Tennis News

RABAT, Morocco – No.2 seed Ekaterina Makarova grabbed the first win of her clay court campaign, advancing into the second round of the Grand Prix SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Alexandra Dulgheru.

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The international-level tournament is the WTA’s lone stop in Africa, and has been staged in several cities in Morocco including Casablanca, Fes, Marrakech and finally Rabat.

Makarova, a former Top 10 player who reached the final in 2009 at the tournament’s Fes staging, had little trouble against the Romanian. Dulgheru has struggled recently and hasn’t won a match since January, but she owns the head-to-head record against Makarova with two wins in both of their previous encounters.

The match started out with five breaks of serve in the first six games, and Makarova scoring the lone hold to get ahead at 3-1. The Russian fought off three break points to keep the lead at 5-3, and stayed steady to close out the first set. Makarova cruised in the second set and closed out the match after one hour and thirty-six minutes.

No.5 seed Timea Babos – a finalist last year in the tournament’s Marrakech staging – had a tougher road to the second round, surviving a rollercoaster second set to advance 6-3, 6-7(8), 6-1.

A pair of seeds weren’t so lucky, as No.3 Anna Karolina Schmiedlova and No.6 Annika Beck were sent crashing out of the first round. Kiki Bertens dropped just one game in her 6-0, 6-1 romp over Schmiedlova, and Teliana Pereira eased into the second round with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Beck.

No.1 seed Timea Bacsinszky will wrap up Rabat’s first round action tomorrow when she takes the court against Russian wildcard Anna Blinkova.

PRAGUE, Czech Republic – Katerina Siniakova rewarded the locals who braved the elements on the opening day of the J&T Banka Prague Open by upsetting Alizé Cornet in straight sets.

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On a bitterly cold afternoon in the Czech capital, Siniakova found the conditions more to her liking, delighting the home crowd with a 7-6(5), 6-3 victory over the former World No.11.

“I was trying to play my best and it was really hard because she was fighting, running everywhere, so I’m so happy I could win,” Siniakova said. “I just focused on every point and stuck to the tactics I agreed [with my coach] before the match.”

Siniakova hails from Hradec Kralove, but regularly trains on the Sparta Club’s clay courts that play host to the tournament. This familiarity with the surroundings was clear as the teenager – wisely clad in leggings and thermal vest – set about the task of piercing Cornet’s defense. She was rewarded for her positivity when she prevailed in a see-saw conclusion to the opening set, before warming to the task further at the start of the second.

When Cornet sent a forehand into the tramlines to surrender serve Siniakova had the breathing room her confidence required, and she maintained this advantage until the end to book a second-round meeting with either Stefanie Voegele or fellow Czech Karolina Pliskova.

“Of course it helped because when I’m here, I’m practicing on that court so I know it a little bit. But also the atmosphere was really good because people come and support us,” Siniakova added.

Also hoping to harness the crowd’s support was Kristyna Pliskova, but despite a strong start her powerful game was defused then picked apart by Hsieh Su-Wei, who ran out a 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 winner. Hsieh’s reward is a meeting with Ana Konjuh, after she fought back to upset fellow teenager and No.6 seed Jelena Ostapenko. 

You see their names on the scoreboard week in and week out, but how well can you spell out the names of the WTA’s top players?

We challenged Simona Halep, Garbiñe Muguruza, Karolina Pliskova, Belinda Bencic and Angelique Kerber to spell out the toughest names on the tour – from Mladenovic to Pavlyuchenkova and more.

How well did they do? Check out the video above to find out if they passed the WTA Spelling Quiz!