Birmingham: Shot Of The Day (Friday)
Angelique Kerber had Friday’s shot of the day at the Aegon Classic.
Angelique Kerber had Friday’s shot of the day at the Aegon Classic.
An interview with Madison Keys after her win in the final of the Aegon Classic.
An interview with Belinda Bencic before her opening round match at the Aegon International.
ROEHAMPTON, Great Britain – The first round of Wimbledon qualifying began on Tuesday afternoon, and six of the Top 8 seeds have already won their opening matches. Top seed Tatjana Maria led the way with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Myrtille Georges, setting up a second round encounter with former Australian Open junior champion An-Sophie Mestach, who needed three sets to get past young American, Sachia Vickery.
Maria earned her best career Grand Slam finish at last year’s Wimbledon championships, reaching the third round before falling to eventual quarterfinalist Madison Keys.
No.2 seed Viktorija Golubic was made to work harder in her first round against former Top 100 player Anastasia Pivovarova, who was playing in her first Grand Slam event since 2012. Edging out the opening set in a tie-break, the Swiss Fed Cup heroine had to fight through the next two before ultimately engineering a second round meeting with countrywoman Amra Sadikovic, who eased past Oceane Dodin, 6-4, 7-5. Sadikovic briefly retired from tennis before enjoying a rollicking comeback, one that has already seen her reach the quarterfinals of Bogota and return to the Top 150.
Lucie Hradecka was looking to cause the upset of the day against No.3 seed Zhang Kai-Lin; though the former Top 50 veteran served for each set, she ultimately fell, 7-5, 7-5. Zhang booked a second round encounter with Tereza Smitkova, who reached the fourth round of the All England Club in 2014.
No.4, No.5 and No.7 seeds Aleksandra Krunic, Maria Sakkari, and Tamira Paszek dropped a combined five games in their first rounds. Sakkari blew past young Russian Polina Leykina, 6-0, 6-0, in 45 minutes, while two-time Wimbledon quarterfinalist Paszek defeated Amandine Hesse, 6-2, 6-1.
Second round action begins on Wednesday.
WTA Insider David Kane | Five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams is on course to tie an all-time record at the upcoming Championships – which is it?
How have Serena Williams, Garbiñe Muguruza, Agnieszka Radwanska, Angelique Kerber and the rest of the top Wimbledon contenders fared in their past visits to the All England Club?
The 2016 Wimbledon draw is out. For the full draw click here.
Serena Williams faces familiar foes: World No.1 and defending champion Serena Williams leads the top half of the draw, which will get underway on Tuesday. On the whole the top half of the draw features a tougher selection of seeds compared to the bottom half of the draw, with No.3 Agnieszka Radwanska, Petra Kvitova, and Belinda Bencic, and Timea Bacsinszky, as well as two dangerous lower seeds in CoCo Vandeweghe and Kristina Mladenovic. Throw in an unseeded Caroline Wozniacki, who opens against No.13 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, and it’s clear the top half is prime for some upsets.
As for Serena, she’ll likely see a slew of familiar opponents in the first week. She opens against a qualifier in the first round – she is 17-0 against qualifiers and lucky losers at the Slams – and then plays either Christina McHale or Daniela Hantuchova. Serena has played McHale twice in the last three months, and the younger American has played her tough.
Heather Watson, who was two points away from beating Serena here last year, or Kristina Mladenovic, who gave her a tough test last month at the French Open, could be looming in the third round, with Mladenovic being the more dangerous of the two. Get through that and she could be looking at a Round of 16 tussle with Kuznetsova, Sloane Stephens, or Wozniacki.
The upshot: These are not opponents Serena will be unfamiliar with or underestimate in the slightest. It might just be the draw she needs to stay focused in and charged up for the fortnight and she tries to chase down that record-tying 22nd major title.
Garbiñe Muguruza primed for another deep run: Aside from the tough task of playing the always dangerous and grass-loving Camila Giorgi in the first round, this is a good draw for the French Open champion. The earliest seed she could face is No.28 Lucie Safarova, who still trying to find her form, then either Samantha Stosur or Elina Svitolina, neither of whom are comfortable on grass.
Muguruza’s potential seeded quarterfinal opponents: Venus Williams, Carla Suárez Navarro, Jelena Jankovic, or Daria Kasatkina. That’s a very good look for the semifinals if Muguruza can manage Giorgi.
Agnieszka Radwanska put to the test: The second quarter of the draw is a tight one, packed with in-form lower-ranked players, and top players with question marks. Radwanska could face Mallorca Open champion Caroline Garcia, in a rematch of their second round match at the French Open. Her fourth round opponent could be one of Dominika Cibulkova, who defeated her today to reach the Aegon International final, Johanna Konta, who is also in the midst of a deep run in Eastbourne, or a dangerous non-seeded player like Monica Puig, Daria Gavrilova, or Eugenie Bouchard.
Also in Radwanska’s quarter is two-time champion Petra Kvitova, who opens against one of the toughest unseeded players in Sorana Cirstea. Birmingham finalist Barbora Strycova, Belinda Bencic, and Andrea Petkovic also loom. All that with the prospect of Serena in the semifinals. Not an easy task for Aga.
