My Performance: Karolina Pliskova
Karolina Pliskova talks about her performance at the BNP Paribas Open.
Karolina Pliskova talks about her performance at the BNP Paribas Open.
NEW YORK, NY, USA – No.11 seed Petra Kvitova overcame a losing head-to-head record against 19-year-old Jelena Ostapenko to win 7-5, 6-3 in her opening round match at the US Open.
Kicking off the day’s action on Court 12, the two-time Wimbledon champion was dealt a tricky opening match against the young Latvian. Ostapenko has defeated Kvitova twice already in 2016, notching three-set wins at Doha and Birmingham.
“I knew that I had to return better, especially on her second serve, which I did today at the end of the match,” Kvitova explained in post-match press. “I was struggling a little bit at the beginning, kind of tight and couldn’t really move. I know that she hits big and fast, and I was trying to eliminate that.”
Ostapenko has been on the rise all year: she started out the season ranked No.84 and now at No.36, she just narrowly missed out on getting a US Open seeding. And against Kvitova, whose bronze medal at the Olympic tennis event has been the highlight of an otherwise quiet season, the Latvian’s big hitting always spells out big trouble.
Ostapenko kept to the script out on Court 12 today as well, breaking Kvitova twice to power ahead to a 3-0 lead. The Czech rallied to grab a break back, playing consistent tennis to force the errors to leak from the 19-year-old’s backhand wing. Kvitova finally leveled the set at 5-5, and rattled off the next two games to take the opening set.
Kvitova continued her romp into set two, where she tamped down three of Ostapenko’s break opportunities to roll to a straight sets victory. The Czech hit just six winners to five unforced errors during the match, but overall kept her margins cleaner than Ostapenko’s four winners and 11 unforced errors.
“I feel like I had a breakthrough here at the US Open,” Kvitova said. I didn’t really like it before; I don’t know why, but I feel the courts aren’t as fast as I wish they’d be. But I made a great success last year, and I hope it’s not the end. I know how difficult it is with the air and the humidity is not the best for me, but today I played good and didn’t have any troubles with that.”
She’ll face Turkey’s No.66 Cagla Buyukakcay in the second round, who recorded the first win of the day when she knocked out No.75 Irina Falconi in her US Open main draw debut.
“I haven’t played her yet, but it’s nice that someone is making stories like she is,” Kvitova said of the Turkish trailblazer. “It’s nice that she’s showing her tennis to Turkish people so more people play there.”
Karolina Pliskova extended her dominance over Garbiñe Muguruza, edging past the Spaniard in straight sets to return to the BNP Paribas Open semifinals for the second straight year.
NEW YORK, NY, USA – No.5 seed Simona Halep got her US Open campaign off to a flying start, dropping just two games in her dominating hour-long romp over Kirsten Flipkens, 6-0, 6-2.
“It was a tough match, because for me the first round of a tournament is always tough,” Halep said. “I started pretty well, I played my game today. I had enough time to do what I wanted.”
“I’d give it less than a 9,” she added, a joking nod to the legendary Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci who watched on from her box.
Despite the humble self-evaluation, the numbers revealed just how dominant her performance was. Halep won almost double the points that Flipkens did – 60 to 35 – and twice as many winners, 22 to Flipkens’ 11. She also won 80% of the points at the net, and converted six of her 10 break point chances, against Flipkens’ one of three.
No. 5 seed @Simona_Halep with an easy win to move on to the second round. #usopen https://t.co/ILfNrpKLyd @Chase https://t.co/XgtT1ow7aV
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) August 30, 2016
Halep had all the answers to Flipkens’ tricky all court game and backhand slice during the 61-minute encounter. She credited the insight from her coach, Darren Cahill, as a key in her game plan.
“When we found out that I play against Flipkens, he had a very good slice and he trained me very well,” she said. “So today it was very easy to play against this slice.”
Flipkens avoided the dreaded double bagel by grabbing a late break at 6-0, 5-0 to get on board in the second set. She took advantage of a couple of nervy points from the Romanian as her opponent’s nerves crept into her game.
“I played pretty well ’til the end, but you know, sometimes even if you have experience you are too nervous to finish the match. I just tried to stay focused,” Halep told ESPN’s Rennae Stubbs after the match.
The Romanian righted the ship in the end and coasted into the second round with ease. She’ll play French Open finalist Lucie Safarova next, after the Czech scored a 6-4, 6-4 win over Daria Gavrilova.
