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Insider Podcast: Czeching Into Cincy

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

CINCINNATI, OH, USA – The quicker conditions at the Western & Southern Open tripped up a few of the returning Olympians arriving from Rio de Janeiro, but women’s doubles Bronze medalist Barbora Strycova had no such problems, overcoming a maddening number of rain delays – and a most dangerous qualifier in former World No.5 Eugenie Bouchard – to advance into the second round in straight sets.

Karolina Pliskova missed the Olympic tennis event, opting to spend the time gearing up for the final stretch of the season, one that had been particularly successful for her in 2015 when she won the Emirates Airlines US Open Series.

WTA Insider caught up with both Czech starlets in the second Daily Dispatch from Cincinnati:

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Serena & Kerber Qualify For Singapore

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

SINGAPORE – World No.1 Serena Williams and No.2 Angelique Kerber have secured the first two singles qualifications for this year’s BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.

“Congratulations to Serena and Angelique on once again qualifying for the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global,” said WTA CEO Steve Simon. “These two athletes are incredible ambassadors for the sport and we look forward to them showcasing their best tennis in Singapore this October. Serena continues to break records and add to her already extraordinary career, while Angie is having the best year of her career so far and has firmly established herself as one of the brightest stars of the tour. They are both fan-favorites and their passion and energy on court will be sure to electrify the Sports Hub.”

Williams has amassed an impressive 29-6 record at the year-end finale, winning five singles titles from seven appearances at the WTA Finals. The 34-year-old has claimed the Billie Jean King Trophy on each of her most recent four outings, including three successive victories from 2012 to 2014. This year will mark Williams’ 10th career appearance at the tournament.

“I’m very proud and excited to qualify for the BNP Paribas WTA Finals in Singapore,” said Serena. “I have great memories of winning the title in Singapore in 2014 and being supported by so many fans. I can’t wait to be back in Singapore later this year to hopefully win my sixth Billie Jean King Trophy.”

The World No.1 has spent the majority of the season on top of the Road to Singapore Leaderboard, claiming her 70th and 71st career singles titles by winning the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome and successfully defending her Wimbledon crown. In addition, she reached a further three singles finals at the Australian Open, Roland Garros and BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, bringing her win-loss record so far this season to 33-5. Her triumph at the All England Club was especially poignant, with her seventh Wimbledon title equaling Stefanie Graf’s Open Era record of 22 Grand Slam singles titles. Her results this season have seen Williams extend her reign as the WTA’s World No.1 player, having now held the top spot for 307 weeks over the course of her career, sitting behind only Graf (377) and Martina Navratilova (332).

Fresh off her runner-up at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, Kerber has secured her fourth appearance at the WTA Finals. Her first two appearances at the event were in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2012 and 2013 – highlighted by her win over then-No.4 Agnieszka Radwanska – followed by last year’s showing in Singapore, where she beat eventual runner-up Petra Kvitova in the round-robin stage.

This year Kerber will be bidding to advance to the semifinals for the first time, after being only one set away from doing so in 2015.

Twenty-eight-year-old Kerber has enjoyed her best season yet, compiling a 47-14 record, and reaching a career-high ranking of No.2 after clinching her maiden Grand Slam title at the Australian Open. She also defended her title in front of a home crowd at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart for her ninth career singles crown. In addition, the German reached four more finals so far this season: her second Grand Slam final at Wimbledon (falling to Williams in a re-match of the Australian Open final), a silver medal at the Rio Olympics, the Brisbane International, and Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati.

“I’m so happy to have qualified for the WTA Finals Singapore for the fourth time,” said Kerber. “It is one of the most important events of the year and we all fight to qualify in the Top 8. I have great memories from my other experiences at the tournament and I hope to play some great matches and win the title.”

The current Road to Singapore Leaderboard as follows (as of August 22, 2016):

 

 

 

 

 

 

The leaderboard is updated each Monday (every two weeks during Grand Slam events) and can be found at www.wtafinals.com.

