Zhuhai: Shot Of The Day (Friday)
Elena Vesnina has Friday’s shot of the day at the Huajin Securities WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai.
Elena Vesnina has Friday’s shot of the day at the Huajin Securities WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai.
Wildcard Zhang Shuai became the first to advance into the Huajin Securities WTA Elite Trophy semifinal with a straight-set win over Timea Babos in the Camellia Group.
WTA Elite Trophy ambassador Steffi Graf hosted a charity clinic at the Huajin Securites WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai.
Irina-Camelia Begu survives an epic: The Romanian, seeded No.25 in Paris, held off a barrage of power from CoCo Vandeweghe to win 6-7(4), 7-6(4), 10-8 in 3 hours and 38 minutes, the longest WTA match of the season so far. Vandeweghe served for the match at 5-4 in the third but Begu broke back and eventually worked her way to the win. It will be a tough loss for the American to swallow. Begu plays Annika Beck for a spot in the Round of 16.
Read more about Begu’s journey back from injury and how professional tennis runs in her family here.
Victoria Azarenka’s frustrating clay season: The World No.5 had all the momentum in the world heading into the clay season, but her mind and body just would not cooperate. On Tuesday, Azarenka retired down 4-0 in the final set to Italy’s Karin Knapp, a player who is well familiar with physical fragility herself.
After losing just one match on hard courts in the first three months of the season and winning three titles – including the first two Premier Mandatory events of the year at Indian Wells and Miami – Azarenka’s clay season was one to forget. She won just two tour matches on red clay and failed to notch a win over anyone ranked inside the Top 40. The back injury she sustained at the Mutua Madrid Open seemed to have healed up in Paris, but against Knapp she appeared to suffer a right knee injury that eventually led to her retirement.
Azarenka did not speak to reporters after the match.
Francesca Schiavone clarifies retirement rumors: No, Francesca ain’t done yet. Schiavone received a hero’s ovation after losing in straight sets to Kristina Mladenovic in the first round, but clarified after the match that, despite an announcement by Roland Garros, she had not retired.
“You can stand up all of you & go back to work b/c I didn’t say that. I will announce when I want to stop.” pic.twitter.com/G0ppQpTxC9
— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) May 24, 2016
Roland Garros, always a pleasure. See you all in @Wimbledon.
— Francesca Schiavone (@Schiavone_Fra) May 24, 2016
Timea Bacsinszky’s tasty tales: What is it like to cover the first week of a Slam? It involves a lot of stairs, battery checks on your recorders, and cold sandwiches, often eaten at your desk as you monitor results. So this was a particularly painful read:
Reads @TimeaOfficial’s press conference, looks at sad desk sandwich, cries. #RG16 pic.twitter.com/blw6sZxIvh
— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) May 24, 2016
Kristina Mladenovic mixes it up: Mladenovic confirmed to reporters that she will play mixed doubles with Pierre Hugues Herbert at the Olympics.
Garbiñe Muguruza and Petra Kvitova bouce back: After getting pushed to three sets in the first round against Anna Karolina Schmiedlova, the No.4 seed rolled to a 6-2, 6-0 win over French wildcard Myrtille Georges. Kvitova was two points away from a first round exit as well against Danka Kovinic. She rolled past Hsieh Su-Wei 6-4, 6-1 on Wednesday to move through to the third round.
Shhhhh…Agnieszka Radwanska looking comfortable: The No.2 seed has not dropped a set through two rounds, with wins over Bojana Jovanovski and a tough Caroline Garcia. “I’m healthy, in one piece, and I’m just ready for the next one,” Radwanska said afterwards.
Read why I tentatively picked Radwanska as a darkhorse for a deep run. Pressure and expectation free, this might be the year she puts it together on clay. Or not. We’ll see.
Can Samantha Stosur snap her Safarova streak?: Stosur is into the third round and will face a familiar foe in last year’s Roland Garros finalist Lucie Safarova. The Czech is 11-3 against Stosur. It’s Stosur’s worst head-to-head record behind her 15-2 mark against Maria Sharapova.
Naomi Osaka streaks through a Slam once again: The 18-year-old is into the third round of her Roland Garros debut, this time beating an in-form Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 6-3, 6-3 to set up a big test against No.6 seed Simona Halep.
Here’s a fun exchange between Osaka and a reporter about her desire to play Serena Williams.
