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Flipkens Shows Off Seoul-ful Hot Shot In Korea

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

SEOUL, South Korea – Kirsten Flipkens has hit her share of hot shots in the past; her tweener at the Connecticut Open was part of August’s Shot of the Month.

But the Belgian upped her flair and brought it to the Asian Swing; after a long rally with Dalian champion Kristyna Pliskova, Flipkens turned the tables on Karolina Pliskova’s twin sister with a behind-the-back backhand passing shot.

She went on to win the match, 5-7, 6-2, 6-2.

Check out the video right here on wtatennis.com!

 

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Battered Bacsinszky Beats Bouchard

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

INDIAN WELLS, CA, USA – 2015 French Open semifinalist played stupendous tennis in the final set of a tense match to defeat former World No.5 Eugenie Bouchard, 6-2, 5-7, 6-2.

Watch highlights, interviews and more video from Indian Wells right here on wtatennis.com!

“I’m really happy about the way I played in the third set,” Bacsinszky told Andrew Krasny during the on-court interview, “it was like the first set a little bit.”

The first game foreshadowed the nearly two-and-half hour battle that was to come, as Bacsinszky broke on her fifth break point opportunity, and though the Canadian, who was looking to build on her tour-leading 15 WTA match wins, eventually steadied herself on serve, the Swiss star ultimately sealed the set.

Taking a nasty spill to start the second, Bacsinszky needed a lengthy medical timeout to address multiple cuts; Bouchard spent the time talking tactics with coach Thomas Högstedt and taking practice serves. The 2014 Wimbledon finalist broke serve for the first time soon after and went on to level the match with a second service break.

“I think Genie played really well, especially in the second; she pushed me a lot to make errors.”

Undaunted, Bacsinszky grabbed the initiative in the decider and never let go, relying on her laser sharp backhand and 31 winners overall – to only 25 from Bouchard – to serve out the win.

“I’m really glad I found a solution at the end.”

After the match, the former World No.10 thanked hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, who was in the crowd during the match, for helping to inspire her to push through the pain.

“The Great One was watching here, and he knows how it feels to get hurt in a hockey match. I fell right in front of him so I thought, ‘It’s all right; I have to show him I don’t feel the pain.'”

In order to back up her 2015 run to the quarterfinals, Bacsinszky will need to beat Daria Kasatkina – one of three 18-year-olds currently in the Top 50 – who saved a match point to defeat Monica Puig, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(2).

Earlier in the day, No.9 seed Roberta Vinci rebounded from a thrilling second round win over Margarita Gasparyan – a match that needed a final set tie-break – to ease past BMW Malaysian Open champion and No.17 seed Elina Svitolina, 6-1, 6-3.

The 2015 US Open finalist burst out of the gate by winning the first four games, keeping her side of the stat sheet clean (20 winners to 11 unforced) while the Ukrainian youngster – who recently hired former No.1 Justine Henin as a coaching consultant – struggled with consistency, hitting 17 winners but 25 unforced errors.

“I played a great game today, so consistent, focused, aggressive,” Vinci said after the match, explaining, “Against her you have to play like this. She’s a great player, she has a good rally. But I think, well, I just played so good.”

The secret to her late-blooming success?

“I don’t have a secret. Just play and stay focused every single day. Stay calm in the court and outside the court, and just enjoy the life.”

Up next for Vinci is Magdalena Rybarikova, who outlasted No.7 seed Belinda Bencic, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

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SAP Coaches View: Osaka Outlasts In Tokyo

SAP Coaches View: Osaka Outlasts In Tokyo

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

Naomi Osaka reached the first WTA final of her career Saturday in Tokyo at the Toray Pan Pacific Open thanks to an improved performance in longer rallies later in her 1-6 6-3 6-2 win over Elina Svitolina.

Svitolina surrendered just one game in the opening set of the Toray PPO Tennis semifinal, breaking Osaka twice. SAP Coaches View shows that Osaka won 36% of 3-6 shot rallies, and just 33% of rallies longer than 6 shots in that first set.

SAP Coaches View

In the decisive third set, Osaka did significantly better on those longer rallies. She won 52% of the medium rallies, lasting 3-6 shots.

