Miami: Venus Williams vs Angelique Kerber
Highlights from the quarterfinal clash between Venus Williams and Angelique Kerber.
Highlights from the quarterfinal clash between Venus Williams and Angelique Kerber.
If Elaine Brady is on the court during a match, it usually means a player has called for a medical timeout. As one of the WTA’s primary healthcare providers since 2007, she is often a last resort between play continuing or ending in a retirement.
But her most important work is done away from the floodlights of a stadum court, as injury prevention takes much more time than the six minutes a medical timeout allows.
“Most work each day is aimed towards preventative strategies,” says Brady, who earned a degree in physiotherapy and a masters in orthopedic medicine. “That may be preparing an athlete effectively for her match and assessing injuries she’s already got.
“All the work behind the scenes in the training room, but we’re most visible when an athlete injures themselves on the court during the match and we’re called to court to treat them.”
Fans might not always be happy to see Brady on court, but the players are certainly grateful.
“They have to deal with me and my bad moods sometimes,” jokes Garbiñe Muguruza. “They take care of all my tapes every day, and I think they’re very important and I’m very thankful to have them at every tournament.”
Learn more about Brady’s line of work in the latest episode of On The Tour.
It’s semifinal time on Thursday in Miami. We preview both of today’s must-see matchups at wtatennis.com.
Thursday
Semifinals
[10] Johanna Konta (GBR #11) vs. [11] Venus Williams (USA #12)
Head-to-head: Konta leads, 2-1
Key Stat: Konta became the first British woman to reach the Miami semifinals with her win over Simona Halep on Wednesday.
The last time Venus Williams and Johanna Konta locked horns it was an historic day for the British No.1. Konta claimed a three-set victory over the legendary American last summer to claim her first career title and become the first British woman to win the Bank of the West Classic title since 1977. Afterwards Konta summed up the experience aptly. “I wanted to leave it all out there, but also absorb everything that I could possibly reinvest in my career moving forward,” she said. “I’ve played her twice before and knew I’d be playing a magnitude of experience. Venus Williams doesn’t need an introduction.”
Williams and Konta split 144 points evenly in that entertaining final, but in the midst of her breakout season it was Konta who won the bigger points. Their fourth career battle should be similarly close, and if Williams’ form in her last two matches is any indication, she’s going to aggressively attack Konta and look to get to net often. The American became the oldest player to take out a reigning No.1 in WTA history on Wednesday night when she worked her way past Angelique Kerber, 7-5, 6-3, and while it’s easy—and inspiring—to focus on the fact that Williams is 36, the caliber of tennis she is playing belies her age. The three-time Miami Open champion has played brilliantly to reach the semifinals here for the eighth time, not dropping a single set and knocking off back-to-back Top 10 opponents in the process.
Will Williams take it a step further and avenge her loss in Stanford to Konta? The American will have her chances, but she’ll have to improve on her 45 percent first-serve percentage from her quarterfinal win over Kerber to do so. Konta picked apart Halep’s second-serve on Wednesday in her three-set victory over the Romanian, and Williams will need to keep the Dangerous 25-year-old on the back foot as much as she can to succeed.
Pick: Konta in three
[2] Karolina Pliskova (CZE #3) vs. [12] Caroline Wozniacki (DEN #14)
Head-to-head: Wozniacki leads, 3-1
Key Stat: Pliskova leads the WTA with 23 wins in 2017
They are very different stylistically, but Karolina Pliskova and Caroline Wozniacki share the same sinister approach to tennis warfare. Both are calm, composed and ruthless—eager to expose their opponent’s liabilities and unflappable under duress. That’s why Thursday’s matchup between the No.2-seeded Czech and the No.12-seeded Dane is so intriguing. The experienced, wily and extremely well-rounded Wozniacki will look to keep the powerful, blossoming Pliskova at bay, and she knows she’ll have to pull out all the stops to do it.
“She beat me last time we played, so she’s clearly in good shape,” Wozniacki said on Tuesday after defeating Lucie Safarova for her 22nd win of the season. “I’m looking forward to getting another try, to see if I can beat her this time.”
