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News | WTA Tennis English

News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

DOHA, Qatar: Former World No.1 Angelique Kerber is aiming to get back to winning ways in Doha – and she is not letting herself get distracted by thoughts of reclaiming the top spot.

“For me it’s really important to play good tennis and to try to improve my game – that is actually my goal always,” she said before the beginning of her tournament.

“I will do my best in the next few weeks, few months. If you play good tennis, then you have results. This is actually for me the most important thing, to win matches again, getting the confidence back. Then we will see what happens in the next few months.”

Angelique Kerber

The 29-year-old revealed that she had enjoyed her short break from tennis after her early departure from Melbourne.

“After Australia I went back home and I spent few days at home, doing nothing actually, just being at home,” she admitted.

“It was very cold. But then I started practising again. I came here to Doha little bit earlier to get ready and to get used to the courts and the weather conditions. I’m feeling ready to play again because it’s, since Australia, a long time since I played matches. It’s great to play again here and then in Dubai next week.”

And she now feels fully prepared to fight for trophies again.

“I think it was not bad to get a bigger rest, to get ready for these two tournaments,” she added.

“I’m feeling good. The first rounds are always a little bit tougher because you have to get used to the tournament feeling again, to the match things. But I think that I’m ready. I am really enjoying my tennis right now on the practice court.”

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Germans Make It Through Nürnberg Rain

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

NÜRNBERG, Germany –  No.3 seed Annika Beck concluded a wild day at the NÜRNBERGER VERSICHERUNGSCUP, taking out countrywoman and No.7 seed Anna-Lena Friedsam, 7-6(6), 2-6, 6-2, to reach her first WTA semifinal of 2016.

A long rain delay interrupted quarterfinals day in Nürnberg, and a left thigh injury forced No.4 seed Lesia Tsurenko to withdraw from her hotly anticipated rematch with Julia Goerges, who advanced to her second semifinal of the season following her run to the ASB Classic final in January.

Qualifier Kiki Bertens continued her solid clay court season by taking the first set 6-1 over Bogota champion Irina Falconi before the American had to end her match prematurely due to a right ankle sprain.

With the Nürnberg crowd looking for a classic encounter, they got one between the two hometown favorites, as Beck battled Friedsam for over two hours on Center Court.

Narrowly taking the opening set in a tense tie-break, Friedsam fought back to level the match at a set apiece, only for Beck to right the ship in the decider, setting up a semifinal against either Varvara Lepchenko or Mariana Duque-Mariño, whose match was postponed due to darkness.

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Gutsy Garcia Reaches Strasbourg Final

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

STRASBOURG, France – Caroline Garcia advanced to the final of the Internationaux de Strasbourg after coming through an epic encounter with fellow Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano.

Watch live action from Strasbourg this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!

Leading 5-3 in the final set Garcia looked on course to close out the match in relative comfort. However, lucky loser Razzano ensured a dramatic finish by breaking back in the next game before eventually succumbing, 6-7(3), 6-4, 7-5.

“It feels great. I’ve watched Virginie for as long as I can remember,” Garcia said. “She’s a great player and a bit of an idol, so to not only play her but beat her was an amazing experience.

“It’s important for my confidence to get wins like this and in finals, especially ahead of Roland Garros next week. It was a fighting performance. Losing that first set was tough but I came back and got through.”

Later on, hopes of an all-French final were dashed in spectacular fashion as qualifier Mirjana Lucic-Baroni dismantled No.4 seed Kristina Mladenovic, 6-1, 6-1, in exactly an hour.

In 1997, a teenage Lucic-Baroni lost to Steffi Graf in the final, and despite her long week she is quietly confident of making it second time lucky. 

“Nineteen years in between the finals. It’s amazing. It’s like coming home now for me in Strasbourg,” she said. “Will I become French after this? No! If I would change it would be to Italian. My husband is Italian.”

Garcia has won all three of her previous meetings with Lucic-Baroni, including earlier this year in Miami. “Against Garcia, I’ve always posted negative results,” she added. “But hopefully that will change tomorrow! I’m playing some great tennis and haven’t been on court very long, despite coming through qualies.

“I’ve just got to keep this going, keep on playing strong, and hopefully I can get the title.”

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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

DUBAI, UAE – No.38-ranked American Alison Riske took out her compatriot and No.11 seed CoCo Vandeweghe in straight sets to move into the second round at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, 6-4, 6-4.

Playing in their first match since teaming up for Fed Cup, the pair squared off for the eighth time (across all levels) with Riske leading 1-0 in their WTA head-to-head record.

“It can be difficult [to play a friend], especially we just had the best week together at Fed Cup. So it was unfortunate that we played each other first round,” Riske told press after the match.

“But at the end of the day you have to focus on you, and there are so many Americans now in the top. We are all friends, or at least I feel like we are.

“We’re going to beat each other week in and week out, and it’s something that we’ve got to get used to.”

Riske kept the Australian Open semifinalist out of her comfort zone throughout the match, taking the pace off the ball and absorbing Vandeweghe’s powerful shots, redirecting it all back at the No.21-ranked American.

