Kerber Dodges Lister Upset In Bastad
Top seed Angelique Kerber dodged a spirited upset bid from Swedish wildcard Cornelia Lister, coming back from a set down to advance 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 at the Ericsson Open.
Top seed Angelique Kerber dodged a spirited upset bid from Swedish wildcard Cornelia Lister, coming back from a set down to advance 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 at the Ericsson Open.
STANFORD, CA, USA – 17-year-old Catherine Bellis thrilled the Northern California crowd in her first round against No.6 seed Jelena Ostapenko; the American ousted the Latvian youngster, 6-4, 6-4 at the Bank of the West Classic.
Watch live action from Stanford this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!
“In the end, I was just a little bit more consistent than she was,” she said in her on-court interview. “I just tried to make as many balls as I could – especially in that last game. It was a little tight; I had a couple of heart attacks, but it’s all good!”
Bellis burst onto the scene back in 2014, when at 15 years of age, she stunned Dominika Cibulkova in the first round of the US Open to become the youngest woman to win a main draw match there in nearly a decade. Two years on, the potential still burned bright from the young American, who twice recovered from early deficits to survive the surging Ostapenko, who struggled on serve with nine double faults in the 72 minute match.
Injured in doubles on Monday, Bellis admitted to Andrew Krasny she considered pulling out of the tournament before the match took place.
“I didn’t even know if I was going to play tonight because yesterday I got hit with an overhead in the eye. I was crying so hard and wasn’t even able to see. So to even come out today meant so much to me.”
Improving to 3-2 against Top 50 opposition, Bellis will play the winner of the second night match in Stanford between qualifiers Sachia Vickery and Elitsa Kostova.
Her win over Ostapenko was the first Stadium Court match to last only two sets as Julia Boserup, Magda Linette, and Alison Riske each needed a decider to capture their first round wins. Another American wildcard who reached the third round of Wimbledon in her Grand Slam debut, Boserup dispatched rising star Naomi Osaka, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, while Linette recovered from a one-set deficit to defeat Kristyna Pliskova, 2-6, 6-2, 7-5. Riske pulled off the most dramatic win of all against Varvara Lepchenko, clinching victory in a third set tie-break, 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(4).
More to come…
WASHINGTON DC, USA – No.136-ranked Risa Ozaki scored the biggest win of her career in the opening round of the Citi Open, knocking out defending champion Sloane Stephens 6-2, 6-1.
The 22 year old from Japan came into the matchup having won just two WTA-level matches all year long, but put all that disappointment behind her against the No.23-ranked American.
Despite being broken in the opening game, Ozaki turned up the intensity and rattled off the next nine games in a row to leave Stephens reeling, down a set and a break. The American held serve to get her name on the score board at 3-1, but it wasn’t enough to turn around Ozaki’s momentum as she swept the match in just 57 minutes.
“I just played real bad. Nothing more, nothing less,” Stephens assessed after the match. “Today just sucked, it was just one of those days where everything was really bad.”
“Obviously, I’m not the first person to have a bad day and I won’t be the last. Hopefully I can pull myself together and next week will be better than this week. I won’t look too deep into this.”
Ozaki’s win sets up a second-round clash with on-the-rise Brit Naomi Broady, who saw off Irina Falconi in straight sets earlier in the day, 6-3, 6-4.
Giorgi Ousts No.5 Seed Bouchard
The unseeded Camila Giorgi snapped a four-match losing streak in her straight sets upset over No.5 seed Eugenie Bouchard in their Washington DC opener. Even more impressive, Giorgi recorded her first win against the Canadian; she previously hadn’t even won a set against Bouchard in either of their previous two encounters.
Bouchard initially struggled against the pace of the Italian’s high octane game, falling a break down in the opening set.
“My game is based on moving forward as soon as I can,” Giorgi said, speaking to Tennis Channel after the match. “Today it worked, I think, almost everything.”
Facing elimination at a set down and 5-2 in the second, Bouchard gritted out a pair of back to back games to cut into Giorgi’s lead, and even held game point on her serve at 5-4 to try to even the score. But the ultra-aggressive Giorgi saw off her challenge with her usual calm, quick game, climbing back from 15-40 to take the match 7-5, 6-4.
After the match, she immediately grabbed her cell phone to make a very special call.
“I called my dad, my coach,” Giorgi said. “He told me I played a good game, very aggressive. He was happy.”
Giorgi will go on to play Tamira Paszek in the next round. The Austrian No.108 took down American qualifier Lauren Albanese in a comfortable 6-3, 6-4 win.
More to come…
– All photos courtesy of Citi Open and Getty Images
WTA Insider | Live from the Bank of the West Classic, check out all the action as first round play continues in Stanford.
STANFORD, CA, USA – Venus Williams’ serve has brought her plenty of wins and plenty of accolades down the years.
