Halep, Hingis Visit Faberge Museum In St. Petersburg
Top seed Simona Halep and former doubles No.1 Martina Hingis traveled to the Faberge Museum before beginning their week at the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy.
Top seed Simona Halep and former doubles No.1 Martina Hingis traveled to the Faberge Museum before beginning their week at the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy.
No.1 seed Elina Svitolina made her way to the Taiwan Open quarterfinals after edging past Czech qualifier Lucie Hradecka in a tight straight sets.
Elena Vesnina takes on Alizé Cornet in the second round of the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy.
Who will win their first WTA title? Kristina Mladenovic will face Yulia Putintseva in a battle of unseeded opponents at the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy.
Kristina Mladenovic left it all on the court to capture her first WTA title at the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy, dispatching Yulia Putintseva in three epic sets.
Watch finalists Kristina Mladenovic and Yulia Putintseva’s practice sessions at the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy.
Introducing the latest WTA challenge for 2017, as Daria Gavrilova sets the bar for how quickly players can race to the net and back – who will win the WTA Net Dash?
Daria Kasatkina takes on Dominika Cibulkova in the quarterfinals at the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy.
The Fed Cup gets underway this week – and the WTA players are enjoying getting together with their compatriots.
Kristina Mladenovic and her France teammates Alizé Cornet and Pauline Parmentier posed alongside captain Yannick Noah after their press conference.
Le #TeamFranceTennis en conférence de presse “pre-draw”.Ensemble! @FedCup @KikiMladenovic @ppauline86 @alizecornet @NoahYannick pic.twitter.com/OMzbDi4R7J
— FFT (@FFTennis) February 8, 2017
Mladenovic, fresh from her win in St. Petersburg last week, lifted the Hopman Cup last month alongside Richard Gasquet.
The France squad were speaking to the media ahead of their tie against Switzerland.
#predraw #pressconference #FRA “It will be an interesting tie against Switzerland” @KikiMladenovic @FedCup pic.twitter.com/ysg95bYz1S
— Swiss Tennis (@swiss_tennis) February 8, 2017
Meanwhile, Anita Husaric tweeted a picture of the Bosnia and Herzegovina players on court as they prepared to take on Croatia.
Ready and excited about our first match tomorrow against Croatia! ???? #fedcup #teambih pic.twitter.com/Kabc0h66oB
— Anita Husaric (@AnitaHusaric) February 7, 2017
And Casey Dellacqua and Ashleigh Barty were pleased to know they weren’t expected to take on Ukraine on this particular court.
No, the #FedCup tie Aus v Ukraine is not being held on this tennis court @caseydellacqua & @ashbar96 #snowbunnies pic.twitter.com/1hZceDWym1
— TennisAustralia (@TennisAustralia) February 7, 2017
Every week wtatennis.com brings you 10 Things To Know about the week – who is playing, where and much more. This week the Road To Singapore goes through Dubai and Rio de Janeiro…
1) Dubai is a significant stop on the Road To Singapore.
The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships is a Premier event and part one of the WTA’s fortnightly tour of the Middle East – part two is the Qatar Total Open. There’s over $2 million on the line, with the winner pocketing $465,480 and 470 points for the Road To Singapore leaderboard.
2) A strong line-up has made the trip to Dubai.
Even with a couple a high-profile withdrawals, four Top 10 players – and 10 of the Top 20 players in the world – are in Dubai, with the Top 8 seeds being Simona Halep, Garbiñe Muguruza, Carla Suárez Navarro, Petra Kvitova, Belinda Bencic, Karolina Pliskova, Roberta Vinci and Svetlana Kuznetsova.
3) Halep is looking to get back on track.
Defending champion Halep arrives in Dubai on the back of an indifferent start to 2016. After a surprise semifinal loss to Kuznetsova in Sydney, the Romanian suffered an even bigger shock at the Australian Open, crashing out to qualifier Zhang Shuai in the first round. She then split her two singles rubbers on Fed Cup duty against the Czech Republic, beating Kvitova but falling to Pliskova. Will she get back on track in Dubai?
4) Back-to-back titles no easy task.
Halep is looking to become just the third player to defend their title at Al Garhoud Street. The other two are Venus Williams (2009-10) and Justine Henin (2003-04, 2006-07).
5) If Kvitova clears early hurdles, watch out.
Kvitova has failed to win back-to-back matches here in four of her five appearances, in 2009 (to Julia Schruff), 2011 (to Ayumi Morita), 2014 (to Suárez Navarro) and 2015 (to Suárez Navarro). But in her only other try she went all the way to the title, in 2013 (beating Caroline Wozniacki, Ana Ivanovic and Agnieszka Radwanska along the way).
6) Welcome to the club, Belinda.
By reaching the final last week in St. Petersburg, Belinda Bencic guaranteed herself a place inside the Top 10 for the first time in her career. Bencic is the 116th player to break into the elite bracket since computer rankings were introduced in 1975.
7) Halfway across the globe, the Latin American spring kicks off in Rio.
The Latin American leg of the tour kicks off this week with the Rio Open. Headlining the draw is home favorite and No.1 seed Teliana Pereira, who will be joined by Johanna Larsson, Danka Kovinic and Christina McHale.
8) Pereira hungry for WTA hat-trick.
Last April, Pereira became the first Brazilian in 27 years to win a WTA title when she triumphed at the Claro Open Colsanitas, in Bogotá. Eager to prove this was no flash in the pan, title number two soon followed at Florianopolis’ Brasil Tennis Cup. Will she score a hat-trick in Rio?
9) Hunting down Maria’s record.
No, not that Maria. In Bogotá, Pereira is the third Brazilian in the Open Era to win a WTA title, after Maria Bueno (who won three) and Neige Dias (two). A Brazilian winning in Brazil is even rarer, though. Pereira is just the second Brazilian in the Open Era to win a WTA title on home soil – Dias achieved the feat once, doing it over in Guaruja in 1987.
10) Find out where you can watch live action this week.