Cincy Trio Takes Center Stage
WTA Insider | In the latest WTA Insider Live Blog, keep up with the action as Simona Halep, Angelique Kerber, and Agnieszka Radwanska all fight for quarterfinal spots in Cincinnati.
WTA Insider | In the latest WTA Insider Live Blog, keep up with the action as Simona Halep, Angelique Kerber, and Agnieszka Radwanska all fight for quarterfinal spots in Cincinnati.
Sisters and doubles partners Chan Hao-Ching and Chan Yung-Jan are Taiwan’s highest ranked team. They’re No.5 on the Road To Singapore.
Hsieh Su-Wei, Taiwan’s No.1 singles player – was also in attendance.
No.1 seed Venus Williams made her highly anticipated Taiwan Open debut on Wednesday.
The Taiwan Open welcome dinner featured live entertainment…
…as well as a Chinese calligraphy lesson from a local artist.
He showed players how to use a traditional Chinese calligraphy brush.
The players wrote messages to the people of Taiwan who were affected by an earthquake before the start of the tournament.
The messages – written in English and Chinese – expressed encouragement and solidarity.
The Chan sisters, Williams and Hsieh were invited to the stage to show off their creations.
Ahead of the quarterfinal matches at the Western & Southern Open, WTA Insider caught up with two of the most in-form players through the Emirates Airlines US Open Series.
Simona Halep takes a 12-match winning streak into a last eight clash with Angieszka Radwanska, whom she trails 3-4 in their head-to-head, but has otherwise played spectacular tennis all summer with wins in Bucharest and the Rogers Cup, reaching the quarterfinals in Cincinnati without dropping a set.
“I’m playing smart and aggressive,” Halep said after her win over Daria Gavrilova. “I feel much stronger and more confident on court when I play now. I’ve won a few matches in a row, so it gives me confidence. It’s been building since Indian Wells, but I’m feeling great on court.”
Up next is World No.2 Angelique Kerber, who is three matches from ending Serena Williams’ 183 straight weeks atop the WTA rankings. Kerber battled past Barbora Strycova in two tough sets to renew her rivalry with Carla Suárez Navarro.
“I go out on court with a lot of confidence that I can be ready even in different conditions, or if I only have a few days to prepare,” Kerber said. “This is what I took into the two matches I won here, that I’m a player who can transfer to surface and conditions very quickly. This gives me a lot of confidence.”
Hear more from Halep in Kerber in the latest Daily Dispatch:
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KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan – Venus Williams overcame a rocky start to defeat Anastasija Sevastova and book her place in the semifinals of the Taiwan Open.
Watch live action from St. Petersburg & Kaohsiung this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!
By her own admission, Williams did not know much about Sevastova’s game heading into their quarterfinals clash. However, it quickly became apparent that she would not have things all her own way.
Sevastova, playing with the carefree abandon of an overwhelming underdog, surged into a 5-2 lead. The top seed had no intentions of going quietly, turning the match on its head with a run of five straight games and fending off two set points along the way.
This took the wind from Sevastova’s sails, Willims breaking three more times to ease over the finishing line, 7-5, 6-2.
“I didn’t think about the set points, I just tried to not lose the set,” Williams said. “But she was playing really well and was very determined so it wasn’t easy to play her. From there, I think the experience really helped me and there was a lot of pressure on her.
“I just tried to do whatever was winning! If it’s not working you change it – so that’s the strategy.”
Meeting her for a place in the final is No.3 seed Yulia Putintseva. At last year’s Wimbledon, Putintseva ran Williams close, eventually being edged out after two tight sets.
“We’ve played a couple of times. The last time she played really, really well. I have a lot of respect for her and her game and I hope tomorrow to have a faster start. But no matter what happens I hope to play a good match.”
On the other side of the draw Hsieh Su-Wei kept alive hopes of a home champion when she outfoxed Russian prospect Elizaveta Kulichkova, 6-2, 6-0, to set up a meeting with No.2 seed Misaki Doi.
“I had played her twice and won in three sets, so we knew each other well,” Hsieh said. “She’s aggressive and I tried to take a relaxed approach today. I just focus on myself. Fans are so enthusiastic and I believe they make the sun shine down on me!
