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WTA Bids Goodbye To Ali “The Greatest”

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

Boxing, much like tennis, is a uniquely solitary sport, and so when the news broke that American boxing legend Muhammad Ali had passed away at the age of 74, tennis players were quick to take to Twitter to show their respect and condolences.

Here’s what the WTA players and legends had to say as they mourned the passing of Ali, one of the world’s greatest athletes.

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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

MIAMI, FL, USA – No.3 seed Simona Halep was pushed to the brink in a late night epic against Sam Stosur, needing to come back from a set down and save match point to book her spot into the Miami Open quarterfinals.

Halep books a blockbuster battle against Johanna Konta after emerging victorious in the two-hour-and-ten minute thriller, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.

“It was a tough match, like I expected,” Halep told press after the match. “But the comeback was pretty good, and I’m really happy about that.

“The last comeback like this for me was in 2014, my first match in Doha against Kanepi. Match point down and I came back. I’m happy about this, shows I can still play some tennis.”

The Romanian targeted the Aussie’s backhand throughout the early exchanges in the opening set, and was rewarded with an early break. She built up a solid 4-2 lead and looked set to wrap up the opening set, but Stosur had other plans.

Stosur got her heavy topspin forehand going and wreaking havoc on Halep’s game plan, and reeled off four straight games to snatch away the opening set. She went on a tear in the second, recovering from an early break and winning five of the next six games to serve for the match.

She even held a match point, at 5-4 on Halep’s serve, but the Romanian chose that moment to start mounting her epic comeback. A handful of loose errors from Stosur on key moments let Halep back into the set, and she took the next seven games in a row to take the second set and a break lead in the third.

With Stosur flagging and letting her aggression dip slightly, it was Halep who bossed the rallies and dictated play to extend the lead to 4-1. The Aussie didn’t have another comeback left in her, and Halep completed the comeback to move into the Miami quarterfinals.

“When I was down, I wasn’t thinking about anything, nothing about the score,” Halep said. “I just wanted to fight. I didn’t give up, and I believed in my chance. I was maybe a little bit lucky because I came back from match point down, but still I fought for this.”

Halep will be rewarded for her efforts with another battle in the next round, this time against Britain’s No.1, Konta.

“It will be tough. She’s in a good form now, she’s near Top 10. And she plays great. It’s going to be a tough one, but here every match is tough so I don’t expect an easy one.

“I have my chance here to try my best and try to win, and of course tomorrow will help me to recover. Then I will go on court with confidence.”

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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

MIAMI, FL, USA – No.2 seed Karolina Pliskova took down an on-form Mirjana Lucic-Baroni to book the first spot into the Miami Open semifinals, notching a 6-2, 6-4 victory after an hour and 12 minutes.

The win sends her into the Miami semifinals for the first time, where she awaits the winner between No.12 seed Caroline Wozniacki and Lucie Safarova.

She also gets her hard-earned revenge on the player who knocked her out of the Australian Open, where she fell 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to the Croatian in the quarterfinals.

“I think I played much better here than I was playing [in Melbourne],” Pliskova said in her post-match press conference. “Also, the conditions here are different, and she was playing better tennis there because it was faster. It suited her better in Australia.

“So definitely I was feeling more confident with this match. I had a different game plan today.”

For her part, Lucic-Baroni – who was into her second Miami quarterfinal and the first since the tournament became a Premier Mandatory – made a strong start to the match, which featured lots of short rallies and plenty of first-strike tennis.

Lucic-Baroni’s fearless returning helped her neutralize powerful Pliskova serve during the early exchanges, but she wasn’t able to back it up with her own serves. She hit nine double faults during the opening set – including on set point – and was broken four times to surrender the first set in 28 minutes.

The Croat continued to attack Pliskova’s serve emphatically and was rewarded with the first break of the second set, building up a 4-2 lead as her service game began to click.

But with her serve under fire, Pliskova relied on her other weapons – her big forehand and her improved court movement – and bailed herself out of trouble. The Czech reeled off four games in a row to erase Lucic-Baroni’s lead and close out the match.

“The difference was in the first set,” Lucic-Baroni told WTA Insider afterwards. “I started out great but then I couldn’t find my serve. The more I was making mistakes the worse I was getting.

“I was able to calm down and fix it in the second, but then I just had a lot of bad luck after 4-2. But she played great, a pretty flawless match. It was still pretty close, but it just didn’t go my way today.”

With the win Pliskova is through to her fourth semifinal of 2017, and she’ll face either Safarova or Wozniacki for a spot in the final.

“Lucie obviously I know pretty well,” Pliskova assessed. “It will not be something really surprising for me there. I will be really confident coming into this one but it’s Czech against Czech so anything can happen.

