Tennis News

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova backed up their upset over No.1 seeded team in the last round with another victory, coming back from a set down to oust the Canadian team of Eugenie Bouchard and Gabriela Dabrowski 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-4 at the Olympic tennis event.

Strycova and Safarova are a regular pairing when playing doubles in Fed Cup, and once again their games clicked together for the Czech Republic as they took on Bouchard and Dabrowski in the second round.

Fresh off of pulling off a straight-sets stunner against three-time doubles gold medalists Serena Williams and Venus Williams, the Czech duo had more trouble getting past the Canadians. The two teams traded breaks twice in the opening set to send it to a tiebreak, where Dabrowski’s monumental effort at the net gave them the edge. But the Czechs recovered from the early deficit and broke twice to take the second set and even up the score.

After trading breaks once more to start off the final set, Safarova and Strycova earned the decisive one for a 4-3 lead and consolidated after a fierce battle. They marched into the quarterfinals after a two-hour and 11 minute encounter.

More to come…

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – No.11 seed Petra Kvitova kept up her world-class form in the quarterfinals of the Olympic tennis event, soaring past Elina Svitolina, 6-2, 6-0, to reach the final four in Rio.

Playing in her second Olympics, Kvitova edged closer to a first medal with a strong win over Svitolina, who was fresh off an upset of World No.1 Serena Williams in the third round.

Converting the only two break points of the opening set, the two-time Wimbledon winner raced through the opening set, and didn’t face a break point throughout the 48 minute contest. In all, Kvitova hit 18 winners to just two from the Ukrainian youngster, and hit 11 unforced errors to 16 by match’s end.

Czech Republic's @Petra_Kvitova books her place in the last 4 at #Rio2016 with 62 60 win against @ElinaSvitolina pic.twitter.com/hUVLuqgyil

— ITF Olympic Tennis (@OlympicsTennis) August 11, 2016

Into her first Olympic semifinal, the former World No.2 will face Puerto Rico’s Monica Puig for a spot in the final; Puig was equally emphatic in her quarterfinal demolition of Germany’s Laura Siegemund, 6-1, 6-1.

Kvitova has played her best tennis under the Czech flag, leading her country to four Fed Cup wins in the last five years. Jiri Fencl, coach to Kvitova’s countrywoman Lucie Hradecka, noticed the shift in Kvitova’s mental state after her hard-fought third round win over Ekaterina Makarova.

Petra is emotionally in Fed Cup mode. Watch out everyone. #pojd #Rio2016

— Jiří Fencl (@maxav) August 9, 2016

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 – Simona Halep brought her winning formula to the Western & Southern Open on Wednesday, confidently swatting aside qualifier Annika Beck in straight sets.

Watch live action from Cincinnati this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!

Heavy rain delayed the start of play for a couple of hours and with more interruptions forecast, Halep was clearly keen to get on with things. In the end, last year’s runner-up required just 55 minutes to wrap up a 6-3, 6-1 victory and extend her unbeaten run.

“I’m really happy I’m back here in Cincinnati – I have great memories from last year – I played very good tennis today and I’m really happy with my game,” Halep said.

Halep can lay claim to being the summer’s form player, lifting silverware in Bucharest and Montréal. After electing not to compete at the Olympics, Halep enjoyed a couple of weeks off since the second of these triumphs and against Beck took a while to get up and running, spraying a sequence of uncharacteristically wild forehands to surrender an early break.

In recent months, coach Darren Cahill has paid particular attention to his charge’s serve, and the fruits of their labor were clear for all to see against Beck; this early hiccup was the only blot on an otherwise impressive display, in which she struck seven aces.

Once into her stride, the rest of the Romanian’s game was as neat and tidy as ever, particularly in the second set in which she coughed up only four unforced errors, reeling off the final four games to register her 11th consecutive victory.

Watch here the last point of the match between @Simona_Halep & @BeckAnnika! Great performance at @CincyTennis! pic.twitter.com/JZCx68HauD

— SimonaHalepFanSpace (@LosHalepenos) 17 August 2016

“It was tough at the beginning because we didn’t have the chance to warm up properly because of the rain, and I was a little bit tight. I had two weeks off, and the first match back is always tough. I just had to stay relaxed, step forward and hit the ball.”

Meeting Halep for a place in the quarterfinals will be a familiar foe, Daria Gavrilova. The pair have already met twice this year, sharing the spoils in Rome and Montréal, and Gavrilova set up a rubber match with an impressive 6-2, 6-2 win over No.17 seed Elina Svitolina.

Serena Williams and Angelique Kerber are the first two women to qualify for the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global. The World No.1 and No.2 respectively, this marks the fourth consecutive year Serena has qualified for the Finals and the second straight year for Kerber. While their paths have crossed twice in their quest for Singapore, their roads have looked markedly different.

Though they’ve only faced off twice this season, the Williams-Kerber rivalry has defined the 2016 season. Their two meetings came on tennis’ biggest stages, in the final of the Australian Open and Wimbledon, with Kerber winning in Melbourne and Serena in London. Kerber’s consistent success at tour events has also allowed her to close the gap on Serena’s lead in the rankings, which seemed all but insurmountable a year ago. Serena currently has seven zero-pointers on her ranking, having missed the Asian Swing and WTA Finals last fall.

Serena’s season has been the more surgical of the two. She is 34-5 on the year, having made the final or better at five of the six tournaments she has played (not including the Olympics). She won two of them, Rome and Wimbledon. By winning at the All England Club in July, Serena matched Stefanie Graf’s Open Era record of 22 major singles title. At the upcoming US Open, where she will attempt to break the record, Serena will also match Graf for the most consecutive weeks at No.1, having spent 186 straight weeks in the top spot. After a near-historic season in 2015, the records just keep on coming for one of the game’s greatest of all time.

Kerber has been the workhorse this year, which comes to no one’s surprise given her reputation as one of the hardest workers in the game. After making the final of the Western & Southern Open this weekend, she now leads the tour with 47 wins in 2016. She has played 16 tournaments this season, making the final of five them, and won two titles at the Australian Open and Stuttgart. But it hasn’t just been about finals for Kerber. She’s consistently putting herself into the final four of the tour’s biggest events, all while also playing two rounds of Fed Cup for Germany:

Brisbane – Finalist
Australian Open – Champion
Miami – Semifinalist
Charleston – Semifinalist
Stuttgart – Champion
Wimbledon – Finalist
Montréal – Semifinalist
Olympic – Finalist (does not count towards qualification)
Cincinnati – Finalist

In all, Kerber is 7-3 against Top 10 opposition this season. No other Top 10 player has even had that many matches, let along equaled Kerber’s wins.

Current Top 5 vs. Top 10 opposition.

Serena: 5-2
Kerber: 7-3
Muguruza: 3-2
Radwanska: 2-3
Halep: 2-2

As the tour heads to the final Slam of the season at the US Open, Serena and Kerber are separated by less than 500 points in the Road to Singapore. This past weekend, Kerber came within one win of becoming the second German ever to become World No.1. Kerber will challenge for the No.1 ranking in New York as well.

Given how close the rankings are with just a few months left in the season, there’s a strong possibility that the coveted year-end No.1 ranking could come down to the wire at the WTA Finals in Singapore.