“It’s a tournament everyone wants to play, but it’s all about the medal,” says two-time Wimbledon winner and 2012 Olympian Petra Kvitova.
What are her fellow players looking forward to most ahead of the Olympic tennis event in Rio de Janeiro? Watch the video above to find out!
The Winners:
Svetlana Kuznetsova had to pull double duty to win the Premier-level Apia International Sydney. She scored her biggest win in six and a half years against Simona Halep in a rain-delayed semifinal, then turned right around to play a near-flawless final against Puerto Rican qualifier Monica Puig. Kuznetsova needed just 55 minutes to win 6-0, 6-2 and pick up her 16th WTA title.
“It’s great. I mean, honestly, I didn’t expect this, but I’ve also never gone into a tournament thinking about winning, never even once,” Kuznetsova said after the match. “I just went out there and performed, and everything went my way. Now I just want to keep focused for the Australian Open.”
The full story – here.
Alizé Cornet dropped only three games in the final of the Hobart International against a resurgent Eugenie Bouchard to win her first title in nearly two years, 6-1, 6-2.
“I was very focused for the whole tournament and the whole match today, and now I can let go!” Cornet told press after the match. “To start the year this way, it’s the best.”
The full story – here.
Game, Set Match: WTA Insider
Game: Svetlana Kuznetsova roars into the Australian Open.
The Russian has been vocal about the current depth of the women’s game. Earlier in her career she could count on easy early rounds at tournaments, which suited her style. “I’m not scared of anybody,” she said at the Sydney International. “I just need matches under my belt.” But with the depth of the current game, Kuznetsova says it’s far more difficult to play yourself into form.
So it bodes well for the two-time major champion that she got better and better during her title run in Sydney, which culminated in a 6-0, 6-2 win over Monica Puig. Mercurial and unpredictable, it’s hard to know if Kuznetsova will be able to carry her momentum into the Australian Open. But having been drawn into the Serena Williams/Maria Sharapova quarter, Kuznetsova has the quality to play the spoiler.
Set: How Patrick Mouratoglou helped Alizé Cornet get back on track.
Cornet dropped just one set en route to the Hobart International title. In this week’s Champion’s Corner, Cornet talked about the elusive nature of confidence, and how a post-US Open chat with Mouratoglou turned things around.
The full story – here.
Match: The many faces of Victoria Azarenka
Expect to see a lot of Azarenka this year. She’s already shown signs of a strong uptick in her level of play, but Azarenka is already writing a regular column for Sports Illustrated and directed a video. As Azarenka told me in Brisbane: “You’ll be learning a lot more about me this year.”
The full story – here.
Ranking Movers:
Notable singles ranking movers for the week of January 18, 2015..
Monica Puig (PUR), +42 (No.94 to 52): Puig reached the first Premier final of her career in Sydney and made the biggest ranking jump of anyone in the Top 100, improving 42 spots to reach No.52.
Eugenie Bouchard (CAN), +10, (No.47 to 37): Bouchard’s consistent results continued at the Hobart International, where she reached her first final since 2014.
Alizé Cornet (FRA), +9 (No.42 to 33): Cornet won her first title since 2014 at the Hobart International, an International-level event, and improved her ranking to No.33.
Kiki Bertens (NED), +8 (No.103 to 95): Bertens went from the qualifiers all the way to the Hobart International quarterfinals and broke into the Top 100 this week.
Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS), +5 (No.25 to 20): The two-time Grand Slam champion captured the Premier-level title at the Apia International Sydney and as a result she is back into the Top 20.