Wozniacki won the first three times she faced Pliskova, but the Czech hit back earlier this season breaking Wozniacki’s serve four times in a 6-3, 6-4 win at this year’s Doha final. Despite that loss, Wozniacki is pretty confident that she has a good read on the towering Czech’s game. “I know her game, what her strengths and weaknesses are,” Wozniacki told reporters on Tuesday after her quarterfinal win.
Like Wozniacki, Pliskova has yet to drop a set this week in Miami. But she knows things will get tougher as the stakes get higher. “Anything can happen in the next semi,” she told reporters on Tuesday. “I would expect a tough one because I know she has been playing quite good here in last few years. … It’s the last tournament on hard court, so I just want to enjoy it.”
Pick: Pliskova in two
By the Numbers
7-1 – Konta’s lifetime record at Miami. She reached the quarterfinals on her debut last year.
2 – Pliskova is the only player left in the draw that has won multiple titles this season.
22 – Wozniacki has dropped just 22 games in her four matches en route to the semis. Pliskova, who has also yet to drop a set, has lost 24 games. Williams has dropped 27 games, and also not dropped a set.
14 – Number of wins that Williams has notched over reigning World No.1 players, including her win over Angelique Kerber in the quarterfinals.
49 – Number of career titles for Venus Williams, which is 14 more than the other three semifinalists’ career titles combined (Wozniacki, 25, Pliskova, 8, Konta, 2).
Sloane Stephens takes on Elena Vesnina in the final of the Volvo Car Open.
April 03, 2017
Kirsten Flipkens, Elena Vesnina, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Venus Williams, and Caroline Wozniacki – who will win March’s WTA Shot Of The Month presented by Cambridge Global Payments? Vote now!
WTA Insider | Courtney Nguyen and David Kane reconvene to decide who will win their first Miami Open title: Johanna Konta or Caroline Wozniacki?
SINGAPORE – Most of the time, players tend to offer identical analysis of a tournament’s court speed. Clay is slower than hardcourts, which are, in turn, slower than grass and indoor courts. But within that hierarchy lies a maddening gradient of quick clay courts and slow hardcourts that can make it difficult to assess which court will favor a player on any given week.
Speaking at Saturday’s All-Access hour, Agnieszka Radwanska, Simona Halep, Karolina Pliskova, Garbiñe Muguruza, Madison Keys, and Dominika Cibulkova were all asked to give their take on the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global’s Centre Court. The consensus was admittedly hard to gauge.
“I don’t remember last year, but I think it’s so slow,” Muguruza said. “It’s so slow. I think there’s going to be hard matches in that surface.
“But I love the court. It’s such a great show and environment, so we’ll put the effort there.”
Coming from the Generali Ladies Linz, Keys agreed that the court was slower than a player might find at the average indoor, but even that criticism is relative.
“They’re playing a little bit slower than what Linz was playing, but it was actually really nice to be able to go and play an indoor tournament and then come here. It feels pretty similar. The ball stays really low. Definitely a faster court, so I’m not complaining about that.”
Winning Linz to qualify for Singapore, Cibulkova thought it had less to do with speed and more to do with bounce, which will be crucial for the big-hitting Slovak to get her rhythm on Sunday’s first round robin match against Halep.
“I thought the surface would be pretty similar [to Linz], but it’s not. It’s very different. It bounces and it’s a little bit faster.
“So I still have to get used to it. It’s good that it’s at least indoor, that I don’t have to get used to indoor and outdoor.”
Runner-up in 2014, Halep pointed to the slowness of the court as one of the reasons why she liked playing at the WTA Finals, but Pliskova wasn’t sure the court played as slow as her colleagues insisted.
“I definitely wouldn’t say it’s fast, but it could be slower. I’ve played on slower surfaces so I was expecting it’s going to be even slower what I heard from last year from the girls.
“I would say it’s somewhere in the middle. For the serve I think it’s pretty fast, but when you play the rally it’s not that fast.
“Hopefully for the crowd they are going to see some rallies and good shots from the players.”
