Tennis News

DOHA, Qatar – Andrea Petkovic played some of her best tennis of the year to maintain a perfect head-to-head record against No.4 seed Garbiñe Muguruza, winning 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 to reach the semifinals of the Qatar Total Open.

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“It’s very special,” Petkovic said of her first Top 5 win in three years. “It was so tough; Garbiñe is such a talented and dangerous player who put me under pressure.

“I was a little lucky in the end, but I’m just happy to be through.”

Each woman hit 29 winners, but while the German played cleanly throughout – hitting just 16 unforced errors – Muguruza had more issues with consistency, hitting 38.

“I’ve been playing really well the past few weeks. Everything is coming together and I’m getting my match focus again,” Petkovic continued.

“I’m really happy I’m on the right path and really looking forward to the whole season.”

Up next for the former World No.9 is teen sensation Jelena Ostapenko, who dispatched China’s Zheng Saisai in the first quarterfinal of the day.

“I watched both of her matches, and she’s been playing great. I had her on the radar, before. I saw her in Linz qualifying and thought this girl is really good.

“She’s showing her talent, and hopefully I can recover well from today’s match and put on a good performance tomorrow.”

NEW YORK, NY, USA – A journey which began waiting around at the tournament supervisor’s office ended with Laura Siegemund and Mate Pavic hoisting aloft their first Grand Slam trophy on tennis’ grandest stage.

In front of an unashamedly partisan Arthur Ashe crowd, Siegemund and Pavic spoiled the party by upsetting No.7 seeds CoCo Vandeweghe and Rajeev Ram, 6-4, 6-4.

“I’m just stunned a little bit at this point. I’m very happy. I think we played a great match today, Siegemund said. “We did play a great tournament. All the other matches were, yeah, very solid also in the important situations, although we never played together.

“So it’s just amazing that even in the finals we could just play the same, you know, stay focused and stick to the system that was working the whole week. He was, as the British say, cool as a cucumber. He was cooler than me maybe at times. I was very glad about that.”

Despite both teams carving out several chances, the first set went on serve until 4-4, before a mistake at the net from Vandeweghe leading to the ultimately decisive break. The unseeded duo continued to exert the pressure in the second set breaking Vandeweghe to secure a milestone victory.

“In all the matches that we played, we broke the guy’s serve a lot of times,” Pavic said. “Like even today Rajeev was serving big and we broke his serve twice.

“We were putting the balls back, returning good, makes the them feel pressure and then it’s not easy to make the point. So I think that make a huge difference in all the matches that we played so far.”

They had never met before.
They didn't know who one another was.
But now Siegemund-Pavic are in Mixed Dubs Final. pic.twitter.com/Kw6W3yjXCp

— ESPNTennis (@ESPNTennis) September 9, 2016

More to follow…

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – World No.153 Chang Kai-Chen provided further evidence of the current strength in depth on tour by knocking out Roberta Vinci in the first round of the BMW Malaysian Open.

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Following a succession of surprise results during the WTA’s recent double-header in Dubai and Doha, Chang became the latest underdog to have her day, producing a rousing early evening comeback to defeat top seed Vinci, 5-7, 6-2, 6-1.

The result, though, is by no means an isolated one. In fact, Chang has made a habit of defeating Top 10 players, Vinci joining a list that also includes Dinara Safina, Marion Bartoli and Samantha Stosur.

“It’s always an honor to play a Top 10 player and I really enjoyed the whole match,” Chang said. “I told myself after the first set to be more patient, so I slowed everything down, kept more balls in and just played with her. The result came out well!

“She’s very difficult to play because she slices and spins it, and I’m very happy I could win this match.”

No.2 seed Elina Svitolina fared better rather better in her first-round outing, requiring only 47 minutes to defeat qualifier Miyu Kato.

There were mixed fortunes for Svitolina in the Middle East, as a semifinal in Dubai was followed by a surprise first-round loss to Denisa Allertova in Doha. And Svitolina took out her frustration on qualifier Kato, breaking five times, whilst giving up just seven points on her own serve, en route to a 6-1, 6-1 victory.

Equally impressive was Svitolina’s next opponent, Risa Ozaki, who defeated Elizaveta Kulichkova, 6-0, 6-2.

“I’ll try and do the same thing – play the ball and not the opponent, which is the most important thing to me,” Svitolina said. “I think she’s playing well. She had a good win today and it’s always tough to play a qualifier, because they’ve had a couple of matches and it’s completely different conditions here than to Doha and Dubai.”

A fixture inside the Top 20 for the best part of a year now, Svitolina is flying the flag for Ukrainian tennis and this summer will have the opportunity to represent her motherland on the greatest sporting stage of all.

“The Olympics is a big event. It’s the first time for me so it’s going to be a really different experience and it’s amazing that I’m going to represent my country and play for Ukraine. It’s just a great thing.”

After last year’s French Open, Svitolina overtook Alona Bondarenko as Ukraine’s highest-ranked player of all time, a status that is a source of great pride: “It feels really great since I am the highest ever Ukrainian woman. So for me it was a big thing after Roland Garros when I became one of the highest.”

Elsewhere there were wins for Naomi Broady, Zarina Diyas and Yang Zhaoxuan.

Diyas caused the day’s biggest upset, knocking out No.4 seed Annika Beck, 7-5, 6-3. Broady, meanwhile, fired down 17 aces to win a see-saw encounter with Klara Koukalova, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, and Zhaoxuan fought back to defeat No.8 seed Zheng Saisai, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.

MONTERREY, México – Heather Watson produced her best tennis of the season to defeat Caroline Wozniacki and take a place in the semifinals of the Abierto Monterrey Afirme.

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A battle between two of the WTA’s sprightliest movers produced no shortage of entertaining exchanges, yet it was Watson, not the former No.1 on the other side of the net, setting the tone.

In a sparkling display, Watson took the game to Wozniacki from the off, eventually getting her reward with a break in the penultimate game of the opening set. Even a slow start to the second failed to discourage the Briton as she came roaring back, a couple of heavy-duty forehands kick-starting a run of four straight games.

Wozniacki, as ever, battled gamely to end, but she had no answer to her opponent’s inspired tennis, spraying a forehand wide to slip to a 7-5, 6-4 defeat.

“I’m very happy with how I played today. I thought I played very well – I needed to against Caroline because she’s a great player – and I had to fight to the end because I knew she would,” Watson said during her on-court interview. “I just took it point by point and didn’t look too far ahead.

“I think one of her main traits is that she is such a fighter. She makes a lot of balls and makes you really win it. I knew I was going to have to finish a lot of points today, come to net and not be too passive.”

Meeting Watson for a place in the final will be either Caroline Garcia or Pauline Parmentier.

On the other side of the draw, hopes for an all-British final were dashed when Kirsten Flipkens upset No.4 seed Johanna Konta, 6-3, 6-7(2), 6-1. Her reward is a meeting with another unseeded player, Anett Kontaveit, a 6-1, 6-4 winner over Nicole Gibbs.