Wuhan: Tuesday Highlights
Highlights from the second round action at the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open.
Highlights from the second round action at the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open.
Serena Williams has Friday’s shot of the day at the BNP Paribas Open.
Petra Kvitova takes on Angelique Kerber in the third round of the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open.
The best WTA players joined Miami’s top chefs at the W South Beach for Taste of Tennis Miami, a night of food, fashion, entertainment and tennis.
Last year’s Miami Open semifinalist Simona Halep made her appearance on the green carpet with her coach Darren Cahill.
Best friends Belinda Bencic and Kristina Mladenovic struck a pose…
…as did Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Lucie Safarova and Andrea Hlavackova.
Victoria Azarenka joined DJ Mad Linx to set the mood and put on some music.
Fresh off of her big win at Indian Wells, Azarenka’s got plenty to dab about!
Chan Yuan-Liang and Chan Hao-Ching, the world’s No.2 doubles team, joined Chef Fabio Fichera in serving up some treats.
Yanina Wickmayer showed off her excellent plating technique…
…While Elina Svitolina preferred to taste test the sushi, prepared by Miami’s Khaleel Ali.
CoCo Vandeweghe and Rachel Lim seemed more excited about the desserts than anything else!
WTA legend Arantxa Sanchez Vicario grabbed a picture with Dustin Ward as they served up some small plates.
Did you make enough for everyone, Lauren Davis?
Eugenie Bouchard swapped her tennis racquet for a paddle and showed off her table tennis skills.
It just wouldn’t be Miami without some great art… and a portrait of nine-time Miami Open champion Serena Williams, up for silent auction.
Highlights from the round of 16 action at the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open.
An interview with Eugenie Bouchard after her quarterfinal win at the Apia International Sydney.
The BNP Paribas Open caused some seismic shifts to the Road to Singapore leaderboard; while Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber remained atop the standings, No.2 Serena Williams and No.3 Victoria Azarenka are hot on her heels as the tour turns to the Miami Open.
Kerber suffered a second straight WTA loss in the second round of Indian Wells, losing a tight contest to Denisa Allertova. By contrast, Williams and Azarenka made it all the way to the final, with the Belarusian winning her fourth career match over the 21-time Grand Slam champion and her second title of the season after the Brisbane International.
Not far behind is reigning BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global champion Agnieszka Radwanska; the new WTA World No.2 reached another big semifinal in Indian Wells, narrowly losing to Williams in two tough sets. Drawn to face the American again in the semifinals, Radwanska rounds out the Top 4 on the RTS Leaderboard.
Qatar Total Open champion Carla Suárez Navarro saw her progress on the RTS Leaderboard stunted when a right ankle injury took her out of Indian Wells, while a left foot injury caused St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy winner Roberta Vinci into retiring in the fourth round – leaving the veterans at No.5 and No.6 respectively.
Johanna Konta took out Allertova en route to the second week, losing a three-setter to eventual semifinalist Karolina Pliskova; the Australian Open semifinalist not only became the highest-ranked British woman since 1987 (Jo Durie), but she also kept ahead of No.8 Belinda Bencic, who dropped out in the third round to Magdalena Rybarikova.
An upper respiratory illness likely kept Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships runner-up Barbora Strycova from making a bigger leap; already moving up three spots to No.9, the Czech veteran retired down a set to Simona Halep, whose own run saw her jump nearly 50 spots and into the Top 40.
Meanwhile, Co-No.1s Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza retained the top spot on the RTS Leaderboard in doubles, while Bethanie Mattek-Sands and CoCo Vandeweghe debuted at No.7 following their championship win over Pliskova and Julia Goerges, who are all the way up to No.4 with two strong results in Melbourne and Indian Wells.
Click here to see the singles and doubles leaderboards heading into the Miami Open.
An interview with Dominika Cibulkova after her win in the quarterfinals of the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open.
HOBART, Australia – Kiki Bertens recovered from a second-set break to defeat Galina Voskoboeva, 6-1, 6-4, to reach the quarterfinals of the Hobart International.
“It’s always tough to get some matches at the beginning of the season, so I’m happy I won two matches here and I hope to go even farther,” Bertens said in her post-match press conference.
Voskoboeva spent two years off the tour nursing persistent foot injuries, and had just won her first WTA main draw match since 2014 ahead of her clash with Bertens. The top seed, by contrast, is in the midst of a career-best 12 months, having reached the semifinals of the French Open to qualify for her first Olympic tennis event.
