Aga, Angie & Simona On The Gulf
The Middle East swing continues to Doha for the Qatar Total Open and Angelique Kerber, Agnieszka Radwanska and Simona Halep hit the harbor to take in the city’s spectacular skyline.
The Middle East swing continues to Doha for the Qatar Total Open and Angelique Kerber, Agnieszka Radwanska and Simona Halep hit the harbor to take in the city’s spectacular skyline.
ACAPULCO, Mexico – Playing her first WTA match since her incredible Australia campaign, Victoria Azarenka shook off the rust and withstood a tough challenge from Polona Hercog, coming back from a set down to win 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 in the first round of the Abierto Mexicano Telcel.
“I don’t really come with too many expectations to any tournament, and this is not an exception,” Azarenka told press after the match. “I’m here trying to work on my game.
“My first match, it was a little bit uncomfortable at first. But I need to do that in matches to improve my game.”
Azarenka, who was making her Acapulco main draw debut, was up against the World No.82 Hercog, who was a finalist here in 2010. She struggled in the first set and showed signs of frustration – Azarenka was broken three times and her powerful groundstrokes were misfiring, racking up unforced errors. The Belarusian got one break back and fought off a set point, but gave up the first set 6-4.
Dropping the opening set seemed to be just the motivation that Azarenka needed, though, and once her game clicked, there was no looking back. She broke Hercog for 4-2 and went on to grab the next two of three games, winning the set 6-3. Azarenka was nearly unstoppable in the third – after Hercog held serve to get on board, Azarenka won the next six games to close out the match in commanding fashion, 6-1.
“I had way too many unforced errors in the beginning, but it wasn’t really a big deal,” Azarenka said of her adjustments in the second half of the match. “Just little mistakes there and there – I just cleaned it up.
“I just tried to stay a little bit more consistent and really take my opportunities better and execute my game better. “
Though she survived the tough encounter, Azarenka won’t be getting a break in the next match. Awaiting her in the second round is the on fire Dominika Cibulkova, who dominated her clash with Lourdes Dominguez Lino, winning 6-0, 6-0.
“It went pretty well,” the always-understated Cibulkova commented after the 52-minute match. “I was really strong mentally today and that’s why I won.
“I wouldn’t say I was playing really, really good. I was playing OK, I played the way I needed to play.”
She didn’t face a single break point in the straight sets romp, and didn’t let the blustery conditions affect her. What helped her stay focused?
“I am an experienced player so I know how to not get crazy about the heat, the sun and the shades,” she said, referring to the tough conditions on the grandstand court. “If I’m thinking about everything else but not the game, it would be much more tough.”
Also though to the second round is Shelby Rogers – last week’s Acapulco finalist – who survived a tough opening set to defeat Anna Tatishvili 7-6(6), 6-0. Christina McHale downed Heather Watson 4-6, 6-0, 7-6(1) to advance. No.7 seed Danka Kovinic, qualifier Julia Glushko and Olga Govortosova are through as well.
– Angelique Kerber’s bad day: Nothing was working for the Australian Open champion in her disappointing 7-5, 6-1 loss to Zheng Saisai. It was Kerber’s first tour match since her Melbourne triumph and she struggled to find any rhythm off the ground, firing 38 unforced errors to Zheng’s eight. A frustrated Kerber told her coach Torben Beltz during their on-court coaching timeout that she felt “empty” inside.
“I was practicing very well in the last few days,” Kerber said. “But today, my practice this morning was not the best. So I was feeling not 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 today.”
The loss opens the door for No.3 Agnieszka Radwanska, who won in straight sets, to grab the No.2 ranking this week. She can do so if she wins the Doha title. After a day of upsets, Radwanska is now the highest ranked player in the draw.
– Zheng Saisai’s near-miss: After beating Australian Open champion Kerber, Zheng was back on court and nearly pulled off an even bigger upset over Australian Open champions Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza. Zheng and her partner Xu Yi-Fan led 4-2 in the match tiebreak before losing eight straight points to lose 6-4, 4-6, 10-4. The win extends Mirza and Hingis’ win streak to 41 consecutive matches.
You just defeated the 2016 @AustralianOpen champion.
“I know, OMG!” ? #WTA https://t.co/dprzkIGnwS
— WTA (@WTA) February 23, 2016
– Simona Halep: The No.4 will lose ground in the rankings on Monday after wasting 7-5, 4-1 lead to lose 6-7(1), 6-4, 6-1 to Elena Vesnina. The win was Vesnina’s first Top 10 win since 2013.
