Tennis News

SAN ANTONIO, TX, USA – Ana Konjuh marked the opening day of the inaugural San Antonio Open by upsetting No.3 seed Jelena Ostapenko in straight sets.

Having fallen at the first hurdle in qualifying for Indian Wells, Konjuh made the five-hour journey to Texas with plenty to ponder. However, against Ostapenko she was full of positive intent, coming from behind in both sets to run out a 7-5, 6-4 winner.

Konjuh, like Ostapenko, was an outstanding junior, lifting the Australian and US Open trophies at 15. And the Croatian’s rise up the senior ranks has been swift, breaking the Top 100 by the end of 2014, before lifting her maiden WTA title the following summer, in Nottingham.

While progress has stalled somewhat in the opening months of 2016, she showed no shortage of fighting spirit against Ostapenko; in the first set she fended off a set point at 5-3 down and then overcame a 3-0 deficit in the second.

Ostapenko was not the only first-round casualty either. In the bottom half of the draw, Samantha Crawford recovered from match point down to defeat No.2 seed Irina-Camelia Begu, 2-6, 6-1, 7-5.

Elsewhere, there were rather more straightforward wins for Kirsten Flipkens and Tsvetana Pironkova. No.7 seed Flipkens survived a late scare to defeat Mariana Duque-Mariño, 6-3, 7-6(4), while Pironkova raced past Dellacqua, 6-1, 6-0, in just 43 minutes.

This week’s tournament is the first WTA event in San Antonio since the US Women’s Hardcourt Championships in the early 1990s. Also appearing at the recently renovated McFarlin Tennis Center are Daria Gavrilova and Yanina Wickmayer, both of whom begin their challenges on Tuesday.

INDIAN WELLS, CA, USA – Hours after Karolina Pliskova reached the singles semifinal at the BNP Paribas Open, the Czech powerhouse went one round better in doubles as she and fellow Australian Open semifinalist Julia Goerges eased past former No.1 Sara Errani and Oksana Kalashnikova, 6-4, 6-3.

“I think we played a pretty solid match, and they are both pretty good players,” Goerges said after the match. “Sara has been No.1 in the world for a reason in doubles. We just tried to go with our strengths with the serves, being aggressive, hitting big from the baseline and trying to get some volleys catching our way.

“I think we did a pretty good job overall.”

Pliskova and Goerges are playing just their fourth-ever event together, starting the season with a run to the semifinals in Melbourne, but still have big goals despite an intentionally limited schedule.

“We played two tournaments last year in China and we got along pretty good, and we said we want to play the big ones next year but want to focus mainly on singles.

“That’s why we’re only playing a few tournaments, but we’re trying to do as well as we can to go to Singapore. So far we’re doing a pretty good job.”

Up next for the Czech/German pair are two Americans in Bethanie Mattek-Sands and CoCo Vandeweghe; the former survived an ankle turn at the start of the match tie-break to help her partner advance over No.3 seeds Timea Babos and Yaroslava Shvedova, 2-6, 6-4, 10-4.

Mattek-Sands and Vandeweghe first paired up during a dead-rubber doubles match in Fed Cup, but have showed excellent potential as an Olympic pair this week in Indian Wells, dropping just one set en route to the final and taking out two mono-country teams who played at last year’s BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global in No.2 seeds Chan Yung-Jan and Chan Hao-Ching and No.8 seeds, fellow Americans Raquel Atawo and Abigail Spears.

Goerges and Pliskova began their tournament with an upset over No.7 seeds Carla Suárez Navarro and Garbiñe Muguruza, going on to score quality wins against the only two teams to take out Co-No.1s Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza since August of last year in Daria Kasatkina and Elena Vesnina and Vania King and Alla Kudryavtseva. Goerges hopes this kind of momentum can see them qualify for Singapore come season’s end.

“I think it doesn’t have to be Singapore; it’s the WTA Finals in general. Of course, we only heard really good things about Singapore, that it’s a big city and they always do a really good job with everything. They do everything big! It’s one of our goals, it doesn’t matter where it is city-wise, but it’s a big goal for every player to achieve the masters at the end of the year.”

Winning feels this good ??? ??@CoCoVandey @BMATTEK #BNPPO16 pic.twitter.com/shpW5XXzKn

— BNP Paribas Open (@BNPPARIBASOPEN) March 18, 2016

SAN ANTONIO, TX, USA – Anna-Lena Friedsam closed in on the second WTA 125K Series title of her career with a hard-fought victory over Alison Riske at the San Antonio Open on Friday.

