Tennis News

– A subdued Serena Williams downplays injury concerns: The six-time Australian Open champion met with the press on Saturday hours after photos emerged of her under some possible physical distress during practice earlier in the morning. Serena dismissed any concerns.

“I’m at 120, 130 percent right now,” she said. “This week, the weeks leading up, [there] has been a lot of work.”

“I don’t have any inflammation anymore,” she said, when asked about the knee inflammation that disrupted her Hopman Cup participation. “It’s just that I needed some time to get over that little hump. Like I said, I’ve been doing a lot of, lot of, lot of training leading up to this.”

This year, four of the Top 6 seeds will go into the Australian Open without a completed match under their belt: Serena, Garbiñe Muguruza, Maria Sharapova, and Petra Kvitova. Serena insisted her preparation has been good. “I didn’t have the match play that I’ve wanted to have,” she said. “But after playing for so many years on tour, I should be able to focus on that and the fact that I have played a lot of matches. So that’s what I’m trying to focus on now.”

Serena opens her tournament against Camila Giorgi on Monday.

– Managing the pressure for Grand Slam No.22: Serena has not played a completed match since her US Open loss to Roberta Vinci in September. Asked whether that added any pressure or nerves as the tournament is set to begin, Serena said no.

“I feel fine,” she said. “Honestly, I don’t have anything to prove. I have nothing to lose. I can only gain. That’s kind of how I look at it right now.”

That’s true. But then there was this:

Q. What do you think would make a good tournament for you here?
SERENA WILLIAMS: I mean, we all know the answer to that, so… No need to even say it.

And you know what? That’s also true.

– Podcast Preview: Listen to a full tournament preview on the new episode of the WTA Insider Podcast:

– Players not thrown by injury woes at the top: It’s an easy story and one that, on the surface, makes sense: With the top players starting their seasons under a cloud of injuries, shouldn’t the rest of the field see Melbourne as a big opportunity?

Not really.

The players have told me they don’t take much stock in the withdrawals and retirements that have wracked the first two weeks of the season. The common refrain: The top players know what they’re doing. No one wants to risk anything ahead of the Australian Open. They’ll all be ready to go when the first ball is struck.

– Victoria Azarenka ignoring the hype: Even before the draw came out, the chatter surrounding Azarenka’s prospects of winning her third Australian Open title this year were in full swing. Once the draw revealed her in the bottom half of the draw, the chatter has become more of roar. It’s a roar that Azarenka brushes off.

“Probably,” she said, when asked whether she has noticed a change. “I’m not that much aware about it because I try to read other articles,” she said with a smile.

“But, I mean, it’s quite normal that somebody had success going in, [you make] predictions. It’s always the same story. You guys need to write that, hype everybody up. I’m not saying it in a bad way. It’s just for me it’s a little bit irrelevant. I know I still have to go out there and prove myself.”

Here’s Serena on Vika’s early season resurgence: “I think Vika is such a great player. Not only that, she’s such a good personality. She’s really fun. She’s super cool.

“It’s so good to see someone like her who has been through a lot of ups and downs, has seen the glory, then had to go down in her ranking, to be able to come back and just do so well. Just in general, she’s the kind of person that you always just root for just because.”

– Sharapova tempers expectations: Serena asked reporters not to tell her anything about her draw, not even her first round opponent. Azarenka and Halep said they don’t look at it either.

Sharapova actually does look at the draw. She’s not concerned about being psyched out by her draw because it ultimately doesn’t matter. “You know all the players that are competing here. It’s no secret who you’re going to be playing. I mean, you’re bound to face somebody good from the first round on. There’s a reason why these players are in the draw.

“I can’t look too far ahead of myself. I haven’t played for a few weeks. I have to keep my expectations quite low and just work my way, work my game, work my mindset through this draw.”

– Muguruza still not pain free: Muguruza told reporters the plantar fasciitis that forced her to retire in her first match in Brisbane is feeling better. But she still feels pain in practice. “I felt the foot also last year a lot of times,” she said. “It’s just something I have sometimes. It’s not going to change.