With the loss, Halep went winless in the Middle East, a particularly frustrating result after she appeared to play much better during the Fed Cup weekend.
Halep has nearly 1,400 points to defend in Indian Wells and Miami.
– Garbiñe Muguruza set to return to the Top 4: The Spaniard rolled past Nao Hibino with a 6-2, 6-0 win in the first round in Doha and will move ahead of Halep in the rankings on Monday, at No.4, though she does have a chance to move up to No.3 this week as well.
– Daria Kasatkina continues to show promise: The 18-year-old held three match points against Roberta Vinci but couldn’t close, losing 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(3). Kasatkina keeps putting herself in winning positions in these key matches, but the nerves seem to be her undoing when trying to close things out. Experience should change that.
– Timea Babos, ace leader: Seven weeks into the season and the tour’s ace leaderboard may surprise you:
#WTA 2016 Aces Leaders – Entering Doha:
67 Timea Babos
57 Julia Goerges
55 Karolina Pliskova
54 Maria Sharapova
54 Serena Williams— Kevin Fischer (@Kfish_WTA) February 23, 2016
Babos knocked out Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships winner Sara Errani to advance to the third round on Tuesday.
– Petra Kvitova gets on the board: Kvitova extended her streak to 18 consecutive wins over Czech opposition, beating Barbora Strycova 7-6(2), 6-4 for her second win of the season. She’ll play Jelena Ostapenko for a spot in the quarterfinals.
– Eugenie Bouchard’s draw opens up: The Canadian secured her ninth win of the year with a 7-6 (0), 7-5 win over Denisa Allertova in Doha. She’ll play Zheng for a spot in her first Premier quarterfinal since the 2014 Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open.
– Lucie Safarova’s title defense ends early: Getting back on court after a long bout with a bacterial infection was a victory in itself for Safarova. But she has some way to go to rediscover her 2015 form, losing 7-6(6), 7-5 to No.162 Cagla Buyakakcay.
World No.161 @CaglaBuyukakcay stuns defending @QatarTennis champ Safarova 7-6(6), 7-5!
First Top 20 win! #WTA https://t.co/LpVANfp0x7
— WTA (@WTA) February 23, 2016
– Victoria Azarenka rebounds in Acapulco: The top seed was made to work but started her Mexico campaign with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 win over Polona Hercog. She plays Dominika Cibulkova in the second round. Cibulkova dropped a double-bagel win on Lourdes Dominguez Lino to start her tournament.
– Upset Mainia: Check out the WTA Insider Podcast for all the latest on what some of what this week’s surprising early results portend for the rest of the season:
DOHA, Qatar – No.4 seed Garbiñe Muguruza played some of her best tennis of the year to dispatch Hungary’s Timea Babos, 6-2, 7-5, to reach the quarterfinals of the Qatar Total Open.
“I think it was very tough,” she said during her on-court interview. “The second set, we were fighting like crazy. Timea started to play better and by the end of the match we were both very tight.
“But hey, I’m happy to win!”
Babos came into their third round encounter as the tour-leader in aces, but Muguruza stole the show on serve, hitting 10 aces of her own and 31 winners to just 22 unforced errors. Babos kept her side of the stat sheet even – 21 winners and 21 errors – but missed out on an opportunity to force a second set tie-break in the final game of the match, putting Muguruza into the last eight in Doha.
“Timea serves very strong, so I knew I had to be focused on my serve and hers as well. It was definitely one of the keys.”
Playing in Doha for just the second time in her career, Muguruza will play Andrea Petkovic for a spot in the semifinals; Petkovic closed out CoCo Vandeweghe, 6-3, 6-4.
“I think the city is super fine. Doha looks great, and I’m really happy to be here and playing, finally!”
Earlier in the day, Elena Vesnina backed up her win over No.2 seed Simona Halep with a 7-5, 5-7, 6-3 win over former No.1 Caroline Wozniacki; the win put Vesnina into her first Premier-level quarterfinal in nearly three years (Eastbourne 2013) and was just her second win over the Dane in eight prior encounters.
The last match of the day took place between No.9 seed Roberta Vinci and Turkish wildcard Cagla Buyukakcay; Vinci maintained her focus through a feline interruption to win, 7-5, 6-1.