“It was an OK match today; she helped me a lot in the beginning with a lot of mistakes, but in the second she played really well. I had to fight for it and there were some tough conditions with the wind, but I’m happy I got through.
“I really need some matches; my body needs matches to play better. You saw what happened last year in Paris: I won a tournament the week before and was in the semis the week after!”
Bertens rushed out to a 4-0 lead to start the match, serving out the opening set before things got complicated in the second. The Kazakh pushed Bertens to the brink on multiple occasions, leading by a late break in the sixth game. But the Dutch star roared back, winning the last three games to book an encounter with qualifier Elise Mertens.
“I know her well; she’s a great young player with a good run last year. I’ll have to be more aggressive than today but hopefully I can get the win.”
Earlier in the day, another qualifier got a big win over former World No.5, Lucie Safarova. Risa Ozaki came back from a set down to defeat the 2015 French Open finalist, 2-6, 6-3, 7-5.
“In the first set, she played well and I couldn’t hit a strong ball,” she explained after the match. “After that, I tried to focus on my forehand and things got better from there.”
Safarova won a titanic sixth game in the first set and broke to start the second, but the 22-year-old won six of the last seven games to level the match.
“I started the match really well,” Safarova echoed in her post-match press conference. “I had some game points to go 3-0, but things started going the other way. It wasn’t easy conditions with the wind; she started to pressure me more and make fewer mistakes. I lost my rhythm; I tried to hang in there but it was always tough serving in this wind.”
The Czech veteran showed signs of life late in the match, breaking Ozaki as she served for the upset, but the Japanese youngster broke serve one last time, reaching her third career WTA quarterfinal in two hours, 22 minutes.
“These conditions don’t really suit my game because I like to be aggressive, but I was making too many mistakes. She was putting a lot of balls back; she ran and served well, especially at the end. This isn’t the result I would have liked, but it’s tennis and things happen. It’s good that I got an extra two matches before Melbourne. Hopefully I’ll peak there.”
MIAMI, FL, USA – The Miami Open gets underway on Tuesday, with a couple of inter-generational battles headlining the order of play on Grandstand and Court 1.
Tuesday, First Round
Grandstand
[WC] Laura Robson (GBR #504) vs. Kirsten Flipkens (BEL #65)
Head-to-head: Flipkens leads 1-0
When Laura Robson came off court nursing her wrist following a humbling first-round defeat to Kirsten Flipkens at the 2014 Australian Open, even in her worst nightmares she cannot have envisaged what was to follow. Two years of injury woe have derailed one of the game’s brightest young talents, leaving her kicking her heels at home as junior and domestic rivals have stepped into the limelight. Using her protected ranking at Indian Wells, Robson played well for a set before losing to eventual quarterfinalist Magdalena Rybarikova.
In Miami, she renews acquaintances with Flipkens, whose similarly anachronistic game could stymie the Brit’s search to rediscover her competitive groove. Since reaching the quarterfinals at Miami, semifinals at Wimbledon and coming within touching distance of the Top 10 in 2013, Flipkens has been forced to battle her own demons. Having dropped out of the Top 100 last year, the Belgian has been enigmatic this time around, promising showings in Auckland and Monterrey punctuated by several early exits.
Court 1
Kateryna Bondarenko (UKR #59) vs. Daria Kasatkina (RUS #36)
Head-to-head: first meeting
With superb groundstrokes, excellent movement and an impressive temperament, Daria Kasatkina has all the tools to make it to the top of the game. This much was obvious when she shocked Venus Williams in the opening week of the new season to make the tennis world really stand up and take notice. Since then Kasatkina has gone from strength to strength, reaching the third round at the Australian Open, the semifinals at St. Petersburg and, just last week, a quarterfinal at Indian Wells.
On her Miami debut, she takes on Kateryna Bondarenko, another upwardly mobile player – albeit at a very different stage in her career. Since returning to the tour following the birth of her first child a couple of years ago, Bondarenko has been making up for lost time, building on a strong finish to 2015 with credible showings at several big events, highlighted by her run through qualifying to the fourth round at Indian Wells.
Also on court…
Preceding Robson and Flipkens on Grandstand will be a couple of home hopes, Madison Brengle and Nicole Gibbs, who take on Camila Giorgi and Yulia Putintseva, respectively. On Court 1, Barbora Strycova faces Anna-Lena Friedsam, and Margarita Gasparyan meets Annika Beck.