Osaka showed even more improvement on the longest rallies, winning 71% of the points lasting longer than 6 shots. That’s a vast improvement over her 33% in the first set.

SAP Coaches View

The powerful Osaka also did well on the shortest points of the match, firing seven aces. She has hit a tournament-best 25 aces this week.

The SAP Coaches View combines scoring information direct from the chair umpire with tracking data from HawkEye to allow for an in depth look at five different aspects of a match. Each tracking option can be filtered to narrow the focus to specific situations within a match, such as break points. This information is available directly to coaches in real-time during a match on their SAP tablet and also available to them online after matches.

“Rally hit to” tracking shows where each shot during a rally lands on the opponent’s side of the court. The display, which also shows rally length, differentiates between forehands and backhands. This data can be filtered by a particular score or to only show winners, unforced errors, service returns, the last shot of a rally or the third shot (first rally ball hit by the server).

These tools show that Osaka’s improvement on longer rallies was key to her advancing for a WTA final for the first time.

SAP Coaches View

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Doubles Insider: Hingis & Mirza Battle For No.1 Ranking In Wuhan

Doubles Insider: Hingis & Mirza Battle For No.1 Ranking In Wuhan

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

Mirza’s No.1 Ranking Under Siege By Swiss Miss: In the high-profile split between former co-No.1s Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis, it was Mirza who retained custody of the No.1 ranking after she and new partner Barbora Strycova ousted Hingis and CoCo Vandeweghe in the final of the Western & Southern Open.

Mirza and Strycova have lost just once since pairing up in Cincinnati, reaching the quarterfinals of the US Open and taking home a second title at the Toray Pan Pacific Open. Adding 470 points to their Road to Singapore leaderboard total, the pair could yet qualify for Singapore in their own right, giving Mirza the opportunity to pick between Hingis and Strycova should both teams finish inside the Top 8.

Heading into Wuhan, Mirza has enjoyed an uninterrupted reign atop the WTA doubles rankings since April 13, 2015 (77 consecutive weeks, including week of Sept 26th).

But Hingis has another chance to take back the top spot, which she shared with Mirza for 31 weeks between January and August. In opposite halves of the draw, Hingis – seeded No.6 with Vandeweghe – will have to at least the final to have a chance, and could have another battle royale for the No.1 ranking should she and Vandeweghe meet Mirza and Strycova (seeded No.3) in the championship match. 

Both teams received byes into the second round; Hingis and Vandeweghe will begin their tournament against Aleksandra Krunic and Katerina Siniakova, the latter of whom previously paired with Barbora Krejcikova to end Hingis and Mirza’s bid for the Non-Calendar Year Grand Slam at the French Open. Mirza and Strycova will play wither Arantxa Parra-Santonja and Anastasia Rodionova, or Gabriela Dabrowski and María José Martínez Sánchez in their opening round.

CoCo Vandeweghe, Martina Hingis

French Reunite In Asia: Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic anchor Hingis and Vandeweghe’s section of the draw as top seeds in Wuhan, and are playing for the first time since narrowly losing the US Open final to Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova.

Garcia and Mladenovic have already qualified for Singapore, but will be likely looking to retain match rhythm not only for the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global, but also the Fed Cup final, which the pair were cleared to play after an issue with the FFT. Their first opponents will be either Irina-Camelia Begu and US Open mixed doubles champion Laura Siegemund or Christina McHale and Peng Shuai.

No.7 seeds Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka are the French pair’s first possible seeds and projected quarterfinal opponents; the Czechs are coming off their first title together in 2016 at the Coupe Banque Nationale, which helped them reach No.5 on the Road to Singapore leaderboard.

Bucie In Hingis’ Quarter: Speaking of Mattek-Sands and Safarova, the pair’s US Open title helped launch them into the Top 8 on the RTS leaderboard at No.7, and could shore up a second straight Singapore appearance with solid performances in Asia.

Seeded No.5 in Wuhan, the two open against the unlikely wildcard pair of Simona Halep and Jelena Ostapenko, and could play the all-Chinese duo of Han Xinyun and Zhu Lin before facing projected opponents Hingis and Vandeweghe.

Photos courtesy of Getty Images.

