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Twitter Sings Serena’s Praises

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

LONDON, Great Britain – All the tennis world was watching as Serena Williams claimed her seventh Wimbledon title to tie Steffi Graf’s all-time record of 22 major titles. So when Serena sealed historic achievement on Centre Court, her rivals and peers were quick to take to Twitter to congratulate the World No.1.

Check out all the best tweets below!

 

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Ranking Movers: Summer Swing

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

Angelique Kerber (+2, No.4 to No.2): The German reached her second Grand Slam final of the season, knocking out five-time champion and former No.1 Venus Williams before battling through a two-set defeat to World No.1 Serena Williams. Kerber is back to the career-high ranking she first earned in February upon claiming her maiden major title at the Australian Open.

Venus Williams (+1, No.8 to No.7): Williams moves more comfortably into the Top 8 after making her first major semifinal since the 2010 US Open. Back up to her highest ranking since early 2011, Venus fought through five tough matches to finish in the final fall before falling to Kerber in straight sets.

Carla Suárez Navarro (+3, No.12 to No.9): Suárez Navarro returned to the Top 10 following her best career grass court season. Backing up a run to the semifinals of the Aegon Classic, the Spaniard reached the second week of Wimbledon for just the second time in her career, bowing out to Venus Williams despite having chances to serve out the opening set.

Svetlana Kuznetsova (+4, No.14 to No.10): The Russian veteran fulfilled her promise of returning to the Top 10 after having chances to do so earlier in the season. Kuznetsova is at her highest rank since the spring of 2010, just before her title defense of the French Open title she had won the year before. Kuznetsova played Serena Williams tough after knocking out former No.1 Caroline Wozniacki en route to the fourth round.

Dominika Cibulkova (+6, No.18 to No.12): Cibulkova’s march back toward the Top 10 continued at Wimbledon, where the Slovakian dynamo followed up her title run at the Aegon International with a run to the quarterfinals of the All England Club.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (+4, No.23 to No.19): Up to her highest ranking in over three years, Pavlyuchenkova played her best grass court tennis of her career to reach her first Wimbledon quarterfinal – upsetting Timea Bacsinszky and CoCo Vandeweghe along the way.

Elena Vesnina (+26, No.50 to No.24): Ranked outside the Top 100 to start the season, Vesnina cut her ranking in half following her fortnight at Wimbledon, where she reached her first Grand Slam semifinal. After surviving a thrilling, rain-delayed encounter with doubles partner Ekaterina Makarova, she put on an emphatic display to dispatch Cibulkova in the quarterfinals.

The following women all reached career-high rankings; click here to see the full rankings updated as of 7/11/16!

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Serena Wins 10th ESPY Award

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

LOS ANGELES, CA, USA – Serena Williams’ phenomenal week got even more phenomenal on Wednesday night, as she won Best Female Tennis Player at the ESPY Awards for the eighth time in her career, having already been given the award in 2003, 2004, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, and 2015.

She was chosen over Angelique Kerber, Flavia Pennetta, and Garbiñe Muguruza for this year’s award.

Williams now has 10 total ESPY Awards – she was also named Best Female Athlete in 2003 and 2013.

Other WTA stars with multiple ESPY Awards are Sharapova (five), Venus Williams (four), Steffi Graf (three) and Monica Seles and Lindsay Davenport (two each). The ESPY Awards started in 1993.

More to come…

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Stanford: Where To Watch

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

KEY INFORMATION:
Tournament Level: Premier
Prize Money: $846,000
Draw Size: 28 main draw (4 byes)/16 qualifying
Qualifying Dates: Saturday, July 16 – Sunday, July 17
First Day of Main Draw: Monday, July 18
Singles Final: Sunday, July 24, 2pm PDT
Doubles Final: Sunday, July 24, after singles final

MUST FOLLOW SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS:
@WTA
@WTA_Insider – WTA Insider, Senior Writer Courtney Nguyen
@BOTWClassic – Official handle
Get involved in conversations with the official hashtags, #BOTWClassic and #WTA.

