Indian Wells: Elena Vesnina Vs Venus Williams
Elena Vesnina takes on Venus Williams in the quarterfinals of the BNP Paribas Open.
Elena Vesnina takes on Venus Williams in the quarterfinals of the BNP Paribas Open.
MIAMI, FL, USA – Top seed Serena Williams nearly saw her quest for a ninth Miami Open title end in her opening match against Christina McHale, who saved a match point to force a deciding set; Williams nonetheless prevailed with her 12th ace, 6-3, 5-7, 6-2.
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Looking to shake off a runner-up finish at the BNP Paribas Open by playing in one of her favorite tournaments, Williams looked well in control through most of the match, taking a set and a break lead, serving for the match at 5-4 in the second set. But McHale – who has enjoyed a solid start to 2016, including a doubles title in Hobart and a singles win at an ITF Challenger in Maui – ended up saving a match point to break back and win four games in a row to level the match.
“She definitely started to fight harder, and is clearly capable of playing great tennis,” Serena told Andrew Krasny during her on-court interview. “She showed it today.”
Despite not playing her best tennis, the 21-time Grand Slam champion still managed 33 winners on the day and two more breaks of serve to clinch her spot in the third round, where she will play Kazakhstan’s Zarina Diyas, who took out No.31 seed Daria Gavrilova earlier in the day.
Before the start of the tournament, Williams penned an op-ed in the New York Times about how much she loves the Miami Open, which may yet move from its present location in Crandon Park. The American reaffirmed her love of what she considers a second home in front of an adoring crowd.
“Miami is such a special place for me. I live so close to here; in fact I was just home yesterday,” she said with a laugh.
“When I was younger, I used to watch so many people play here. I know a lot of the kids have that same experience. I grew up wandering the grounds like everyone here, and now I’m playing here and it’s always such a special moment.”
Williams’ good friend and former No.1 Caroline Wozniacki earned a much-needed win over a resurgent Vania King, 7-5, 6-2, setting up a third round encounter with No.12 seed Elina Svitolina. Svitolina recently added 2016 International Tennis Hall Of Fame Inductee Justine Henin to her coaching staff, and earned a solid win over Australian Open quarterfinalist Zhang Shuai, who beat Wozniacki last week in Indian Wells, 6-3, 6-0.
Abierto Monterrey Afirme champion and wildcard Heather Watson allowed just four points from American Sloane Stephens in their second round match, winning 11 straight games to improve their head-to-head to 5-2 with a 6-3, 6-0 victory. France’s Caroline Garcia survived a topsy-turvy afair against No.21 seed Andrea Petkovic, earning the upset, 7-6(5), 3-6, 7-6(2).
Check out all the action from Day 9 of the BNP Paribas Open.
MIAMI, FL, USA – Garbiñe Muguruza produced a thrilling final set comeback to defeat Dominika Cibulkova in an absorbing second-round encounter at the Miami Open on Friday.
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Two crushing returns helped Muguruza claim the decisive break in the penultimate game before she calmly wrapped up a 6-7(3), 6-3, 7-5 victory.
“The match today was so tough but I’m so happy I’ve been through this against Dominika,” Muguruza said. “She played very well and I think it was a tricky second round because she’s really tough. But I’m very happy that I fight all the match – even though I lost the first set hard – and I was able to come back.”
Earlier this month in Indian Wells, Cibulkova came within a point of upsetting World No.3 Agnieszka Radwanska. While she did not come quite so close to victory against Muguruza, she will be no less disappointed at her failure to get over the line once again.
After splitting two high-quality sets, Cibulkova looked to be heading for the third round when she surged 3-0 ahead in the decider. However, she was unable to hold onto the momentum, sending a backhand long to surrender her serve in the fifth game.
Considering her struggle for form this year, Muguruza showed tremendous poise with the match in the balance. Trailing 5-4, the Spaniard refused to wilt, a couple of pin-point serves fending off the danger. The same could not be said for Cibulkova in the next game, Muguruza jumping on a couple of short second serves to strike decisively.
