Tennis News

LOS ANGELES, CA, USA – Serena Williams’ phenomenal week got even more phenomenal on Wednesday night, as she won Best Female Tennis Player at the ESPY Awards for the eighth time in her career, having already been given the award in 2003, 2004, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, and 2015.

She was chosen over Angelique Kerber, Flavia Pennetta, and Garbiñe Muguruza for this year’s award.

Williams now has 10 total ESPY Awards – she was also named Best Female Athlete in 2003 and 2013.

Other WTA stars with multiple ESPY Awards are Sharapova (five), Venus Williams (four), Steffi Graf (three) and Monica Seles and Lindsay Davenport (two each). The ESPY Awards started in 1993.

More to come…

DUBAI, UAE – Lauren Davis secured a quarterfinal spot in her debut appearance at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, staging an impressive comeback to beat Ekaterina Makarova 4-6, 6-1, 6-3.

“I love playing here – it’s my first time here in an amazing city…just the atmosphere here is so great,” the delighted American said in her on-court interview.

“I’m really happy with my persistence, resilience and how I handled myself despite losing a few games in a row.”

Comeback queen! ?@LaurenDavis93 comes from a set behind to beat Makarova 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 and reach @DDFTennis Quarterfinals! pic.twitter.com/EpCGOYoSFb

— WTA (@WTA) February 22, 2017

It was an inconsistent display from both players. Makarova made the initial breakthrough in a seesaw first set, but Davis was resurgent in the second, combining exquisite use of the forehand with grit to get herself back on level terms, as her opponent’s game utterly collapsed.

The Russian took an eight-minute bathroom break before the decider, but it did not help her regroup; she remained lackadaisical when it came to capitalising on break points in the final set.

The 23-year-old American took advantage, wrapping up the match in one hour and 57 minutes. Her reward will be a last-eight clash with either Christina McHale or Elina Svitolina.

DUBAI, UAE – No.4 seed Agnieszka Radwanska’s Dubai campaign was cut short in the round of 16 after suffering one of the biggest upsets of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships against 17-year-old CiCi Bellis.

“I didn’t feel good from the beginning. I didn’t play really great, and I was trying everything. I did what I could today,” Radwanska told press after the defeat.

She added, “For me it was really hard to control the ball and make the angles. And also, my serve didn’t work at all. In those kind of tight matches, you need those things. When you don’t have it and you’re struggling pretty much from the beginning, then you have a problem.

“I was really struggling myself. I was really focusing on myself today, but I just wasn’t good enough.”

First Top 10 Win!

17 year old @CiciBellis99 knocks out 2012 champ Radwanska 6-4, 2-6, 6-2! #DDFTennis pic.twitter.com/ggGOaQUEDO

— WTA (@WTA) February 22, 2017

Despite playing against an unseeded teenager, experience told Radwanska to be wary, especially with the way Bellis had climbed the rankings and made a name for herself toward the end of last season.

“I never really think of the seeds or unseeded players,” she explained. “In today’s tennis, we don’t have ‘easy draws’ or ‘open draws.’

“Maybe you can say this from an outside [point of view], but on the court, there’s nothing ‘open.'”

Radwanska had only words of praise for Bellis, who is the youngest member of the WTA Top 100 and the youngest player to defeat a Top 10 opponent since Belinda Bencic posted back to back wins over Angelique Kerber and Jelena Jankovic at the 2014 US Open.

“Very solid. Very consistent. She can really play good rallies with good intensity, and I think that’s a really good thing for that kind of young player. I think she was the best today.”

Putting the loss behind her, Radwanska plans to stop by her home in Poland for a couple of days before making the trip to California for the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells.

Two-time Grand Slam champion Victoria Azarenka has announced the exciting news that she is expecting her first child later this year.

While recovering from the knee injury that sidelined her for Wimbledon, Azarenka and her boyfriend found out they would soon be welcoming a new member to the family.

The former World No.1, who plans to return to the game at some point in the future, made the announcement on Facebook this Friday.

“The WTA Family extends its congratulations to Vika. There is nothing more special than becoming a parent and we look forward to having Vika with her family back on Tour and winning championships next year,” WTA CEO Steve Simon said.

I have some news for you all ☺️ pic.twitter.com/64Kf90tZF6

— victoria azarenka (@vika7) July 15, 2016

GSTAAD, Switzerland – Kiki Bertens upset top seed Timea Bacsinszky on Saturday to end hopes of an all-Swiss final at the Ladies Championship Gstaad.

Two Swiss players have never met in the final of a WTA event, and Bertens ensured this statistic remained intact with a 7-5, 7-6(1) win.

Due to the torrential rain earlier in the week, the weekend began with the completion of the backlogged quarterfinals, Bertens living up to her No.3 seed status by making short work of Irina Khromacheva. However, against Bacsinszky she was made to work considerably harder, coming from a break down in both sets to edge into the third final of her career.

“I think the tournament would have loved two Swiss players in the final – so sorry for that! – but I’m really happy,” Bertens said afterwards. “I think we both played a lot of matches in the last few hours, so physically it’s really tough.”

On the other side of the draw, Viktorija Golubic finally halted the run of teenager Rebeka Masarova, keeping her cool to run out a 6-3, 6-2 winner. Along with the weather, Masarova, who was crowned junior champion in Roland Garros last month, has been the story of the tournament, becoming the first player in nearly four years to reach the semifinals on their WTA main draw debut.

Golubic was also appearing at this advanced stage for the first time and managed the occasion with aplomb, surging into an early lead and never looking back. After fending off the threat of a comeback to take the first set Golubic took a stranglehold of the contest with a break in the fourth game of the second before repeating the trick to close out victory.

“I feel great! It was great to play in an all-Swiss semifinal – and for the popularity of tennis in Switzerland it was also very helpful,” Golubic said. “I enjoyed today, I won two matches and feel amazing. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.

“I really did a good job mentally this week because I had lots of moments where I felt my shots were not quite there. And at these moments it’s hard to perform and not lose yourself, so this is definitely the part of my game I managed best this week.”

wenn es nur Sieger gibt #WTAGstaad #ViktorijaGolubic #RebekaMasarova pic.twitter.com/w7HKrMhIvR

— Ladies Open Gstaad (@WTA_Gstaad) 16 July 2016