“Obviously against Caroline, we played in Doha also, so a little bit different conditions than here. I would expect tough one because I know she has been playing quite good here in last few years.”

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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

Jarmila Wolfe has announced that she and her husband are expecting a baby.

The Australian revealed the news on social media.

Unsurprisingly, she was immediately deluged with congratulations.

Wolfe retired from tennis at the start of 2017.

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Kontaveit Conquers Wozniacki

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

NOTTINGHAM, Great Britain – 20-year-old Anett Kontaveit clinched one of the biggest wins of her young career, recovering from a set down to defeat No.3 seed Caroline Wozniacki, 6-7(5), 6-3, 7-5, to reach her second WTA quarterfinal of 2016.

“She’s a really tough player, and I’m so happy to be through,” she said after the match. “I managed to play my game, and do that every point.”

Wozniacki was playing just her second match since skipping the clay court season due to a right ankle injury, but appeared on course for a decisive, if tense, victory over Kontaveit, edging out a tie-break and trading 12 straight service holds deep into the second set.

“It was tough losing the first set, but I guess that’s how tennis goes. Sometimes you win those close points, sometimes you lose them. But you just have to keep fighting. The tactic was to try to put her under pressure, be aggressive. That’s how I play.”

But the World No.97, who made her major breakthrough last summer by reaching the fourth round of the US Open, came out on the winning end of a trio of service breaks, leveling the match to force a decider.

“The match was up and down, but she played well, so hats off to her,” Wozniacki said. “At the end of the day, I’m just happy that I’m able to play again. One step in the right direction, and from here I’ll just move forward, know what I can work on and hopefully get better. The main thing is that my ankle is holding up, so I’m pleased with that.

“Before I came here, I was a little worried; I didn’t know if it would hold up or not. But after my first match it felt good, and this morning I felt surprisingly well, compared to how I thought I was going to feel. So today, I just played, and didn’t have to think about it.

“I’m disappointed to have lost today, especially when you’re so close. But it is what it is, and all in all, I got a couple of matches, and hopefully it’s onwards and upwards from here.”

Kontaveit raced out to a 4-1, double-break lead in the final set before the Dane showed the sort of mettle that helped her reach the No.1 ranking, pushing the Estonian youngster back to win four straight games to get within four points of victory.

“I was a little nervous, but then I loosened up, and swung more freely once I was down 5-4,” Kontaveit said. “4-1 is still far away from victory, but I could definitely feel the pressure. She played a couple of good games and was returning well. It was a little unlucky, but I managed to stay loose.”

With one last momentum swing, Kontaveit held her nerve and served out the upset victory in two hours and 12 minutes.

Up next for the Estonian is American Alison Riske, who dispatched Hsieh Su-Wei, 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday.

“She’s had good wins, and likes playing on grass, and it’s going to be a tough match-up, but I’m going to try to do my best, and we’ll see how it goes.”

Earlier in the day, top seed Karolina Pliskova got revenge on Anna Tatishvili, who beat her in the first round of the US Open, with a 6-1, 6-3 win in under an hour. Tatishvili defeated Pliskova’s doubles partner and twin sister Kristyna on Monday; the former World No.7 cited their doubles win on Monday with helping her better transition onto grass courts.

“I just came from clay, so every match is important,” she said after the match. “It’s better than practicing, so I just enjoyed playing with her. It’s something different. With Kristyna, we didn’t play for a long time. In the end I think it helped me because my serves and returns were better today.”

Better would be an understatement from Pliskova, who maintained an 83% first serve percentage in the first set, missing just three first serves and winning 14 of 15 points when getting the first serve in to set up a quarterfinal match with either Andrea Hlavackova or Ashleigh Barty, a former junior standout in the midst of a full-scale comeback after an extended hiatus.

“I think she was frustrated by my serve in the first set and half of the second set. I didn’t hit that many aces in the second set, and that was probably the biggest difference between the two sets. But I got nearly every first serve in in the first set, and that’s so important on grass.”

Monica Puig put down an emphatic 6-3, 6-0 win over Michelle Larcher de Brito, who has enjoyed some of her best results on grass courts.

“I’m just feeling really solid in every part of my game,” Puig said in her post-match press conference. I’m just trying to continue this good form, and play as smart as I can.

“I’ve made the fourth round at Wimbledon once, so I know what it’s like to play well on grass, and how good I have to feel out there. It’s about transitioning from a slow game to a much faster one. I’m happy with how I’ve started so far.

“She obviously likes to get the first strike of the ball, so getting a good amount of decent first serves in was very nice. She had some incredible shots that I had to chase down, but I was able to turn defense into offense quite a few times, and that was very nice.”

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