Tennis News

Eugenie Bouchard and Bethanie Mattek-Sands out in three sets: Lucie Hradecka’s hard-hitting game came online just in time in the final set as she ousted No.45 Bouchard 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 in the 1st round of the Miami Open. Polish qualifier Magda Linette rallied to beat Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-4, 6-7(7), 6-3.

Must-see second rounds set: With the first round of the Miami Open complete, here are the matches to watch in the second round: Garbiñe Muguruza vs. Dominika Cibulkova, Angelique Kerber vs. Barbora Strycova, Andrea Petkovic vs. Caroline Garcia, Sloane Stephens vs. Heather Watson, Daria Kasatkina vs. Simona Halep, Elina Svitolina vs. Zhang Shuai, Alize Cornet vs. Agnieszka Radwanska, Sara Errani vs. Naomi Osaka, Timea Bacsinszky vs. Margarita Gasparyan, Julia Goerges vs. Sam Stosur, Venus Williams vs. Elena Vesnina, Kristina Mladenovic vs. Nicole Gibbs.

Billie Jean King and Chris Evert hold court: The two legends called a press conference on Wednesday afternoon in response to the discussion of equal prize money kicked off by former BNP Paribas Open CEO Raymond Moore on Sunday. Moore has since resigned. King and Evert told reporters they had since been inundated with media requests and decided a press conference would be more efficient.

Here are some of the highlights:

– Chris Evert recalls the 70s: While King spoke about the future, Evert spoke of the importance of understanding the past in order to understand just how far women’s tennis has come.

Many of you were too young to even know what happened in the early ’70s. Some of you weren’t born. But there were a lot of struggles and there were a lot of sacrifices being made in the early 70s, and I think I’m going to talk a little bit about those.

In the early ’70s, the men had it really easy. Men athletes were very respected, admired, looked up to, and there was something almost unsettling about a strong, muscular athletic woman running around the court sweating. That was the early ’70s and that was the stigma.

Then Billie Jean King came into the picture with the Original 9. First of all, Billie Jean scared me to death with her forward thinking. She was bold and she was aggressive and she was damn smart. That was very intimidating to me, a teenager at that point.

In my mind, she was right up there with Gloria Steinem. At that point, every time I turned on the TV I saw demonstrations and I saw bra burning and I saw rallies. I sensed at my young age that there was a revolution of some kind going on. I sensed also that it was very, very important for women.

But I still couldn’t relate to her. I mean, I was a teenager. I was a kid in Ft. Lauderdale growing up in a culture where dads worked and moms stayed home and worked in the home and took care of the kids.

In the early ’70s I was lucky enough to see how hard these women tried to sell the sport of tennis. The clinics and the cocktail parties and press conferences and the endless WTA meetings. Even bucking the establishment, who were at the time the USTA, when they threatened to be banned from US Open.

In 1974, when I was a teenager, I played Billie Jean in a tournament in San Francisco in the finals and lost to her quite easily. The next weekend, because we were No. 1 and No. 2 in the world, I played her in Sarasota, Florida and beat her quite easily. I openly wondered why she was so sluggish and just didn’t seem to play her best out there.

I was informed that the day of the finals Billie Jean had flown out from Sarasota and spent the whole day in New York City doing meetings with potential sponsors, and then she flew back to Sarasota at 5:30. Didn’t even warm up and just went on the court and played.

She put the tour before her career so many times. How many men or women do that? Ask yourself that. By the way, she and her husband at that time, Larry King, took me to Dairy Queen after. (Laughter.) Billie Jean loves her ice cream.

This was the era in the early ’70s of no coaches, no entourages, no agents. We practiced together; we traveled together; we hung out together. We were all friends, comrades, and we had each other’s backs. We were family. It was the best time in tennis. Ever.

So if there is a silver lining to all this that’s gone on in the last week, it’s the fact that there has been such outrage from the players and from the media and from the public defending the women’s game.

I think from time to time we all need a reminder of the evolution of women’s tennis and sacrifices every generation has had to make, from Billie Jean to myself and Martina, Steffi to Monica, to the Williams sisters. What we’ve done to get the credibility, the respect, and equality that we have now.

– Progress made, more progress needed:

To hear the men and women weighing in, tennis players just having this dialog, a discussion, is actually progress. To have Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka say that about their daughters, that’s progress.

So this next generation of men are going to make a huge difference. We need them, but they need us. We need each other. I think if we can just keep that in our minds all the time, then we’re going to win. The WTA and the ATP, ITF, USTA in this country, we all have an opportunity to help make the world a better place. I just hope that’s what we’re going to do.

