Tennis News

Victoria Azarenka gets her revenge: Azarenka told reporters in Indian Wells that she had rewatched her quarterfinal loss to Angelique Kerber at the Australian Open and she believed it was a match she should have won. Instead it was Kerber who rolled to a 6-3, 7-5 win and went on to win the first Slam of the year. That loss stung but Azarenka was determined to learn from it. The biggest lesson from the tape: she let Kerber dictate the match. She vowed not to let that happen again.

On Thursday night, the two best players of 2016 faced off for the third time in three months and Vika got her revenge, winning, 6-2, 7-5, in a spirited battle that emphasized just how good this rivalry has become. Azarenka is now 7-1 against Kerber but their three matches this year have seen both women push each other to find their best tennis. It’s a rivalry that fans are responding to.

“We’re both really good fighters,” Azarenka said. “She’s the type of player that will never give up and that also gives that kind of character to every match we play.”

Kerber agreed. “You see that we played really at a high level at the end of the match, that we both can raise our level a little bit higher when it’s important and know that now is the time to play the best tennis,” the German told WTA Insider. “This is why we always have really tough battles.”

Azarenka extended her season record to 21-1 with the near-flawless win, hitting 28 winners to 18 unforced errors, while Kerber finished with 22 winners to 23 unforced errors. Azarenka looked in cruise control after the first set but Kerber’s resilience helped her rally from 3-5 down in the second to break Azarenka as she served for the match at 5-4 and get back on serve. But Azarenka responded confidently and the two put on a shot-making showcase as they neared the finish line.

“She’s a very good player and obviously winning the Australian Open and playing so well this year, she plays with a different confidence and really raised her level,” Azarenka said. “For me we always have a lot of tough battles. I looked at this match as a really good challenge to work on my mistakes and what didn’t work for me at the Australian Open. I’m glad I made those adjustments and changed the result my way.

“I didn’t wait for her to give me anything. I really went out there and took my opportunities, which I was missing Australia. I wasn’t aggressive enough [then]. I know we got broken a lot of times but my serve was strong when I really needed and it made a difference.”

Svetlana Kuznetsova returns to the Miami final: Has it really been 10 years, Sveta? The Russian was 20-years-old when she won the Miami Open in 2006, beating Martina Hingis, Amélie Mauresmo, and Maria Sharapova en route to the title. Older, wiser, and still the immensely talented yet inconsistent player that she is, Kuznetsova’s rollercoaster career is back on the rise. A win on Saturday would put her back in the Top 10 for the first time since 2010.

“I started really well in Sydney, and then Australian Open didn’t happen for me to play good there,” Kuznetsova said. “But I still felt I was at a good level. Then I kind of messed up with Fed Cup. It was not good for me.

“I didn’t feel going in that [I was in] good shape going to the US swing. I was not feeling confident at all. After I had a loss in Indian Wells I tried to work a lot and training every morning a lot just to get confidence back, get my fitness.

“I’m doing better. I appreciate, I am blessed I have my body to play so many years and to win against good players, top players. It’s great when things come together. Either way, it’s not the end of the world, but it’s a great week. I’m really pleased and happy the way I fight through all these tournaments and weeks and players.”

Best of the best: Azarenka is a match away from becoming the first woman since Kim Clijsters in 2005 to complete the “Sunshine Double” and win both the BNP Paribas Open and Miami Open. She’s lost just one match all season and can put a straight-set win over No.1 Serena Williams on her 2016 resume. She’ll also return to the Top 5 on Monday.

So I asked Vika, quite simply, does she believe she’s the best player in the world right now? She answered with a single sentence: “I wouldn’t go out there and kill myself everyday if I didn’t feel that.”

Blood and sweat for real #whateverittakes pic.twitter.com/BfWKEAdJOB

— victoria azarenka (@vika7) April 1, 2016

Kuznetsova earned her spot in the final with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Timea Bacsinszky. It was a match that saw Kuznetsova play the more patient tennis in rallies, shrinking the court with her defense and forcing Bacsinszky to rush. Patience is not a word we normally associate with Kuznetsova, but it’s precisely what has paved the way to wins over No.1 Serena Williams, Ekaterina Makarova, and Bacsinszky.

“I give her a lot of credit because she played extremely well on break points,” Bacsinszky said. “I remember one or two where she passed me with an amazing backhand down the line. She was serving well too.