Muguruza faces wildcard Nicole Gibbs in the third round. Gibbs reached the fourth round in Indian Wells and continued her superb spring by beating No.27 seed Kristina Mladenovic, 6-2, 6-4, earlier on Friday.
“I don’t know her that well. But she’s here because she’s playing great and feeling at home because she’s from the US. I’ll just do my stuff, prepare and fight until the last point,” Muguruza added.
Svetlana Kuznetsova takes on Karolina Pliskova in the semifinals of the BNP Paribas Open.
MIAMI, FL, USA – Ekaterina Makarova dug deep to topple fellow lefty Petra Kvitova and grab the first spot in the fourth round at the Miami Open in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4.
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In tennis, as in many sports, left handers typically have a unique advantage over the right-handed population – but what about if the opponent is another lefty, and a two-time Wimbledon champion at that?
“Of course it’s always tough to play against a lefty… we’re not used to it!” Makarova said. “Petra’s such a great player, it was really tough to play against her. I’m just really happy I came through.”
The No.31-ranked Russian found herself in trouble early on, quickly going down 1-4 against Kvitova’s strong groundstrokes and tricky lefty serve. But Makarova put her problem solving skills to the test and adjusted her game, jamming Kvitova with body serves to cut off her deadly angles.
The tactic worked and Makarova rattled off five straight games to come back and win the opening set, Kvitova’s frustration mounting along with her unforced error count. Kvitova hit 26 winners to 24 unforced errors in the match in contrast to Makarova’s tidy 9 to 9.
She's on the move!@KateMakarova1 wins five straight and takes the opening set vs Kvitova 6-4! #WTA https://t.co/MxrYSvcWaM
— WTA (@WTA) March 26, 2016
With the pressure coming steadily from the other side of the net, Kvitova’s woes continued into the second set. Makarova grabbed a crucial break at 3-2, and kept her lead to take the match in an hour and a half.
“Today was actually really tough to play, especially against Petra and in these conditions,” Makarova commented in her post-match interview, referring to Miami’s heat and humidity.
“She started unbelievable – a lot of winners. I just kept going and going, wanting to hit longer points and just being on the court and enjoying it.”
Makarova now meets Elina Svitolina, the winner of a titanic struggle against Caroline Wozniacki in Saturday’s evening session.
In a match lasting 20 minutes shy of three hours, the result was in the balance until the very end. Wozniacki came within two points of victory, only to see Svitolina produce a final flourish to prevail, 5-7, 6-4, 7-6(1).
The 2017 Aces For Humanity campaign was launched by USANA and the WTA at the BNP Paribas Open, where every ace hit by a WTA player at Premier-level events translates into a donation to the USANA True Health Foundation, whose mission is to provide the most critical human necessities to those who are suffering or in need around the world.
For every ace hit by any player the WTA donates $5, and for every ace hit by a USANA Brand Ambassador, it’s $10.
USANA Brand Ambassadors Caroline Wozniacki, Eugenie Bouchard, Monica Puig and Zheng Saisai hit 12 of the 476 aces in Indian Wells – raising a grand total of $2,560 throughout the fortnight. Wozniacki hit the most with seven aces.
Read more about the campaign here and see below to find out who’s hit the most aces so far!
#AcesForHumanity Fan Giveaway
It’s simple: before each WTA Premier tournament guess how many total aces will be hit.
Next up is the Miami Open in Miami. Last year there was a total of 539 aces hit. It’s now your turn, take your best guess of how many will be hit this year.
How To Enter:
• Follow @WTA and @USANAFoundation on Twitter and before each WTA Premier tournament tweet the number of aces you predict will be hit during the whole tournament (Singles, Main Draw)
• Include the hashtag #AcesForHumanity
• Beijing deadline is March 21 at 11:59pm ET
• The winner will be announced April 3rd
Aces For Humanity is a joint WTA and USANA initiative that benefits the USANA True Health Foundation, which provides critical human necessities to those in suffering or in need around the globe.
For full rules on how to enter, click here.
