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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

Third-round action begins in earnest on Saturday at the Crandon Park Tennis Center in Miami. We preview the day’s must-see matchups right here at WTATennis.com.

Saturday

Third round

[2] Karolina Pliskova (CZE #3) vs. [27] Yulia Putintseva (KAZ #32)
Head-to-head: Tied, 1-1
Key Stat: Pliskova is bidding for her 21st victory of the season. She would take over the WTA lead in that category with a win today.

Karolina Pliskova blasted past American Madison Brengle in the second round doing what she does best. She cracked 27 winners to just six for the American and took control of play early in rallies to cruise to a straight sets victory. She’ll look to do more of the same against fiery Yulia Putintseva on Saturday. Pliskova served 12 aces and raced by the 22-year-old Kazakh in straight sets in her first match of the season at the Brisbane International, and Pliskova will aim to continue that trend on Saturday. Putintseva won more than half of her return points against Germany’s Carina Witthoeft on Thursday, and broke serve six times in thirteen opportunities, but she’ll have her hands full against the WTA’s ace leader and will have to make the most of any opportunities she gets to pull the upset.

Pick: Pliskova in two

[4] Dominika Cibulkova (SVK #4) vs. Kirsten Flipkens (BEL #85)
Head-to-head: Cibulkova leads, 4-2
Key Stat: Cibulkova is playing at a career-high ranking of World No.4 this week.

2014 semifinalist Dominika Cibulkova improved to 15-9 at the Miami Open on Thursday with a straight-sets win over Paraguay’s Veronica Cepede Royg. On Saturday the No.4 seed will face the crafty stylings of Kirsten Flipkens, a savvy veteran that has made a living off of breaking the rhythm of the tour’s best players for years. In six previous meetings with the Belgian Cibulkova has had mixed results. But she won the pair’s last two meetings and will come in as the heavy favorite against the World No. 85, who has only won two of 21 lifetime meetings against Top 10 opponents on hardcourts.

Can Flipkens withstand the punishing ground game of Cibulkova and make enough traction with her eclectic blend of slice and dice, or will the indefatigable Cibulkova power past Flipkens and into the round of 16?

Pick: Cibulkova in two

[5] Agnieszka Radwanska (POL #5) vs. [26] Mirjana Lucic-Baroni (CRO #29)
Head-to-head: Radwanska leads, 2-1
Key Stat: Radwanska has won the singles title (2012) and the doubles title (2011) at Miami.

Mirjana Lucic-Baroni shocked Agnieszka Radwanska out of this year’s Australian Open and went on to reach a semifinal at a major for the first time since 1999. On Saturday the Croatian will try to summon the magic once again when she takes on the fifth-seeded Pole, who is a former champion and owns an impressive 29 career wins at Miami. As much as the 35-year-old Lucic-Baroni would like to bask in the glory of her colossal performance down under, she knows that Miami is another story, another chance for her to show the world that she can still play.

“Melbourne was exciting, it happened, but it already feels like it happened a long time ago,” Lucic-Baroni told WTA Insider after her three-set win over Kateryna Bondarenko on Thursday. “I definitely enjoyed it, but I don’t want to be stuck thinking about that. Look where we are: we’re in Miami, another big tournament. My feet are on the ground, and I’m fighting for every match.”

Radwanska will be fighting as well. After starting slowly in 2017, the Pole is eager to turn the page and make something special happen in Miami. “I think every tournament is different story,” Radwanska said before the tournament. “You just have to start from the beginning, and doesn’t matter what happened last week or two months ago. You just go on court and try and play your best.”

Pick: Radwanska in two

[6] Garbiñe Muguruza (ESP #6) vs. [30] Zhang Shuai (CHN #33)
Head-to-head: Zhang leads, 1-0
Key Stat: Muguruza improved to 6-1 in three-setters this season with her win over McHale on Friday.

