Tennis News

CHARLESTON, SC, USA — Monica Puig was the first of two main draw winners as the Volvo Car Open got underway in Charleston on Monday, as Katerina Siniakova was forced to retire with a back injury in the final set.

Siniakova received medical attention earlier in the match, and retired as the match hit the two-hour mark, trailing 6-4, 2-6, 1-4 to send the Puerto Rican in to the second round.

“It’s always nice to come back and play on the clay again — unfortunately she had to retire there in the third set,” Puig said after the match. “I thought it was some pretty good, high-quality tennis up until that point.

“She was definitely holding, clutching her back a little bit there in the second set, so I was obviously a little bit aware something was going on. I had to try and keep focus because sometimes when a player is feeling a little bit of discomfort, they start hitting the ball hard, going for their shots a little more. I had to really focus and pay attention.”

Puig, who reached the third round in Charleston last season, fell behind early as Siniakova broke in the first game and rode the advantage to a one-set lead. She flipped the script in the second set, breaking Siniakova at the first opportunity to open up a 3-0 lead en route to sending the match to a decider. While the Czech fought through valiantly in the decider, she dropped serve in the fourth game and was unable to continue much further from there.

.@MonicaAce93 is first through to @VolvoCarOpen Second round!

Siniakova retires due to injury pic.twitter.com/xcJH4OUG9S

— WTA (@WTA) April 3, 2017

The Puerto Rican played her first WTA main draw in Charleston in 2011 after coming through qualifying and the World No.40 is eager to use one of her most successful tour stops as a springboard on the road to the French Open

“I love the clay. I really enjoy playing on it. Not so much the green clay because you don’t really notice that you’re on clay as much as the red clay — I love getting off the court and seeing I’m all dirty!” she joked.

“You don’t really have to change up your game style, but you have to adjust to what you have to do as far as tactics and things like that,” Puig assessed, as she’ll face the winner of the match between Daria Kasatkina and Danka Kovinic in the second round. “That’s what my coach and I were trying to work on coming into this clay season, just to really be smart of there.” 

Joining Puig in the second round as an early winner was Japan’s Naomi Osaka, who rallied for her first career main draw win in Charleston after dropping the first set against Johanna Larsson, 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-2.

Check out the rest of the opening round results here.

LONDON, Great Britain – No.5 seed Simona Halep sealed her passage into the final 16 at Wimbledon with a commanding straight sets victory over the No.26 seed Kiki Bertens, advancing 6-4, 6-3 under the roof of Centre Court on Saturday.

Halep grabbed an early spot into the fourth round at a Wimbledon still plagued with rain delays, which have left even some second round matches still up in the air and forced the almost-unprecedented choice to schedule play on Middle Sunday.

The Romanian has stayed cool throughout the bad weather, though, and has yet to drop a set at the All-England Club. Bertens, her opponent, came into the matchup having won the last 12 of 13 matches – including a run to the French Open semifinals – and amassing a lot of confidence along the way.

The heavier conditions under the roof seemed to favor the Dutchwoman, and she opened the match with a break. Halep quickly restored parity in the next game,

Bertens found herself having to hit one extra ball more often than she wanted to as the diminutive Halep covered the court line to line. Halep dug up a forehand that landed behind her to a wrong-footed Bertens who could do little more than hack at it as she was broken once again for 4-2.

The No.5 seed finally took the first set as Bertens’ first serves seem to abandon her and Halep unleashed some of her biggest forehands of the match.

After the five breaks of serve in the first set, the second went much more smoothly for the World No.5 as she broke once on Bertens’ opening service game to build up an assertive 3-0 lead.

Bertens held her nerve to force the No.5 seed to keep herself in it and serve it out at 5-3 and even held a break point after a HawkEye challenge went her way, but a pair of commanding points won on Halep’s forehand dashed Bertens’ hopes of forcing a decider.

The Romanian will get a day’s rest tomorrow before she’s set to face the winner between Alizé Cornet and Madison Keys.

More to come…

Simona Halep makes light work of Kiki Bertens, coming through 6-4 6-3 in 68 mins to reach the second week #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/hOxLfctDz4

— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 2, 2016

LONDON, England – Serena Williams moved one step closer to a historic 22nd major with a straight set win over Elena Vesnina in Thursday’s Wimbledon semifinals.

Displaying no trace of the nerves that have occasionally accompanied her quest to match Steffi Graf’s Open Era record of 22 Grand Slam titles, Williams ruthlessly closed out a 6-2, 6-0 victory in just 48 minutes.

A rapid start saw the top seed race into a 3-0 lead with only nine minutes on the Centre Court clock. Venina, playing at this stage of a Grand Slam for the first time, did eventually get on the board, but it was merely delaying the inevitable, Williams firing an ace down the T to close out the set in emphatic fashion.

Williams tightened her grip on the contest at the start of the second, wrong-footing her dumbfounded opponent to earn two more break points. Only one was required, Vesnina wilting following another taxing baseline exchange.

And as the finishing line approached there was no let up for Williams, who found an answer to every question posed by the Russian, completing a victory with another flawless service game.

Serena Williams is posting some absolutely absurd stats today. On fire. #Wimbledon https://t.co/12pMcCtzcf pic.twitter.com/Fm4HEyWYec

— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) 7 July 2016

“I’m very happy, you know, I was really focused today because we’ve had a lot of tough matches before. And especially on this surface I knew she could really bring it to me so I was ready,” Williams told the BBC afterwards. “It’s never easy out there, every point you have to fight for.

In the final she will face either sister Venus Williams or her conqueror at this year’s Australian Open, Angelique Kerber.

“It’s weird I can’t believe I’m in the final again. You know I’m 0 for 2 [in Grand Slam finals] this year so I’m determined to get at least one. It would be great [to play Venus] because then we’d be guaranteed to have a Williams on the trophy – that’s the ultimate goal for both of us and obviously I want her to do well, and if not Kerber would be another good match. I played her in Australia. Either way I look forward to it.”

More to follow.