CNN Open Court: Roland Garros' Recipe
In a special rain delay edition of CNN Open Court, Pat Cash discovered the art of making the perfect clay court – and it doesn’t involve any clay!
In a special rain delay edition of CNN Open Court, Pat Cash discovered the art of making the perfect clay court – and it doesn’t involve any clay!
A long-awaited off-season is on hold for an elite squad from the Czech Republic, who fly to France in the hopes of winning a fifth Fed Cup title in the last six years. Karolina Pliskova and Petra Kvitova lead the team through what will be one last ride following a full fall schedule in Asia.
“It’s the last two matches of the year. There is no other choice,” Pliskova said after playing her last round robin match at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global. “I’ll just get ready. There is one week between, so I’ll just rest a little bit and forget about tennis for few days.
“Then back to the work for that last week of tennis this season.”
It was even less of a break for Kvitova, who captured her second title of the season at the Huajin Securities WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai.
“I don’t think I’m that tired,” she told WTA Insider in the latest edition of Champions Corner. “I just feel my entire body is sore, so I’ll need to take a few days off to get ready for the Fed Cup tie. I’m really looking forward, but it’s a little bit difficult. I’m a little bit tired, but winning always helps me recover faster.
“I’ll be flying to Prague, and then taking a car to go to Strasbourg, so that’ll be fun. I’m looking forward to seeing the team. We have a great team, so I can’t wait to be with them over there. It’ll be the last week of the season, so it’s great to have it then, as well.”
Kvitova was in Zhuhai alongside countrywoman Barbora Strycova, and both discussed that special bond the team has forged throughout the week.
“All the Czech players, we know how to be teammates in the week where there is Fed Cup,” Strycova said. “Three weeks a year we are so close together. I can’t describe it because it’s like a routine for us that we do everything together in those weeks.”
Coached by Petr Pala, the Czechs have won 15 of 16 ties dating back to 2011, when the team won their country’s first Fed Cup trophy since 1988.
“I’m looking forward to the final,” Kvitova said. “I love playing Fed Cup and playing for my country. The final is always special; we’re playing away, which isn’t great for us, since France will have the home crowd advantage. We know how to play, and that the fans will support them. It’ll be about us, and whichever team is better prepared will win.
“I think we’re only small favorites to win the tie; they have a great doubles team, and even the singles players, Kiki and Caro, are playing well. It’ll be a difficult tie, but we do have a more experienced team, from all the finals we’ve played. The motivation is always there.”
The teams have faced off just twice in the last ten years, with the Czechs winning the most recent encounter in 2015. Caroline Garcia leads a French contingent captained by former World No.1 Amélie Mauresmo, and is well-aware of just how formidable the Czechs can be in this format, joking that the country could easily field two teams based on its strong roster.
“Caro is funny! I never really thought like that,” Kvitova said with a smile, before breaking down their secret to success.
“I think we’re not only good players, but also good people. We’re never fighting with each other; we act as a team, and I think that’s very important. None of us make trouble, and we all work well together. If one of us needs to schedule a massage, we talk all talk and decide who gets to go first; it’s the same with practice schedules.
“Communication is very important for a team. We also have great people around us; they’re all boys, so there’s always a lot of fun throughout the week. Our stringer is DJ, and they’re all doing what they can to keep things relaex. The practices are very easy and never too stressful.
“Everything is working when you’re playing well, and everything is easier than when you’re not. We’re on a good way right now and I hope we continue like that.”
When that off-season finally does come, Kvitova plans to spend a vacation with none other than teammate Lucie Hradecka, who will likely be on hand for a potentially decisive doubles rubber against France.
All photos courtesy of Getty Images.
Samantha Stosur takes on Simona Halep in the fourth round of Roland Garros.
Serena Williams takes on Elina Svitolina in the fourth round of Roland Garros.
Karolina Pliskova and Barbora Strycova win the deciding doubles rubber for the second straight year, capturing a fifth Fed Cup title in the last six years over home team France.
And then there were four. Who will be left standing in Paris for Saturday’s Roland Garros final? We preview today’s semifinal action right here on WTATennis.com.
Friday, Semifinals
[1] Serena Williams (USA #1) vs. Kiki Bertens (NED #58)
Head-to-head: Williams leads, 1-0
Key Stat: Bertens has won 12 matches in a row to reach her first Grand Slam semifinal.