“In the semifinal I will play Misaki Doi. I haven’t played her for a while, but she’s been quite consistent. I just returned to Top 100, so I won’t judge myself too high or too low. I just wanted to be myself and do my best.”
WTA Insider | The latest live blog takes you inside the semifinals of the Western & Southen Open as three of the Top 4 seeds face off for spots in the final.
Highlights from second round action at the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy.
NEW HAVEN, CT, USA – Agnieszka Radwanska took a wildcard into the Connecticut Open with the aim of putting the finishing touches on her US Open preparation and build on the momentum that took her into the quarterfinals in Cincinnati.
“I didn’t play that many matches this summer,” the top seed said during her pre-tournament press conference. “This is a great opportunity to have a couple more good matches against good players. It’s always a strong draw here, and I’m very happy to be back.
“As we know, courts are different everywhere. But here, it’s pretty much the same courts and conditions as the US Open, so this is great preparation.”
Looming in the second round for Radwanska could be former World No.1 and longtime friend Caroline Wozniacki, who plays Jelena Ostapenko to start the week.
“I think it’d be a great match before the US Open; she still has one match to win and it won’t be easy against Ostapenko, but we’ll see.
“We’ve known each other since we played a first round together when we were 10 years old. It’s great to have someone like this next to you your whole career since the under-14s, the under-16s then the 25Ks on the ITF Circuit. It’s more fun to know someone for years, but when we’re on the court, we’re opponents.
“When you’ve played so many matches and practices against each other, it’s tough, but every match is a different story, especially with different surfaces and conditions. I think you play each point as it comes.
“I think we both want to win on the court, but we’ve been good friends for so many years, and it’s good to be able to separate tennis and your private life. That’s what we’ve done well, and it’s why we’re still friends.”
Can't wait to see my @connecticutopen fans! Hope you can come out to watch and support me https://t.co/EqlrW74zCv #CTOpen16
— Aga Radwanska (@ARadwanska) August 20, 2016
The match would come at the end of an up and down summer for Radwanska, who suffered through a grueling travel itinerary to get to the Olympic tennis event in Rio de Janeiro only to fall in straight sets to Zheng Saisai.
“It’s always very tricky, especially since you don’t know how you’ll do before or after. You know scheduling will be very tight with everything in a row; that’s why I hadn’t entered here earlier, because I didn’t know how things would go. I didn’t play enough, and that’s why I’m here.
“I think tournaments like this are always very challenging. There’ll be good matches from the first round, and you have to push yourself 100%; it can be pretty hot and humid, and every match matters.”
Still, it has been a solid season for the Pole, who may rue her lost opportunities at Wimbledon, where she fell in a classic three-setter to rival Dominika Cibulkova, but hopes for a strong finish so that she may mount a defense of her BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global title.
“The beginning of the year was good, a couple of big semifinals, and winning a tournament to start the year. My grass court season was disappointing, and so maybe I’d’ve changed that, but it’s hard to play your best all the time. I was playing good tennis last week in Cincinnati, so hopefully I can do the same this week.
“Singapore was the biggest week of my career, with so many big matches. I remember it like it was yesterday. This year I’m fighting to get back, and plenty of players are hoping to be there as well. I think everything is open, and anyone can be there.”
Around the grounds, American wildcard Shelby Rogers played emphatic tennis to defeat Kristina Mladenovic, 6-1, 6-1, while Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova won a battle of veterans to defeat Sara Errani, 7-5, 6-2.
Madison Keys was set to play in New Haven before she was forced to withdraw due to a neck injury:
pic.twitter.com/J9vlowMHwQ
— Madison Keys (@Madison_Keys) August 21, 2016
An interview with Daria Kasatkina after her quarterfinal win at the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy.
Courtney Nguyen, Point: World No.2 Angelique Kerber is in the midst of the most solid stretch of play in a year that has already included so many emotional and career-defining highs. Winning the Australian Open, defending her title in Stuttgart, making her first Wimbledon final, winning Olympic silver for Germany, the milestones have been there to check off.
Heading into Sunday’s Western & Southern Open final, she’s won 21 of her last 25 matches and has made the semifinals or better at four of her last five events.
