then rallying from 5-2 in the decider to complete an unlikely turnaround.

“I don’t know what was wrong with me today; I was losing but then when I was losing I was playing better. Then in the third set I was 2-0, 40-0 up on her serve. After that I lost five games in a row. I know what happened. But then I started to fight again and I’m glad I could win the match,” she added.

Her reward for the comeback is a second-round meeting with No.15 seed Karolina Pliskova.

CINCINNATI, OH, USA – Five years ago, Germany’s top-ranked woman was asked to handicap her countrywoman at the Western & Southern Open. Having recently made her Top 10 debut, Andrea Petkovic told members of the media to keep an eye out for one player in particular.

“She’s going to come back,” Petkovic said of Angelique Kerber. “I called her and I asked her to come to my academy where I train, and she came there for four weeks and practiced really, really hard.”

Kerber had been ranked as high as No.45 to start the 2011 season, but briefly dropped out of the Top 100 that summer. At the time of Petkovic’s press conference, she had lost 15 of her last 18 WTA main draw matches.

“I promise you she’s going to be at least Top 30 like in six months, because she worked really, really hard and she’s a great player and she’s definitely going to come back.”

To say that Petkovic proved prescient would be the understatement of the decade. Within a week, Kerber reached the semifinals of a WTA International event in Dallas, Texas as a qualifier. Two weeks after that, the then-World No.90 was in the final four of the US Open, upsetting Agnieszka Radwanska and Flavia Pennetta along the way.

“She was helping me in practice,” she said of Petkovic’s advice after her win over Pennetta. “She told me, ‘You can do it. You play very well. You need to play consistent your tennis and not think about something or not think that you can win or you can lose. Just go on the court, play your tennis.’ Yeah, she helps me a lot.”

Kerber ultimately fell to eventual champion Samantha Stosur, but nonetheless beat Petkovic’s prediction by well over three months, cracking the Top 30 for the first time on October 2, 2011.

A lot has changed since then. The reigning Australian Open champion, Wimbledon runner-up, and Olympic Silver medalist is now in pole position to end Serena Williams’ 183 straight weeks atop the WTA rankings. Should she take home the trophy at the very tournament where Petkovic first made her bold prediction, Kerber would become the oldest woman to debut at World No.1 since a 25-year-old Jennifer Capriati in 2001.

She spoke about the pressure of having to back up her Melbourne run, and how it was familiar to her feelings following her 2011 breakthrough, after her opening round win over Kristina Mladenovic:

Angelique Kerber is done proving to people that she belongs. Now she plays for herself. #CincyTennis pic.twitter.com/39eyX49kfJ

— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) August 18, 2016

With dangerous veteran Barbora Strycova looming in the third round, Kerber still has a tough road to reach the top spot, but it’s proving tougher and tougher to bet against the German, especially with the Cincinnati breeze at her back.

CINCINNATI, OH, USA – No.17 Karolina Pliskova swept past Garbiñe Muguruza in a dominating straight sets performance, winning 6-1, 6-3 to secure the first spot in the Western & Southern Open final.

Watch live action from Cincinnati this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!

“I know I beat [Muguruza] in the last two matches, so I knew it’s going to be tough for her to beat me if I play well or if I play solid,” Pliskova said afterwards. “I was not thinking about that she’s a French Open champion. This you cannot take on the court.

“I always believe… there is, I would say, 99% of the players, I can beat all of them if I play good tennis.”

Like Simona Halep, Pliskova opted to skip the Olympic tennis event – she’s normally practice-averse but she used the time off to work on her game, and the effort showed in the Czech’s commanding win to reach her third final of 2016.

“That was one of the things what I changed [this year], to don’t play everything possible,” Pliskova explained. “To get ready for some events. I think now, at this time, not always, but it pays off. That’s what I learned.”

Follow live game-by-game analysis from Cincinnati semifinals day on WTA Insider’s Live Blog.

Throughout the match Muguruza looked rattled by Pliskova’s big serving and tricky slices. The Spaniard opened the match with a strong hold of serve, but was shut out of the set she leaked error after error. Pliskova rattled off seven straight games to take the first set and start the second with a strong lead.

Pliskova’s backhand clipped the net to give Muguruza her first break in the second set at 3-2, but she surrendered it immediately as Pliskova broke back to keep them level. Serving down 3-4, Muguruza floated a drop shot just over the net but it was fetched by Pliskova, who replied with a drop shot of her own. The Czech broke once more and, after a pair of Muguruza errors, went on to seal the match with an ace down the tee to become the first Czech to reach the final at the Western & Southern Open.

The Czech’s clear command of the match was reflected in her 17 winners and 17 unforced errors – Muguruza struck just 7 winners and flubbed 23 unforced. Pliskova also served up five aces putting her at 400 aces for the season, a WTA-leading figure.