What an impressive @Simona_Halep that was today.. I even think I didnt play bad at all! Well done and good luck is all that I can say
— Kirsten Flipkens (@FlipperKF) August 30, 2016
INDIAN WELLS, CA, USA – No.28 seed Kristina Mladenovic roared back from a set and a break down to defeat 2011 BNP Paribas Open champion Caroline Wozniacki, 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-2, to not only reach her first Premier Mandatory semifinal, but also gaurantee a Top 20 debut on next week’s WTA rankings.
“It’s been a lot of matches and, to be honest, it’s like the longest kind of string of winning matches I had so far in my career,” Mladenovic said in her post-match press conference.
“It feels great, but in the same time, every day I go out there on the court or in the gym practicing, it’s for moment like that. So I’m not getting too excited. I’m just super satisfied that I am on that kind of stages right now and trying to use my chances and the my opportunities I have.”
Mladenovic had never beaten Wozniacki in three previous encounters, but their most recent meeting last fall undoubtedly gave the surging Frenchwoman hope of pulling off the upset.
“Caroline is a top player, former World No. 1. She’s also in very great shape; she had a very good start of the season, as well, and won lots of matches.
“That final in Hong Kong at the end of last year was very painful for me, very frustrating. I thought I was playing well that entire week and, in the final, I was just kind of exhausted and injured.
.@KikiMladenovic with a delicate volley! ? #BNPPO17 pic.twitter.com/gq1Ta8xKYr
— WTA (@WTA) March 16, 2017
“Today I thought, ‘Okay, today I’m feeling good.’ When I woke up, nothing was hurting. I’m not injured. I was happy about that. I wanted to give a fight there and have no regrets.”
The start of the match saw Mladenovic with plenty of opportunities, but after six games, the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy champion was down 1-5 and 0/7 on break point opportunities.
“I wanted to take my revenge, of course. It was not easy. Again, it was a tough battle and tough conditions. We played, yeah, two hours and a half. I didn’t start the match well at all.
“I thought, when you lost three times against a player, it means that something is wrong and that you don’t really like her game.”
Edging closer in the first set, she recovered from an early break in the second to move ahead 5-3 before ultimately leveling the match in a tie-break.
“I felt like I needed adjustments. It’s the first time for me playing on that huge stadium. I just stayed very positive and composed, because I was out there battling with myself first, because I wanted kind of too much.
“I was just fighting mentally to be close with her at the scoreboard, and eventually I got my chances. And I think I played really well the tie-break.”
.@KikiMladenovic is serving for a place in @BNPPARIBASOPEN Semifinals! pic.twitter.com/F6Pm54UTPR
— WTA (@WTA) March 16, 2017
Mladenovic is in the midst of a career-best stretch of form, winning her first WTA title and reaching another final at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel, and only got better as the final set wore on, breaking twice to serve out the win in two hours and 33 minutes.
“I went for my game. I went for some variation. I think I played differently at some points, trying to use more the court to make her run, as well, because she was doing that pretty well to me.
“Something new I put today was the serve and volley on such important points. I impressed myself with that! Every time I would serve good on the backhand, she would go very deep and return well. I was, like, ‘Okay, let’s just be creative here.’
“It paid off, and it gave me a chance to fight a third set. I think the third set was the best of today from me.”
Maintaining impressive stats, she struck 42 winners to 39 unforced errors, and won five of six break points in the final two sets.
“At the end of the day I tried my hardest, and that's all I can do.” Wozniacki finding the positives after QF loss to Mladenovic. #BNPPO17 pic.twitter.com/Stwiag1zHi
— BNP Paribas Open (@BNPPARIBASOPEN) March 16, 2017
“I felt pretty much in control there for a while, but sometimes it is what it is,” Wozniacki said in press. “Maybe lost a little bit of concentration, let her back, and then she started playing better. It happens.
“I was trying to be very focused out there and just do my thing. I fought until the end, but it just wasn’t enough today. You can always learn and I can do better.
“But, at the end of the day, I tried my hardest and that’s all I can do.”
Up next for the French No.1 will be No.14 seed Elena Vesnina, who held off an impressive fight from former World No.1 Venus Williams to win in three sets.
.@KikiMladenovic makes first ever @BNPPARIBASOPEN Semifinal!
Edges Wozniacki 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-2! pic.twitter.com/unK28QbgEm
— WTA (@WTA) March 16, 2017
“I’m going to enjoy this win and try to recover, because two and half hours on court takes a lot out of me. I’m excited and no matter who I play, I’m sure it’ll be a tough one, hopefully an exciting one with great tennis.
“I’m very happy, and hopefully I can continue.”
? @kikimladenovic headed to the semifinals #BNPPO17 pic.twitter.com/95J3Yvl6C5
— BNP Paribas Open (@BNPPARIBASOPEN) March 16, 2017
Victoria Azarenka takes on Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final of the Miami Open.
