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Vote: Breakthrough Of The Month

Vote: Breakthrough Of The Month

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

WTA January BPOTM

January was defined by five breakthrough players who brought some impressive performances to the first month of 2016. Which one soared the highest?

Have a look at the nominees for January’s Breakthrough Performance of the Month and cast your vote before Thursday at 11:59pm ET! The winner will be announced Friday, February 8.

January 2016 WTA Breakthrough Performance of the Month Finalists:

Daria Kasatkina: Building on the momentum she’d started at the end of last season – reaching the third round of the US Open as a lucky loser and the semifinals of the Kremlin Cup as a qualifier – 18-year-old Daria Kasatkina began 2016 with a bang by defeating Venus Williams in three sets at the ASB Classic. A former junior French Open champion, the Russian came to Melbourne full of confidence and promptly upset No.27 seed Anna Karolina Schmiedlova in the first round. Backing up that win over fellow junior prodigy Ana Konjuh, Kasatkina’s run ended at the hands of World No.1 Serena Williams in the third round.

Johanna Konta: Konta’s breakthrough also involved a win over the elder of the Williams sisters; unseeded at the Australian Open, Konta took out the No.8 seed in two decisive sets en route to her first Grand Slam semifinal, where she lost to eventual champion Angelique Kerber. During her historic two weeks in Melbourne – where she became the first Brit to reach the final four Down Under since Sue Barker in 1977 – Konta outlastes 2015 Australian Open semifinalist Ekaterina Makarova in the fourth round, capturing an 8-6 final set just to reach her first career major quarterfinal, and went one step better when she ended the fairytale run of Zhang Shuai.

Zhang Shuai: Zhang came into the Australian Open without ever having won a Grand Slam main draw match in 14 previous attempts. She earned her first victory in emphatic style, however, when she blasted past No.2 seed Simona Halep in straight sets. The qualifier backed up her win with efficient wins over Hobart champion Alizé Cornet and Varvara Lepchenko – and survived a tricky fourth round with No.15 seed and 2015 semifinalist Madison Keys – before she ran out of gas on her eighth match of the tournament (three in qualifying, five in main draw) against Konta. Zhang’s run nonetheless guaranteed she would be the new Chinese No.1, a prestigious mantle with Li Na having recently retired and the 2016 Olympic Games on the horizon.

Samantha Crawford: The powerful young American has long struggled with injuries and inconsistencies since winning the 2012 US Open girl’s singles title, but had an impressive week at the Apia International Sydney. Unseeded in qualifying, she took out 2014 champion Tsvetana Pironkova to reach the main draw and hit through Belinda Bencic and Andrea Petkovic to reach the semifinals, where she lost to eventual champion Victoria Azarenka. With textbook technique and effortless power, Crawford is within spitting distance of the Top 100 thanks to her run in Sydney, and should be one to watch as her ranking continues to increase.

Daria Gavrilova: Hometown favorite Daria Gavrilova rode a wave of support into her first-ever Grand Slam second week at the Australian Open. Dismissing No.6 seed Petra Kvitova in the second round, the Russian-born Aussie won a classic third round encounter against Kristina Mladenovic and bageled Carla Suárez Navarro in her next match before falling in three. Gavrilova is another former junior champion, winning the US Open title in 2010, but a torn ACL stunted her progress and kept her off the tour for nearly all of 2014. Last year, she won the 2015 WTA Rising Star of the Year Award and is set to reach a career-high ranking of No.33 following her run Down Under.

How it works:

Finalists are selected by wtatennis.com
Winner is then determined by a fan vote on wtatennis.com

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BJK Headlines NFL In The Huddle

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

Billie Jean King was an honored guest at the National Football League’s Women’s Summit ahead of Super Bowl 50.

The Summit, entitled, “In the Huddle to Advance Women in Sport” comes just one day after King’s own initative through her Women’s Sports Foundation, the National Girls and Women in Sports Day; both aim to recognize and encourage young women to succeed in sports and all aspects of life.

King was joined by former Secretary of State and keynote speaker Condoleezza Rice, former LPGA superstar Annika Sorenstam, and All-American softballer Jessica Mendoza.

Learn more about the Summit here, and check out some of the best tweets from the event:

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Mattek-Sands’ Golden Phoenix Homecoming

Mattek-Sands’ Golden Phoenix Homecoming

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

PHOENIX, AZ, USA – Mixed doubles gold medalist Bethanie Mattek-Sands received a hero’s welcome when she touched down in her hometown of Phoenix. Last week she took home the gold along with partner Jack Sock after beating out Venus Williams and Rajeev Ram in an all-American final, 6-7(3), 6-1, 10-7 at the Olympic tennis event in Rio.

