Tennis News

Asia Muhammad was born into a family of athletes. Her parents played basketball; her brother Shabazz plays for the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves. Muhammad chose tennis, and almost instantly became a star on the junior circuit.

“I started having really good results, beating the top college players,” she told WTA Insider after beating Donna Vekic for just her second career WTA main draw win at the Brisbane International. “When I was younger, they had the rankings, and I started to beat them pretty badly. I started to think, “Why not? School is always going to be here.” My dad went to USC, and so that’s where I was going to go; it was always a dream, but if I want to do this, I need to start now.

“People sometimes ask me if I regret not going to school, and I honestly say no. My best friend went to USC, so I’ve still gone there to hang out, but I don’t regret it at all.”

At her last two junior tournaments, Muhammad earned wins over the likes of Heather Watson and Kristina Mladenovic, but the American admitted her all-court game took time to develop as she transitioned onto the senior level.

“In the beginning, I was always tall, so I was more of a power player. When I was 10, my coach Tim Blinkiron – who’s in Vegas and is Australian – right from the beginning, he had me volleying. Now, I’m so thankful for that, because the older you get, the tougher it is to try and do that. He’s always had me volleying, playing mini-tennis against boys, just for my hands.

“He’s always known what he wanted my game to be; I’ve trailed behind, not really trusting in it. But now, I’m getting to that stage where I know what I need to do and working on it. It’s there, but I just need to trust in it and do that.”

At 25 years old, Muhammad sees herself as a late bloomer in the vein of Samantha Stosur, one whose early investments could pay off big in the next few years.

“I think a lot of players who play like me had their successes later too, and it came with doubles first. I think doubles is a huge part of helping my singles with all the volleying.”

Muhammad is already a Top 50 doubles player, winning two titles in the last two years, and ended the 2016 season partnering Nicole Gibbs to reach the final of a WTA 125K in Hawaii. The pair joined up with other rising Americans like Shelby Rogers and Kayla Day for a pre-season bootcamp in Carson, California – courtesy of the United States Tennis Association.

“This was definitely my best pre-season of my career so far. Nicole and I would do fitness every day together and really push each other. That was very crucial to my pre-season training. I wasn’t in Vegas – that’s where I live – and I just knew I wanted something with a lot of structure, and that’s what you’re going to get there. We played a lot of tennis, had fitness every day, had amazing fitness trainers and physios helping us. It had everything there, and that helped a lot.

“That was the biggest difference, knowing myself and that I need to have structure, and then finding that and staying and sticking with that.”

Getting to know herself as a player and athlete has already paid dividends in Australia, where Muhammad enjoys ordering the local lattes.

“It’s definitely been up and down,” she said looking back on her career thus far. “I was one of the up and coming juniors, doing really well. I got stuck a little, trying to figure things out with my game. I try to move forward, and do a lot of different things. I think that takes a little bit longer to put all of that together because there’s a lot of moving parts.

“How I try to play takes a lot of guts, so I would get stuck not doing it, and then trying. That would make me feel all over the place. But this year, I just want to have consistent plays, doing the right things on the court no matter what.

“Maybe it’s taken me until 25 to really figure that out, but there’s nothing wrong with that; I’m only competing against myself. I’m really happy, healthy, and in a really good spot now. Everything that’s happened so far, I feel like that’s helped me get to where I need to get.”

Muhammad takes on World No.6 Karolina Pliskova on Tuesday morning.

More quick hits from Muhammad…

On growing up in a family of athletes…
It’s good because my mom and dad played basketball, my brothers played basketball. My brother Shabazz, who plays in the NBA, is so supportive. He’s literally my biggest fan; when he comes to watch me play, he gets so into it and wants me to do so well. But it’s also good because when I’m away from tennis, I can watch him play, and it’s a break. My whole family play sports, and so they understand the life and are really supportive.

From a young age, we were all so competitive. I used to play basketball against my brothers, and back when I was taller than them, I could beat them and push them around. But we went from being really competitive at a young age to just being so supportive of one another. We want each other to do well, like if I have a good win and Shabazz has a good game, it’s such a great day for us to be able to do it as a team even if we’re not playing the same sport.

On debating individual vs. team sports with her family…
We’ve definitely had disagreements with that, because, just for example, when you’re playing the first set of a match and get nervous or struggling, you can’t time out, sub, or do anything like that. I tell them how lucky they are to be able to do things like that, and that I’m out there by myself. Luckily, you have a partner to help you in doubles, but we’ve disagreed about things like that. I tell them, ‘You can go sit on the bench for a little; I can’t!’

On playing tennis with Andre Agassi and Stefanie Graf in Las Vegas…
I think the thing that really helped was that my cousin and I were both living in Vegas, and we both started playing at the Andre Agassi Boys and Girls Club. Andre and Steffi would come out and were so nice; they would hit with us and everything. I just like the environment and the people around. It was a really good vibe.