NEW YORK, NY, USA – Main draw action begins for the US Open women’s doubles event on Wednesday; in the first major not to feature Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza playing as a pair since last year’s Australian Open, which teams are ones to watch in the final Grand Slam of the season?
French Connection In Sync After Santina Split: French Open winners Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic are top seeds in the doubles event, opening against alternates Kurumi Nara and Naomi Osaka.
“It feels great; it’s not every day that you get to see your name as the top seed,” Mladenovic said after her win over Nao Hibino. “For Caroline and I, it’s a bonus to play doubles and compete at such a great level.”
Ranked No.3 and No.4, respectively (and No.2 on the Road to Singapore leaderboard), Garcia and Mladenovic lead the field following the surprising split of Hingis and Mirza, who announced their plans to play apart after a quarterfinal loss at the Rogers Cup.
“I think everyone was surprised,” Garcia said after her first round singles win over Pauline Parmentier. “But of course everyone wants results, and when you don’t have any more results, you want to change. But still, now there’s two big teams.”
Indeed, doubles teams don’t merely divide; they multiply. Hingis and Mirza were in the final of their very next WTA event, though the Western & Southern Open served as the stage for their newest permutations. Hingis is seeded No.6 with CoCo Vandeweghe and opens against Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Kveta Peschke, and Mirza at No.7 with Barbora Strycova, opening against American wildcards Jada Hart and Ena Shibahara. Mirza comes into the US Open as the sole No.1 in doubles with back-to-back titles in Cincinnati and New Haven, the latter with Monica Niculescu.
Speaking in press on Tuesday, Mladenovic mused on whether her and Garcia’s back-to-back wins over Santina in Stuttgart and Madrid marked the beginning of the end for a team that road a 41-match winning streak into the start of the season.
“I know both of them, and they’re both great champions and perfectionists. Maybe it started against us when they didn’t keep on winning, and maybe they were expecting way too much from themselves. I’m not sure about their reasons, but maybe they just wanted to split for some time and maybe come back together.
“It was probably the right decision for both of them. I think they made great moves with partners that they chose because they complement each others’ game.”
Garcia and Mladenovic were the Queens of Clay in 2016, winning 15 matches of their own and four titles in Charleston, Stuttgart, Madrid, and Paris for their home Grand Slam. Even with singles as the main priority, early losses at Wimbledon and the Olympic tennis event will likely leave the French pair eager for redemption in New York.
“It’s a long way until the end, but the first match will be very important to get confidence,” Garcia said. “We know we can do it, but we have to play our best every single match.”
Fire & Ice: No.2 seed Chan Yung-Jan and Chan Hao-Ching anchor the bottom half of the draw; set to begin their US Open campaign against Hsieh Su-Wei and Christina McHale, the Chans could face No.3 seeds Timea Babos and Yaroslava Shvedova in the semifinal. Babos and Shvedova were a late addition to the doubles landscape, starting at the BNP Paribas Open after successful seasons with Mladenovic and Casey Dellacqua in 2015. But the pair nonetheless had some history, playing just once in 2013 to win a title in Tashkent.
“We didn’t know each other that well there,” Shvedova said after her win over Lara Arruabarrena. “I knew she was a great, aggressive, and strong player. She knew I had some good success. But it was just kind of an accident; we won that week and weren’t even thinking of continuing together.”
Babos remembered the week just as well, and relished the opportunity to reunite after discussing the possibility of pairing up in Australia.
“It all worked out that she asked me while I was debating what I should do,” Babos said after beating Barbara Haas. The Hungarian began the year trading partners with Garcia’s 2015 partner Katarina Srebotnik, but the two split after the Australian Open.
“We decided to try in Indian Wells, and we made the semifinals already, then the finals of Miami and Wimbledon. We’ve had many, many good results, and so we’re definitely in the race, and I’m really hoping to be in Singapore again.”
Shvedova and Dellacqua were the third team to qualify for the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global a year ago, but Dellacqua’s concussion in Beijing left the Kazah without a partner and out of the race.
“I went to Singapore, and as soon as I landed she decided she couldn’t come,” Shvedova said. “So I was there for a day and half. I know we qualified and deserved to be there; we proved that we’re a very good team, and a successful team. From my side, it was more important how she was feeling. Tennis goes to the side when health is involved.”
The most memorable doubles teams have blended a contrast in styles, but Babos and Shvedova play such similar games that they both stood on the backhand side with previous partners. But Babos sees a clear contrast.
“She brings experience and calm. I’m more the energy and emotion. Sometimes, it happens where I have a match and I can’t put one ball in the court; she’s there for me then. Other times the roles reverse and I’m there for her. We complement each other emotionally.
