Tennis News

The top half of the draw will round out the semifinals on Wednesday in Miami.

Wednesday

Quarterfinals

[3] Simona Halep (ROU #5) vs. [10] Johanna Konta (GBR #11)
Head-to-head: Konta leads, 1-0
Key Stat: Halep can climb back to No.4 in the rankings by reaching the final in Miami.

Not only has Simona Halep won consecutive matches for the first time all season this week in Miami, now the Romanian is also pulling rabbits out of hats. Halep saved a match point in the second set to edge No.14-seeded Sam Stosur 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 on Monday to book a clash with Johanna Konta in the quarterfinals. Could this inspirational victory be a turning point for Halep in 2017? Maybe, but first and foremost the Romanian is just happy to be showing the world that she can still play at a high level. “Match point down and I came back,” she said after the win. “I’m happy about this, shows I can still play some tennis.”

As for the challenge of facing red-hot Johanna Konta, Halep is cautious, but eager for the test. “It will be tough,” Halep said. “She’s in a good form now, she’s near Top 10. And she plays great. It’s going to be a tough one, but here every match is tough so I don’t expect an easy one.” Konta improved to 16-3 with her Round of 16 win over Spain’s Lara Arruabarrena. The British No.1 was pleased about how she was able to find her level against the World No.72 on Monday. “As the match went on, I felt clearer and clearer on how I wanted to play and what I wanted to do out there from my perspective,” Konta told reporters afterwards.

Konta defeated Halep in their lone meeting at Wuhan in 2015 when she was still outside of the Top 50. She would break into the Top 50 the following week and never look back. Will she continue her climb up the rankings by reaching her first Miami Open semifinal, or will Halep build on her momentum with another noteworthy win?

Pick: Konta in three

[1] Angelique Kerber (GER #1) vs. [11] Venus Williams (USA #12)
Head-to-head: Kerber leads, 4-2
Key Stat: Kerber is 0-3 against Top 20 competition this season.

Two former Grand Slam champions will clash in a marquee quarterfinal on Wednesday as World No.1 Angelique Kerber and Venus Williams lock horns for the seventh time. It was Kerber who emerged victorious when the pair last met at last year’s Wimbledon semifinals. The German executed very well in that contest, winning 43 percent of first-serve return points and breaking Williams’ serve five times on eleven opportunities. She was aggressive, because she knew she had to be. “I was trying to move her,” Kerber said. “That was the plan. That is always the plan when you play against Venus because when she has the ball on the racquet she just hits the ball from left to right, and you just run.”

Nine months later it will be interesting to see if Kerber can implement and execute a similar gameplan. The German has struggled to summon her best tennis this season, and she has lost six of eight matches against Top 50 opponents. Will she have the confidence to attack an in-form Williams?

Williams was in stellar form on Monday as she worked her way past No.7-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova in straight sets. The American saved three of four break points and won 78 of her first-serve points, and she’ll need to be strong on serve again in order to defeat Kerber and earn her first win over a Reigning World No.1 since 2014.

Pick: Williams in three

By the Numbers
1 – Number of unseeded players to reach the quarterfinals this year at Miami (Safarova).
2 – Konta has reached the quarterfinals at Miami in her two career appearances at the event.
3 – Venus Williams is the only former remaining champion remaining in the draw. The three-time champion last won the title in Miami in 2001.
9 – Halep snapped a nine-match losing streak when losing the first set on Monday when she defeated Samantha Stosur in three.
13 – Williams owns 13 wins over reigning World No.1s, seven of which have come against Martina Hingis.

THE WINNERS

Former No.1 Victoria Azarenka continues her climb back to the top, overpowering Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-3, 6-2 in the final to claim the Miami Open title and secure her return to the WTA Top 5.

Azarenka, a two-time champion here in Miami, won her third title of 2016 in dominating fashion without dropping a set. Even more impressive, her back-to-back titles in Indian Wells and Miami complete the Sunshine Double, a feat last achieved 11 years ago.

With the win, Azarenka also cements her position as No.1 on the Road To Singapore Leaderboard, leapfrogging Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber for the top spot.

Read the full story and watch highlights here. | As It Happened: Game-by-game analysis.

In doubles, Bethanie Mattek-Sands completed a Sunshine Double of her own. Mattek-Sands and partner Lucie Safarova capped off a fairytale reunion on Sunday afternoon with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Timea Babos and Yaroslava Shvedova in the final of the Miami Open. The American now joins Martina Hingis and Natasha Zvereva as the third player to win both events in the same year.

Read the full story here.

GAME, SET, MATCH: WTA Insider

Game: Victoria Azarenka did what she does…

The numbers are plain as day: Azarenka is the best player in the world…right now. By going undefeated in March to become the first woman since 2005 to complete the Sunshine Double by winning both the BNP Paribas Open and Miami Open, Azarenka vaults to No.1 in the Road to Singapore Leaderboard ahead of Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber and World No.1 Serena Williams. A look behind the RTS rankings only underscores just how dominant Vika has been through the first quarter of the year.

