Can Serena Reclaim No.1 In Melbourne? Australian Open Ranking Scenarios
WTA Insider Courtney Nguyen | As she hunts for a 23rd Grand Slam title, Serena Williams will also try to wrest the No.1 ranking from Angelique Kerber at the Australian Open.
WTA Insider Courtney Nguyen | As she hunts for a 23rd Grand Slam title, Serena Williams will also try to wrest the No.1 ranking from Angelique Kerber at the Australian Open.
An interview with Shelby Rogers after her win in the first round of the Australian Open.
Sania Mirza and Barbora Strycova take on Jocelyn Rae and Anna Smith in the first round of the Australian Open.
Top seed and defending champion Irina-Camelia Begu made a confident start to the Korea Open, swatting aside wildcard Jang Su Jeong in little over an hour.
Britain’s No.1 Johanna Konta fought through a tricky opening match against Kirsten Flipkens to move into the second round of the Australian Open.
A week and a half ago tennis crowned a new queen when Angelique Kerber lifted the US Open to mark her ascent to the World No.1 ranking.
Watching on from the stands was Billie Jean King, the woman after whom tournament’s home is named, and who 43 years earlier paved the way for Kerber and company by defeating Bobby Riggs.
Dubbed by promoters as ‘The Battle of the Sexes’, on September 20, 1973 King took on Riggs, an ageing former major champion and shameless misogynist who claimed he could still beat any of the leading women on the fledgling Women’s Tennis Association.
Luckily, she did win. Playing to an audience of 30,472 in the Houston Astrodome – and over 100 million watching around the world on television – King abandoned her serve-and-volley game to defeat Riggs from the back of the court, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.
When Riggs hit a high backhand volley into the net on match point, King flung her racket into the air in celebration. “I thought it would set us back 50 years if I didn’t win that match,” she said later. “It would ruin the women’s tour and affect all women’s self-esteem.”
For his part, Riggs told reporters that King simply “played too well.” The two eventually became friends, and even spoke a few days before Riggs died of prostate cancer in 1995.
Over four decades on, the match remains a landmark moment in the gender equality movement, one that transcended sport.
43 years ago today I played Bobby Riggs in a match that changed my life & was all about equality. To celebrate let's shine a light on others
— Billie Jean King (@BillieJeanKing) September 20, 2016
MELBOURNE, Australia – No.1 seeds Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic put together a dominant performance in their first match of 2017 to move into the second round of the Australian Open.
Despite not playing together since their heartbreaking defeat in last year’s Fed Cup final, the French duo showed no signs of rust and cruised past Belinda Bencic and Ana Konjuh 6-1, 6-2.
Garcia and Mladenovic have a shot at becoming co-No.1s in doubles at the end of this fortnight, and they definitely played like it as they comfortably broke twice to climb ahead to a 4-1 lead. Bencic’s backhand caught the net time and time again, giving the French duo plenty of free points.
Bencic and Konjuh finally got on the board with a strong Bencic service game, but it didn’t make a dent in the French team’s momentum and they served out the opening set with ease. Another pair of back-to-back breaks of serve gave Garcia and Mladenovic their first victory of 2017 after just 47 minutes.
Also through to the second round are the No.2 seeds Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova. They survived a late wobble to advance 6-1, 7-5 over Nicole Gibbs and Chuang Chia-Jung.
Currently the World No.1 doubles player, Mattek-Sands is likely breathing a sigh of relief, as her and Safarova’s road to the final has cleared up considerably following the withdrawal of potential third-round opponents Venus Williams and Serena Williams.
“I was hoping to have the capacity to play both events here, but at this point I just need to be careful and just try to maintain myself,” said Venus, citing an elbow injury.
Angelique Kerber takes on Carina Witthoeft in the second round of the Australian Open.
SAP Tennis Analytics for Coaches powered by SAP HANA provides decisive real-time performance data. This analytical edge arms coaches and players with the insight necessary to implement crucial strategy changes during the course of the match.
“I can go on court and say to the player without any hesitation: ‘Okay, 100% of the time when they’re break point down, they’re serving here. You should look to do this,” said Nicole Pratt, coach of Daria Gavrilova.
“In Toronto, Nicole came out with the tablet and showed me a few different stats. When she showed me how far behind the baseline I was it helped a lot and I started to move back inside the court and be more aggressive. It helped me turn that match around.”
Watch the video above to hear how Angelique Kerber, Daria Gavrilova and their respective coaching teams use SAP Tennis Analytics during their matches.
Serena Williams discusses what civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr would have been like on Twitter at her Australian Open post-match press conference.