Bencic Out Of Montreal
Defending champion Belinda Bencic was forced to withdraw from the upcoming Rogers Cup due to the left wrist injury she sustained at Wimbledon.
Defending champion Belinda Bencic was forced to withdraw from the upcoming Rogers Cup due to the left wrist injury she sustained at Wimbledon.
BASTAD, Sweden – Johanna Larsson’s defense of her Ericsson Open title gathered further momentum following a brisk win over qualifier Sara Sorribes Tormo on Thursday afternoon.
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The withdrawal of top seed Angelique Kerber earlier on removed one of the more significant obstacles between Larsson and a second title on home soil. However, in front of an appreciative home crowd she was never likely to take her eye off the ball, running out a 6-0, 6-3 winner in an hour and 20 minutes.
“I don’t feel more pressure, the same thing happened last year, but I don’t really think about it,” Larsson said when asked about Kerber’s unexpected exit. “I try to just focus on my own thing and it’s a very tough match coming up in the quarters so I’m just looking forward to that one.”
Sorribes Tormo has made only fleeting appearances at WTA events this year and her inexperience was laid bare early on, Larsson romping through the first set. In the second set, Sorribes Tormo gave a better account of herself, success in a terrific 23-shot exchange helping break the No.8 seed in the opening game.
Unfortunately for the Spaniard, holding onto her own service games continued to be problematic. A couple of double faults handed the break right back, before Larsson put daylight between the two when she slung a serve out wide to register an increasingly rare hold the sixth game.
This cushion proved enough to get Larsson to the finishing line, and ace down the T taking her into a fifth quarterfinal in six years at Bastad Tennis Stadium.
There she is likely to face stiffer resistance, taking on No.4 seed Annika Beck, an impressive 6-2, 6-0 winner over Anastasija Sevastova. In the last second-round match, Julia Goerges fought back to defeat Bethanie Mattek-Sands, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2.
Back to back aces, nice finish by Johanna Larsson against @sara_sorribes pic.twitter.com/FC5Xw1hBdY
— Swedish Open Tennis (@swedish_open) 21 July 2016
October was packed with plenty of amazing shots – we narrowed it down to the five best.
In the end, it was Angelique Kerber, who played an incredble squash shot against perennial Shot Of The Month winner Agnieszka Radwanska in the semifinals of the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global. Undefeated en route to the championship match, the World No.1 used her uncanny ability to turn defense into offense, taking out the defending champion in straight sets.
Click here to watch all of October’s finalists.
Final Results for October’s WTA Shot Of The Month
1. Angelique Kerber (74%)
2. Agnieszka Radwanska (11%)
3. Dominika Cibulkova (6%)
3. Daria Gavrilova (6%)
5. Madison Keys (3%)
2016 WTA Shot of the Month Winners
January: Caroline Wozniacki
February: Agnieszka Radwanska
March: Agnieszka Radwanska
April: Monica Niculescu
May: Simona Halep
June: Agnieszka Radwanska
July: Simona Halep
August: Agnieszka Radwanska
September: Kirsten Flipkens
How it works:
Five shots are selected by wtatennis.com
Winner is then determined by a fan vote on wtatennis.com
Last summer, Johanna Konta embarked on a 16-match winning run, which began at a lowly ITF Circuit event in Granby, Canada, and ended in last 16 of the US Open.
This proved to be the catalyst for a rapid ascent up the tennis ladder, a maiden WTA title, in Stanford, and deep runs at the Australian Open, Beijing, Montréal, Eastbourne, Miami and Zhuhai securing Konta a year-end ranking inside the Top 10 – the first Briton to achieve the feat since Jo Durie in 1983.
It is a list of accomplishments that saw Konta deservedly pick up the WTA’s Most Improved Player Of The Year award. The 25-year-old, however, is no overnight success story.
“On paper I suppose it looks a lot different to how I experienced it, how my team experienced it; only because, although it may seem like a sudden rise, it was a lot of years of work put in. Years and years and years!” Konta told BT Sport’s David Law during her final event of the year, in Zhuhai. “So really I didn’t live through it as such a dramatic change.”
Watch the full interview above to hear Konta discuss her remarkable journey and what the future may hold in store.
Top seeded Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia got her title defense off to a strong start at the Engie Open de Limoges WTA 125K Series event, advancing to the second round in straight sets.
BRISBANE, Australia – Victoria Azarenka ended qualifier Samantha Crawford’s run at the Brisbane International with a one-sided victory in Friday’s second semifinal.
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In the previous round Crawford had blown away Andrea Petkovic, but it quickly became clear that toppling Azarenka would be a far sterner challenge. The Belarusian, who had dropped a combined 10 games in her opening three matches, hit the ground running, her precise return game prizing a succession of unforced errors and an immediate break.