Angelique Kerber and Simona Halep lead an open third quarter: Who will make it out of the wide open third quarter? Halep didn’t play any grass court lead up events, with the Romanian withdrawing from Birmingham due to a left achilles injury. Kerber reached the quarterfinals of that very event, but lost a tough three-setter to Carla Suárez Navarro after an impact schedule saw her complete two matches in one day. With question marks swirling around the top seeds in this section, look for No.9 seed Madison Keys or No.15 seed Karolina Pliskova to take advantage.
First round matches to watch: The bottom half of the draw will play on Monday and the top half on Tuesday. Here are the matches we’re already highlighting:
Svetlana Kuznetsova vs. Caroline Wozniacki
Petra Kvitova vs. Sorana Cirstea
Garbiñe Muguruza vs. Camila Giorgi
Belinda Bencic vs. Tsvetana Pironkova
Laura Siegemund vs. Madison Keys
Karolina Pliskova vs. Yanina Wickmayer
Sabine Lisicki vs. Shelby Rogers
Lucie Safarova vs. Bethanie Mattek-Sands
Kiki Bertens vs. Jelena Ostapenko
Johanna Konta vs. Monica Puig
CoCo Vandeweghe vs. Kateryna Bondarenko
Dominika Cibulkova vs. Mirjana Lucic-Baroni
Nicole Gibbs vs. Kirsten Flipkens
Closing Thoughts:
– A Tale of Two Careers: In 2011, it was Laura Robson who defeated a then-unknown Angelique Kerber in the first round of Wimbledon. Five years on and the two face off again and Robson is attempting to reignite her injury-plagued career against the reigning Australian Open champion.
– Hot or Cold: Players who soared in Paris who might sputter in London? French Open semifinalist Kiki Bertens is a beast on clay but has only won one match ever at Wimbledon. Similarly, Stosur has always been a threat on clay but has still never made it past the third round at Wimbledon. French Open quarterfinalist Shelby Rogers has never won a main draw match at a grass tournament.
– Most vulnerable top seeds: No.6 seed Roberta Vinci and No.7 seed Belinda Bencic. Vinci opens against a solid grass player in Alison Riske and the Italian is mired in a slump. Since February she has not won three matches at a single tournament and is on a three-match losing streak. As for Bencic, she’s still on her way back from a lower back injury that ruled her out of the clay season and picked up a thigh injury in Birmingham. She’s a top-notch player on grass, but has a tricky opening opponent in Pironkova.
– Seeds going into Wimlbedon cold: Here’s who has not played a grass court match this year: Serena Williams, Simona Halep, Venus Williams, Sloane Stephens, and Kiki Bertens.
Listen to more Wimbledon thoughts in the latest episode of the WTA Insider Podcast, featuring Sport360.com’s Reem Abulleil:
All photos courtesy of Getty Images.
LONDON, Great Britain – No.12 seed Carla Suárez Navarro survived a scare in her Wimbledon opener against Shuai Zhang, overcoming a mid-match wobble to advance 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
The last time the pair played was at this tournament and at this stage, with the Spaniard easing past Zhang in a comfortable straight sets back in 2014. Today’s match was decidedly more competitive, with the Chinese No.1 breaking twice to take the second set and going up a break in the third.
But the Spaniard, who reached the semifinals of the Aegon Classic Birmingham earlier in the grass season, roared back in the third to reach the second round.
No.14 seed Samantha Stosur also moved into the second round after putting an early wobble behind her to defeat 24-year-old Magda Linette 7-5, 6-3.
“Not much to be disappointed about with that match,” Stosur said afterwards. “I felt like I was in control.
“There’s always things you want to get a little bit better at but for the most part I thought I played well and really solid. I served well. A couple little things on my forehand. Apart from that, I was happy.”
The Australian’s next opponent will be the big-serving Sabine Lisicki, who was off to a roaring start at Wimbledon and needed only 52 seconds to win her opening game against Magda Linette before taking the match 6-1, 6-3 in 59 minutes.
Meanwhile, Russian qualifier Ekaterina Alexandrova scored the biggest win of her career over No.23 seed Ana Ivanovic, knocking out the former No.1 in her Wimbledon main draw debut, 6-2, 7-5.
The Serb took no credit away from her No.223-ranked opponent but pointed to a lingering wrist injury as a factor in her first round exit.
“It was very tough. I mean, since two weeks I struggle with my right wrist,” she said “It was very hard to accelerate on my forehand. I tried to do everything possible to be fit and recover and tape it and so on.
“I feel like it caused me a lot of miss hits. My forehand was hard to control her fast shots. I thought she played really well and served very good. Especially in the first set, she was not missing many first serves.”
Lucie Safarova and Bethanie Mattek-Sands put their friendship aside in their first round battle. Regular doubles partners, this time they stood on opposite sides of the net as Mattek-Sands looked to deal an upset to her No.28-seeded friend. She nearly managed it two times – the American held match point once in the second set and twice in the third – before Safarova closed her out 6-7(7), 7-6(3), 7-5.
Also through to the next round is No.17 seed Elina Svitolina, who advanced comfortably against British player Naomi Broady, 6-2, 6-3. Perhaps surprisingly, Svitolina has never made it past the second round of Wimbledon – she’ll hope to do so for the first time against Yaroslava Shvedova.
Caroline Wozniacki and Ana Ivanovic had a few surprises in store when we caught up with them at the WTA Pre-Wimbledon Party on the latest episode of Dubai Duty Free: Full Of Surprises!
World No.1 Serena Williams got to celebrate reaching the third round of Wimbledon with a little help from a fan, who traded a taco t-shirt for the top seed’s cracked racquet.