“It’s just a pain that sometimes you feel it and sometimes no. So it’s kind of hard to deal with it sometimes. But for now it’s good.”

– Muguruza fighting against a sophomore slump: After her breakthrough season, making the Wimbledon final, winning Beijing, and finishing the year at No.3, Muguruza warns against expecting more this year.

“I think it’s going to be a really hard year for me because I’ve never been in a situation from everybody. Me, also, I’m like, How I’m going to deal with all these new things? I’m actually very curious about how I’m going to feel myself when I go to the court, if I’m going to be able to be there, not think about so many things.”

– The Perils of Air-Conditioning: Want to get a tennis player or coach to launch into an angry diatribe? Just mention air-conditioning. Players are very sensitive to it and immediately ask transport drivers to shut it off. I once did an interview with Julia Goerges in Miami in which she asked to do the interview in a different room because the A/C was blasting in the one we were been assigned.

It looks like the A/C curse has struck again this year at the Australian Open. Halep sounded noticeably hoarse in her pre-tournament press conference. “I’m a little bit sick, cold, yeah, with my nose,” she said. “Is nothing dangerous. Is normal. From the air-conditioning.”

– Silence, please: Who knew? Azarenka hates whistling. “I just hate when people whistling. No one can whistle in my house. I will snap at you if you do.”

– Maria’s laundry mix-up: Sharapova’s pre-tournament press conference ended on a light note. Asked if she had ever had any issues with tournament laundry, Sharapova deadpanned an underwear mix-up that had the room rolling in laughter.

“I actually just returned a pair of underwear that wasn’t mine, like 45 minutes ago,” she said. “Funny you ask that. I don’t know if you were like checking out the laundry room situation, but it really happened. It was a female pair of underwear, not male. It was leopard. I’m like, That’s not mine.”

– Tough turnaround: Eugenie Bouchard played the Hobart International final on Saturday and will play her first round match against Aleksandra Krunic on Monday.

– What are the odds?: Thailand’s Luksika Kumkhum, ranked No.167, navigated her way through qualifying and will play No.6 seed Kvitova on Monday. It will be a rematch of their first round match here in 2014, which a then-No.88-ranked Kumkhum won 6-2, 1-6, 6-4.

– Notable qualifiers: Tamira Paszek, Nicole Gibbs, Naomi Osaka, and Krystina Pliskova all qualified. Always be wary of talented players who make it through qualifying. They’re used the courts and conditions and full of confidence.

MELBOURNE – Australia – Top seeds shine on Day 1: And to think everyone was worried. No.1 Serena Williams, No.4 Agnieszka Radwanska, No.5 Maria Sharapova, and No.6 Petra Kvitova all moved through without dropping a set. Serena and Sharapova looked particularly impressive in their first matches of the year. Serena played a solid match, serving 9 aces and hitting 19 winners to 22 unforced errors, to beat Camila Giorgi 6-4, 7-5. Sharapova showed minimal rust, beating Nao Hibino 6-1, 6-3.

Caroline Wozniacki’s Australian Open trend continues: The Dane earned her best result in Melbourne in 2011 when she made the semifinals. The top seed then, Wozniacki held a match point against Li Na before losing in a tough three sets. It’s been an unfortunate slide ever since.

2012: Quarterfinals
2013: Fourth round
2014: Third round
2015: Second round
2016: First round

Wozniacki couldn’t hold off the feisty Yulia Putintseva, who rallied to knock of the Dane 1-6, 7-6(3), 6-4 in 3h12m. A disappointed Wozniacki minced no words:

“I would say it’s a pretty s****y start to the season,” she told reporters. “It wasn’t a pretty first set but I got it done and really should have closed it off in two. I let her back into the match, and it was basically my own fault that I’m not here as the winner.”

Trio of Young Russians go seed-hunting: We’ve said it once here on WTA Insider and we’ll say it again: The Russians are coming.

21-year-old Margarita Gasparyan, 19-year-old Elizaveta Kulichkova, and 18-year-old Daria Kasatkina all knocked out seeds on Monday cementing a move en masse to fill the gap in young Russian tennis. Gasparyan started the day by ousting No.17 seed Sara Errani 1-6, 7-5, 6-1, posting 26 winners, 13 of which came from her distinctive one-handed backhand. Ranked No.58, Gasparyan is one of the few women on tour with a female coaching, recently teaming up with former WTA player Elena Makarova.

