Halep Marches Into Bucharest Quarters
Top seed Simona Halep made her way back to the quarterfinals of the BRD Bucharest Open with a straight sets win over Isabella Shinikova.
Top seed Simona Halep made her way back to the quarterfinals of the BRD Bucharest Open with a straight sets win over Isabella Shinikova.
Viktorija Golubic’s game has always been easy on the eye. And if recent evidence is anything to go by she is now successfully marrying this style with plenty of substance.
In the final of the Ladies Championship Gstaad, Golubic upset Kiki Bertens to become the tour’s newest – and arguably most popular – silverware owner. The 23-year-old’s swashbuckling play was a ray of sunshine in an otherwise drab week, and her rousing comeback ensured there was a home victor on the WTA’s return to Swiss soil.
Success in Gstaad vaulted Golubic into the Top 100 for the first time. Now perched at No.72, she will gain direct entry into a major for the first time at this summer’s US Open and with relatively few points to defend for the remainder of 2016 she has a good opportunity to improve further.
Golubic, though, is not the only player on the charge:
Kiki Bertens (+5, No.26 to No.21): Bertens announced herself to the tennis world with a win-laden end to the clay court season. Back on the dirt and she was back to winning ways, knocking out crowd favorite and top seed Timea Bacsinszky en route to the Gstaad final. Although she was unable to make it a Swiss double against Golubic, she is now within touching distance of a Top 20 debut.
Anastasija Sevastova (+17 No.66 to No.49): In Bucharest, Anastasija Sevastova continued her steady re-ascent up the ranks with another impressive week, knocking out Sara Errani and Laura Siegemund before running out of steam against Simona Halep in the final.
Vania King (+24, No.144 to No.120): Another of Halep’s victims, Vania King, played some typically positive tennis to reach her first semifinal since 2014. There she gave the home crowd a real scare, too, leading Halep by a set and a break before being denied in a high-quality decider.
Rebeka Masarova (+483, No.797 to No.314): Earlier this summer, Rebeka Masarova tripped up a couple of highly touted rivals to lift the junior French Open title. It was a performance that earned her a wildcard for Gstaad, a chance she grabbed with both hands by knocking out Jelena Jankovic, Anett Kontaveit and Annika Beck to go further than any other WTA main draw debutante since 2012.
WTA Insider | The Daily Live Blog continues on Wednesday with former No.1 Venus Williams making her return to the Bank of the West Classic; stay tuned for all the action in Stanford!
WTA Insider | In the latest Live Blog, newlywed Dominika Cibulkova plays her first match since Wimbledon while CoCo Vandeweghe & Nicole Gibbs headline an all-American evening.
Dominika Cibulkova played her best tennis when the pressure was on; SAP Tennis Analytics for Coaches shows how the Slovak got it done at the Bank of the West Classic.
An interview with Dominika Cibulkova after her win in the quarterfinals of the Bank of the West Classic.
An interview with Alison Riske after her quarterfinal win at the Bank of the West Classic.
Highlights from quarterfinal action at the Bank of the West Classic.
BRISBANE, Australia – Victoria Azarenka wasted little time getting her 2016 season up and running with a brisk win over Elena Vesnina in the first round of the Brisbane International.
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In a merciless display, former champion Azarenka broke six times to wrap up a 6-2, 6-0 win and set up an intriguing second round meeting with top seed Simona Halep.
The previous meeting between the two came at last year’s US Open. On that occasion Halep came out on top in three thrilling sets and she is expecting another stern examination from the former World No.1
“Very tough. Yeah, I’m looking forward to start this year. I’m excited. I know that that’s not easy, because every time the first match of the year is difficult mentally as well and physically,” Halep said.
“It will be a nice match I think. Will be very hard and a big challenge for me. Again, I played against her in US Open, so I’m looking forward to play against her and to see how good I can play in the first match of the year.”
Vesnina, who had to come through three rounds of qualifying to secure her first round berth, started brightly enough, a couple of smart winners helping her break to love in the second game. This, however, would be the last time she troubled the scoreboard.
She was not able to hang onto this lead for long, Azarenka flicking an angled backhand to hit back immediately. From this point she moved through the gears effortlessly, barely putting a foot wrong over the next hour, threading one final backhand past Vesnina to add the final flourish to a near immaculate display.
The statistics as well as the scoreline made pleasant reading, the Belarusian complementing an impressive serving display – she struck four aces and a healthy 74% first serve percentage – with a typically polished display from the baseline, producing 22 winners and just seven unforced errors.
“I was happy to be on the court. It’s been a while since I’ve been out there playing an actual match. It’s been a lot of practice, so I was just happy to go out there and play and be in front of the crowd and just compete,” Azarenka said. “So I was happy to be able to do that and play well.”
Venus Williams takes on Alison Riske in the semifinals of the Bank of the West Classic.