Q. Speaking of Serena, you always wanted to play her. In Australia you looked a little bit disappointed to find out that you don’t have an opportunity to play against Serena until like a semifinals or something. I was wondering this year when the draw came out, did you watch where Serena is and did you find that opportunity to play against Serena?
NAOMI OSAKA: Well, she’s all the way on the other side of the draw. Like she’s always at the very top. Then I saw my name wasn’t there, and I was like, ah. I got over it kind of quickly. Was that it?
Q. What was your reaction when you found that you don’t have an opportunity to play her until the final?
NAOMI OSAKA: Disappointment? But then I’m like, okay, so maybe I have a chance to win my rounds then.
Elena Vesnina and Ekaterina Makarova are out…of singles: The doubles partners took surprising second round losses on Wednesday, with Vesnina bowing out to Shelby Rogers and No.27 seed Makarova losing to Yanina Wickmayer in three sets.
The pressure of playing at home: Caroline Garcia will walk away from the clay season with a big win on home soil. It just won’t be here in Paris. The Strasbourg champion couldn’t find her best when it mattered against the crafty Radwanska, but the atmosphere and the effort she put in was very positive.
“I enjoyed the court,” Garcia said. “I enjoyed Lenglen. I enjoyed the public. I’m disappointed. I can play better. But it was a wonderful moment. It was very emotional. The public supporting me helped me coming back in the match when I thought it was over.
“I think they believed more in me than I believed in myself.”
Day 5 Matches to Watch: Timea Bacsinszky vs. Eugenie Bouchard, Venus Williams vs. Louisa Chirico, Madison Keys vs. Mariana Duque-Mariño, Camila Giorgi vs. Kiki Bertens, Andrea Petkovic vs. Yulia Putintseva, Kristina Mladenovic vs. Timea Babos.
Olympic teams shape up: A quick look at the Olympic race:
– Germany: With Annika Beck’s run to the third round, the top four Germans on the Monday after the French Open will be Angelique Kerber, Andrea Petkovic, Laura Siegemund, and Beck. That’s not to say that’s the confirmed team: all players are still subject to Federation and Fed Cup requirements.
– Russia: The Vesnina and Makarova’s losses mean the Russian Olympic team is nearly set, with Svetlana Kuznetsova, Maria Sharapova, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, and Daria Kasatkina the top four singles players. If Sharapova is unable to play in Rio, that fourth spot will go to Makarova.
– United States: CoCo Vandeweghe needed to make the final to overtake Sloane Stephens or Madison Keys for the fourth Olympic spot. While Louisa Chirico is still mathematically in the hunt, it’s looking like the US will send Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Madison Keys, and Sloane Stephens in singles.
– Three bubble players to watch: Even one more win could mean the difference between Rio and summer vacation for Alizé Cornet, Zhang Shuai, and Wang Qiang.
Photos courtesy of Getty Images.
ZHUHAI, China – Tennis legend Stefanie Graf, the ambassador for the second edition of the Huajin Securities WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai, paid a visit to the one of the city’s most impressive landmarks to promote the tournament and the host city, aiming at further connecting Zhuhai with the world.
Click here for a photo gallery of all of Steffi’s activities in Zhuhai!
In her first pubic activity ever in mainland China, Graf visited the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, a Y-shaped bridge which connects Hong Kong, Macao and mainland China, and, when completed, will be the longest sea-crossing bridge in the world.
The former No.1 was joined by Caroline Garcia, one of the 12 single players at the WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai, to play tennis at a mini court temporarily established on the landmark bridge.
Check out the best photos from the event right here, courtesy of the WTA Elite Trophy!
Kristina Mladenovic takes on Francesca Schiavone in the first round of Roland Garros.
Petra Kvitova continued her love affair with China by defeating Elina Svitolina to lift the Huajin Securities WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai.
Former finalist Simona Halep was forced to dig deep to defeat Naomi Osaka and keep her dreams of a maiden Roland Garros title alive.
PARIS, France – Shelby Rogers beat the odds on Sunday, dispatching No.25 seed Irina-Camelia Begu, 6-3, 6-4 at the French Open to reach her first-ever Grand Slam quarterfinal.