On who she calls for dinner at tournaments…
Lately it’s been the American girls; I’ve been hanging out with Christina McHale a lot because we’re playing doubles. I also hang out with Samantha Crawford, Nicole Gibbs. We’ll do dinners and it’s just easy. We want each other to do well, and so it’s easy to hang out and talk about things. They understand; not only did I spend the pre-season with most of them, I grew up with them as well. Christina and I grew up traveling together in juniors. It’s crazy.

On the last song she listened to…
Can I look? Let’s see. It was Starboy by The Weeknd.

All photos courtesy of Tennis Photo Network and Getty Images.

MELBOURNE, Australia – Ash Barty is ready to make her return to tennis. After announcing her plans to step away from the sport seventeen months ago, the 19-year-old Australian has found her passion rekindled and the freshness she needed to return to the game she so desperately loves.

A Junior Wimbledon champion at the age of 15, Barty quickly became a three-time Grand Slam finalist alongside her compatriot Casey Dellacqua. Barty and Dellacqua put together a stunning 2013 season, making the finals at the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. She reached a career-high doubles ranking of No.12 just two years after being the No.2 junior. And those weren’t even her favorite memory of her teenage years. Barty’s favorite moment?

“Winning my first Fed Cup live rubber against Switzerland,” she told WTA Insider via phone from Brisbane. “There’s nothing quite like playing for Australia. That was a pretty phenomenal feeling. That’s close to the three finals with Casey or winning junior Wimbledon. But I think playing for Australia is the cream of the crop and that was pretty special.”

Junior champion. Grand Slam finals. Fed Cup winner. All before she was 18. It all came fast. Too fast.

“It was obviously phenomenal, but it all happened a little bit too quickly,” Barty said. “I went from not being known anywhere in the world to winning junior Wimbledon and six months later playing the Australian Open. I was a victim of my own success, really. We had plans to play in those tournaments, not expecting those results. If you win the Wildcard Playoff you can’t really say, ‘Oh, I actually don’t want the wildcard.’

“Obviously I was very young, but I turn 20 this year and it’s a different perspective on life and tennis in general. I’ll be able to do it my way a little bit more. If it works, great. If it doesn’t, I can’t really complain. I’ve had a phenomenal career for the short time that I did play. I’m just prepared to work up that slow grind up the ITFs and hopefully be up with the WTA soon.”

This time there will be no shortcuts to success.

“I could have taken a protected ranking and walked in there next week but that’s not really what I want. I’m starting fresh and I can go through the process a little bit better this time and get it a little bit more suitable for me.”

Barty’s decision to step away from a promising young career at just 17-years-old stunned many. She had a top-notch doubles career and though her singles career followed a more gradual and expected path, she was consistently improving. She toiled away on the ITF circuit and battled – more successfully than not – through qualifying to earn her spot in the main draw.

In 2013 she reached the second round at the French Open and Wimbledon. But as 2014 wound down, the joy was gone. So to save herself and her career, she announced an indefinite hiatus.

“I love the sport of tennis, but I sort of got a little bit away from what I really wanted to do. It became robotic for me and that’s not what I wanted. It’s such an amazing sport and I just really wanted to enjoy it and I lost that enjoyment and that passion.

“I think deep down I knew if I kept trying to drive on through it, it would drive me away completely. So it was the right time to step away and just refresh.

“I had done it previously, in smaller stints. A few weeks here or there. But this time I knew I needed a little more time and didn’t put a time limit on it. It just so happens to be that 16, 17 months later, I’m refreshed and ready to go again.”

Aside from having the Australian Open running in the background last year, Barty paid little attention to what was happening on tour during her time away. Instead, being the preternaturally talented teen that she is, she turned to cricket. In October, Barty signed on to play professional cricket with the Brisbane Heat in the inaugural Women’s Big Bash league.

“It was an unbelievable opportunity to completely do something really different. The support and everything I got from cricket was phenomenal. Having that competitive edge brought me back into that aspect of tennis, as well, getting out there and competing and sharing it with other people.

“It was just nice to refresh and do something different.”

So at just 19 years old, Ash Barty had already played two sports professionally – a tribute to her natural athletic ability, phenomenal hand/eye coordination, and feel. But when push came to shove, only one sport proved to be her true calling.

“Tennis in the end, it just makes sense to me.”

Nothing specific triggered Barty’s decision to give tennis another go. There was no lightbulb moment or moment of clarity. She said the decision was a gradual and natural process, one that began when she flew down to Melbourne for last month’s Australian Open and hit with a few promising young players at Melbourne Park. On a trip up to Sydney, she visited Dellacqua and had a hit as well. With each hit her level improved and Barty began to feel the hunger to compete once again.

