Tennis News

SHENZHEN, China – One of China’s biggest stars made her return to action at the Shenzhen Open on Monday. Winning her first match in over a year, former World No.14 Peng Shuai took an important step in her comeback from back surgery, winning a first round doubles encounter with partner Liang Chen over wildcads Li Yixuan and Sheng Yuqi, 6-2, 6-1.

Peng was hitting new heights in the summer of 2014 when she reached the US Open semifinals – losing a heartbreaking match to former No.1 Caroline Wozniacki in a retirement – but within a few months, the Chinesewoman was struck by a career-threatening back injury that forced her to end her season at last year’s French Open. Taking the match in under an hour was that much sweeter for a player who wondered if she would ever compete again.

“I thought about giving up many times,” she admitted after the match. “Before the surgery I went to see the doctors in US and Germany; both of them said even I took the surgery, they can’t guarantee that I can be 100% fit again.

“The surgery was very successful, but no one knows how the recover could be. And this injury could happen again.”

That concern has caused her to take extra precaution in reacclimating her body to the grind of professional tennis. Playing only in the doubles event this week in Shenzhen, Peng plays a fuller comeback in February, following the Australian Open.

“I’m going to play in Kaohsiung, then probably in Dubai. I will try my best to play more matches in singles and doubles. It’s been about five months after surgery, and I recovered faster than I expected. But I’m still working on getting my power back.

“I want to take it step by step, not to make it rush, becuase I don’t want to get injured again. Now even though I’m not able to run and jump like what I can do before, I feel I’m getiing better, and at least I can play the match. I’m looking forward the matches in February.”

No.3 seed Irina-Camelia Begu was equally emphatic in her opening round match against Lara Arruabarrena, winning 6-3, 6-2, while Zarina Diyas and Monica Niculescu also reached the second round – the latter in three sets over Anastasjia Sevastova. No.8 seed Annika Beck was the highest ranked player to fall on Monday, losing in three sets to Alison Riske. 

BRISBANE, Australia – Simona Halep and Maria Sharapova have unfortunately had to withdraw from the Brisbane International due to injury. Sharapova was the defending champion at the Premier event.

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Sharapova’s announcement came just hours before she was to take the court for her opening match.

“I hurt my forearm in practice a couple of days ago and need to precautionarily withdraw, with the Australian Open starting in just a matter of time,” Sharapova said. “This is such a special event for me, especially being the defending champion. I look forward to seeing all my fans in Brisbane next year.”

Shortly after the No.3-seeded Sharapova withdrew, the tournament’s No.1 seed, Simona Halep, was also forced to pull out, due to a left leg injury. She was going to play her opening match on Wednesday.

“I had problems with my Achilles in August and September, and then I didn’t feel it anymore, but now I’ve already had a couple of weeks again with the pain,” Halep told reporters. “I thought I would be ready to play here, to start the year here in Brisbane, but I don’t think that I can play a full match.

“I think it’s more important to be ready and take a little bit of a break.”

Halep is scheduled to play the Apia International Sydney next week – and she’s hopeful she will.

“Yeah, I’m planning to go to Sydney. Actually tomorrow I’m going there,” the World No.2 said. “It’s nothing dangerous – I did an MRI and it’s nothing dangerous. But it’s still an inflammation.

“I just have to take a few days’ rest.”

Sharapova and Halep were replaced by lucky losers Margarita Gasparyan and Ysaline Bonaventure.

Despite Tuesday’s withdrawals, the Premier event still has a dynamite field, led by 2015 Wimbledon finalist Garbiñe Muguruza. The No.2-seeded Spaniard will kick her campaign off on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, in second round play, No.8 seed Roberta Vinci cruised past Dominika Cibulkova in a battle of Grand Slam finalists, 6-1, 6-1, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova won a see-saw against Alizé Cornet, 6-2, 1-6, 6-4, and No.6 seed Carla Suárez Navarro took on Samantha Stosur in the feature night match.

Ekaterina Makarova beat Gasparyan in the last first round match of the week, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3.

Drama. The 2016 WTA season already has plenty of it.

A day after notching the biggest win of her career, Britain’s Naomi Broady saved two match points and rallied from 5-2 down in the second set and 5-1 down in the final set to beat Jelena Ostapenko, 4-6, 7-6(4), 7-5 to advance to the quarterfinals of the ASB Classic in Auckland.

Powering down 21 aces, No.122 Broady saved a match point in both the second and third sets to make her second WTA quarterfinal (2015 Québec City). The win came less than 24 hours after she scored her first Top 20 win, beating No.2 seed Ana Ivanovic 7-5, 6-4 behind another top-notch serving performance, hitting 14 aces in the match and serving at 68%.

