Singapore: Pliskova Interview
An interview with Karolina Pliskova after her round-robin defeat at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.
An interview with Karolina Pliskova after her round-robin defeat at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.
Dominika Cibulkova and Angelique Kerber will do battle in the WTA Finals final after overcoming Svetlana Kuznetsova and Agnieszka Radwanska respectively.
SINGAPORE – No.4 seeds Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina withstood a late fightback to defeat Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka and take their place in the semifinals of the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.
Watch interviews and highlights from Singapore on the WTA Facebook page!
A break in the penultimate game of the match allowed the Russians to close out a 6-2, 7-5 victory, setting up a showdown with defending champions, Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza.
Makarova and Vesnina have been one of the form teams in the second half of 2016, winning Olympic gold and reaching the US Open semifinals, and their confidence was apparent from the off, threatening an immediate break with some typically forceful net play. In the end, the breakthrough owed more to good fortune, Hlavackova getting her feet in a muddle after Vesnina scraped a return back.
They made the most of this stroke of luck, forging ahead before Makarova closed out the first set with an ace down the middle.
As always in doubles, watch out at the net! #WTAFinals pic.twitter.com/fIbQ6A3T8L
— WTA (@WTA) October 28, 2016
The second set proved o be far more competitive. But just as a tie-break loomed, the gold medalists struck, Makarova swatting the ball away after wrong-footing Hradecka with the initial volley. Serving for the match, Makarova made no mistake, swinging a serve out wide on match point before calmly finding the open court.
“It’s bouncing so low, so we need to stay down and in the second set we had some tough moments,” Makarova said in her on-court interview with Andrew Krasny. “In the end, I said to Lena, ‘Let’s stay as low as we can all the time!'”
Runners-up three years ago, they will next take on the defending champions, Hingis and Mirza. Despite the high stakes, Vesnina is not envisaging a change in approach: “We’re obviously having fun on and off the court. Even if someone has a bad moment, we’re trying to support and it gives us so much help knowing we have this support.”
Dominika Cibulkova takes on Simona Halep in the round-robin stage of the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.
SINGAPORE – Agnieszka Radwanska’s strong return of serve was key to her win over Karolina Pliskova 7-5 6-3 in the final round robin match of the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global. The victory earned Radwanska a spot in the event’s semifinals.
One of the best returners in the game, Radwanska was facing one of the best servers in the game in Friday’s match.
Through this season, Radwanska is among the Top 3 on the WTA for return points won (49%), return games won (49%) and break points converted (54%).
She was facing an opponent in Pliskova who led the WTA in aces (530) and was second for first serve points won (74%) in 2016.
The SAP Coaches View shows that it was Pliskova’s second serve that was vulnerable to Radwanska’s return, with the Pole winning 61% of those points.
The “Return of Serve” tracking with Coaches View shows that a key to Radwanska’s success was her aggressive approach in taking those Pliskova second serves. Radwanska returned 78% of Pliskova’s second serves from inside the baseline.
During the first two round robin matches of the tournament, Pliskova won 47% of second serve points, compared to 36% against Radwanska. Neither of her first two opponents, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Garbiñe Muguruza, were as aggressive as Radwanska in taking the ball early. Kuznetsova returned 57% of Pliskova’s second serves inside the baseline, while Muguruza did so just 10% of the time.
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.
“Return of serve” tracking shows where each service return was struck, differentiating between first and second serves, with an emphasis on how many serves are returned from inside the baseline. This data can be filtered by a particular score.
Radwanska broke Pliskova five times in 10 games during Friday’s match, giving the defending champion a berth in the semifinals as she aims for a second straight WTA Finals title.
Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova take on Timea Babos and Yaroslava Shvedova in the quarterfinals of the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.
The order of play for Friday at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.
Svetlana Kuznetsova talks after her win over Karolina Pliskova at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.
SINGAPORE – Before taking the court at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global, we grabbed Sania Mirza, Martina Hingis, Kristina Mladenovic, Carolina Garcia and more doubles partners for a hilarious challenge.
They might be serious competitors on the court, but off of it, who can keep a straight face against their doubles partner in a staring contest?
Check out the video below to find out, and look out for Bethanie Mattek-Sands’ sure-fire strategy for making Lucie Safarova laugh!
Karolina Pliskova gives her thoughts after losing to Svetlana Kuznetsova at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.