Eastbourne: Radwanska Interview
An interview with Agnieszka Radwanska before her opening round match at the Aegon International.
An interview with Agnieszka Radwanska before her opening round match at the Aegon International.
Watch Venus Williams’ practice session on Day 3 of the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy.
Elena Vesnina takes on Heather Watson in the first round of the Aegon International.
The Australian Open started and ended with Serena Williams, who not only won her seventh Australian Open title and returned to World No.1, but also won her 23rd Grand Slam title – breaking the Open Era record she’d heretofore shared with Stefanie Graf.
“It’s such a great feeling to have 23,” she said after defeating sister Venus Williams in the final. “It really feels great. I’ve been chasing it for a really long time. It feels like a really long time. When it got on my radar, I knew I had an opportunity to get there, and I’m here. I’m here.
“It’s a great feeling. No better place to do it than Melbourne.”
After tying Graf at Wimbledon, No.23 certainly got on her radar and was in imperious form Down Under, winning the title without losing a set through seven matches.
“My first Grand Slam started here, and getting to 23 here, but playing Venus, it’s stuff that legends are made of. I couldn’t have written a better story.
“I just feel like it was the right moment. Everything kind of happened. It hasn’t quite set in yet, but it’s really good.”
The legend lives on for Serena, and it certainly helped her earn her the mantle of January’s WTA Player of the Month!
Final Results for January’s WTA Player Of The Month
1. Serena Williams (46%)
2. Venus Williams (42%)
3. Johanna Konta (8%)
4. Karolina Pliskova (4%)
2016 WTA Player of the Month Winners
January: Angelique Kerber
February: Carla Suárez Navarro
March: Victoria Azarenka
April: Angelique Kerber
May: Garbiñe Muguruza
June: Serena Williams
July: Simona Halep
August: Monica Puig
September: Petra Kvitova
October: Dominika Cibulkova
How it works:
Finalists are selected by wtatennis.com
Winner is then determined by a fan vote on wtatennis.com
EASTBOURNE, Great Britain – Former No.1 Caroline Wozniacki is starting to find her footing after a long layoff that forced her to miss the entire clay court season – including the French Open. Speaking with WTA Insider Courtney Nguyen at the Aegon International after her first round win over Alizé Cornet, Wozniacki first felt things were starting to fall into place following a pre-tournament practice with good friend and World No.3, Agnieszka Radwanska.
“I feel like I’m getting closer to where I want to be,” the Dane said in a Dropshot Edition of the WTA Insider Podcast. “I had a really good two hour practice with Aga yesterday; that made me feel good and like I know what I need to do. Birmingham wasn’t the best place to get rhythm because we kept going on and off the court.
“It was nice to get here knowing the weather is usually better here than anywhere else in the UK.”
Wozniacki reflects on her long absence from the tour, one that led her to a highly scheduled period of rest, relaxation, and a return to the piano, a former childhood pursuit.
“I used to play when I was younger, and I used to play some concerts as well. I just thought, ‘I have some time off, and it’s good for the brain as well.’
“I was good. Was. You know, when you start out playing again and think, ‘I used to do this so easily.’ Right now, I’m not very good, but then you keep improving every time because you start remembering things. I’m still getting there; I have a piano at home, and every time I’m home I’ll get lessons. I bought a keyboard for when I’m on the road, but I decided I had too much luggage, but maybe next trip!”
Listen to the full interview with the two-time US Open finalist below:
Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or on any podcast app of your choice and reviews are always helpful, so if you like what you’ve heard so far, leave us one. You can also get new episode alerts by following us on Twitter @WTA_Insider.
Simona Halep was forced to withdraw from her St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy quarterfinal with Natalia Vikhlyantseva, citing a recurrance of the left knee pain suffered in Australia.
EASTBOURNE, Great Britain – Coming off her first Grand Slam semifinal since 2012, former World No.4 Samantha Stosur told press at the Aegon International that she will be working with Andrew Roberts, official hitting partner for the Australian Fed Cup team, after parting with longtime coach David Taylor.
