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Insider Notebook: Olympic Weekend

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

Kirsten Flipkens tops Venus Williams in a three-hour epic: No.5 seed Venus Williams just couldn’t put Kirsten Flipkens away. Over the course of this three hour and 15 minute long tug-of-war match, Flipkens found a way to force Venus into playing on her terms. The Belgian’s backhand slice was effective into the corners and she used her guile to get Venus out wide and out of position before executing a pitch-perfect dropshot. It was a pattern Venus saw often and early, but one from which she struggled to break.

It was a disappointingly early exit for Venus, who also lost in the first round of doubles with Serena to the Czech duo of Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova. We know how much the Olympics means to her, and in many ways the event has been the buoy for her career whenever she was struggling and needed that bit of extra motivation.

But this was also an incredible feel good moment for Flipkens. The 30-year-old missed out on the 2012 Olympic tennis event after her ranking slipped due to being diagnosed with blood clots in her legs. Outside the Top 200, her struggles worsened when the Belgian Tennis Federation revoked her funding. Left to go about her career alone, she rebuilt her team, and a year later she was into the Wimbledon semifinals.

Her career hasn’t reached the same highs since, but this win over Venus, in her Olympic debut, had to taste so sweet given her rollercoaster ride to Rio.

“I was already thinking in the third set that it was one of the most epic matches I’ve ever played,” Flipkens said in a television interview. “My dream was to come to Rio but to beat one of the greatest champions, that’s a second dream coming true.”

The biggest upsets did not come in singles: While the focus may naturally fall on the singles competition, the most surprising results of the weekend came in doubles, where the top two seeds and medal favorites bowed out. On Saturday it was Japan’s Misaki Doi and Eri Hozumi stunning No.2 seeds and French Open champions Carolina Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic 6-0 0-6, 6-4. No one saw this result coming – let alone that wacky scoreline. The French team were a heavy medal favorite before the competition.

Then on Sunday it was the veteran Czech pair of Barbora Strycova and Lucie Safarova who ousted top seeds and defending gold medalists Venus and Serena Williams, winning, 6-3, 6-4. The weekend also saw India’s team of No.1 Sania Mirza and Thombare Prathana lose to China’s Peng Shuai and Zhang Shuai. The losses open up a doubles draw that was always tough to call. It should be a very exciting week.

Asian tennis had a big weekend: In addition to Doi and Hozumi’s doubles upset, two of the biggest singles upsets also came at the hands of Asian players. China’s Zheng Saisai stunned a flat and frustrated No.4 seed Agnieszka Radwanska, 6-4, 7-5, and Zhang Shuai saved three match points to upend No.12 seed Timea Bacsinszky, 7-6(4), 4-6, 7-6(7). Doi and Nao Hibino also scored solid singles wins, with Doi beating Yaroslava Shvedova and Hibino ousting Florianopolis champion Irina-Camelia Begu.

These are two crushing losses for Radwanska and Bacsinszky. I tapped both women at having a good look at the medal rounds after the soft draws they were dealt. For Radwanska, a combination of her three-day journey from Canada to Rio (via…Lisbon?), combined with a slow, gritty court that plays to the opposite of her strengths, spelled her doom.

Bacsinszky will also be kicking herself after playing three passive points on match point to surrender her lead in the third set tiebreak. Unlike Radwanska, her tournament continues. She rebounded later in the evening to score a win in doubles with Martina Hingis.

Daria Gavrilova’s spirited effort: She was outmatched on nearly every metric, but hat tip to Gavrilova, who scored the unlucky fate of being Serena’s first round opponent. The slow surface kept her in the rallies and she whooped the Center Court crowd into a frenzy with her tenacious defense. It ended in a 6-4, 6-2 loss, but that scoreline is a bit unfair. It was a great match and the perfect opening round test for Serena.

Slow and steady wins the race: Aside from the results themselves, the story of the weekend was the speed of the courts at Barra Olympic Park. They were described as being slower than the Rogers Cup, and after observing just a handful of early points it was clear it was a slow, high-bouncing court, not unlike the BNP Paribas Open, but with heavier balls and conditions. It’s not going to be easy to hit through this court, though the straight set wins by Serena Williams, Garbiñe Muguruza, Madison Keys, and Petra Kvitova may indicate the big hitters can tee off.

Wardrobe Malfunction: After her disappointing loss in doubles, Kristina Mladenovic took to Twitter to explain the team’s frazzled state on court. According to Mladenovic, she and Garcia were ready to take the court when officials told them they could not wear kits of different colors. Luckily, Mladenovic had a second dress and Garcia wore – inside out, for sponsorship reasons – that so that they matched. But the entire ordeal was not the ideal match preparation.

