Tennis News

– Strong semifinal slate: The BNP Paribas Open semifinals are set for Friday night: No.1 Serena Williams faces No.3 Agnieszka Radwanska, followed by No.13 seed Victoria Azarenka against No.18 seed Karolina Pliskova.

Is Serena playing better ball in 2016 than 2015? It’s a legitimate question to ask. Setting aside the blemish of losing in the Australian Open final, Serena has offered a far more consistent high-quality level to start this season. In her first big test of the tournament she handled an in-form Simona Halep in the quarterfinals, winning 6-4, 6-3. It’s been business as usual for Serena this year in the desert, with the chaos surrounding her return last year subsiding.

“I feel really good,” Serena said. “I’m hoping to be able to perform in the semifinal. I have been feeling pretty good this whole tournament so far. So I hope that I can be able to continue to feel pretty good.”

– Can Agnieszka Radwanska muster the belief? With her run to yet another semifinal, Radwanska will rise to No.2 on Monday behind Serena. That means Friday night’s match will feature the top two players in the world. But can Radwanska make a match of it?

She is 0-9 against Serena and has won just one set, which came in 2012 in the Wimbledon final. As clever a shot-maker and tactician as she is, Radwanska has yet to be able to solve her Serena riddle.

“I just hope I can really play good tennis that I was playing last few days, and that’s it,” Radwanska said. “You know, goal is to win, but it’s not gonna be easy, that’s for sure.”

Match-ups are just as determinative of results as forehands and backahands and this has been a terrible match-up for the crafty Radwanska. Her off-pace returns rarely bother the American and she has struggled to find a way to keep the ball in awkward positions on the court against Serena. And as we saw at the Australian Open, if Serena’s return game is on Radwanska will struggle mightily to hold. In the semifinals of the Australian Open, Serena raced away with a 6-0, 6-4 win.

“I think it was one of my best matches,” Serena said. “I played pretty well the whole week. I just remember being aggressive and going forward and keeping my errors down, even though in the second set she made a great effort to come back and try to push for a third set. But I was able to get back in there and close it out. So it was a good match. Even though the scoreline was one way, it was definitely a good match.”

– Can Victoria Azarenka get revenge? Flash back a year ago to the first round of the Brisbane International. Azarenka and Pliskova, then ranked No.23, slugged it out for over three hours before Pliskova saved match point and won 4-6, 7-6(7), 6-4. It was one of the small handful of “Sliding Doors” moments for Azarenka in 2015. How different would each player’s respective season have been if the result was reversed? Pliskova would eventually storm up the rankings and into the Top 10, while Azarenka continued to struggle.

“She played really well,” Azarenka said after her 6-0, 6-0 win over an injured Magdalena Rybarikova. “I think I didn’t play bad, especially after a long break coming back. It was a long match, I remember. I remember I had a lot of opportunities. Hopefully tomorrow when I create those opportunities I can convert them.”

Said Pliskova: “I saw it few times already because I thought it was a really good match. I was down match point so I almost lost this match, but in the end I won. Was a big fight and big match, and especially was the first match of the season.

“So it was a big thing for me, big win, so I will remember this one. I just hope if I play her I play the same level as I played.”

A win for Pliskova would put her into the biggest final of her career so far, while Azarenka is aiming to get back into the final of a Premier Mandatory for the first time since 2012.

– Azarenka’s confidence is building: The former No.1 has lost just one match in 2016 and tallied her second double-bagel win of the season – she’s also dished out six bagel sets this year. So does Vika have the swagger of a woman who’s had a near-flawless start to the season?

“I feel that the most important thing for me right now is feeling that I’m improving from match to match and feeling healthy that knowing that when I go out there I give myself the best opportunity to win, which wasn’t the case last two years,” Azarenka said.

“If you look at my matches last year I didn’t feel like any matches that I lost I was outplayed. In all the matches I had chances and all the matches I could have won those matches, I think. So I don’t know. I think confidence for me this year comes from being very well prepared and feeling healthy.”

– Kasatkina rising fast: The WTA Insider team has been big on Daria Kasatkina since her US Open run last fall but no one could expect the results she’s tallied over the last six months. The 18-year-old ran out of gas against Pliskova but she’ll make her Top 40 debut on Monday.

Is she surprised by her own success rate? “A little bit, yeah,” she said with a laugh. “Now I’m top 40. Last year I was 340. Yeah, it was pretty fast.”

All photos courtesy of Getty Images.

David Kane, Point: Serena Williams’ 2015 return to the BNP Paribas Open was left incomplete when a knee injury forced her withdrawal from the semifinals of a tournament she hadn’t played in 14 years. But there were no such interruptions in her march towards a record-breaking third Indian Wells title on Friday as she battled past an inspired soon-to-be World No.2 Agnieszka Radwanska, 6-4, 7-6(1).

“Definitely didn’t think I would be in another final here ever,” she told press after the match. “Then last year was just really, really bad luck. I felt devastated that I wasn’t in the final or at least even able to play.

“After the last final I had here, I never pictured myself being back. So it’s an interesting feeling.”

It will most definitely be an interesting feeling for Serena as the final – her first at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden since 2001 – gets underway against former No.1 Victoria Azarenka. The two faced off three times in 2015, with all three going the distance, and Azarenka holding triple match point in their meeting at the Mutua Madrid Open. Though the Belarusian has only won three of their 20 matches, all three victories have come in finals – most recently in 2013 at the Western & Southern Open. 

“Obviously me and Vika have had some incredible finals. We really get along great.”