TOURNAMENT NOTES:
· Two-time champion Venus Williams returns to tournament for the 13th time as top seed.
· Dominika Cibulkova, another former winner, is No.2 seed while Johanna Konta is No.3 seed. The 2012 runner-up, CoCo Vandeweghe, Jelena Ostapenko and Alizé Cornet are also in the draw.
· The draw’s highest-ranked player, World No.7 Venus Williams is nearly 20 years older than the lowest-ranked player 16-year-old Maria Mateas.
· Click here to see the draw after it is made on Saturday evening.

WILDCARDS:
CiCi Bellis (USA), Julia Boserup (USA), Maria Mateas (USA), Carol Zhao (USA)

WITHDRAWALS:
Timea Babos (left shoulder), Daria Kasatkina (illness), Mariana Duque-Mariño (gingivoplasty), Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (left abductor), Agnieszka Radwanska (right hand), Lesia Tsurenko (left thigh)

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Insider Podcast: All Eyes On Bellis

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

STANFORD, CA, USA – This week at the Bank of the West Classic proved one to remember for 17-year-old Catherine Bellis, who reached her first WTA quarterfinal, where she played former No.1 Venus Williams.

Bellis first turned heads at the 2014 US Open, when she became the youngest woman to win a match in Flushing since Anna Kournikova in 1996, upsetting then-reigning Australian Open finalist Dominika Cibulkova in the first round. The youngster went on to reach the third round of the Miami Open in 2015 – where she played Venus’ sister Serena for the first time – and with wins over No.6 seed Jelena Ostapenko and Sachia Vickery, kept dreams of a pro career alive in Stanford, even as she committed to play college tennis for that very university.

Here from Bellis as she spoke with reporters following her first round win over Ostapenko, how she doubted whether she’d even be able to take the court after a traumatic left eye contusion left her faced with “the scariest moment of her life,” and how her game has improved since bursting onto the scene nearly two years ago.

Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn or on any podcast app of your choice to ensure you never miss an episode when they go live. Reviews are always helpful, so if you like what you’ve heard so far, leave us one. Get new episode alerts by following us on Twitter @WTA_Insider.

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Siniakova Eyes Up Maiden Title In Bastad

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

BASTAD, Sweden – Katerina Siniakova advanced to the first final of her career by dethroning home favorite and reigning Ericsson Open champion Johanna Larsson on Saturday.

Watch live action from Bastad, Stanford and Washington DC this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!

A relative novice at this stage of a WTA event and faced with an unashamedly partisan crowd, Siniakova took some time to find her bearings. However, once she had the Czech produced some sparkling tennis to run out a 7-5, 6-1 winner and set up a Sunday showdown with Laura Siegemund.

“It was a really hard match, I just tried to focus on every point and I think I played pretty well,” Siniakova said. “Maybe in the beginning I was a little bit nervous, so there were a few more mistakes, but from there my performance was better so I’m really happy.”

Having frozen when serving for the opening set at 5-3, Siniakova showed no hesitancy when another chance presented itself, thundering a backhand into the corner to bring up two set points. Larsson ballooned a drive volley long to surrender the set.

In addition to her title run last year, Larsson was a finalist on home soil in 2011 and 2013, but she never looked like adding to this tally in the second set, Siniakova establishing an early lead and never looking back.

Siniakova, whose previous semifinal appearance ended in defeats in Moscow and Prague, was understandably elated at clearing this hurdle at the third time of asking: “It’s really exciting. I think it will be a really tough match, hopefully we will both show great tennis. I think I will be nervous, but this is normal. I will just have to try my best, fight for every point and see how it goes.”

Like Siniakova, Siegemund took some time to find her groove, weathering an early storm of winners to see off Julia Goerges. Siegemund had already reached semifinals on the clay this year, in Stuttgart and Bucharest, and despite falling behind early on refused to get disheartened against her powerful compatriot.

While she was unable to rescue the first set, she hit back to take a high-quality second then forge ahead in the third. Trailing 4-6, 6-3, 4-0, Goerges body admitted defeat, a hip injury bringing an entertaining contest to a premature end.

“It was very tough – she started out very strongly in the first set. I tried to be solid but it was not enough, she was really the better player at the beginning and I needed to step it up,” Siegemund said. “I felt good out there today, I felt confident to be a bit more risky and go for my shots.”

