Tennis News

The Winners:

Victoria Azarenka stormed past Angelique Kerber to win the 18th WTA title of her career – and first WTA title in almost two and a half years – at the Brisbane International. Azarenka has now won 35 of her last 39 matches in Australia, a stretch dating back to 2012. Can the momentum propel the two-time Australian Open champion to make it three in Melbourne this year?

The full story – here.

Agnieszka Radwanska kept her Asia win-streak alive in the new year. She defeated Alison Riske at Shenzhen, winning her 18^th career title and rising to World No.4 – just in time for Top 4 Australian Open seeding.

The full story – here.

Rain delays forced Sloane Stephens to pull double duty at Auckland – she was up 5-2 against Caroline Wozniacki in the ASB Classic semifinal when rain stopped play on Friday. The American came back on Saturday and closed out the match, edging Wozniacki 6-2, 7-6(3) before facing Julia Goerges in the final later that day. Stephens held all 10 of her service games to win 7-5, 6-2 for her career second WTA title.

The full story – here. 

Game, Set, Match: WTA Insider

Game: Sam Crawford makes a splash.

Where were you when you saw the 20-year-old American qualifier blast her way past Belinda Bencic and Andrea Petkovic in back-to-back matches without dropping a set, all en route to her first WTA semifinal? Crawford’s pure power was a sight to behold at the Brisbane International. Petkovic was left shaking her head and laughing towards the end of her 6-3, 6-0 loss to the American. Bencic said she had no say in her 7-5, 7-5 loss in the second round, so audacious was Crawford’s hitting. There’s still work to be done in refining Crawford’s game – Victoria Azarenka exploited her struggles when pulled wide – but hers is a name to keep an eye on. She’s now just outside the top 100.

The full story – here.

Set: Angelique Kerber looks sharp.

When looking back on Kerber’s 2015 season it’s easy to forget she was one set away from qualifying for the semifinals in Singapore. If she had been able to control her nerves and take that one set off Lucie Safarova in group play, who knows what the business end of the tournament looks like. And perhaps we would be looking back on her fantastic year – she won four Premier level titles – in an even better light.

So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that she came out firing in Brisbane, where she unveiled her improved fitness and more offensive gameplay to make her sixth Premier final in the last 12 months. She may have lost to Azarenka in the final, but there’s a lot to like about Kerber’s week in Brisbane. It wasn’t necessarily the result that impressed – after Simona Halep, Garbiñe Muguruza, and Maria Sharapova pulled out Kerber was the highest seed remaining – but it’s how she played. She was hitting a bigger ball (with some help from her new hybrid Yonex strings), serving more aggressively, and moving as well as ever. If she can commit to this more aggressive game, 2016 could be a big year for the German.

Kerber’s run earned her a Top 8 seeding at the Australian Open. She also paired up with Andrea Petkovic to make the doubles final. Along with Julia Goerges’ run to the final at the ASB Classic, this was a fantastic start for the Germans.

Read more about Kerber’s adjustments, here.  

Match: What’s a New Year without fireworks?

Naomi Broady and Jelena Ostapenko provided the Week 1 drama, thanks to Broady’s incredible comeback win over the 18-year-old Latvian in the second round of the Hobart International. The Brit rallied from 5-2 down in the second set and 5-1 down in the third to win 4-6, 7-6(4), 7-5 to advance to the quarterfinals. But Broady’s gutsy comeback was overshadowed by a mid-match incident that involved a flying racket that hit a ballboy and tearful cries for a default.

Early in the second set tie-break, Ostapenko ran to track down a backhand wide and flung her racket – whether intentional or accidentally we don’t know – into the backstop. The racket ricocheted off the backstop and hit a ballboy. Broady pled her case to the chair umpire and supervisor, demanding that Ostapenko be defaulted. Instead the umpire issued a code violation. It all culminated in an icy post-match handshake and an exchange of words between the two that continued well after the match.

That’s one way to ring in the New Year!

The full story – here.

Ranking Movers:

Notable singles ranking movers for the week of January 11, 2016.