“She’s a very good coach and she’s a very good person,” Gasparyan told WTA Insider. “I like to stay with her and speak with her all the time. Not just a coach. A friend. That’s very nice.”

“When you have a [male] coach you cannot speak [about everything] with him. Just maybe tennis. When you have a woman you can tell all. How you feel, tennis, boyfriends. I’m relaxed. I don’t think a lot [about] tennis all the time.”

Kasatkina, also making her Australian Open debut, followed a few hours later with a 6-3, 6-3 win over No.27 seed Anna Karolina Schmiedlova. Kasatkina made waves last year at the US Open, where she made her main draw debut as a lucky loser to make the third round.

“It’s my second Grand Slam and I already have three wins,” the 69th-ranked Kasakina told WTA Insider. “Now every moment, every match is just a plus.”

Then in the evening session, it was 19-year-old Elizaveta Kulichkova who knocked out No.22 seed Andrea Petkovic 7-5, 6-4. The powerful Kulichkova was a junior champion in Melbourne in 2014 and, just like Gasparyan and Kasatkina, she was playing in her main draw debut.

Three Melbourne debuts, three seeds out, and three young Russians embracing their time. There’s a lot to like about this next generation of Russian talent.

– Kuznetsova picks up where she left off: The Russian veteran took the first set against Daniela Hantuchova with a 19-minute bagel and rolled to a 6-0, 6-2 win. Kuznetsova told me in Sydney that she needs to get a few matches under her belt to play well at the Slams. The way she played today, it looks like her run to the Sydney International title may have put her in mid-tournament form.

– Sloane Stephens can’t find her Auckland form: On the flip side, the ASB Classic champion led Chinese qualifier Wang Qiang 3-1 before losing nine straight games. She lost 6-3, 6-3. Disappointing result in Melbourne but hopefully the Auckland title is something to build on for Stephens.

– Kvitova sleepless over Kumkhum: Kvitova admitted she was shocked to see she drew Luksika Kumkhum in the first round again. She said she didn’t sleep well the night before the match.

– Gasparyan’s Federer connection: Gasparyan told me she grew up idolizing Roger Federer, Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, and Victoria Azarenka, but it was her love of Federer that made her change from a two-handed backhand to her current one-hander.

“When I started to play tennis I played double-backhand,” she said. “I came to Moscow and I said to my father I would like to play a one-handed backhand. I always wanted to play one-handed backhand. It’s so beautiful. But I was little. I don’t have the power. At 12 I start to play one-handed.”

– Maria Sakkari’s WTA heritage: The 20-year-old from Greece, ranked No.170, backed up her qualifying run to make the second round, beating Wang Yafan 6-4, 1-6, 6-3. Sakkari’s mother is Angeliki Kanellopoulou, a former WTA player who made the quarterfinals of the 1994 Olympics and reached a career-high of No.47. The funny thing is, Sakkari never knew her mother was a pro tennis player when she picked up a racket. There was a tennis court next to her house and her grandfather was a coach. She just loved the sport.

“I did ballet but they kicked me out because I wasn’t that good, then they kicked me out of karate because I kept laughing all the time,” she said laughing. “And then I said I have no choice I have to play tennis because they are kicking me out of everywhere.”

– Nicole Gibbs continues her run: After winning three matches to qualify, the American beat Klara Koukalova 6-2, 2-6, 6-1 to advance. She’ll play Kristina Mladenovic, after the Frenchwoman beat 2014 finalist Dominika Cibulkova 6-3, 6-4. “We grew up together and played a lot of juniors against each other,” Gibbs told WTA Insider. “That would be the match where I would be most comfortable in terms of knowing my opponent’s game style and knowing what my game plan would be.”

– Putintseva’s mind games: Closing out matches is hard. Closing out the biggest win of your career on the biggest stage of your career? Even harder. As Putintseva stepped to the line to serve out her win over Wozniacki in front of a packed crowd on Hisense Arena, she convinced herself she was down in the scoreline.