With Crawford, appearing in a WTA semifinal for the first time, struggling to rein in her huge strokes, Azarenka efficiently went about her business, punching a backhand down the line to pocket the first set in only 25 minutes.
The American put up more of a fight in the second but was powerless to prevent the former World No.1 running out a 6-0, 6-3 winner.
“I think it was a pretty solid match for me, especially the first set,” Azarenka said. “I just think I should have been a little bit more in control in the end; she was going for, you know, everything, so I needed to be a little bit more aware of that.”
Azarenka won the Brisbane title in 2009 and in the final this time will face Angelique Kerber, a player whom has never beaten her in five career meetings.
As impressive as she has been, Azarenka, whose last title came in the summer of 2013, is refusing to get carried away: “I’m just trying to stay focused. There is one more match, and then you can just reassess how the tournament went and what was working, what is something still needs to be worked on.
“Right now I’m just trying not to overthink. I think sometimes it can be a trouble when you overthink too much.”
Every athlete starts with a dream, one she carries through her career, and one she aspires to achieve before that career comes to an end. Growing up in France, Marion Bartoli set her sights across the Channel and dreamed of winning Wimbledon. Finishing her career with a US Open trophy, Flavia Pennetta was over the moon, and yet still felt pangs of regret at having never won her home country’s tournament in Rome.
Sofia Arvidsson announced her retirement from tennis not long after New Year’s Day; her dream was somehow simpler and grander than the rest. Peaking at No.29 in the rankings with two WTA titles, the Swede wanted little more than to be an Olympian.
“When I was young, I watched so many sports on TV, but the Olympics was always special,” she told WTA Insider. “I would watch the opening ceremonies and think that those are the best athletes in the world, and I was dreaming I could be there.”
Arvidsson’s dream came true in 2008, when she qualified for the Beijing Olympics and played eventual gold medalist Elena Dementieva in the second round.
“It was a very special moment when I got to be at the opening ceremonies with 90,000 people screaming. I had to battle to be there because I had injured my knee at Wimbledon, but I always liked to play for my country.”
As the London Games loomed four years later, Arvidsson was playing some of the best tennis of her career, earning two Top 10 wins in 2011 and a title in Memphis to start the season in 2012. But her dream of returning to the Olympics became a nightmare when the Swedish Olympic Committee initially refused to send her.
“I remember I was practicing on grass somewhere and I was waiting for the call from the Swedish Federation to tell me if I got into the Olympics. I was in by the rankings for sure, but the Swedish Olympic Committee still had to say yes.”
Heartbroken by the rejection, she refused to stay down for long.
“They called my coach to say, ‘no,’ and I sat down and was crying for five minutes, and then I stopped and said, ‘let’s practice again.'”
With the backing of former WTA CEO Stacey Allaster and a strong push from the International Tennis Federation, Arvidsson was eventually chosen to be doubles specialist Robert Lindstedt’s partner for the inaugural Olympic mixed doubles event. The loophole allowed her into the singles draw, but the irony of her selection was not lost on the thoughtfully articulate veteran.
“I was a mixed doubles specialist who really didn’t play mixed doubles,” she said, adding with a laugh, “I don’t think I ever won a mixed doubles match in my career! It’s just that there was a big chance of winning a medal back then because there were only 16 teams.
“As a country you should be proud of your athletes; if you’re Top 50 in tennis, it’s not easy to make the cut. So I was a bit disappointed, because in the end, I was there, but it felt like they didn’t want me there.”
There won’t be a third Olympic appearance for Arvidsson, who has hung up her racquets on the eve of the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro. Turning pro in 1999, the Swede, a former junior national champion in table tennis, was a stalwart in the Top 100 for most of her career before her ranking began to drop, her desire slowly ebbing along with it.
“Motivation is not something you can buy, and I just felt like, for the last one and a half years, the hunger to play hasn’t been the same. The last year I’ve been trying to just see if there’s something left. I’ve been trying, working hard, but I just felt like, no, I don’t want to do this anymore.
“It’s sad in one way, but in another way, I’m happy I can choose when to quit. Last month, I didn’t play at all, and I didn’t miss it; I didn’t even think about it. It’s very emotional, of course, because I’ve played for a long time. It’s been my life, and I’ve played full-time since I was 16.
“It’s a big decision but I feel it’s right.”
Retiring without ceremony or a long goodbye, Arvidsson quietly announced her decision on Twitter, a few days after another Swedish tennis star, Robin Söderling, confirmed his own intent to do the same.