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Arruabarrena Masters Niculescu In Seoul Final

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

SEOUL, South Korea – Lara Arruabarrena won a topsy-turvy Korea Open Tennis final against Monica Niculescu on Sunday to capture her second WTA title.

Four years on from her only other WTA silverware, on the clay of Bogotá, Arruabarrena mastered the cement – and Niculescu’s unorthodoxy – to triumph, 6-0, 2-6, 6-0, in just under two hours.

Arruabarrena came out on the losing side in the pair’s only previous hardcourt encounter, last summer in Washington DC. But attacking Niculescu’s slice with gusto, she dominated the rematch from the outset.

Yet after racing through the first set the Spaniard handed Niculescu a lifeline, double faulting twice to surrender her serve in the fourth game of the second. It was an opportunity Niculescu grasped with both hands, producing some gloriously inventive tennis – and the odd head-scratching miss – to level the match.

When Arruabarrena then snatched at a routine volley in her opening service game of the decider, the contest looked in danger of slipping away. She found a way out of this hole and when she broke with a wonderful lob a few games later the match swung decisively in her favor.

Niculescu battled to the last, saving one match point. It was merely delaying the inevitable, Arruabarrena wrapping up victory at the second time of asking.

In the doubles final, No.2 seeds Kirsten Flipkens and Johanna Larsson had too much for Akiko Omae and Peangtarn Plipuech, running out 6-2, 6-3 winners in just over an hour.

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Hibino Kicks Off Tashkent Title Defense

Hibino Kicks Off Tashkent Title Defense

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan – No.4 seed Nao Hibino got her Tashkent Open title defense off to a winning start, powering past local wildcard Komola Umarova in straight sets to secure a spot in the second round.

“I’m happy to be back to Tashkent and was a bit nervous playing here,” said Hibino, who claimed her maiden WTA title here last year. The Japanese 21-year-old scored a 6-3, 6-1 win over an overwhelmed Umarova in just under an hour.

Also in action at the Olympic Tennis School in Tashkent, Hibino’s countrywoman Kurumi Nara faced a tougher opening round challenge but still scored a straight sets win over Ukrainian wildcard Dayana Yastremska. Nara needed one hour and 48 minutes to advance to the second round 7-5, 6-2.

Stefanie Voegele was made to work for her second round spot, surviving the toughest match of the day against local qualifier Sabina Sharipova. The pair wrestled with the momentum throughout the two-hour-and-thirty-eight minute encounter before Voegele advanced 7-5, 5-7, 7-5 and moved into the second round for the second year in a row.

Joining her in the second round are Denisa Allertova and Maria Sakkari. No.9 seed Allertova stopped Japanese qualifier Hiroko Kuwata 6-3, 6-4, while Sakarri pushed past Anna Karolina Schmiedlova 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.

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Wuhan Tuesday: Top Seeds Kerber, Muguruza, Kick Off Wuhan Campaigns

Wuhan Tuesday: Top Seeds Kerber, Muguruza, Kick Off Wuhan Campaigns

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

How will Angelique Kerber handle her first match as a reigning World No.1 on Tuesday? We preview a busy slate of action in Wuhan, courtesy of WTATennis.com contributor Chris Oddo.

Tuesday

Second Round

[1] Angelique Kerber (GER #1) vs. Kristina Mladenovic (FRA #54)
Head-to-head: Kerber leads, 2-0
Key Stat: Kerber became the WTA’s 22nd No.1-ranked player on the Monday after the US Open.

How will it feel, taking the court as the WTA’s top-ranked player for the first time? Angelique Kerber isn’t quite sure. “I don’t know if it feels different,” she told reporters on Sunday in Wuhan. “I mean, I’m still the same person.” More than anything, having two weeks to relax after winning the US Open has left her feeling recharged and ready to push on through until the end of the 2016 season. “The two weeks at home, that gives me a lot of relaxing and a lot of power again, a lot more motivation,” she said. “I had a few days’ rest. That was really important for me after the US trip. Now, of course, the last trip of the year here in Asia, I’m really looking forward. I will try to enjoy everything, try to play my best and let’s see. I’m looking forward to now play the next tournament after New York.” The German will take on Kristina Mladenovic, a player that she has defeated in straight sets in their two previous meetings. Mladenovic, who defeated CoCo Vandeweghe in first-round action on Sunday in Wuhan, has not won back-to-back matches since July.

