Tennis News

ZHENGZHOU, China – No.2 seed Wang Qiang earned her first WTA 125K Series title at the Biyuan Cup Zhengzhou Women’s Tennis Open at top seed Peng Shuai was forced to retire in the deciding set with the match standing at 3-6, 7-6(3), 1-1.

“I entered this tournament as the second seed, so there was an opportunity for me to win the title,” Wang said post-match. “I almost got knocked out in the second round. At that time, I didn’t feel as confident as I am today. I’m not quite sure what happened in the second set, but I tried to stay focused and play my game, not making too many mistakes. I knew that she would go for it whenever she had the chance.”

Peng led the match 6-3, 3-0 and served for the match, but surrendered the deciding tiebreak and could no longer play on after two hours, 15 minutes. Wang’s victory levels the head-to-head between the pair to 1-1.

It was a Chinese sweep for the home crowd as in the doubles final, Han Xinyun and Lin Zhu claimed the crown over Jacqueline Cako and Julia Glushko, 7-5, 6-1.

“We didn’t play each other before, so the only thing we could do was stick to the plan,” the pair said post-match. “The second set became easier as we found our rhythm. We were more powerful than our opponents from the baseline, and we had a better serve.”

All photos courtesy of the Biyuan Cup Zhengzhou Women’s Tennis Open.

Tennis players are, by definition, intense individuals. Driven by a single desire at the start of each week, small victories are, at best, swiftly savored in the face of an ever-shifting goal post. Throw in external stressors and self-doubt and indeed, only the strong survive.

Ten days into 2016 and some of that doubt has already begun to surface among the game’s best, a caution that has kept them from completely committing to the very tournaments meant to ready them for the major glory they seek.

Two-time Wimbledon quarterfinalist Tamira Paszek has had to overcome much adversity, yet remains among the few standing strong to start the season. Once a fixture in the Top 30, Paszek took six months off from the end of 2014 to heal an adductor injury, one that was wreaking havoc on an already injury-addled career.

She refused to return until she was fully fit, starting slowly by playing Challenger tournaments once she was.

“I feel very grateful and I’m very thankful for being healthy again,” she told WTA Insider as she prepared for Australian Open qualifying. “Once you’ve experienced such a low and such a struggle, you start appreciating and enjoying everything a lot more. I’m just trying to be in the moment, have fun out there, and do my best every day that I can.”

Reuniting with former coach Andrei Pavel – a former Top 15 player himself – after playing her home tournament in Linz, Paszek added Iulia Moldovan as her full-time physio in September, and established relationships with two training facilities in her home town of Dornbirn – the Olympic Center and Tennis CAMPUS – all in the hopes of maintaining the physicality needed to unlock her potential and powerful ground game.

“I think I really found my base now. With Andrei, I have a great coach. He helps me a lot, and kind of leaves me my own instincts on the court, which I’ve always loved to deal with by myself.

“I spent the off-season at home in Austria, which was really nice, and had a great fitness preparation the first couple of weeks at the Olympic Centre back home. Last year was all about having the rehab done and starting from zero. Now I was actually starting from a fit base, so I think that’s a really big part of why things are running smoothly at the moment.”

A run to the semifinals of an autumn $100K Challenger as a qualifier set the stage for an even bigger result just one week ago in Auckland, an event where she first made the final four back in 2008, at just 17 years old.

“I’ve loved the tournament since I was a very young player. I think the tournament director does an amazing job at making a great tournament, bringing out all the best players. Auckland is a beautiful city as well; they’re really lovely people there. So I think the whole combination of everything attracts the players a lot.”

Paszek fought through qualifying once more to find a pair of former major champions in Francesca Schiavone and Svetlana Kuznetsova – along with 2013 Wimbledon semifinalist Kirsten Flipkens – waiting for her in the main draw. Edging out Schiavone and cruising past Kuznetsova, the true test came against Flipkens, who forced her to face the self-doubt that kept her from closing out their quarterfinal encounter in straight sets, and overwhelm the Belgian with definitive intensity in the decider.

“I really had to work for those matches. We had long rallies and tough points; there were a few really tough battles out there, but that’s rewarding after a tough pre-season, knowing you’re healthy and that you’re ready to compete against top players.”

The semifinal finish puts Paszek in position to reach the Top 100 for the first time in nearly three years, but the Austrian will have to make it through another three rounds of qualifying in order to play the first major tournament of the season.

“The good part about playing qualies is that you get a lot of matches, and you get a good rhythm, which is especially important at the beginning of the year. I’ve always been the type of person that tries to see the positive aspect of things, so I’m really looking forward to it.

“We arrived in Melbourne on Sunday, so we had a good day off, recovering from all the tough matches in Auckland. It has been pretty good, a lot of workouts, getting ‘back to the business’ and we’ve had good practices, playing a lot of points and I had a good fitness session yesterday, so I’m getting ready for Thursday.”

After a short winter spent in the Dornbirn mountains, Paszek has one more hill to climb in Melbourne, where she will need every ounce of strength earned over the off-season – and her signature intensity – to take her to the summit of her 2016 goals by returning to the Top 50.

