Miami: Madison Keys Pre-Tournament Interview
Find out what Madison Keys had to say before the start of her campaign at the Miami Open.
Find out what Madison Keys had to say before the start of her campaign at the Miami Open.
DOHA, Qatar – Elena Vesnina notched one of the biggest wins of her career over No.2 seed Simona Halep in the second round of the Qatar Total Open, shocking her 6-7(1), 6-4, 6-1.
The Russian qualifier, ranked No.118 in the world, was fresh off of a first round upset against Caroline Garcia, a semifinalist last week in Dubai. She was up against the World No.4, who was playing on her favorite surface and on familiar ground – Halep is a 2014 champion here in Doha and last year had a WTA-leading 44-11 win-loss record on hardcourts.
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Halep had plenty of opportunities to put Vesnina away in the first set but the Russian refused to fold -Halep created 13 break opportunities and only converted on two of those occasions. But one of those occasions was exactly when it counted; Vesnina was serving for the set at 6-5 when Halep broke her serve, sending the match into a tiebreak.
The Romanian found another gear and played a near-perfect tiebreak, allowing Vesnina only one point before grabbing the first set 7-6(1).
Halep backed up her dominance in the tiebreak with an equally commanding start to the second set, winning four out of the next five games to race ahead to a 4-1 lead.
Seemingly down and nearly out of the match with the World No.4 up a set and a double break, Vesnina was somehow still able to gut out a comeback. What was going through the Russian’s mind?
“That’s my character – I’m always fighting ’til the end,” she said. “I was thinking, ‘I’m on center court here in Doha, I’m playing Simona, 1-4 down – but it doesn’t matter.
“I just fight game by game, ball by ball, and it just worked.”
Her mentality definitely worked: Vesnina came back to win the next four out of five games to take back the set at 6-4 and level the match. Halep started out the final set with a break at love, but Vesnina stayed on course and won six consecutive games, sealing the final game of the match with a timely ace followed by a deadly backhand down the line for match point.
With the win Vesnina not only reached her first round of 16 stage of the year, she also scored her sixth Top 10 win of her career – the first since 2013.
“For the last two years, this win is No.1 for me,” an emotional Vesnina said after the match. “Simona is a great player, she’s such a solid player. She’s had an amazing couple of years; she’s in Top 10 in the world. I’m really pleased with my game today.”
Martina Hingis’ list of accomplishments on the tennis court is as long as it is impressive.
With five Grand Slam titles in singles, a further 16 in doubles and a combined total of 250 weeks at the top of the rankings, there is not much of note left to achieve on the career checklist.
However, ask the Swiss Miss and she will admit there is one glaring omission: an Olympic medal.
Her sole Games experience came at Atlanta in 1996, when a 15th-seeded Hingis, still a few months shy of her 16th birthday, slipped to a second-round defeat to Ai Sugiyama.
Since coming out of retirement for a second time in 2013, Hingis has enjoyed great success, adding six trophies to her major collection, three alongside India’s Sania Mirza, at Wimbledon and the US and Australian Opens.
For one week this summer, though, Hingis and Mirza will park their all-conquering partnership. Among the frontrunners to pair up with Hingis in Rio will be Belinda Bencic, who partnered Hingis to victory in the decisive rubber of Switzerland’s recent Fed Cup win over Germany.
Hingis will also appear in the mixed doubles, and to help achieve her Olympic goal she has enlisted the help of another all-time great, Roger Federer – a dream team that was among the subjects touched on by CNN’s Open Court.
Find out what the BNP Paribas Open runner-up had to say before the start of her campaign in Miami.
On this Episode 18, Senior Writer Courtney Nguyen and Web Editor David Kane reconvene to discuss the nutty happenings in the Middle East, which have seen a slew of upsets at both last week’s Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships and this week’s Qatar Total Open. Were the upsets anything more than one-offs and bad luck? Or are there deeper problems underlying the first two months of the season?
Courtney and David also bow down to this Golden Generation of Italian women and discuss their impact on the tour and the legacy they are set to leave behind. Last week saw Sara Errani and Francesca Schiavone win titles as well as Roberta Vinci become the oldest woman to ever make her Top 10 debut.
Highlights from the Day 3 clash between Karolina Pliskova and Madison Brengle.
ACAPULCO, Mexico – No.2 seeded Sloane Stephens booked her spot in the semifinals at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel with a commanding win over Naomi Osaka, 6-3, 7-5.
Watch live action from Doha & Acapulco this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!
It had been a dream week for Osaka in the Mexican paradise of Acapulco – the Japanese wildcard made her first ever WTA quarterfinal and in the last round ousted Mariana Duque-Mariño in straight sets after saving a set point in the second.
But lying in wait in the quarterfinal was big-hitting American Sloane Stephens, who already knew what to expect from the 18-year-old.
“I was playing a girl who is younger than me who’s been playing really well lately,” Stephens said. “I knew it was going to be tough going into it.”
Stephens got the first break of the tense first set at 4-3. Osaka almost hung on fiercely in the five-minute game, running around her backhand to blast her huge forehands and saving two break points, but to no avail. Stephens grabbed the next two games to close out the set at 6-3.
Osaka grabbed the first break of the final set, but Stephens broke back in reply, keeping them level until she broke Osaka at 5-3. The Japanese edged her way back after a nervy game from Stephens while she was serving for the match at 5-4 – Stephens was broken at love after a double fault on break point. She righted the ship when it counted, though, and broke for the match at 7-5.
With her title in Auckland earlier this year and a semifinal appearance here in Acapulco, this has been Stephens’ best start to the season since 2013.
“It’s only February, so there’s a lot of tennis to be played this year,” the American said. “I’m happy that I’ve had such a good start so I’m just trying to keep the momentum going.”
Awaiting Stephens in the next round is No.8 seed Yanina Wickmayer, who is into her first WTA semifinal of the year after a straight sets win over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 6-3, 7-6(3).
Though Yanina Wickmayer leads their head to head 2-1, the record hides just how their encounters have been – all of their previous matches have gone to three sets. This time, Pavlyuchenkova looked like she had an edge; she hasn’t lost a set here in Acapulco and was into her third quarterfinal of the year while Wickmayer had to come back from a set down in each of her previous matches.
The Belgian player is into her first WTA semifinal of the year and her first since winning the Tokyo International in 2015.
On the other side of the draw, Dominika Cibulkova faced her first big test at Acapulco against No.7 seed Johanna Larsson.
Cibulkova has had a smooth ride to the quarterfinals so far – she won her first round match in a 6-0, 6-0 beatdown and received a walkover in the last match as a result of Victoria Azarenka’s withdrawal. But it turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the Slovakian player.
“It helped me today to be more ready because yesterday I had the day off,” Cibulkova said.
“Today was really tough physically – I had the first match of the day and it was really humid and hot. So yeah, I think it really helped me to have yesterday off.”
Cibulkova was in trouble early on, still adjusting to the tough conditions and dropping the first set 6-3. It was just a matter of time before the former Top 10 Slovak got going, upping her serves and finding the lines with her booking groundstrokes to take the second 6-2. Larsson handed Cibulkova match point while she was serving to stay in the match at 5-3, then helped her seal the match burying a return into the net, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Up next Cibulkova is set to face Christina McHale in a rematch of the 2014 Acapulco final. The unseeded American defeated Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-2.
“It’s going to be a really tough match,” Cibulkova said. “We are already in the semifinals and we’re all feeling the heat. The more ready player is going to win tomorrow.”
Karolina Pliskova reflects on her performance at the Miami Open.