Their off-court dynamic may contribute to some of the most entertaining matches over the last few years, but even at Azarenka’s best, Williams finds a way over the finish line. 

“I think everyone is a rival, especially against me. They come out with a game I have never seen before. But it’s made me better.”

Take out their three 2015 epics and Azarenka’s 2015 season would truly be one to forget; the two-time Australian Open champion reached just one WTA final in Doha and failed to progress past the quarterfinals in any of the major tournaments – though it must be said that she played Serena in the third round of the French Open and in the last eight at Wimbledon. Her start to this season has been far more promising, but a stunning loss to eventual Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber was an undeniable clunker that may have exposed a tentativeness that has halted her progress as much any injury over the last two years.

The most memorable of Serena’s matches with Azarenka – certainly the last three – can be drawn down the middle: Azarenka begins with a fearlessness that appears to unsettle an American in the midst of a slow start. That is often enough to take her up a set and perhaps even a break in the second, but at crunch time, Serena’s superior mental strength shines through. It may not be a Grand Slam final, but for Serena, it may be something more.

“Hopefully it will be very different than last final,” she said with a smile. “But my goal is just to be out there, and I think it’s kind of cool that I can really close the door by being in the final again.

“So I think it’s something that really kind of came full circle.”

Courtney Nguyen, Counterpoint: How is it that a player with a 3-17 record against Serena Williams and who has not tallied a win in nearly three years, is considered the World No.1’s most potent rival? Because no one gets as consistently close as Azarenka. Asked what it is she does against Serena that no other player can, Azarenka kept it simple.

“I see a lot of them losing before they step on the court,” Azarenka said. “I’m not afraid of anybody. I want to have those challenges. Some people maybe want to avoid that and I live for those moments.”

Even in a sub-par 2015 season, Azarenka put herself in a winning position three times against Serena, holding match points in Madrid, leading by a set and 4-2 at the French Open, and another set at Wimbledon. She lost all three matches. Her last win over the No.1 came in the 2013 finals of Cincinnati, where Azarenka won 2-6, 6-2, 7-6(6).

“I had a lot of opportunities,” Azarenka said, recalling their three meetings last year. “I think Wimbledon was one of those matches where in the third set she really outplayed me and she was just on every ball, everything was going her way. But I did have opportunities. I won the first set, I had a few close games.

“For me to know there’s always a chance it’s always a good thing but I know I have to go a step more to be the winner in those.”

This is a different Azarenka in 2016, a Vika who is far closer to her 2012 level than her injury-prone 2014. Like Serena, she has lost just one match all season (15-1). Unlike Serena, she has a title under her belt after starting her season with her first title since 2013 at the Brisbane International. But Sunday’s final – which marks the ninth time these two have met in a final – is the biggest final Azarenka has contested since Cincinnati in 2013. A win would make her the first player to beat Serena four times in a final.

“There’s not going to be too many surprises but definitely need to step it up,” Azarenka said. “It’s going to be exciting for me because we haven’t played since Wimbledon. I feel like I’m in a little bit different position right now. For me it’s just really exciting to play the best player in the world right now. This is what I worked really hard for.”

If Azarenka wins the title she will vault back into the Top 10 for the first time since August 2014, moving to No.8 with a win. Azarenka will need to step up her game in all facets on Sunday. Despite her wins in the desert, her serve has been a liability at times. She has improved the speed and placement, but her accuracy has been fleeting. She’s hit 17 double-faults in her last two matches, seven of which came in her 6-0, 6-0 rout of Magdalena Rybarikova.

Listen to more thoughts from Kane and Nguyen on the BNP Paribas Open final and the nature of rivalries in the latest WTA Insider Podcast:

All photos courtesy of Getty Images.

WUHAN, China – No.3 seed Agnieszka Radwanska scored an important win as the chase for the final six spots in the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global heats up, ousting friend and former No.1 Caroline Wozniacki, 6-4, 6-2, at the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open.

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

“I’m just very glad to win this match in two sets,” she said during her on-court interview. “Obviously, it’s never easy against Caroline and, well, I was just playing very good tennis tonight and I’m very happy for the win.”

Radwanska and Wozniacki had met 13 times coming into Wednesday night’s encounter, and played a thrilling three-setter just last week at the Toray Pan Pacific Open, which Wozniacki won from a set down en route to the title.

But the Pole made no mistake tonight, skillfully converting on her one-set lead and recovering from a break down to win the final five games of the match. In all, the former World No.2 played flawless tennis, hitting 23 winners to just 12 unforced errors, while Wozniacki, who appeared to be dealing with physical issues in her eighth match in 10 days, hit 18 winners to 24 unforced.

While some of her fellow competitors dealt with lengthy rain delays, Radwanska’s match was only impeded by the late finish of Petra Kvitova’s exciting win over World No.1 Angelique Kerber. 

“It’s great to have a roof here, especially when it’s raining. It was a long match before us, and I’m glad you all stayed with me,” she said, addressing the crowd.

Up next for Radwanska, who could book a return to Singapore with a title run in Wuhan, is another longtime rival in Svetlana Kuznetsova. The Russian knocked out defending champion Venus Williams in straight sets earlier in the day.

“We’ve played so many times against each other, everywhere and on every surface. We’ve known each other so long. It’s another great challenge because she’s in really great form right now, playing good tennis.

“I think I have nothing to lose, and hopefully I can play the same tennis I played today.”

Currently ranked No.4 on the WTA rankings, Radwanska is one win away from securing the No.3 ranking at the end of the week; Simona Halep is also in contention, but would not only have to win Wuhan, but Radwanska would also have to lose on Thursday to Kuznetsova.