Sloane Stephens bows out to Eugenie Bouchard: The Canadian won, 6-3, 6-3 to notch her first win as an Olympian. She will face Angelique Kerber in the second round. Kerber notched a scratchy opening win over Mariana Duque-Mariño, rallying from 2-5 in the second to win 6-3, 7-5.

As for Stephens, after starting the year at 17-3 with three titles, she is now 5-7 since. Perhaps playing on home soil will get things back on track.

To Opening Ceremony or not: It’s always a tough decision to make for any tennis Olympian: Should I go to the Opening Ceremony or should I rest? For some, the schedule makes the decision for them. Those who did not have to play until Sunday jumped at the chance to walk out with the compatriots on Friday night.

In the end, there really is no science to the matter. Madison Keys went to the Opening Ceremony on Friday night and was first up on Saturday. She won. Heather Watson also went and she won both her singles and doubles matches on Saturday. Andrea Petkovic, Timea Bacsinszky, and Venus Williams opted out. They lost the next day. Reading too much into the decision is a waste of time.

But this tweet was one of the best of Friday night:

Second round matches to watch: All second round matches will be played on Monday. Here are the one’s we’re paying particular attention to: Serena Williams vs. Alizé Cornet, Petra Kvitova vs. Caroline Wozniacki, Angelique Kerber vs. Eugenie Bouchard, Madison Keys vs. Kristina Mladenovic, Johanna Konta vs. Caroline Garcia, Svetlana Kuznetsova vs. Monica Niculescu, Daria Kasatkina vs. Zheng Saisai, and Barbora Strycova vs. Sara Errani.

There in spirit: Simona Halep is not in Rio for the Olympics but that doesn’t mean she’s not celebrating the Olympic spirit. In her own way.

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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

INDIAN WELLS, CA, USA – No.28 seed Kristina Mladenovic kept up her blistering form in the California desert, willing through a late wobble against No.4 seed and 2015 champion Simona Halep, 6-3, 6-3 to reach the round of 16 at the BNP Paribas Open.

“We always had very tough battles,” she said in her post-match press conference. “I was actually up in our head to head, 2-1. That’s not very often against a Top 5 player!”

“I think that match was a big win for me, physically. I was there solid and hanging in there and putting sometimes balls back and being brave. I perfectly played the game plan I had. Solid at times, make her play balls and making her take some risk at the time. Sometimes when I had the shorter one, like, stepping in it, playing my heavy shots with the forehand, and I think that worked pretty well today.”

Mladenovic came to Indian Wells after a breakthrough month that saw her capture her maiden WTA title at the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy and reach another final at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel – not to mention earning a win over Karolina Pliskova at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in between.

Halep, by contrast, had sat out most of the month to tend to a left knee injury, and though she showed signs of her best, the Romanian proved too rusty against the surging French star, who advanced through in one hour and 42 minutes to earn her second Top 5 win in two months.

“Based on how much I was able to practice before this event, I’m happy to have made the third round,” a wry Halep said after the match. “She’s playing well and has confidence, but I missed a lot. After the first set, my legs were gone. My tennis legs aren’t back yet, so I need to work a lot. But I’m ok; I don’t want to make a drama.

“I was very sore after the first match, and couldn’t walk too much. Yesterday was ok; I practiced for an hour. But the heat was killing me because I wasn’t used to being out there that long yet. I had a headache, my feet were burning and my muscles were gone.”

The toughest moment came toward match’s end as Mladenovic served for it having just earned a set and double break lead. Throwing in two double faults on her first two match points, Mladenovic engineered a third only for Halep to save it and break back, converting her third of 22 opportunities in the match.

It only prolonged the inevitable, however, and the reigning French Open women’s doubles champion broke for a sixth and final time to earn a career-best result at the BNP Paribas Open.

Standing between her and a spot in the last eight is a similarly surging force in the women’s game, as American Lauren Davis continued her impressive run of form with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Julia Goerges.

Davis began the season with the win at the ASB Classic, and has already amassed 16 wins in main draw and qualifying matches. Mladenovic won their only prior meeting at the 2013 French Open.

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Zhang's Moment Finally Comes

Zhang's Moment Finally Comes

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

MELBOURNE, Australia – This was a win for the journeywomen. The ones who slog away on tour, always fighting for ranking points and prize money in the shadow, hoping that their day will come. Because as cruel as this sport can be – good results forgotten every Monday, nearly every week punctuated by a loss – your luck can change at any moment. For China’s Zhang Shuai, her moment finally came.

