Tennis News

Senior Writer Courtney Nguyen wraps up a strong fortnight at SW19, which ended with Serena Williams winning her seventh Wimbledon title to tie Stefanie Graf’s Open Era Record of 22 major titles overall. Go inside the press room to hear from Serena herself after her big win on Saturday, and Courtney is joined by two great analysts in former player and current commentator Rennae Stubbs and tennis historian and reporter Steve Flink to discuss Serena’s performance in the final, her growing rivalry with Angelique Kerber, and where No.22 places Serena in the annals of tennis history.

Stubbs on Serena: “I want people to understand how hard it is to do what she’s doing. I think that get taken for granted because she has the serve, the power, physically her presence is so much more imposing than anyone else. People think it comes easily. It doesn’t. The pressure on Serena every single time she wakes up in the morning on match day is to win the match. Any great player will tell you how stressful it is every single day. I know what Steffi went through and one thing Steffi regrets is she didn’t enjoy the victories more. But my response to that is that Steffi wouldn’t have been as great as she was because she wanted more. If you start to enjoy it you think you’ve done your job. You’re satisfied. Serena, just as Steffi was, won’t be satisfied.”

Flink: Looking at the Open Era, Steffi and Martina had much more consistency than what Serena had, and she’s making up for lost time these last four years. If she passes Steffi and even catches or surpasses Margaret Court, then she has a very strong claim at being the best ever. She only had two years earlier in her career at No.1 in the world, now she’s on her way of doing it maybe for four straight years. That was for me the biggest hole in her record until now, not enough years at No.1, not enough consistency. But she’s been so consistent over these last four years that I think she’s going to be able to overcome the deficiencies of the earlier years. There’s going to be a real serious argument about whether Serena, Steffi, or Martina as the best player of the modern era.

Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn or on any podcast app of your choice to ensure you never miss an episode when they go live. Reviews are always helpful, so if you like what you’ve heard so far, leave us one. Get new episode alerts by following us on Twitter @WTA_Insider.

Angelique Kerber is guaranteed a return to WTA World No.1 when the new rankings are released by virtue of Serena Williams’ withdrawal from the BNP Paribas Open and Miami Open.

Kerber and Williams entered the tournament facing a battle for World No.1, with the American needing to reach at least the semifinals to hold on to the top spot. But the race to the top took another twist as Williams announced her withdrawal on Tuesday before the start of play at Indian Wells:

“Sadly, I have to withdraw from the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells and the Miami Open,” Williams said in a statement. “I have not been able to train due to my knees and am disappointed I cannot be there. I will keep moving forward and continue to be positive. I look forward to being back as soon as I can.”

As a result, Kerber is projected to return to World No.1 when the new WTA rankings are released on Monday, March 20 after Indian Wells and will hold on to the spot through at least April 2, which will take her career total to 22 weeks at No.1.

She will surpass Kim Clijsters (20 weeks), Tracy Austin (21 weeks) and Maria Sharapova (21 weeks) in terms of all-time weeks atop the rankings.

The German first rose to the World No.1 ranking on September 12, 2016 after winning her second Grand Slam at the US Open. Kerber became the second German woman to reach the milestone since the computer rankings were introduced in 1975, and the first since Stefanie Graf. The then-28-year-old also became the oldest player to make her debut at No.1, a record previously held by Jennifer Capriati, who was 25 years, 200 days when she reached No.1 in October 2001.

Kerber held the spot for 20 consecutive weeks until Williams reclaimed the ranking following her historic 23rd major victory at the Australian Open in January.

Viktorija Golubic’s game has always been easy on the eye. And if recent evidence is anything to go by she is now successfully marrying this style with plenty of substance.

In the final of the Ladies Championship Gstaad, Golubic upset Kiki Bertens to become the tour’s newest – and arguably most popular – silverware owner. The 23-year-old’s swashbuckling play was a ray of sunshine in an otherwise drab week, and her rousing comeback ensured there was a home victor on the WTA’s return to Swiss soil.

Success in Gstaad vaulted Golubic into the Top 100 for the first time. Now perched at No.72, she will gain direct entry into a major for the first time at this summer’s US Open and with relatively few points to defend for the remainder of 2016 she has a good opportunity to improve further.

Golubic, though, is not the only player on the charge:

Kiki Bertens (+5, No.26 to No.21): Bertens announced herself to the tennis world with a win-laden end to the clay court season. Back on the dirt and she was back to winning ways, knocking out crowd favorite and top seed Timea Bacsinszky en route to the Gstaad final. Although she was unable to make it a Swiss double against Golubic, she is now within touching distance of a Top 20 debut.

Anastasija Sevastova (+17 No.66 to No.49): In Bucharest, Anastasija Sevastova continued her steady re-ascent up the ranks with another impressive week, knocking out Sara Errani and Laura Siegemund before running out of steam against Simona Halep in the final.

Vania King (+24, No.144 to No.120): Another of Halep’s victims, Vania King, played some typically positive tennis to reach her first semifinal since 2014. There she gave the home crowd a real scare, too, leading Halep by a set and a break before being denied in a high-quality decider.

Rebeka Masarova (+483, No.797 to No.314): Earlier this summer, Rebeka Masarova tripped up a couple of highly touted rivals to lift the junior French Open title. It was a performance that earned her a wildcard for Gstaad, a chance she grabbed with both hands by knocking out Jelena Jankovic, Anett Kontaveit and Annika Beck to go further than any other WTA main draw debutante since 2012.