Tennis News

Elina Svitolina posted back-to-back wins over Angelique Kerber and Caroline Wozniacki to claim the title at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships – and leap up to the No.2 spot on the Road To Singapore leaderboard.

The Ukrainian – who also broke the Top 10 with her win in the final – is in the middle of a 12-match winning streak and shows no signs of slowing down.

“When I go on court, and everything I just leave behind,” Svitolina told WTA Insider after the win. “For me it’s very important to be mentally there – don’t think, don’t let bad thoughts do bad things with my game.

“If I had lost somewhere, I would feel it. Like, ‘Come on, you did something good!’ Now I’m winning and winning and I want more and more.”

Another player to record a big RTS move is World No.2 Angelique Kerber. Her run to the Dubai semifinal puts her back on track for a return to the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global, and she sits right on the Top 8 bubble at No.9. Meanwhile, Caroline Wozniacki’s back-to-back finals at Doha and Dubai put her inside the Top 8 at No.5. 

Here are the biggest moves on the Road To Singapore leaderboard this week:
Elina Svitolina +7 (No.9 to No.2)
Caroline Wozniacki +4 (No.9 to No.5)
Angelique Kerber +15 (No.24 to No.9)
Garbiñe Muguruza -3 (No.7 to No.10)
Dominika Cibulkova -3 (No.11 to No.8)

 Click here to check out the full Road to Singapore leaderboard, updated as of February 27th.

Timea Bacsinszky hasn’t always loved the grass. Before she returned to the tour after a three-year break, she was 3-5 in her career on the turf. “I was kind of afraid of grass for many years, but since I came back in 2013 [it’s changed].” Indeed, since her return three years ago she is 10-4 on grass with a Wimbledon quarterfinal already under her belt last year.

Bacsinszky’s first match on grass in three years came at Wimbledon qualifying in 2013. It was just the second tournament she played since deciding to return to the tour (the first being Roland Garros). “I played against Madison Brengle and I ended up winning 6-4 in the third.” Bacsinszky said during All-Access Hour at the Aegon International on Monday. “For me it was like a miracle, like coming from nowhere playing in Roehampton, which is like a potato field,” she said, much to the delight of a laughing press corp.

“All my respects to Roehampton, they are trying their best, but it’s not really the most glamorous grass court ever. With those like funny conditions, you have many courts everywhere and it’s like a bazaar. It’s like a zoo over there. I ended up winning a match. I was like, wow. And almost won my second match but I lost against Schmiedlova 7-5 in the third.”

Slowly, the always adaptable Bacsinszky, who has posted her best results on clay and hard courts, began to realize her game could flourish on grass.

“My game is quite good right now on grass because I’m able to play longer rallies if I really need to,” she said. “I know it’s not good to defend on grass, but I can be in that position to give one extra ball back for my opponent and to mix up with the spins to be able to come to the net, to be able to maybe do a chip and charge. I’m not even at 1% of Roger’s level in that, but I’m trying to improve my game and to make, yeah, everything possible what I can that can help me to play well on grass.”

Roger Federer is a seven-time Wimbledon champion. Belinda Bencic is a junior Wimbledon champion and won the Aegon International for her first title last year. Stan Wawrinka is a two-time Wimbledon quarterfinalist and Bacsinszky has also made the Wimbledon quarterfinals. Martina Hingis is a Wimbledon champion in singles and won the doubles title with Sania Mirza last year.

So what gives? Why are the Swiss so solid on grass? As is her wont, Bacsinszky had an interesting take.

“I think it’s not something about the surfaces but it’s more that being in the middle of Europe tennis-type-wise you have all those influences,” she explained. “The French are playing like they like the nice game, coming forward, making big shots, aesthetically nice, a lot of culture of tennis.

“Then you have the Spaniards fighting for every point, they don’t give a s***. And they just like go for every ball, try to give back so many balls, try to make work the [opponent]. Okay, you’re gonna say not every Spaniard, for sure. There are always the exceptions; Muguruza is not that type of player.

“The majority of Spaniards are like, ‘Okay, I’m going to fight for everything, and the spirit of clay court. Even if I have to chip everything, I’m going to win the match even if it’s ugly. Even if it’s playing with the other side of the racquet, I don’t care.’

“Italy can be also like this. It’s a mixture. And then you have Eastern Europe, which are based on the baseline hitting everything, going for the lines, trying to take the ball early, putting a lot of pressure.

“Why Switzerland, why we have so many maybe good players? We have all these influences. And I think that’s what it’s like in the Swiss mentality, you’re open for everything. We have to learn more languages, every kid has an education. Most of the people have a job, a decent job. They work hard. We like to work. It’s all the system which works.