“You don’t have so many chances. If the other one shows you at the crucial moment that she is there, you try more. That’s probably why in the second set I was rushing too much because she was raising her level all the time when she was struggling a little bit with the game. She was able to do that. That’s why she’s an amazing player.”

Russian rollercoaster: Kuznetsova’s inconsistency throughout her career is legendary. She can win a title one week and then struggle to win matches for months. Such is life with Sveta, with which her coach is far too familiar.

“My coach laughs about it,” she said. “He said, you don’t have the medium term. You don’t go like middle, stable. You go very bad or very good. So I don’t know if it’s true. I always said so I feel so much better when I have two matches under my belt, two, three matches. Then I start to play better and get into the rhythm of the matches.

“Nowatimedays [sic] the level is really good of the girls. Everybody can beat anybody almost. But there is a difference of girls who can constantly win matches and those who can beat anybody but then next day they lose.

“I want to be different one. I want to win more matches. So when I get matches, I get going, I feel much better.”

GOAAAAAAAAAAAAAALS: Now 30 and on the verge of re-entering the Top 10, Kuznetsova said she gave up on goal-setting years ago. Kind of. No, she still has goals.

“I just don’t want to have any,” she said. “My main goal is just to keep improving. My main goal now actually is to come to play tournaments being ready. I need good three weeks practicing then I’m ready to play.

“Now when you compete you got to be at the top level. That’s the only goal I have. I didn’t think if I get to Top 10 or not. When I go and I see the rankings I am confident in myself I can beat these players and players from Top 10. I can beat basically most of the top players. Actually any player.

“For this I got to be consistent over all the year and to perform when I am at my best. Because I came to tournaments because it’s mandatory, because I had to go. I thought I want to go. Then you’re not ready. So I want to be 100% to play at my best. Then I can have a good chances to be higher in the ranking.

“I go for quality not quantity.”

Kerber on the mend as she heads to Charleston: Regardless of the loss it was a positive tournament for Kerber, who will return to No.2 on Monday. She next heads to the Volvo Car Open to defend her title but she’ll be racing the clock over the next few days to get fully fit after picking up an upper leg injury in Miami.

“I will not say it was an excuse,” Kerber said. “I was feeling the leg at the beginning of the match. At the end of the first set I was feeling it worse. I was trying not to feel the pain but it was little bit worse than yesterday. I hope it will be good in the next few days.”

2006 #TBT
-Song: Daniel Powter's “Bad Day”
-Movie: Pirates of the Caribbean 2
-Miami Open Champ: Svetlana Kuznetsova pic.twitter.com/s7colWpMwe

— Miami Open (@MiamiOpen) March 31, 2016

Bacsinszky/Date-Krum 2026?: Funny exchange with Bacsinszky after the match.

Bacsinszky: I have a lot of admiration for [Kuznetsova] and a lot of respect for her whole work and commitment to this sport. She won here 10 years ago. Now she’s here. I don’t know where I’m going to be in 10 years but probably not here.

WTA Insider: You never know.

Bacsinszky: You never know (laughs). I’m like a phoenix. I can come back from ashes, I know.

WTA Insider: It could happen.

Bacsinszky: Thirty-six, huh? Whoo. I’m going to ask Kimiko Date-Krumm to coach me then (laughter).

All photos courtesy of Getty Images.

MELBOURNE, Australia – Johanna Konta will play the biggest match of her career on Wednesday when she faces six-time champion Serena Williams in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. By all accounts, the 25-year-old doesn’t even see it that way.

Konta, who is riding an eight-match winning streak after taking the Apia International Sydney title, has won her last 18 sets of tennis. Her serve, a weapon that has emerged as the cornerstone of her game, has been broken just twice in Melbourne. There’s no reason for Konta to be short of confidence going into her first career meeting against Serena, but the humble Brit’s approach to her tennis these days is what sets her apart from the pack.

Look no further than the final game she played to beat Ekaterina Makarova, 6-1, 6-4 in the Round of 16 on Monday. Serving to close out the match, Konta found herself down 0-40, a point away from finding herself back on serve against the talented Russian. She saved the first break point with an unreturnable first serve, the second with a forehand winner, and the third with an ace, cool as you like. Four points later, the match was over.

