Tennis News

STUTTGART, Germany – Petra Kvitova made a flawless start to her clay court campaign, dismissing Louisa Chirico in 55 one-sided minutes to secure a spot in the second round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.

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In recent years, Stuttgart has not been the happiest of hunting grounds for Kvitova, who has stumbled at the first hurdle on her past two visits. This time, though, she delivered a near-perfect performance, dishing out a 6-0, 6-0 defeat to set up a meeting with Monica Niculescu or Caroline Garcia.

A display decorated with 29 winners – and offset by just 11 unforced errors – began with a salvo of thumping groundstrokes and a quick-fire hold. In the next game the No.5 seed displayed the other side of her game, a beautifully disguised drop shot leaving Chirico wrong-footed and an immediate break behind.

Chirico came close to getting on the scoreboard on several occasions, but each time she threatened to do so, Kvitova found the perfect response. The final stand came at 3-0 in the second set, Kvitova having the final say in a 10-minute game Kvitova thanks to another delightful touch around the net.

Moments later she put the American out of her misery, skipping around a second serve to unleash one final winner.

More to follow…

STUTTGART, Germany – Fast-rising Timea Babos edged through a tense opening set and survived a late surge from Sabine Lisicki to defeat the German, 7-6(4), 6-3.

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“I was really happy to play a night match on Center Court, especially after the opening ceremony,” Babos told press after the match. “I took it as a good chance; I knew I had to play solid against Sabine. She’s had many good results and is in front of her home crowd, so I tried to stay focused and solid.

Serving first throughout the match, Babos applied plenty of pressure to the Lisicki return from the start, earning the first break to take a 5-3 lead in the opening set. Despite failing to serve it out in the tenth game, Babos held firm to take the first set in a tie-break.

“I’m here with my fitness coach now, and he said I didn’t move so well!” Babos joked when asked about what she could have improved. “It’s my first match on clay since the French Open, so I have to adapt. It helps that it’s still indoors; it helps my serve. With the movement, it needs some adjustment. I grew up on clay, and I like clay, so there is no problem, but I need more time to get used to the movement.”

Lisicki dug an even deeper hole in the second set, but nearly pulled off a Houdini act for the ages; recovering from 1-5 down, she saved two match points before the Hungarian powerhouse sealed the match in just over 90 minutes.

“In the second set, she felt the match was going away from her and she started to punch the ball as hard as she could and started to serve even better, which is a huge weapon of hers.

“I’m happy that I was able to close it out at 5-3, because even at 5-1, I was doing only first serves and even some big serves and she ripped some winners.”

The tournament has had to deal with quite a few late arrivals thanks to a busy Fed Cup weekend, but Babos had her own reason for not getting to Stuttgart as early as she might have liked.

“I arrived last night; obviously I knew I was going to play today but I also had my five-year high school reunion on Saturday, so I wanted to attend that!”

Babos had a bright start on clay last year – reaching a final in Marrackech –  only to lose her next seven  matches on clay courts, despite taking out Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza to win the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in doubles with Kristina Mladenovic in between. This season, she is in the midst of playing her most consistent singles of her career, reaching quarterfinals in Shenzhen, St. Petersburg, and Katowice. Reaching the round of 16 in Miami, she pushed reigning Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber to three sets.

“I had a good start and an awful season! Last year was interesting because I played a lot better than what my results were, and I had to play a lot of qualies in the beginning of the season; I played eight tournaments in a row in qualifying. But everywhere I qualified, I lost early, so I was winning twice as many matches as I was losing but I couldn’t improve my ranking. I had a final on clay but then I didn’t play the way I should have, how I played in Marrackech. Then I got killed at the French Open by Angie [Kerber].

“This year, I was looking forward to it more; I’ve had some good results this year, and I improved my ranking a lot since the end of the season. I was one of the last to get here, and only wanted to play singles here, so I took it as a good opportunity. I tried to have fun and even with all the adjustments, I think it was a good start.”

Up next for the 22-year-old is No.3 seed Garbiñe Muguruza, who beat her in the round of 16 at the Qatar Total Open.

Earlier in the day, World No.22 Johanna Konta fell at her first hurdle on clay courts; playing one of eight German women in the main draw at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, the Australian Open semifinalist fell to Anna-Lena Friedsam, 6-3, 6-3.

