Tennis News

SINGAPORE – Dominika Cibulkova wrote the final chapter of a fairytale season by upsetting World No.1 Angelique Kerber to win the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.

PARIS, France – Look at the current WTA Top 30. Scan the list. Then pick the player with whom you’re the least familiar. Chances are, it’s No.28 Irina-Camelia Begu.

That could change over the course of this Paris fortnight. Begu is floating in Garbiñe Muguruza’s quarter of the draw and plays CoCo Vandeweghe in the second round at Roland Garros on Wednesday. Two of her four wins over Top 10 players have come in this month alone; if that form holds, she’ll be into the second week in Paris for the first time in her career.

The 25-year-old Romanian may not have the results of Simona Halep, the prodigious history of Sorana Cirstea, or the unique game-style of Monica Niculescu that makes you sit up and take notice. But heading into Roland Garros this year, no player on tour has posted more consistent results than Begu. After marking the fourth round of the Miami Open, she followed it up with a quarterfinal run at the Volvo Car Open, quarterfinals of the Mutua Madrid Open, and capped it all off with her career-best result, the semifinals of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, where she lost to eventual champion Serena Williams.

Having reached a career-high ranking at No.25 last year, Begu looks well on her way towards besting that number in what is shaping up to be a career year. It’s quite a turnaround considering her 2016 took a major blow right when it started. Begu injured ligaments in her knee in her first tournament of the season at the Shenzhen Open, where she was forced to retire in the second round.

“I was upset,” Begu told WTA Insider. “I was working really hard in the off-season and the first tournament I got injured. It was a really difficult moment for me.

“I didn’t practice for four weeks and I started slowly. It’s tough because in four weeks you lose your muscles and the first few days I couldn’t walk. It was tough but when you go back on court you try and enjoy every moment, because you never know when something like this is coming.”

Begu returned to the tour in March at the BNP Paribas Open; in her third tournament back she made the Round of 16 in Miami.

“In Indian Wells and San Antonio I didn’t play my best,” Begu said. “I was just trying to get confident back on court. But in Miami I was fighting for every ball. It doesn’t matter if I was feeling bad or if I had some problems. I was trying to fight for every ball. When you’re working hard everything is coming back.”

Once the tour moved to clay, her favorite surface, Begu flourished. After a bit of a sputter in Rabat, taking a 6-3, 6-4 loss to No.139 Richel Hogenkamp, Begu quickly got on track.

“After Rabat, I played so bad in that match and I was so disappointed with my attitude I had with my game,” Begu said. “One day I was only thinking about the match and what I did wrong and I was so disappointed with me. My coach was helping me a lot that day because I was so down. He was trying to help me to get through the moment and I went to Madrid and I was practicing so hard. He said to me if I work hard again and just be confident, the results will come again.”

Sure enough, the results did. She’s since scored wins over No.4 Garbiñe Muguruza and No.5 Victoria Azarenka. She admits her quick success after injury has been a surprise.

“Even if you feel good on the surface there’s so many tough players and every round is difficult,” she said. “It’s not like I feel so good on clay and I can beat everyone. No, I have to work for every match. I feel confident, but still I have to work for every match.”

Quick Hits with Irina-Camelia Begu…

WTA Insider: How did you first start playing tennis?
Begu: I was three-and-a-half years old and my aunt was a tennis coach and tennis player, Aurelia Gheorghe (playing for Germany, Gheorghe reached a career-high No.326 in 1989). I went with her to the practice and I was just [picking up] the balls. Then I started to pick up the racquet. It was funny in the beginning. The racquet was bigger than me.

When I was seven years old, when I started the real practice in Romania, my family and my aunt told me you only play if you want. You don’t need to play for us. I was so motivated. I really enjoy playing tennis. I still do. It’s a job and sometimes you want to sleep more, but still I enjoy it so much.

WTA Insider: When did you realize you might be able to make a living as a tennis player?
Begu: Maybe when I was 14. I was winning tournaments when I was 10 years old, but you never know what is happening. Tennis is an expensive sport and you have to play more tournaments, and it’s expensive.

When I was 14 I played the European Championships in Armenia and I made the semifinals and final, and then I start to think a bit that I can be a good tennis player. After, they picked eight girls and eight boys and the ITF made a one-month tour with these players. It was really nice for me. It was a really nice experience.

WTA Insider: Do you remember any of the other players who were on that ITF tour with you?
Begu: Grigor Dimitrov and Ricardas Berankis, I remember.

WTA Insider: What’s your favorite tournament?
Begu: I cannot say only one tournament. So I think Indian Wells, Rome, and Acapulco.

WTA Insider: What’s your favorite shot?
Begu: Backhand down the line.

WTA Insider: Favorite surface?
Begu: Clay.

WTA Insider: Where is your favorite place for a holiday?
Begu: I love the Maldives. It’s amazing. For me there’s nothing better than the Maldives.

WTA Insider: Do you prefer TV or movies?
I watch TV only when it’s tennis. I have a lot of movies on my laptop.

WTA Insider: Who do you like to watch when you’re watching tennis on TV?
Begu: I love Federer and I admire a lot Rafa. These are the two players I really enjoy when they are playing.

WTA Insider: What do you do to take your mind off tennis?
Begu: When I’m at home I really enjoy being in my kitchen and being in my house. I love being there. I go to the theater, I go to watch some movies at the cinema, go with some friends outside. I’m not so long at home, but when I am at home I like to do these things.

WTA Insider: Which of the four Slams would you like to win the most?
Begu: Australian Open.

WTA Insider: Really? Not Roland Garros?
Begu: It’s strange, no? I like clay court, but Australian Open is my favorite Grand Slam. The conditions and the organization is so good there. They make us feel so good there. Maybe it’s also because it’s the first tournament of the year. It’s nice.