.@ChrissieEvert & I had a great talk w/ @DjokerNole today at @MiamiOpen. He's a class act and a true champion. pic.twitter.com/6Ow8nBkKEl

— Billie Jean King (@BillieJeanKing) March 23, 2016

– Equality over all: King emphasized her position is not about women vs. men but about equality and continuing to use tennis’ platform to effect change.

We represent tennis. Because we have men and women’s, we are one of the few that can lead globally on these issues. That is what my life is about and what I care about. Tennis was secondary to me. The reason I would go and do the sponsor meetings is tennis was secondary.

This, inclusion, when it’s about all of us, is everything. We have a chance to continue to lead. To have equal prize money in the majors sends a message. It’s not about the money, it’s about the message. Any time you discount another human being by gender, race, disability, however, we’re not helping ourselves.

You want everyone to make a lot. At least I do. We want to make the pie bigger, the marketplace bigger for all, for all of you so you have jobs. To argue over the prize money issue, what about when Chris and Martina were playing and their ratings were better than the men? We didn’t go, Oh, we deserve more than the men. No. Let’s just keep it equal and help each other.

So anyway, let’s have some fun. It’s not a “he” thing or a “she” thing; it’s a “we” thing. I’m telling you, this is the only way the world is going to make it.

– Nicole Gibbs weighs in: The American has been a vocal defender (and explainer) of the concept of equal prize money on Twitter, and she was in the audience listening to King and Evert’s remarks when King called on her to chime in:

NICOLE GIBBS: First of all, I just want to thank you guys for your words today. You guys have been such mentors to me throughout my career just with your tennis, but also using your platform, which I think is so, so important.

I was just talking to Jeff over here. I got into a little spat on Twitter last night. I wouldn’t call it a spat but I was just hearing some negative opinions towards women on court with some statistics and some of my own thoughts about equality and finding a way everybody can support one another, like you said.

I had multiple girls in the locker room come up to me and say, Hey, I saw your tweets last night, your messages, but my coach told me not to get involved, or I didn’t think it was smart for me to get involved.

BILLIE JEAN KING: Really?

NICOLE GIBBS: I’m not going to name names, but it’s really disappointing. It’s like, Okay, so you see me out there putting myself out there and trying to give myself an opportunity to use my platform, and you think, Oh, I have an opportunity to use mine too but I’m not going to do that because maybe the media won’t like it or maybe even men who are following me who have these opinions won’t like it.

I think there is far too much worrying about what other people are going to think when you’re campaigning for equality as a woman. I think it’s really important for us to do as you’re saying, use our platform and really just fight the good fight.

BILLIE JEAN KING: What do you say to the ones that say they don’t want to get involved or get committed to this?

NICOLE GIBBS: You know, I try not to be too heavy- handed because…

BILLIE JEAN KING: That doesn’t work. You’re right.

NICOLE GIBBS: Yeah, like you’re saying, though, you can never really fully put yourself in someone else’s shoes, so I’m not going to say, You need to do this…

What I’ll say is, Hey, I would really appreciate some support on that. Or, Hey, I’m writing a blog in the next couple weeks. Would you be willing to give a quote for that that’s authentic and unfiltered?

I get a lot of positive responses, so I think it’s appealing to people in a way that scares them.

CHRIS EVERT: If I could give you some advice: Never be fearful of telling your truth. I think I’m saying that because in my generation there was always so much fear about telling the truth and about consequences and about image and about how you’ll look and how you’ll sound.

You know what? It’s all wrong. It’s all wrong. So I admire you for speaking out as a current player. Just keep doing it.

NICOLE GIBBS: Thank you. Hopefully I can get past 74 in the world so I can have a little higher platform.

BILLIE JEAN KING: Doesn’t matter. You have a platform because we’re global now. We weren’t global when we started. This is fantastic.

To clarify, my statements today were meant to address the undercurrent of fear of speaking out that some WTA players experience…

— Nicole Gibbs (@Gibbsyyyy) March 24, 2016

…myself included at times. Not to talk down about anyone else!! Came to my attention that maybe it would be read differently.

— Nicole Gibbs (@Gibbsyyyy) March 24, 2016

U r a future leader, girl… You've got what it takes.. https://t.co/WubgvGOmPD

— Chris Evert (@ChrissieEvert) March 24, 2016

Cake not crumbs: King recalled her early interactions with an all-male press corp, and how they struggled to grapple with a strong, outspoken woman advocating for equality.

