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Vote Now: Doubles Team Of The Year

Posted: Nov 22, 2015

The finalists for the 2015 WTA Comeback Player Of The Year have been released, and we want to hear from you, the fans. The fan vote will count as one of the coveted media votes.

Have a look at the finalists and cast your vote before Sunday, December 6 at 11:59pm ET! The winner will be announced Tuesday, December 8.

2015 WTA Doubles Team of the Year Finalists

Martina Hingis & Sania Mirza: For Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza, 2015 could hardly have gone any better. After a flawless start to life as a team, in which they won their first three tournaments, Hingis and Mirza hit their first bump in the road during the clay court season, falling early in both Stuttgart and Madrid before being upset by Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova in the French Open quarterfinals. From then on, though, they were virtually untouchable, winning 34 of their next 37 matches to take home titles at Wimbledon, the US Open, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Beijing and the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.

Bethanie Mattek-Sands &Lucie Safarova: It has been quite the year for Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova on the doubles court. In January, their hastily arranged partnership resulted in a maiden Grand Slam title, at the Australian Open. The two continued this success on the clay, triumphing in Stuttgart and then Roland Garros, too, where they knocked out top seeds Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza en route to the title. While they struggled to scale these heights in the second half of the season, there was more silverware at one of the game’s showpiece events, this time in Toronto.

Casey Dellacqua & Yaroslava Shvedova: Casey Dellacqua and Yaroslava Shvedova may have been together for less than half of 2015, but they certainly made the most of this time together. On their first outing in unison, the Mutua Madrid Open, Dellacqua and Shvedova walked away with the title. One month later, they almost walked away with an even bigger prize at Roland Garros, only to come up just short in the final against Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova. The summer hardcourt stretch brought a few more near misses, with finals at Cincinnati and the US Open before a freak injury to Dellcqua in Beijing brought their campaign to a premature end.

Ekaterina Makarova & Elena Vesnina: While Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina did not quite scale the heights of recent years, they remained regulars at the business end of showpiece events. The Russian duo began the campaign by reaching the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, before really hitting their stride when the tour headed stateside, finishing runners-up at both Indian Wells and Miami. Their conquerors on both occasions were Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza, who also produced a stunning comeback to deny them in the Wimbledon final. Injuries wreaked havoc with the half of the campaign, forcing Makrova and Vesnina to miss much of the summer hardcourt season as well as the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.

WTA Doubles Team of the Year Winners

2014: Sara Errani / Roberta Vinci
2013: Sara Errani/Roberta Vinci
2012: Sara Errani/Roberta Vinci
2011: Kveta Peschke/Katarina Srebotnik
2010: Gisela Dulko/Flavia Pennetta
2009: Serena Williams/Venus Williams
2008: Cara Black/Liezel Huber
2007: Cara Black/Liezel Huber
2006: Lisa Raymond/Sam Stosur
2005: Lisa Raymond/Sam Stosur

Click here to see all the WTA Doubles Team of the Year Winners

How it works:

Finalists are selected by wtatennis.com
Winner is then determined by a media vote with a fan vote counting as one media vote

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Pella Wins 2015 Montevideo Challenger Title

Posted: Nov 22, 2015

Watch highlights of the Uruguay Open, where Guido Pella won his fourth ATP Challenger Tour title of 2015. Video courtesy of Uruguay Open.

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Coric Returns To The O2 One Year On

Posted: Nov 22, 2015

One year on from being named the Emirates ATP Star of Tomorrow, Borna Coric returns to The O2 and chats about the progress he’s made to reach the Top 40.

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Djokovic Wins Federer Showdown 2015 London Highlights

Posted: Nov 22, 2015

Watch highlights as Novak Djokovic caps off a historic season at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. Watch live tennis at tennistv.com.

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Zheng Headlines USANA China Convention

Posted: Nov 22, 2015

QINGDAO, China – Fresh off of her debut appearance at the Huajin Securities WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai, WTA Rising Star Zheng Saisai made a special appearance at a USANA China convention.

A brand ambassador for the health and nutrition company, Zheng headlined a sold out stadium in Qingdao; a lucky 8,500 USANA Associates got to listen to Zheng speak about her how she prepares for each match with the help of her favorite USANA products – including a supplement called Booster C.

