Kristina Mladenovic On Winning Her First Title In St. Petersburg
Kristina Mladenovic talks about winning her maiden WTA title at the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy.
Kristina Mladenovic talks about winning her maiden WTA title at the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy.
An interview with Garbiñe Muguruza ahead of her participation at the Mallorca Open.
Eight-time Miami Open champion Serena Williams will headline a stacked field in South Florida this year, including Angelique Kerber and Karolina Pliskova, a host of former champions and the entire Top 10.
Great Britain open their Fed Cup campaign this week in Estonia – and Johanna Konta says they won’t be underestimating anyone as they look to progress from the Europe/Africa zone.
CoCo Vandeweghe takes on Agnieszka Radwanska in the first round of the Aegon Classic.
Nineteen-year-old Jelena Ostapenko showed great resolve in holding off Petra Kvitova for a 6-4 4-6 6-3 Thursday as the 2014 Wimbledon junior champion defeated the 2014 Wimbledon champion in Birmingham at the Aegon Classic. The SAP Tennis Analytics for Coaches shows one of the keys to her victory was forcing Kvitova to rely heavily on her backhand during the final set.
Kvitova hit 61% of shots during third set rallies from her backhand Thursday. While she only had one unforced error from that side, she did not hit any backhand winners during that final set.
That high percentage of backhand shots for the left-handed Kvitova really stands out when compared to the 36% of rally shots from the backhand side in the second set, which she won. During her straight sets opening round win, Kvitova hit just 40% of her rally shots from the backhand side.
Ostapenko kept Kvitova under pressure the entire third set. In addition to dictating play to the backhand, she had break points in all five of Kvitova’s service games, converting three, while also winning eight of nine second serve points.
The SAP Coaches View combines scoring information direct from the chair umpire with tracking data from HawkEye to allow for an in depth look at five different aspects of a match. Each tracking option can be filtered to narrow the focus to specific situations within a match, such as break points. This information is available directly to coaches in real-time during a match on their SAP tablet and also available to them online after matches.
“Rally hit from” tracking shows where each ball is struck during a rally. The display differentiates between forehands and backhands. This data can be filtered by a particular score or to only show winners, unforced errors, the last shot of a rally or the third shot (first rally ball hit by the server).
For Ostapenko on Thursday, forcing Kvitova to hit from her backhand side was a winning strategy.
TALLINN, Estonia – Johanna Konta fought back from set a down to seal Great Britain’s place in the Fed Cup promotion play-off on Saturday.
The World No.10 and Heather Watson helped the British team beat Portugal 3-0 on Wednesday and Latvia by the same score on Thursday before facing Turkey in the final Pool C match today.
Watson, the World No.72, comfortably overcame Ipek Soylu 6-0 6-1 in the opener but says the match was deceptively hard.
“The score was 6-0 6-1, but it felt a lot closer than that in the games and she’s a good player but today I just felt that I was pretty flawless,” she explained after the match.
High ?! @HeatherWatson92 celebrates her brilliant win over Turkey in the @FedCup #BackTheBrits ????? pic.twitter.com/Q45lpUi0m9
— British Tennis (@BritishTennis) February 10, 2017
Konta was made to work harder for her success. After taking a 5-3 lead in the first set against Cagla Buyukakcay, Konta lost four straight games to hand the World No.86 the opening set.
But the 25-year-old raised her game after that setback to close out a 5-7 6-4 6-3 win and victory in the tie ahead of the final doubles match.
“I’m just really happy to come through that,” she said. “It wasn’t easy and she definitely played herself into the match and to give us the opportunity to go into the play-off tomorrow, I’m very happy for us and the team.”
? fight back complete! @JoKonta91 battles past Buyukakcay 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 to keep the 100% record going #BackTheBrits ?? pic.twitter.com/Df1g6uSzzA
— British Tennis (@BritishTennis) February 10, 2017
Britain will face either face Hungary or Croatia for the prize of a World Group II play-off in April.
