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Muguruza Masters Hibino At Olympics

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – French Open champion Garbiñe Muguruza continued to play incredible tennis in her debut at the Olympic tennis event, defeating Nao Hibino, 6-1, 6-1, to reach the third round.

Playing her first tournament since Wimbledon might have put pressure on the No.3 seed, Muguruza has dropped a combined six games in her first two matches, wrapping up her win over Hibino in just under an hour.

Hibino had kicked off her Olympic campaign by knocking out Irina-Camelia Begu, but had no answers for Muguruza’s mix of pace and precision, dropping serve five times in the straight set decision.

Up next for Muguruza is Monica Puig, who upset No.14 seed and Wimbledon quarterfinalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 6-3, 6-2.

More to come…

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Gavrilova's Excellent Olympic Adventure

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

Daria Gavrilova played her first Olympic tennis event this week in Rio, and took fans along for the ride with the help of some lively commentary on Twitter.

Despite a bumpy start to her Olympic journey, Gavrilova took on the Rio experience with gusto, participating in the Opening Ceremonies alongside Team Australia and taking in as many sports as she could after playing World No.1 Serena Williams tough over two sets.

Check out some of the best tweets from the Aussie’s Olympic Summer Games right here on wtatennis.com:

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Hingis & Bacsinszky Going For Gold

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

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.

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Notes & Netcords: August 15, 2016

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

THE WINNERS

Monica Puig made Olympic history for Puerto Rico on Saturday night, becoming the island’s first ever gold medalist after a rollercoaster win over World No.2 Angelique Kerber, 6-4, 4-6, 6-1.

Puig has been the surprise of the Olympic tennis event, playing the best tennis of her career to reach the gold medal match and dealing out upsets to the likes of French Open champion Garbiñe Muguruza and two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova along the way.

She now stands as the first athlete – male or female – to bring home a gold medal to Puerto Rico, ending a 68-year drought dating back to the island’s first appearance at an Olympic Games.

“This is for Puerto Rico. This is definitely for them,” Puig said. “They’re going through some tough times right now, and they needed this. I needed this.

“I think I united a nation. I just love where I come from.”

Read the full match recap | WTA Insider Live Blog: Game-by-game analysis

Four years after pairing up for the first time ahead of the Olympic tennis event in London, No.7 seeds Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina strike gold in Rio, taking out No.5 seeds and World Co-No.1 Martina Hingis and countrywoman Timea Bacsinszky, 6-4, 6-4.

“It’s incredible,” Vesnina said after the match. “Ever since I was a little girl, I was watching the Olympic Games, and it was such a dream just to come here and get a medal for Russia, for my country and in front of my dad. We’ve been through so much, and yet we were so good today.

“We stuck together and we believed til the end that we could win. It’s just incredible, I still can’t believe that we won the gold. It’s the best moment in my career, I swear!”

Makarova and Vesnina came to Rio having just won their first title of the season at the Rogers Cup, but not before enduring a nightmarish travel itinery that nearly left them late for the Opening Ceremonies. Once there, the Russian duo took care of business in efficient style, running through five wins without dropping a set over the opposition.

Read the full match recap here.

In a thrilling encounter between two tough American teams, Bethanie Mattek-Sands partnered Jack Sock to take out four-time gold medalist Venus Williams and Rajeev Ram, 6-7(3), 6-1, 10-7 and win gold in mixed doubles of the Olympic tennis event.

“I’m still pretty emotional,” Mattek-Sands said after the match. “I think, going into this final, we knew the American national anthem was going to be played either way, but I was actually kind of surprised I was so emotional. It’s my first Olympics, first time being up on the podium. It’s hard to describe it in words, but I’m so excited having this guy next to me, we played awesome. It was a lot of fun this whole week.”

Read the full match recap here.

RANKING MOVERS
There were no WTA ranking points awarded at the Olympic tennis event for the week of August 15, 2016.

Click here to view the current rankings.

UPCOMING TOURNAMENTS

Western & Southern Open
Cincinnati, USA
Premier | $2,503,250 | Hard, Outdoor
Monday, August 15 – Sunday, August 21

Connecticut Open
New Haven, USA
Premier | $695,900 | Hard, Outdoor
Sunday, August 21 – Saturday, August 27

US Open
New York, USA
Grand Slam | $ TBA | Hard, Outdoor
Monday, August 29 – Sunday, September 11

