Cincinnati: Kuznetsova Interview
An interview with Svetlana Kuznetsova ahead of her participation in the Western & Southern Open.
An interview with Svetlana Kuznetsova ahead of her participation in the Western & Southern Open.
Donna Vekic had Monday’s shot of the day at the Western & Southern Open.
EILAT, Israel – Even without their new star Johanna Konta, Great Britain had few problems securing a place in this weekend’s Fed Cup Europe/Africa Zone Group I promotion play-offs.
Singles victories for Heather Watson and Katie Swan helped Britain to a 2-1 win over Georgia in their final Group B outing. The result sets up a meeting with Belgium on Saturday to determine which nation will advance to the World Group II play-offs this spring.
In the absence of some of Britain’s more experienced campaigners, most notably Australian Open semifinalist Konta, 16-year-old Swann has stepped up magnificently, easing past Georgian No.2 Ekaterine Gorgodze, 6-3, 6-3, for her second win of the week. Watson then put the tie beyond Georgia’s reach by swatting aside Sofia Shapatava, 6-2, 6-0, in an hour.
“I wouldn’t call it easy at all, I don’t think any match is easy, I only have to focus 100% and be prepared for anything,” Watson said.
Sterner tests lie ahead, in the shape of a talented young Belgium side, which extended their perfect record this week with a 3-0 success over Bulgaria.
Ysaline Bonaventure got the ball rolling with a hard-fought 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 win over Elitsa Kostova, before Alison Van Uytvanck and Tsvetana Pironkova put their unbeaten records this week on the line.
In the end it was Van Uytvanck that prevailed, edging a see-saw opening set before cantering through the second, wrapping up an impressive 6-4, 6-2 victory with an ace.
“I think they did a great job. They all have a little bit of experience now in Fed Cup, only one rookie this year,” Belgium captain Ann Devries said. “Everybody wants to go for it, everybody wants to win, and not just the players who are playing but everyone in the team.”
The other play-off at Eilat’s Municipal Tennis Centre will see the Ukraine take on home nation Israel.
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While Great Britain and Belgium are battling it out to climb another rung on the Fed Cup ladder, over in Europe the heavyweights will duke it out for a spot in the World Group semifinals.
In Leipzig, Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber is hoping to inspire Germany to the semifinals for a third straight year when they take on neighbors Switzerland. Friday’s draw paired Kerber with Timea Bacsinszky, while in the opening rubber Andrea Petkovic takes on Swiss No.1 Belinda Bencic.
In Cluj, Romania make their return to the World Group when they meet defending champions Czech Republic. Romania, who last appeared at this stage in 1992, will be lead by Simona Halep, but face an uphill battle against the nine-time champions. Halep postponed nasal surgery to lead the home nation and opens the weekend against Karolina Pliskova. Petra Kvitova and Monica Niculescu will meet in Saturday’s second singles rubber.
The other two ties see 2008 champions Russia host the Netherlands, in Moscow, and Italy travel to Marseille to take on France.
CoCo Vandeweghe discusses her quarterfinal win over Garbine Muguruza in a press conference at the Australian Open.
Venus and Serena Williams are in the final of the Australian Open, the first all-Williams Grand Slam final since 2009. So how did we get here? Take a look back at the best photos of the fortnight!
Daria Kasatkina takes on Dominika Cibulkova in the quarterfinals at the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy.
MELBOURNE, Australia – The bottom half of the Australian Open draw concludes the quarterfinal match-ups in Melbourne, featuring the much-anticipated clash between six-time champion Serena Williams and Johanna Konta, the in-form semifinalist from last year. No.5 seed Karolina Pliskova also hopes to continue her unbeaten run in 2017 against Cinderella story Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, who is into her first major quarterfinal in nearly two decades.
We preview all the Day 10 matchups right here on wtatennis.com.
Wednesday, Quarterfinals
[5] Karolina Pliskova (CZE #5) vs Mirjana Lucic-Baroni (CRO #79)
Head-to-head: Pliskova leads, 3-2
Key Stat: Both Pliskova and Lucic-Baroni are playing in their second Grand Slam quarterfinals (Pliskova, 2016 US Open, Lucic-Baroni, 1999 Wimbledon).
Pliskova made her first 17 Grand Slam appearances without making the second week, but the Brisbane International champion is making up for lost time in her second straight major quarterfinal since reaching the US Open final.
It was a much longer drought for Lucic-Baroni, who needed 18 years to back up her breakthrough run at the 1999 Wimbledon Championships after a mix of personal and financial problems kept her off the tour for almost a decade.