“I imagined I was losing 5-4. It was easier for me that I was not winning, I need to comeback. So after it was easier to play.

“Because when I was thinking I’m on top and I was serving I was feeling pressure on myself that I need to finish the match, that it was maybe my last chance. But then I started to think different.” Hey, whatever works.

– Second round matches to watch: If you’re limited on time, make sure to tune into Radwanska-Bouchard and Gavrilova-Kvitova. Major upset alerts.

All photos courtesy of Getty Images.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – No.2 seed Angelique Kerber overcame a slow start and overturned a 1-4 deficit in the first set to see off Eugenie Bouchard and make her way to the third round of the Olympic tennis event in Rio, 6-4, 6-2.

Bouchard was off to a flying start against Kerber, looking to extend her streak against Germany’s No.1 to four wins in a row. After fighting off a pair of break points in both of her service games, the Canadian got the first break of the match and consolidated for a 4-1 lead.

After the initial wobble, Kerber found her rhythm and famous consistency from the baseline to rattle off seven games in a row, erase Bouchard’s lead and grab the opening set and a break in the second. Bouchard saved a trio of match points to hold serve in a lengthy game for 5-2, employing line-to-line defense against the German to hit a forehand winner. But Kerber took the match at her next chance and made her way into the third round after an hour and 22 minutes.

Though both players stayed aggressive throughout, Kerber kept her margins cleaner than Bouchard, striking 24 winners and 19 unforced errors to the Canadian’s 22 and 36. She brought up 12 break points and converted four times, while Bouchard broke just once in five chances.

Kerber will go on to play Australia’s Samantha Stosur for a spot in the quarterfinals. The No.13 seed defeated Japan’s Misaki Doi 6-3, 6-4 to move into the third round.

Earlier in the day Madison Keys, one of two Americans left in the singles draw, came away the winner in a three-hour marathon against France’s Kristina Mladenovic 7-5, 6-7(4), 7-6(5), in the longest match of the Olympic tennis event so far.

“I’m obviously really happy with how I was able to compete today,” Keys said in the mixed zone after the win.

There were 11 breaks of serve during the first two sets alone as the momentum shifted back and forth. Keys was three points away from taking the match when she held a 4-1 lead in the second set tiebreak, but Mladenovic rattled off six points on the trot to send the match to a third set. Keys overcame a 3-5 deficit in the final tiebreak to edge past the Frenchwoman.

The American hit 49 total winners during the match to 64 unforced errors against Mladenovic’s 28 winners and 46 unforced errors. Keys’ big serve bailed her out of trouble in the third set, blasting six of her nine aces during the final set.

The American took a medical timeout during the match but later brushed off any lasting injury concerns.

“I felt like one of my ribs maybe moved, which wasn’t very comfortable but I’m feeling a little bit better now, I’m going to go see the trainers after,” Keys explained.

She’s set to play against Spain’s Carla Suárez Navarro next in the next round.

A blockbuster second-round match between Agnieszka Radwanska and Eugenie Bouchard highlights the Day 3 schedule down under, but that’s not all we’ll be keeping an eye on.

Wednesday, Day 3
Second Round

[4] Agnieszka Radwanska (POL #4) vs. Eugenie Bouchard (CAN # 37)
Head-to-head: Radwanska leads, 1-0
Key Stat: Radwanska has won 23 of her last 28 matches.

Is Eugenie Bouchard ready to make a play for a return back to the WTA’s elite? We’ll likely have a clearer answer to that question after Wednesday’s tussle with red-hot Agnieszka Radwanska. The Pole has been in rude form thus far in 2016, wining her first six matches without the loss of a set, but she knows she’ll be in for a tough challenge when she faces Bouchard for the second time in her career. The Canadian has already won seven matches in 2016—something it took her until May to do last year—and she played scintillating tennis in taking down Aleksandra Krunic on Day 1. This promises to be a thrilling encounter between two in-form players, and the winner should be well positioned for a run deep into the second week.