You have to remember, when I would go to a press conference, and I don’t know about you, Chris, but there wasn’t one woman sportswriter.

There wouldn’t have been one woman in the crowd my whole life. When I played Bobby Riggs, there wasn’t one women sportswriter there. I grew up with guys. It was fun actually. They were funny. We got laughing a lot.

I used to ask them before we started the press conference, I would like each person here to tell me what it means to be a feminist. It was hilarious. All the guys start thinking about it. Whoa, whoa. Let’s go to each [person]. If I say that word, I want to make sure we’re on the same page.

You cannot believe the differences. It was hilarious. Nobody was really sure what they thought. So I just said equal rights and opportunities for boys and girls. Exactly what I’ve said since I was 12. Just means equality. Everybody gets their knickers in a twist. Oh, oh. What are the girls asking for? No, we just want the same. Not more.

Everyone thinks women should be thrilled when we get crumbs. I want women to have the cake, the icing, the cherry on top, too. And every man and every women and every — now we have more than just men and women, so however they self- identify. I have to honor that. I just think every single human being deserves the cake and the icing and everything. Okay? Everyone. Everyone.

Insider Podcast: Lastly, check out WTA Insider’s look ahead to the Miami Open draw in the latest episode of the WTA Insider Podcast:

All photos courtesy of Getty Images.

MELBOURNE, Australia – Taking stock of the first two rounds of play at the Australian Open, where Serena Williams leads a class of players who look primed for a title run.

Fit and ready to fight.

Through the first two rounds of play, here are the players who look in-form and ready to make a real run at the Australian Open title.

Serena Williams

No one had a tougher draw in the first two rounds than Serena and she passed with flying colors, beating Belinda Bencic and Lucie Safarova in straight sets. Her win over Safarova on Thursday night was particularly impressive. Serena fired 15 aces and a total of 35 winners to 23 unforced errors and she was clutch when she needed to be. Serena faced down six break points and saved them all to win, 6-3, 6-4.

And you know it was good if she says it was good. Serena’s her harshest critic, which explains why she didn’t have much patience for anyone finding fault in her performance.

“Scrappy?”

Serena put in a top-notch performance tonight. So you can understand this response. #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/PJrvI4AAVH

— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) January 19, 2017

Karolina Pliskova

Through two matches against, as she said, soft opponents, the World No.5 has lost just four games, dropping two bagel sets along the way. She has yet to be tested in the tournament, but she’s been striking the ball well and has been broken just once.

Johanna Konta

Konta continues her incredible form that was on display in her run to the Apia International Sydney title last week. She has not lost a set, beating Kirsten Flipkens and Naomi Osaka handily, and her level has been outstanding. If she wasn’t in Serena’s quarter of the draw she’d be a more than justifiable pick to make the semifinals, if not the final. That’s just how good Jo is playing right now.

Dominika Cibulkova

The No.6 seed has not lost a set but she’s been made to fight on court to beat Denisa Allertova and Hsieh Su-Wei. There have been some wobbles, but the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global champion has yet to panic, a true sign of her growing confidence. Cibulkova did not come into the tournament with many matches, and she may need a few more to fully round into form. But she’s been solid early.

Garbiñe Muguruza

The Spaniard insists that her abductor injury is getting better as time goes on, and her ability to pocket tough straight-set wins in the early going will only help. She did not have dominant wins over Marina Erakovic and Sam Crawford, but she’s shown the same resilience she showed at the Brisbane International to start the year. Muguruza is battle-tested and she’s playing well. The only question is whether her body holds up during the tournament.

Svetlana Kuznetsova

Much like Pliskova, the No.8 seed has yet to face a real test, losing just one game to Mariana Duque-Mariño and handling Aussie teenager Jamiee Fourlis easily.

Venus Williams

As I wrote before the tournament, Venus has a great draw to make the second week and possibly the semifinals. Through two matches she has looked far better than expected given the right arm injury she’s been managing. Much like Muguruza, we’ll be keeping an eye on how she’s doing physically – she withdrew from doubles so as to not aggravate the injury – but so far, so good for Venus.

The Dark Horse

Eugenie Bouchard looks primed to play spoiler in her section of the draw. Bouchard has been playing confident tennis in Melbourne and faced CoCo Vandeweghe on Friday. Get through that match and she could earn a shot at defending champion Angelique Kerber, who is still trying to find her form.