The 34-year-old veteran takes on Pliskova for the first time since the 2015, when the two split their two meetings that season; Lucic-Baroni lost their most recent encounter in a third-set tie-break at the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open.
Pliskova has dropped just two sets all season, emerging victorious from a 10-8 final set against Latvian youngster Jelena Ostapenko to brush aside No.22 seed Daria Gavrilova in front of her home crowd.
Can Lucic-Baroni win the battle of big hitters to continue her fairytale run, or will Pliskova continue her newfound dominance at majors and reach another semifinal?
[9] Johanna Konta (GBR #9) vs [2] Serena Williams (USA #2)
Head-to-head: First meeting
Key Stat: Konta has dropped serve twice in four matches (tournament leader).
With defending champion Angelique Kerber out at the hands of CoCo Vandeweghe, Serena Williams suddenly found herself in a solid position to reclaim the No.1 ranking from her rival. To do it, she’ll also need to take home the Open Era record of 23 Grand Slam titles and her seventh Down Under.
Standing between her and the semifinals is an unfamiliar foe in Johanna Konta, the fastest rising force in women’s tennis since her initial 16-match winning streak in the summer of 2015.
Konta has been ruthless through four rounds, knocking out former No.1 Caroline Wozniacki and 2015 semifinalist Ekaterina Makarova en route to her second straight quarterfinal in Melbourne.
Serena has taken out on-fire opponents in the past; can she solve the unflappable Brit on Rod Laver Arena, or will Konta keep up her potentially Slam-winning form into the final four?
Around the Grounds…
The women’s and mixed doubles events are rounding into form, and both feature doubles No.1 Bethanie Mattek-Sands. The American rejoins Lucie Safarova to take on the unseeded Japanese duo of Eri Hozumi and Miyu Kato. Meanwhile, top seeds Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic will need to turn around from their three-set thriller over Aussies Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua to play No.12 seeds Andrea Hlavackova and Peng Shuai, who dispatched reigning Olympic champions Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in two tight sets on Tuesday.
In mixed, No.2 seed Sania Mirza will partner Ivan Dodig for a second day in a row as they try to reach a second straight Australian Open semifinal; aiming to stop them are an unseeded pair in Gabriela Dabrowski and Mirza’s countryman, Rohan Bopanna.
All photos courtesy of Getty Images.
Every week wtatennis.com brings you 10 Things To Know about the week – who is playing, where and much more. This week the Road To Singapore goes through Dubai and Rio de Janeiro…
1) Dubai is a significant stop on the Road To Singapore.
The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships is a Premier event and part one of the WTA’s fortnightly tour of the Middle East – part two is the Qatar Total Open. There’s over $2 million on the line, with the winner pocketing $465,480 and 470 points for the Road To Singapore leaderboard.
2) A strong line-up has made the trip to Dubai.
Even with a couple a high-profile withdrawals, four Top 10 players – and 10 of the Top 20 players in the world – are in Dubai, with the Top 8 seeds being Simona Halep, Garbiñe Muguruza, Carla Suárez Navarro, Petra Kvitova, Belinda Bencic, Karolina Pliskova, Roberta Vinci and Svetlana Kuznetsova.
3) Halep is looking to get back on track.
Defending champion Halep arrives in Dubai on the back of an indifferent start to 2016. After a surprise semifinal loss to Kuznetsova in Sydney, the Romanian suffered an even bigger shock at the Australian Open, crashing out to qualifier Zhang Shuai in the first round. She then split her two singles rubbers on Fed Cup duty against the Czech Republic, beating Kvitova but falling to Pliskova. Will she get back on track in Dubai?
4) Back-to-back titles no easy task.
Halep is looking to become just the third player to defend their title at Al Garhoud Street. The other two are Venus Williams (2009-10) and Justine Henin (2003-04, 2006-07).
5) If Kvitova clears early hurdles, watch out.
Kvitova has failed to win back-to-back matches here in four of her five appearances, in 2009 (to Julia Schruff), 2011 (to Ayumi Morita), 2014 (to Suárez Navarro) and 2015 (to Suárez Navarro). But in her only other try she went all the way to the title, in 2013 (beating Caroline Wozniacki, Ana Ivanovic and Agnieszka Radwanska along the way).
6) Welcome to the club, Belinda.
By reaching the final last week in St. Petersburg, Belinda Bencic guaranteed herself a place inside the Top 10 for the first time in her career. Bencic is the 116th player to break into the elite bracket since computer rankings were introduced in 1975.
7) Halfway across the globe, the Latin American spring kicks off in Rio.