“I think that is always to be expected first match on clay,” the Brit said after the match. “I think it’s not easy for anyone. I think she did a better job than I did today dealing with the conditions. So, I’m happy I’m involved in doubles here. So, I’m looking forward to that, just all the matches I can get going into Roland Garros on the clay is an added bonus.

“This was my first match on clay since last year, so for about a year,” she added with a laugh. “So, I just need to go a little easy on myself and also keep looking forward and keep enjoying the challenge of continuously trying to improve.”

BERLIN, Germany – Serena Williams became the first woman to win three Laureus Sportswoman of the Year Award on Monday.

The World No.1 enjoyed an incredible 2015 season, in which she earned her second Serena Slam and the first three legs of the Calendar Year Grand Slam at the Australian Open, French Open, and Wimbledon. A wall-to-wall No.1 for the second time in her career, Williams finished atop the WTA rankings for the fifth time in her career. 

One of only three WTA players to take home the award, Williams has been nominated ten times, winning it in 2003 and 2010.

Williams had been tied with Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva, who had also won the award twice.

The Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year is Serena Williams!

#LWSA16 pic.twitter.com/noODZ7vIWc

— Laureus (@LaureusSport) April 18, 2016

Caroline Wozniacki will be sitting out much of the clay court season, as the former No.1 has announced Monday that she has pulled out of clay court tournaments at the Mutua Madrid Open and the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome.

A finalist at the 2015 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix on the red clay of Stuttgart, the Dane was due to play Fed Cup last week when a rolled ankle forced her out of Denmark’s Zonal ties in Egypt and this week’s International tournament in Istanbul.

Rolled my ankle during practice today? Very sad to miss Fed Cup & Istanbul, but I'll be back soon! Thx for the ❤️! pic.twitter.com/IIXtvCdxql

— Caroline Wozniacki (@CaroWozniacki) April 7, 2016

Wozniacki has yet to rule out a return in time for the French Open, but the former No.1 already appears to be hard at work rehabbing her injured foot – as seen on her Twitter account.

My morning view! #keepgrinding #gettingstronger #monaco #mondays #gym pic.twitter.com/thGk0ypnDf

— Caroline Wozniacki (@CaroWozniacki) April 18, 2016

Unfortunately my foot still needs time to heal so had to withdraw from Madrid and Rome! Two great tournaments, I'll be there next year!??

— Caroline Wozniacki (@CaroWozniacki) April 18, 2016

WINNERS

Irina Falconi captured her first WTA title in historic fashion, becoming the first American woman to win the Claro Open Colsanitas as she recovered from a break down in the final set to defeat Sílvia Soler-Espinosa, 6-2, 2-6, 6-4.

Starting the week at No.92, Falconi is tentatively set to return to the Top 70, close to her career-high ranking of No.64. The Ecuadorian-American also dedicated her win to her birthplace, which had just suffered an earthquake on Sunday.

Read the full story here.

Meanwhile, Fed Cup World Group semifinals came to their thrilling conclusion on Sunday, as the Czech Republic and France each swept the decisive doubles rubber to advance to the 2016 Fed Cup final in November.

GAME, SET, MATCH: WTA Insider

Game: Irina Falconi dedicates her win to Ecuador.

The Ecuadorian-born American captured her first title in grinding, clay court fashion, beating Sílvia Soler-Espinosa from a break down in the final set to win the Claro Open Colsanitas 6-2, 2-6, 6-4. It was a particularly impressive run for the 25-year-old given she had previously never made it past the third round of any tour-level clay court event. In addition to beating Soler-Espinosa in the final, she also took out an in-form Lara Arruabarrena in the semifinals 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.

A Georgia Tech standout who made her big splash at the 2011 US Open when she defeated No.14 seed Dominika Cibulkova in the second round, Falconi dedicated her win to the victims and survivors of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Ecuador on Saturday.

“My father is there right now, actually,” Falconi said. “He wanted to come here and watch me play, but obviously with the earthquake travel became complicated. First of all, thank god all my family is fine. But I know it’s a very difficult situation for so many people over there.

“The last 24 hours we’ve just been praying constantly for all the families and the children – I knew there’s a lot of people who’ve been killed already. We’re sending over a lot of prayers.”

Set: Doubles on display at Fed Cup.

Given the Fed Cup format, which sees the doubles played as the final rubber it’s easy to focus solely on the singles rubbers as being the decisive matches. But both France and the defending champion Czech Republic booked their spots in November’s final via the decisive doubles.

