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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

MIAMI, FL, USA – Top seed Angelique Kerber recovered from breaks in both sets against big-hitting American Shelby Rogers to advance, 6-4, 7-5, and reach the fourth round of the Miami Open.

“It was a good match,” she said in her post-match press conference. “I was trying to feel my game again. I was moving good, but it was not so easy because she didn’t play badly. I was trying to stay positive and play my tennis.”

Kerber was playing her first match since her late-night victory against Duan Ying-Ying, and suffered a slow start to Rogers, who reached the French Open quarterfinals last spring and began 2017 with a win over Simona Halep at the Australian Open.

The German reclaimed World No.1 from Serena Williams at the start of the fortnight in Florida, and showed some of why the two-time Grand Slam champion has been so tough to beat in the last year, rolling through six of the next seven games from a break down to take the opening set.

“It’s always good to have close sets, especially when you win them at the end because they give you confidence that you can go out in your next match knowing you can win close matches because you’ve just done it a day ago. I’m looking forward to the next match.”

Rogers kept fighting, however, and fought off multiple break points in the fifth game to engineer another service break. Much like the first set, Kerber took control from there, winning five of the final six games to seal the hometown favorite in just under 90 minutes.

“If you win the match, you’re always happy about your performance. In the second set, she was 4-2 up and we’d played a long game. That was important because she was playing well, but I was staying positive and believing in my chances. I think that was the key to the match.”

In all, Kerber struck 17 winners to only 22 unforced errors; Rogers took far more risks throughout, her 34 winners were ultimately undone by 51 unforced errors.

Up next for top seed is Japanese qualifier Risa Ozaki. Ozaki was already enjoying her best-ever result at a Premier Mandatory tournament when she broke new ground on Sunday, besting Kerber’s countrywoman Julia Goerges, 7-6(5), 6-3. 

“I’ve never played against her, but I saw a little bit on TV because she played Julia today. I think she’s playing good here, coming from qualies, so she has a lot of matches and confidence.

“She has nothing to lose, so it’ll be another good match.”

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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

MIAMI, FL, USA — Former World No. 5 Lucie Safarova recorded her first top 10 win since 2015 at the Miami Open on Monday, defeating World No. 4 Dominika Cibulkova, 7-6(5), 6-1 for a place in the quarterfinals.

“It was a great match and I’m really excited to be for the first time here in the quarterfinals,” Safarova told WTA Insider after the match. “I knew I had to come out really strong and play fast, and [not] let Dominika play her game. She puts a lot of balls back and she’s a very big fighter so I had to be really sharp and strong, which I was. I’m really happy it worked out.”

Now ranked World No. 36 and on the comeback trail from a bacterial infection that hampered her for parts of the past two seasons, Safarova earned her first win against a member of the WTA top 10 since defeating Angelique Kerber at the 2015 BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.

Added Safarova: “[Winning today] means a lot. It feels great to be there again with the best players, being able to beat them means my level is there again.”

The pair, who were meeting for the eighth time overall in Miami, saw an opening set decided in a tie-break for the fourth time after trading breaks twice in the set. Trailing 4-3 in the tie-break, Safarova rifled a backhand return winner to pull level before running off three of the final four points to take a one-set lead.

“We’ve played so many matches against each other, of course also practices,” Safarova said about her history with the Slovak. “We know each other very well and we know what to expect!”

The second set proved closer than the score indicated inside the lines, as Safarova wrapped it up in 55 minutes — just one minute shy of the mark in the first. Four of the set’s seven games went to deuce, and the Czech was forced to save three break points before converting on her third match point for the win.

Safarova will take on Caroline Wozniacki in the quarterfinals, who advanced after Garbiñe Muguruza retired with illness after the opening set. The pair have played seven times, with Wozniacki holding a 4-3 head-to-head lead.

“She’s playing great tennis again,” Safarova said of the Dane. “I think it’s a little bit similar game to Dominika — Caroline puts a lot of balls back. I have to be patient but play aggressive and again come up strong and try to go for it. I feel healthy now — thank God! (laughs) — and I’ll…keep trying to push my limits more and more.”

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Radwanska Gets Shenzhen Bid Underway

Radwanska Gets Shenzhen Bid Underway

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

SHENZHEN, China – World No.5 Agnieszka Radwanska registered an expected win, in unexpected circumstances, to get her 2016 campaign up and running at the Shenzhen Open.

Heavy rain forced the tournament organizers to move the majority of Tuesday’s order of play indoors, although the change of venue failed to distract Radwanska, who needed little over an hour to outfox Krunic, 6-4, 6-3, in her first match since lifting the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.

“Of course we all saw the weather and knew it would be difficult,” Radwanska said. “There was not much time to wait and I was prepared for that. Of course I came here to play outdoors, but we both had the same conditions and I’m happy I played my match today.”

With memories of Singapore fresh in her memory, Radwanska did not take long to knock off any rustiness, saving three break points in the second set to keep another of the game’s more cerebral competitors at arm’s length.

“I feel like I played my last match in Singapore a week ago! It’s always tough to come back to the match rhythm, but actually I was feeling really good and didn’t have any problems doing what I wanted to do on court and for the first match I played good tennis so I’m happy with that,” she added.

“I think the first matches are always the worst and the toughest. Every tournament has different conditions, especially here – I’ve never played indoors at a tournament that was outdoors. It’s a little bit of a new experience but everything went well so that’s the most important thing.”

In the second round the Pole will face wildcard Zhang Shuai, a 6-3, 6-3 winner earlier on over Irina Khromacheva. Elsewhere, there were mixed fortunes for three of Radwanska’s fellow seeds, Petra Kvitova, Eugenie Bouchard and Johanna Konta.

No.6 seed Bouchard put her difficult 2015 season behind her with a determined performance against Donna Vekic, overcoming a mid-match blip to come through, 6-4, 1-6, 7-5.

Unlike Bouchard, Konta, the No.5 seed, arrived in China with plenty of momentum after a brilliant second half to the previous campaign. However, in her first seeded outing at a WTA event, she slipped to a surprise defeat to Wang Qiang, going down to the World No.110, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

In the final match, Kvitova’s Australian Open preparations suffered a setback when she was forced to retire midway through her match against Zheng Saisai with a gastrointestinal illness. Zheng, who took the first set 6-2, will now meet Anett Kontaveit for a place in the quarterfinals.

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Kvitova Tries Chinese Calligraphy

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

Petra Kvitova and Alison Riske tried their hand at traditional Chinese calligraphy before the Shenzhen Open kicked off – how did their scripts turn out? Find out here.

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