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Ozaki Halts Stephens Title Defense

Ozaki Halts Stephens Title Defense

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

WASHINGTON DC, USA – No.136-ranked Risa Ozaki scored the biggest win of her career in the opening round of the Citi Open, knocking out defending champion Sloane Stephens 6-2, 6-1.

The 22 year old from Japan came into the matchup having won just two WTA-level matches all year long, but put all that disappointment behind her against the No.23-ranked American.

Despite being broken in the opening game, Ozaki turned up the intensity and rattled off the next nine games in a row to leave Stephens reeling, down a set and a break. The American held serve to get her name on the score board at 3-1, but it wasn’t enough to turn around Ozaki’s momentum as she swept the match in just 57 minutes.

“I just played real bad. Nothing more, nothing less,” Stephens assessed after the match. “Today just sucked, it was just one of those days where everything was really bad.”

“Obviously, I’m not the first person to have a bad day and I won’t be the last. Hopefully I can pull myself together and next week will be better than this week. I won’t look too deep into this.”

Ozaki’s win sets up a second-round clash with on-the-rise Brit Naomi Broady, who saw off Irina Falconi in straight sets earlier in the day, 6-3, 6-4.

Camila Giorgi

Giorgi Ousts No.5 Seed Bouchard

The unseeded Camila Giorgi snapped a four-match losing streak in her straight sets upset over No.5 seed Eugenie Bouchard in their Washington DC opener. Even more impressive, Giorgi recorded her first win against the Canadian; she previously hadn’t even won a set against Bouchard in either of their previous two encounters.

Bouchard initially struggled against the pace of the Italian’s high octane game, falling a break down in the opening set.

“My game is based on moving forward as soon as I can,” Giorgi said, speaking to Tennis Channel after the match. “Today it worked, I think, almost everything.”

Facing elimination at a set down and 5-2 in the second, Bouchard gritted out a pair of back to back games to cut into Giorgi’s lead, and even held game point on her serve at 5-4 to try to even the score. But the ultra-aggressive Giorgi saw off her challenge with her usual calm, quick game, climbing back from 15-40 to take the match 7-5, 6-4.

After the match, she immediately grabbed her cell phone to make a very special call.

“I called my dad, my coach,” Giorgi said. “He told me I played a good game, very aggressive. He was happy.”

Giorgi will go on to play Tamira Paszek in the next round. The Austrian No.108 took down American qualifier Lauren Albanese in a comfortable 6-3, 6-4 win.

More to come… 

– All photos courtesy of Citi Open and Getty Images

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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

DUBAI, UAE – 17-year-old Catherine Bellis earned the biggest win of her career over Agnieszka Radwanska, ousting the No.4 seed in three sets to reach the quarterfinals at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, 6-4, 2-6, 6-2.

“It’s one of the best feelings in my life, for sure,” Bellis enthused in her post-match press conference. “I’m really happy about the outcome tonight. I work so hard for it and I think my work is paying off.

“I’m definitely playing some of my best tennis right now.”

The American teenager is the youngest player in the Dubai draw – and the youngest member of the WTA Top 100. Bellis made a name for herself last season, backing up a run to the Bank of the West Classic quarterfinals with a third-round appearance at the US Open and a title at the Hawaii Open WTA 125K event.

A slow start to the 2017 season saw her miss the Australian swing with a hip injury and fall in qualifying at the Qatar Total Open, but the 17-year-old is back with a vengeance after her first Top 10 victory over Radwanska.

Bellis imposed her big-hitting game early on, leaving Radwanska with few answers to the American’s heavy pace. Her confidence only grew after shaking off an early Radwanska break opportunity, drawing the 2012 champion into making more unforced errors than her normally neat and tidy game would allow. Bellis grabbed the lone break a few games later for a 4-3 lead before taking the opening set.

But the teenager couldn’t keep up the high level as Radwanska changed tactics in the second set, coming up more frequently and taking time away from Bellis. She was rewarded with an early break, and four unforced errors in a row from the American gave Radwanska a 4-1 lead before going on to level the match with a second break of serve.

“I think in the second set she started playing a little bit better,” Bellis reflected. “I went off a little bit. I think I was going for a little bit too much.

“I just told myself stay calm and go back to my game and what I was doing in the first set.”

Bellis did just that and, after trading breaks with Radwanska at the start of the set, she reeled off the last four games in a row with a flurry of winners to clinch the biggest victory of her career after just under two hours.

“I have had kind of a dream couple of months since I have turned pro, but obviously it’s not always going to be always happy-go-lucky, but I have been really lucky so far,” Bellis said.

“I’m really just enjoying it more just thinking about how much fun I’m having and what an experience it’s been for me so far.”

With the victory, Bellis is projected to rise into the WTA Top 60, and can move into the Top 50 if she advances to the semifinals. She’ll take on the winner between Kateryna Bondarenko and Caroline Wozniacki for a spot in her career first WTA Premier-level semifinals.

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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

ACAPULCO, Mexico – No.2 seed Kristina Mladenovic made a winning start to her campaign at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel, racing past Varvara Lepchenko in straight sets.

Kicking off the opening day action on Cancha Central, the Frenchwoman needed just an hour an fifteen minutes to complete the 6-2, 6-3 victory.

“It felt great to play the first match on Central,” Mladenovic said after the victory. “I was actually really surprised at the schedule, you know, to open up the tournament on the center court.

“It was difficult for me, too, because I arrived just two days ago from Dubai. I’m still a bit jetlagged and it’s totally different conditions here, but I’m just very happy with the win.”

Mladenovic got off to a quick start against the No.91-ranked American, jumping ahead to a 3-0 lead in both sets. Mladenovic played aggressive, positive tennis to keep Lepchenko out of the rallies, hitting a serve out wide and following it up with a booming forehand. She closed out the set with a second break to the Lepchenko serve.

But the American stood her ground heading into the second, mixing up her game plan to play more aggressively and earn a break back and level the score at 3-3.

Mladenovic stayed positive, and peppered her game with dropshots to grab another break and serve out the match, sealing it with another ace out wide – her fifth ace of the match.

“I was trying to stay tough in my head, just trying to work for every single point, every game. I was just trying to go for it, and Varvara is a tough player as well. Very happy with this first win.”

Up next in the second round Mladenovic will face Heather Watson, who edged past American wildcard Bethanie Mattek-Sands, 7-5, 6-3.

Also through in Acapulco, No.8 Andrea Petkovic faced a tough battle against American qualifier Jamie Loeb, needing to come back from a set down in her 2-6, 6-1, 6-3 victory.

“I’ve been here for a week already so I’ve been practicing for a long time,” Petkovic said. “I don’t remember the last time I waited this long for a match. So at the beginning I was a bit tight, because also she had been through qualifying here”

“She was playing really fast, and I needed some time to get used to it. In the second and third set – after some rough patches – I think it was pretty good.”

Joining them in the second round will be Shelby Rogers, who moved past her American compatriot Louisa Chirico 6-2, 6-2, and Pauline Parmentier who survived a rollercoaster against Nicole Gibbs to advance 7-5, 6-7(6), 6-2.

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