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Keys Named FearlesslyGIRL Ambassador

Keys Named FearlesslyGIRL Ambassador

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

Madison Keys is in the midst of the best season of her career, becoming the first American woman to break into the Top 10 since Serena Williams and constantly putting herself in contention for the game’s biggest prizes. But she doesn’t just want to make an impact on the court. Now it’s time to make an impact off the court.

The 21-year-old has signed on to become the ambassador of FearlesslyGIRL, an international organization dedicated to empowering young women in their local schools and communities. Founded by in 2004 by Kate Whitfield, the organization takes its message straight to the next generation of young women, holding summits for teenage girls to encourage an open dialogue to foster a sense of community and support during a time when their confidence and self-esteem is at its most critical.

“I think it’s so important that we help younger girls get rid of the ‘Mean Girl’ mentality,” Keys told WTA Insider. “You can be a positive, nice person, but still go out and kick butt.”

WTA Insider spoke to Keys about the partnership and why she feels the adolescent years are the best time to help girls prepare for a world full of self-doubt, sexism, and opportunity.

WTA Insider: How did you decide to partner with FearlesslyGirl?
Keys: After reading about it, I immediately knew I wanted to be a part of it any way that I could. I just think that’s it’s so special. I feel like I’m going to be able to help younger girls through that difficult time of transitioning and getting through high school. I know that’s a tough time for all of us, so being able to help in any way that I can meant a lot to me.

WTA Insider: You have two younger sisters and you’ve gone through that time yourself. What do you see as the particular issues that affect young girls who are entering high school?
Keys: Your self-confidence is up and down through those years and that’s never easy to go through alone. But all of us go through these issues, and I think we isolate ourselves into thinking, ‘I’m the only one going through it, no one understands me.’ What’s so great about the FearlesslyGirl summits is you sit down and these girls get to talk to each other and realize that she’s going through the exact same thing I’m going through.

I think being able to talk to each other helps lighten that load. But also you’re able to help each other through it and when you have someone else to talk to and relate to it’s so much easier to deal with these things. You get more confident asking for help without seeming weak or feeling vulnerable.

Asking for what you deserve is not being needy or bossy. It’s the typical ‘Oh she’s asking for this, she’s so bossy.’ When a guy does it it’s great leadership.

Madison Keys

WTA Insider: Why do you think girls internalize their doubts and insecurities instead of openly talking about them?
Keys: I don’t know why we do that. I still struggle with it right now. You think no one will understand it, but logically you know someone has gone through it as well. If I just talk to someone I’m sure it would be a lot easier to deal with rather than by myself.

I think it’s something I’ve definitely had to get better at. Even small things like being really nervous before a match, hanging on to that and not talking about it and just pushing it down and avoiding it just makes it bigger and harder to deal with, instead of going to Scott [her trainer] or Thomas [her coach] and saying ‘I’m really nervous today, this is what i’m dealing with’. Usually, just talking about it makes it not as big of a deal. Often they actually have advice that can help.

It’s amazing that the feeling of being vulnerable and putting yourself out there and saying you’re not 100% confident right now and I need help — doing that is scary. It’s not easy. So I think talking to girls when they’re younger and getting them more comfortable doing that is really important. Not feeling that asking for help means that you’re weak or you don’t know what you’re doing. Everyone needs help.

So I think talking to these girls during a time when they need help, hopefully if you can get them to open up to each other when they’re younger they become more comfortable doing it later in life, and once they’re older they can help younger girls do it.

Madison Keys

WTA Insider: What do you think you being a professional athlete adds to the discussion?
Keys: One of the things I feel like I can bring to the table is that so often we have this girl versus girl mentality. I just want people to know you can be competitive with other girls but still be friends. That’s literally our whole lives. We go out and we play each other and we both want to win this match, but then we come off the court and we know nothing is personal. She can beat me one week and I can beat her the next week and we’re exactly the same.