How have Angelique Kerber, Karolina Pliskova, Simona Halep and the rest of the Miami Open contenders fared in the past?
MIAMI, FL, USA – It was a bad day in the opening round of qualifying for two of Britain’s hopes in the Miami Open as Katie Swan and Naomi Broady fell at the first hurdle.
British No.3 Broady lost 7-5, 6-4 to New Zealand’s Marina Erakovic in what was expected to be a close match with only 15 places between the pair in the WTA rankings.
It was a similarly tight affair in the match between Swan and Risa Ozaki, the Japanese winning 6-3, 6-3, although the discrepancy in the rankings of over 250 places meant that this was somewhat of a more expected result.
Not the result I was hoping for…had a lot of chances but still loved being out there!! Let's keep it going ??? #MiamiOpen pic.twitter.com/QlTC5BdUSq
— Katie Swan (@Katieswan99) March 20, 2017
Elsewhere, WTA Insider reported a popular victory for 15-year-old Anastasia Potapova over rising Greek star Maria Sakkari and in-form second seed Magda Linette survived a second set blip to overcome Asia Muhammad in three tight sets.
There were also notable wins for Donna Vekic (d. Kayla Day 4-6, 6-2, 6-4), Varvara Lepchenko (d. Silvia Soler-Espinosa 7-5, 6-1), Madison Brengle (d. Sachia Vickery 6-1, 6-2) , Mona Barthel (d. Jaqueline Cristian 6-1, 6-1) and Francesca Schiavone (d. Kateryna Kozlova 6-3, 6-0).
MIAMI, FL, USA – Newly-minted World No.1 Angelique Kerber has officially reclaimed her spot at the top of the WTA rankings on Monday, a day before the Miami Open kicks off and where she’ll also be the No.1 seed for the first time.
But the big question for former World No.1 Chrissie Evert is how Kerber will cope with the pressures of having the target on her back once again.
Kerber is still searching for her first title of 2017 after falling in the fourth round of Indian Wells to eventual champion Elena Vesnina. The German went into the match leading 4-1 in their head-to-head record, but started off flat and allowed Vesnina to dictate the rallies, a contrast to the game she showed during her run to two Grand Slam titles last year.
She’s also yet to defeat a Top 20 player in 2017, falling to Elina Svitolina twice (Brisbane, No.14; Dubai, No.13) and later Vesnina (No.15).
“For me it’s nothing really to do with the physicality of her game,” Evert said in an ESPN phone call. “It’s not that the game is not there, the same game that she won the Australian Open with and the US Open with.
“I think it’s all in her head, and it is a big adjustment to have that No.1 bullseye on your back and to continue to play with the fearlessness that it took for her to get there. She went out of the box in big matches that she won last year; she took more chances. She played more fearless tennis. She went for more shots. She went for bigger serves. She went for bigger second serves.
“She really, to me, this year has gone back into the type of tennis she played two years ago when she was Top 5 in the world, but not No.1.”
Evert drew a comparison between Kerber and the resurgent Caroline Wozniacki – who’s added a bit more aggression to her counterpunching game to help her climb back on top following an injury-riddled 2016 season and consecutive slide down the rankings.
“She has to do what Wozniacki is trying to do now: taking a few more risks and being a little more aggressive,” Evert explained. “Those two, I see their games similar as far as their unbelievable defense and counterpunching, and it goes against their nature to really wind up and to attack right from the start. But they’ve got to learn to do that a little bit more.”
Evert, who was the year-ending World No.1 singles player in 1974-1978 and 1980-1981 and held on to the ranking for a total of 260 weeks, had some words of advice for what it would take for the German to regain her fearlessness.
“[Kerber] has to get back that aggressive mentality, and she’s got to really force it on herself because she’s not going to be No. 1 until she plays like she did at the US Open and like she did in Australia.
“The tennis is there, but she’s got to get back into that frame of mind, and she’s got to work on that. Only she can do it. You can listen to a thousand people or the best coaches in the world, but only she has to come to terms with that.”
– Photos courtesy of Getty Images