WTA Insider: What’s your first memory of playing Roland Garros?
Begu: I was playing in qualies when I was 18 or 19 and I lost in the last round 6-4 in the third. It was tough. I was a bit disappointed but at the same time I was happy I could reach the third round of qualies.

WTA Insider: What’s the best win of your career so far?
Begu: This year, beating Azarenka in Rome.

Photos courtesy of Getty Images.

SINGAPORE – Dominika Cibulkova was riding high off the biggest title of her career on Monday, going through the media rounds to discuss her stunning run to the title at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global. Less than 24 hours after the win, the new World No.5 was still on Cloud 9 after beating No.1 Angelique Kerber 6-3, 6-4 to win the WTA Finals and finish off an incredible comeback season.

WTA Insider caught up with Cibulkova to reflect on her Singapore win and her evolution as a gritty on-court battler:

WTA Insider: What are you most proud of that you accomplished here?
Cibulkova: That after the two losses I had, I didn’t get down on myself. They talk about me as a fighter and I proved that I am really a big fighter, because it wasn’t easy to go out there after two losses and to play against Halep in the situation it was. So this is [what] I’m really proud about. And, of course, the way I played in the final – it was really high-level tennis.

WTA Insider: Was the final your best match all week?
Cibulkova: I think I also played really well against Halep, but I think against Angie was the best match I played the whole week.

WTA Insider: You told reporters after your match that you believe in yourself now. Why? Why didn’t you believe in yourself before?
Cibulkova: Because I was never that kind of player that came on tour and was winning tournaments. I always needed, you know, proof. I needed to beat a Top 20 player, a Top 10 player – I was taking small steps to get where I am now. And I always thought that winning a Grand Slam was something unreal, it’s impossible. But by winning this, I want to achieve another dream, and that’s winning a Grand Slam.

WTA Insider: Did it mean more to win yesterday than to reach the Australian Open final a couple of years ago?
Cibulkova: Oh yes. To play finals is an amazing feeling. But to win the whole thing, you cannot compare these two things.

WTA Insider: You’ve had good results everywhere. Which major do you think you have the best chance of making a charge?
Cibulkova: We’ll see. I dunno, we’ll see. As you said, I can play on all the surfaces. [I’m most comfortable at] Roland Garros, or maybe Australian Open, too. But hard court and clay court for me is the top. The grass it’s like for one tournament I made the quarterfinals, and that’s amazing. This year is the breaking year in my career, if you know what I mean. Before every tournament you feel your form, how you feel the court and everything has to come together to win such a big event.

WTA Insider: Typically, a player of your size would rely on speed and defense to win matches. Obviously you’re an offensive-minded player. Has anyone ever tried to convince you to play with more feel, rather than your power game?
Cibulkova: No, it was actually it was the other way around. When I was little, or younger, it was always I was just a defensive player; I was just running to the fence and putting the balls back. I think I had a lot of coaches in my career and every single coach taught me something different that now I use now. I remember it was maybe five or six years ago, I had a coach who pushed me to play really aggressive. And since then I’ve known this is the way I’m going to play. This coach I’m with right now, we’ve been together more than three years and I’d say he’s the best coach I ever had in my career.

WTA Insider: How hard was it to buy into this aggressive strategy?
Cibulkova: It was a really hard, but it was a long process. You know, it was maybe 10 years or longer, and inside of me I’m was never a killer on the court, I was never the one that was winning. Now I’m the one that’s going to kill you on the court. This is something I had to learn and this is something that put me in the Top 5. I learned this killer instinct and I just went for it, because in the important moments before I was always afraid to go for my shots, or I wanted the opponent to make a mistake. And this is not how champions play.

WTA Insider: Do you believe that the big titles nowadays go to the big-hitters?
Cibulkova: Yes, of course I believe that. I mean Aga Radwanska she’s a defensive player and she also won WTA Finals, but I see it this way: if a big-hitting girl is playing her best tennis, no one can do anything. You see me playing great yesterday and I didn’t let Angie into the match.

WTA Insider: What prompted you to hire a mental coach?
Cibulkova: My coach. He convince me. He said, ‘You know, Dominika, it’s not only about how many hours you spend on the court but for you the most important thing is how many hours you spend thinking about tennis off the court,’ Because I always thought that I was working more than 100% on the court, and then it’s over for me. But he told me that I needed my head to be there and to be strong. It wasn’t easy convincing me, because sometimes I can be stubborn, but after a while I really started to believe in it and now it’s a part of me and I can’t imagine to play tennis without this thing.

WTA Insider: Do you talk to you mental coach just about what’s going through your mind during those tight moments?
Cibulkova: Yes, exactly, and for me the most important thing is to hold my emotions together, because I’m really emotional on the court. So when I get angry or miss something, I cannot live in the past. This is the biggest change. I handle these situations now. Even this week, you could see against Halep, I survived so many tight moments. I think in the past I couldn’t handle a match like this, even yesterday after the two match points I missed…

WTA Insider: You smiled after you missed those first three match points…
Cibulkova: This is something we also tried to work on. I was so frustrated; this was like my worst moment on the court, I couldn’t describe how bad I felt on the court in that moment when I missed the forehand. This isn’t happening! I didn’t miss a forehand like that in the whole match. But I knew I had to hold it together, I had to forget, leave it in the past and think about what I had to do next.

WTA Insider: I assume the thing you want to do next is to relax. You’re going on vacation next. So you’re going to just chill out?
Cibulkova: You can ask my husband. I’m the laziest person in the world. Really, I just can do nothing. I have my book and I’m just lying there in the shade saying, ‘This is good, this is good!’ I think because I spend so much time working that when I’m off, it’s nothing.