Not only is she 22-1 on the season, capturing two of the biggest titles of the season so far as well as another significant title at the Brisbane International, but she’s done it guns blazing. The draws did not break open for Azarenka and she did not pick up her points and wins cheaply. She beat Serena to win Indian Wells, avenged her loss to Kerber en route to the title in Miami (and is 2-1 already this year against Kerber), and has notched good wins over No.4 Garbiñe Muguruza, No.8 Roberta Vinci, No.18 Karolina Pliskova, and No.21 Johanna Konta. In Miami and Brisbane she did not lose a set en route to the trophy. In Indian Wells she faced the toughest task in tennis – beating Serena in a final – and came through with a poised and focused performance to win in straight sets.

This is what Azarenka can do on hard courts and it, in particular, is what she has historically done in the first quarter of the season. In 2013 she went on a 15-match win streak to win the Australian Open and Qatar Total Open. A year before that she started the year 26-0, winning the Sydney International, Australian Open, Qatar Total Open, and Indian Wells, before finally running out of gas in the Miami quarterfinals. In all, 13 of her 20 titles have come in the first quarter of the season, when she is at her freshest and the playing on her favorite surface.

Set: …But can she keep it up?

That’s one of the big questions as the tour turns away from her best surface and towards the clay. Clay is not her worst surface (statistically that would be grass) but her results have varied greatly on the slower surface. She has won just one title on clay, in Marbella in 2011, but she has routinely put herself in position to do better. She has made the final of the Madrid Open twice (2011, 2012), and the Internazionali BNL d’Italia and Porsche Tennis Grand Prix once apiece.

“Definitely very motivated for clay season,” Azarenka said. “I always been a high favorite [sic] of proving people wrong, and that’s what also motivates me a lot.

“Going into clay season, people say it’s not my favorite surface and whatever. I’m going to work pretty hard to make sure it’s going to be my favorite surface.”

Match: Serena looking for solutions on clay.

Not since 2012 has Serena gone titleless through the first quarter of the year. That also happened to be an Olympic year. Back then she was ranked outside the Top 10 to start the season and was still finding her form after suffering a foot injury and pulmonary embolism that left her hospitalized in 2011.

She went on to go through a tear on clay, compiling a 17-match win streak with titles at the Volvo Car Open and Mutua Madrid Open, before pulling out before the semifinals in Rome. She would lose in the first round of the French Open to Virginie Razzano, but we all know what happened after that: Wimbledon champion, Olympic gold medalist, US Open champion, and WTA Finals champion.

All that is to say, don’t worry about Serena Williams quite yet.

RANKING MOVERS
Notable singles ranking movers for the week of April 4, 2016.

Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS), +6 (No.19 to 13): 30-year-old Svetlana Kuznetsova turned back the clock to make the biggest ranking jump of the fortnight. A Miami Open champion in 2006, her run to the final 10 years later bumps her up six spots with a Top 10 berth in sight.

Victoria Azarenka (BLR), +3 (No.8 to 5): Kuznetsova’s opponent in the Miami final, Victoria Azarenka, has been on fire and on the rise all year. By claiming the Miami Open title (and thus completing the Sunshine Double, winning back-to-back Indian Wells and Miami titles), she earns a spot in the Top 5.

Timea Bacsinszky (SUI), +3 (No.20 to 17): Bacsinszky’s run to the Miami semifinals halted a string of disappointing results since the start of the season and puts her at No.17.

Angelique Kerber (GER), +1 (No.3 to 2): First-round exits in Doha and Indian Wells saw Kerber’s ranking dip to No.3, but the Australian Open champion righted the ship in Miami. Her run to the semifinals sent her back up to her career-high ranking of World No.2.

UPCOMING TOURNAMENTS

Katowice Open
Katowice, Poland
International | $226,750 | Hard, Indoors
Monday, April 4 – Sunday, April 10, 2016

Volvo Car Open
Charleston, USA
Premier | $687,900 | Clay
Monday, April 4 – Sunday, April 10, 2016

Claro Open Colsanitas
Bogotá, Colombia
International | $226,750 | Clay
Monday, April 11 – Sunday, April 17, 2016

Porsche Tennis Grand Prix
Stuttgart, Germany
Premier | $693,900 | Clay, Indoor
Monday, April 18 – Sunday, April 24, 2016

TOP 20 PLAYER SCHEDULES
1. Serena Williams
2. Angelique Kerber – Charleston, Stuttgart
3. Agnieszka Radwanska – Stuttgart
4. Garbiñe Muguruza – Stuttgart
5. Victoria Azarenka
6. Simona Halep – Stuttgart
7. Petra Kvitova – Stuttgart
8. Roberta Vinci – Stuttgart
9. Maria Sharapova
10. Belinda Bencic – Charleston, Stuttgart
11. Carla Suárez Navarro – Stuttgart
12. Flavia Pennetta
13. Svetlana Kuznetsova – Stuttgart
14. Venus Williams – Charleston
15. Lucie Safarova – Charleston, Stuttgart
16. Elina Svitolina – Bogotá
17. Timea Bacsinszky
18. Karolina Pliskova – Stuttgart
19. Ana Ivanovic – Stuttgart
20. Sara Errani – Charleston

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

Sorana Cirstea (ROU) – April 7, 1990
Risa Ozaki (JPN) – April 10, 1994