Closing out matches, handling one’s nerves with so much on the line, these are the marks of a resilient competitor. Just 48 hours earlier, 19-year-old Jelena Ostapenko had No.5 seed Karolina Pliskova on the ropes and twice failed to serve out the match, blowing a 5-2 lead and losing. The young Latvian immediately copped to her nerves, saying she was impossibly tight as she stared down the biggest win of her career. Konta, serving for a spot in her second career quarterfinal, didn’t even flinch.

So how did Konta do it? Here’s her eloquent response from the interview room after the match:

Q. You said the other day that you were surprised how you close out sets and matches as if it was any routine service game. Where do you draw that confidence in those big moments?
JOHANNA KONTA: I think more than anything it’s more trying to disassociate myself from the importance of the moment. I think it’s more keeping things in perspective and not panicking if I were to lose that service game or that point.

I think just keeping things in good perspective and just having trust in myself that however the match will swing, I will always be there to give my best and to always try to leave it all out on court and fight till the very end.

So nice to finally meet @JoKonta91 fun chat & Jo has great vision & a positive attitude to the future of her tennis. Exciting times pic.twitter.com/06HjbPn2gG

— Jo Durie (@Jodurie) January 23, 2017

Q. When you talk about disassociating yourself from the big moments, obviously a lot of players struggle to do it, and I’m sure you struggled to do it five years ago. Why is that so difficult for most players? Why was it difficult early on to kind of be able to not be overwhelmed by the importance of moments in a match?
JOHANNA KONTA: I think it’s difficult, because you have also got to put things in perspective. Everyone you see playing has been playing since they were a little girl. And it’s no secret that to get to whatever sport or even whatever area of life, if you want to be part of the elite and if you want to get to the top of your field, there will be numerous sacrifices you’ll need to make.

And I think when you get to a position where you might see a glimmer of what you have dreamed of as a little girl or what you hoped for, what you’ve worked so hard for, it can feel kind of an all-or-nothing moment or what if I never get this chance again?

I think it’s more a bit of possibly fear of being able to replicate the position you’re in more than anything, but then I think that’s where you have also got to have a good perspective on things, and you’ve got to keep, I guess, the simple things in mind of what’s important to you.

Are you healthy? Is your family healthy? Do you have people around you that you love? Do you have people around you that love you?

I know it might sound really mundane and simple, but I guess you’ve got to go back to things that have got substance, and then in the end just trust in the work that you do, if it’s in the cards for you that you will get another opportunity or you won’t. I think [you have to] really love the sport for what it is and be grateful for the opportunities that it brings you, not necessarily what you wish it would.

Q. Going back to the separating yourself from the importance of the moment, in that nanosecond where the little voice in your ear goes, Psst, it’s match point, what is the trigger that you can shut that voice out, and how long does that take for it to become automatic?
JOHANNA KONTA: I don’t think it’s about necessarily, for me personally, anyway, about shutting it out. It’s more accepting that, Oh, I have got a little bit of tension. Or accepting that my mind might be yapping away, not necessarily fighting against it, but relaxing into it and saying, It’s absolutely normal to think like this.

I think it’s then easier for your motions to take over more than anything because you’ve got to trust the tennis in you, the motions in you, years and years of playing that I’m all of a sudden not going to forget how to serve. I have been doing it, I don’t even know how long, so I think it’s more just having that trust in the repetitions that you’ve had over the years.

Konta’s transformation over the last 18 months has been one of the most confounding stories in the women’s game. How does a player, one who was once a terrible closer who would let her emotions impede her game, suddenly learn to set it all aside and trust the tennis within her? Experience and maturity certainly play a role, as does Konta’s work with a sports psychologist.

But the rapidity of the change and her unwavering commitment and belief in herself is remarkable and a fantastic example to players up and down the rankings. Asked whether she believed she could beat Serena, Konta dismissed the premise of the question.

“I believe in my own ability,” she said. “I believe in the good things that I bring to the court, and I believe in my ability to fight till the very end.

“Now, there’s that and then there’s also an opponent out there, and this one’s going to be Serena Williams. I think it’s about playing, me going out there and doing what I want to do against her, and it will be about just staying focused on that. And if that brings me good things on that day, and if that puts me in a position to come through, then that’s great.

“But I’ve got to focus on the work and not think of whether I can or cannot beat her. I just need to stay on the work.”

All photos courtesy of Getty Images.