#MuguIsBack pic.twitter.com/2kBcFof5Dh
— WTA (@WTA) February 24, 2016
PALM BEACH GARDENS, USA – It had been building for a few years – she won her first two Grand Slams at Wimbledon and the US Open in 2000, and then repeated at both in 2001 – but it all came together for the first time as Venus Williams finally got to No.1 fourteen years ago today in February 25, 2002.
After a 12-month period that saw her win 56 of 61 matches and nine titles – Miami, Hamburg, Wimbledon, San Diego, New Haven and the US Open in 2001, and Gold Coast, Paris and Antwerp in 2002 – Williams rose from No.2 to No.1 on February 25, 2002, overtaking Jennifer Capriati.
She became the 11th player to hold the top spot on the WTA computer rankings, but the achievement was even more special as Williams was also the first ever African-American player – male or female – to rank No.1 in the world in tennis.
“When you’re on a professional tour, you don’t aspire to be No. 3 or No. 2,” Williams said 14 years ago when asked about the milestone. “Normally you do your best to become the best. At this point, I am the best in the world, so that’s exciting and it’s going to be mine at least a week.”
“I think the best part is that I’ve enjoyed myself along the way and that I have not limited myself just to playing tennis or made myself believe that that’s the only thing in life. I’ve always been doing things at the same time and having a career. For me, that’s the best part.”
She would eventually spend a total of non-consecutive 11 weeks at the top spot in 2002 and claim a whopping 49 WTA singles titles to date in her career, including the Taiwan Open earlier this year.
A few more throwbacks to February 25, 2002…
No.1 song on Billboard Hot 100 singles: Always On Time by Ja Rule & Ashanti
No.1 album on Billboard 200 albums: J To Tha L-O!: The Remixes by Jennifer Lopez
No.1 movie at US Box Office: Queen Of The Damned
No.1 men’s tennis player: Lleyton Hewitt
Over 300 kids and their families packed the Mextennis Stadium for the 23th edition of the annual AMT Kids’ Day.
Victoria Azarenka was in the middle of all the action, having stayed in Acapulco despite having to bow out of the Abierto Mexicano Telcel due to injury.
She was joined on court by a colorful cast of characters including Spongebob Squarepants’ Patrick…
…as well as Spongebob himself!
Vika was also joined by David Ferrer, meaning the children got the chance to hang out with both the WTA and the ATP top seeds.
Azarenka and Ferrer were recognized as Agents of Change for making a difference by being a positive example to the youth.
The 300 children present came from local tennis schools and several area youth programs.
The players led the kids through drills and exercises, as well as gave them an unforgettable experience with their heroes.
DOHA, Qatar – Andrea Petkovic played some of her best tennis of the year to maintain a perfect head-to-head record against No.4 seed Garbiñe Muguruza, winning 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 to reach the semifinals of the Qatar Total Open.
Watch live action from Doha & Acapulco this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!
“It’s very special,” Petkovic said of her first Top 5 win in three years. “It was so tough; Garbiñe is such a talented and dangerous player who put me under pressure.
“I was a little lucky in the end, but I’m just happy to be through.”
Each woman hit 29 winners, but while the German played cleanly throughout – hitting just 16 unforced errors – Muguruza had more issues with consistency, hitting 38.
“I’ve been playing really well the past few weeks. Everything is coming together and I’m getting my match focus again,” Petkovic continued.
“I’m really happy I’m on the right path and really looking forward to the whole season.”
Up next for the former World No.9 is teen sensation Jelena Ostapenko, who dispatched China’s Zheng Saisai in the first quarterfinal of the day.
“I watched both of her matches, and she’s been playing great. I had her on the radar, before. I saw her in Linz qualifying and thought this girl is really good.
“She’s showing her talent, and hopefully I can recover well from today’s match and put on a good performance tomorrow.”
Jelena Ostapenko takes on Zheng Saisai in the quarterfinals of the Qatar Total Open.
MONTERREY, Mexico – Francesca Schiavone and Johanna Konta – two of the Abierto Monterrey Afirme’s top seeds – went to downtown Monterrey to play street tennis right outside the Palacio Municipal. They put on an exhibition match for the crowd and gave the fans a taste what’s to come this week in Monterey.
See the best photos – including some trick shots from Schiavone – right here, courtesy of the Abierto Monterrey Afirme.