After saving a match point and battling back from a break down in the third set to defeat American Christina McHale, Garbiñe Muguruza will now set her sights on matching her career-best performance at Miami. But to reach the round of 16 for the fourth time in six career appearances here, Muguruza will have to avenge a tough loss from earlier this season. Zhang defeated Muguruza, 7-6(3), 3-6, 7-5 in Doha in February, and the Chinese No.1 has now won three of her last five against the Top 10 after losing nine of eleven to start her career.

28-year-old Zhang is a remarkable story. After years of struggles she was contemplating retirement, but her fortunes have changed since the beginning of 2016 and she has risen over 100 spots in the WTA rankings in 15 months. Will she be able to continue her form against one of the game’s premier power players on Saturday, or will it be Muguruza who powers into the round of 16 with a new lease on life after saving match points on Friday?

Pick: Muguruza in three

By the Numbers:

20 – Karolina Pliskova is tied for the tour lead in wins with 20. The Czech did not score her 20th win until June last season.

5 – Agnieszka Radwanska has made the quarterfinal or better in five of her 11 appearances at Miami.

1 – Bethanie Mattek-Sands recorded her first win of the season on Thursday over No.9-seeded Elina Svitolina. It was also Mattek-Sand’s first Top 10 win since 2015.

13 – Ajla Tomljanovic’s win over No.13-ranked Elena Vesnina on Friday was her biggest win rankings-wise since 2014, when she defeated then World No.3 Agnieszka Radwanska at Roland Garros.

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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

MIAMI, FL, USA – No.3 seed Simona Halep was pushed to the brink in a late night epic against Sam Stosur, needing to come back from a set down and save match point to book her spot into the Miami Open quarterfinals.

Halep books a blockbuster battle against Johanna Konta after emerging victorious in the two-hour-and-ten minute thriller, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.

“It was a tough match, like I expected,” Halep told press after the match. “But the comeback was pretty good, and I’m really happy about that.

“The last comeback like this for me was in 2014, my first match in Doha against Kanepi. Match point down and I came back. I’m happy about this, shows I can still play some tennis.”

The Romanian targeted the Aussie’s backhand throughout the early exchanges in the opening set, and was rewarded with an early break. She built up a solid 4-2 lead and looked set to wrap up the opening set, but Stosur had other plans.

Stosur got her heavy topspin forehand going and wreaking havoc on Halep’s game plan, and reeled off four straight games to snatch away the opening set. She went on a tear in the second, recovering from an early break and winning five of the next six games to serve for the match.

She even held a match point, at 5-4 on Halep’s serve, but the Romanian chose that moment to start mounting her epic comeback. A handful of loose errors from Stosur on key moments let Halep back into the set, and she took the next seven games in a row to take the second set and a break lead in the third.

With Stosur flagging and letting her aggression dip slightly, it was Halep who bossed the rallies and dictated play to extend the lead to 4-1. The Aussie didn’t have another comeback left in her, and Halep completed the comeback to move into the Miami quarterfinals.

“When I was down, I wasn’t thinking about anything, nothing about the score,” Halep said. “I just wanted to fight. I didn’t give up, and I believed in my chance. I was maybe a little bit lucky because I came back from match point down, but still I fought for this.”

Halep will be rewarded for her efforts with another battle in the next round, this time against Britain’s No.1, Konta.

“It will be tough. She’s in a good form now, she’s near Top 10. And she plays great. It’s going to be a tough one, but here every match is tough so I don’t expect an easy one.

“I have my chance here to try my best and try to win, and of course tomorrow will help me to recover. Then I will go on court with confidence.”

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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

MIAMI, FL, USA – No.2 seed Karolina Pliskova took down an on-form Mirjana Lucic-Baroni to book the first spot into the Miami Open semifinals, notching a 6-2, 6-4 victory after an hour and 12 minutes.

The win sends her into the Miami semifinals for the first time, where she awaits the winner between No.12 seed Caroline Wozniacki and Lucie Safarova.

She also gets her hard-earned revenge on the player who knocked her out of the Australian Open, where she fell 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to the Croatian in the quarterfinals.

