Tennis News

FLORIANOPOLIS, Brazil – No.2 seed Irina-Camelia Begu battled past a spirited challenge from Monica Puig to earn her spot in the final of the Brasil Tennis Cup, where she’s set to face the No.6 seed Timea Babos for the title.

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“It was a tough one because she is playing really aggressive and hit the ball very hard,” Begu said of her Puerto Rican opponent. “I served well in the important games. It was difficult but I think I managed it well.”

Begu is the second Romanian player to reach the final of the Brasil Tennis Cup after Monica Niculescu won the title at the tournament’s inaugural staging in 2013. Standing in Begu’s way as she tries to emulate her countrywoman is Babos, who spoiled what would have been an all-Romanian final when she edged past Ana Bodgan in a tight straights sets rollercoaster, 7-6(10), 6-3.

The Hungarian looked to be firmly in the driver’s seat from the start after she built up a 5-2 lead, but a mental lapse gave Bodgan a way back. Bogdan rattled off four games straight and even held three sets points at 6-5, 40-0.

Babos reigned in her mounting frustration to send the set to a tiebreak, and Bodgan raced ahead to a 5-0 lead, only to see it dashed away again as the No.6 seed clawed back to take the opening set.

“It was definitely a silly, silly match,” she said afterwards. “I mean, I was really controlling the match in the beginning of the first set and then I lost control – especially of my emotions.”

“It was ridiculous, very unbelievable that first set.”

The second set would prove to be just as difficult as the first, featuring eight breaks of serve total. Babos, who had been very defensive in her service games thus far, finally changed her strategy at the end and raised her level of aggressiveness to take the decisive seventh break at 4-3, then once again to close out the two hour long battle and make her way to the Florianopolis final.

Her day wasn’t over yet, though, as later Babos was back on court after suitable rest to join her partner Reka-Luka Jani for the doubles final against Ukrainian sisters Lyudmyla Kichenok and Nadiia Kichenok.

It was one way traffic for the Kichenoks as they routed the all-Hungarian duo 6-3, 6-1.

Both teams were fine tuning their Olympic preparations and are scheduled to be back on the courts after the Olympic tennis event kicks off this weekend in nearby Rio de Janeiro.

“For sure this tournament was great preparation for the Olympics,” Lyudmyla said. “We are really looking forward to it now after winning here in Florianopolis.”

MOSCOW, Russia – Ekaterina Makarova is looking forward to Russia’s Fed Cup tie against Chinese Taipei this weekend for a very special reason.

It’s hosted at the Druzhba Sport Complex, in Moscow – the venue in her hometown where she first began playing tennis herself.

“It’s in the stadium where I grew up,” she told the official Fed Cup site. “I was practicing for 12 years there – I took my first steps in tennis in that stadium so it’s a special place.”

Makarova, 28, is the senior player in a young Russia squad; this will be her eighth appearance in the competition. It is an experience she enjoys.

“I love to play for a team, for Russia,” she added.

The World No.39 comes into the tie after losing to good friend and doubles partner Elena Vesnina 6-3 6-1 in the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy round of 32. The pair were the 2016 doubles champions at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.

They were seeded third in this year’s Australian Open doubles competition, but were knocked out in the quarterfinals by Andrea Hlavackova and Peng Shuai, 7-5 7-6.

In the singles competition, Makarova boasted a stunning win against Dominika Cibulkova in the third round, coming through 6-2 6-7 6-3, before falling at the hands of Johanna Konta, 6-1 6-4.

Angelique Kerber kicked off her 2016 season by picking up some silver hardware in Melbourne, winning her first major title at the Australian Open. Last month at Wimbledon she proved to everyone, including herself, that her Melbourne run was no fluke, making the final of yet another major tournament.

So can the German back it all up with some Olympic hardware? Absolutely.

Playing under the German flag has never been a problem for the World No.2. In her first Olympics in 2012 she was a win away from the medal round in London, losing in a tight two sets to top seed Victoria Azarenka in the quarterfinals. Since 2012, Kerber is 10-4 in Fed Cup, leading the Germans to the final in 2014, and has been Germany’s standard-bearer since her breakout season in 2012.

