Tokyo: Story Of The Tournament
The story of the tournament from the Toray Pan Pacific Open.
The story of the tournament from the Toray Pan Pacific Open.
Karolina Pliskova had Monday’s shot of the day at the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open.
Last year’s runner-up Alison Riske overcame her nerves to defeat wildcard Zhu Lin in the first round of the Shenzhen Open. Fellow seed Monica Niculescu was among Sunday’s other winners.
Venus Wlliams takes on Yulia Putintseva in the second round of the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open.
AUCKLAND, New Zealand – Venus Williams eased through a tense opening set against hometown favorite Jade Lewis, 7-6(2), 6-2, before being forced to withdraw from what would have been her second match of the day at the ASB Classic, citing right arm pain ahead of a highly anticipated encouter with Japanese youngster Naomi Osaka.
“I love this tournament and I’m really sad that I have to withdraw, but I’m happy to have had the opportunity to be here again this year,” the five-time Wimbledon winner said in a statement.
Impacted by adverse weather to start the tournament, Venus was scheduled to play a pair of singles matches on Tuesday after defeating Lewis to kick off the day session in Auckland. Lewis led by a service break three times in the opening set, holding a set point in the tenth game before fading in the tie-break and ensuing second set.
The win booked a clash with Osaka, who first the American after winning the Rising Stars Invitational at the 2015 BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.
“I wasn’t really talking,” Osaka said at the time. “I was just kind of creeping her out. But she’s really nice. I don’t remember what we talked about because I was really freaked out.”
Venus reached back-to-back finals at the ASB Classic in 2014 and 2015, winning the latter over Caroline Wozniacki in the final.
We regret to announce that @Venuseswilliams has had to pull out of the #ASBClassic Tournament due to injury. Updated Order of Play to follow pic.twitter.com/hc95EMuYAr
— ASB Classic (@ASB_Classic) January 4, 2017
WUHAN, China – No.3 seeds Sania Mirza and Barbora Strycova reached their third final in four events together at the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open, defeating No.6 seeds Timea Babos and Yaroslava Shvedova, 6-3, 7-6(6), and No.2 seeds Chan Hao-Ching and Chan Yung-Jan, 6-4, 3-6, 10-7, back-to-back to book a championship match against No.5 seeds Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova.
Watch live action from Wuhan on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!
Rained out on Thursday, Mirza and Strycova edged past Babos and Shvedova, who needed to win Wuhan to confirm their place in the WTA Finals, and recovered from a second set wobble to dispatch the Chan sisters to reach the championship match over the reigning US Open winners. Strycova has dealt with an especially busy week, having played two singles matches yesterday on her way to a quarterfinal finish.
“So we are obviously very happy to be in our third final together,” Mirza said after the match. “The schedule has been really tough – especially for Barbora – but we are fighting every point and every match and enjoying ourselves playing together.”
Mirza and Strycova first paired up en route to a winning week at the Western & Southern Open, and have lost just one match since then, taking the Toray Pan Pacific Open and winning three more matches in Wuhan over two pairs hoping to book their spot at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.
By reaching final at @wuhanopentennis Mirza/Strycova move to No.11 on #RoadToSingapore Leaderboard. Can move to No.9 with title https://t.co/GZbcuGkWCF
— Kevin Fischer (@Kfish_WTA) September 30, 2016
The World No.1 qualified first for Singapore with former partner Martina Hingis back in May, but the results with Strycova put her new partnership up to No.11 on the Road to Singapore leaderboard; a win in the final over Mattek-Sands and Safarova would bump them up to No.9. Should Mirza qualify with both teams, the doubles threat could earn the right to play with either Strycova or Hingis – with whom she won the title last year.
Mattek-Sands and Safarova had to do double duty on Thursday, winning their second round and quarterfinal rounds in straight sets; the team was equally imperious on Friday against Christina McHale and Peng Shuai, winning, 6-4, 6-3. Playing their first tournament since winning their third Grand Slam title, team “Bucie” are on a nine-match winning streak and are currently in pole position make their second straight appearance in Singapore.
BRISBANE, Australia – Sania Mirza and Bethanie Mattek-Sands have booked their spot into the Brisbane semifinals, but should they reach the final there could be more at stake than just the Brisbane International trophy.
Mirza has held the WTA Doubles No.1 Ranking since April 13, 2015, a total of 91-consecutive weeks (as of Jan 2, 2017), which includes 31 weeks as co-No.1 with Martina Hingis.
She faces a difficult task defending her top spot, though, as she will be defending 2,960 points during the Australian swing. Last year she teamed up with Martina Hingis to win titles at Brisbane, Sydney and the Australian Open.
This year in Brisbane, Mirza is the top seed along with her new partner Mattek-Sands, who currently sits at No.5 in the WTA Doubles Rankings. If they go on to win the title in Brisbane, Mattek-Sands will overtake Mirza for the No.1 WTA Doubles Ranking.
It’s not the first time that the American has come close to usurping her current partner’s top spot; last year at the WTA Finals, Mattek-Sands came within one win of climbing to No.1, but Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina dashed her hopes in the championship match.
Makarova and Vesnina, the No.2 seeds in Brisbane, are also through to the Brisbane semifinals and will play the winner of Irina Falconi and Shelby Rogers vs. Abigail Spears Katerina Srebotnik for a spot in the final. Mattek-Sands and Mirza await the winner of Andreja Klepac and María José Martínez Sánchez vs. Hsieh Su-Wei and Laura Siegemund.
Most Consecutive Weeks at WTA Doubles No.1 (As of Jan 2, 2017):
181 Martina Navratilova
145 Cara Black^
134 Liezel Huber^
91 Sania Mirza
73 Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario
^ Black & Huber held co-No.1 Doubles Rankings for 127 weeks (Nov. 12, 2007 until April 18, 2010)
Highlights from semifinal action at the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open.
In today’s SAP Stat Of The Day, Angelique Kerber showed how she stayed cool under pressure during the break points at the Brisbane International.
Highlights from final action at the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open.