“I think I played much better here than I was playing [in Melbourne],” Pliskova said in her post-match press conference. “Also, the conditions here are different, and she was playing better tennis there because it was faster. It suited her better in Australia.

“So definitely I was feeling more confident with this match. I had a different game plan today.”

For her part, Lucic-Baroni – who was into her second Miami quarterfinal and the first since the tournament became a Premier Mandatory – made a strong start to the match, which featured lots of short rallies and plenty of first-strike tennis.

Lucic-Baroni’s fearless returning helped her neutralize powerful Pliskova serve during the early exchanges, but she wasn’t able to back it up with her own serves. She hit nine double faults during the opening set – including on set point – and was broken four times to surrender the first set in 28 minutes.

The Croat continued to attack Pliskova’s serve emphatically and was rewarded with the first break of the second set, building up a 4-2 lead as her service game began to click.

But with her serve under fire, Pliskova relied on her other weapons – her big forehand and her improved court movement – and bailed herself out of trouble. The Czech reeled off four games in a row to erase Lucic-Baroni’s lead and close out the match.

“The difference was in the first set,” Lucic-Baroni told WTA Insider afterwards. “I started out great but then I couldn’t find my serve. The more I was making mistakes the worse I was getting.

“I was able to calm down and fix it in the second, but then I just had a lot of bad luck after 4-2. But she played great, a pretty flawless match. It was still pretty close, but it just didn’t go my way today.”

With the win Pliskova is through to her fourth semifinal of 2017, and she’ll face either Safarova or Wozniacki for a spot in the final.

“Lucie obviously I know pretty well,” Pliskova assessed. “It will not be something really surprising for me there. I will be really confident coming into this one but it’s Czech against Czech so anything can happen.

“Obviously against Caroline, we played in Doha also, so a little bit different conditions than here. I would expect tough one because I know she has been playing quite good here in last few years.”

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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

Jarmila Wolfe has announced that she and her husband are expecting a baby.

The Australian revealed the news on social media.

Unsurprisingly, she was immediately deluged with congratulations.

Wolfe retired from tennis at the start of 2017.

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Bertens Shocks Vinci In Nürnberg

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

NÜRNBERG, Germany – Kiki Bertens dealt a blow to Roberta Vinci’s French Open preparations by triumphing in their second-round meeting at the NÜRNBERGER VERSICHERUNGSCUP on Wednesday.

Early exits in Madrid and Rome meant Vinci arrived in southern Germany short of match practice, and her hopes of playing herself out of this funk were dashed by Bertens in an hour and 20 minutes.

Vinci looked to be sending the contest into a third set, only for the qualifier to batten down the hatches and complete the upset. Bertens’ 6-4, 7-6(4) victory sets up a meeting with Irina Falconi, who fought back to see off No.6 seed Misaki Doi, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.

“I’m really happy with the win today, of course. I’m always happy to have a few matches before Paris and I think my level was okay today,” Bertens said.

“I didn’t start [the second set] so good, I was 4-1 down. But then I started to be a little more patient – trying to hit the ball in the court! – and from there be more aggressive, and that worked pretty well today.

There were mixed fortunes for the German contingent, Julia Goerges easing past Yulia Putintseva, 6-4, 6-2, while Varvara Lepchenko ended the hopes of No.5 seed Sabine Lisicki, 6-2, 7-6(5).

“It was a tough one. Obviously Sabine’s the favorite and she’s the home player. And she’s a great player! So I knew she wasn’t going to give me anything for free and I’d really have to fight for it and that’s what I was looking for,” Lepchenko said.

“In the second set I had a lot of opportunities that I let slip. I lost my focus a bit there and I was all over the place a bit there, and once I got back into it, it was more even and I was able to push through.”

In doubles, Annika Beck and Anna-Lena Friedsam warmed up for their singles quarterfinal against one another by teaming up to beat Chan Chin-Wei and Demi Schuurs, 6-0, 6-4.

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