In Rio, she is aiming to become the first German to win a medal in tennis since Tommy Haas won silver in 2000, and the first German woman to win a tennis medal since Steffi Graf in 1992.

Kerber heads to Rio after a scratchy week at the Rogers Cup in Montréal. It speaks well to her quality and confidence that she was able to make the semifinals without playing anything near her best tennis. But she looked rusty and out of rhythm in Canada.

With the summer schedule accelerated due to the Olympics, Kerber did not get much rest after Wimbledon. She was back on court at the Ericsson Open in Bastad, where she eventually withdrew due to an elbow injury. The injury did not seem to bother her in Montréal, but the rust from being unable to train as hard as she might have liked for the hardcourt summer showed.

“I think the tournament was good for me because I have a lot of tough and close matches during this week,” Kerber said after losing in three sets to eventual champion Simona Halep in Montréal. “It was the first tournament on hardcourt again, so it’s good to have a lot of matches before going to Rio now, having a few matches under my belt.

“I’m actually feeling good. I take the positive things for the next week and looking forward to play the Olympics.”

Kerber was part of a small group of players who had to endure a series of delays and rerouted flights to get down to Rio earlier this week, finally landing on Wednesday. She’ll need to shake off the fatigue quickly and get back to work to improve her form over what we saw in Montréal. That may prove difficult given how hard it has been for players to get extended blocks of practice time on the courts in Rio.

Finally arrived in Rio !!! ? #longtrip #RoadToRio ?? pic.twitter.com/20jvaBAN5t

— Angelique Kerber (@AngeliqueKerber) August 3, 2016

Also looming after the Olympics are the Western & Southern Open and the US Open, both of which offer Kerber an opportunity to overtake Serena Williams for the No.1 ranking. It’s a milestone that is within her reach before Flushing, but for now the focus is on getting a medal for Germany.

“I think for the tennis player, the Grand Slams are, I think, the most important things,” Kerber said in Montréal, when asked how the Olympics stack up to the tour’s biggest tournaments. “Of course you are looking forward, like me, to playing the Olympics because it’s only [every] four years. It’s an honor to play for Germany. Of course, I will give everything to win the medal, doesn’t matter which one.

“It’s tough to compare because it’s a little bit different, but I’m happy that I already have a Slam,” she said with a big smile.

After six months of defying expectations, Kerber has rightfully earned the label of a medal favorite.

All photos courtesy of Getty Images.

The dust has settled after a breakneck first day of Fed Cup World Group action, with Garbiñe Muguruza, Karolina Pliskova, Kristina Mladenovic and Timea Bacsinszky among the day’s winners.

Here’s how the World Group ties stand after the end of today’s action:

Czech Republic 1 – 1 Spain

Spain faced a huge challenge in their first round match going up against the Czech Republic at home in Ostrava. The defending champions haven’t lost a tie since 2013, and haven’t lost at home in even longer with their last home defeat coming in 2009.

Spain’s No.1 Muguruza set out to break that streak though, defeating Barbora Strycova 6-0, 3-6, 6-1 to silence the home crowd.

“I think I started really, really good, playing a great level,” Muguruza told FedCup.com afterwards. “I think Barbora started a bit slow, but then in the second set she came playing amazing.

“I was expecting a very tough match, I knew the 6-0 was a little bit strange.”

Spain captain Conchita Martinez told press earlier that a win in the opening match was crucial against the imperious Czech team, and Muguruza took the message to heart.

“I definitely felt a lot of pressure in this match. I mean, I’m the one on the team and I just had to go for my matches. That’s what I’m trying, to just give my best to the team.”

Spain’s lead was short-lived as Karolina Pliskova overpowered Lara Arruabarrena 6-4, 7-5 to level the tie.

Switzerland 1 – 1 France

In Geneva, Timea Bacsinszky and Kristina Mladenovic notched a win apiece to leave things between Switzerland and France.

Bacsinszky gritted out a hard-fought win over Alizé Cornet 7-5, 6-4 to put the home side ahead in the tie.

