Sydney: Puig vs Bencic
Monica Puig takes on Belinda Bencic in the semifinals of the Apia International Sydney.
Monica Puig takes on Belinda Bencic in the semifinals of the Apia International Sydney.
NANCHANG, China – No.6 seeded American Vania King is in to her first WTA final of the year and her first since 2013 after her win over No.7 seed Risa Ozaki in the Jiangxi Open.
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“I will go on and play my game, because I play the best when I play my game,” King said of the final. “Just try to be aggressive, try to control the points. It will be difficult, obviously everyone plays good at this point. That means I have to work for it.”
King broke twice in both sets, getting ahead early on in the score by grabbing the break in each of Osaki’s opening service games.
She’s set to face China’s Ying-Ying Duan in the final after the local pushed past Misa Eguchi in straight sets. This is the 27-year-old’s first time in a WTA-level final.
“I’m very happy to make the final,” Duan said. “[I was] a bit nervous today during the match so I called my coach to court. I believe we both were very keen on winning the match.
“It’s my first time in a WTA final and I have never played Vania before. I think I’ll just give my best and play aggressively.”
There have been several classic finals over 28 editions of the BNP Paribas Open. Dan Lucas looks back at three of the very best.
Svetlana Kuznetsova takes on Monica Puig in the final of the Apia International Sydney.
Angelique Kerber says the boldest decision she ever made came when she was 17 and decided to play tennis professionally.
Her comments reflect the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day: ‘Be Bold For Change’.
“The toughest decision I made was when I was 17, and I decided to start to play tennis [professionally],” she reveals in an exclusive WTA interview. “I was not able to get through to the university and of course when you are 17 years old that’s always a tough decision, because you don’t know how far you can get and what’s happening the next year.”
It was very much a decision that paid off for the 29-year-old, who enjoyed the best year of her career in 2016. In addition to finishing the year at No.1 in the WTA rankings (making it five years in a row in the Top 10), there was double Grand Slam success at the Australian Open and US Open, plus a WTA win in Stuttgart.
On top of that, there were finals at Brisbane, Wimbledon, Cincinnati and the year-end BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global, and a silver medal at the Olympics in Rio.
International Women’s Day falls on March 8 every year, and celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.
The story of the tournament from the Apia International Sydney.
Agnieszka Radwanska talks before the start of the BNP Paribas Open.
MELBOURNE, Australia – Agnieszka Radwanska kept her Asia-Pacific winning streak going in Melbourne – the World No.4 needed an hour and 20 minutes to dispatch Christina McHale in straight sets and close out the day’s action on Margaret Court Arena.
“The first match is always tough, always tricky, especially with the conditions here every day being so different,” Radwanska said after the win. “I’m just very glad I could win that match in two sets.”
The unseeded American came out of the gates firing off her arsenal of booming groundstrokes, but it was the serve that turned out to be McHale’s downfall. Radwanska broke McHale’s serve seven times in the match – four in the first set and three in the second.
Once the finish line came into view, Radwanska put the pressure on McHale and drew out the errors – 28 to Radwanska’s 14. Radwanska fired off two aces in the final game to close out the match 6-2, 6-3.
“I really feel good here in Australia, very comfortable on the court,” Radwanska said. “I love the crowd, I’m really playing my game and enjoying tennis – I think that’s the most important thing.”
Up next for the reigning WTA Finals champion is either Eugenie Bouchard – whose recent renaissance makes her a tricky second-round opponent – or Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic, who Radwanska beat earlier in the year en route to her Shenzhen title. Radwanska leads both players 1-0 in their head-to-head series.
Highlights of the first-round match at the BNP Paribas Open between Donna Vekic and Alison Riske.
MELBOURNE, Australia – Victoria Azarenka, who won the Australian Open in 2012 and 2013, didn’t drop a single game in the first match of her quest for a third title at the Happy Slam on Tuesday.
The No.14-seeded Azarenka was absolutely ruthless against Alison Van Uytvanck in the feature night match on Rod Laver Arena, rolling past the Belgian up-and-comer in just 53 minutes, 6-0, 6-0.
“I’m pretty happy – I don’t think I’m looking for perfection, I’m looking for effort. I’m looking for focus,” Azarenka told reporters afterwards. “I like that I was very composed today from the first point to the last point. Like it didn’t matter what the score was in the match, I was there on every point.
“So that’s what I’m very happy about today.”
The former World No.1 was asked whether she was sticking to the dab – the American Football-inspired post-match celebration she debuted during her run to the Brisbane title – this fortnight.
“For now, yeah,” she said, after which she was asked whether it was for luck.
“I just like doing it,” Azarenka replied. “I don’t believe in luck – I believe in hard work.”
Azarenka has gotten off to a perfect start to the 2016 season, not dropping a set en route to her first WTA title in almost two and a half years at the Brisbane International a few weeks ago – losing just 17 games in five matches, in fact – and she’s now 6-0 on the year after her first win in Melbourne.
Not all of the favorites flourished, though, with five more seeds going out, most notably No.2 seed Simona Halep, who was stunned by Chinese qualifier Zhang Shuai, 6-4, 6-3 (read more here) and No.8 seed Venus Williams, who succumbed to British No.1 Johanna Konta, 6-4, 6-2 (read more here).
Johanna Larsson beat No.29 seed Irina-Camelia Begu, 6-3, 6-2, Varvara Lepchenko beat No.31 seed Lesia Tsurenko, 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-3, and Barbora Strycova outdid No.32 seed Caroline Garcia, 6-2, 6-4.
Most of the seeds in action moved through, though, including No.3 seed Garbiñe Muguruza, who out-hit Anett Kontaveit, 6-0, 6-4, and No.7 seed Angelique Kerber, who won a thriller against Misaki Doi, saving a match point down 6-5 in the second set tie-break to survive, 6-7(4), 7-6(6), 6-3.
Other winners on Tuesday included No.9 seed Karolina Pliskova, No.11 seed Timea Bacsinszky, No.15 seed Madison Keys, No.18 seed Elina Svitolina, No.19 seed Jelena Jankovic, No.20 seed Ana Ivanovic (read about her win here), No.21 seed Ekaterina Makarova and No.30 seed Sabine Lisicki.
Shuai Zhang has an emotional victory over Halep #AusOpen https://t.co/tXDpUXlw3n
— Australian Open (@AustralianOpen) January 19, 2016