Rogers proved she could play on clay earlier this year when she reached the final of the Rio Open, but the unseeded American had never been past the third round at any major tournament in her career. Meanwhile, Begu had enjoyed the most consistent clay court season of anyone in the field, reaching the quarterfinals in Charleston and Madrid, and the semifinals in Rome.
Nevertheless, Rogers has been the Cinderella story of the tournament, taking out No.17 seed Karolina Pliskova, Volvo Car Open finalist Elena Vesnina and No.10 seed Petra Kvitova just to reach the second week. Playing on Court Suzaane Lenglen, she took it to her Romanian opposition, hititng 15 winners and nine fewer unforced errors than Begu, who only hit 12 winners in two sets.
“I think any player has to be ready to do well every week,” she said in her post-match press conference. “We enter the tournaments with expectations, of course, to do well or work on things or, you know, with certain goals in mind.
“If you don’t expect to do well, then maybe you shouldn’t play, you know. I keep going back to trying to treat this as any other tournament, any other tennis match. Obviously the stakes are much higher and the players are much better.
“I’m just trying to stick with my routines and do what I have been doing all year.”
Up a set and 4-2, Rogers briefly saw her lead under threat as the No.25 seed surged back to level the second.
“I won the first set and it was working. Okay, I missed a few, but still going for the right shots kind of thing. So just keep going after it I kept telling myself. It was working in the first, it’s going to work again. So keep doing it.”
Maintaining the course, a fifth break of serve in the tenth game proved decisive for the 23-year-old American, who clinched the biggest win of her career in one hour and 21 minutes.
“I really enjoyed playing on that court. It was a great experience.
“I think that’s a very important point on backing up a big win. I guess I have done that pretty much this whole tournament, starting with the first round, because that was a huge upset for me and kind of set the tone for the last few matches I have played.”
Setting up a quarterfinal encounter with No.4 seed Garbiñe Muguruza, Rogers becomes the first American not named Venus or Serena Williams to make it this far at the French Open since 2005 (Lindsay Davenport) and, at No.108 in the world, the lowest ranked player since 2012, when qualifier Yaroslava Shvedova won her way into the last eight, ranked No.142.
“I keep reminding myself to play one point at a time and that this is just another tennis match. But that’s getting a little bit harder to do as the rounds get farther.
“But I’m very happy with the way I played, and I just hope to continue it.”
“I always dreamed it would happen but I'm not sure I thought it could.” Well @Shelby_Rogers_ , it's happening! #RG16 https://t.co/0eZ2l2LrCu
— Roland Garros (@rolandgarros) May 29, 2016
PARIS, France – No.5 seeds Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic rounded out the French Open doubles quarterfinals, becoming the last team to advance to the final eight with a dominating victory over German duo Anna-Lena Friedsam and Laura Siegemund, 6-3, 6-2.
Mladenovic recovered from Saturday’s heartbreaker against Serena Williams to continue to delight the French crowd alongside partner Garcia by squeezing in a doubles win before the rain halted play for the rest of the day. The Frenchwomen are the No.2 doubles team on the Road To Singapore Leaderboard and have been a regular force on the tour since the start of the year when they teamed up in hopes of an Olympic berth.
Into their first Grand Slam quarterfinal as a team, Garcia and Mladenovic will face the on-form duo of Kiki Bertens and Johanna Larsson in the next round. The Dutch-Swedish team is fresh off of a title last week at Nürnberg and on Sunday in the third round they dealt Serena Williams and Venus Williams a 7-6(8) 4-6 6-0 upset.
The No.3 seeded team of Hao-Ching Chan and Yung-Jan Chan will have to wait another day to complete their match against No.7 Russians Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina. The Russians vaulted ahead to a commanding 6-1 lead, but the Chan sisters were just beginning to mount their comeback in the second set by opening with a break when the rain forced the match to be postponed at 1-2.
The Chans are the highest seeded team remaining in the doubles draw after the shock straight sets defeat of Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza on Sunday at the hands of Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova. Nicknamed “SanTina,” the pair sit at No.1 on the Road To Singapore Leaderboard and share the No.1 ranking in doubles, but they couldn’t muster up any magic against the Czechs as their bid for a “SanTina Slam” came to an end.
Turning in to twins @KikiMladenovic @CaroGarcia? ? #RG16 pic.twitter.com/sJRFgUX1wd
— Roland Garros (@rolandgarros) May 31, 2016