Australian Open: Venus Williams vs CoCo Vandeweghe
Venus Williams takes on CoCo Vandeweghe in the semifinals of the Australian Open.
Venus Williams takes on CoCo Vandeweghe in the semifinals of the Australian Open.
LONDON, England – Serena and Venus Williams capped off a satisfying day at Wimbledon by teaming up to defeat Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka in an entertaining doubles encounter.
A busy afternoon for the family began with Venus taking on Yaroslava Shvedova on No.1 Court. No sooner had she secured a place in her first major semifinal since 2010 then the Williams clan were hot-footing it to Centre Court in time to see little sister take on Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Serena kept her quest for history on track with a straightforward win over the Russian, leaving a couple of hours to ready herself for the evening’s doubles date.
Four summers ago, the sisters overcame Hlavackova and Hradecka in competitive finals at both Wimbledon and the Olympics. Once again the Czechs gave a good account of themselves, and once again they were left disappointed when Venus swatted away a backhand volley to close out a 6-4, 6-3 victory.
“The schedule’s challenging. I won’t deny. Especially with the weather, that sort of thing,” Venus said. “Thankfully it’s been better the last few days. We love the doubles. There’s been so many doubles titles. That’s been very special for us. We’re going to give it everything we got.”
Joining them in the last eight are compatriots Raquel Atawo and Abigail Spears. Taking on the gifted yet inexperienced pairing of Daria Gavrilova and Daria Kasatkina, Atawo and Spears were in control throughout, dominating on serve and closing out a 6-3, 6-3 victory in just over an hour.
“We love playing on the grass together, and I think that our strategy of covering the net a bit more than other teams bothered them a bit and they never really got into a groove,” Atawo said.
“We practice these sort of situations a lot. We practice our communication during the points. It really does comes down to practice.”
In the draw’s outstanding second-round encounter, No.4 seeds Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina returned for a third set shoot-out with Annika Beck and Yanina Wickmayer.
Twenty-four hours earlier Vesnina had edged out her long-time partner in a titanic fourth-round singles battle. Back on the same side of the net, there was no lingering ill-feeling as the Russians completed their comeback win, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1.
Kurumi Nara came back from a set down against No.8 seed Jelena Jankovic to move into the second round of the Taiwan Open; Samantha Stosur records her first victory since 2016.
LONDON, Great Britain – Queen B has landed on Centre Court.
Beyoncé and Jay-Z were prominently featured in World No.1 Serena Williams’ player box as the top seed attempted to win a record-tying 22nd major title against Australian Open champion and countrywoman to current record holder Stefanie Graf, Angelique Kerber.
The American artist was in London for the United Kingdom leg of her “Formation” tour, performing at Wembley Stadium on July 2-3.
Serena's player box = actual royal box. pic.twitter.com/xs9uJMzYN7
— René Denfeld (@Renestance) July 9, 2016
Serena made a much-publicized cameo in Beyoncé’s “Sorry” music video off the superstar’s latest album, Lemonade.
An interview with Simona Halep before her opening round match at the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy.
Lucie Safarova takes on Anastasija Sevastova in the second round of the Taiwan Open.
Though she didn’t walk away with a sixth Wimbledon title, Venus Williams nonetheless rocketed up the Road to Singapore leaderboard, moving up almost 40 spots into the Top 20 at No.18.
The former No.1 and 2008 BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global champion turned back the clock at the All England Club, reaching her first Grand Slam semifinal since the 2010 US Open before falling to eventual finalist and reigning Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber.
Elena Vesnina broke new ground over the fortnight, reaching her first career semifinal in singles with wins over doubles partner Ekaterina Makarova and red-hot Dominika Cibulkova, who had upset RTS No.5 and defending WTA Finals champion Agnieszka Radwanska in the round of 16. The Russian has twice qualified for the WTA Finals in doubles – both times with Makarova – reaching the final her debut appearance in 2013. Her Wimbledon run has been a culmination of impressive singles results throughout 2016, moving her up 11 spots from No.23 to No.12.
Surprise quarterfinalists Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Yaroslava Shvedova also made big strides on the Road to Singapore leaderboard; Pavlyuchenkova made her best-ever run at a grass court tournament and up 32 spots to No.34, while Shvedova – she of the 2012 “Golden Set” at Wimbledon against Sara Errani – moved up 40 spots of her own to crack the Top 40 on the leaderboard.
CoCo Vandeweghe capped a solid grass court season by reaching the second week of Wimbledon for the second year in a row, roaring up nine spots to No.27.
The Top 8 on the Road to Singapore leaderboard remained largely unchanged following an exciting week at the All England Club, save for 2014 WTA Finals runner-up Simona Halep reclaiming the No.8 position over Madison Keys, who fell to the Romanian in the fourth round.
RTS Ranking Movers
Yaroslava Shvedova: No.78 to No.38 (+40)
Venus Williams: No.57 to No.18 (+39)
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova: No.66 to No.34 (+32)
Elena Vesnina: No.23 to No.12 (+11)
CoCo Vandeweghe: No.36 to No.27 (+9)
Simona Halep: No.9 to No.8 (+1)
Click here to see the full Road To Singapore leaderboard standings following Wimbledon.
Top seed Elina Svitolina is through to the Taiwan Open semifinals with a hard-earned win over qualifier Ons Jabeur, Peng Shuai stunned Samantha Stosur in straight sets.
Top seed Timea Bacsinszky had a late start thanks to a rainy day in Gstaad, but advanced into the second round in straight sets alongside No.6 seed Johanna Larsson.
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.
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