“The whole match was pretty tight and I think we were both just playing amazing tennis,” Bacsinszky told FedCup.com after her victory. “We’re both big fighters so you know you’re going to get some interesting points when we’re playing a match against each other.

“I don’t have such a good win average against Alizé, so I’m really proud of how I managed to be more aggressive.”

In the second rubber, good friends Kristina Mladenovic and Belinda Bencic faced off. The Frenchwoman, fresh off her first WTA singles title at the St Petersburg Ladies Trophy last week, continued with her great form and emerged victorious, 6-3, 6-4 to rescue a point for her side.

Belarus 1 – 1 Netherlands

Last year, it was Victoria Azarenka’s monumental effort in singles that took Belarus into the World Group, but even without the two-time Grand Slam champion they proved they could compete among the big names as they held the Netherlands to one win apiece.

Entering the tie decidedly as the underdogs, the hosts stunned the Dutch team with Aliaksandra Sasnovich defeating Michaela Krajicek 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the opening rubber.

They were one point away from a stunning 2-0 lead, with 18-year-old Aryna Sabalenka holding match point against World No.24 Kiki Bertens, but the Dutch player came back from the brink to win 6=3, 7-6(6), 6-4 and level the tie.

“I remember my first singles [in Fed Cup] and I was like crying before and throwing up because I was so nervous and she was not,” Bertens told FedCup.com afterwards. “For [Sabalenka] it was really good that she could just go out there and swing and go for her shots. If she can play like this again she will make it very difficult for a lot of players.”

USA – Germany (In Progress)

More to follow…

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – No.2 seed Angelique Kerber overcame a slow start and overturned a 1-4 deficit in the first set to see off Eugenie Bouchard and make her way to the third round of the Olympic tennis event in Rio, 6-4, 6-2.

Bouchard was off to a flying start against Kerber, looking to extend her streak against Germany’s No.1 to four wins in a row. After fighting off a pair of break points in both of her service games, the Canadian got the first break of the match and consolidated for a 4-1 lead.

After the initial wobble, Kerber found her rhythm and famous consistency from the baseline to rattle off seven games in a row, erase Bouchard’s lead and grab the opening set and a break in the second. Bouchard saved a trio of match points to hold serve in a lengthy game for 5-2, employing line-to-line defense against the German to hit a forehand winner. But Kerber took the match at her next chance and made her way into the third round after an hour and 22 minutes.

Though both players stayed aggressive throughout, Kerber kept her margins cleaner than Bouchard, striking 24 winners and 19 unforced errors to the Canadian’s 22 and 36. She brought up 12 break points and converted four times, while Bouchard broke just once in five chances.

Kerber will go on to play Australia’s Samantha Stosur for a spot in the quarterfinals. The No.13 seed defeated Japan’s Misaki Doi 6-3, 6-4 to move into the third round.

Earlier in the day Madison Keys, one of two Americans left in the singles draw, came away the winner in a three-hour marathon against France’s Kristina Mladenovic 7-5, 6-7(4), 7-6(5), in the longest match of the Olympic tennis event so far.

“I’m obviously really happy with how I was able to compete today,” Keys said in the mixed zone after the win.

There were 11 breaks of serve during the first two sets alone as the momentum shifted back and forth. Keys was three points away from taking the match when she held a 4-1 lead in the second set tiebreak, but Mladenovic rattled off six points on the trot to send the match to a third set. Keys overcame a 3-5 deficit in the final tiebreak to edge past the Frenchwoman.

The American hit 49 total winners during the match to 64 unforced errors against Mladenovic’s 28 winners and 46 unforced errors. Keys’ big serve bailed her out of trouble in the third set, blasting six of her nine aces during the final set.

The American took a medical timeout during the match but later brushed off any lasting injury concerns.

“I felt like one of my ribs maybe moved, which wasn’t very comfortable but I’m feeling a little bit better now, I’m going to go see the trainers after,” Keys explained.

She’s set to play against Spain’s Carla Suárez Navarro next in the next round.