Tennis News

MELBOURNE, Australia – Maria Sharapova shone in her first match of the 2016 season, serving up a straight set victory over Japanese up-and-comer Nao Hibino under the lights of Margaret Court Arena.

There were question marks surrounding Sharapova’s health after she withdrew from her only lead-up event in Brisbane due to a left forearm injury suffered in practice, but there were no ill effects on Monday night as the No.5-seeded Russian powered past Hibino in an hour and 13 minutes, 6-1, 6-3.

“It was just nice to get on court and face the opportunity of playing a first match,” Sharapova said afterwards. “No matter how much you train, it’s always different when you walk out onto the court.

“It’s definitely a relief to get that first one out of the way.”

Sharapova was also told she’s Hibino’s idol and that the Japanese has posters of her on her wall.

“She’s got to take those off! It’s time to put her posters up there,” Sharapova said.

“I actually hadn’t heard much about her, and I hadn’t seen too much of her game before I went on the court today. She actually likes the pace and takes the pace quite well. For a first Grand Slam performance I thought she was there till the end. That’s impressive. She never let in, never gave up.

“I mean, experience is priceless for anyone, but especially for someone that’s just starting out in their Grand Slam experience,” Sharapova added. “I’m sure she’ll have a great future ahead of her.”

Sharapova has now won 46 of her last 47 Grand Slam first round matches – her only loss in the first round of a Grand Slam since 2003 came at the hands of Maria Kirilenko at the 2010 Australian Open.

The other Top 8 seeds in action also advanced in straight sets, with No.1 seed Serena Williams edging Camila Giorgi in a tight two-setter, 6-4, 7-5 (read more here), No.4 seed Agnieszka Radwanska outfoxing Christina McHale, 6-2, 6-3 (read more here) and No.6 seed Petra Kvitova overpowering Thai qualifier Luksika Kumkhum, 6-3, 6-1, revenge for losing to her in the same round two years ago.

There were a slew of upsets among the lower seeds, though, most notably No.16 seed Caroline Wozniacki falling to Yulia Putintseva in a thriller, 1-6, 7-6(3), 6-4 (read more about that match here).

Other upsets saw Margarita Gasparyan edge No.17 seed Sara Errani, 1-6, 7-5, 6-1, Elizaveta Kulichkova take out No.22 seed Andrea Petkovic, 7-5, 6-4, Chinese qualifier Wang Qiang outdo No.24 seed Sloane Stephens, 6-3, 6-3, Lauren Davis outlast No.26 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, and Daria Kasatkina dispatch the No.27-seeded Anna Karolina Schmiedlova, 6-3, 6-3.

The night match saw Czech qualifier Kristyna Pliskova send No.25 seed Sam Stosur out, 6-4, 7-6(6).

No.10 seed Carla Suárez Navarro, No.12 seed Belinda Bencic, No.13 seed Roberta Vinci, No.23 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, No.28 seed Kristina Mladenovic and Eugenie Bouchard all moved through.

Hello 2016!! So nice to be back at the @AustralianOpen #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/HoceAzkdm1

— Maria Sharapova (@MariaSharapova) January 18, 2016

MELBOURNE, Australia – Timea Bacsinszky’s breakout 2015 ended in tears.

After a season that saw her start at No.48, quickly climb up thanks to two titles in Acapulco and Monterrey, and make her first major semifinal at the French Open – where she lost to eventual champion Serena Williams in three sets – Bacsinszky suddenly found herself in the running for a spot at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore. Her run to the China Open final boosted her chances of qualifying, but was unable to enter a tournament that coul have given her the necessary points to qualify.

Heartbroken and frustrated, she played the Luxembourg Open to finish her season and suffered a terrible knee injury in her opening match.

“My left knee ligament was broken,” she told WTA Insider. “I couldn’t even fly to Singapore [as an alternate] or Zhuhai to attend there because my knee was so swollen. It was really tough because you’re stuck home You could go on holidays but you cannot travel. It was heavy to live through that.”

Bacsinszky couldn’t pick up a racket for seven weeks in the off-season and her movement was heavily restricted.

