Tennis News

DOHA, Qatar – On Monday, Agnieszka Radwanska met the press ahead of the Premier 5 level event in Doha, the Qatar Total Open, and she discussed everything from her strong start to the season, her Fed Cup plans and the next generation of tennis. Here’s what the World No.3 had to say…

On her red-hot start to the season, which saw her win a title in Shenzhen and reach the semifinals at the Australian Open…
“I had very good start, and I just hope I can keep going and playing the same good tennis I was playing in Australia. I have a good rest after that. I was practicing at home and working hard. Hopefully I can really do well here.”

On the challenge of the “openness” of the women’s game…
“For us, for some players that being in the Top 10 for a while, it’s also tough to stay there. There are a lot of talented, young players coming up and playing great tennis. This is another challenge for us to stay there.

There’s a lot of players deserve to be Top 10. We can also see everything is changing every week about the majors as well.”

On how Serena Williams’ dominance affects that openness…
“Of course Serena is always there, especially last year, but other years totally different. She’s definitely dominating if she’s on fire. When she’s playing her best tennis, she just playing unbelievable and too good, but otherwise it’s open.”

On her plans to play in Poland’s Fed Cup tie against Taiwan…
“I want to help my team in April to stay in that World Group, so this is my plan and I hope I can play that. Of course we can see individually busy schedule and tight schedule because of the Olympics, so I really want to stay healthy the whole year. But here we have match at home, so I’m ready to play.”

With nonstop action every week, the WTA tour is always surprising and exciting. Now Dubai Duty Free, official partner of the WTA, brings you the “Always Full Of Surprises” video series to capture the most exciting moments.

What better way to kick things off than with Sara Errani’s huge win at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships?

“There is no explanation,” Errani said of the victory, one of the biggest of her career. “Of course you work to be ready to the matches, but you never know which days you can play better or worse.”

Check out the video above and keep your eyes peeled for more surprises!

DOHA, Qatar – On Tuesday evening, Angelique Kerber found out just how hard life is with a target on her back, slipping to a shock straight set defeat at the hands of Zheng Saisai in the second round of the Qatar Total Open.

Watch live action from Doha & Acapulco this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!

World No.73 Zheng made a mockery of her lowly ranking to stun the recently crowned Australian Open champion, 7-5, 6-1, in an hour and 20 minutes.

Zheng becomes only the fourth Chinese player in history to defeat one of the world’s Top 2. In the third round she will face Eugenie Bouchard.

“The feeling is amazing here today,” Zheng said. “Kerber was amazing at the Australian Open and a great champion. For sure it wasn’t her best tennis today, but I’m happy I won that match.”

An accomplished doubles player, Zheng utilized her all-court nous to take the match to Kerber, with 11 of her 17 winners coming at the net. “She’s unbelievable at running so the only way I could win the point sometimes was by coming to the net!”

Zheng complemented her positive tennis with a defensive performance that would have made Kerber proud, coughing up a miserly eight unforced errors.

The decisive moment in the opening set came in the 11th game, Zheng turning the screw with a miraculous stop volley to earn a break point. Kerber wilted under the pressure, hoicking a forehand into the tramlines in a vain attempt to breach the underdog’s defenses.

Confidence now coursing through her game, Zheng raced through the second set, breaking three more times to seal a famous victory.

Kerber, in her first outing on tour since triumphing Down Under, made 38 unforced errors throughout and admitted it was a bad day at the office.

“Actually I was practicing very well in the last few days. But today my practice this morning was not the best. So I was not feeling good from the beginning.

“I think you have sometimes days like this. Of course it’s sad that’s the first round here in Doha for me. Still, I mean, it was not my day. That’s all I can say.”

ACAPULCO, Mexico – Sloane Stephens is through to her second WTA quarterfinal of the year at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel, dispatching Olga Govortsova in straight sets.

The No.2 seeded American, who started off the year with a title in Auckland, was the highest-ranked player left in the draw after Victoria Azarenka withdrew earlier in the day due to a left wrist injury.

Stephens started out the match drawing first blood, breaking Govortsova’s serve at love. The Belarusian broke right back, and the two stayed level until Stephens came away with a second break after a tough game at 3-2. The nose ahead was what she needed to win the set, taking it 6-4 in a fierce line-to-line rally that saw Govortsova bury a forehand into the net at set point.

From then on Stephens was nearly untouchable. Govortsova threw every weapon in the book at her opponent but the American wouldn’t be denied, going on to close the match 6-4, 6-1.

“Today was good, I was happy to get the win,” Stephens said after the match. “I played solid – Govortosova is always a tough opponent to play.”