Vandeweghe gave up the first break of the match with a double fault – one of the 11 she’d hit during the match – to give Riske a 4-3 lead. Riske weathered back to back breaks of serve as the pair wrestled for momentum towards the end, before taking the opening set on her serve.

The frustration continued to mount for Vandeweghe, who dropped her serve to start the second set and give Riske another early lead. The No.38-ranked American kept her nose in front after a flurry of four straight breaks, comfortably serving out the match to love – aided by a pair of Vandeweghe’s 58 unforced errors.

“I think she was having a little difficulty with her first serves,” Riske assessed. “But she was starting to get back in rhythm in the second set there. I feel if I had let up just a little bit, things could have changed.

“I was definitely proud of myself for staying in there and still dictating as best I could and not giving her an inch to come back.”

Awaiting Riske in the second round of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships will be Anastasija Sevastova, who cruised past Irina-Camelia Begu in straight sets.

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Insider Podcast: French Open Preview

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

Serena Williams’ march towards history turns to Paris, as the World No. 1 and defending champion looks to win her fourth French Open title and 22nd overall major title to tie Steffi Graf’s Open Era record.

With the tournament set to begin on Sunday, WTA Insider Senior Writer Courtney Nguyen and Web Editor David Kane analyze the top-heavy draw, which sees Serena surrounded by some big names in the top half of the draw, but contrary to popular opinion, her path to the title may not be as rough as people think. Out of the bottom half of the draw, can Garbiñe Muguruza and Simona Halep make good on their favorable draws? Or is this the year World No.2 Agnieszka Radwanska finally solves the terre battue?

You’ll also hear from the top seeds themselves as we take you inside the Roland Garros press room, as the likes of Serena Williams, Agnieszka Radwanska, Victoria Azarenka, Simona Halep, Garbiñe Muguruza, and Angelique Kerber give you some insight into their mindset as they head into the second major of the season. Who sounds confident? Who sounds unsure of themselves? We’ll let you be the judge.

Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or on any podcast app of your choice and reviews are always helpful, so if you like what you’ve heard so far, leave us one. You can also get new episode alerts by following us on Twitter @WTA_Insider.

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News | WTA Tennis English

News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

Dominika Cibulkova has long played David to a tour of Goliaths. The Slovakian dynamo found fertile soil early in her career and promptly began planting seeds; her garden is a veritable who’s who of the game’s biggest and brightest.

She rode that role right into a Singapore debut, where she broke new ground by winning the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global, stunning then-No.1 Angelique Kerber in the championship match.

Starting 2017 in full bloom therefore marks a colossal shift for Cibulkova, who is suddenly tasked with preventing the very chaos she once strived to create.

Dominika Cibulkova

“I felt good in Australia but this is a new position for me, being World No.5,” she said during All-Access Hour at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. “I really have to work on myself every day, especially mentally.

“There are some players who come onto the court a bit differently against you. They have nothing to lose and want to beat you. This is something I’m really trying to adjust to, that and the expectations – not just my own, but also those of the people around me.”

Expectation undoubtedly bogged her down in Brisbane and Sydney, but it was after a run to the semifinals of the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy that the wilting Slovak decided to reassess, stepping down from her perennial spot on the Fed Cup team.

Dominika Cibulkova

“I got really negative on the court in St. Petersburg,” she said of her loss to Yulia Putintseva, “and that was my biggest disappointment from that match; maybe the expectation got too big for me.

“It’s good that I didn’t play Fed Cup so I could really have time to prepare for Doha. It helped me a lot and that’s why I played so well there. I’d always feel tired after a tie, but that’s something you have to accept if you decide to play Fed Cup. You have to know you won’t be completely ready for the next tournament.”

Cibulkova has been an absolute stalwart in national competition – playing a whopping 21 ties in 12 years – and admitted the annual decision to compete often adversely affected her schedule.

“It would be easier if the event could all take place at a reasonable date, but, for example, last week Slovakia played Italy on clay. That wouldn’t make sense for my schedule at all.

“Now that I’m older and more mature, I see that my career isn’t going to last forever. Right now, I feel like I can get my best ranking and reach my best results. I have to selfish.”

Dominika Cibulkova

That desire for further introspection led her to step up her work with sports psychologist Radko Sevcík, who joined her team about two years ago and has been crucial to improving her big match mindset.

“I had my mental coach with me in Doha and we talked a lot about different things, how I should approach practices and matches, and how to be more positive on the court.”

The positivity paid off; Cibulkova reached the final four at the Qatar Total Open – the first of her career – and earned her 400th career match win in impressive style over an old nemesis.

“I felt good on the court. I beat Samantha Stosur, whom I’d never beaten before in my career. That gave me much more confidence, and even though I lost to Karolina Pliskova, it was a great match and I was really close to winning.

“After Doha, I feel like I’m playing really well.”

The first big test of that assertion will come early; Cibulkova will kick off Dubai campaign against Ekaterina Makarova, who won their most recent meeting at this year’s Australian Open.

All photos courtesy of Getty Images.

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Muguruza Sees Off Schmiedlova

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

No.4 seed Garbiñe Muguruza overcame a slow start against Anna Karolina Schmiedlova to book her place in the second round of the French Open.

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