“You feel the pressure when you have to serve because the other one serves so well,” Muguruza said of facing her opponent’s big weapon. “You kind of have to, ‘Hey, I have to keep my serve. I cannot lose my serve.’

“The whole match was a lot of tension. She plays really fast and goes for shots that are unreal.”

Pliskova’s speedy one-hour victory was timed perfectly, as the skies finally opened up during the Czech’s post-match interview.

“It wasn’t easy today, because the wind was really tricky and it was tough conditions today,” she told the crowd.

“I’m really happy that I made it – and oh, it’s raining now!”

The No.17-ranked Pliskova, who is also the lowest-ranked Cincy finalist since No.92 Nathalie Dechy in 2008, ducked for cover and now awaits the winner of the second semifinal match between Angelique Kerber and Simona Halep.

First #CincyTennis Final for @KaPliskova! ? https://t.co/458dnLa7Gt

— WTA (@WTA) August 20, 2016

THE WINNERS

No.15 seed Karolina Pliskova stunned World No.2 Angelique Kerber, 6-3, 6-1, to win the biggest tournament of her career at the Western & Southern Open, and temporarily halt the German’s bid at becoming No.1 in the world.

Kerber came into the final looking to end Serena Williams’ 183 consecutive week stretch atop the WTA rankings, but will now have to wait until New York to have another shot at the top.

“Angie’s had an amazing week and has done a great job all year,” Pliskova said in her acceptance speech. “I know she was playing for World No.1; I think you deserve to be No.1, but maybe next time!”

Click here for match recap and highlights. | WTA Insider As It Happened: Game-by-game analysis.

In the doubles draw, World Co-No.1s Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis reached the Western & Southern Open final, but found themselves on opposite sides of the net as Mirza and new partner Barbora Strycova recovered from 5-1 in the opening set to beat Hingis and CoCo Vandeweghe, 7-5, 6-4.

“I’m not going to lie,” Mirza said after the match. “It’s a very difficult situation. It’s not easy because, A, because we are still good friends, so it’s never easy. The first we tournament we split and we come and we have to play each other. Of course there is no better match to play than the final, so was difficult, I think. for both of us.

“But having said that we are professional tennis players. We have to come out and we have to give our best and we have to try and win. That’s all we can do.”

Click here for match recap. | WTA Insider As It Happened: Game-by-game analysis.

RANKING MOVERS:
Notable singles ranking movers for the week of August 22, 2016.

Agnieszka Radwanska (POL), +1 (No.5 to 4): The Pole’s run to the quarterfinals of the Western & Southern Open earns Radwanska a small ranking jump that could have big implications when the US Open seeds are announced.

Karolina Pliskova (CZE), +6 (No.17 to 11): Pliskova pulled off a big upset in the final in Cincy, and as a result she jumps up six spots to No.11, putting her within striking distance of the Top 10 once more.

Alizé Cornet (FRA), +11 (No.58 to 47): Once ranked No.11, the Frenchwoman saw her ranking drop after an injury-plagued season. But she’s now finding her way back as her run to the second round of Cincy after qualifying puts her inside the Top 50.

UPCOMING TOURNAMENTS

Connecticut Open
New Haven, USA
Premier | $695,900 | Hard, Outdoor
Sunday, August 21 – Saturday, August 27

US Open
New York, USA
Grand Slam | $ TBA | Hard, Outdoor
Monday, August 29 – Sunday, September 11

Dalian Women’s Tennis Open
Dalian, China
125K | $115,000 | Hard, Outdoor
Tuesday, September 6 – Sunday, September 11

TOP 20 PLAYER SCHEDULES
1. Serena Williams -US Open
2. Angelique Kerber – US Open
3. Garbiñe Muguruza – US Open
4. Agnieszka Radwanska – New Haven, US Open
5. Simona Halep – US Open
6. Venus Williams – US Open
7. Victoria Azarenka
8. Roberta Vinci – New Haven, US Open
9. Madison Keys – US Open
10. Svetlana Kuznetsova – US Open
11. Karolina Pliskova – US Open
12. Carla Suárez Navarro – US Open
13. Dominika Cibulkova – US Open
14. Johanna Konta – US Open
15. Petra Kvitova – New Haven, US Open
16. Timea Bacsinszky – New Haven, US Open
17. Samantha Stosur – US Open
18. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova – US Open
19. Barbora Strycova – US Open
20. Elena Vesnina – New Haven, US Open

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
Best wishes to those celebrating birthdays this week:

Olga Govortsova (BLR) – August 23, 1988
Maryna Zanevska (UKR) – August 24, 1993
Ons Jabeur (TUN) – August 28, 1994