Tennis News

LONDON, England – Serena Williams has resumed her relentless march towards tennis history this fortnight at Wimbledon. As she closes in on a 22nd Grand Slam crown, here are some noteworthy numbers on the WTA’s indomitable World No.1.

(updated after her semifinal win at Wimbledon)

Serena & Grand Slams
~ Serena has the second-most Grand Slam singles titles in the Open Era with 21 (Graf 22)
~ Serena has the third-most Grand Slam singles titles all-time with 21 (Court 24, Graf 22)
~ Serena has the second-most Grand Slam match wins in Open Era with 303 (Navratilova 306)
~ Serena is trying to win her seventh Wimbledon title (won it in 2002, 2003, 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2015); a seventh title would tie her with Steffi Graf and Dorothea Lambert Chambers on the all-time leaderboard
~ This is Serena’s 22nd time being the No.1 seed at a Grand Slam (she’s won 11 of the first 21)
~ Serena is 21-6 in Grand Slam final matches (her six defeats came against Venus Williams (2001 US Open, 2008 Wimbledon), Maria Sharapova (2004 Wimbledon), Samantha Stosur (2011 US Open), Angelique Kerber (2016 Australian Open) and Garbiñe Muguruza (2016 Roland Garros))

Serena & Finals
~ Serena is 21-6 in Grand Slam singles finals, the second-best winning percentage Open Era (Court was 11-1)
~ Serena won eight straight Grand Slam singles finals between 2012 Wimbledon and 2015 Wimbledon; losses on each side were 2011 US Open (l. Stosur) and 2016 Australian Open (l. Kerber)
~ Serena has won 31 of her last 36 finals (only losses: Azarenka at 2013 Doha, 2013 Cincinnati, 2016 Indian Wells, Kerber at 2016 Australian Open and Muguruza at 2016 Roland Garros)

Serena & Age-Related Stats
~ Serena is the oldest woman to win a major in the Open Era (33y & 285d at 2015 Wimbledon)
~ Serena is the oldest No.1 in WTA history (set record when returned to No.1 on February 18, 2013)
~ Serena has the longest winning span between majors of any woman Open Era at 15 years and 10 months between 1999 US Open and 2015 Wimbledon (Evert, Navratilova and Graf had 12-year spans)
~ Serena has won eight majors since turning 30, the most after 30 by far in the Open Era (Court and Navratilova three each, King and Evert two each and Jones, Wade, Li and Pennetta one each)

Miscellaneous
~ Serena will spend her 176th & 177th straight weeks at No.1 during the Wimbledon fortnight (second-longest streak at No.1 in WTA history after Graf’s 186)
~ Serena is spending her 299th & 300th career weeks at No.1 during the Wimbledon fortnight (second-most weeks at No.1 in WTA history after Graf’s 377)
~ Serena has the most career prize money in WTA history ($77.6M – next-most is Sharapova’s $36.8M)
~ Serena has the fifth-most WTA titles in Open Era with 70 (after Navratilova, Evert, Graf, Court)

Before & After Patrick Mouratoglou
Serena joined forces with Patrick Mouratoglou after falling first round at the 2012 French Open, and the dynamic duo’s numbers speak for themselves – here’s a comparison of before and after Mouratoglou:

Pre-Patrick Mouratoglou
win-loss: 523-107 (.830)
WTA titles: 41
Grand Slam titles: 13 out of 47 (.277)
vs Top 10: 111-59 (.653)

Post-Patrick Mouratoglou
win-loss: 244-20 (.924)
WTA titles: 29
Grand Slam titles: 8 out of 16 (.500)
vs Top 10: 56-7 (.889)

Since Regaining World No.1
Since returning to the top spot on the WTA Rankings on February 18, 2013, Serena’s been fantastic:
win-loss: 201-17
WTA titles: 23 of 33
Grand Slam titles: 6 of 13
vs Top 10: 41-5 (.891)

LONDON, Great Britain – In a rematch of the riveting Australian Open final, can Serena Williams lock up her 22nd major title over her Melbourne conqueror, Angelique Kerber?

The top seed has suffered three straight Grand Slam disappointments, but seems to have gotten her swagger back since her second round struggle against American Christina McHale, and played some of her best tennis of the fortnight to dismiss Elena Vesnina in the semifinals.

Kerber is looking for her second major of the season, and surely has fond memories of her Australian Open triumph over the six-time Wimbledon winner. The German hasn’t dropped a set through her first six matches, playing clutch tennis against No.5 seed Simona Halep and five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams in ehr last two matches.

Stay tuned for Saturday’s Wimbledon final Live Blog, which promises to-the-minute commentary an insight, courtesy of WTA Insider’s Courtney Nguyen:

Angelique Kerber (+2, No.4 to No.2): The German reached her second Grand Slam final of the season, knocking out five-time champion and former No.1 Venus Williams before battling through a two-set defeat to World No.1 Serena Williams. Kerber is back to the career-high ranking she first earned in February upon claiming her maiden major title at the Australian Open.

Venus Williams (+1, No.8 to No.7): Williams moves more comfortably into the Top 8 after making her first major semifinal since the 2010 US Open. Back up to her highest ranking since early 2011, Venus fought through five tough matches to finish in the final fall before falling to Kerber in straight sets.

Carla Suárez Navarro (+3, No.12 to No.9): Suárez Navarro returned to the Top 10 following her best career grass court season. Backing up a run to the semifinals of the Aegon Classic, the Spaniard reached the second week of Wimbledon for just the second time in her career, bowing out to Venus Williams despite having chances to serve out the opening set.

