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Stacked Semifinals In Cincy

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

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.

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Radwanska Leads New Haven Field

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

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.”

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:

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Insider Notebook: Serena, Kerber Out

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

– Serena Williams has pulled out of next week’s Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships citing illness. The withdrawal means the Australian Open remains Serena’s only competitive outing of the year.

– Angelique Kerber and Caroline Wozniacki are also out of Dubai: The Australian Open champion is still entered in Doha – a Premier 5 event this year – but has withdrawn from Dubai citing an upper right thigh injury. Wozniacki has also pulled out of Dubai citing a left knee injury. The Dane lost to Dominika Cibulkova, 6-4, 7-5, at this week’s St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy.

– Coach Henin in action: The first snaps of Justine Henin coaching Elina Svitolina in Dubai:

– Venus Williams makes her first final of 2016: The American held off a feisty challenge – is there any other kind? – from Yulia Putintseva to win, 7-5, 6-3, and advance to the Taiwan Open final. She’ll face Misaki Doi on Sunday.

– Belinda Bencic primed for a Top 10 debut: The 18-year-old Swiss phenom will make her Top 10 debut on Monday if she beats Daria Kasatkina in Saturday’s semifinal at the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy.

– Bencic and Kasatkina meet for the first time: Well, at least as professionals. The two 18-year-olds faced off twice in the juniors, with Bencic winning both matches. Saturday’s match will be the first time two 18-year-olds faced off in a WTA semifinal since 2008 in New Haven (Wozniacki, Alizé Cornet).

– Count it: Some great stuff here from Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis on their 38-match win streak (“We’re counting also,” said Mirza) and Hingis has nothing but nice things to say about her former doubles partner, Anna Kournikova.

– Too good, Hev: Heather Watson wins the #TBT sweepstakes this week.

– Wozniacki’s woes: Hard courts are supposed to be Wozniacki’s bread and butter. But after a solid clay and grass season last year, Wozniacki has made it past the Round of 16 at just three of her last 13 tournaments, all on hard courts. Her week ended prematurely in St. Petersburg, as she was defeated by Cibulkova in the second round.

– Lyndrea Price speaks to SI.com: The Beyond the Baseline Podcast features Serena and Venus Williams’ sister Lyndrea Price. It’s worth a listen.

– Oh, Donna: Ever wanted to know what exactly a WTA Supervisor does during the day? Introducing Donna Kelso, who has served as a WTA Supervisor for 19 years:

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Insider Debates: Who Will Win Cincinnati

Insider Debates: Who Will Win Cincinnati

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

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.

Angelique Kerber

“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.

Angelique Kerber

“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.”

Karolina Pliskova

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.”

Karolina Pliskova

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.

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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

MELBOURNE, Australia – Angelique Kerber celebreated her 29th birthday with a win, but it was Australia’s comeback kid who stole hearts on Day 3 at the Australian Open.

Here’s what you need to know:

Ashleigh Barty emerges as the feel-good story of the first week.

Mention Ashleigh Barty’s name and you’ll get a big broad smile around these parts. The 20-year-old was a junior Wimbledon champion at 15 years old and a three-time Slam finalist in doubles before she was 18-years-old. But the attention and pressure from being the next great prospect from a tennis nation like Australia proved too much, and she stepped away from the sport at 17. After a brief stint playing professional cricket in Australia, Barty announced her intention to return the sport last February. As Barty put it then, “Tennis in the end, it just makes sense to me.”

Flash-forward 11 months and she’s into the third round of a Slam for the first time in her career. It’s no surprise that it came on home soil.

Gifted with incredible hands and preternatural tennis IQ, Barty returned to the tour with the one thing she lacked in her junior days: power. That power was on full display two weeks ago when she pushed World No.1 Angelique Kerber to three sets at the Brisbane International. On Wednesday night, Barty put on an arguably better performance, hitting just 11 unforced errors to 29 winners to beat No.52 Shelby Rogers 7-5, 6-1 to advance to the third round.

“Sometimes those things just click for you,” Barty said. “Tonight I felt great. I felt like I was in control, had full control of the ball off my racquet. It’s certainly nice when those things come together. It feels horrific when it doesn’t.”

Currently ranked No.223, Barty has shown she’s more than ready to eclipse her career-high ranking of No.129. That looks to be coming sooner rather than later, as her two wins in Melbourne have already pushed her up around the Top 150. Barty will play qualifier Mona Barthel, after the German knocked out No.29 seed Monica Puig in straight sets.

Regardless of the outcome, it’s great to have you back, Ash.

Carina Witthoeft gets ahead of herself.

It’s only human. There was Carina Witthoeft, 21 years old, ranked No.82, German. Across the net was Angelique Kerber, 29 years old today (yes, it was her birthday), ranked No.1, German. And there was the scoreboard, which showed Witthoeft, who has recorded just one win over a Top 20 player in her career, up an early break in the decisive set. Was she really about to knock out the World No.1, the German No.1, and end her compatriot’s title defense?

Witthoeft was thinking the same thing. And she went on to lose six of the next seven games, as Kerber scored another resilient win, 6-2, 6-7(3), 6-2.

“There are a lot of thoughts and sometimes they’re good and sometimes they’re worse and they bother you,” Witthoeft said. In the face of Kerber’s unrelenting defense, Witthoeft felt herself pressing, and the errors began to come.

“That’s Angie. If you go for too much the chances are there that you’ll lose the point because she’s running for every ball.”

Keep an eye on Alison Riske.