The American was received by family and friends – including her husband, Justin Sands – at the airport. Local news crews were on hand to capture the welcome party as Mattek-Sands showed off the prized hardware.

“Winning that match point — what a feeling,” Mattek-Sands told Phoenix’s 12 News. “It’s really not comparable to a feeling I’ve ever experienced.”

“You’re just up there thinking about everything you did that got you to that point, and I get emotional now,” she said. “I want to do it again. I want to be a part of Tokyo 2020.”

Bethanie Mattek-Sands

The welcome party didn’t stop at the airport, though, as Mattek-Sands is set to throw out the ceremonial first pitch before the Arizona Diamondbacks vs New York Mets baseball game at Chase Field later today.

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Insider Podcast: Czeching Into Cincy

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

CINCINNATI, OH, USA – The quicker conditions at the Western & Southern Open tripped up a few of the returning Olympians arriving from Rio de Janeiro, but women’s doubles Bronze medalist Barbora Strycova had no such problems, overcoming a maddening number of rain delays – and a most dangerous qualifier in former World No.5 Eugenie Bouchard – to advance into the second round in straight sets.

Karolina Pliskova missed the Olympic tennis event, opting to spend the time gearing up for the final stretch of the season, one that had been particularly successful for her in 2015 when she won the Emirates Airlines US Open Series.

WTA Insider caught up with both Czech starlets in the second Daily Dispatch from Cincinnati:

Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn or on any podcast app of your choice to ensure you never miss an episode when they go live. Reviews are always helpful, so if you like what you’ve heard so far, leave us one. You can also get new episode alerts by following us on Twitter @WTA_Insider.

Follow @WTA_Insider

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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

SYDNEY, Australia – British No.1 Johanna Konta put on a masterclass in the final of the Apia International Sydney to defeat Agnieszka Radwanska and capture her second career WTA title in straight sets.

Despite hitting a meager nine unforced errors, Radwanska had no answer against Konta’s aggressively controlled power tennis, falling 6-4, 6-2 after just over an hour and twenty minutes.

“She was just playing unbelievable tennis from the beginning till the end,” Radwanska said to press after the match. “And normally you’re thinking that she can’t play like this whole match and it’s gonna be even game or two that, you know, you can go forward because she’s gonna have some worse couple of games. But she didn’t.

“She was just playing [the] whole match so aggressive with pretty much everything in, and I couldn’t do much.”

Spurred on by a partisan crowd – “it’s a bit like playing Fed Cup,” Konta commented to her coach Wim Fissette at one on-court coaching break – the Sydney-born Brit stayed calm against the World No.3, who she had never defeated in their previous encounters.

Keeping Radwanska under pressure with her relentless space and rhythm, Konta grabbed the lone break in the opening set but she had her opponent on the ropes throughout. Radwanska saved another break point that would have given the Brit a double-break lead, but couldn’t take back the deficit as Konta charged ahead.

Konta kept it rolling in the second set, quickly building up a double break to lead 4-0. Though Radwanska managed to grab a couple of games back, Konta imposed herself on every point and never allowed her opponent any time to get back into the match.

The Brit sealed the victory with an ace – her seventh of the match – to take home her second career WTA title.

“I’m just overall happy with how I was able to progress throughout this tournament,” Konta told press after the win. “I felt each match that I was playing I was thinking a little more clearly and getting that much more match-tight, as the saying is.

“But overall, very happy with the match I played today. I really felt I definitely maintained a high level throughout and I made it very difficult for her to do much today. Going into any match against Aga – I played her twice before – I knew it had to be nothing short of what it was today if I was to have a chance of coming through.”

Guaranteed to move up to World No.9, Konta’s victory will give her plenty of confidence for the upcoming Australian Open, having not dropped a set all tournament long. She’s set to open against Kirsten Flipkens next week in Melbourne.

“Obviously how I have done here, I take it as a really positive thing, as a nice reward along the way for the hard work that myself and my team have put in every day,” Konta said.

“But it’s not a reflection of how next week will go, how the rest of the year will go. It’s back to everyday hard work, because that’s what dictates how I do.”

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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

Svetlana Kuznetsova ended 2016 at such a breakneck pace that it was hard for the Russian to slow down in the off-season.