Stephens is set to face Naomi Osaka in the next round. The Japanese wildcard turned heads in Melbourne after her run to the third round of the Australian Open. Now She’s backing up those signs of promise, now into her career first WTA quarterfinal after a straight sets win over Mariana Duque-Mariño, 6-3, 7-6(5).

Great Britain’s Johanna Konta, however, came up short against the unseeded but always dangerous Mirjana Lucic-Baroni. The No.4 seed saved two match points in the third set, down 2-5 against the Croatian, and even managed to hang on to even things out at 5-5. She couldn’t complete the comeback, falling to Lucic-Baroni 4-6, 6-2, 7-5.

Elena Vesnina

2016 Quick Hits
Week 1 Ranking: No.115
Year-End Ranking: No.16 (Career-High No.16, 11/6/2016)
Season Highlights: Charleston RU, Doha, Eastbourne QF, Zhuhai RR
Best Major Result: SF (Wimbledon)

16 Days left until the 2017 #WTA season! ? pic.twitter.com/LsjqFdzKWR

— WTA (@WTA) 16 de diciembre de 2016

2017 Outlook

Things were certainly at their darkest before Elena Vesnina enjoyed a new dawn in 2016. Outside the Top 100 for the first time in over a decade, the Russian was forced to play qualifying at the Australian Open and dropped to a low of World No.122 just before February.

“I thought it’d be very difficult to get my ranking back, and I felt that I had to win a lot of matches,” the 30-year-old told WTA Insider at the US Open. “I think I did well mentally, not putting much pressure on myself, and I was saying to myself: ‘If you’re good, you’re going to be back. If you’re not that good, then that’s it.’ You have to prove yourself, that you deserve to be there. It was a very hard moment at the beginning of the year.”

From that tough moment, Vesnina earned her first Top 10 win since 2013 – defeating then-World No.3 Simona Halep in Doha – and reached the Volvo Car Open final as a qualifier. Those early results foreshadowed a fairytale run into the semifinals of Wimbledon, where she upset doubles partner Ekaterina Makarova and future WTA Finals champion Dominika Cibulkova at the All England Club.

“It’s just amazing how tennis can give you these possibilities, because you can try, and try, and if you’re brave enough, you can achieve it. It doesn’t matter how old you are, but I definitely appreciate it more now, than if I’d gotten it when I was 20. I made the fourth round of the Australian Open when I was 19, and for me, it was like, ‘Wow, it’s like a miracle!’ But I didn’t realize how it happened.

“Now I’ve been working through so many tough moments, working on my game, and my mentality. What I achieved now, I understand more why big results happen.”

Even bigger results came to Vesnina in doubles – pairing with Makarova to take home Olympic gold and WTA Finals glory – but the veteran heads into 2017 at a career-high ranking, with a Top 10 debut firmly in her sights.

DOHA, Qatar – Jelena Ostapenko sprung the latest shock at this year’s Qatar Total Open, battling back to knock out No.5 seed Petra Kvitova.

Watch live action from Doha & Acapulco this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!

Seeds have been falling like dominoes in the opening few rounds and Kvitova’s 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 defeat means that just four of the original 16 remain.

At last year’s Wimbledon, Ostapenko defeated Carla Suárez Navarro in a coming of age performance, imbuing her with the confidence to topple even bigger names. “It gave me kind of confidence that I can play at that level,” Ostapenko said when reminded afterwards of her win over the Spaniard. “Today, I’m just happy that I could play my best tennis.”

Kvitova started brightly enough, recovering from 3-1 down to take the opening set. But as the contest wore on, the Czech cut an increasingly passive figure on the court, spending more and more time pinned behind the baseline.

Ostapenko, meanwhile, continued to exhibit the fleet-footedness befitting a former ballroom dancer; at 2-2 in the second set she flew across the court to unleash a fizzing forehand that left Kvitova grounded and, more importantly, a break down.

The two-time Wimbledon champion did not win another game until midway through the decider and by that point the tide had well and truly turned. Showing no sign of nerves, the young Latvian confidently cruised to victory, breaking Kvitova for an eighth and final time.

Ostapenko’s positivity was born out in the numbers, outlanding the Czech 28 to 16 in the winners count. “I play more matches, get some wins and I think [confidence] comes from there,” Ostapenko added.

Her reward for this incredible performance is a meeting with another of the draw’s giant slayers, Zheng Saisai, who followed up her victory over top seed Angelique Kerber by knocking out Eugenie Bouchard, 7-6(1), 6-1. 

“She’s had some really great wins this week,” Ostapenko said when asked about her quarterfinal foe. “I’m looking forward to it and hopefully we can have a great match.”