“And maybe – it’s a small parallel to say that – maybe that’s why we can also play well on grass, because we are open minded. We say, ‘Okay, we are gonna fight for every point. We are gonna try to hit balls. We’re gonna try maybe new things and we are going to accept the situation and how it is.’ And so we go for it.”

But for Bacsinszky it’s more than just about being Swiss. A child of Hungarian immigrants, she traces part of her her autonomous drive – her Twitter hashtag motto is #limitless – to her parents.

“My mom and my dad were, when I was a kid, telling me you have to fight for what you have, you have to fight for who you want to be, it’s not only given. You have to go and work for what you really want to get. It’s probably why also I’m restless. If I commit to something, I really want to go to my maximum. I never know where my limits are, where my maximum is, but I’m trying to seek it.

“It’s probably because of the Hungarian influence, because they have been beaten so many times in war. They were such a big empire. But we are also quiet population. In Switzerland, you don’t say, ‘Oh, I’m a proud Hungarian.’ Other countries, they would all the time have the flags and stuff. But Hungarians are I believe in foreign countries they are really super quiet.

“I have this will and probably it’s coming from that. You have to fight. Like my dad fought to get away from Romania. He was Hungarian but in the Hungarian minority of Romania, and he couldn’t pass the borders and had to arrange a marriage in order to get out. I mean, political refugee.

“It was really tough. My mom had an easier situation, but I know it wasn’t easy for them. And I grew up with that. So that’s why I fought all the time for everything, what I did. It’s probably because of that.”

Click here to read more about this year’s Wimbledon Contenders, courtesy of WTA Insider.

All photos courtesy of Getty Images.

Petra Kvitova and Wimbledon go together like strawberries and cream. Since 2010, Kvitova has made the quarterfinals or better five times, winning the title twice in 2011 and 2014. The All England Club is where Kvitova has made her mark, emblazoned her name, and played her absolute best. And it’s where she’s been able to kickstart a season when she’s arrived on a sputter.

Kvitova has yet to get her game going in 2016. She made the quarterfinals or better at just two events this year and has slipped out of the Top 10 for the first time since 2013. She will be seeded outside the Top 8 for the first time since 2010. Despite it all, Wimbledon has a firm history of curing all that ails her. Kvitova just needs to get on a roll.

“I remember in 2011, I was injured in my leg, which wasn’t really nice,” Kvitova told WTA Insider. “I was coming from Eastbourne and I remember I was supposed to play on Monday but it was raining so I was so happy to play on Tuesday. I played the final in Eastbourne and I felt like the tournament just continued. It’s not like a new tournament, new Grand Slam, so I was just flowing.

“Nobody really expected – me neither – that I can play so well there. For me it was a really special moment and really a surprise. I didn’t know how to handle it.

“It was totally different [in 2014]. I think in the second Wimbledon I think there was kind of expectations already. It was much more difficult. I played three Czech girls on the journey. I didn’t really feel like I could win it again but I was just so focused. After the final I was just feeling so much deeper, so satisfied with everything. It was something more than the first one.”

Kvitova will be playing Wimbledon without her long-time coach David Kotyza. The two split after the Australian Open and she’s now coached by former ATP player Frantisek Cermak. Their best results of the season came in the quarterfinals of the BNP Paribas Open and semifinals of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.

“I think that I’m kind of feeling that I am playing well, even though I kind of lost some of the matches in a couple of months,” Kvitova said at the Aegon International. “But I think it’s pretty good. The main thing is to stay healthy, for sure. Otherwise I feel good.”

Kvitova said the biggest struggle for her as been keeping focus in matches. “I do work with my mental coach,” she said. “I think it’s getting better, as well. But you never really know. Kind of these [tight] matches, it’s difficult, always under the pressure and the players are playing without any expectation or anything. Sometimes it’s difficult to stay still, very focused on every kind of point.”

In 2014, Kvitova arrived to Wimbledon without a title under her belt for the season. Her draw got her two fairly easy opening opponents before she locked in to beat Venus Williams, 5-7, 7-6(2), 7-5 in one of the best matches of that year. Kvitova then capped it off with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Eugenie Bouchard in just 55 minutes.

As Kvitova says herself, she doesn’t need much practice to matches to play well. They clearly help her confidence, but deep down Kvitova knows her game is there. She just needs to find it in time.

“I just know that it’s there,” Kvitova said. “[The way] you were training before you can’t really forget.”

Listen to more of Kvitova’s thoughts on the upcoming Championships in the latest episode of the WTA Insider Podcast:

Click here to read more about this year’s Wimbledon Contenders, courtesy of WTA Insider.

All photos courtesy of Getty Images.