Agnieszka Radwanska (POL), +1 (No.5 to 4): Radwanska captured her 18th career singles title by winning at Shenzhen and as a result moved up one spot to No.4 on Monday’s rankings, which will be used for Australian Open seeding.

Angelique Kerber (GER), +3, (No.10 to 7): Kerber started the year by advancing to the final in Brisbane where she fell short against Azarenka. However, with an appearance in the finals, Kerber moved into the Top 8 (No.7), boosting her seeding in Melbourne.

Victoria Azarenka (BLR), +6 (No.22 to 16): By winning the title in Brisbane, the former No.1 moved to No.16 in the rankings, her highest ranking since the week of August 11, 2014, when she held the No.10 ranking.

Sloane Stephens (USA), +4 (No.30 to 26): Stephens captured her second career title in Auckland moving to No.26 in the rankings, her highest ranking since the 2014 US Open.

Upcoming Tournaments:

Apia International Sydney
Sydney, Australia
Premier | $687,900 | Hard, Outdoors
Sunday, January 10 – Friday, January 15, 2016

Hobart International
Hobart, Australia
International | $226,750 | Hard, Outdoors
Sunday, January 10 – Saturday, January 16, 2016

Top 20 Player Schedules:

1. Serena Williams – Australian Open
2. Simona Halep – Sydney, Australian Open
3. Garbiñe Muguruza – Australian Open
4. Agnieszka Radwanska – Australian Open
5. Maria Sharapova – Australian Open
6. Petra Kvitova – Australian Open
7. Angelique Kerber – Sydney, Australian Open
8. Flavia Pennetta – (retired)
9. Lucie Safarova – (not competing)
10. Venus Williams – Australian Open
11. Karolina Pliskova – Sydney, Australian Open
12. Carla Suárez Navarro – Sydney, Australian Open
13. Timea Bacsinszky – Sydney, Australian Open
14. Belinda Bencic – Sydney, Australian Open
15. Roberta Vinci – Sydney, Australian Open
16. Victoria Azarenka – Australian Open
17. Madison Keys – Australian Open
18. Caroline Wozniacki – Australian Open
19. Sara Errani – Sydney , Australian Open
20. Elina Svitolina – Sydney, Australian Open

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
Best wishes to those celebrating birthdays this week:

Raina, Ankita (IND) – January 11, 1993
Shapatava, Sofia (GEO) – January 12, 1989
Chang, Kai-Chen (TPE) – January 13, 1991
Pfizenmaier, Dinah (GER) – January 13, 1992
Wang, Qiang (CHN) – January 14, 1992
Domachowska, Marta (POL) – January 16, 1986

BRISBANE, Australia – Victoria Azarenka rang in the new year with a new attitude and new title. It had been over two years since the former No.1 lifted a trophy, an inordinately long drought for a player that once dominated the tour alongside Serena Williams. En route to her 18th title, Azarenka lost just 17 games, tying Serena for the fewest games lost en route to the Brisbane title.

Her biggest test came in the final against No.10 Angelique Kerber, where she withstood Kerber’s early charge to run away with a 6-3, 6-1 win. This is the Vika we’re used to seeing.

“I wanted to win the title, but I didn’t feel, ‘If this doesn’t happen the world is going to end,'” Azarenka told reporters. “I think that’s when you [feel] relief. I just feel really excited and happy that I’m doing the right things. I’m excited to keep working hard. Just gives extra motivation to keep working hard and achieve better things. When you’re on the right direction, I think it’s kind of cool.”

Azarenka’s dominant run to the title immediately puts her on the short list for the Australian Open, where she is a two-time champion. But this year Melbourne will see a different Vika. It was there two years ago that Azarenka aggravated a foot injury that kickstarted her two year battle to get back to her top form.

“I was hurt the whole year actually,” Azarenka said of her 2015 season. “There was not a moment where I felt, I feel good. I have no pain. There was a lot of medication last year which made me feel crazy actually at some moments. I don’t respond well to medication.

“So it didn’t feel like this last year. It was a constant battle with pain, with my own fear. Like is it going to hurt again? I don’t want to go through that. But it took me to a point where I decided, Okay, I got to stop and try to figure out and actually change my life around the tennis court.