“I just didn’t want to totally switch off, so that’s why I kept going, trying to do something,” she told WTA Insider before the Brisbane International. “Even in the Maldives, when I was with my parents, I still had some sessions, running or whatever it is.

“The body of an athlete has to be moving all the time. No stopping. One week, maybe a few days, you can let yourself go, but you feel better when you’re moving.”

The former World No.2 was almost unstoppable last fall, moving from a must-win week in Moscow to a long-awaited return to the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global in seven years. Kuznetsova kicked off the new season with a 600th match win, ranking her fifth among active players.

“My physio told me it’s only a couple more until I get to 1000, and I was like ‘What?’ But I started to think about 600, and how sometimes you get confused in matches when you’re playing, thinking ‘How do I do this?’ But then I think, ‘In 600 matches, you haven’t learned how to win?'”

There’s clearly been a lot more winning of late, as the two-time Grand Slam champion returned to the Top 10 after being as low as No.85 four years ago.

“I would love to take some of the consistency into this season. In the last few years, I haven’t been so good; I was always there, but couldn’t quite flip the switch. I would love to stay with the switch on, because it’s the key for me.”

Part of the key to that consistency has been maintaining a simplistic approach to each match, focusing on one point at a time.

“The most difficult things in life are often the most simple ones. Even when you start to play tennis, what do they tell you? Look at the ball. It’s the main thing in the whole life of a player. Some players forget to look at the ball, and you don’t think about it. Any player, even the No.1 – I don’t know, maybe, I’ve never been there, but No.2 for sure.

“Sometimes when you keep losing, and you’re thinking, ‘Damn, it’s so hard; how do I get there? It’s impossible.’ Then something goes on and you start winning and you think how it’s so simple. It’s the theory of life, what happens to everyone; when you’re on top, it looks simple. It’s not really like that, but when you’re there, that’s how it looks. When you’re not, it seems so much more complicated.

“I feel that I’m playing as well as the best in the world, and I have a chance to beat them and be ranked among them everywhere I go. It’s a great feeling because I worked really hard to be there; it’s a pleasure.”

With that pleasure comes increased expectation; Kuznetsova opens against Mariana Duque Mariño on Monday, and is seeded to reach her first Grand Slam quarterfinal since the 2014 French Open, but the more things change, the more they stay the same for the 31-year-old veteran.

“People see me differently now because I’m a Top 10 player again. They don’t see you like a Top 10 player when you don’t have that same confidence. Players will only see you by the ranking, and ranking reflects everything. You can’t cheat the ranking, that’s for sure!

“All players want to beat me and I definitely don’t have this easy life where I’ve never been at the top and top players don’t expect anything good. Of course, everyone expects good tennis from me and that can be hard to deal with. But I feel confident, I feel happy and healthy. Those are the main things and I love the game; I enjoy it.

“If I feel like this, I’m ready to go for it and one day I’ll make it.”

With no immediate goals, Kuznetsova does hope to one day surpass the quarterfinals, her best finish in Melbourne. She led by a set in two of those three prior appearances in the last eight, falling to Maria Sharapova in 2005 and Serena Williams in 2009.

“I love the event, the crowd, and Australia. The people are very nice; they love beer a lot! I tell my friends I’m in Australia and they tell me what a dream it is for them to travel here.

“I’m already living someone else’s dream, but I would still love to see more places in Australia.”

That dream already came true this year with a debut appearance in Brisbane; might the No.8 seed make another dream come true Down Under?

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Serena Unleashes Inner Superhero

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

21-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams has hardly taken a vacation after making a run to her seventh Australian Open final. Following a three-set defeat to Angelique Kerber, Williams joined Billie Jean King and Condoleezza Rice at last weekend’s NFL Women’s Summit.

Speaking with Robin Roberts, the American spoke of the pressure of being one of the top female athletes in the world, but ultimate how she hoped to use her influence to impact the greater good.

“I don’t play tennis for recognition; being recognized is not important,” she said. “What matters is how I can help people.”

True to her word, Williams is helping people in a big way this week, flying down to Jamaica to help build the Salt Marsh Primary School. With the aid of Helping Hands Jamaica and her own foundation, the World No.1got her hands dirty along with volunteers, proving that “with great power indeed comes great responsibility” – to borrow a Spiderman reference Williams herself used in her conversation with Roberts.

Enjoyable work. Serena Williams Fund's 3rd school- this time we partnered with Helping Hands Jamaica to build the Salt Marsh Primary School #swf #education

Posted by Serena Williams on Monday, February 8, 2016

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