“He’s coming here and Wimbledon and then we’re going to assess what we want to do from there,” she said on Tuesday. “Other than that, that’s the arrangement.”
Stosur had announced earlier in the season that she and Taylor would separate after the French Open, citing the latter’s desire to travel less. The 2011 US Open champion described how the connection with Roberts came about just after the French Open.
“We had spoken a little bit, and I actually spoke to him on the phone the day before the French Open started. Then once I finished there, then it was kind of like, ‘All right, what is the plan?’
“It’s very hard to think about things when you’re obviously so involved in a tournament. So, yeah, It was kind of last minute. Then it was possible for him to be able to come over.
“That was really good for me that he was able to come over on short notice and come.
“We will just see how it goes from here.”
Stosur lost her first match of the grass court season, 6-2, 6-1, to former No.1 Caroline Wozniacki.
Kristina Mladenovic had Saturday’s shot of the day at the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy.
Simona Halep began the French Open as a heavy favorite, but her tournament ended in heavy conditions and with heavier disappointment.
“It was impossible to play, in my opinion,” she said after her fourth round loss to Samantha Stosur. “And to play tennis matches during the rain, I think it’s a bit too much.”
The Romanian had been in control of the match before an 18-hour washout forced her and her Aussie opposition onto a drizzling court that her feeling pain in her back and Achilles. And those were just the physical effects.
“I was far to think about the title, but I think that I had a chance. If the courts are dry here I have a chance, because I like the conditions when it’s normal weather.
“In Madrid was different. That’s why I played so well. I like those conditions.”
From her press conference, it was clear that she felt robbed of a golden opportunity at what has been her most successful Grand Slam tournament. But the former World No.2 is hardly a clay court specialist.
Two weeks after narrowly losing to Maria Sharapova in the 2014 French Open final, the Romanian shrugged off the disappointment and channeled it into her best-ever Wimbledon result. In her first quarterfinal at the All England Club, she dismantled former finalist Sabine Lisicki before disaster struck against Eugenie Bouchard.
Up a break in the opening set, Halep took a heavy turn on her ankle, eventually fading in two sets and missing out on the chance to play Petra Kvitova – a player she had never lost to – for Wimbledon glory.
“It was difficult to continue because I twisted my ankle and it was very hard,” she said at the time. “I felt a big pain in the moment, and I couldn’t push anymore in my leg. My first serve was really bad after that. Yeah, it was difficult to continue.”
This year, Halep has shown steady improvements after a slow start to the season, but injury concerns in the form of a persistent Achilles injury ruled her out of the Aegon Classic.
“I started to feel it since I came here,” she said at the start of last week. “I have some fluid inside the tendon so the doctor says that I have to rest for a few days. It’s nothing serious but it’s a bit sore. I have almost two weeks to recover before Wimbledon so I will take a few days rest and then some treatment and then start to play again.
“This was my first tournament on grass and it was important to have some matches but I cannot change things. It’s important to take care of my body.”
Under the tutelage of reknowned coach Darren Cahill, Halep has been eager to match and surpass the heights she hit in her peak 2014 season. But while she won many matches throughout that auspicious year, she also prioritized her health above all other committments, frequently amending her schedule to ensure she was ready to perform on the game’s biggest stages.
Disappointed as she was to have left Paris without the trophy, the Romanian won’t feel her form cost her the chance. Taking the time to reset her body and mind ahead of what promises to be a stressful time of year may be the best decision the former semifinalist could have made. Fit and ready to wade past the undertow of uncertainty that cut her campaign short one year ago, Halep will be keen to ensure her preparation meets opportunity at Wimbledon.
Click here to read more about this year’s Wimbledon Contenders, courtesy of WTA Insider.
All photos courtesy of Getty Images.
Peng Shuai talks through her win over Lucie Safarova in the semifinals of the Taiwan Open.