“Of course, it would be nice to go out like Pennetta did, winning the US Open, and then being like, ‘bye, see you!’ I don’t know if I’d like so much attention; it would be too emotional to play a match and then retire.
“The last few days I’ve gotten a lot of messages and people calling. That’s kind of overwhelming that you have so many people that have been following you and appreciate you.”
Few appreciated her more than the fans that attended her favorite tournament. Three of her four WTA finals appearances came at the Racquet Club of Memphis, and that success earned her two trophies and a personalized parking spot at the venue itself.
“Memphis is always going to be special in my heart, that’s for sure. I had one good run there and when you come back, you have good memories. I remember when I won my first title there, they said, ‘we can send you the trophy, or ship it to you,’ and I said, ‘nuh-uh! It’s going to be on my knee the whole way home!'”
Another constant in her career was a rivalry with former No.1, Jelena Jankovic. The Serb and Swede first met in the finals of the junior Australian Open in 2001, a tournament that provided Arvidsson with the initial impetus to dream big on the tennis court.
“I was thinking how it was so nice to play the Grand Slams, because you saw all the big stars and thought, ‘maybe one day, I can be there!’ In the beginning, it’s hard; you transfer from juniors to seniors, and suddenly I was playing players that I’d only seen on TV!”
Jankovic won that meeting in Melbourne, but the two went on to split their WTA head-to-head at two three-set matches apiece, and Arvidsson still remembers the epic encounters they had as pros.
“I was up 6-3 in a third set tiebreaker [at the 2008 Miami Open], and then I had two more match points, but I lost. I was at the net and I had this pretty easy one, but the girl’s fast, so she ran it down. I was thinking that I should have hit it in the other corner!”
Their US Open rematch a few months later was equally electric, with the unseeded Arvidsson pushing the Serb to another photo finish, this time on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
“That was just a fun game. During the match I was looking up and I could see John McEnroe sitting and commentating my match. I was like, ‘oh my god!’ That was kind of funny, and I was like, ‘come on, focus!’
“That’s really what you play for, to play the big players on the big stadiums. It was a really cool experience.”
Her biggest win came in Beijing, where she upset reigning Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova – who went on to win her next 12 matches – on a night she half-seriously expected to lose.
“We had plane tickets for the day after, and I was thinking, ‘this is perfect. I play a great player on a night match, and I think I was following Roddick and Anderson, really cool players, and that’s a good way to finish this trip!'”
Arvidsson admitted to feeling wistful when seeing photos of her fellow players in Australia, and though she may yet return to the sport in some other capacity, the Olympian is excited to move forward and find new dreams to pursue.
“They say there is a life outside tennis, but I’m really happy. I could not have imagined, when I picked up a racquet when I was eight that I would reach this level, to experience all that I have done.
“I feel really fortunate, because I have lived my dream.”
Follow Sofia’s post-tennis journey on Twitter @Sofia_Arvidsson!
All photos courtesy of Getty Images.
2010 French Open champion Francesca Schiavone and 2015 US Open finalist Roberta Vinci each expressed their desire to continue playing tennis through the 2017 season.
Finishing inside the Top 20 for the fourth time in the last five years, Vinci spread the news on her official Instagram:
”I still feel like I have the desire and enthusiasm to try and do something in what is perhaps the thing I’m best at, playing tennis,” she said in quotes translated by Sports Illustrated.
“Now don’t start asking me if this will be my last year!!! See you in Australia.”
Vinci previously announced that she would make 2016 her final season, but began reconsidering her options as early as last winter, when she won the biggest singles title of her career at the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy and became the oldest woman in WTA history to make her Top 10 debut.
She told WTA Insider at the Huajin Securities WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai that she would make her final decision over the off-season.
“I don’t want to say, ‘Yes, I’m continuing,’ and then in one week, I stop, or say, ‘No, I’m retired,’ and then after a week, you see a video of me practicing,” she said in October.
“If it’s yes, then yes. If it’s no, then no.”
The always-entertaining Schiavone took her fans on a more colorful journey through the off-season, launching a web series asking them to pick one of several careers she could pursue – tennis, of course, being one of them.
“Do you know something?” she asked in the video below [translated by Giulio Gasparin]. “This shirt doesn’t fit me. It’s not the right time to wear it. I like to work outdoors, grab a tool and hit some balls.
“No more glasses, no more elegant shoes… I want to go back to my trainers, I need them. I love to feel alive, I love to play tennis and this is my present to you: I don’t know for how long, but my present to you in 2017 is for playing tennis and it is a present to myself too!”
Samantha Crawford takes on Andrea Petkovic in the quarterfinals of the Brisbane International.
Johanna Konta hit a lot of hot shots on her way to making British tennis history in 2016, but which one her best shots of the year was your favorite?