Tennis News

Next Friday the curtain will be raised on the Games of the XXXI Olympiad in Rio de Janiero. The following 16 days will see in excess of 10,500 athletes compete for 918 medals, at 34 venues, across 28 different sports.

Among those 28 sports is tennis, which will be appearing at the Games for the 15th time this summer.

So to celebrate tennis’ history at the world’s greatest sporting event, over the coming fortnight wtatennis.com will look back at the seven Olympic tennis tournaments since the sport was reinstated in 1988. Starting with Seoul…

Seoul, South Korea, 1988
Olympic Park Tennis Centre
Hardcourt

Tennis made its return to the Olympics after a 64-year absence at Seoul in 1988. And its return proved to be a historic one.

A strong line-up arrived in the Korean capital for tennis’ rebirth as an Olympic sport, headlined by the game’s latest teen prodigy, Steffi Graf, fresh from completing the calendar Slam at the US Open.

All the talk in the build-up to the event was whether she could add a golden finish to this achievement by climbing to the top of the medal rostrum.

In the early rounds, though, the media speculation appeared to be taking its toll on the 19-year-old; after laboring past Leila Meskhi in her opening match, an out of sorts Graf nearly saw her ‘Golden Slam’ dreams dashed by the Soviet Union’s Larisa Savchenko.

However, a three set tussle with Savchenko seemed to liberate the top seed, who produced some of her best tennis of the tournament to rout the United States’ Zina Garrison, 6-2, 6-0, in the semifinals.

On the other side of the draw, another of tennis’ young stars was shining just as brightly.

Were it not for Graf, 1988 could well have been Gabriela Sabatini’s annus mirabilis; the 18-year-old from Argentina had won three titles coming into the Games and was also the only woman to register wins over Graf that season, having triumphed at Boca Raton and Amelia Island in the spring.

However, their most high-profile encounter, the US Open final, had gone the way of the German, who outlasted Sabatini over three absorbing sets.

By comparison, the gold medal match in Seoul proved to be something of an anticlimax as a relaxed and uninhibited Graf swept her way into the history books with a 6-3, 6-3 win.

“I actually had a very good feeling after the first game of the match,” Graf said. “I really liked the way I was playing. I’m very excited. It’s something not many people after me will achieve. It’s amazing”

The Winners:

Victoria Azarenka stormed past Angelique Kerber to win the 18th WTA title of her career – and first WTA title in almost two and a half years – at the Brisbane International. Azarenka has now won 35 of her last 39 matches in Australia, a stretch dating back to 2012. Can the momentum propel the two-time Australian Open champion to make it three in Melbourne this year?

The full story – here.

Agnieszka Radwanska kept her Asia win-streak alive in the new year. She defeated Alison Riske at Shenzhen, winning her 18^th career title and rising to World No.4 – just in time for Top 4 Australian Open seeding.

The full story – here.

Rain delays forced Sloane Stephens to pull double duty at Auckland – she was up 5-2 against Caroline Wozniacki in the ASB Classic semifinal when rain stopped play on Friday. The American came back on Saturday and closed out the match, edging Wozniacki 6-2, 7-6(3) before facing Julia Goerges in the final later that day. Stephens held all 10 of her service games to win 7-5, 6-2 for her career second WTA title.

The full story – here. 

Game, Set, Match: WTA Insider

Game: Sam Crawford makes a splash.

Where were you when you saw the 20-year-old American qualifier blast her way past Belinda Bencic and Andrea Petkovic in back-to-back matches without dropping a set, all en route to her first WTA semifinal? Crawford’s pure power was a sight to behold at the Brisbane International. Petkovic was left shaking her head and laughing towards the end of her 6-3, 6-0 loss to the American. Bencic said she had no say in her 7-5, 7-5 loss in the second round, so audacious was Crawford’s hitting. There’s still work to be done in refining Crawford’s game – Victoria Azarenka exploited her struggles when pulled wide – but hers is a name to keep an eye on. She’s now just outside the top 100.

The full story – here.

Set: Angelique Kerber looks sharp.

When looking back on Kerber’s 2015 season it’s easy to forget she was one set away from qualifying for the semifinals in Singapore. If she had been able to control her nerves and take that one set off Lucie Safarova in group play, who knows what the business end of the tournament looks like. And perhaps we would be looking back on her fantastic year – she won four Premier level titles – in an even better light.