“After I hit a few times throughout the time away, I hit the ball ok each time . I realized after hitting a few times it was just what I’m probably meant to be doing in life.”

That nonchalant attitude about, what she calls “Tennis 2.0”, was borne out of a newfound perspective on life and the sport. She is ready to get back to doing the hard work, playing the matches, and competing. And should that spotlight come circling back, she feels better equipped to handle it today.

“I’m prepared to commit myself fully to getting back into tennis. That’s the only way to do it, and that’s why I’m taking it slowly in the beginning. There’s no point in jumping back on tour and realizing six months later that this is not what I want. This gives me the opportunity to work my way into it.

“Second time around you really do learn a lot from the first time and already I’m able to sit down and take a different perspective.”

For the time being, Barty will work alone, with an eye towards hitting as many balls as her body will allow.

“I know my game back to front and I know what I need to work on. Right now it’s about volume, hitting a lot of tennis balls again. So I’ll just go by myself for the first couple of months and use a few mates, and I suppose once I get into it a little bit I’ll have discussions with Tennis Australia about what we’re going to do moving forward and we’ll see how we go.”

Playing doubles in a $25,000 ITF Challenger tournament this week in Perth, Barty is keeping expectations in check as she kicks off her comeback. Ash is perfectly fine with that; it’s not like Australia is exactly starved of top players right now.

“We’re in a really exciting period in Australian tennis. We have Sam Stosur and Dash [Daria Gavrilova] leading from the front in singles and Casey’s a world class doubles player, still Top 5 in the world. I’m just really excited to be back in the fold soon. Hopefully not too far away from being up with those girls.

“I just know deep down that I’m refreshed and ready to go again. I’m starting from scratch and that’s no worries at all.”

No worries at all? That hasn’t always been the case for Ash Barty. It’s heartening to think that may ring true once again.

Pretty pumped to be out hitting a few balls again! Can't wait to kickstart in Perth over the next fortnight☺️☺️#2.0 pic.twitter.com/94weIwYErG

— Ash Barty (@ashbar96) February 8, 2016

All photos courtesy of Getty Images.

CINCINNATI, OH, USA – Angelique Kerber kept her bid to claim the No.1 ranking on track with a hard-fought win over Barbora Strycova in the third round of the Western & Southern Open on Thursday.

Watch live action from Cincinnati this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!

Victory this week at the Lindner Family Tennis Center will see Kerber usurp Serena Williams and rise to the top of the rankings for the first time in her career, and she moved one step closer to that goal by edging past Strycova, 7-6(5), 6-4.

“It’s always tough to play against Barbora – we’ve had a lot of tough matches in the past – but I just tried to stay aggressive at the important moments and I’m really happy with how I played at the end,” Kerber said.

By her own admission, Kerber has been something of a late bloomer – she did not win her first silverware or break into the Top 10 until her mid-20s. However, just five months from her 29th birthday, she is playing the best tennis of her career.

“I’ve had a lot of ups and downs in my career, but I’m having the best year of my career and it’s still not over,” Kerber said. “It’s amazing what’s happened in the last few months – it’s just incredible!”

In January she stunned the tennis world by beating Serena to the Australian Open title, and after taking a while to come to terms with her achievement is now reveling in the limelight; at Wimbledon, she reached her second Grand Slam final, losing narrowly to Serena, following this up with a semifinal in Montréal and a silver medal at the Rio Olympics.

Making light of this hectic summer schedule, the German was her usual indefatigable self against Strycova, scurrying to track down a succession of seemingly lost causes. This application served her well in the opening set tie-break, drawing the errors then closing it out with a typically precise backhand pass.

Strycova continued to hold her own in the second set, but once again it was Kerber that won the points that mattered most, breaking in the penultimate game before confidently serving out. 

Now she is only three wins away from becoming the 22nd player to scale the top of the rankings. While Serena may be absent, things are unlikely to get any easier in Cincinnati. The next obstacle comes in the shape of Carla Suárez Navarro, who earlier on overcame Roberta Vinci, 6-1, 7-5.

Pliskova Continues To Impress

The 11th-hour withdrawal of Serena has left the top half of the draw wide open. It is an opportunity Karolina Pliskova has grabbed with both hands, capitalizing on the fast surface to get some much-needed confidence ahead of the US Open.

Pliskova has endured a frustrating campaign, struggling to replicate the form that briefly took her into the Top 10 and threaten to the 2015 BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.

On her day, the Czech has all the attributes to contend, her imperious serve complemented by dazzling power from the baseline, and against Misaki Doi, the lucky loser beneficiary from Serena’s injury, she finished strongly to run out a 7-5, 6-3 winner. The reward is a meeting with two-time major winner and No.7 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, a 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 winner over Timea Bacsinszky.