Sarasota Sets: Frisky Couple Distracts Challenger Players
Sarasota Sets: Frisky Couple Distracts Challenger Players
Apr192017
World number two Serena Williams has appeared to announce on social media that she is pregnant.
The 35-year-old posted a picture of herself on Snapchat posing in a mirror with the message: “20 weeks” before deleting the post.
If confirmed, the American, who won a record 23rd Grand Slam in Australia this January, will miss most of the remaining tennis season.
This includes three Grand Slams – the French Open, Wimbledon and US Open.
Williams, who will return to world number one next week, would be eligible to retain her ranking under the WTA Special Ranking Rule if she is ready to play her first tournament within 12 months of giving birth.
US Open Tennis responded to Williams’ message by saying: “@serenawilliams will have a new pride & joy to hug and call her own soon! Congratulations on the exciting baby announcement!”
BBC tennis correspondent Russell Fuller:
The news – if confirmed – means Williams won her 23rd Grand Slam title at the Australian Open roughly eight weeks into her pregnancy.
The baby could be born during this year’s US Open, and we are therefore very unlikely to see Serena compete in another Grand Slam before the French Open of 2018. That event will take place four months before her 37th birthday – but do not write off a woman who will return to world number one on Monday.
Victoria Azarenka is a useful guide. Even though she is eight years younger, Azarenka gave birth to her first child in December, returned to serious training in March and is targeting the WTA event in Stanford at the end of July for her return to the WTA Tour.
Williams, who is engaged to the co-founder of community news and chat site Reddit, Alexis Ohanian, is top of the all-time list of major winners since Grand Slams accepted professional players in 1968.
She is second only to Australian Margaret Court on the list of Women’s all-time Grand Slam singles titles leaders.
She is also a five-time Tour finals winner, the last of which came in 2014, and was recently picked as the greatest female tennis player of the Open era by BBC Sport users.
Third seed and 2014 champion Stan Wawrinka will meet No. 16 seed Pablo Cuevas for a place in the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters quarter-finals after the Swiss beat Jiri Vesely on Wednesday 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 in 84 minutes for his 20th match win at the Monte-Carlo County Club.
Wawrinka opened up a 3-0 lead in the first set and despite losing his serve in the fifth game, he went on to clinch the 26-minute opener. The right-hander could not convert two break point opportunities in the second game of the second set and paid the price as Vesely broke to love for a 4-3 lead.
While Vesely, who beat Novak Djokovic in the second round last year, held on for the set, it was one-way traffic for Wawrinka in the decider. The match ended when Vesely hit his fourth double fault of the pair’s second meeting (2014 US Open).
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Elsewhere, sixth seed Dominic Thiem lost just four of his first service points (25/29) in a comprehensive 6-3, 6-2 victory over Robin Haase in 62 minutes for a third-round berth for the second straight year. Thiem goes on to face No. 10 seed David Goffin.
Pablo Carreno Busta, the No. 13 seed, who finished runner-up to Thiem in the Rio de Janeiro final earlier this year, will play second seed and 2013/15 champion Novak Djokovic after he knocked out #NextGenATP Russian Karen Khachanov 6-4, 6-4 in 88 minutes.
Andy Murray made a winning return to the ATP Tour after a month out with an elbow injury, beating Gilles Muller at the Monte Carlo Masters.
The Briton, 29, was broken in the first game of the match but soon asserted his class en route to a 7-5 7-5 win.
The world number one last played on the ATP Tour in Indian Wells on 12 March, though he contested an exhibition match against Roger Federer on 10 April.
The Scot, handed a first-round bye, meets Albert Ramos-Vinolas next.
Murray, the top seed in Monte Carlo, gave up three double faults in the first game, then hit long to gift Luxembourg’s Muller the break.
In his first match of the year on clay, Murray continued to labour on his serve but somehow limited the damage, saving break point in the next game then fending off a set point at 3-5.
Muller’s failure to capitalise on Murray’s rustiness was then brutally exposed by the Scot, who broke the world number 28 in back-to-back games to claim the opening set, before recovering from an early break in the second to wrap up victory in one hour 55 minutes.
“It was a tough first match,” Murray told Sky Sports. “I started slow and wasn’t serving well at the start.
“I only started serving properly four, five days ago, so I knew it was going to take time but I didn’t expect to start the match serving like like that.”
Third seed Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland is also into round three after beating Czech Jiri Vesely 6-2 4-6 6-2. Fifth seed Marin Cilic and sixth-seeded Dominic Thiem also progressed.
Also on Wednesday, fourth seed Rafael Nadal begins his bid for a 10th Monte Carlo title against British number three Kyle Edmund.
View FedEx ATP Head2Head for the following match-ups Wednesday at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters & vote for the players you think will win!
Nadal v Edmund | Murray v Muller | Wawrinka v Vesely | Berdych v Haas
View Wednesday schedule and check back later for preview notes
Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau have each won two ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles, including last year at the Mutua Madrid Open. As they return to clay this week at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, they share their Masters 1000 memories and reveal what makes this particular tournament so special.
Which is your favourite Masters 1000 tournament and why?
Tecau: There’s a lot of nice ones. I enjoy Monte-Carlo a lot, I enjoy Madrid, but Indian Wells is probably the prettiest, the best surroundings, the best everything, comfortable for the players, good weather. Very good overall.