“It’s tough because I’m a hyperactive person and I love to do so many things. So I had to deal with that. Seven weeks is a long time.”

As with many of the top players this year, Bacsinszky’s pre-season wasn’t what she wanted. She began to practice the second week of November and was only able to ramp things up two weeks before the Brisbane International. She considered not coming to Australia at all.

“I had the option to come or not to come, or to face the fact that maybe I’m not 100% and playing Brisbane knowing anything can happen. I knew that I would probably be less trained than the other players, but I decided to come. It’s the opposite of what I did [in the fall, when I withdrew from Wuhan and Seoul].”

After making the final four at the French, Bacsinszky returned to Switzerland under a new spotlight. People recognized her on the street and her anonymity was gone. It was a tough adjustment that played with her head, leading to a disastrous North American summer. She thought it was just a hangover from her fantastic first six months of the season. It turned out to be anemia.

“In the US I lost four first rounds in a row and I was feeling so down and I didn’t know why,” Bacsinszky said. “When I came back home I was so tired and down. My doctor said we have to check your blood. We checked and my iron level was at 26 and it should be to be over 70.

“I know I have lack of iron already because of my metabolism. I was playing well and I was pushing, pushing, pushing and not really thinking about it. I was watching my diet too, so I was eating more fish this summer and less red meat. I was probably tired from the first half of the season and then this. It was a huge contrast.”

So with her injury and illness scares in the last half of 2015, why push and come down to Australia knowing that maybe, just maybe, she’s a little undercooked for the first major of the season?

“Maybe before I was like, ‘Wait wait I have to get fit,'” she explained. “This time we talked a lot and I said we’ll go. We’re gonna face it. I own the fact that I’m still not 100% and I’m missing a couple weeks of practice. It was already a big win for me because I accepted the fact that I might not be able to play 100%, but at least I knew I finished the match. I saw what I can still improve, and after Brisbane I did a huge week of physical practice in Sydney.”

Bacsinszky came into Melbourne losing her first two matches of the season. The pain was still there in Brisbane but she expects she will still feel pain in her knee for another couple of months. But with each training session and match, she says she sees improvements. Her win the first round of the Australian Open over Katarina Siniakova was a confidence booster.

“I took my time here in Australia as an investment in my physical preparation,” Bacsinszky said. “It’s a long term plan.”

All photos courtesy of Getty Images.

MELBOURNE, Australia – Daria Kasatkina’s 2016 has begun with a bang. The 18-year-old from Moscow opened her season by beating Venus Williams in her first match at the ASB Classic in Auckland, and Friday night she’ll take on World No.1 Serena Williams on the biggest stage of her career on Rod Laver Arena. The shy teenager says it’s a dream come true.

“When I was young, I was just dreaming to play against them, somewhere at the Grand Slams, and now I can do it,” she told reporters after beating fellow teen Ana Konjuh in the second round. “So it’s just great.”

Fans may not be as familiar with Kasatkina, though it’s time to study up. A 2014 junior French Open champion, Kasatkina watched as one of her friends and rivals, Belinda Bencic, left the junior ranks early with great success. While Kasatkina stayed back in 2014, Bencic – three days older than the Russian – made her Grand Slam debut here in Melbourne. By year’s end she was a Grand Slam quarterfinalist at the US Open.

“We played against each other in the juniors and they were real battles,” Kasatkina said of Bencic. “I was a little bit upset because she started to play earlier and she started to beat other players and showing results a little bit earlier than me.

“When she started to play pros, I was still playing juniors, and I was talking to my coaches, saying, ‘I want to play pro, I want to start to play pros! Why am I still in juniors?’ He said, ‘Dasha, be cool.’ I had to get some experience from juniors and that experience was great. A lot of experience and good memories, and I don’t regret it.”

Kasatkina made her major debut at the US Open last year as a lucky loser and proceeded to have a dream run to the third round, where she lost to Kristina Mladenovic. That run seemed to flip a switch within her. She went on to make the semifinals at the Kremlin Cup as a qualifier, losing in a tough three sets to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

“Those two tournaments brought me into the Top 100 and now I’m in main draws almost everywhere,” she said. “It’s a very good opportunity to play better because when you’re a qualifier, you have to play more matches. When you’re in the main draw, you’re more confident.”