“I’m trying to keep my expectations as low as possible, but I’m ready, I’m happy, and I’m playing well, so anything can happen.”

All photos courtesy of Getty Images.

MELBOURNE, Australia – What do Ana Ivanovic, Angelique Kerber, and Daria Gavrilova have in common? They all play with Yonex racquets, and all three were present for a special gathering hosted by popular sports brand to celebrate the career of former ATP No.1 Lleyton Hewitt ahead of the Australian Open.

Joined by fellow ATP players in Stan Wawrinka and Borna Coric, Ivanovic, Kerber and Gavrilova were on hand to speak about their goals for the upcoming season, and handicapped their chances at the first major tournament in Melbourne.

Check out some of the best images from the event:

All images courtesy of Yonex Tennis.

Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova remain on a collision course for a quarterfinal date at this year’s Australian Open. But they’ve still got some work to do before they get there. We preview their Day 5 tilts, as well as some other enticing Friday matchups, here.

Friday, Day 5
Third Round

[1] Serena Williams (USA #1) vs. Daria Kasatkina (RUS # 69)
Head-to-head: First meeting
Key Stat: Kasatkina was just two years old when Serena Williams won her first major.

Russia’s Daria Kasatkina is quickly making a name for herself as a future star on the WTA tour. Just two weeks ago she defeated Venus Williams in Auckland, and the 2014 French Open junior champion has now reached the third round at both Grand Slams she’s played in her career. But on Friday when she faces top-seeded Serena Williams, she’ll encounter the biggest challenge in women’s tennis. Williams, who has erased all doubts about the state of her health by breezing through her first two matches in Melbourne, is hungry to make more Grand Slam magic and very much aware of the potential of Kasatkina. “I don’t think it’s going to be easy,” Williams said of their impending battle. “Any time someone is beating Venus they are more than likely playing really good. So I definitely will be ready for that.”

Pick: Williams in two

[5] Maria Sharapova (RUS #5) vs. Lauren Davis (USA # 103)
Head-to-head: First meeting
Key Stat: Sharapova is going for her 600th career win. 

Like Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova also came to Melbourne with doubts about her health and match fitness swirling. But the five-time major champion has dropped seven games in two matches and looks to be in mid-season form ahead of her third-round showdown with hard-charging American Lauren Davis. Sharapova has never faced the Ohio native before, but at this stage of the tournament the fifth seed is more concerned about dictating with her power strokes than the opponent on the other side of the net. “I don’t think it matters [who I face],” she told reporters after her straight-sets victory over Aliaksandra Sasnovich on Wednesday. “I think my focus has to be on myself and on my game. Just improving and getting better.”

Pick: Sharapova in two

[4] Agnieszka Radwanska (POL #4) vs. Monica Puig (PUR # 52)
Head-to-head: First meeting
Key Stat: Red-hot Radwanska has won 24 of her last 28 matches.

After an impressive takedown of surging Canadian Eugenie Bouchard in the second round things don’t promise to get any easier for No.4-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska. Her next opponent, 22-year-old Puerto Rican Monica Puig, has won 10 of her last 11 matches and is into the third round of a major for the first time since 2013. After surviving a 31-ace onslaught from Kristyna Pliskova in the second round, Puig has stockpiled a pile of the belief that comes with saving five match points and gutting out an improbable win at a major. “I think it’s just about believing that you can come out of a moment like that, that at any moment you can get a second wind and come out of it,” Puig said after her marathon win on Wednesday.

Pick: Radwanska in two

[28] Kristina Mladenovic (FRA # 30) vs. Daria Gavrilova (AUS # 39)
Head-to-head: First meeting
Key Stat: Gavrilova has four Top 10 wins since last March.

They have never met at the tour-level but that does not mean that France’s Kristina Mladenovic and Australia’s Daria Gavrilova don’t have history. They met in the Roland Garros Girls’ Singles final in 2009, and it was Mladenovic who got the win. “We played juniors a lot,” Gavrilova explains. “I actually lost to her at the French Open, I don’t know, ages ago. I was 15. It was in the finals. We have known each other since we were about 12.” Nearly seven years on, both players appear to be on the cusp of big-time stardom. Mladenovic reached her first major quarterfinal at last year’s US Open, while Gavrilova, who exudes fire and infectious enthusiasm for the game, has risen from outside the Top 200 to No.39 in the world in just over a year’s time.

Pick: Gavrilova in three

Around the Grounds: Belinda Bencic will look to advance to the round of 16 in Melbourne for the first time, but she’ll have to get past one of the tournament’s inspirational figures in Kateryna Bondarenko to get there. Bondarenko, who left the tour in 2012 to give birth to a child and didn’t return until 2014, is looking like she never missed a beat… Quietly, No.10-seeded Carla Suárez Navarro is working her way through the draw. The 2009 Australian Open quarterfinalist will face 19-year-old Russian Elizaveta Kulichkova for a spot in the second week… A finalist at last year’s US Open, Italy’s Roberta Vinci is alive and well in Melbourne. She’ll bid to reach the round of 16 in Melbourne for the first time against Anna-Lena Friedsam of Germany.