The WTA Pre-Wimbledon Party In 20 Photos
Serena, Maria, Simona, Petra and all the biggest WTA stars were at a magical WTA Pre-Wimbledon Party presented by Dubai Duty Free this year. See 20 of the best pics here.
Serena, Maria, Simona, Petra and all the biggest WTA stars were at a magical WTA Pre-Wimbledon Party presented by Dubai Duty Free this year. See 20 of the best pics here.
Three WTA Rising Stars brought it home with impressive performances ahead of the off-season. Which one soared the highest?
Have a look at the nominees for October’s WTA Rising Star of the Month and cast your vote before Thursday at 11:59pm ET! The winner will be announced Friday, November 13.
October 2015 WTA Rising Star Of The Month Finalists:
Garbiñe Muguruza: Muguruza finished her season with a flourish at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global. Making her WTA Finals debut, the Spainiard eased to a 3-0 round robin record with wins over Petra Kvitova, Lucie Safarova, and Angelique Kerber, only falling to eventual champion Agnieszka Radwanska in three thrilling sets. Earlier in the month Muguruza captured her biggest title at the China Open. Muguruza’s marvelous results since the US Open have helped her to rise to No.3 in the world – a rise of nearly 20 spots since the end of last year.
Karolina Pliskova: Pliskova rebounded from a difficult fall to re-establish herself as one to watch at the Huajin Securities WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai. Taking out a pair of tricky veterans in former No.1 Jelena Jankovic and 2012 French Open finalist Sara Errani, Pliskova won the battle of WTA Rising Stars in the semis in beating Elina Svitolina in straight sets. In the final against another former No.1 in Venus Williams, Pliskova narrowly missed out on the opportunity to finish an otherwise stellar season inside the Top 10, but still put on a valiant fight against her more experienced opponent over two tough sets.
Naomi Osaka: Osaka made her own Singapore debut before the start of the WTA Finals, winning the WTA Rising Stars Invitational, overcoming a round robin defeat to Caroline Garcia by beating her in the final. The Japanese teenager first made waves in the summer of 2014 when she upset Samantha Stosur in Stanford, but is starting to become more consistent on the WTA level, qualifying for the Japan Women’s Open Tennis in the weeks before traveling to Singapore. Ranked just outside the Top 200, Osaka looks to have carried her momentum into the WTA 125K Series event in Hua Hin, notching a win over No.6 seed Evgeniya Rodina, 6-0 in the third set. By all indications, her star seems poised to rise even farther come 2016.
2015 WTA Rising Star of the Month Winners
September: Garbiñe Muguruza
August: Belinda Bencic
July: Anna Karolina Schmiedlova
June: Garbiñe Muguruza
May: Daria Gavrilova
April: Elina Svitolina
March: Sloane Stephens
February: Karolina Pliskova
January: Madison Keys
How it works:
Three finalists are selected by wtatennis.com
Winner is then determined by a fan vote on wtatennis.com
Highlights from final action at the 2015 BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.
Rewind to 1995, and the queen of Open Era women’s tennis, Steffi Graf, reigned at The Championships, Wimbledon.
And she did it again in 1996 – Graf beat Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario for the second straight year in the final.
Martina Hingis won three of the four majors in 1997, and this was one of them – she beat Jana Novotna for it.
Novotna got her revenge in 1998, outfoxing Hingis in the semifinals and then Nathalie Tauziat for the title.
Lindsay Davenport won the 1999 title, beating Graf in what would be the German’s last major before retirement.
And then came the new millennium – and a new Wimbledon dynasty – in 2000, starting with Venus Williams…
… Venus beat Davenport for her first Grand Slam title there in 2000, then Justine Henin for the 2001 title.
Serena Williams beat Venus Williams for the 2002 title, which also pushed her to World No.1 for the first time.
The 2003 final was a repeat of the 2002 final, with Serena beating Venus in another all-Williams championship.
Maria Sharapova had her career breakthrough at Wimbledon in 2004, beating Serena for her first major title.
Venus returned to the winner’s circle in 2005, beating Sharapova and Davenport back-to-back for the title.
In a throwback final between one-handed backhands, Amélie Mauresmo beat Henin in three sets for the 2006 title.
Venus became the lowest-ranked, lowest-seeded Wimbledon champion in 2007, beating Marion Bartoli in the final.
And Venus won an amazing fifth Wimbledon crown in 2008, beating Serena in yet another all-Williams final.
Spoke too soon… Serena beat Venus in the fourth all-Williams Wimbledon final for the 2009 Wimbledon crown.
Venus fell in the quarterfinals in 2010, but Serena went on to win the title, defeating Vera Zvonareva for it.
Petra Kvitova became the first player born in the 1990s, male or female, to win a major at SW19 in 2011.
Serena tied Venus with five Wimbledon titles by winning it in 2012, beating Agnieszka Radwanska in the final.
Marion Bartoli had a fairytale run at Wimbledon in 2013, winning her first major – and retiring weeks later.
Kvitova repeated at Wimbledon in 2014 – she’s still the only ’90s-born player to win a Grand Slam title.
It’s time to vote for October’s WTA Player of the Month!
Have a look at the nominees and cast your vote before Thursday at 11:59pm ET! The winner will be announced Friday, November 13.