After breezing through the first set and opening up an early lead in the second, Friedsam briefly looked like she might let Riske back into the semifinal before regrouping to close out a 6-3, 7-6(4) victory.

Friedsam saved a set point while serving to stay in the second set and credited Riske for bringing out her best tennis.

“I’m really happy with my game today. I played a really good set – really aggressive and consistent,” Friedsam said. “The second was not so good. She had a little more confidence, she pushed me from corner to corner and it was a little bit harder for me to put pressure on her.”

Eighteen months ago, Friedsam won the WTA 125K Series tournament in Suzhou, an achievement she has used as a springboard in her bid to reach the Top 50. Standing between her and a second title at this level will be Misaki Doi, a 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 winner over Tsvetana Pironkova in the day’s second semifinal.

In the doubles final, there was a popular winner as America’s Nicole Melichar teamed up with Anna-Lena Groenefeld to defeat Klaudia Jans-Ignacik and Anastasia Rodionova, 6-1, 6-3.

First @SanAntonioOpen doubles championship goes to Groenefeld/Melichar! A hometown champ!! #SAOpen #tennis pic.twitter.com/RtBnGOHggJ

— HY Lai (@HY_Lai) March 18, 2016

INDIAN WELLS, CA, USA – Bethanie Mattek-Sands and CoCo Vandeweghe couldn’t have asked for a more perfect WTA debut to their newly-minted doubles partnership – the Americans rallied back from a set down to defeat Julia Goerges and Karolina Pliskova and claim the doubles title at the BNP Paribas Open.

Watch highlights, interviews and more video from Indian Wells right here on wtatennis.com!

“It’s pretty special for me. It’s my first doubles title, and to win it on home soil with an American is very special,” Vandeweghe said during the trophy ceremony. The title vaults the native Californian to No.25 in doubles, while Mattek-Sands will return to her career high ranking of No.3.

Both teams in the final were unseeded, the first time since 2009 that two unseeded teams faced off for the BNP Paribas Open doubles trophy.

Doubles debutantes Mattek-Sands and Vandeweghe, who are bidding for an Olympic spot later in the year, were up against another relatively new team in Goerges-Pliskova. Though the 2016 BNP Paribas Open marks their fourth outing as a team, the Czech-German partnership has been quite successful. They’ve always reached at least the quarterfinal stage in all the events they’ve played together.

Goerges and Pliskova drew first blood against the Americans, breaking Vandeweghe’s serve to start the match. The big-hitting Vandeweghe’s serves can rarely be called vulnerable – in fact she’s known for having one of the strongest serves on tour – but Goerges’ backhands were deadly, beating her for pace and breaking her twice in the first set.

With Goerges serving for the set at 5-3, the German thought she’d hit an ace to take the set. But after a half-hearted challenge from the Americans revealed it was out, a Mattek-Sand’s swing volley wove up the middle of Goerges-Pliskova and gave them the game. With the momentum behind the Americans, Vandeweghe was able to hold serve for the first time to keep them in the set, but Pliskova’s powerful groundstrokes erased any ideas of a comeback and the Czech-German duo took the first set.

With the Indian Wells crowd firmly cheering for the locals, the Americans kept toe-to-toe with their opponents throughout the next set and keep the pressure on. Eventually it was Goerges and Pliskova who blinked first, a Pliskova forehand sailing long bringing up 2 set points for the Americans and a double fault from Goerges giving them the second set.

Mattek-Sands and Vandeweghe grabbed an early mini-break in the final tiebreak, and though Pliskova and Goerges through everything they had at the Americans but they didn’t give up their lead. When it came time for her to serve for the match, Vandeweghe’s serve didn’t falter and a punishing smash from Mattek-Sands sealed the victory and the pair’s first doubles title.

Afterwards, the Americans gave a lot of credit to the crowd for keeping them in the match.

“All week long we’ve had great fan support, which is so cool,” Mattek-Sands said afterwards. “As two Americans together, the support was awesome.

“It’s always special coming back here to Indian Wells, it’s kind of like our home tournament. We’ll be back next year for sure.”

Your 2016 womens doubles champions! ?????? @BMATTEK @CoCoVandey #BNPPO16 pic.twitter.com/OqebaFap7O

— BNP Paribas Open (@BNPPARIBASOPEN) March 20, 2016