The American is playing solid, steady tennis to start the season. She beat Agnieszka Radwanska to make the Shenzhen Open final and she’s into the third round of a Slam for the first time since 2014 Wimbledon (in fact, her first round win over Madison Brengle was her first win at a Slam since that same tournament).

She’s into the third round here with a solid 7-6(7), 4-6, 6-1 win over last year’s semifinalist and No.20 seed Zhang Shuai. Asked where she feels her early confidence translating on court, Riske pointed to a sense of calm.

“I think mostly it alleviates panic,” she said. I think in moments that are tough I don’t feel threatened by them. That’s the biggest thing. that’s what the top players do so well in the crucial moments. To get to where they are, that’s the biggest thing. In times of stress they’re able to stay cool and I think that’s the biggest thing for me too.”

Riske was recently engaged, and laughed when asked how the wedding planning was coming. “I’m definitely not planning. My fiance is a little uptight about that, the fact that I’m not planning. But he understands it, his family has been in the tennis business as well. He totally gets it and I’m really fortunate for that. First of all I’m not a party planner. Tennis will be my priority for the next few years so I’m not too worried about it.”

Riske plays Sorana Cirstea in the third round and is looking to make the second week at a Slam for the first time since the 2013 US Open.

Svetlana Kuznetsova is resting her body, working her mind.

Kuznetsova isn’t playing doubles at the Australian Open, opting to focus on her singles instead. So far so good. She’s cruised into the third round and will face Jelena Jankovic. So with a full day off between matches, is Sveta getting bored? Not at all.

“When I have a day off I go to practice and then I try to read books. I’m reading a book about the history of Egypt and Athens. It’s very interesting. Something different. I want to develop myself not just as an athlete but it helps in the mentality and being a little bit smarter and wiser in life.”

As for Russian literature, “Pushkin, Dostoevsky, of course I read it all, but I can’t say I’m really into it. I believe all Russian poetry you gotta read it and feel it when you’re older. So I’d like to re-read it with time.”

Old habits die hard for Sorana Cirstea.

The Romanian is into the third round of a Slam for the first time since 2011 Wimbledon, beating a hampered No.10 seed Carla Suárez Navarro 7-6, 6-3. The Spaniard has been dealing with a right shoulder injury, which forced her to serve at three-quarter speed and struggle with her backhand.

Unfortunately for Cirstea, she won’t be able to celebrate her Melbourne success with her frequent dinner partner of the last few years. Ana Ivanovic was her best friend on tour, but I’m sure she’ll be getting a congratulatory message from England later today.

Quote of the Day: “She’s No.1 so I guess she’s good.” 

So…how many people do you think will get confused and call it a US Open final rematch? Karolina’s twin sister Kristyna Pliskova is into the third round at a Slam for the second time in her career, beating No.27 seed Irina-Camelia Begu 6-4, 7-6(8). Now she gets a crack at the World No.1.

“I never played her but she’s No.1 so I guess she’s good,” Pliskova said, laughing. “We will see on Friday.”

“I like big courts. I play better. I think it’s slower on big courts as well, which I like better.”

So will she get some tips from Karolina, who beat Kerber to win the Western & Southern Open last summer? “She’s off now but I asked her a couple of things. I hope she’s on her phone soon.”

Speed it up!

Venus Williams has played two solid matches to open her tournament, beating Stefanie Voegele 6-3, 6-2. She’ll play Duan Ying-Ying in the third round. After her match, Venus was asked about the speed of Rod Laver Arena and about the perceived preference for slower-paced courts recently.

“It may not be as slow as last year, but I think at the same time when the courts get too slow it creates the same kind of player, people who just never come in,” she said. “So I think the courts have to be not too slow, not too fast. It’s got to be playable. You don’t want every ball to come back. At some point there should be a winner. If you’re hitting through the court and the ball just sits, that’s not tennis. It should go through the court.”

Duan Ying-Ying on the rise.

The 27-year-old from — where else — Tianjin, has been on fire to start the season. Ranked No.87, Duan had match points on Radwanska in Shenzhen, beat CoCo Vandeweghe at the Apia International, and is into the third round of a Slam for the first time of her career. Duan came through a tough match against Varvara Lepchenko, winning 6-1, 3-6, 10-8, scoring her second win over the American this year.

Some enticing third-round matches set for the top half.

Here’s the full slate of third-round matches for the top half of the draw:

Kerber vs. Kr. Pliskova, Bouchard vs. Vandeweghe, Cirstea vs. Riske, Sevastova vs. Muguruza, Barty vs. Barthel, Duan vs. Venus, Svitolina vs. Pavlyuchenkova, and Jankovic vs. Kuznetsova.

Based on form and draw, Venus has a great look to make the quarterfinals. She can’t face a Top 80 player before then. The highest-ranked player Muguruza can play before the quarterfinals is Riske at No.42. And keep an eye on Bouchard. She’s playing very well, full of confidence, and she could play the spoiler to Kerber’s title defense.

Day 4 Matches to Watch:

Naomi Osaka vs. Johanna Konta (1st match, Rod Laver Arena)
Serena Williams vs. Lucie Safarova (1st night match, Rod Laver Arena)
Agnieszka Radwanska vs. Mirjana Lucic-Baroni (1st night match, Margaret Court Arena)
Daria Gavrilova vs. Ana Konjuh (NB 6:30pm, Hisense Arena)
Andrea Petkovic vs. Barbora Strycova (2nd match, Court 3)

And if you know, then you know:
Jelena Ostapenko vs. Yulia Putintseva (1st match, Court 8)

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