October 2015 WTA Player Of The Month Finalists
Agnieszka Radwanska: The former World No.2 returned to the Top 5 after beating a trio of big names to capture her first-ever WTA Finals title at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global. Looking out of the tournament after losing her first two matches, Radwanska reversed her fortunes by trouncing top seed Simona Halep and took her newfound confidence into the semifinals, where she recovered from a set down to defeat Garbiñe Muguruza in three sets. Down a break in the third set of the final to Petra Kvitova, Radwanska relied on her signature guile to perform one last escape to emerge victorious in Singapore.
Petra Kvitova: Kvitova had a similarly Houdini-esque week in Singapore, reaching the semifinals despite winning only one match in round robin play, but redeeming herself in the semifinals by ousting returning rival Maria Sharapova in straight sets. The 2011 WTA Finals champion narrowly lost to Radwanska, but nonetheless ends her season on a high, finishing in the Top 8 for a fifth straight year.
Garbiñe Muguruza: Muguruza made the most of her opportunities after the US Open, turning around a post-Wimbledon lull – after reaching her first major final – to reach back-to-back finals at the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open and the China Open – winning in Beijing to clinch her debut in Singapore. Once there, she went undefeated in round robin play with wins over Kvitova, Angelique Kerber, and Lucie Safarova. Though she lost to eventual champion Radwanska, she still managed to earn a career-high ranking of No.3, where she will finish to cap a breakthrough season.
Venus Williams: Just missing out on a spot in Singapore, the former No.1 nonetheless ended her best season since 2010 in style by winning the inaugural Huajin Securities WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai – returning to the Top 10 in the process. The American survived two tough battles against WTA Rising Stars Madison Keys and Zheng Saisai before hitting her stride against Roberta Vinci in the semifinals. In a tense final against Karolina Pliskova, Williams eased past the Czech WTA Rising Star to reach her highest ranking since 2011.
2015 WTA Player of the Month Winners
September: Flavia Pennetta
August: Belinda Bencic
July: Samantha Stosur
June: Serena Williams
May: Serena Williams
April: Angelique Kerber
March: Serena Williams
February: Simona Halep
January: Serena Williams
How it works:
Four finalists are selected by wtatennis.com
Winner is then determined by a fan vote on wtatennis.com
After spending last year’s tournament on the sidelines, Rafael Nadal is happy to be back at the O2 Arena.
Despite a busy end of the season, Andy Murray is rested and ready to perform in front of his countrymen.
Sania Mirza has Sunday’s doubles shot of the day at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.
History was on the line for Serena Williams – three Slams in a row, 20 total, the Aussie-French double…
And Lucie Safarova was hungry for an upset, playing the tennis of her life to make her first major final.
It was their ninth career meeting, and Williams had a big advantage – she was 8-0 against the Czech.
And it looked like that pattern would continue on Court Philippe Chatrier on a sunny Saturday afternoon.
Williams stormed out to a 6-3, 4-1 lead in little over an hour, with points for a 6-3, 5-1 lead.
Safarova, who hadn’t dropped a set in six matches en route to the final, looked very down and out…
But there’s a reason she took out players like Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic earlier in the fortnight.
The No.13 seed came alive down 6-3, 4-1, 40-15, clawing back and taking the second set in a tie-break.
Williams was on the defense – Safarova not only took that middle set, she raced out to 2-0 in the third.
But the No.1 seed turned it around from there, reeling off six games in a row to sneak out the victory.
Williams edged Safarova out in front of an enthralled Court Philippe Chatrier crowd, 6-3, 6-7(2), 6-2.
She had her third straight Slam, her 20th overall Slam and that coveted Australian-French Open double.
She also improved to 9-0 against Safarova, though four of those nine meetings have been three-setters.
Williams will now have a massive 4,421-point lead over Petra Kvitova at the top of the WTA Rankings.
She will also extend her lead over Maria Sharapova and Simona Halep on the Road To Singapore leaderboard.
A former tennis champion became tennis’ greatest champion as the sport moved into the Open Era. Mike Davies, a man who modernized the game – first with the World Championship Tennis league, and later as part of the Association of Tennis Professionals and International Tennis Federation – passed away last Monday at 79 years old.
The Brit modeled his game after some of the best Australian men to play the game, including Ken Rosewall, Roy Emerson, and Fred Stolle. But the Amateur Era in which he first played lacked the modern elements necessary to make tennis a twentieth century sport, so he made a then-controversial decision to turn professional. Before the Open Era began, only amateurs were eligible to play tournaments like Wimbledon and the US Open; Davies was thus barred from the tournaments he would go on to help.
A year after his playing days came to an end, he joined the team that made up the World Championship Tennis, where he worked tirelessly to make tennis TV-friendly as executive director. The yellow ball and 90-second changeovers all come back to Davies, who ushered in a golden era of the game that was bigger and better than any in the tennis world had ever seen before. In 1972, for example, the WCT final – played by Rosewall and Rod Laver – drew in 21 million viewers thanks to his TV contracts.
Davies later worked as the Marketing Director at both the ATP and ITF, reviving the former and tripling revnue at the latter – creating the Grand Slam Committee which holds court over the four major tournaments he’d been unable to play. In 2012, he was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
“Mike was one of the true pioneers of our sport,” said WTA CEO Steve Simon. “His vision and appetite for innovation laid the foundation for the presentation of professional tennis as know it today.
“His passion and commitment will be greatly missed.”