Stanford: Vandeweghe vs. Gibbs
CoCo Vandeweghe takes on Nicole Gibbs in the second round of the Bank of the West Classic.
CoCo Vandeweghe takes on Nicole Gibbs in the second round of the Bank of the West Classic.
No.4 seed Dominika Cibulkova fought past a spirited challenge from Paraguayan qualifier Veronica Cepede Royg to book a spot into the Miami Open third round.
An interview with Johanna Konta after her win in the quarterfinals of the Bank of the West Classic.
MIAMI, FL, USA — Taken to the brink for the second time in this matchup, No.3 seed Simona Halep again emerged victorious over rising Japanese teenager Naomi Osaka in the second round of the Miami Open on Friday, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3.
“It’s really important that I could win this match today,” Halep said, after the match, referencing her struggles with a knee injury to begin 2017. “I think it was very, very difficult to play against her in the first match here at the tournament, but I’m really happy. I had no pain, I stayed there two hours, fighting, running all over the place… so it’s great.”
There was little to separate the two players for the duration of their nearly two-hour encounter, which included two rain delays, but Halep improved to 2-0 against Osaka after defeating her in the third round of the French Open last year.
With the teenager Osaka known for her blistering serve, it was Halep who cruised behind her delivery in the first set, dropping a total of three points.
While Osaka almost kept pace at the line for the duration, she blinked in the pivotal ninth game, falling behind 0-40 only to see Halep take the game on her third break point and serve out the set to love.
.@Simona_Halep wraps up the first set 6-4! #MiamiOpen pic.twitter.com/EF64odeBBj
— WTA (@WTA) March 24, 2017
After Osaka held serve to begin the second set, a brief shower forced the players off court, but upon resumption, Oskaka cranked up the heat on serve and off the ground.
After breaking in the first game out of the delay, Osaka stretched her run to 12 of the next 15 points played after the break to take a two break lead at 4-0.
“I lost my serve after the rain and I was a little bit too upset,” Halep said. “She was very strong there, and I think I did my best third set this year. I think I played my best tennis. I didn’t expect her to play that good in the wind. She’s hitting the balls pretty hard and she adjusted well today. Her game is strong and she likes…to hit, and the wind was moving the ball a lot. From my side, I didn’t have pretty good timing to hit. She did very well.”
Halep steadied herself in the fifth game, using some all-court tennis to earn back one break and hold in her next game, but the undaunted Osaka held at love and broke to 30 to send the match into a decider.
.@Simona_Halep cancels out one of the breaks! #MiamiOpen pic.twitter.com/rwoP1u0L2v
— WTA (@WTA) March 24, 2017
Halep, who stroked 11 winners in the opening set, saw her stat line nearly reversed in the second, as she hit just four winners to balance 11 unforced errors.
A lengthy third game of the decider, which went to deuce five times, seemed to be the turning point for Halep early as the No. 3 seed broke the Osaka serve to move in front, 2-1. However, Osaka rallied back to knot the set at 3-3 with a break of her own, only to surrender serve at love in the next game to put Halep back in front.
After a second, lengthier delay due to weather, Halep hardly missed a beat, holding serving and breaking Osaka on her second opportunity to close out the match.
“I changed everything that I did before,” Halep said about her rain delay thoughts. “I said I had to be fired up from the first point, even if I did a double fault. I just wanted to stay there and fight for every ball.”
.@Simona_Halep moves into @MiamiOpen Third round!
Battles past Osaka 6-4, 2-6, 6-3! pic.twitter.com/Wdp0FR7p34
— WTA (@WTA) March 24, 2017
The Romanian advances to play the winner of the match between No. 32 seed Ekaterina Makarova and Anett Kontaveit.
An interview with Venus Williams after her quarterfinal win at the Bank of the West Classic.
MIAMI, FL, USA – The Miami Open doubles tournament kicked into high gear on Saturday as two of the Top 4 seeds took the court to begin their respective campaigns. Before the storm clouds rolled in for the third straight day, No.2 seeds Ekaterina Makarova & Elena Vesnina and No.4 seeds Andrea Hlavackova & Peng Shuai both advanced into the second round, each in straight sets.
The two teams last met in the finals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, which the Russians won in a tense match tie-break, and could potentially meet in the semifinals of Miami.
Hlavackova and Peng have nonetheless enjoyed a strong start to 2017, reaching the finals of the Australian Open and briefly leading the pack at the top of the Road to Singapore leaderboard.
“The doubles game is improving a lot,” Hlavackova told WTA Insider. “A lot of singles players are playing doubles, and most of the top teams are made up of singles players, so it’s very tough competition. We are very happy to start the season so well; I think it’s pretty special to start the team so well as a new team. We just want to keep going.”
Up against a young team in Naomi Osaka and Monica Puig, the duo edged through a close opening set to roll through, 7-6(6), 6-1, and book a second round clash with Shuko Aoyama and Yang Zhaoxuan.
“They started very strong in the first set. They served really fast and played a very fast baseline game. It was very important to not panic and keep playing and find out time and moment. We got the tie-break and started from there, even better.”
Osaka and Puig each produced exciting results in singles last year, but have yet to hit the same heights on the doubles court.
“They’re young; when they get to our age, they’ll have experience!” joked Peng.
“I think they’re a great team. They play strong and fast. In the first set, we were almost lucky to get the tie-break, but in the second set, we got a break quickly, so the feeling was different.”
Earlier in the day, Makarova and Vesnina each shrugged off tough singles losses on Friday to power through their first doubles match in Miami, ousting Oksana Kalashnikova and Asia Muhammad, 6-0, 6-2.
“We both had crazy singles matches yesterday,” Vesnina said. “I texted her after the match, because I knew she was crying and she was tired. I told her, ‘Katya, don’t even put yourself down. We have a tough sport, but it’s not the end of the world. Cry for another five, ten minutes, and just pack your stuff, go back to the hotel, get sleep, and tomorrow we’ll kick some asses on the court!’
“We needed to regroup and forget our tough losses because it’s tough. You can have a black line in your life, white line in your life, and there can be moments where there are more black lines than white, but you still need to find the positivity though the negative. Sometimes, what doesn’t kill you makes you strong.”
The dynamic duo are set to celebrate their fifth anniversary of doubles at the Mutua Madrid Open, but may leave Crandon Park with an unexpected present; should they win the tournament, they will rise to Co-World No.1 – as long as Bethanie Mattek-Sands falls before the semifinals and Kristina Mladenovic fails to reach the final.
“Before you told me, I didn’t even know! We’ll take it match by match. Katya and I always do that; we’ll just focus on our doubles. We lost our singles, so we’ll try our best to do good in doubles because this is a big tournament.
“Miami is very prestigious and it’s a huge event; we’ve been in the final twice. This year we’ll try to go all the way.”
Up next for the Olympic Gold medalists and reigning BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global champions is the unseeded and dangeous pairing of Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Kveta Peschke.
All photos courtesy of Getty Images.
Forty kids took center court in Shenzhen for Li Na Kids Day – and the Chinese trailblazer wasn’t the only two-time Grand Slam champion on the court. Watch the video here!
In the latest episode of Dubai Duty Free Full of Surprises, Venus Williams and sister Serena surprise an unsuspecting fan at the Bank of the West Classic with autographs and selfies.
Serena Williams, who’s making her 2016 debut at the Hopman Cup in Perth this week, shone at the exhibition event’s player party. Watch her step out right here.