The Surprises

Jennifer Brady, Maria Sakkari, Nicole Gibbs, Mona Barthel, Ashleigh Barty, Mirjana Lucic-Baroni and Sorana Cirstea probably aren’t names many penciled into the third round.

Quote of the Day: “Sometimes people think you play a top player and you’ll go in there relaxed like you have nothing to lose. I don’t see it that way at all.”

Mirjana Lucic-Baroni pulled off the upset of the day, routing No.3 Agnieszka Radwanska 6-3, 6-2 in just 66 minutes. The 34-year-old fired 33 winners to just 20 unforced errors, and she left Radwanska playing the role of bystander. “Shooting – not playing – is the right word for that game,” Radwanska said. “In or out. That’s it. It went so quickly.”

“Sometimes people think you play a top player and you’ll go in there relaxed like you have nothing to lose,” Lucic-Baroni said. “I don’t see it that way at all. I know I have the game to beat top players so I came in there with a gameplan today to win the match. I didn’t go to see the court and enjoy. I’m way too old and I’ve been around way too long to just gain experience. I came there to win the match.”

It took the Croat 19 years to win her second match ever at the Australian Open, which came in the first round. Now, 48 hours later she scored her third.

“Feelings like tonight are incredible on court,” Lucic-Baroni said. “You can’t replicate it anywhere else in life.”

Jennifer Brady saves five match points to beat Heather Watson.

The American qualifier, ranked No.116, is playing just her second main draw at a Slam. Thanks to some clutch serving, she saved five match points to beat Watson, 2-6, 7-6(3), 10-8 in 2 hours and 43 minutes. She’ll face No.14 seed Elena Vesnina next. The Russian has a chance to make the second week without facing a player in the Top 100.

Brady told reporters she had no expectation of still being in the tournament in the third round. “I booked my hotel through the 20th,” Brady said. “Gotta change that now.”

Brady’s friends are pretty excited for her:

Spot the brat in the 3rd rd of @AustralianOpen!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/N07XJ7uqxG

— Grace Min (@GraceMin56) January 19, 2017

SakkAttack!

Greece’s Maria Sakkari won her first main draw match at a Slam here in Melbourne last year. Twelve months later she’s into her first third round, beating No.28 seed Alizé Cornet, 7-5, 4-6, 6-1. With the massive Greek support here in Melbourne, Sakkari was left speechless when asked what this result means to her.

“I still cannot believe it. It’s a dream. I grew up watching all these players that I’m playing now and I could not imagine when I was young that I would be here in the third round playing against these players.”

“It’s something that not many people can do, around the world. I still cannot believe it so I cannot tell you what it feels like.”

Johanna Konta and Caroline Wozniacki set for a big third-round clash.

Both women won through easily on Thursday, setting up a must-watch match on Saturday. Clear your schedules. That’s the biggest third-round showdown of the tournament. It will be the first meeting between the two.

Dominika Cibulkova on the mental game.

Cibulkova started working with a sports psychologist in February of 2015 and she credits all the hard work they’ve done over the last two years for her on-court improvements. But she admits that she wasn’t sure about it when they first began working together.

“In the beginning I didn’t believe this was something that would help me achieve what I want,” she said. “But I started to work with him and I saw the results. So I started to believe once I tried it myself.”

Earlier in the week, CoCo Vandeweghe said she had tried working with a sports psychologist years ago but stopped because she found it too invasive. I asked Cibulkova why more players don’t work with a sports psychologist, especially in a high-pressure game like tennis.

“I think the best players, they work with a mental coach, they just don’t talk about it,” she said. “They just want to keep it for themselves. Who would want to say, ‘I’m doing this extra and it will help you too’?

“Three years ago I thought if I give 100% on the court then off the court it’s my time off and I don’t have to think about tennis and do other things. Now my coach led me to this mental coach and he said, ‘Domi, you need this because your game is so good but you need your head to be more stable and more strong.'”

Nicole Gibbs gets back to basics.

Gibbs is into the third round of a Slam for the first time since the US Open in 2014, and for just the second time in her career. She came through an All-American derby, beating Irina Falconi in straight sets.

Watching Gibbs early this season it’s clear that she’s been working on being more aggressive and looking to hit forehands with more pace and placement. Gibbs credits a racquet switch during the off-season, trading in her Wilson Burn for the new Wilson Blade. But she’s also getting back to the fundamentals of her game, which she felt she went away from last year.

“When my dad built my game he kind of modeled me after Justine Henin,” Gibbs said. “He wanted me running around backhands, looking for my forehand everywhere. His only regret was not giving me a one-handed backhand.