Svetlana Kuznetsova (+4, No.14 to No.10): The Russian veteran fulfilled her promise of returning to the Top 10 after having chances to do so earlier in the season. Kuznetsova is at her highest rank since the spring of 2010, just before her title defense of the French Open title she had won the year before. Kuznetsova played Serena Williams tough after knocking out former No.1 Caroline Wozniacki en route to the fourth round.

Dominika Cibulkova (+6, No.18 to No.12): Cibulkova’s march back toward the Top 10 continued at Wimbledon, where the Slovakian dynamo followed up her title run at the Aegon International with a run to the quarterfinals of the All England Club.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (+4, No.23 to No.19): Up to her highest ranking in over three years, Pavlyuchenkova played her best grass court tennis of her career to reach her first Wimbledon quarterfinal – upsetting Timea Bacsinszky and CoCo Vandeweghe along the way.

Elena Vesnina (+26, No.50 to No.24): Ranked outside the Top 100 to start the season, Vesnina cut her ranking in half following her fortnight at Wimbledon, where she reached her first Grand Slam semifinal. After surviving a thrilling, rain-delayed encounter with doubles partner Ekaterina Makarova, she put on an emphatic display to dispatch Cibulkova in the quarterfinals.

The following women all reached career-high rankings; click here to see the full rankings updated as of 7/11/16!

New #WTA Career-High Rankings@KikiBertens – No.26 @DKasatkina – No.29 @MonicaAce93 – No.33
Misaki Doi – No.36 @MariaSakkari – No.97

— WTA (@WTA) July 11, 2016

WHITE PLAINS, NY, USA – The USTA announced a major prize money increase for the 2016 US Open. A $4 million boost brings the total purse for the tournament to a record $46.3 million, a 10-percent increase over the 2015 US Open prize money totals.

In all, the US Open will provide the richest purse in tennis history at this year’s event.

Both the men’s and women’s singles champions will earn $3.5 million, the largest payout in US Open history. The average increase per round for the singles competition is 10 percent above the 2015 US Open. Both the men’s and women’s doubles champion teams will earn $625,000, the highest in US Open history, and overall doubles prize money has been increased by 10.5 percent.. The US Open Qualifying Tournament will offer more than $1.9 million in prize money, a 10 percent increase over 2015.

This year’s US Open, scheduled for August 29 through September 11 – with the US Open Qualifying Tournament beginning on August 23 – will feature a number of major enhancements, including a retractable roof over Arthur Ashe Stadium, a new Grandstand Stadium, and a completely redesigned southern campus to ease accessibility and crowding throughout the site.

“We are proud that this year’s US Open will offer the richest purse in tennis history,” said USTA Chairman of the Board and President Katrina Adams. “We continue to invest in all aspects of this world-class event to provide the best services and experiences for the players, our fans, and all of the US Open partners.”

Round-by-round individual prize money for the US Open singles tournaments are as follows:

Singles:
Winner: $3,500,000
Runner-Up: $1,750,000
Semifinalist: $875,000
Quarterfinalist: $450,000
Round of 16: $235,000 
Round of 32: $140,000 
Round of 64: $77,200
Round of 128: $43,300

WTA CEO Steve Simon spoke at length about the importance of SAP’s analytic advancements on the company’s CEO Live Page.

“Running SAP HANA is definitely making it easier for fans to enjoy us,” said Simon. “It’s giving them the in-depth background information that they’re looking for. No longer is the fan just looking for pictures; they’re looking for the story behind the pictures, and SAP is helping us provide that.

“The goal of the WTA, which is currently the number one women’s professional sports league in the world, is not just to be the number one women’s sports league in the world, but to be competitive with all sports. Our partnership with SAP is going to allow us to build audience because of the stories that we’re able to tell, and thus be competitive in that marketplace.”

Click here to hear more from Simon in the full video as part of SAP’s Live Business Leaders series.

STANFORD, CA, USA – No.7 seed Alizé Cornet was taken to the brink in the first round of the Bank of the West Classic, but rallied from a set down to dispatch American Jennifer Brady, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, in two hours and 44 minutes.

Watch live action from Stanford this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!

“I always wanted to come here to Stanford, but somehow I was always ending up in Washington, maybe because it was closer!” Cornet joked with Andrew Krasny during her on-court interview. 

“But this time I really don’t regret it because I really love this place. It’s amazing, and a lot of champions have won the tournament, so I hope to go as far as I can.”

Playing her first match since reaching the third round of Wimbledon, Cornet fell behind 4-0 in the opening set and couldn’t quite catch up to Brady, who broke serve in a marathon game to put herself one set away from a first-ever WTA main draw win – though she reached the semifinals of a WTA 125K Series event in San Diego last fall.

“I just kept fighting. She was playing really well, big serve and forehand.

“I had some trouble in the beginning of the match; I was really tense and the ball was coming really fast against me. But I just kept trying to hang in there, and try to give my best every point.”

Only one break separated the two in the second set, which Cornet took in another dramatic game to level the match. Racing out to a 5-2 lead in the decider, Brady made one last surge to force the Frenchwoman to serve out her spot in the second round. Clinching the contest with a classic one-two punch, booked a second round meeting with Zheng Saisai, who was the first winner of the day over wildcard Maria Mateas, 7-5, 6-1.

“In the end it was really really close, and I went for it and it worked out, so I’m really happy to be in the second round.”

The night session features an all-Stanford battle between former All-American Nicole Gibbs and Carol Zhao, who helped the university win the 2016 NCAA Championships.

More to come…