Upcoming Tournaments:
Australian Open
Melbourne, Australia
Grand Slam | $14,835,728 | Hard, Outdoors
Monday, January 18 – Sunday, January 31, 2016
Top 20 Player Schedules:
1. Serena Williams – Australian Open
2. Simona Halep – Australian Open
3. Garbiñe Muguruza – Australian Open
4. Agnieszka Radwanska – Australian Open
5. Maria Sharapova – Australian Open
6. Angelique Kerber – Australian Open
7. Petra Kvitova – Australian Open
8. Flavia Pennetta – (retired)
9. Lucie Safarova – (not competing – viral illness)
10. Venus Williams – Australian Open, Kaohsiung
11. Carla Suárez Navarro – Australian Open
12. Karolina Pliskova – Australian Open
13. Belinda Bencic – Australian Open, St Petersburg
14. Timea Bacsinszky – Australian Open
15. Roberta Vinci – Australian Open, St Petersburg
16. Victoria Azarenka – Australian Open
17. Madison Keys – Australian Open
18. Caroline Wozniacki – Australian Open
19. Sara Errani – Australian Open
20. Svetlana Kuznetsova – Australian Open
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
Best wishes to those celebrating birthdays this week:
Angelique Kerber (GER) – January 18, 1988
Anastasiya Vasylyeva (UKR) – January 18, 1992
Petra Martic (CRO) – January 19, 1991
Petra Rampre (SLO) – January 20, 1980
Polona Hercog (SLO) – January 20, 1991
Monique Adamczak (AUS) – January 21, 1983
Shuai Zhang (CHN) – January 21, 1989
Veronica Cepede Royg (PAR) – January 21, 1992
Laura Robson (GBR) – January 21, 1994
Alizé Cornet (FRA) – January 22, 1990
What other Olympic sport would Eugenie Bouchard, Johanna Konta, Agnieszka Radwanska and more compete in? Find out right here on wtatennis.com.
Top seed Serena Williams won her first match since last year’s US Open with a hard-fought win against the always-dangerous Camila Giorgi.
Which sports are the WTA stars most eager to watch at the Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro? Johanna Konta, Petra Kvitova, Eugenie Bouchard, and Angelique Kerber weigh in.
MELBOURNE, Australia – World No.133 Zhang Shuai played the best tennis of her career to dismantle No.2 seed Simona Halep on Margaret Court Arena, 6-4, 6-3, in 78 minutes.
The Chinese veteran first came to prominence in 2009 when she became the lowest ranked player to defeat a reigning World No.1 – Dinara Safina at the China Open – but the 26-year-old had never won a Grand Slam match in 14 previous attempts.
Against Halep, Zhang displayed stunning form from the outset, hitting 31 winners and racing out to a 4-0 lead in the opening set before breaking serve in the 10th game to take the early lead.
Though the Romanian appeared to right the ship early in the second, Zhang weathered the storm and remained aggressive to win the last five games of the match to reach the second round.
“Thank you to everyone for supporting me,” a speechless Zhang said in her on-court interview.
“I think today is the best moment.”
For the former French Open finalist, the loss marked another abrupt end to an Australian Open campaign, having lost in back-to-back quarterfinals in straight sets. It is also her earliest exit from a hardcourt major tournament since the 2013 Australian Open, where she also lost in the first round.
Zhang will next play Hobart International champion Alizé Cornet; the Frenchwoman has dropped just six games in her last three matches – including a 6-1, 6-2 win over Eugenie Bouchard in the final of Hobart – and was equally ruthless to open her Australian Open against Bojana Jovanovski, winning, 6-1, 6-0.
MELBOURNE, Australia – Playing in the Australian Open under the local flag for the first time, Daria Gavrilova pulled off the upset of the night, shocking the No.6 seeded Petra Kvitova 6-4, 6-4 on Margaret Court Arena.
Gavrilova – who scored wins last year over Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic and Lucie Safarova and was voted WTA’s Most Impressive Newcomer – wasn’t intimidated by the two-time Wimbledon champion across the net. And with the yellow-clad Aussie crowd firmly behind her, the 21-year-old was relentless.
“It was unreal,” a smiling Gavrilova said to the crowd after the win. “I was so nervous in the end… you probably could tell!”
In the second set, Gavrilova surged to a 5-2 lead and actually had a match point at 5-3 on her serve, but her nerves got the best of her and she sent a backhand into the net.
When the match point came again at 5-4, Gavrilova used a different tactic.
“In that last game I told myself, ‘You’re actually down 5-3 and you’re trying to stay in the match,'” Gavrilova said. “And obviously that helped.”
Kvitova did her best to tamp down her surging opponent and silence the raucous Aussie crowd, but her unforced errors got the best of her. The Czech’s reliable groundstrokes and serve became vulnerable: she hit 35 errors to 17 winners and seven double faults, including one when she was serving to stay in the match.