The Latin American leg of the tour kicks off this week with the Rio Open. Headlining the draw is home favorite and No.1 seed Teliana Pereira, who will be joined by Johanna Larsson, Danka Kovinic and Christina McHale.
8) Pereira hungry for WTA hat-trick.
Last April, Pereira became the first Brazilian in 27 years to win a WTA title when she triumphed at the Claro Open Colsanitas, in Bogotá. Eager to prove this was no flash in the pan, title number two soon followed at Florianopolis’ Brasil Tennis Cup. Will she score a hat-trick in Rio?
9) Hunting down Maria’s record.
No, not that Maria. In Bogotá, Pereira is the third Brazilian in the Open Era to win a WTA title, after Maria Bueno (who won three) and Neige Dias (two). A Brazilian winning in Brazil is even rarer, though. Pereira is just the second Brazilian in the Open Era to win a WTA title on home soil – Dias achieved the feat once, doing it over in Guaruja in 1987.
10) Find out where you can watch live action this week.
MELBOURNE, Australia – When we think of fairytales, we think of magic. Fairytales are, after all, an attempt to explain the unthinkable. To do so they dip into the supernatural – glass slippers, fairy godmothers, conjured spells and potions – all to explain why, despite the odds against them, good things happen to good people.
Fairytales are nice, but the real thing is better. So much better. And tennis, a sport that gives you a chance for redemption every week, has offered up a story that not even Disney could inspire.
On Wednesday, 34-year-old Mirjana Lucic-Baroni scored her second Top 5 win of the Australian Open, beating No.5 seed Karolina Pliskova, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to advance to her first Slam semifinal in 18 years. With a left leg bearing rounds of tape and a rosary around her neck, Lucic-Baroni made good on her promises that she had more to do in tennis. And she did it not with the help of magic or spells, but by pure, unadulterated hard work.
#LucicBaroni in tears: “I never could dream about being here again. I will never forget this day.” #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/0xSL6HCol8
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 25, 2017
“It’s just perseverance,” Lucic-Baroni said. “It’s just kind of ignoring everything and just pushing forward and kind of going through the wall. It’s not going but you keep pushing and you keep pushing, and nothing is working, and you keep pushing. That belief that eventually it will change.
“I think that’s what perseverance is, and I feel like that’s what helped me get here.
“This is what I’ve been dreaming about, this is what I’ve been training for. At 34 years old, like I said before, I have a wonderful home. I’m happily married. I would be perfectly okay being at home enjoying my family.
“But I really knew deep down in my soul that I have these results in me. To now be here and actually live these moments, it’s incredible.”
“This time it's incredibly special…it's fun to prove everyone wrong.”
Mirjana Lucic-Baroni on contrasting Semifinal appearances #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/XuafFZy1Qj
— WTA (@WTA) January 25, 2017
What does that feel like, to have that belief at your core that there is still greatness within you? It’s easy to understand that conviction when you’re young. The eyes are brighter, the heart full of optimism and hope. The world has not yet had the time to cruelly sap it out of you and turn you cynical and jaded. The body feels fresh and ready to jump at every chance, on any command. Ambition is easy when the failures are few.
“When I was younger, I just believed because I won a lot and it was that confidence you simply have because you’re winning all the time,” Lucic-Baroni said.
With Lucic-Baroni reaching her second ever Grand Slam semi-final, we're throwing it back to her first at #Wimbledon 1999…
Those rallies ? pic.twitter.com/ZaZUlg4hvi
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) January 25, 2017
She would know. Lucic-Baroni was a two-time junior Slam champion by the time she was 14-years-old, won two matches in her Grand Slam debut at 15 years old, and was into the Wimbledon semifinals at 17. She was a prodigy in an era of prodigies. And then it was taken away from her for reasons not in her control.
“When you stop winning as much and you don’t play for a long time, you definitely lose it a little bit,” she said. “Not even lose it, you forget it. You forget deep down kind of who you are on the court. That has happened to me a little bit, where I struggled for a few years. And I’m really glad that I remembered.”
Mirjana #LucicBaroni is through to the SF #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/ywsCOXuXpz
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 25, 2017
The circumstances surrounding Lucic-Baroni’s fade during the early 2000s due to her abusive father have been well-documented. Though there has been rampant speculation regarding the details, she has opted not to discuss it.
“A part of it is I just want to say because people assume a lot, and people don’t know,” she explained. “That irritates me when people assume things like injuries and things like that and people write about it. I understand it’s your guys’ job to write about it. A lot of it is speculation.
“At other times I really want to keep those things to myself, and I don’t want to tell anybody anything, and I don’t want to focus so much on that.
