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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

INDIAN WELLS, CA, USA – Venus Williams’ second trip to the BNP Paribas Open since 2001 is quickly bearing fruit as the Australian Open runner-up rolled past former World No.5 Lucie Safarova, 6-4, 6-2.

“I really, really, really, really want to do well here!” she exclaimed during her on-court interview. “I’m from California, and I love the hardcourts. This is an opportunity for me to shine at home, so I’m going for it.”

“I felt really pretty good off the ground,” she added in her post-match press conference. “This court is tricky as the ball stops, so a lot of the times you’re not hitting the ball where you think you’re going to hit it. So it definitely takes adjustments.

“I don’t know if there’s enough time to adjust, anyway. You just kind of like deal with it. So it’s an interesting court. You know, I felt like I was being able to string points together, which of course puts pressure on my opponents if I’m not making as many errors.”

The American was on the brink of defeat in her opening round match against fellow former No.1 Jelena Jankovic, having had to recover from match point down to defeat the Serb in three sets.

“I can hit the ball, and I can hit it well. If anything, I feel like I’m getting better. So as long as I’m improving, I want to be here. On the day that I’m not improving and this is a realization, then that’s when you know you have to walk away. So not there yet.”

But there were far fewer problems against Safarova, who’d knocked out Australian Open semifinalist CoCo Vandeweghe in her previous match.

What was working for Venus today?

“Forehand, backhand, serve, return,” she joked. “I respect my opponent so much; it’s never easy to play a lefty because you feel the ball coming from all different directions. You feel unbalanced, but my focus was so laser that it felt good to compete in these conditions.”

In all, Venus struck 15 winners to just nine unforced errors, while Safarova hit 20 winners of her own and 27 unforced errors. More aggessive off the return, the five-time Wimbledon winner broke serve four times and one all eight points at net.

“It won’t be easy. It won’t be easy,” she repeated when asked about whether she could win the tournament. “But I would like to try. What else can I do except try? And it hasn’t really been the easiest draw, either. I’ve played some opponents who know how to play tennis. And just because your ranking says this, doesn’t mean that you do not know how to win a match.

“And I’ve had history against these opponents, so not the easiest draw so it was good to come through that.”

Up next will be resurgent qualifier Peng Shuai, who stunned No.6 seed Agnieszka Radwanska, 6-4, 6-4.

“Every day is a grind. I’m just out there trying to make a difference on the court and in my life and others’ lives where I can.”

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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

INDIAN WELLS, CA, USA – No.9 seed Madison Keys needed just 57 minutes to knock out Naomi Osaka in straight sets and book her spot into the fourth round of the BNP Paribas Open, 6-1, 6-4.

“I’m just happy to be out here, happy to have another win, happy to get to play tomorrow,” Keys said in her post-match press conference.

“I definitely had really low expectations [before the tournament]. I was, like, if I get a set, I’ll be happy. And to win? It’s always tough to come back and everyone is in the middle of their season.”

With her first match back on tour after a two-month injury layoff done and dusted against Mariana Duque-Mariño in the last round, Keys brought her best tennis against the Japanese teenager and took the opening set in just 19 minutes.

Billed as a battle between big hitters, Osaka was unable to impose her game on Keys the way she did in the pair’s rollercoaster encounter at the 2016 US Open. Keys bossed the rallies from the start, relying on her booming serve to keep Osaka on the back foot and letting her powerful groundstrokes do the damage.

“I felt really bad out there,” Osaka admitted in her post-match press conference. “I just wanted to play a good match, you know, because I don’t think that many people expected him to win except for myself. I wanted to show people a good match, but I’m upset because I played terrible.

“I think she overwhelmed me with how she played and that made me change how I played. I think I just doubted myself a lot.”

Keys continued her momentum in the second, grabbing a crucial break early on as Osaka’s game finally started to come together. But the Japanese player was never able to turn the tide despite bringing up four break points against Keys. The American held firm, sealing the contest with an ace and closing out the match in less than an hour for her place in the fourth round.

Up next for Keys is a matchup with Caroline Wozniacki. The 2011 champion dispatched Katerina Siniakova in straight sets 6-3, 6-1.

“I’m pleased with the performance, it was nice to get out of there very quickly and be out of the sun,” Wozniacki told press after the match.

“Obviously tomorrow is going to be another tough one, Madison is playing well. I’m excited to get another match.”

Keys trails Wozniacki 0-1 in the pair’s head-to-head record after falling to the Dane in straight sets at last year’s US Open round of 16.

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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

INDIAN WELLS, CA, USA – No.28 seed Kristina Mladenovic kept up her blistering form in the California desert, willing through a late wobble against No.4 seed and 2015 champion Simona Halep, 6-3, 6-3 to reach the round of 16 at the BNP Paribas Open.

“We always had very tough battles,” she said in her post-match press conference. “I was actually up in our head to head, 2-1. That’s not very often against a Top 5 player!”

“I think that match was a big win for me, physically. I was there solid and hanging in there and putting sometimes balls back and being brave. I perfectly played the game plan I had. Solid at times, make her play balls and making her take some risk at the time. Sometimes when I had the shorter one, like, stepping in it, playing my heavy shots with the forehand, and I think that worked pretty well today.”