Pick: Kerber in two

[3] Agnieszka Radwanska (POL #4) vs. Ekaterina Makarova (RUS #39)
Head-to-head: Radwanska leads, 4-2
Key Stat: All six of Radwanska and Makarova’s matches have been decided in straight sets.

No.3 seed Agnieszka Radwanska has lost two of her last three matches to Ekaterina Makarova, but she does own a 4-1 lifetime record against the Russian on hardcourts. Makarova, who blasted past Sabine Lisicki on Monday, has gone 0-3 against the Top 5 this season but she does own eight Top 5 wins in her career. Can Makarova, in the midst of a mildly disappointing season, summon the magic and make a run at Radwanska? It won’t be an easy task. The Pole is always an extra-tough out on hard courts. She’s gone 31-9 this season on the surface (Makarova has gone 14-12), and has won 99 matches on hardcourts since the beginning of 2014. Though she has gone winless in her first two appearances at Wuhan, Radwanska has been in good form of late, winning 9 of her last 11 and reaching the Tokyo semifinals last week.

Pick: Radwanska in three

[2] Garbiñe Muguruza (ESP #3) vs. Jelena Jankovic (SRB #39)
Head-to-head: Muguruza leads, 3-1
Key Stat: Jankovic has lost eight of her last nine against Top 5 players.

Wuhan was a major springboard for Garbiñe Muguruza in 2015. The Spaniard came to the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open having lost four of six after her breakthrough final at Wimbledon. But Muguruza erased all doubts about her big-match legitimacy by reaching the final here and then winning the title in Beijing to assure Singapore qualification. This year, Muguruza is the hunted rather than the hunter: She’s looking to cling to her Singapore status rather than swoop in and steal it. Currently at No.6 in the Road to Singapore standings, the Spaniard needs a few more key wins to clinch her spot. It’s not time for holiday yet, but Muguruza wants to make sure that when it is time for vacation, she can look back on her season knowing that she’s done everything she can to succeed. “This year I want to do everything I can so I can go on holiday happy,” she said on Sunday in her pre-tournament press conference. “I don’t want to have [losing] on the back of my mind.” On Tuesday Muguruza will face veteran Jelena Jankovic for the fifth time. The Serb was a runner-up last week in Guangzhou, and powered past Daria Gavrilova in straight sets on Sunday.

Pick: Muguruza in three

Caroline Wozniacki (DEN #22) vs. Katerina Siniakova (CZE #56)
Head-to-head: First meeting
Key Stat: Wozniacki has won 11 of her last 12 matches.

The turnaround continues. Now knocking on the door of the Top 20 just a month after bottoming out at No.74 in the world rankings, Caroline Wozniacki continued her torrid play with a straight-sets thumping of Samantha Stosur on Monday in Wuhan. The indefatigable Dane may be running on fumes after a long week in Tokyo, but it is not affecting her tennis. “I felt surprisingly good on court today,” she said in her post-match press conference after defeating Stosur for the seventh time in 12 career matches. “I was expecting to be tired, maybe not have the right timing, since it’s completely different conditions. I think a day off would have been nice, but I played really well today… I’m on a roll, so hopefully I can keep pushing myself and play well.” On Tuesday Wozniacki will be at it again, facing 20-year-old Czech Katerina Siniakova for the first time. Will Wozniacki have the energy to fend off the rising youngster? Siniakova has reached the final in two of her last four events (Bastad, Tokyo International), but to progress further in Wuhan she’ll need to stop the momentum of the Wozniacki freight train.

Pick: Wozniacki in two

Around the Grounds: Defending champion Venus Williams will contest her first match since the US Open against Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan. Williams holds a 3-1 lifetime edge over the fiery 21-year-old, but Putintseva won the pair’s last meeting, defeating Williams in three tough sets at Charleston this year. Williams was magnificent in Wuhan last season. She notched three Top 10 wins in claiming what ended up as the biggest title of her season. Williams says that being the defending a champion isn’t playing on her mind at all. The 36-year-old is just eager to play some good tennis. “I’m just happy to be here, do the best I can, hope to play just as well as last year, have just as much luck.” She told media on Sunday. “So no big expectations.”

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