Gavrilova, who began competing for Australia in 2015, was feeling the Aussie spirit even down to her fingernails, which were painted royal blue and featured Australian flag designs.
“You guys are crazy!” she laughed, thanking the crowd who had been cheering and chanting for her all match long. “But obviously good crazy – you helped me a lot. It was unreal, I’m just really proud.”
Gavrilova now stands alone as the single Australian woman left in the draw – Ajla Tomljanovic, Samantha Stosur, Storm Sanders, Priscilla Hon, Maddison Inglis, Kimberly Birrell, Jarmila Wolfe and Tammi Patterson were all defeated in the first round.
With the win, Gavrilova improves to a 4-10 record against Top 10 players and is into the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time. She’s set to play the No.28 seed Kristina Mladenovic in what will be the pair’s first meeting.
Top 20 players’ schedules, upcoming tournaments, birthdays and more – check out what’s on tap for this week as the WTA’s top players descend on Indian Wells.
Angelique Kerber is guaranteed a return to WTA World No.1 when the new rankings are released by virtue of Serena Williams’ withdrawal from the BNP Paribas Open and Miami Open.
Kerber and Williams entered the tournament facing a battle for World No.1, with the American needing to reach at least the semifinals to hold on to the top spot. But the race to the top took another twist as Williams announced her withdrawal on Tuesday before the start of play at Indian Wells:
“Sadly, I have to withdraw from the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells and the Miami Open,” Williams said in a statement. “I have not been able to train due to my knees and am disappointed I cannot be there. I will keep moving forward and continue to be positive. I look forward to being back as soon as I can.”
As a result, Kerber is projected to return to World No.1 when the new WTA rankings are released on Monday, March 20 after Indian Wells and will hold on to the spot through at least April 2, which will take her career total to 22 weeks at No.1.
She will surpass Kim Clijsters (20 weeks), Tracy Austin (21 weeks) and Maria Sharapova (21 weeks) in terms of all-time weeks atop the rankings.
The German first rose to the World No.1 ranking on September 12, 2016 after winning her second Grand Slam at the US Open. Kerber became the second German woman to reach the milestone since the computer rankings were introduced in 1975, and the first since Stefanie Graf. The then-28-year-old also became the oldest player to make her debut at No.1, a record previously held by Jennifer Capriati, who was 25 years, 200 days when she reached No.1 in October 2001.
Kerber held the spot for 20 consecutive weeks until Williams reclaimed the ranking following her historic 23rd major victory at the Australian Open in January.
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – Timea Bacsinszky and Martina Hingis staged a stunning comeback on Friday night to defeat Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka and keep alive their dream of an Olympic gold medal.
Four years ago in London, Hlavackova and Hradecka won silver and they looked on course for a return to the final when took the first set and surged ahead in the second. However, their Swiss opponents hung doggedly onto their coattails, escaping from a dramatic second set to complete a 5-7, 7-6(3), 6-2 victory.
The turning point came with Hradecka serving at 5-4 in the second set. Having already saved one match point, Hingis fended off another with a ferocious volley that struck Hlavackova in the eye from point-blank range.
Despite a lengthy injury timeout, it was a blow from which Hlavackova and Hradecka were unable to recover. The Czechs lost the first two points on the resumption to drop serve and while they did manage to force a tie-break, it was one that never looked like going their way.
Bacsinszky and Hingis compounded this misery in the decider, rattling off four straight games to complete the comeback.
Heading into Rio, an Olympic medal was one of the few prizes missing from Hingis’ resume. Her hopes of winning one were dealt a double blow by the withdrawal or first Roger Federer and then Belinda Bencic. Bacsinszky, though, has deputized ably and on Saturday the first-time partnership will meet Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina for gold.
Makarova and Vesnina were quarterfinalists in London and have picked up a couple of Grand Slam titles since then. Against Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova they needed to draw on all this experience to overcome a slow start and edge through, 7-6(7), 6-4.
Dreams are coming true for @EVesnina001 who's guaranteed an Olympic medal after reaching the women's doubles final pic.twitter.com/iQtGsEjjWm
— ITF Olympic Tennis (@OlympicsTennis) 12 August 2016