Mladenovic came to Indian Wells after a breakthrough month that saw her capture her maiden WTA title at the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy and reach another final at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel – not to mention earning a win over Karolina Pliskova at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in between.

Halep, by contrast, had sat out most of the month to tend to a left knee injury, and though she showed signs of her best, the Romanian proved too rusty against the surging French star, who advanced through in one hour and 42 minutes to earn her second Top 5 win in two months.

“Based on how much I was able to practice before this event, I’m happy to have made the third round,” a wry Halep said after the match. “She’s playing well and has confidence, but I missed a lot. After the first set, my legs were gone. My tennis legs aren’t back yet, so I need to work a lot. But I’m ok; I don’t want to make a drama.

“I was very sore after the first match, and couldn’t walk too much. Yesterday was ok; I practiced for an hour. But the heat was killing me because I wasn’t used to being out there that long yet. I had a headache, my feet were burning and my muscles were gone.”

The toughest moment came toward match’s end as Mladenovic served for it having just earned a set and double break lead. Throwing in two double faults on her first two match points, Mladenovic engineered a third only for Halep to save it and break back, converting her third of 22 opportunities in the match.

It only prolonged the inevitable, however, and the reigning French Open women’s doubles champion broke for a sixth and final time to earn a career-best result at the BNP Paribas Open.

Standing between her and a spot in the last eight is a similarly surging force in the women’s game, as American Lauren Davis continued her impressive run of form with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Julia Goerges.

Davis began the season with the win at the ASB Classic, and has already amassed 16 wins in main draw and qualifying matches. Mladenovic won their only prior meeting at the 2013 French Open.

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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

INDIAN WELLS, CA, USA – No.3 seed Karolina Pliskova showed signs of improvement after her tough opening round win, easing past No.29 seed Irina-Camelia Begu, 6-4, 7-6(2) to reach the fourth round at the BNP Paribas Open for a third straight year.

“There were some ups and downs,” she said after the match. “I had 13 break points or however many in the first set, which took an hour, so it was quite difficult. I was feeling comfortable on serve, even though my first serve wasn’t great. I was up 3-1 in the second and took a little bit of a timeout and played a terrible few games.

“She improved and started swinging more aggressively. I was getting pushed back but I still believed, and started stepping into the court at the end. It could have been a third set there.”

Pliskova flirted with defeat against Monica Puig on Friday, falling behind a set and trailing 0-3 in the decider, but faced far fewer problems against Begu, who’d won their only previous encounter back in 2011.

“There’s some pressure for everyone; what I’ve experienced is that there’s a little more pressure on me now that I’m such a high seed. Everyone is expecting good tennis and good results from high seeds, so it’s always surprising if you lose first or second round. That’s been different.”

Far improved from those early days on tour, the US Open runner-up struck 21 winners over the course of two sets and maintained a +3 differential for the match – hitting just four unforced errors in the first set alone.

“During the year, there’s two tournaments where I feel like I’m really playing well. The rest, I feel more in the middle, where I’m not playing bad, but I can still win matches not playing great. One match will be bad, the next will be better, so I’m trying to find a balance where I’m playing solid. This match was definitely better than the last round, but I still can play better.”

Begu enjoyed a career-best season in 2016, getting up to World No.22 after reaching the second week of the French Open and winning her third career title in Florianopolis. The Romanian got out to a 5-3 lead in the second, and later held a pair of set points on her serve to force a deciding set.

Unwilling to go the distance for a second straight match, Pliskova dug in her heels to level the set and dominate the eunsuing tie-break, booking her spot in the round of 16 after little more than two hours on the court.

“Mentally, I was up at that point; I knew she had it in her head that she’d had two set points. I just wanted to play more aggressively because so was she; the first one stepping into the court won the point, so it ended up going my way.”

Up next for the Czech powerhouse is No.15 seed Timea Bacsinszky, who won a topsy-turvy three-setter against No.18 seed Kiki Bertens, saving four match points after missing out on three of her own to win the affair, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6(8).

“That’ll be another tough one. I beat her in Fed Cup but I’ve lost to her before. She had a tough match today, but there’ll be a day off, and I think she’ll be ready. She always plays well here, has a good game for this surface with the spin on her forehand. I’ll have to be ready for the backhand.

“I don’t want to be in the position where she’s dictating, so I’ll have to play faster. There’s a few players like this, and I have to be ready for them with my legs, closing the ball at the net, and being aggressive.”

The normally gregarious Swiss veteran was speechless when first asked how she came out victorious.

“Next question,” she joked to WTA Insider. “Is there a hospital nearby? To be more serious, when you’re at 6-6 in the third after a rollercoaster match, you know it can go either way. There’s no right tactics, things to do, thinking you have to hit aces or take more risks. It’s all about feeling what’s coming, when, how, trying to gauge what your opponent is thinking.

“We have a lot of time to think 25 seconds in between points, not to mention the decisions we make in seconds between shots!”

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