“I kind of want to be known as amazing fighter, a person who persevered against everything, against all odds. And that’s what I take pride in.”
“This has truly made my life…it has made it okay.” #LucicBaroni #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/SeE9ePoqOo
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 25, 2017
There was no more poignant moment during her emotional post-match interview than when a tearful Lucic-Baroni was asked what her two weeks in Melbourne – which was already a feel-good story after she won her first round match, her first Australian Open win in 19 years – has meant to her.
“I know it means a lot to every player to reach the semifinals but to me this is overwhelming,” she said through the tears. “This has truly made my life and everything bad that happened, it has made it ok. Just that I was this strong and it was worth fighting this hard, it’s just really incredible.”
Incredible is the word. Lucic-Baroni has gone from a cautionary tale to one of the game’s inspiring pillars. She has every right to be bitter in the face of her tragic history. But there are no dark clouds around her. She has a sunny disposition, eager to discuss her tennis and on-court struggles, while offering a wise perspective to her career. She has no clothing sponsor. She’s not on Twitter. There is no air of self-pity or entitlement. There is only a purity of desire and defiance, to take back what was taken from her and show the world that she has what it takes. That she always had what it takes.
After beating No.3 Agnieszka Radwanska in the second round, Lucic-Baroni made it clear that she wasn’t out here just to have fun. She was still toiling away with a purpose. “I didn’t go to see the court and enjoy,” she said. “I’m way too old and I’ve been around way too long to just gain experience. I came there to win the match. Feelings like tonight are incredible on court. You can’t replicate it anywhere else in life.”
Regardless of what happens over the next few days, she will rise to a career-high ranking on Monday, surpassing the No.32 she peaked at nearly two decades ago. When she faces Serena on Thursday, the two will be facing off for the first time since Wimbledon back in 1998.
Mirjana Lucic(-Baroni) and Serena Williams will face off in 2017 #AusOpen semifinals. Here they are in their last match: Wimbledon 1998! pic.twitter.com/vEtPtxnUnN
— History of Tennis (@HistoryOfTennis) January 25, 2017
“I’m really happy for Mirjana,” Serena said. “I was there when she first started. To see her be able to never give up actually is super inspiring to me. It’s a wonderful story.”
Perserverance has been the theme of the 2017 Australian Open. Along with Venus Williams and Serena Williams, this has been a tournament carried by prodigies-turned-veterans, who continue to reset the perceived age barrier in tennis. While Serena continues to chase history and grapple at the top of the game, Venus has now made the semifinals in two of her last three Slams.
After making her first Australian Open semifinal since 2003 on Tuesday, Venus was asked why she’s still in the game at age 36. “I have a lot to give,” she said. “I have a lot to give to the game. I feel like I have a lot of great tennis in me. So any time you feel that way, you continue.
“Why not? I have nothing to lose, literally.”
Left: Lucic-Baroni, 17 y/o Semifinalist at WImbledon.
Right: Lucic-Baroni, 34 y/o Semifinalist at #AusOpen.
How can you not love this sport? pic.twitter.com/ikVNCTjeX1— Tennis Hall of Fame (@TennisHalloFame) January 25, 2017
“This time, it’s incredibly special, especially since it’s been so long since the last time I’ve been in semifinals,” Lucic-Baroni said. “And the struggle has been so much bigger, and nobody in this world thought I could ever be here again, beside my closest family, my coach, and my brothers, my sisters, my husband, my mom. Beside my little circle, I don’t think anybody believed that I could do it. And it’s really fun.
“It’s fun to prove everybody wrong, and it’s fun to enjoy this for myself and live these incredible moments. It’s more special this time, for sure.”
Caroline Wozniacki joined a number of megastar athletes, including Ronda Rousey and Lindsay Vonn, in newsstands this week for the 2016 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition.
The World No.19 made the trip to the island of Petit St. Vincent in the Caribbean to take part in the annual shoot and for this year’s issue, Wozniacki was photographed in a different kind of swimsuit – she wore a body-painted swimsuit inspired by For Love and Lemons. The body paint alone took about 15 hours to complete.
“I had a blast, this was so much fun!” Wozniacki said of the photoshoot. “I love my body paint. This has been such an unbelievable experience.”
It's this time of year again!!@si_swimsuit on stands today!? so excited! Go grab your copy?
Photo by @Fredericpinet pic.twitter.com/B9XrwFppoj— Caroline Wozniacki (@CaroWozniacki) February 15, 2016
It’s not the first time Wozniacki has donned a swimsuit for SI – she made her swimsuit issue debut last year.
Check out a behind-the-scenes video of the shoot and the best pictures below, courtesy of SI.com:
