Tennis News

TOKYO, Japan – No.2 seeded Sania Mirza and Barbora Strycova took home their second doubles title of the year, handily defeating the unseeded Chinese duo of Liang Chen and Yang Zhaoxuan 6-1, 6-1, in the final of the Toray Pan Pacific Open.

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“We were playing great from the beginning to the end,” Strycova said in their post-match press conference. “We actually didn’t make any errors in the first set and we felt great on the court. I think it was one of the best matches we played together.”

Mirza and Strycova, who first teamed up in Cincinnati and won their first title at the Western & Southern Open, overcame a tough draw which saw them face off against home favorites Misaki Doi and Kurumi Nara in the first round. After edging past the Japanese duo 6-7(3), 7-5, 10-8, Mirza and Strycova cruised against Kato Miyu and Xu Yifan before battling past Gabriela Dabrowski and María José Martínez Sánchez to reach the final.

Liang and Yang faced a tougher road to the Tokyo final, needing to battle past two seeded teams – the No.1 seeded Chan Hao-Ching and Chan-Yung-Jan in the first round, then the No.3 seeds Raquel Atawo and Abigail Spears before booking a clash against the No.2 seeded Mirza and Strycova.

“It’s great to play your best tennis in the final, we were happy to do that,” Mirza said. “We played very solid, and we kept our concentration the whole match. Like [Barbora] said, it was one of the best matches that we played.”

The victory puts Mirza and Strycova one step closer to a potential spot in the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global. Entering Tokyo the duo sat at No.19 on the Road to Singapore Leaderboard, trailing the Top 8 by about 500 points. With 470 points now in the bag, the team received a major boost in their standings.

Tokyo ✅ ??
Smiles ✅
Title #2 for team ✅
Title #40 ✅?? @BaraStrycova https://t.co/9xo3Trl8Ey

— Sania Mirza (@MirzaSania) September 24, 2016

Naomi Osaka reached the first WTA final of her career Saturday in Tokyo at the Toray Pan Pacific Open thanks to an improved performance in longer rallies later in her 1-6 6-3 6-2 win over Elina Svitolina.

Svitolina surrendered just one game in the opening set of the Toray PPO Tennis semifinal, breaking Osaka twice. SAP Coaches View shows that Osaka won 36% of 3-6 shot rallies, and just 33% of rallies longer than 6 shots in that first set.

In the decisive third set, Osaka did significantly better on those longer rallies. She won 52% of the medium rallies, lasting 3-6 shots.

Osaka showed even more improvement on the longest rallies, winning 71% of the points lasting longer than 6 shots. That’s a vast improvement over her 33% in the first set.

The powerful Osaka also did well on the shortest points of the match, firing seven aces. She has hit a tournament-best 25 aces this week.

The SAP Coaches View combines scoring information direct from the chair umpire with tracking data from HawkEye to allow for an in depth look at five different aspects of a match. Each tracking option can be filtered to narrow the focus to specific situations within a match, such as break points. This information is available directly to coaches in real-time during a match on their SAP tablet and also available to them online after matches.

“Rally hit to” tracking shows where each shot during a rally lands on the opponent’s side of the court. The display, which also shows rally length, differentiates between forehands and backhands. This data can be filtered by a particular score or to only show winners, unforced errors, service returns, the last shot of a rally or the third shot (first rally ball hit by the server).

These tools show that Osaka’s improvement on longer rallies was key to her advancing for a WTA final for the first time.

Serena Williams announced today that due to a continuing shoulder injury she will not compete in the upcoming Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open and the China Open in Beijing.

“I am disappointed that I will not be able to compete at the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open or the China Open due to continuing issues with my right shoulder,” Williams said in a statement. “I have been practicing and playing but my shoulder is still not fit for tournament play.”

“I wish the tournaments great success and I’m sure the fans will enjoy some great tennis. I am focused on getting ready to compete at the WTA Finals in Singapore.”

Williams recently told CNN’s Ravi Ubha, “I’m tired of playing tournaments unhealthy and taking losses that I would never lose.”

Williams has played eight tournaments this year, the fewest she has played in a season since returning from injury in 2011. She has won two titles (Rome and Wimbledon) and finished as runner-up three times – Australian Open (lost to Angelique Kerber in final), Indian Wells (lost to Victoria Azarenka in final) and Roland Garros (lost to Garbiñe Muguruza in final).

Her coach Patrick Mouratoglu stated in an interview with CNN, “It’s a bad season for her. She has been a lot injured. For Serena any other result that is not a title is a bad result. The final at a Grand Slam is a bad result for her. We cannot be satisfied with one Grand Slam Serena Out Of Wuhan, Beijing – Targets Singapore Return and two finals lost.”

As Williams seeks time to recover from her injury, she will look to return to action in Singapore for the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global, an event she has competed in nine times and won five titles.