Kuznetsova Meets The Locals In Miami Beach
Svetlana Kuznetsova took a dip into South Florida with a trip to Miami Beach, making new friends and challenging her team to feats of strength. Check out the video here!
Svetlana Kuznetsova took a dip into South Florida with a trip to Miami Beach, making new friends and challenging her team to feats of strength. Check out the video here!
Chris Oddo | World No.1 Angelique Kerber will lead a quartet of Top 10 players into action on Sunday in Miami. We preview the must-see matchups right here at wtatennis.com.
Agnieszka Radwanska took on Mirjana Lucic-Baroni at the Miami Open.
WTA Insider David Kane | Ajla Tomljanovic’s Miami Open quest may have come to an end, but the resurgent youngster won’t be deterred by on-court setbacks after over a year away from tennis.
Highlights from Caroline Wozniacki’s clash with Sorana Cirstea at the Miami Open.
Elina Svitolina paid a visit to Miami’s colorful and artsy Wynwood Walls for a photo shoot during the Miami Open – check it out here!
MIAMI, FL, USA – Mirjana Lucic-Baroni put together a near-perfect performance to upset the No.5 seed Agnieszka Radwanska in the third round of the Miami Open.
She needed just over an hour to complete the comprehensive, 6-0, 6-3 victory and book a fourth-round battle with American wildcard Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
“It was a great match today, she’s obviously a top player and has been for many years,” Lucic-Baroni told WTA Insider after the match. “I know what I had to do when I walked into the court. It’s always a matter of executing the plan, and I was able to do that great today.
“Today, I did a flawless job, a really beautiful performance. I’m proud of myself.”
INCREDIBLE!
Lucic-Baroni wraps up the bagel on Radwanska in under 20 minutes! #MiamiOpen pic.twitter.com/m5Ulcmhvfw
— WTA (@WTA) March 25, 2017
Radwanska came into the matchup with the Croat with a 2-1 lead in the pair’s overall head-to-head record, but she hadn’t won a set against her in almost a year. And in their most recent match, Lucic-Baroni sent Radwanska crashing out of the Australian Open in the second round on her way to a dream run to the semifinals.
Lucic-Baroni kept the trend going in Miami, taking less than 20 minutes to drop a bagel on Radwanska and snatch away the opening set. The Pole had little answers for Lucic-Baroni’s barrage of winners; Radwanska finished the match with five winners and just a single unforced error, but Lucic-Baroni fired 38 winners past her and made only five unforced errors.
Mirjana Lucic-Baroni does it! Again!
Knocks out 2012 champ Radwanska 6-0, 6-3! #MiamiOpen pic.twitter.com/RPl0QQtZSo
— WTA (@WTA) March 25, 2017
In the second set, Lucic-Baroni came away with the edge after weathering seven breaks of serve. She notched two vital holds of serve, keeping the vulnerable Radwanska serve under pressure throughout the match, ensuring that the Pole didn’t hold serve once during the encounter.
“She was playing unbelievable tennis today,” Radwanska told WTA Insider. “She was very solid from the beginning, very aggressive, hitting everything with unbelievable speed. I couldn’t do much.
“The first set went so quickly, and in the second set I had chances, but I didn’t come back and unfortunately I missed the chance to stay in the match. She was just too good today.”
Madison Keys had Friday’s shot of the day on Day 4 of the Miami Open.
MIAMI, FL, USA – The Miami Open doubles tournament kicked into high gear on Saturday as two of the Top 4 seeds took the court to begin their respective campaigns. Before the storm clouds rolled in for the third straight day, No.2 seeds Ekaterina Makarova & Elena Vesnina and No.4 seeds Andrea Hlavackova & Peng Shuai both advanced into the second round, each in straight sets.
The two teams last met in the finals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, which the Russians won in a tense match tie-break, and could potentially meet in the semifinals of Miami.
Hlavackova and Peng have nonetheless enjoyed a strong start to 2017, reaching the finals of the Australian Open and briefly leading the pack at the top of the Road to Singapore leaderboard.
“The doubles game is improving a lot,” Hlavackova told WTA Insider. “A lot of singles players are playing doubles, and most of the top teams are made up of singles players, so it’s very tough competition. We are very happy to start the season so well; I think it’s pretty special to start the team so well as a new team. We just want to keep going.”
Up against a young team in Naomi Osaka and Monica Puig, the duo edged through a close opening set to roll through, 7-6(6), 6-1, and book a second round clash with Shuko Aoyama and Yang Zhaoxuan.
“They started very strong in the first set. They served really fast and played a very fast baseline game. It was very important to not panic and keep playing and find out time and moment. We got the tie-break and started from there, even better.”
Osaka and Puig each produced exciting results in singles last year, but have yet to hit the same heights on the doubles court.
“They’re young; when they get to our age, they’ll have experience!” joked Peng.
“I think they’re a great team. They play strong and fast. In the first set, we were almost lucky to get the tie-break, but in the second set, we got a break quickly, so the feeling was different.”
Earlier in the day, Makarova and Vesnina each shrugged off tough singles losses on Friday to power through their first doubles match in Miami, ousting Oksana Kalashnikova and Asia Muhammad, 6-0, 6-2.
“We both had crazy singles matches yesterday,” Vesnina said. “I texted her after the match, because I knew she was crying and she was tired. I told her, ‘Katya, don’t even put yourself down. We have a tough sport, but it’s not the end of the world. Cry for another five, ten minutes, and just pack your stuff, go back to the hotel, get sleep, and tomorrow we’ll kick some asses on the court!’
“We needed to regroup and forget our tough losses because it’s tough. You can have a black line in your life, white line in your life, and there can be moments where there are more black lines than white, but you still need to find the positivity though the negative. Sometimes, what doesn’t kill you makes you strong.”
The dynamic duo are set to celebrate their fifth anniversary of doubles at the Mutua Madrid Open, but may leave Crandon Park with an unexpected present; should they win the tournament, they will rise to Co-World No.1 – as long as Bethanie Mattek-Sands falls before the semifinals and Kristina Mladenovic fails to reach the final.
“Before you told me, I didn’t even know! We’ll take it match by match. Katya and I always do that; we’ll just focus on our doubles. We lost our singles, so we’ll try our best to do good in doubles because this is a big tournament.
“Miami is very prestigious and it’s a huge event; we’ve been in the final twice. This year we’ll try to go all the way.”
Up next for the Olympic Gold medalists and reigning BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global champions is the unseeded and dangeous pairing of Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Kveta Peschke.
All photos courtesy of Getty Images.