Now ranked No.69 and rising, Kasatkina is one of four teenagers into the third round at the Australian Open, joining a group that includes Bencic, Japan’s Naomi Osaka, and her best friend Elizaveta Kulichkova. It’s the first time four teenagers have progressed to the third round at the Australian Open since 2009, when Caroline Wozniacki, Victoria Azarenka, Dominika Cibulkova, Alizé Cornet, and Alisa Kleybanova moved en masse.

Kasatkina’s coach, Vlado Platenik (who has worked with Dominika Cibulkova and former World No.3 Nadia Petrova) has preached patience and tranquility when it comes to her career. The results will come if you put in the work and there is no substitution for experience. “Dasha, be cool,” he reminds her. It’s a difficult lesson to learn.

“For me everything is new and I’m a little bit shy,” she said. “But I’m learning at every tournament and from every match, getting experience, which will help me a lot.”

There’s no experience in tennis like playing Serena Williams on one of the biggest courts in the world. Kasatkina says she has no expectations, but she’ll play the match as if it’s her last.

“It’s luck for me to play against such a great player like Serena, really, because honestly nobody plays forever, so it’s great that I’ve had the opportunity to play against Venus this year and now also Serena,” she told reporters. “I will just enjoy and try to show my best tennis. Nobody is unbeatable, so I will try.”

Catch up with Daria Kasatkina in this exclusive WTA Insider Q&A.

WTA Insider: So what did you do during your off-season?
Kasatkina: Off-season? Hard work! For sure, it was two weeks off – I had fun, rest – and then I go with my fitness coach for 10 days in the mountains, hard work, only fitness. After, I went to Miami for preparation to play tennis. I think it helped. I feel like I’m Duracell!

WTA Insider: It’s been a great week in Melbourne for young Russians. You, Kulichkova, and Margarita Gasparyan are all into the third round. Do you think we’ll see you three at the top of the game in the next five years?
Kasatkina: Nobody plays forever. So we’re the next generation so we have to play better and better. I think soon we will be on top. I have to be confident, otherwise it’s impossible.

WTA Insider: Did you and your coach work on anything specific in the off-season? How are you trying to improve your game?
Kasatkina: You always have to change something; you cannot stay on one level, so for me, I’m trying to play more aggressively and go for volleys. My psychology is to be a little bit more defense, so I’m trying to be more offensive.

WTA Insider: Why do you think you have a more defensive psychology?
Kasatkina: Maybe because I’m not big enough to hit hard, and when I was a kid, I’d play smarter [rather] than just hitting the ball. But now I have to be more aggressive; otherwise, it’s impossible.

True Friendship: Fedfan @LizaKulichkova on teasing BFF/RafaKAD @DKasatkina after the Verdasco/Nadal match. pic.twitter.com/fOsQsDDaqp

— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) January 20, 2016

WTA Insider: What are your goals this year?
Kasatkina: This is my first full year on the WTA so first, I want to adapt, because it’s very difficult. Last year I played a lot of ITF tournaments, and just a few WTAs. I will play WTAs, and will adapt everything and will for sure enjoy my year on tour because, for me, when I was a kid it was my dream to be at the top, so now I’m just enjoying.

WTA Insider: How has the tour been for you so far? Are you finding it fun? Or is it a little bit lonely because you’re fairly new.
Kasatkina: My team is always with me, so they help me a lot. They support me, and tell me what to do when I’m not sure. I’m a little bit shy because everything is new and I don’t know so many of the players, but I think I’m getting better.

WTA Insider: Are you tight with the other young Russian players? Does that help?
Kasatkina: I know all of the Russians and there are a lot of the players older than me, and we know each other from the juniors. But now the new generation is coming and there are a lot of relationships I have.

WTA Insider: Do you help push each other?
Kasatkina: For sure, because even if we are friends we want to be better and better, so it’s like a little competition but it doesn’t show it in the relationship. On the court, we are players, but off we are friends.

Follow Daria on Instagram and Twitter @DKasatkina!

All photos courtesy of Getty Images.