At the 2007 US Open, it also brought her a record, as she hit the fastest serve of all time. Williams’ delivery, clocked at 129mph, set a record that stood for seven years until it was bumped off top spot by Sabine Lisicki’s 131mph howitzer at Stanford’s Bank of the West Classic.
Williams herself is in action in Stanford this week. And while recapturing the title she won in 2000 and 2002 will be top of the agenda, recent form suggests that Lisicki’s mark could come under threat.
At Wimbledon, Williams enjoyed a welcome return to winning ways, reaching her first major semifinal since 2010 and putting the All England Club’s speed gun through its paces along the way…
Wimbledon
1. Serena Williams – 124.0mph / 199.6kph
2. Sabine Lisicki – 122.0mph / 196.3kph
3. Venus Williams – 121.0mph / 194.7kph
4T. Yaroslava Shvedova – 119.0mph / 191.5kph
4T. CoCo Vandeweghe – 119.0mph / 191.5kph
2016
1. Serena Williams – 127.0mph / 204.4kph (Indian Wells)
2T. Lucie Hradecka – 123.0mph / 197.9kph (Indian Wells)
2T. Venus Williams – 123.0mph / 197.9kph (Miami)
4T. Timea Babos – 122.0mph / 196.3kph (Indian Wells)
4T. Sabine Lisicki – 122.0mph / 196.3kph (Wimbledon)
6. Naomi Osaka – 121.8mph / 196.2kph (Roland Garros)
7. CoCo Vandeweghe – 121.mph / 194.7kph (Indian Wells)
8T. Madison Keys – 119.9mph / 193.0kph (Australian Open)
8T. Océane Dodin – 119.9mph / 193.0kph (Roland Garros)
8T. Polona Hercog – 119.9mph / 193.0kph (Australian Open)
All-Time
1. Sabine Lisicki – 131.0mph / 210.8kph (2014 Stanford)
2. Venus Williams – 129.0mph / 207.6kph (2007 US Open)
3. Serena Williams – 128.6mph / 207.0kph (2013 Australian Open)
4. Julia Goerges – 126.1mph / 203.0kph (2012 French Open)
5. Brenda Schultz-McCarthy – 126.0mph / 202.7kph (2007 Indian Wells)
6. Nadiia Kichenok – 125.5mph / 202.0kph (2014 Australian Open)
7. Lucie Hradecka – 125.0mph / 201.2kph (2015 Wimbledon)
8. Anna-Lena Groenefeld – 125.0mph / 201.1kph (2009 Indian Wells)
9T. Ana Ivanovic – 124.9mph / 201.0kph (2007 French Open)
9T. Denisa Allertova – 124.9mph / 201.0kph (2015 Australian Open)
Defending champion Belinda Bencic was forced to withdraw from the upcoming Rogers Cup due to the left wrist injury she sustained at Wimbledon.
Three new Olympians have been added to the official entry list for the Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Together the Chan sisters are a world class doubles team, but today on the WTA Frame Challenge it’s Hao-Ching vs Yung-Jan. Find out which sister came out on top!
BASTAD, Sweden – No.4 seed Annika Beck came through a tight encounter with Sorana Cirstea to secure a second-round spot at the Ericsson Open.
Watch live action from Bastad, Stanford and Washington DC this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!
Last week in Gstaad, Beck slumped to a shock defeat at the hands of World No.797 Rebeka Masarova, but bounced back with a 7-5, 7-5 win in her opening match in Sweden.
“It was quite a tough match – I expected it because Sorana is a great player and she had some great results on clay this year,” Beck said. “It was the first time I ever played her but I got some tactics off my coach and I knew what to do.”
In a match of fine margins, Beck’s greater consistency at the conclusion of both sets proved decisive. Having hauled herself back into the opening set, Cirstea looked well set to complete the comeback only to hand back the break with a wayward backhand. Beck duly closed out the set and despite weathering a barrage of winners in the second set, held her nerve to close out victory.
“She was defending really well and made my life really tough out there on court, especially in the second set – she was just going for winners and basically hit all the lines – I was just trying to stay in the match and fight.”
Reaction of @BeckAnnika after defeating @sorana_cirstea in front of Hollywood star Hugh Grant pic.twitter.com/uw9uy7ebOj
— Swedish Open Tennis (@swedish_open) 19 July 2016
Also advancing in the bottom half of the draw were Beck’s fellow seeds Sara Errani and Johanna Larsson. No.2 seed Errani produced a confident display to defeat Cagla Buyukakcay, 6-2, 6-3, while No.8 seed and defending champion Larsson came through her all-Swedish clash against Rebecca Peterson, 7-6(3), 6-2.
Another former champion to advance was Mona Barthel, who was leading 4-6, 6-3, 3-0 when No.7 seed Yaroslava Shvedova retired with a back injury.
WTA Insider | Live from the Bank of the West Classic, check out all the action from the first day of main draw play in Stanford.