Learning how to do that is so necessary because you can be competitive with another girl and still want the best for them. I can be on a court and want to beat someone and let’s say they beat me, but then the next day I can say ‘Oh I hope she does well.’ It doesn’t have to be tearing each other down. You can be competitive and you can want to beat someone but you can also be positive and help push other girls to be good.

WTA Insider: So what exactly is your involvement going to look like?
Keys: I’m going to do as many summits as I can next year. It’s fun because there are some in Canada, some in England, and I think they’re trying to get some in Australia Too. So it’s amazing that I can be a part of it wherever I am. I’ll be a part of the summits and get to talk to the girls, which is really what I want to do. I didn’t want to be the face of it and not actually do any of it. If at the end of the day I wasn’t the face of it but I was still doing it, I’d be really happy.

I think Fearlessly Girl is amazing because they bring in these leaders, juniors in high school, and they help run the summits. So they can help the freshmen and the sophomores do it next year. Its tarts with changing middle schools and high schools. You can change the whole high school and those girls go off to college, and the influence continues. Starting small we can do a lot and it spreads.

Keys is set to compete at the US Open starting next week. For more information about FearlesslyGIRL, click here.

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Serena's Return To The US Open

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

NEW YORK, NY, USA – It has been an axiomatic to the point of cliché statement about Serena Williams’ prospects at any tournament, that if she is physically fit and motivated, she’s the overwhelming favorite at every tournament she enters.

But it’s true. This year there are no questions about motivation as she heads to the last Slam of the season. Once again she will be playing for history, but this year it will be history on two fronts.

Serena is aiming to break the record she currently holds with Stefanie Graf for the most major singles titles in the Open Era. She matched that record in July by winning her seventh Wimbledon title and 22nd major overall. A seventh US Open victory here would give Serena sole possession of the modern record.

“I’m cheering her on, yes,” Graf told CNN’s Open Court. “Because it’s great for the sport. Why not? She’s done so much for the sport. She’s out there working hard.”

Regardless of what happens over the next two weeks, Serena will also leave New York having tied Graf’s record for consecutive weeks at No.1 at 186 weeks. But with the top ranking under threat from No.2 Angelique Kerber, No.3 Garbiñe Muguruza, and No.4 Agnieszka Radwanska, Serena must make at least the semifinals to have a chance of remaining in the top spot on the Monday after the tournament. If she can secure the No.1 ranking after the US Open she will break Graf’s record outright and add to an era-defining resume that already spans the length of the new Arthur Ashe Stadium roof.

“I’m happy for her, I’m excited for her,” Graf said. “It’s cool that records are being broken, that’s what they’re there for. She’s been phenomenal for the sport of tennis, it has been great to watch. I hope she does break it.”

The questions concerning Serena surround the state of her right shoulder. She withdrew from the Rogers Cup earlier this month with shoulder inflammation and was clearly compromised in her third round loss to Elina Svitolina at the Olympic tennis event. For the first time since 2009, Serena heads to the US Open without a summer hard court title under her belt, having played just three singles matches since Wimbledon.

Her withdrawal from the Western & Southern Open last week was particularly worrisome. Serena was not originally entered in the event but took a late wildcard a few days before the tournament. She came to Cincinnati, cut her first practice short after less than an hour and subsequently withdrew, again citing shoulder inflammation.

Serena doesn’t lose often in New York, and a good draw that would give her time to play herself into form and confidence might be all that she needs. Since coming back from injury and illness in 2011, the World No.1 is 32-2, adding three more US Open titles to her major haul. Since returning to No.1 in 2013, Serena has never lost to a Top 10 player in New York, though the last time she faced a Top 10 player here was back in 2013, an indication of just how frequently the draw has been breaking the last two years.