The Czechs overcame a heroic performance by 23-year-old Viktorija Golubic, who stepped in for an injured Belinda Bencic to earn two singles wins over Karolina Pliskova and Barbora Strycova, by stunning Martina Hingis and Golubic. Pliskova and Lucie Hradecka teamed up for a surprising 6-2, 6-2 rout of the Swiss team give the Czechs a 3-2 win and put them into their fifth final in six years.

For Amelie Mauresmo’s French squad, it was Charleston champions Kristina Mladenovic and Caroline Garcia who secured the win in the final rubber. They too had to overcome a strong singular performance. In this case it was No.94 Kiki Bertens stunning them both in singles. But Mladenovic and Garcia showed their doubles form, beating Bertens and Rachel Hogenkamp 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 to take France into their first Fed Cup final in 11 years.

Match: Simona Halep, Belinda Bencic, and Caroline Wozniacki fighting injuries.

All three were set to be key cogs in their respective Fed Cup machines but as the European clay season kicks off they’re all battling injury. Halep was finally fit and healthy over the US hardcourt spring but she rolled her ankle in her first singles match for Romania on Saturday against Andrea Petkovic. She was able to come out the next day for a three-set battle with Angelique Kerber but is now racing the clock to find her fitness for what should be a strong part of the season for the 2014 French Open finalist.

Bencic and Wozniacki’s injury woes are far more serious. Bencic is out for at least four weeks due to a back injury, while Wozniacki turned her ankle during practice. Last year the Dane made the final in Stuttgart and the quarterfinals in Madrid. With over 500 points to defend over the next few weeks, Wozniacki could see herself unseeded at the French Open if she can’t get back on the court soon.

RANKING MOVERS:
Notable singles ranking movers for the week of April 18, 2016.

Irina Falconi (USA), +25 (No.92 to 67): Falconi earned the biggest ranking jump of the week when she became the first American to win the title at the Claro Open Colsanitas in Bogota.

Lara Arruabarrena (ESP), +10 (No.86 to 76): Arruabarrena had a dominating run in Bogota – the Spaniard only lost five games in three matches leading up to the semifinals – an as a result she jumps up to No.76, inching closer and closer to her career-high ranking of No.70.

Wang Qiang (CHN), +9 (No.88 to 79): One of three Chinese players ranked inside the Top 100, Qiang Wang rises to a career-high ranking of No.79 after winning back-to-back ITF-level titles.

Timea Bacsinszky (SUI), +1 (No.17 to 16): Bacsinszky rises one spot to No.16, trading places with Elina Svitolina who suffered a surprise first-round loss at the Claro Open Colsanitas.

UPCOMING TOURNAMENTS

Porsche Tennis Grand Prix
Stuttgart, Germany
Premier | $693,900 | Clay, Indoor
Monday, April 18 – Sunday, April 24, 2016

TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Cup
Istanbul, Turkey
International | $226,750 | Clay, Outdoor
Monday, April 18 – Sunday, April 24, 2016

GP SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem
Rabat, Morocco
International | $226,750 | Clay, Outdoor
Monday, April 25 – Saturday, April 30, 2016

J&T Banka Prague Open
Prague, Czech Republic
International | $226,750 | Clay, Outdoor
Monday, April 25 – Saturday, April 30, 2016

TOP 20 PLAYER SCHEDULES
1. Serena Williams
2. Agnieszka Radwanska – Stuttgart
3. Angelique Kerber – Stuttgart
4. Garbiñe Muguruza – Stuttgart
5. Victoria Azarenka
6. Simona Halep – Stuttgart
7. Petra Kvitova – Stuttgart
8. Roberta Vinci – Stuttgart, Prague
9. Maria Sharapova
10. Belinda Bencic – Stuttgart
11. Carla Suárez Navarro – Stuttgart
12. Flavia Pennetta
13. Svetlana Kuznetsova – Stuttgart, Prague
14. Venus Williams
15. Lucie Safarova – Stuttgart, Prague
16. Timea Bacsinszky – Rabat
17. Elina Svitolina –
18. Karolina Pliskova – Stuttgart, Prague
19. Ana Ivanovic – Stuttgart
20. Sara Errani – Stuttgart

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
Best wishes to those celebrating birthdays this week:

Misa Eguchi (JPN) – April 18, 1992
Maria Sharapova (RUS) – April 19, 1987
Daniela Hantuchova (SVK) – April 23, 1983