One would expect Radwanska, the defending champion, to have the definitive answer when it came to court speed. The Pole ultimately seemed as mystified as her peers, but if there’s one thing the shotmaker knows how to do on any surface, it’s improvise:
Q. You were here a couple days ago. One of earliest players here. Have you had a hit on court? Have the conditions changed from last year?
AGNIESZKA RADWANSKA: I think, of course, the surface is very similar [to last year]. It’s the same. I think it’s a bit faster because it’s already been used [this week]. But I don’t think it’s that slow as last year. That’s what I notice.
But, well, it’s always a little bit tough for us to play indoors. I think I just play one indoor tournament in Stuttgart and then here. It’s good to be here a couple days earlier to adjust to the conditions.
All photos courtesy of Getty Images.
MIAMI, FL, USA – Winning the Miami Open trophy after a rollercoaster two weeks of action was hard enough, but Johanna Konta’s work wasn’t done yet – there’s always the traditional champions Key Biscayne photo shoot.
After a quick chat with WTA Insider on the way to the shoot, Konta was ready to relax and pose in front of a throng of photographers as she celebrated the win at Cape Florida Light, Key Biscayne’s iconic lighthouse.
Here’s a few photos of Konta with the Miami Open trophy, all courtesy of Getty Images:
CHARLESTON, SC, USA — Monica Puig was the first of two main draw winners as the Volvo Car Open got underway in Charleston on Monday, as Katerina Siniakova was forced to retire with a back injury in the final set.
Siniakova received medical attention earlier in the match, and retired as the match hit the two-hour mark, trailing 6-4, 2-6, 1-4 to send the Puerto Rican in to the second round.
“It’s always nice to come back and play on the clay again — unfortunately she had to retire there in the third set,” Puig said after the match. “I thought it was some pretty good, high-quality tennis up until that point.
“She was definitely holding, clutching her back a little bit there in the second set, so I was obviously a little bit aware something was going on. I had to try and keep focus because sometimes when a player is feeling a little bit of discomfort, they start hitting the ball hard, going for their shots a little more. I had to really focus and pay attention.”
Puig, who reached the third round in Charleston last season, fell behind early as Siniakova broke in the first game and rode the advantage to a one-set lead. She flipped the script in the second set, breaking Siniakova at the first opportunity to open up a 3-0 lead en route to sending the match to a decider. While the Czech fought through valiantly in the decider, she dropped serve in the fourth game and was unable to continue much further from there.
.@MonicaAce93 is first through to @VolvoCarOpen Second round!
Siniakova retires due to injury pic.twitter.com/xcJH4OUG9S
— WTA (@WTA) April 3, 2017
The Puerto Rican played her first WTA main draw in Charleston in 2011 after coming through qualifying and the World No.40 is eager to use one of her most successful tour stops as a springboard on the road to the French Open
“I love the clay. I really enjoy playing on it. Not so much the green clay because you don’t really notice that you’re on clay as much as the red clay — I love getting off the court and seeing I’m all dirty!” she joked.
“You don’t really have to change up your game style, but you have to adjust to what you have to do as far as tactics and things like that,” Puig assessed, as she’ll face the winner of the match between Daria Kasatkina and Danka Kovinic in the second round. “That’s what my coach and I were trying to work on coming into this clay season, just to really be smart of there.”
Joining Puig in the second round as an early winner was Japan’s Naomi Osaka, who rallied for her first career main draw win in Charleston after dropping the first set against Johanna Larsson, 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-2.
Check out the rest of the opening round results here.
MONTERREY, Mexico – Hundreds of Monterrey locals got a chance to be up close with the WTA’s biggest stars as the Abierto GNP Seguros put on a colorful display at one of the city’s most popular avenues, San Pedro de Pinta.
World No.1 and Monterrey top seed Angelique Kerber joined Donna Vekic in a mini-tennis exhibition match, before covering each other – and the crowd – in colorful powdered paint.
The pair even took to the stage afterwards, joining a local band to sing some tunes at Monterrey’s weekly festival.
Check out the best photos below, courtesy of the Abierto GNP Seguros!
