Charleston: Safarova Interview
An interview with Lucie Safarova before her opening round match at the Volvo Car Open.
An interview with Lucie Safarova before her opening round match at the Volvo Car Open.
On the latest episode of Dubai Duty Free Full of Surprises, Manny the French Bulldog makes a Miami cameo, while Timea Bacsinszky and Svetlana Kuznetsova show off impressive footwork.
All season long we’ve been challenging your favorite players to a skill test that you may not see on the courts, but needless to say, is a tough task – and it’s all right here on wtatennis.com.
The WTA Frame Challenge is a game of keepy-uppy using a tennis ball and any part of the racquet frame. We challenge players to see how many times in a row they can keep the tennis ball in the air, and capture it all on video.
Here’s how the WTA Frame Challenge Leaderboard stands:
48 Sam Stosur
28 Bethanie Mattek-Sands (watch it here)
24 Carla Suárez Navarro (watch it here)
15 Jelena Jankovic (watch it here)
12 Andrea Petkovic (watch it here)
10 Casey Dellacqua
10 Daria Gavrilova (watch it here)
6 Monica Puig (watch it here)
While Stosur is in the lead for now, it could all change when the next WTA star takes the challenge. Stay tuned…
Find all of the latest WTA Frame Challenge videos right here!
AUCKLAND, New Zealand – Caroline Wozniacki continued her confident start to the new season by breezing past Varvara Lepchenko and into the quarterfinals of the ASB Classic.
With the dust still settling from the exits of both Williams sisters from the tournament, No.3 seed Wozniacki made light work of the gusty conditions to wrap up a 6-3, 6-3 victory.
“It was a bit of a different match, a little bit tougher conditions today. But I was happy with the way I managed to keep cool and deal with her tricky lefty serves – I was pleased with it.”
Venus Williams’ withdrawal ahead of her second-round match resulted in Wozniacki taking court a little earlier than expected, but she took the change of schedule in her stride, finishing both sets strongly to wrap up victory after an hour and 18 minutes.
.@CaroWozniacki is serving for a place in the @ASB_Classic quarterfinals – and it's no surprise when she's playing like this! pic.twitter.com/WTHph6pF3v
— WTA (@WTA) January 4, 2017
“I was in my room and I got a text asking where I was, and I was like, what do you mean? Then I found out Venus was pulling out and I needed to play a little earlier and started to stress out because I wasn’t ready.”
The former World No.1 will now play Julia Goerges, against whom she has a mixed record, winning four of their eight encounters, including two years ago in Auckland. “She’s a tough opponent, a tough match-up for me,” Wozniacki added. “But I’m excited for it, it’s going to be a good challenge. I’ve played her here before and done well, so I’m hoping I can play another good match and win.”
Goerges booked her spot by prevailing over Naomi Broady, 7-5, 6-4, in the battle of the big servers. Also advancing were Barbora Strycova, who edged past Lucie Safarova, 7-5, 3-6, 7-6(4), and Jelena Ostapenko, a 6-2, 7-6(3) winner over Mirjana Lucic-Baroni.
Katerina Siniakova sprung the first major surprise of this year’s Shenzhen Open by knocking out former champion Simona Halep.
An interview with Angelique Kerber after her quarterfinal win at the Volvo Car Open.
Simona Halep and Madison Keys are in Singapore preparing for next week’s BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global, where there are 1,500 ranking points on offer and a prize purse of 7,000,000. The glamourous side of tennis will be on full display in Singapore, which is why it’s important to also remember where these women have come from.
Writing for CNN.com, tennis journalist Danielle Rossingh explored the tough financial burdens placed on young players and the sacrifices their families must make to help their daughters achieve their dreams. The article certainly caught the eye of one famous tennis mom:
Only a parent knows the true cost of developing a tennis player. They r the ones who live it. https://t.co/VqDynOMmh5
— judy murray (@JudyMurray) October 18, 2016
According to CNN.com, Simona Halep, who will be playing in her third straight WTA Finals, was able to break through on the junior circuit thanks to the help of Corneliu Idu, a supportive businessman from her hometown of Constanta.
Idu, one of the wealthiest men in Constanta, was the owner of the Tenis Club Idu, where Halep played. His money helped her enter events on the European junior circuit for two years up to the age of 16.
“That was it, I didn’t have any other sponsors,” said Halep, now 25. “My parents did their best to get me to where I am today, but it was good for us we had that help.”
Madison Keys has qualified for her first WTA Finals, after becoming the first American to make her Top 10 debut since Serena Williams in 1999.
Keys vividly remembers the sacrifices that were made for her tennis career, including uprooting the entire family including three siblings to Florida from Minnesota so she could enroll in the Evert Tennis Academy at the age of 10.
“It was not an easy decision,” the seventh-ranked Keys said in an interview in Wuhan. “My mom did not want me living in a dorm. My mom was like, ‘I don’t want a 15-year-old raising my 10-year-old.’ It was tough for my sisters and it was tough for my mum. She left a job that she really enjoyed doing, and my sisters obviously had been going to school.”
Read the full article on the cost of raising a tennis champion at CNN.com here.
Svetlana Kuznetsova has Wednesday’s shot of the day at the Brisbane International.
Angelique Kerber takes on Irina-Camelia Begu in the quarterfinals of the Volvo Car Open.
LUXEMBOURG – Top seed Petra Kvitova overcame a slow start to defeat Varvara Lepchenko and take her place in the quarterfinals of the BGL BNP Paribas Luxembourg Open.
Watch live action from Luxembourg & Moscow this week at WTA Live Powered By TennisTV!
The closing stretch of the 2016 season has seen Kvitova make a welcome return to form, and once into her stride against Lepchenko there was no stopping her, running out a 4-6, 6-2, 6-0 winner in just under two hours.
Lepchenko held her own early on, breaking decisively in the penultimate game of the opening set. The expected Kvitova onslaught finally materialized at the start of the second set, and despite surviving a couple of fraught service games, Lepchenko was merely delaying the inevitable.
Once the Czech did finally hit the front, there was no looking back, winning 10 of the last 11 games to saunter across the finishing line.
A comeback win for @Petra_Kvitova over Lepchenko 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 to advance to @Iwtp_lux QF. pic.twitter.com/oLzJCGbWmD
— WTA (@WTA) October 19, 2016
“I probably didn’t play as well as I would want in the first set. But she started very strong and didn’t give me time to do anything, so I was under pressure a little bit,” Kvitova said afterwards to the press.
“In the second set I had to change the game a little bit and when I made the first break in the sixth game I was feeling a little better, more confident and I was just trying to keep going and not have so many unforced errors.”
Elsewhere, an under the weather Caroline Wozniacki dug deep to see off Sabine Lisicki, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. Wozniacki, the No.2 seed this week, was suffering from a gastrointestinal illness, but overcame a slow start and a late wobble to triumph.
“I felt nausea during my match. I just feel pretty tired probably from coming from Hong Kong. I played pretty well today but maybe my movement wasn’t quite there. I just hope I feel better for tomorrow,” Wozniacki said to wtatennis.com.
Also among the second-round winners were No.3 seed Kiki Bertens, who brushed aside Anna Karolina Schmiedlova, 6-3, 6-1, while Andrea Petkovic upset No.4 seed Caroline Garcia, 6-1, 6-1.
