Insider Notebook: Generation Next
MELBOURNE, Australia – On Day 3 at the Australian Open, a smattering of upsets was overshadowed by the youth movement through the draw. Will 2016 be the year the next generation makes an impact? They certainly think so.
– Serena, Sharapova, and Radwanska roll on: Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova each dropped just three games en route to easy wins, with Serena beating Hsieh Su-Wei 6-1, 6-2, and Sharapova beating Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-2, 6-1. Agnieszka Radwanska played some of her best tennis of the year to hold off Eugenie Bouchard 6-4, 6-2.
– Kristyna Pliskova sets a record…only to lose: You have to feel for Kristyna Pliskova. She broke Sabine Lisicki’s record of 27 aces in a match, firing 31 aces against Monica Puig. Yet despite the cannonballs coming off her racket and holding five match points, Pliskova lost 4-6, 7-6(6), 9-7 in a heartbreaker.
Said a disappointed Pliskova: “I would rather hit 20 aces and win.”
– Daria Gavrilova embraces her moment: Inspired by the crowd, the court, and a vulnerable opponent, Gavrilova knocked out No.6 seed Petra Kvitova 6-4, 6-4 in 90 minutes on Margaret Court Arena. It’s a disappointing trip down to Australia for Kvitova but Gavrilova was one of the most dangerous unseeded players in the draw. It was never going to be easy.
– Kataryna Bondarenko douses Svetlana Kuznetsova: Kuznetsova has been on fire over the last week, dating back to her title run at the Sydney International. But Bondarenko took it to her, firing 28 winners to 14 unforced errors to end the No.26 seed’s Australian Open and advance to her first third round at a major since 2011.
– Don’t look now: Belinda Bencic is cruising through the draw. She plays Bondarenko in the third round and could play Sharapova in the Round of 16.
– Spoilers back-up their upsets: It’s a common pattern. Pull off a big win and go out meekly in the next round. But that hasn’t been the case in this year’s Australian Open. Five of the seven players who knocked out seeds in the first round — Kasatkina (d. Schmiedlova), Margarita Gasparyan (d. Errani), Yulia Putintseva (d. Wozniacki), and Lauren Davis (d. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova), and Elizaveta Kulichkova (d. Petkovic), won through today.
– Youth Brigade: 10 of the 16 players into the third round in the top half of the draw are aged 22 and under, with three of them being teenagers: Daria Kasatkina (18), Margarita Gasparyan (21), Yulia Putintseva (21), Belinda Bencic (18), Lauren Davis (22), Monica Puig (22), Anna Lena Friedsam (21), Elizaveta Kulichkova (19), Kristina Mladenovic (22), and Daria Gavrilova (21).
Of that group, six are into the third round of a major for the first time in their careers. Nice to see some fresh faces to start the season.
“It’s great,” Gavrilova said. “We’re all excited. We’re all pretty friendly. We hang out together. Yeah, like I said, we’re all supporting each other. I think it’s going to be awesome.”
– Bouchard bows out: Bouchard led 4-2 in the first before Radwanska reeled her back in for a 6-4, 6-2 win, but the Canadian once again showed flashes of her brilliant 2014 form. She just couldn’t sustain the level throughout the match. With the loss, Bouchard will drop out of the Top 50 for the first time since 2013.
“That was a great challenge for me to play somebody like Eugenie in the second round,” Radwanska said. “But I think I was doing everything right today. That’s why I win that match in two sets. Definitely not an easy draw.”
Notable: Radwanska is 14-0 in sets this year. She plays Puig next.
– Puig’s change of perspective: Puig has had a strong start to 2016, making her first Premier final at the Sydney International and now into the third round at the Australian Open for the first time. It’s a strong rebound from a disappointing 2015 campaign and Puig says she’s playing better simply because she’s fallen back in love with the sport.
– Top half of the draw set: Here are Friday’s third round matches: Serena vs. Kasatkina, Gasparyan vs. Putintseva, Bencic vs. Bondarenko, Davis vs Sharapova, Radwanska vs. Puig, Friedsam vs. Vinci, Suarez Navarro vs. Kulichkova, Mladenovic vs. Gavrilova.
– The Origins of DropshotPova: Turns out Sharapova’s decision to add the dropshot to her arsenal was driven by pure competition.
“It’s something that I have added. It’s actually something that I had to add, because I was getting really frustrated losing to my hitting partner all the time. He just stood so far back behind the baseline I was like, just can’t handle him beating me so often. I have to just change things around. That’s kind of when I started getting into that a little bit.
He was a little surprised (laughter). But it started working, so that was good.
– Serena’s sarcasm: I think it’s safe to say Serena probably isn’t too excited to hear Roberta Vinci’s name anymore. When a journalist asked Serena whether she’s watched her US Open loss to Vinci — this was the third question about Vinci in the press conference — Serena quipped: “Yeah, I watch it every day. Every night to get ready.”
– Catching up with Li Na: The 2013 Australian Open champion was downright chatty on a wet Wednesday morning as she met with reporters. The main conversation point surrounded the four Chinese women — Wang Qiang, Han Xinyun, Zhang Shuai, and Zheng Saisai — who progressed to the second round. It’s the first time four Chinese women have made the second round at a Slam since 2006.
“I remember last year in Wuhan, one reporter asked me what do you think about the Chinese players, they always lose in the first round,” she said. “I got a little bit angry. They need more space. They need more time.” She was right.
– Simona Halep’s off-season problems: After her first round loss on Tuesday, Halep revealed to the Romanian press that she fell ill during her off-season training block and had to be hospitalized and put on antibiotics.
– Hate the player, not the game: Liked this from Radwanska, who went out of her way to point out that the increased depth on tour means every player is dangerous: “As we see now the ranking, it sometimes didn’t really showing the game, what the player actually showing. You play against the player, not the ranking.”
– Best Friends Forever: Kasatkina and Kulichkova are best friends with very different personalities and interests. One example: Kasatkina worships at the throne of Rafael Nadal. Kulichkova is a Federer fan. Somehow their friendship survives.
True Friendship: Fedfan @LizaKulichkova on teasing BFF/RafaKAD @DKasatkina after the Verdasco/Nadal match. pic.twitter.com/fOsQsDDaqp
— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) January 20, 2016
All photos courtesy of Getty Images.