Serena Williams has won 10 matches in a row. Kiki Bertens has won 12 matches in a row. Something will have to give on Friday as the tour’s two hottest players collide with a spot in Saturday’s final on the line in Paris. Bertens prolonged her magical run on Thursday when she defeated Timea Bacsinszky in straight sets to become the first Dutchwoman to reach the Roland Garros semifinals since 1971. But the 24-year-old will have to steady herself for one of the toughest challenges in tennis when she takes the court against top-seeded Serena Williams on Friday. Williams, arguably the best big-match player of all-time, owns a 26-4 record in Grand Slam semifinals and has won 12 of her last 13. Bertens, who hits an extremely heavy ball, will have to go big or go home against Williams. After suffering an injury to her left calf during the win over Bacsinszky, she’ll likely take a more aggressive approach against Williams, hoping to get the World No.1 on the run early and often. “I have some problems with my calf,” she admitted on Thursday. “I’m just gonna prepare again for tomorrow, do everything what I can with the physios, and we will see how it is.” Williams was disappointed with her effort against Yulia Putintseva in Thursday’s quarterfinal, and was quick to admit that fact in press. “I just was not playing my best,” Williams said. “I kept missing, just misfiring. Honestly, at one point I didn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.” Williams scraped through the second set and then dominated the third in vintage fashion to advance. She knows she’ll need a more Williams-like effort to survive Bertens’ bullets on Friday. “Obviously she has a big serve and a big forehand,” Williams said. “She really moves the ball around well… I have to do something better and different if I’m going to stick around.”
Pick: Williams in two
[4] Garbiñe Muguruza (ESP #4) vs. [21] Samantha Stosur (AUS #24)
Head-to-head: Stosur leads, 1-0
Key Stat: Stosur owns a 2-2 record in Grand Slam semifinals
2010 Roland Garros runner-up Samantha Stosur has found her groove in Paris in what will be her last event with her longtime coach David Taylor in her box. Can the 32-year-old Aussie prolong Taylor’s coaching career for one more day? To do so she’ll have to get past a scorching-hot Spaniard who is looking more and more impressive with each passing round. Garbiñe Muguruza has won her last ten sets on the terre battue and is wearing the calm, collected expression of a champion in the making. Already a Wimbledon finalist, the Spaniard is hungry to prove that she’s an all-surface maven this weekend. Muguruza overcame a slow start to defeat Shelby Rogers in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, but is well aware that another slow start could mean the death of her dream in Paris. “I need to dictate play from the very beginning of the match,” Muguruza said afterwards. “I know that my opponent started in full swing; I shouldn’t wait for my opponent to dictate play.” Stosur hasn’t been this deep at a major since she reached the semis at Roland Garros in 2012, but the 32-year-old has demonstrated remarkable poise throughout the fortnight, weathering difficult conditions, a tricky draw and an injured left wrist to reach the final four. Now she knows the margins are thin and the intensity will be high, but it’s a challenge she appears more ready to accept than ever. “I probably have more belief in some ways now than what I did then,” Stosur said, referring to her lone Grand Slam title in 2011, after defeating Tsvetana Pironkova in the quarterfinals on Wednesday. “You don’t know if you can do that. Now I know I have done that. I know I can do it.”
Pick: Muguruza in three
Around the Grounds: The French duo of Kristina Mladenovic and Caroline Garcia is the highest-seeded team remaining in the doubles draw. The fifth seeds will take on Russia’s Margarita Gasparyan and Svetlana Kuznetsova for a spot in the doubles final on Friday. The other doubles semifinal will be contested by seventh-seeded Russians Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina and the unseeded Czech duo of Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova.
By The Numbers
3 – Number of players to own more than three Roland Garros singles titles (Evert, 7, Graf, 6, Henin, 4).
26 – Williams has reached 26 major finals, compared to three for the other three semifinalists, combined.
27 – Bertens is projected to reach a career-high ranking of 27 as a result of her semifinal appearance in Paris. She could go as high as No.10 if she wins in the title.
1977 – The last time a Dutchwoman reached the semifinals of a major (Betty Stove, U.S. Open).
2 – Number of players born in the 1990’s remaining in the draw (Muguruza, Bertens). The only player born in the ’90s to have previously won a major is Petra Kvitova.
