Brisbane: Suárez Navarro Interview
An interview with Carla Suárez Navarro after her first round win at the Brisbane International.
An interview with Carla Suárez Navarro after her first round win at the Brisbane International.
Venus Williams had Sunday’s shot of the day at the Bank of the West Classic.
Daria Kasatkina came back from a set down against the tricky Laura Siegemund to move into the first WTA singles final of her career at the Volvo Car Open.
SHENZHEN, China – World No.5 Agnieszka Radwanska registered an expected win, in unexpected circumstances, to get her 2016 campaign up and running at the Shenzhen Open.
Heavy rain forced the tournament organizers to move the majority of Tuesday’s order of play indoors, although the change of venue failed to distract Radwanska, who needed little over an hour to outfox Krunic, 6-4, 6-3, in her first match since lifting the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.
“Of course we all saw the weather and knew it would be difficult,” Radwanska said. “There was not much time to wait and I was prepared for that. Of course I came here to play outdoors, but we both had the same conditions and I’m happy I played my match today.”
With memories of Singapore fresh in her memory, Radwanska did not take long to knock off any rustiness, saving three break points in the second set to keep another of the game’s more cerebral competitors at arm’s length.
“I feel like I played my last match in Singapore a week ago! It’s always tough to come back to the match rhythm, but actually I was feeling really good and didn’t have any problems doing what I wanted to do on court and for the first match I played good tennis so I’m happy with that,” she added.
“I think the first matches are always the worst and the toughest. Every tournament has different conditions, especially here – I’ve never played indoors at a tournament that was outdoors. It’s a little bit of a new experience but everything went well so that’s the most important thing.”
In the second round the Pole will face wildcard Zhang Shuai, a 6-3, 6-3 winner earlier on over Irina Khromacheva. Elsewhere, there were mixed fortunes for three of Radwanska’s fellow seeds, Petra Kvitova, Eugenie Bouchard and Johanna Konta.
No.6 seed Bouchard put her difficult 2015 season behind her with a determined performance against Donna Vekic, overcoming a mid-match blip to come through, 6-4, 1-6, 7-5.
Unlike Bouchard, Konta, the No.5 seed, arrived in China with plenty of momentum after a brilliant second half to the previous campaign. However, in her first seeded outing at a WTA event, she slipped to a surprise defeat to Wang Qiang, going down to the World No.110, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
In the final match, Kvitova’s Australian Open preparations suffered a setback when she was forced to retire midway through her match against Zheng Saisai with a gastrointestinal illness. Zheng, who took the first set 6-2, will now meet Anett Kontaveit for a place in the quarterfinals.
An interview with Petra Kvitova after her win in the first round of the Rogers Cup.
Petra Kvitova and Alison Riske tried their hand at traditional Chinese calligraphy before the Shenzhen Open kicked off – how did their scripts turn out? Find out here.
An interview with Garbiñe Muguruza before her opening round match at the Rogers Cup.
BIEL/BIENNE, Switzerland – Kristyna Pliskova continued her steady climb up the rankings as she scored the first big upset of the Ladies Open Biel Bienne, knocking out No.4 seed Roberta Vinci, 6-4, 6-4 to advance into the second round.
“I’m happy I’m back indoors, because my serve works even better here than outside,” she said after the match. “I think this match was pretty solid from my side; I faced just one break point, which is kind of good. She’s not in her best form, so that helped me get it done in two sets.”
Pliskova recovered from a set down to defeat Vinci at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships just two months ago, but was far more decisive on Monday, striking 10 aces and getting a crucial break in each set to seal the win in one hour and 13 minutes.
What. A. Shot.@KrisPliskova gets the early break in the second set! #WTABiel pic.twitter.com/zhMPSGtdTS
— WTA (@WTA) April 10, 2017
“I learned a lot from our match in Dubai, and even more from the time before I’d played her and I’d lost like 6-1, 6-1 five years ago. I knew her slice is brilliant. She proved that again, but I learned a lot from both matches.”
Up next for Pliskova is either Donna Vekic or Sorana Cirstea; with her quick serve and fearsome groundstrokes, the unseeded Czech youngster will certainly be one to watch in the indoor courts of Biel/Bienne this week.
Delicate touch from @KrisPliskova! ? #WTABiel pic.twitter.com/J2IoOloHya
— WTA (@WTA) April 10, 2017
“The court is kind of different from others, but so far I like it.”
Earlier in the day, Elise Mertens caused another upset by defeating No.8 seed Monica Niculescu, 6-2, 6-2. The first winner in the tournament’s history was Germany’s Mona Barthel, who ousted Jana Cepelova, 6-3, 6-4.
Sunday was a complete rain-out at the Shenzhen Open, but WTA stars like Agnieszka Radwanska were still bringing smiles to the faces of the fans. See how they did it here.
Barbora Strycova has Monday’s shot of the day at the Rogers Cup.