Rojer: I enjoy Monte-Carlo. It’s the first big one on the clay, obviously beautiful place and great weather as well. I enjoy being there also because when I was little I was watching this tournament growing up and I felt if you played in Monte-Carlo, then you made it. That has a lot of memories for me.
What is your best Masters 1000 memory?
Tecau: Getting the first My Masters 1000: Jean-Julien Rojer & Horia Tecau is always memorable. Last year we had a great one in Madrid – we won it without losing a set. We were in great form. But the first title I got in Cincinnati in 2012 (with Robert Lindstedt), beating the Bryans in the semis and then Bopanna/Bhupathi in the final. That was my first big title after losing a few Grand Slam finals, so it’s the first memory that comes to mind.
Rojer: Miami probably comes to mind first because I moved there when I was 12 years old and I practised for so many years at the site where we play. To win there (with Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi in 2013) was everything come full circle. And then the final, I had all my family and friends there; it’s very close to Curacao. It was one of the better moments of my career.
What is your favourite off-court memory at a Masters 1000?
Rojer: I always enjoy the Monte-Carlo players’ [revue]. It’s quite a fun party. A lot of players participate in it, even though guys are like, ‘ah no, not this year,’ but then at the end everyone gets in the mood and does a few things. That’s one of the better activities at the Masters for sure.
Tecau: I enjoy that one a lot. It’s very special.
What is your dream match at a Masters 1000?
Rojer: Sorry, I’m going to have to trade you in for this one. I’d want to player with Roger [Federer]. That’s not so very thoughtful maybe, but I think he’s probably the best ever and it’d be so cool to play with him and have that experience. I’ll take any tournament. I’ll take any one of them with that guy.
Tecau: I would like to play with my idols growing up. I’d like to play with Pete Sampras against [Stefan] Edberg and Michael Stich. Those were my three idols I was following growing up. I never got a chance to hit a ball with them. I played with Roger, I played with Rafa [Nadal]. But these other guys I’ve never chance, so that would be a dream.
Have you watched a Masters 1000 match that made you say ‘Wow, that’s an amazing match’? Is there a particular one that stands out?
Tecau: Every day, man!
Rojer: Every day, but I remember [Guillermo] Coria-Nadal. They played the Rome final [in 2005]. I was very good friends with Coria and I watched him also at Monte-Carlo play classic matches, but that match against Rafa was one of the better matches of all time.
The Mediterranean shimmers at one end of the court. Sheer rock cliffs tower behind the elegant clubhouse at the other end. In the middle is a court of clay. Enter, Rafael Nadal.
Nadal is a staggering 58-4 at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters since 2003, winning nine titles and $5.5 million from just this one stop on tour.
Can he win it again in 2017? To know what’s coming in the future, it is best to connect the clay court dots from the past. An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of his successful 2016 campaign, when he dropped only two sets en route to his ninth Monte-Carlo title, identifies four key areas of dominance.
1. Break Points
Converting a break point against Nadal in Monte-Carlo is one of the toughest things to do in our sport. Period. Nadal saved 65 per cent (194/297) of his break points in the 2016 season, and that elevated to 72 per cent (34/47) in Monte-Carlo last year. The sea-level, clay-court conditions are tailor made for his high-bouncing, heavy-spin game.
The Spaniard defeated Dominic Thiem in the round of 16 here last year, saving a colossal 15 of 17 break points for the match. The key was making first serves in the important moments. There were 14 break points contested in the ad court. Nadal made 12 first serves. Three break points were played in the deuce court. Nadal made a first serve on two of them.
Overall, Thiem got a look at only three second serves out of 17 break points – and Nadal saved all three of them. These moments in time weigh heavily to the final outcome.
2. Returning
Nadal is far more lethal in Monte-Carlo returning a second serve than hitting one. Last year, when hitting his own second serve, he won only 49 per cent (53/108) of the points, but he won a mind-blowing 60 per cent (97/161) when returning his opponent’s second serves.
Nadal’s primary tactic is start well behind the baseline, let the second serve drop and crush a forehand return. He then looks to immediately improve his court position up around the baseline, where he finds superior geometry for his wicked spin.
Nadal converted a break point 56 per cent (14/25) of the time in Monte-Carlo last year receiving a second serve and 36.7 per cent (11/30) against a first serve.
3. Playing From In Front
Nadal is a nightmare to try and break when he gets a lead in his own service games.
2016 Monte-Carlo: Percentage Chance of Holding Serve
15/0 = 93.5% (29/31)
30/0 = 100% (19/19)
30/15 = 95.8% (23/24)
40/15 = 100% (20/20)
Nadal was extended to deuce only 16 times on serve in Monte-Carlo last year, losing just four of those service games. The pressure to hold is constant and adds another layer of strategic influence in the match for the Spaniard.
4. Time Is On His Side
During the 2016 season, Nadal averaged playing 47 minutes per set. That rose to 51 minutes in Monte-Carlo. Nadal uses time as a weapon on court, typically playing the match much more at his speed than that of his opponents. He certainly does not rush to the finish line.
All of the key ingredients from Nadal’s successful 2016 campaign will once again be on show this week. The game plan will be adjusted slightly for each opponent, but the road forward will still be dominated by these four key components.