USANA China further engaged associates in attendence with a tennis-themed dance; the dancers joined Zheng on stage to help launch autographed tennis balls into the crowd. After the presentation, she took multiple photos with associates and signed another 140 autographs for delighted fans.

USANA is the Official Health Supplement Supplier of the WTA. Since 2006, USANA has provided high quality vitamins and supplements to WTA players. Over 160 athletes use USANA products including eight out of the Top 10 and 15 out of the Top 20.

Check out more photos and videos from the event here, courtesy of USANA:

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Djokovic Victory Lap At Barclays ATP World Tour Finals

Posted: Nov 22, 2015

Follow Novak Djokovic as he celebrates his fourth consecutive year-end title.

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Brain Game: Federer's Tactical Change

Posted: Nov 22, 2015

Roger Federer is our sport’s most colourful chameleon. His adaptive skills were on full display Saturday night in his 7-5, 6-3 victory over Stan Wawrinka, to move through to the final of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London.

Federer is a master of every tactical maneuver, equally adept at staying back, coming forward, altering spin and power, managing time, and possessing the uncanny ability to “feel” what the court, the ball, the conditions and the opponent provide him.

Federer only came to the net nine times (winning six) against World No. 1, Novak Djokovic, earlier in the week, simply because he calculated that heavy groundstrokes were the best pathway to secure victory in that moment, on that night.

Last night against Wawrinka, he strategically changed his colours, swarming the net in an effort to blunt his opponent’s thumping groundstroke speed.

Federer came forward to the net 32 times against Wawrinka, playing only one extra game against his Swiss opponent than Djokovic.

Federer won an extremely high 75 per cent (24/32) at the net, pressuring Wawrinka with his court position, and rushing Wawrinka’s groundstroke preparation. Wawrinka only managed to get to the net three times for the whole match, highlighting just how dominant Federer was at owning the front of the court.

Infosys Match Insights uncovered a hidden strength of Federer’s forward movement – getting closer to the net to create more angle for the volley, and visually shrinking the court for the opponent’s passing shot.

Federer hit 27 volleys for match, mixing in serve and volley and approach plays, and amazingly only hit two volleys standing behind the service line. That’s a remarkable discovery, and you can only imagine how difficult he is to pass from such perfect court position.

Federer’s serve is a great enabler of his forward movement, as it continually elicits short balls for him to devour.

Federer hit 100 shots as the first shot after his serve, with 66 of them being struck inside the baseline, 33 within two metres behind the baseline, and just a lonely one further back than two metres behind the baseline.

When returning, it was a tougher ask to immediately move forward, as he had to initially negate the strength of Wawrinka’s powerful serve, and thumping first groundstroke. Federer made contact with the ball 22 times inside the baseline with his first shot after the return, 51 times within two metres of the baseline, and 27 times more than two metres back.

Once a rally was established, Federer hit 53 per cent forehands for the match and 47 per cent backhands, better than Wawrinka’s even 50/50 ratio.

But a deeper look at Wawrinka’s forehand performance uncovered that he only hit 11 run-around forehands standing in the Ad court for the match, which is normally a primary baseline strategy.

Wawrinka Return Location

The pressure of Federer’s constant forays forward forced Wawrinka to drastically alter his return location, but all it did was simply take him out of his comfort zone.

Federer won 76 per cent (31/41) of his first serve points, and an extremely high 65 per cent (15/23) of second serve points.

Against Rafael Nadal in the round robin draw, Wawrinka averaged standing 2.95 metres (9.7 feet) behind the baseline to return second serves, but he was only 27 centimetres (0.9 feet) behind the baseline against Federer.

Wawrinka was forced to move forward and take the second serve return earlier to try and immediately get the ball down to Federer’s feet, or rebound it deep near the baseline with the threat of an imminent net attack.

Federer averaged standing 1.4 metres (4.6 feet) inside the baseline returning Wawrinka’s serve, successfully pressuring Wawrinka into only winning a lowly 42 per cent (10/24) in this key tactical arm wrestle.

Federer will now play Djokovic in this afternoon’s final, and the tactics that worked earlier in the week may have to be drastically altered to defeat the World No. 1 on Sunday. Fortunately, Federer is ready to change colours in the blink of an eye.

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