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News | WTA Tennis English

News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

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?

Karolina Pliskova

[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?

Ivan Dodig, Sania Mirza

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.

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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

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.

“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.”

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.

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.”

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.”

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.

“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.”

“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.”

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Kulichkova Passes Taiwan Test

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan – Elizaveta Kulichkova showed why she was one to watch at the Taiwan Open, fighting her way out of a dangerous deficit to advance past Taiwanese wildcard Ya-Hsuan Lee, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Named by WTA Insider as part of Russia’s “Generation Next,” Kulichkova entered the tournament following some of the best results of her young career: at the Australian Open, she reached the 3rd round of a Grand Slam for the first time, dealing No.25 Andrea Petkovic an upset along the way.

In Kaohsiung, Kulichkova found herself in big trouble against Lee – the Russian dropped the first set and was actually down 0-3 in the second – before she found a way to play herself into the match.

“I didn’t play my best today so I didn’t feel so comfortable on court,” Kulichkova told wtatennis.com after her win.

“I just try to concentrate on my game, keep bringing back all the balls, and then I could come back eventually.”

Also coming back to advance into the second round is Donna Vekic, who notched her first WTA-level win of the year against Alison Riske in a seesaw match, 4-6, 7-5(5), 6-3.

The Croatian found herself four points away from defeat in the second set; Riske was serving for the match at 6-4, 6-5, before Vekic broke her serve at love to force a tiebreak before grabbing the set. Vekic hit nine aces to Riske’s 12 double faults in the two hour and forty minute-encounter.

The win was a boon for Vekic, who is now working with new coach David Felgate. The pair reunited before last month’s Australian Open after splitting in 2014.

Local favorite Su-Wei Hsieh survived a mid-match surge from Japan’s Ayama Okuno but advanced 7-6(1), 4-6, 6-2. Yulia Putintseva, Zarina Diyas, Saisai Zheng and Kurumi Nara are all through to the second round while Naomi Osaka – who was looking to follow up her incredible Australian Open run – fell to Luxembourg’s Mandy Minella in straight sets.

No.1 seed Venus Williams will wrap up the Taiwan Open’s first round action when she takes the court against Taiwanese wildcard Pei-Chi Lee tomorrow.

Watch live action from St. Petersburg & Kaohsiung this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!

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Mattek-Sands Stars At Diamondbacks Game

Mattek-Sands Stars At Diamondbacks Game

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

Bethanie Mattek-Sands

PHOENIX, AZ, USA – A whirlwind homecoming for Olympic Gold medalist Bethanie Mattek-Sands took her out to the ball game and out to the crowd on Wednesday, throwing the first pitch for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Treated to a night of peanuts and crackerjacks, there’s no telling whether the American Olympian cares if she’ll ever get back as she spent the game rooting for the home team, who beat the New York Mets, 13-5.

Check out Mattek-Sands at the old ball game on the Diamondbacks’ official Facebook page and right here on wtatennis.com!

Bethanie Mattek-Sands

Bethanie Mattek-Sands

Bethanie Mattek-Sands

Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

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