TOP 20 PLAYER SCHEDULES
1. Serena Williams – Cincinnati, US Open
2. Angelique Kerber – Cincinnati, US Open
3. Garbiñe Muguruza – Cincinnati, US Open
4. Simona Halep – Cincinnati, US Open
5. Agnieszka Radwanska – Cincinnati, US Open
6. Venus Williams – US Open
7. Victoria Azarenka
8. Roberta Vinci – Cincinnati, New Haven, US Open
9. Madison Keys – New Haven, US Open
10. Svetlana Kuznetsova – Cincinnati, New Haven, US Open
11. Dominika Cibulkova – Cincinnati, New Haven, US Open
12. Carla Suárez Navarro – Cincinnati, US Open
13. Johanna Konta – Cincinnati, New Haven, US Open
14. Petra Kvitova – New Haven, US Open
15. Timea Bacsinszky – Cincinnati, New Haven, US Open
16. Samantha Stosur – Cincinnati, US Open
17. Karolina Pliskova – Cincinnati, New Haven, US Open
18. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova – Cincinnati, New Haven, US Open
19. Elina Svitolina – Cincinnati, New Haven, US Open
20. Barbora Strycova – Cincinnati, New Haven, US Open

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
Best wishes to those celebrating birthdays this week:

Chan Yung-Jan (TPE) – August 17, 1989
Johanna Larsson (SWE) – August 17, 1988

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US Open Wildcards Announced

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

NEW YORK, NY, USA – With the year’s final Grand Slam event just a few weeks away, the USTA announced today the recipients of main draw and qualifying wildcards for the US Open, which begins on August 29.

Among the recipients for main draw wildcards are two-time NCAA singles champion Danielle Collins, 2016 USTA Girls’ 18s National Champion Kayla Day, young American Lauren Davis, USTA Pro Circuit US Open Wild Card challenge winner Sofia Kenin, former Top 50 player Vania King, and Rio’s mixed doubles Olympic gold medalist Bethanie Mattek-Sands, as well as France’s Virginie Razzano.

As part of a reciprocal agreement with the USTA, Tennis Australia will award one additional main draw wild card to a player who will be announced at a later date.

In addition to the eight US Open women’s singles main draw wild cards, the USTA also announced the eight women who have been awarded wild card entries into the US Open Qualifying Tournament, which will be held August 23-26 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

One additional US Open qualifying wild card will be awarded to the winner of the 2015 US Open National Playoffs – Women’s Championship, taking place August 19-22 in New Haven, Connecticut.

Here’s the full list of wildcards announced so far:

Main Draw
Kayla Day (USA)
Lauren Davis (USA)
Sofia Kenin (USA)
Vania King (USA)
Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)
Virginie Razzano (FRA)

Qualifying
Amanda Anisimova (USA)
Francesca Di Lorenzo (USA)
Nicole Frenkel (USA)
Ellie Halbauer (USA)
Jamie Loeb (USA)
Raveena Kingsley (USA)
Melanie Oudin (USA)
Laura Robson (GBR)

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Strycova On Pairing With Sania Mirza

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

CINCINNATI, OH, USA – When Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza announced the end of their illustrious partnership last week, all eyes were on the partners that the World Co-No.1s had chosen to play with at the US Open, which they won together last summer.

Hingis announced her intention to play with American powerhouse CoCo Vandeweghe, while Mirza opted to partner Czech veteran Barbora Strycova, who just claimed an Olympic Bronze medal in women’s doubles alongside Lucie Safarova; the pair upset three-time champions Venus Williams and Serena Williams in the first round.

“Sania asked me in Rio if I had someone to play with,” Strycova told WTA Insider in Tuesday’s Daily Dispatch from the Western & Southern Open. “Normally, I’m supposed to play with Misa, Michaella Krajicek, but she was playing singles in US Open qualies, so we weren’t sure if we were going to play together.

“So I was kind of free, and I had to give it a shot because she’s No.1 in the world and she asked me. I was really happy about that. We’ll try to play here and the US Open, and we’ll see how it goes. Maybe we’ll play together more after that.”

Strycova and Krajicek narrowly missed out on qualifying for the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global last year, reaching the semifinals of the Australian Open and the quarterfinals of Roland Garros. A Top 40 doubles player who has been ranked as high as No.14 back in 2011, Strycova plays doubles nearly every week in addition to singles, but has never partnered Mirza before.

They’ve faced off in the format eight times with different partners, and Mirza leads 5-3, her most recent win coming with Hingis against Strycova and Krajicek en route to last year’s US Open title.

“We’ve talked to each other a lot. She’s a funny girl and I think we’ll be good on court. She plays the kind of tennis I like; she goes for it and I will be at the net. I think we’ll be a good team.”

Strycova and Mirza are seeded No.7 in Cincinnati, and will play a tough team in Darija Jurak and Anastasia Rodionova in the first round; Jurak and Rodionova won their first title as a pair back at the Aegon International in Eastbourne and reached a second final at the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford.

Hear more from Strycova and compatriot Karolina Pliskova in the latest episode of the WTA Insider Podcast:

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