Until recently, Siegemund existed in a different world on the tennis circuit to some of her more celebrated compatriots. A memorable run all the way through qualifying to the final in Stuttgart changed all this and on Sunday she has the opportunity to further cement her place among the elite.

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Insider Draw Analysis: Montréal

Insider Draw Analysis: Montréal

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

UPDATE: Serena Williams withdrew from the tournament on Sunday citing inflammation in her shoulder, leading to a reshuffling of the draw that caused the following shifts:

– Halep has been drawn into the bottom half of the draw, along with No.2 Angelique Kerber, and No.8 Roberta Vinci, and No.10 Svetlana Kuznetsova. Before Serena’s withdrawal she had a tricky road to the final, but with No.3 Garbiñe Muguruza now moving up to replace Serena in the top half of the draw, Halep’s path is slightly easier. She opens up against either Daria Gavrilova or Annika Beck, with a potential third round match against Karolina Pliskova. Her projected quarterfinal opponent could be either Kuznetsova or Petra Kvitova.

– Muguruza replaced Serena on the top line of the draw and will open against either Monica Puig or a qualifier. She could play Stanford finalist Johanna Konta in the third round with either Dominika Cibulkova or Carla Suárez Navarro looming in the quarterfinals. If the draw holds to form, she could see Venus Williams, Agnieszka Radwanska, or Madison Keys in the semifinals.

Simona Halep

Can Simona Halep match her 2015 summer season?

This time last year Simona Halep was down in the dumps. She was still smarting from two bad early losses at the French Open and Wimbledon, and in her mind her season was over. That mentality freed her up to play some of her best tennis of the season, making the final in Toronto, final in Cincinnati, and her first-ever semifinal at the US Open.

Now she has to defend it.

So can Halep, currently ranked No.5, replicate or better that run? One thing is for sure: her decision to skip the Olympics can only help. The Romanian star announced last week that she would opt out of Rio due to concerns over the Zika virus. While missing the Olympics will be disappointing, the decision does free Halep up to focus on a real shot at winning the US Open. In fact with the bulk of the players interrupting their season by heading down to the Olympics, she could be the who takes advantage of an unfocused, fatigued, depleted field this summer.

Can Garbiñe Muguruza get back on track?

It took a month and a half before Angelique Kerber came down from the high of winning her first major title at the Australian Open. But by the end of March she was back to playing high-quality tennis and imposing herself in the draws. Since winning the French Open, Muguruza has gone 1-2, losing to Kirsten Flipkens in Mallorca and Jana Cepelova at Wimbledon. Again, a dip is expected earning your first major title, but when will it turn around for Muguruza?

The summer offers a big opportunity for the young Spaniard. She floundered here last year – again, after making her first Slam final at Wimbledon – winning just one match through the entire Emirates Airlines US Open Series (including the US Open). That opens up a big point grab for her this year, where she can gain some ground on Kerber and Serena in the rankings.

Angelique Kerber

Can Angelique Kerber play healthy?

The World No.2 withdrew from Bastad last week due to an elbow injury and is now in a tough situation of balancing her need to play with her need to rest, especially with the upcoming Olympics.

Can Venus Williams ride that momentum?

Could we see Venus in Singapore for the BNP WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global? She’s currently 18th in the Road to Singapore rankings but she could make a big move if she continues her current form. After making the fourth round of the French Open and the Wimbledon semifinals, she’s into the semifinals of the Bank of the West Classic this weekend. She looks relaxed and calm on court, and when she’s needed it she’s been able to elevate her game to get some tough wins. Another deep run in Montréal could really boost her chances not only to qualify for Singapore but also get her back in the Top 5.

Venus Williams

First Round Matches to Watch: Lucie Safarova vs. Eugenie Bouchard, Monica Niculescu vs. Jelena Ostapenko, Yulia Putintseva vs. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Madison Keys vs. Elena Vesnina, Caroline Garcia vs. Barbora Strycova, Alizé Cornet vs. Andrea Petkovic, Misaki Doi vs. Daria Kasatkina.

All photos courtesy of Getty Images.

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