Tennis News

CINCINNATI, OH, USA – Simona Halep will put her 10-match winning streak on the line at the Western & Southern Open on Wednesday. Chris Oddo previews a jam-packed schedule for wtatennis.com.

Wednesday, First and Second Round

Center Court
[3] Simona Halep (ROU #4) vs. Annika Beck (GER #33)
Head-to-head: Halep leads, 3-1

Key Stat: Halep has won her last 10 matches, claiming titles in Bucharest and Montréal.
Can last year’s Western & Southern Open runner-up take it a step further in 2016? That’s the question Simona Halep hopes to answer with a resounding yes this week in Cincinnati, and the Romanian will open her bid for the title with a second-round tilt with Germany’s Annika Beck on Wednesday. Halep will be well-rested after passing on the Olympics due to the threat of Zika virus. It was a difficult decision for the Romanian but one that she hopes will help spur her to great heights this summer. “I was very disappointed that I had to decide not to go there, but it was much better for my health,” Halep said on Monday when she spoke with the media at All-Access Hour. Out of action since the Montréal final more than two weeks ago, Halep will have to get up to speed quickly when she faces the 22-year-old Beck. The German won two qualifying matches to get into the main draw and impressively took down Yulia Putintseva in first-round action on Tuesday.

Pick: Halep in three

Grandstand
[10] Johanna Konta (GBR #13) vs. [Q] Donna Vekic (CRO #121)
Head-to-head: First meeting

Key Stat: Vekic ended a nine-match losing streak at WTA events on Monday when she defeated Ana Ivanovic.
Great Britain’s Johanna Konta will continue her pursuit of a Top 10 ranking when she makes her Cincinnati debut on Wednesday against 20-year-old Donna Vekic of Croatia. Konta has been in fine form this summer, winning 10 of 12 on the hard courts and claiming her first career title at Stanford last month. The British No.1 was one match from becoming the first woman from her country to reach the Top 10 in over 30 years in Montréal but fell to Kristina Kucova in the quarterfinals. On Wednesday Konta will face qualifier Donna Vekic for the first time. The former World No.62 has struggled mightily this season, but showed signs of life when she won her first WTA-level match in six months on Monday, stunning Ana Ivanovic in the first round. Will lightning strike twice for the talented Vekic, or will it be the cool, composed Konta who claims her first career victory in the Queen City?

Pick: Konta in two

Court 6
[13] Belinda Bencic (SUI #27) vs. [Q] Timea Babos (HUN #41)
Head-to-head: Bencic leads, 1-0
Key Stat: Babos is playing just two spots off her career-high ranking this week.
Injuries have marred what promised to be an incredible year for 19-year-old Belinda Bencic, as she was forced to miss several months due to a back problem and then had to play injured during the grass-court season before finally pulling the plug at Wimbledon with a wrist injury. But Bencic hopes to put her frailties behind her as she returns to action in Cincinnati looking to build some momentum ahead of the US Open. It won’t be easy on Wednesday as the Swiss will have to face one of the WTA’s most improved players in Hungary’s Timea Babos. The 23-year-old is closing in on the 30-win mark this season and reached the Florianopolis final two weeks ago before falling to Irina-Camelia Begu. Though she dropped her only previous meeting with Bencic in straight sets at Australia this year, Babos will benefit from the fact that she’s already logged three matches here in Cincinnati. She won two qualifying matches before easing past American Louisa Chirico in straight sets on Tuesday.

Pick: Bencic in three

Around the grounds…
Several unfinished matches from a rain-plagued Tuesday at the Lindner Family Tennis Center will be played today. Fourth-seeded Garbiñe Muguruza will take on CoCo Vandeweghe, while seventeenth-seeded Elina Svitolina meets qualifier Daria Gavrilova. American qualifier Alison Riske notched her first main draw win at Cincinnati on Tuesday and will meet up with seventh-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova in second-round action today. The No.2 and No.5 seeds, Angelique Kerber and Agnieszka Radwanska, will also be in action on an extremely busy schedule.

CINCINNATI, OH, USA – When Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza announced the end of their illustrious partnership last week, all eyes were on the partners that the World Co-No.1s had chosen to play with at the US Open, which they won together last summer.

Hingis announced her intention to play with American powerhouse CoCo Vandeweghe, while Mirza opted to partner Czech veteran Barbora Strycova, who just claimed an Olympic Bronze medal in women’s doubles alongside Lucie Safarova; the pair upset three-time champions Venus Williams and Serena Williams in the first round.

“Sania asked me in Rio if I had someone to play with,” Strycova told WTA Insider in Tuesday’s Daily Dispatch from the Western & Southern Open. “Normally, I’m supposed to play with Misa, Michaella Krajicek, but she was playing singles in US Open qualies, so we weren’t sure if we were going to play together.

“So I was kind of free, and I had to give it a shot because she’s No.1 in the world and she asked me. I was really happy about that. We’ll try to play here and the US Open, and we’ll see how it goes. Maybe we’ll play together more after that.”

Strycova and Krajicek narrowly missed out on qualifying for the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global last year, reaching the semifinals of the Australian Open and the quarterfinals of Roland Garros. A Top 40 doubles player who has been ranked as high as No.14 back in 2011, Strycova plays doubles nearly every week in addition to singles, but has never partnered Mirza before.

They’ve faced off in the format eight times with different partners, and Mirza leads 5-3, her most recent win coming with Hingis against Strycova and Krajicek en route to last year’s US Open title.

“We’ve talked to each other a lot. She’s a funny girl and I think we’ll be good on court. She plays the kind of tennis I like; she goes for it and I will be at the net. I think we’ll be a good team.”

Strycova and Mirza are seeded No.7 in Cincinnati, and will play a tough team in Darija Jurak and Anastasia Rodionova in the first round; Jurak and Rodionova won their first title as a pair back at the Aegon International in Eastbourne and reached a second final at the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford.

Hear more from Strycova and compatriot Karolina Pliskova in the latest episode of the WTA Insider Podcast:

KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan – Elizaveta Kulichkova showed why she was one to watch at the Taiwan Open, fighting her way out of a dangerous deficit to advance past Taiwanese wildcard Ya-Hsuan Lee, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Named by WTA Insider as part of Russia’s “Generation Next,” Kulichkova entered the tournament following some of the best results of her young career: at the Australian Open, she reached the 3rd round of a Grand Slam for the first time, dealing No.25 Andrea Petkovic an upset along the way.

In Kaohsiung, Kulichkova found herself in big trouble against Lee – the Russian dropped the first set and was actually down 0-3 in the second – before she found a way to play herself into the match.