Pick: Bouchard in three

[6] Petra Kvitova (CZE # 6) vs. Daria Gavrilova (AUS # 39)
Head-to-head: Kvitova leads, 1-0
Key Stat: Gavrilova served for the match in the pair’s first meeting at Wuhan last year.

Petra Kvitova erased a lot of doubts about her form on Day 1 in Melbourne when she avenged her shock upset in 2014 to Thailand’s Luksika Kumkhum with a routine straight-sets win. But Kvitova is in for another challenge when she squares off against the feisty Daria Gavrilova in round two. Playing under the Aussie flag for the first time at a major, the 21-year-old eased past accomplished veteran Lucie Hradecka in straight sets on Monday. Gavrilova was close to Kvitova in their first tour-level meeting, actually serving for the match, and she hopes to take that experience into Wednesday’s tilt. “I got pretty close,” she told reporters in Melbourne on Monday. “I was serving for it in China. I was up 5-3, and I think I lost in like two minutes the next four games. She hits the ball pretty hard; has a good serve. I’ll have to work very hard and run a lot.”

Pick: Kvitova in three

[5] Maria Sharapova (RUS #5) vs. Aliaksandra Sasnovich (BLR # 105)
Head-to-head: First meeting
Key Stat: Sasnovich has never played a top-10 player before.

Maria Sharapova shook the rust off in style on Monday, firing 11 aces and clocking 28 winners to down Japan’s Nao Hibino in straight sets. The Russian will face a relatively unknown quantity in Belarus’s Sasnovich on Wednesday, but Sharapova knows that if she plays to her potential her chances of advancing are good. “I try not to focus so much on the opponent or the atmosphere and just really focus on myself and try to bring the positives of a good training week, just try to execute that,” she said. Sasnovich, 21, made a run to the Seoul final as a qualifier last season, and while she’s never beaten a player inside the top 30, she’s proven to be tough on big occasions. She won 11 consecutive finals at the Challenger and Futures level between 2011 and 2014.

Pick: Sharapova in two

[1] Serena Williams (USA #1) vs. Hsieh Su-Wei  (TPE # 90)
Head-to-head: First meeting
Key Stat: Hsieh reached the Australian’s second week as a qualifier in 2008, but has only won two matches here since.

21-time major champion Williams came out firing on Monday and quickly found that her opponent, Italy’s Camila Giorgi, was firing back. But the American, who had not competed in a tour-level match since last year’s U.S. Open, proved to be up to the challenge. She kept the hard-hitting Giorgi at bay with her lethal serve, dropping only four first-serve points and facing just one break point, and demonstrated no signs of the injury to her left knee that forced her out of Hopman Cup. Though the crafty, cerebral Hsieh isn’t much of a match on paper for the six-time Australian Open champion, at this point in Williams’ quest for major No. 22, she’s not ready to take anything for granted. “You know, everyone is here to win,” Williams said. “Everyone is here to play their hardest. Yeah, I can’t look past anyone.”

Pick: Serena in two

Around the Grounds: Belinda Bencic will look to advance to the third round in Melbourne for the first time when she meets Hungary’s Timea Babos. Babos, an elite doubles player, appears to be upping her singles game as well. She took out Great Britain’s Heather Watson in three sets on Day 1… Russian Daria Kasatkina is a player on the rise. She knocked off 27th-seeded Anna Karolina Schmiedlova on Monday and has risen more ranking spots than any other player in the top-100 in the last year (from 350 to 69). Kasatkina will square off in a battle of promising 18-year-olds on Wednesday when she meets Croatia’s Ana Konjuh.

With Simona Halep and Venus Williams out of the bottom half of the draw, opportunity is knocking. Who will take advantage? We preview the Day 4 action here.

Thursday, Day 4
Second Round

[3] Garbiñe Muguruza (ESP #3) vs. Kirsten Flipkens (BEL # 80)
Head-to-head: Tied, 1-1
Key Stat: Muguruza has never reached the quarterfinals at Melbourne.