Babos and Shvedova play American wildcards Catherine Bellis and Julia Boserup in their first round.
Better Together: No.5 seeds Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina take a nine-match winning streak into the US Open, having won the Rogers Cup and the gold medal at the Olympic tennis event. Though the pair of four years only reunited at the Mutua Madrid Open, Makarova and Vesnina are already No.3 on the Road to Singapore leaderboard, and a spot in the WTA Finals is high on their mind in Flushing.
“We’re really aiming to qualify for Singapore, especially after last year, and the year before we went with my shoulder injury,” she told WTA Insider on Tuesday. “We’ve never been healthy together at the WTA Finals, so I was laughing with Katya before saying, ‘We have to be healthy together at Singapore,’ because we really love it there. It’s an amazing tournament, amazing city, the hotel, and everything around; it’s such a nice place to be at the end of the year.”
The 2014 US Open champions are already into the second round when Germans Laura Siegemund and Mona Barthel were forced to retire in the second set, and Vesnina credits doubles with helping sharpen her competitive instincts on a weekly basis.
“I played singles and doubles in Montréal, for example. I was ranked No.24, and I played Madison Keys, who is Top 10, in the first round. I lost easily – she just killed me the whole match – and she went on to make the final. But I won the doubles with Katya; it’s a big tournament. So it’s great because even when you lose, you’re still ‘in.’
“You can practice your singles game in between, and you have some time for that. But at the same time, you’re still in the tournament, and you’re competing. It’s challenging, and you’re fighting for a title, and it’s always great to have one in your hands at the end of the week.”
All photos courtesy of Getty Images.
As the BNP Paribas Open draws to a conclusion, some players are looking ahead to the weekend whilst others are already busy acclimatising for Miami.
NEW YORK, NY, USA – Two-time finalist Caroline Wozniacki overcame a 0-4 deficit in the opening set to complete a titanic turnaround and upset No.9 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, 6-4, 6-4 for a spot in the third round of the US Open.
“At one point I was like, ‘we’ve been playing for 30 minutes and it’s 4-0 for her, it’s not looking good for me,” Wozniacki laughed after the match. “I wanted to give the crowd a little more tennis to watch today.”
Coming into the match, the pair’s long rivalry was tied at 6-6, with Kuznetsova winning their two most recent encounters and Wozniacki winning their previous two US Open meetings.
A clash that would normally be worthy of the second week of Slam became a second-round affair, due in large part to Kuznetsova’s 2016 renaissance – returning to the Top 10 in her best season since 2009 – and Wozniacki’s dip in form – a spate of injuries derailing her season and bringing her down to No.74.
“To be honest, I stopped looking at the rankings when I fell out of the Top 10. I was like, ‘I wanna get back up there and once I do I’ll start looking at the rankings again,'” Wozniacki told ESPN’s Pam Shriver after the match.
“It’s been a tough year, I’ve had a lot of injuries, but I feel like I belong at the top. I just beat someone who’s been playing really well this year, so that’s definitely gonna build my confidence.”
After a slow start that saw her down 4-0, @CaroWozniacki roars back to take the first set 6-4. #usopen @Chase https://t.co/Kr03DMnyYH
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) August 31, 2016
The innocuous-looking 6-4, 6-4 score line belies the quality of the tortuous battle between the two great champions. 2004 champion Kuznetsova came out of the gate firing, striking winners from every angle of the court and completely shutting out Wozniacki. The Dane had only struck one unforced error by the time Kuznetsova put her down 4-0.
Facing a break point for a 5-0 deficit, Wozniacki’s game finally started to come together. She took advantage of a drop in Kuznetsova’s energy level to storm back, winning seven unanswered games to take the opening set and hold serve in the second.
Wozniacki served for the match at 5-3, but Kuznetsova placed an incredible topspin forehand lob right on the back line to bring up break point, sealing it with an inside out forehand to keep herself in the match.
But at 5-4, 30-30, just as it looked like the match held one more twist for the pair, Kuznetsova smacked a forehand into the net to bring up Wozniacki’s match point. The Dane sealed her passage into the next round with a pinpoint forehand winner into the back corner of the court.
Wozniacki is set to play Monica Niculescu in the third round after the Romanian advanced with a 6-0, 6-1 win over countrywoman Ana Bodgan.
First Top 10 win of 2016 for @CaroWozniacki!
Knocks out 2004 champ Kuznetsova 6-4, 6-4! #USOpen pic.twitter.com/vddiQsuTPd
— WTA (@WTA) August 31, 2016
No.14 seed Elena Vesnina has booked a spot into her first ever Premier Mandatory final at the BNP Paribas Open after a dominating performance over Kristina Mladenovic.