Beyond Broady’s gutsy comeback, which was aided by a nervous attempt to close the match by the 18-year-old Latvian wildcard – she served for the match three times – controversy nearly derailed the match late in the second set.

Ostapenko's controversial racquet throw that hit a ball boy. Broady wanted her disqualified for this. #ASBClassic pic.twitter.com/42cHofe3wM

— Max (@MGLovesTennis) January 6, 2016

At 2-2 in the tiebreaker, Ostapenko ran to chase down a backhand and flung her racket towards the backstop. The racquet bounced off the ground and hit a nearby ballboy. Broady was incensed, believing that Ostapenko should be defaulted from the match for hitting the ballboy. The chair umpire issued a code violation to Ostapenko and the Latvian then pled her case, arguing that the racket slipped out of her hand.

With tempers at a boil, Broady was able to hold onto her lead in the tie-break to force a third but quickly fell behind. Finding some of her best form, Ostapenko settled down and took control from the baseline, running the rangy Brit from side-to-side to open the court and earn errors.

But from 5-1 up, Ostapenko got tight. Her shots began to fall shorter, giving Broady plenty of chances to take big swings with her forehand. Ostapenko’s serve, already shaky for much of the match – she hit 13 double-faults to four aces – increasingly became a liability. From 5-1 down in the final frame, Broady reeled off six straight games to seal the upset.

The two continued to trade verbal volleys after the match, both during the handshake and afterwards. On-court microphones picked up Broady telling Ostapenko after the handshake, “You hit the ballboy with your racket!” before returning to the court to salute the crowd.

Don't mess with a girl from Stockport! https://t.co/LJ9F4T8aGj

— Anne Keothavong (@annekeothavong) January 6, 2016

Broady took to Twitter after the match to clarify her side of things:

1-Just to put the record straight,it was not me causing an argument after the match.I was told how terrible my behaviour was frm my opponent

— Naomi Broady (@NaomiBroady) January 6, 2016

2-Its hard to know when to stick up for yourself and when to keep your mouth shut. I'm human. We live and learn

— Naomi Broady (@NaomiBroady) January 6, 2016

3- thanks to everyone in the WTA community and on social media who support me. #ontothenextone

— Naomi Broady (@NaomiBroady) January 6, 2016

Needless to say, 2016 has not been short of fireworks. Broady plays Sloane Stephens in then quarterfinals after the American needed three sets to beat Carina Witthoeft, 3-6, 6-1, 6-3.

SHENZHEN, China – A day after making a winning comeback to the tennis court at the Shenzhen Open, Eugenie Bouchard backed it up to reach her first WTA quarterfinal in almost a year.

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On Tuesday, Bouchard played her first complete match since suffering her concussion at the US Open, and she was a winner, rallying from 4-2 down in the third set to edge Donna Vekic, 6-4, 1-6, 7-5.

The No.6-seeded Canadian had a much simpler day at the office on Wednesday, dropping serve in the first game of the match but then reeling off 12 of the next 17 games to roll past American qualifier Nicole Gibbs, 6-4, 6-2, breaking serve one last time to win after just 67 minutes on the court.

“It was a solid match from me. I think I was able to improve off of my first round,” Bouchard said.

“But first and foremost I was able to play another whole match healthy, with no pain and no symptoms.”

Bouchard is now through to her first WTA quarterfinal since last year’s Australian Open.

And the Canadian, a former World No.5 and Wimbledon finalist, doesn’t want to stop here.

“Every match that I play gives me a little bit more confidence,” she said. “I know it’s a long road back to recovery and to being back to where I was and even better, so I’m ready for that long journey.

“But, you know, if it’s a little step I can take every day, then I’m happy with that.”

The tournament’s No.1 seed, Agnieszka Radwanska, followed Bouchard onto center court – and into the quarterfinals as well – after a close finish, closing out China’s own Zhang Shuai, 6-1, 7-5.

Radwanska, who’s coming off a fantastic fall season that brought her three WTA titles – including the WTA Finals in Singapore – and took her back to World No.5, has now won 19 of her last 23 matches.

It was a rough day for the other seeds in action, though, with No.3 seed Irina-Camelia Begu retiring down 7-5, 3-2 to Anna-Lena Friedsam due to a right knee injury, No.4 seed Monica Niculescu falling to Timea Babos, 6-1, 6-4, and No.7 seed Zarina Diyas succumbing to Katerina Siniakova, 6-0, 6-4.

First time using a selfie stick ? thank you for staying after the match guys #ilovechina pic.twitter.com/uinuGZruzn

— Genie Bouchard (@geniebouchard) January 6, 2016