Spain’s Garbiñe Muguruza is now the highest-seeded player remaining in the lower half of the draw, but that doesn’t mean she’ll have a cakewalk to the second week. The Spaniard will run up against an experienced veteran with a Grand Slam pedigree on Day 4 in 2013 Wimbledon semifinalist Kirsten Flipkens. The Belgian has started the season on a bit of a tear, qualifying for Auckland and reaching the quarters before outlasting fellow veteran Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in three sets in the first round on Tuesday. Muguruza has reached the round of 16 at Melbourne in her last two appearances, but after her breakout season in 2015 the pressure will be on her to surpass those results. It’s not something she’s bothered by. “Really no expectations,” Muguruza says. “Just try to keep my tennis level of what I’ve felt the last season, and that’s it.”

Pick: Muguruza in two

[9] Karolina Pliskova (CZE # 12) vs. Julia Goerges (GER # 45)
Head-to-head: Pliskova leads, 1-0
Key Stat: Pliskova hit 13 aces in her first match of the tournament.

Is it time for Karolina Pliskova to have her Grand Slam breakthrough? The 23-year-old achieved a Top 10 ranking for seven weeks in 2015, but the Czech has never been past the third round at a major. Though she stresses patience and process in her dialog with the media, Pliskova would clearly love to get the monkey off her back in Melbourne. On Thursday she’ll square off against an in-form Julia Goerges for a spot in the third round. The German is ranked 33 spots lower than Pliskova, but the powerful, aggressive Goerges proved her mettle in 2015 by reaching the second week at two majors. She also started the season on a mission, reaching her sixth career final—and first since 2012—in Auckland.

Pick: Pliskova in three

[14] Victoria Azarenka (BLR #16) vs. Danka Kovinic (SRB# 54)
Head-to-head: First meeting
Key Stat: Azarenka has already won four 6-0 sets this season.

Everything seems to be falling into place for two-time Aussie Open champion Victoria Azarenka. The health is perfect. The game is flowing—and lethal. The results? Well, it’s hard to argue with the double-bagel shellacking Azarenka put on Belgium’s Alison Van Uytvanck on Tuesday night in Melbourne. Azarenka herself was pleased, but she was happier about the process rather than the gaudy scoreline. “I don’t think I’m looking for perfection,” she told reporters. “I’m looking for effort. I’m looking for focus. I like that I was very composed today from first point to the last point. Like it didn’t matter what the score was, I was there on every point. So that’s what I’m very happy about today.” On Thursday Azarenka will put that fierce concentration to work against Serbia’s Danka Kovinic. Kovinic eased past Samantha Crawford in straight sets on Day 2.

Pick: Azarenka in two

[20] Ana Ivanovic (SRB #23) vs. [Q] Anastasija Sevastova (LAT # 113)
Head-to-head: Sevastova leads, 1-0
Key Stat: Two of Ivanovic’s Grand Slam losses in 2015 were to players outside of the top-100.

Ivanovic, who exited Melbourne in the first-round at the hands of qualifier Lucie Hradecka last year, is hoping to turn a favorable draw into a deep run in Melbourne. So far, so good as Ivanovic ousted world No. 459 Tammi Patterson in straight sets on Day 2 with very little difficulty. “Of course you’re going to have nerves for every match because it means so much to you,” Ivanovic said after the match. “But it’s about just trying to handle them. I did that well today.” The Serb will look to do the same on Day 4 against Anastasija Sevastova, a 25-year-old Latvian qualifier who reached a peak ranking of 36 in 2011 after making the round of 16 at the Australian Open.

Pick: Ivanovic in three

Around the Grounds: China’s Zhang Shuai will look to continue her magical ride in Melbourne when she faces France’s Alizé Cornet in the second round. Zhang, who admitted she had contemplated retirement after last year’s US Open, upset No.2-seeded Simona Halep for her first career win at a major in 15 appearances on Tuesday… No.7 seed Angelique Kerber, who saved a match point to get past Japan’s Misaki Doi on Day 2, will face Romania’s Alexandra Dulgheru… 15th-seeded American Madison Keys, a semifinalist here last year, squares off with hard-hitting Yaroslava Shvedova. Shvedova won their only previous meeting when Keys retired while trailing by a set at Wimbledon in 2014.