BIRMINGHAM, Great Britain – No.9 seed Johanna Konta made quick work of Japan’s Misaki Doi, needing just two sets to move past her and into the second round of the Aegon Classic Birmingham.
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Konta stayed toe to toe with Doi for in the first set before going on to dominate in the tiebreak, winning the first six points and converting on her fourth set point. She allowed Doi just one game in the second set, firing off nine aces during the match to advance 7-6(3), 6-1.
Konta, like much of the player field in Birmingham, has struggled with the British summer weather; her first round match against Doi was originally scheduled to be played on Tuesday but a streak of rainy days pushed play to begin today.
She deals with the delays with her usual aplomb and a bit of the typical stiff upper lip her countrymen are known for.
“[I] just really kind of keep a light mind. I am lucky I have my parents around and my coach, having a laugh with them and some of the other girls,” Konta said.
“I think it’s just important to keep reminding yourself to not get stressed about things that are completely out of your control.”
In fact, the rain has thrown off the schedule so much that Konta was originally supposed to play three matches today: along with her first round against Doi, she was slated to play her second round singles match against Yanina Wickmayer and a first round doubles match with partner Elina Svitolina.
“You don’t really think about it. You just prepare like any other day, any other match day. I guess you really need to keep yourself present. You don’t think about it.”
The Brit makes a habit of keeping things in perspective and taking the changes in stride, in everything from rain delays to her meteoric rise to the top.
This time last year, Britain’s No.1 was ranked No.139 – her breakout performance at the US Open would come about a month and a half later. Since then, she’s climbed to No.18 and admits that now she gets stopped for autographs.
“I’ve always wanted to be successful at what I do and I continue to want to be so,” Konta said. “Now, I guess, success in this field comes with maybe more recognition and getting recognized more outside.
“It’s not why I play the sport. It’s not why I want to be the best I can be. It’s just very much a side product.
“But really nothing has changed. I promise you, I’m very much the same.”
TALLINN, Estonia – Great Britain are through to the Fed Cup World Group II play-offs after a nerve-wracking tie against Croatia, with Heather Watson and Johanna Konta emerging victorious in the deciding doubles rubber.
“I’m absolutely ecstatic,” team captain Anne Keothavong told the LTA after the tie. “It’s been a real emotional rollercoaster, but the way the girls performed today and throughout the whole week, I’m just so proud of them.
“It wasn’t easy today against Croatia with it coming down to the deciding doubles. It was so tight, everyone was on the edge of their seats. But they fought their hearts out and played with so much passion out there. I’m so proud of them.”
Watson, who didn’t drop a set all week long against Turkey, Latvia and Portugal, kept her streak intact against Croatia as well, sweeping past Donna Vekic 6-2, 6-4 in the hour-and-20-minute opener.
But with Great Britain one win away from clinching the tie, 19-year-old Ana Konjuh stunned World No.10 Konta to keep Croatia alive, 6-4, 6-3.
A last-minute team change by team captain Keothavong had Watson and Konta back out on court for the deciding doubles rubber, replacing the undefeated Jocelyn Rae and Laura Robson against Konjuh and Darija Jurak.
Konjuh and Jurak took the opening set in just 26 minutes against to earn a lead against the British pair, but they rallied back to a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory to book Britain’s spot in April’s World Group II play-offs.
“It’s safe to say we are all very happy,” Watson said to the LTA, grinning with her teammates afterwards. “That was really tough, all of our matches today were. Croatia are a strong country, and I think we all played great tennis all the way from start to finish.”
Konta added, “It was tough going back out after having lost my singles rubber, but having all the girls supporting me – Laura and Jocelyn, they made a lot of noise courtside – it helped.
“And we can’t forget all those other ties before this one. The fact that we were able to win our group undefeated, that’s a massive achievement for us.”
SQUAD. So proud to be a part of this team! Playoffs here we come ???? pic.twitter.com/LS05qz8yXm
— Laura Robson (@laurarobson5) 11 de febrero de 2017
More to follow…