To do it all Serena’s serve will need to be at the ready, and all eyes will be on that singular shot during the first week of the tournament. Notably, she will have a day’s rest between singles matches, which was not the case in Rio. If the scheduling breaks her way and she’s able to get the rest and recovery time she needs between matches, No.23 is well within striking distance.

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Notes & Netcords: August 29, 2016

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

WINNERS

Top seed Agnieszka Radwanska survived a late challenge from No.10 seed Elina Svitolina on route to claiming her first Connecticut Open title, 6-1, 7-6(2).

The World No.4 Radwanska took a wildcard into the New Haven event looking for some last-minute tune up ahead of the US Open. She’ll now leave the tournament having claimed the 19th WTA title of her career, and her second title of 2016 after opening the season with a win at Shenzhen.

“Yeah, it’s been a great week for me, great preparation,” Radwanska said. “A couple of great matches. In the semi, in the final. It was a very strong tournament, no easy matches. I was pushing myself 100% from the first round, working hard here.

“I’m just trying to keep it up and play the same level in New York.”

Click here for match recap and highlights.

In the doubles draw, Sania Mirza cemented her place at the top of the doubles ranking. Mirza and temporary partner Monica Niculescu capped off their newly rekindled doubles partnership with their first title together at the Connecticut Open, edging past Kateryna Bondarenko and Chuang Chia-Jung 7-5, 6-4.

“It’s always nice to have the week before a Grand Slam where you’re able to ease up,” Mirza explained in post-match press. “We go to New York and there’s so much happening there. Here you have nice restaurants and even though we’re in the city, you feel quite quiet around here.

“I was actually not planning on completely playing this week. But when Monica asked me, I thought we could obviously win together.”

Click here for match recap.

RANKING MOVERS:
Notable singles ranking movers for the week of August 29, 2016.

Johanna Larsson (SWE), +15 (No.62 to 47): Lucky loser Larsson made the best of her second shot at the Connecticut Open main draw, reaching her first Premier-level semifinal. She also jumps up to No.47, sitting one spot away from equaling her previous career high ranking of No.46.

Kirsten Flipkens (BEL), +12 (No.68 to 56): Another New Haven lucky loser, Flipkens played some of her best tennis to upset Belinda Bencic and Caroline Garcia and inch her way back up toward the Top 50.

Elina Svitolina (UKR), +4 (No.23 to 19): Having reached her career first Premier-level final at New Haven last week, Svitolina jumps up four spots to land back inside the Top 20.

UPCOMING TOURNAMENTS

US Open
New York, USA
Grand Slam | $ TBA | Hard, Outdoor
Monday, August 29 – Sunday, September 11

Dalian Women’s Tennis Open
Dalian, China
125K | $115,000 | Hard, Outdoor
Tuesday, September 6 – Sunday, September 11

Coupe Banque Nationale
Quebec City, Canada
International | $226,750 | Carpet
Monday, September 12 – Sunday, September 18

Japan Women’s Open Tennis
Tokyo, Japan
International | $226,750 | Hard
Monday, September 12 – Sunday, September 18

TOP 20 PLAYER SCHEDULES
1. Serena Williams – US Open
2. Angelique Kerber – US Open
3. Garbiñe Muguruza – US Open
4. Agnieszka Radwanska – US Open
5. Simona Halep – US Open
6. Venus Williams – US Open
7. Victoria Azarenka
8. Roberta Vinci – US Open
9. Madison Keys – US Open
10. Svetlana Kuznetsova – US Open
11. Karolina Pliskova – US Open
12. Carla Suárez Navarro – US Open
13. Dominika Cibulkova – US Open
14. Johanna Konta – US Open
15. Timea Bacsinszky – US Open
16. Petra Kvitova – US Open
17. Samantha Stosur – US Open
18. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova – US Open
19. Elina Svitolina – US Open
20. Elena Vesnina – US Open

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
Best wishes to those celebrating birthdays this week:

Margarita Gasparyan (RUS) – September 1, 1994
Carla Suárez Navarro (ESP) – September 3, 1988

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