“That was the basis of my game and for the first time in a long time I have a coach that sees it that way as well. So we’re getting back to the foundational principles that my game was built around and I think that’s going to take me to the highest potential peak of my game.”

Naomi Osaka bows out.

For the first time in five Slams, Osaka failed to reach the third round, though in this case you can blame a tough draw against Konta. Asked about her goals for the season, the 19-year-old was pretty clear.

“Goals for the season, I wanted to get into the Top 20, win a tournament, and then get to the quarterfinals of a Slam.”

Serena is just…Serena.

“Overall I played really well. But unfortunately, Serena played…Serena.”

That was Lucie Safarova after playing a great match and still finding herself on the losing end of a straight-set loss to Serena.

“She’s not someone you see in a second-round match. I know that [French Open final against Safarova] was a tough three-set match. She never gives up. Like she’s just always fighting to come back. So I knew that I wanted to jump out in the lead.

“I knew that I wanted to just be Serena. That’s what I’m good at doing, is being Serena.”

So what exactly does it mean to “be Serena”?

“To me, it’s being a champion, but not only by the way I play, but the things I do off the court as well,” Serena said. “I know that being Serena on the court is in a way being calm, which is in my name, but always having that fire as well. I think, most of all, being confident. I should be confident ’cause there’s no other Serena. I mean, I’m Serena. Maybe there is another one, but she’s not in tennis.

“So I think sometimes I forget. I try to be so humble that I forget I have accomplished so much. I really wanted today to just have confidence when I was out there.”

Day 5 Matches to Watch:

Eugenie Bouchard vs. CoCo Vandeweghe (1st match, Rod Laver Arena)
Angelique Kerber vs. Kristyna Pliskova (2nd match, Rod Laver Arena)
Elina Svitolina vs. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (1st match, Margaret Court Arena)
Venus Williams vs. Duan Ying-Ying (3rd match, Margaret Court Arena)
Garbiñe Muguruza vs. Anastasija Sevastova (2nd night match, Margaret Court Arena)
Jelena Jankovic vs. Svetlana Kuznetsova (1st match, Hisense Arena)

All photos courtesy of Getty Images.

BEIJING, China – Madison Keys held her nerve to win a dramatic quarterfinal encounter with Petra Kvitova at the China Open on Friday.

Watch live action from Beijing on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!

Leading by a set and a break, Keys looked to be easing into the semifinals. However, a spirited Kvitova comeback ensured the match went down to the wire, Keys eventually closing out a 6-3, 6-7(2), 7-6(5) victory after two hours and 41 minutes.

“I think I played a pretty solid first set today, then she raised her level. I just think at the end it became a couple of points here or there. I think I got my serve back on track a little bit,” Keys said. “I mean, really, it could have gone either way. It was really close.”

Madison Keys' record in 3 set matches:

2014: 6-10
2015: 7-8
2016: 17-5

— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) October 7, 2016

Keys’ victory was all the more impressive given Kvitova’s recent form. In Wuhan, she dismantled a series of higher-ranked opponents to win her first title in 13 months, before seeing off Wang Yafan and Garbiñe Muguruza this week to extend her winning run.

In Keys, though, she found an opponent capable of matching her firepower. After the first seven games went with serve, the American carved out the first break point by whipping a forehand return onto the line. Kvitova double faulted to surrender the break and ultimately the set.

Kvitova came roaring back in the second set, recovering from 4-2 down to level the match on a tie-break. The decider followed a similar pattern, Keys making the early running only to be pegged back when the Czech won the latest baseline slugfest. This time, however, Keys refused to be overwhelmed, surviving a series of arduous service games to reach the sanctuary of a tie-break. Locked at 5-5, she finally found the knockout blow, hammering a backhand down the line before serving her way into a maiden Premier Mandatory semifinal.

“I definitely think I got frustrated. You know, it’s always tough when you’re serving for a set and you have a bad game,” Keys said. “Doing that a couple of times in a match is frustrating.

“But, you know, I think I did a really good job at staying focused and just trying to regroup and worry about the next point. You know, she made it really tough today. I’m just really happy that at the end I was able to get my serve back on track and get myself ahead in the tiebreaker.”

Keys moves on to face Johanna Konta in the semifinals, knowing that a run to the title would secure her a debut at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.

“Jo is playing really well. I mean, at this point everyone’s trying to qualify, everyone’s trying to play their good tennis at the end of the year,” Keys added. “Pretty much whoever you play is going to be a tough match.”