Kerber has spent the last eight months proving to everyone that she is more than capable of conquering the challenges placed in front of her. The next challenge is simple: Beat World No.17 Karolina Pliskova to win her first title in Cincinnati and become the new World No.1 on Monday.
“I think now I’m showing that I’m really one of the best tennis players,” Kerber said after beating No.3 seed Simona Halep, 6-3, 6-4, in the semifinals. A win on Sunday would make her the first German to hold the No.1 ranking since Stefanie Graf in 1997. “It’s still one match away, but it’s still a match. I will not think about this yet. Let’s see what’s happening tomorrow.
“It’s a new opponent, a new day, and after that we will see what happened, it’s not over yet. Still one match to go.”
Throughout the week, Kerber has met the flurry of questions about the prospect of becoming the 22nd WTA No.1 with a shrug. When she says she isn’t thinking about it, that she’s focused only on the match in front of her, I believe her. This is a woman who has played 10 matches in 13 days across two continents.
During a press conference earlier in the week, she could not remember what day it was. She admits she is tired but her non-stop play over the last few weeks has helped her keep things remarkably simple: Wake up. Warm up. Play a match. Win the match. Recover. Go to sleep. Do it again. It has worked well.
“I came here without any expectation,” Kerber said. “I came here after Rio, after a lot of emotions what I have there. I mean, I had a great week in Rio. I won my medal which I will take home, what was always a dream.
“To come here, I was just trying to play match by match. Not thinking about my draws, my opponents, about nothing. Just going out there trying to win every match, because every match was different here. That’s why I’m really happy.
“I’m not surprised [I’m in the final], but I’m happy to go through it and be in another final.”
Kerber knows Pliskova well. They have not played in over a year but the two battled hard in two finals in 2015, both of which Kerber won in a narrow three sets. Despite her fatigue, Kerber has worked through a tough draw, beating Kristina Mladenovic, Barbora Strycova, Carla Suárez Navarro, and Halep, losing just one set all week. Her win over Halep was her tour-leading 47th win of the year and brought her season record against Top 20 players to 17-5.
“For me, there are no favorites,” Kerber said. “It’s 50/50 always when you go out there. You have to play your best, especially when you’re in the final. So that will be my goal. It’s step by step, and still one more step to go.”
David Kane, Counterpoint: Standing between Kerber and her accession to the top of the WTA rankings is Karolina Pliskova, a player who shrugs off suggestions that hers has been a sophomore slump of a season.
“Everyone is saying I didn’t have that good of a year as last year, but I didn’t have as many big matches, semifinals in Indian Wells and now this final,” she said after a comprehensive win over French Open champion Garbiñe Muguruza. “I would say it’s maybe better than what I played last year, where I made a few finals at small tournaments.”
Pliskova played Kerber on two of those relatively smaller stages, twice losing in the finals of tough three-setters in Birmingham and Stanford.
Both matches came in the midst of a busy summer for the big-hitting Czech, who peaked at a career-high of No.7 after winning the Emirates Airlines US Open Series last August, but began feeling the fatigue from heavy scheduling soon after her aforementioned run to the last four of the BNP Paribas Open.
“I was thinking about whether to go to Rio or not, and there were more reasons why I decided to not go, but I think it was a good step for me.
“Last year I played a lot of tournaments, and at the end of the US Open I felt really tired. I just want to prepare for the big tournaments better than I did last year.”
Looking fresher through a winning week at the Western & Southern Open, Pliskova has dropped just one set in four matches, her high-octane game holding up even through the windier conditions that featured heavily in her semifinal encounter with Muguruza.
“With the wind, it wasn’t really easy. I didn’t play how I would love to play. I think yesterday I played little bit better, but the conditions are always different.
“But I was happy with how I played, and so happy with the way how I closed the match.”
Her thoughts on closing out a surging Kerber from reaching No.1 were more complex than most might think, but ultimately showed the steely resolve for which she’s best known.
“I would love to have her as a No. 1 after few years. But I’ll do anything for her to not getting there.”
Photos courtesy of Getty Images.
Ana Ivanovic takes on Kateryna Kozlova in the quarterfinals at the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy.