Tennis News

NEW YORK, NY, USA – It has been a whirlwind few weeks for No.15 seed Timea Bacsinszky, who came away from her debut appearance at the Olympic tennis event with a silver medal in women’s doubles alongside former No.1 Martina Hingis.

Bacsinszky had planned a quiet summer that got louder – and more surreal – with each passing moment.

“I was supposed to get a week of holiday the same week of the Ladies Championship Gstaad,” she mused after a decisive win over Vitalia Diatchenko. “It was tough for me because at one point I knew it would be a tough year and I would need to rest at one point. But I chose to play Gstaad because it was home, and I was all the time complaining there were no tournaments in Switzerland. So I had to assume my status and assume everything what I said in the past, so I played it.”

A brief respite after playing at home saw her spend some time with her boyfriend – even buying a motor boat to cruise around the lake near her home – gave way to the full emotional impact of the Olympic Summer Games.

Here is Bacsinszky on the Olympic experience, in her own words:

Growing up in Lausanne you have all the Olympic committees around. I practiced next to the IOC, the house of the IOC. You have the Olympic museum right there.

As a kid at school, every school of the region goes there to visit the Olympic museum least probably at least three times.

It’s a highlight in Lausanne. You have many things to do, but for tourists, it’s just amazing.

It means so much. When I was watching the Olympics, I would never ever really think that I would win a medal one day, and we did it together – against all odds.

Playing next to Martina was not an easy position. But I’m super proud of myself because I held her up sometimes during this event, as well. She was maybe less motivated at the beginning. She was like, ‘Oh, crap, I feel like everyone is letting me down, but you’re the only one who stands here with me.’ So, like, okay, let’s do it.

I really never never ever thought that I would be coming back home with a medal one day. It had really made me dream a lot when I was a kid, even though tennis is not really in history of the Olympics.

Something I thought was really amazing, was how the Olympics is not connected to anything. You get there, you get to meet people you don’t know and probably will never see them again, but while you’re in the Village you just feel respect which is like around everyone there.

There’s no aggressive energy. Everyone was nice with me, and me, myself I was shining more than usual. I was laughing more because I really felt the energy of it.

It’s only two weeks in a year or three weeks in a year and that’s sad, because every competition should be like that. In tennis we say things like, ‘Oh, what are your weapons?’ Oh, come on, guys. We use weapons for war. But why do we use that in our sports vocabulary?

At the Olympics I felt like you meet an athlete, you just talk for a few minutes or you trade a pin. This is the best Olympic exchange, because otherwise people would be too shy to talk with each other.

This way, you can go to any country in the world and say, ‘Ah, Palau. Didn’t even know it existed.’ Or, ‘Tuvalu. Where is it on the world map?’

You get curious and you’re like, ‘Oh, which sport are you in? What are you doing?’ ‘Oh, I lost to her,’ or, ‘I got injured.’ Then you really feel how much it means to people. Then, you say, ‘Bye-bye, good luck, all the best for you,’ and you’re probably never going to meet him or her again.

But the human contact, the exchange, is just natural, simple, and it’s nice. And all the images that you see from the Olympics are usually full of positive emotions of sportsmanship.

As I came back on tour, you feel like sometimes the tension that people have in their eyes, even in tennis. You’re like, ‘Guys, I didn’t do anything. Calm down.’ You feel the aggressivity sometimes, which I was sincerely not feeling at the Olympics.

You go back to the Swiss house and all the other Swiss athletes, they are really 100% sincere that they are so happy for you that you got a medal, because they know how tough it is and how much you work all year long for that and how big it means to everyone.

It’s the first time in my life I really felt like 100% of sincerety out of people or other athletes, who were like, ‘Oh, wow. I saw that you won a medal. Oh, how amazing. Do you have it? Can I just see it?’

I think the world should be just like thus. Unluckily there are no Olympics every week. It wouldn’t be that special, probably. But it made me realize all of these things.

Bacsinszky plays Varvara Lepchenko in the second round of the US Open on Thursday.

All photos courtesy of Getty Images.

NEW YORK, NY, USA – Garbiñe Muguruza’s shock exit to Anastasija Sevastova whittled down the number of contestants in the US Open’s No.1 ranking sideshow to three: Serena Williams, Angelique Kerber and Agnieszka Radwanska.

As the tournament enters its opening weekend wtatennis.com updates the state of play in the race for top spot…

Serena Stays On Course: Williams entered the US Open as the World No.1, a distinction she has held since February 18, 2013. Through the two weeks of the US Open, Williams will extend her streak to 186 consecutive weeks, tying the WTA record for most consecutive weeks at No.1 held by Steffi Graf (August 17, 1987-March 10, 1991).

Williams’ reign is all the more remarkable considering the 186 weeks preceding her ascension saw the No.1 ranking change hands nine times, with Dinara Safina, Serena, Caroline Wozniacki, Kim Clijsters, Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova all spending time at the summit.

In the opening two rounds, Williams has answered the questions regarding the health of her troublesome shoulder with business-like wins over Ekaterina Makarova and Vania King. To extend her current stint as No.1, Williams, who is defending 780 points, will need to at least reach the semifinals.

The longer Kerber stays in the tournament, though, the further Williams will need to advance:

– If Kerber reaches the quarterfinals, then Williams must reach the final.
– If Kerber falls in the semifinals, Williams would remain at No.1 by reaching the final.
– A championship match showdown between Williams and Kerber would see the winner walk away not only with the trophy, but the No.1 ranking.

Williams’ ranking points have come from seven tournaments in the last 52 weeks – 2015 US Open (780), Australian Open (1300), Indian Wells (650), Miami (120), Rome (900), Roland Garros (1300) and Wimbledon (2000).

What Will It Take For Kerber To Become World No.1?: Kerber is bidding to become the 22nd player to reach No.1 since the computer rankings were introduced in November 1975. In her previous tournament, the German came within one win of unseating Williams at No.1 in Cincinnati, only to fall short in the final against an on-song Karolina Pliskova.

The disappointment does not appear to have lingered, making short work of her opening two opponents, Polona Hercog and Mirjana Lucic-Baroni.  Last year, Kerber lost to Victoria Azarenka in the third round at the US Open and as a result is only defending 130 points in Flushing Meadows. Kerber will have a 460-point advantage from the start of the tournament, therefore even a surprise third-round loss to crowd favorite CiCi Bellis does not rule her out of contention.

Kerber consistently has reached the business end of the WTA’s biggest events with six finals appearances this year, winning the titles at the Australian Open and Stuttgart, finishing as runner-up at Brisbane, Wimbledon, Cincinnati and the Olympics*. As a result, Kerber’s ranking has been on a steady incline after finishing 2015 at No.10.

* There were no ranking points awarded for this year’s Olympic tennis competition.

US Open Title Could Vault Radwanska To Top Spot: Agnieszka Radwanska will need to win the US Open title, to have reach the top spot. However, if Kerber reaches the final, Radwanska could only move as high as No.2.

The Pole came through her first test in the second round, surviving an epic opening set tie-break to eventually defuse the big-serving Naomi Broady. Next up is the gifted, if unpredictable, Caroline Garcia

NEW YORK, NY, USA – Top seed Serena Williams eased to a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Connecticut Open semifinalist Johanna Larson to not only advance into the second week of the US Open for the sixth straight year, but also clinch the Open Era record for total Grand Slam matches won, passing Martina Navratilova for 307 victories.

“Wow, that’s pretty awesome, and honestly, there’s no better place to do it than here, where everything first started,” she told ESPN’s Rennae Stubbs in her on-court interview. “That’s great!

“It was something I didn’t even know about until Wimbledon,” she added in her post-match press conference. “I was like, ‘Oh, I have a new goal.'”

Looking as strong as ever through three rounds, the World No.1 donned her “Superwoman sleeves” and shook off the shoulder concerns that plagued her Emirates Airline US Open Series with another decisive win, this time over an in-form Johanna Larsson.

Six sets played, six sets won.@serenawilliams dispatches #Larsson to move safely into week two. #usopen @MBUSA https://t.co/a2JWJ56Rpy

— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 3, 2016

Larsson had just reached the semifinals in New Haven as a lucky loser, but had no answers to the 22-time Grand Slam champion’s high-octane game. Hitting 24 winners to just 17 unforced errors, Serena struck another six aces and dropped only five points behind her first serve to advance in just under an hour on Saturday.

“It was a really good match for me because she played a different type of game. It was really good for me to have a different type of rhythm and just to move around. Overall, it was pretty good.”

Awaiting Serena in the fourth round will be Kazakh powerhouse Yaroslava Shvedova, who survived a late surge from China’s Zhang Shuai to reach the second week of the Open for the first time, 6-2, 7-5.

Serena has won all four of her previous meetings with Shvedova; though the former World No.25 pushed the top seed to three sets at the 2012 Wimbledon Championships, their last two meetings have been one-sided affairs, including a 6-3, 6-1 win at the 2013 US Open.

Long before the Olympic tennis event kicked off in Rio de Janeiro, Venus Williams toyed with the idea of sticking around for 2020, when the Olympics moved to Tokyo, Japan.

“We have to start looking at 2020,” she said at Wimbledon when asked about her successful doubles tenure with sister Serena. “That would be impressive. If you think this year’s impressive, hold on.

“That would be a blessing if we did play. I’m so grateful for each and every time we’ve had a chance to play and qualify. It’s been beyond our dreams. It means the world to us to play together.”

Venus and Serena have been the story of Olympic tennis since the two first paired up to win gold in women’s doubles back in 2000. Since then, the sisters have each amassed quite a haul, each taking gold in singles – Venus in 2000, Serena in 2012 – and earning three golds in women’s doubles in 2000, 2008, and 2012.

She narrowly missed out on a fifth gold medal in mixed doubles, winning silver alongside Rajeev Ram in Rio.

“Tokyo is about if I want to be there,” the five-time Wimbledon winner said in August. “If I want to continue to work as hard. It’s a lot of hard work. I have to want to do the work. So we’ll see.”

Her resolve appears to have solidified even more in the off-season, discussing the possibility of playing through 2020 on a soon-to-be broadcast program on the Hallmark Channel.

“I am targeting that to see if it’s possible to play there. While you’re out there playing, I love that challenge, I love the pressure, it’s all a privilege.

“If I can be out there, I will be.”

All photos courtesy of Getty Images.