“I had a lot of changes last year, so it took a little bit of time to regroup, reorganize, mature a little bit, understand how to organize yourself. I’m like a freak right now. Like I’m super organized. Like my bag has to be a certain way. This has to be a certain way. I’ve never been like this. I was a little bit messy. I just didn’t care. I would throw things around. My mom was getting so pissed off with me.

“Now I found what works for me, what makes me feel comfortable, calm, at peace. So it’s good.”

After a tough off-season, Azarenka says she’s as fit as she was in her dominant 2012-2013 seasons and based on her form in Brisbane, her tennis looks locked in for 2016. “For me, it’s like you’re reading a book and you just turn the page,” Azarenka said. “That part of it was over. You just flip the page. I think that’s exciting. I can’t wait the to read the next page.”

WTA Insider sat down with Azarenka after her big win to talk about her week in Brisbane and she shed light on just how far she’s come in the last three months.

WTA Insider: What’s your reaction to this week and how it tees you up for the rest of the month?

Azarenka: I’m very excited. I think the difference between my excitement and other people’s excitement is that they want me to win and have the results. Of course I do too. But for me the excitement of doing it is really special. I really enjoy myself on the court. Whatever I do I just have fun with it. When I practice, when I’m on the court I’m really in the space that this is where I want to be. I don’t want to be anywhere else in this particular moment. I’m excited to win obviously, but the journey, the process has been way more exciting for me.

WTA Insider: The last time I talked to you was in Wuhan. You had to retire with injury there to end your season and you were pretty down.

Azarenka: That was tough. Before I even went there, it was really tough and I really shouldn’t have gone there.

WTA Insider: Did you make that trip in an attempt to qualify for Singapore?

Azarenka: Yeah, I still had a chance. Playing at the US Open I was playing well but I was still hurt. At the US Open I decided I’m going to use that trip to work for the next year. But I couldn’t skip steps. I didn’t get healthy. I tried to skip steps and you can’t do that. That was a big mistake for me to do. It was draining and I really didn’t want to be there. I think you could tell by how I was practicing. I wasn’t excited. It’s still a process. It’s still something that I’m not sure I want to take back but I definitely don’t want to repeat that.

WTA Insider: Was there a moment in the off-season when you felt it click?

Azarenka: 2015 finished for me after I started training. It really did. I didin’t want to look back. I just wanted to focus on what I can do right now that can help me. There were a lot of things that didn’t work at first.

The moment that I started to understand that I don’t know how to move right because I compensated so much that I do not know how to move the right way. I had to start from almost walking. It’s not like you’re doing rehab like you’re learning how to walk because you’re unable to walk. It’s really about being more efficient when you’re being on court where you’re not doing those extra steps and you know how to decelerate. I had no idea how to decelerate in that moment. I took a lot of work. It took a lot of focus on paying attention to every single detail, from what I eat, how much I sleep, what I do, how many practices. I had a full schedule. In my day I know exactly what I’m going to do that day.

That experience for the young players is very important to learn. It definitely puts you in the mindset that when you go on the court, that’s all you think about. Last year it was a lot of things on my mind that were not necessary when I went on the court.

WTA Insider: You’ve evolved quite a bit since I first started covering you and you’ve been open to talking about that. What’s been the most important lesson you’ve learned to put you in the position you find yourself in today?

Azarenka: Listen. To listen more. Try to see situations from another person’s perspective.

WTA Insider: Do you think you didn’t do that when you were younger?

Azarenka: I come from a culture that is completely different. For people it’s difficult to understand. Whatever seemed arrogant or rude, those negative emotions, to us it doesn’t. Not that we do it on purpose. It’s just different. For me to learn that I have to sometimes understand how people are around me and observe, I didn’t do that. It was a lot about me, me, me. In an individual sport it will always be, but I just tried to open my mind a little bit and look outside of me.

I think my ego dropped a lot. I dropped it. I didn’t want to be the type of player that is so full of themselves. I want to be understanding. I want to be available. Because tennis is more than just about results to me. It’s the process. I will always feel this way because I found myself to enjoy that.