-Chris Oddo, wtatennis.com contributor
COMPTON, CA, USA – Former World No.1s Venus Williams and Serena Williams returned to their hometown of Compton, California last weekend to strengthen childhood ties to the city where they first played tennis.
“You always remember those places, like where we went to elementary school, the courts we practiced at, even our old home,” Venus told the LA Times. “And just places you used to go. And of course things change over time. Places move. Shops close. Streets change. But it’s still the same place.”
The Williams sisters made use of their eponymous charity fund to bestow a five-year endowment on what will be the Yetunde Price Resource Center, which will help those affected by violence and trauma. The center was named for their eldest sister, who was killed in 2003.
“We definitely wanted to honor our sister’s memory because she was a great sister, she was our oldest sister and obviously she meant a lot to us,” Serena said. “And it meant a lot to us, to myself and to Venus and my other sisters as well, Isha and Lyndrea, that we’ve been wanting to do something for years in memory of her, especially the way it happened, a violent crime.”
Saturday was dedicated to the refurbishing of Lueders Park tennis courts henceforth known as the Venus & Serena Williams Court of Champions.
Check out a full interview with the Williams sisters here, along with some of the best photos from the weekend below:
All photos courtesy of Getty Images.
TAIPEI, Taiwan – Ashleigh Barty continued her impressive progress through the draw at the OEC Taipei WTA Challenger with a straight-set win over fellow qualifier Junri Namigata on Wednesday.
Fifty-four minutes was all it took for Barty to wrap up a 6-2, 6-3 victory and set up a quarterfinal against No.6 seed Evgeniya Rodina.
Despite only turning 20 earlier this year, Barty is embarking on her second ascent of the tennis ladder. After a glittering junior career, she enjoyed instant success in the senior ranks, reaching three major doubles finals alongside fellow Australian Casey Dellacqua.
However, the stresses of life on tour soon took its toll on her teenage mind and body, prompting a 17-month hiatus. She has played sparingly since returning – a bone stress injury disrupted the momentum from an encouraging grass court campaign – but looked in fine form against Namigata, two breaks in the opening three games setting her on course for a comfortable victory.
Rodina overcame a slow start against Dalila Jakupovic, eventually triumphing, 2-6, 6-4, 6-1. Also advancing to the last eight in Taiwan were Olga Govortsova and Vitalia Diatchenko. Govortsova saved two match points to defeat Julia Boserup, 5-7, 7-6(5), 7-5, while 2014 champion Diatchenko saw off Miyu Kato, 7-5, 6-4.
BOL, Croatia – Former World No.66 Mandy Minella enjoyed a career-best week at the Bol Open, an inaugural WTA 125K Series event, defeating three seeds en route to her first WTA title over No.7 seed Polona Hercog, 6-2, 6-3.
Watch free live streaming from Bol, Croatia all week right here on wtatennis.com!
Minella’s best Grand Slam results have come on the hardcourts of the US Open – where she twice reached the third round and pushed Sloane Stephens to a third set tie-break in 2013 – but Luxembourg’s top ranked talent came to Bol with a pair of doubles titles on clay (both with Timea Babos in 2013). Her week began with a dramatic win over No.2 seed Varvara Lepchenko, and wins over Marina Erankovic and No.5 seed Ana Konjuh (via retirement) soon followed.
Against Hercog, an experienced clay courter who has won two titles on the surface, Minella was in solid form to dispatch the Slovenian star in 83 minutes. Converting six of her eight break points, she dropped just 10 points behind her first serve to capture the biggest singles title of her career.
In doubles, former World No.42 Petra Martic won her first WTA title of any kind on Sunday, pairing with Xenia Knoll to upset top seeds Raluca Olaru and Ipek Soylu, 6-3, 6-2.
More to come…
Elina Svitolina has announced a coaching shake-up, parting ways with coach Iain Hughes:
The 22-year-old Ukrainian has also been working with former No.1 Justine Henin since February, bringing the Hall of Famer on as a coaching consultant. Neither have confirmed whether that relationship will continue in 2017.
Svitolina’s announcement comes on the heels of her career-best season, after making the final of the WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai to finish the season at her career-high ranking of No.14 and winning a fourth career title in Kuala Lumpur.
This season she became the only woman to beat both reigning No.1s this year, beating Serena Williams at the Olympics and Angelique Kerber at the China Open.