So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that she came out firing in Brisbane, where she unveiled her improved fitness and more offensive gameplay to make her sixth Premier final in the last 12 months. She may have lost to Azarenka in the final, but there’s a lot to like about Kerber’s week in Brisbane. It wasn’t necessarily the result that impressed – after Simona Halep, Garbiñe Muguruza, and Maria Sharapova pulled out Kerber was the highest seed remaining – but it’s how she played. She was hitting a bigger ball (with some help from her new hybrid Yonex strings), serving more aggressively, and moving as well as ever. If she can commit to this more aggressive game, 2016 could be a big year for the German.

Kerber’s run earned her a Top 8 seeding at the Australian Open. She also paired up with Andrea Petkovic to make the doubles final. Along with Julia Goerges’ run to the final at the ASB Classic, this was a fantastic start for the Germans.

Read more about Kerber’s adjustments, here.  

Match: What’s a New Year without fireworks?

Naomi Broady and Jelena Ostapenko provided the Week 1 drama, thanks to Broady’s incredible comeback win over the 18-year-old Latvian in the second round of the Hobart International. The Brit rallied from 5-2 down in the second set and 5-1 down in the third to win 4-6, 7-6(4), 7-5 to advance to the quarterfinals. But Broady’s gutsy comeback was overshadowed by a mid-match incident that involved a flying racket that hit a ballboy and tearful cries for a default.

Early in the second set tie-break, Ostapenko ran to track down a backhand wide and flung her racket – whether intentional or accidentally we don’t know – into the backstop. The racket ricocheted off the backstop and hit a ballboy. Broady pled her case to the chair umpire and supervisor, demanding that Ostapenko be defaulted. Instead the umpire issued a code violation. It all culminated in an icy post-match handshake and an exchange of words between the two that continued well after the match.

That’s one way to ring in the New Year!

The full story – here.

Ranking Movers:

Notable singles ranking movers for the week of January 11, 2016.

Agnieszka Radwanska (POL), +1 (No.5 to 4): Radwanska captured her 18th career singles title by winning at Shenzhen and as a result moved up one spot to No.4 on Monday’s rankings, which will be used for Australian Open seeding.

Angelique Kerber (GER), +3, (No.10 to 7): Kerber started the year by advancing to the final in Brisbane where she fell short against Azarenka. However, with an appearance in the finals, Kerber moved into the Top 8 (No.7), boosting her seeding in Melbourne.

Victoria Azarenka (BLR), +6 (No.22 to 16): By winning the title in Brisbane, the former No.1 moved to No.16 in the rankings, her highest ranking since the week of August 11, 2014, when she held the No.10 ranking.

Sloane Stephens (USA), +4 (No.30 to 26): Stephens captured her second career title in Auckland moving to No.26 in the rankings, her highest ranking since the 2014 US Open.

Upcoming Tournaments:

Apia International Sydney
Sydney, Australia
Premier | $687,900 | Hard, Outdoors
Sunday, January 10 – Friday, January 15, 2016

Hobart International
Hobart, Australia
International | $226,750 | Hard, Outdoors
Sunday, January 10 – Saturday, January 16, 2016

Top 20 Player Schedules:

1. Serena Williams – Australian Open
2. Simona Halep – Sydney, Australian Open
3. Garbiñe Muguruza – Australian Open
4. Agnieszka Radwanska – Australian Open
5. Maria Sharapova – Australian Open
6. Petra Kvitova – Australian Open
7. Angelique Kerber – Sydney, Australian Open
8. Flavia Pennetta – (retired)
9. Lucie Safarova – (not competing)
10. Venus Williams – Australian Open
11. Karolina Pliskova – Sydney, Australian Open
12. Carla Suárez Navarro – Sydney, Australian Open
13. Timea Bacsinszky – Sydney, Australian Open
14. Belinda Bencic – Sydney, Australian Open
15. Roberta Vinci – Sydney, Australian Open
16. Victoria Azarenka – Australian Open
17. Madison Keys – Australian Open
18. Caroline Wozniacki – Australian Open
19. Sara Errani – Sydney , Australian Open
20. Elina Svitolina – Sydney, Australian Open

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

Raina, Ankita (IND) – January 11, 1993
Shapatava, Sofia (GEO) – January 12, 1989
Chang, Kai-Chen (TPE) – January 13, 1991
Pfizenmaier, Dinah (GER) – January 13, 1992
Wang, Qiang (CHN) – January 14, 1992
Domachowska, Marta (POL) – January 16, 1986