On Tuesday night, Zhang, ranked No.133, walked onto Margaret Court Arena under a cloud. The 26-year-old, who reached a career-high ranking of No.30 in 2014, was 0-14 in main draw matches at the Slams. Across the net from her was the No.2 player in the world in Simona Halep, a back-to-back quarterfinalist here. And to add more stakes to the night, Zhang took the court knowing this very well could be her last appearance at a major.

Less than 80 minutes later, Zhang was in tears as she pulled off the biggest upset of the tournament so far, beating Halep 6-4, 6-3 to earn her first win at a major.

Three months ago, Zhang was hovering just inside the Top 200. She was struggling to win matches and even qualify for tournaments, dipping back and forth between the WTA and ITF levels.

“Feeling so sad,” Zheng told reporters. “Couldn’t win one match even. Ranking from 30 drop to 200 [in] only few months, so feeling so sad.”

It was then, after the US Open, that she says she considered retirement.

“Before when I have this thinking [about retiring], everybody say, No. C’mon, you’re a great player. You can come back soon. You have to keep going.

“But I feeling sad. I didn’t know how can keep going. But when [they] say, Okay, retire, no problem [and] nobody said, No, I’m feeling no, I want come back. I want [to] try one more time, only one more time, yeah. If no good, I say, Okay, I will try last tournament Australia Open. If Australia Open not good, maybe finish tennis.

“But I never think I can win in the here, win the first round.”

To break her Grand Slam duck, Zhang played as good of a match as she’s played in years. Playing with no pressure and with the support of her coach and family, she rode the support of the crowd and took the match by the reins. Behind a firing forehand that kept Halep on the run all night, Zhang finished the match with 31 winners to 24 unforced errors.

After the match, Zhang said the bigger courts suit her. “Feels more exciting and so many people supporting me watching the match, so feeling more relax. I want to show how good I am.”

“I think wasn’t my good day, but I give her a lot of credit because I think she played really well,” Halep said. “She played without fear and she hit every ball. So she had good rhythm. I think I played a little bit too short in the first set. Then she was dominating me because she felt the ball really well.”

Said Zhang: “I think the last three matches [in qualifying] help me a lot for [confidence]. Especially last round, final round, play against Virginie Razzano. Very tough match. 8-6 in the final set. So give me a lot [confidence] and feeling very good.”

You know a result resonates in the locker room when players puts down their knives and forks to celebrate:

Well done to Shuai& her coach Robert ?? they had a very difficult year last year… But hard work always pay off ?? https://t.co/YBjeI0D3sk

— Caroline Garcia (@CaroGarcia) January 19, 2016

In preparation for possibly playing her final Australian Open, Zhang convinced her mother and father to come along on the trip. Neither had ever traveled with her. She wanted to give them a glimpse into the life that she leads and the sport she loves.

“This is big-time for me,” Zhang said. “Because I think, Oh, maybe this is last time in Australia Open, so I wanted they coming to maybe see last match in Melbourne.

“I want [them to] come to see the last 20 years what I’m [doing]. This is my life already like 20 years. They never see. So I want [them to have the] feeling [of] what I’m [doing]. So, yeah, this is so lucky my parents coming and I win.”

For now the retirement talk is on hold. These two sets of tennis on a warm Melbourne night have reinvigorated Zhang, filing her with belief that the best is yet to come.

“I’m training hard, more hard than before,” she said. “I didn’t think in two months I can win [against] the top-two player. Feeling like dream coming true, yeah.”

Yeah.

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Konta Prevails In Kuznetsova Marathon

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – Johanna Konta won a marathon encounter with Svetlana Kuznetsova on Tuesday afternoon to advance to the quarterfinals of the 2016 Olympics.

After just over three hours on court a weary Kuznetsova tugged the ball wide to hand Konta a thrilling 3-6, 7-5, 7-5 victory.

“That’s the longest match I’ve had for ages! I’ve been very fortunate to be part of some spectacular matches in my career and that definitely ranks up there because it’s my first Olympics,” Konta said.

Konta has been playing the tennis of her life this summer, but for the first hour against Kuznetsova it looked like this hectic schedule was finally catching up with her.

Trailing 2-0 in the second set, Konta’s punchy groundstrokes finally began to penetrate her opponent’s defenses, a run of four straight games hauling her back into the contest. Despite surrendering this advantage, the Briton hit back to level the match and then forge ahead in the decider.

Kuznetsova has enjoyed an enviable career, yet has failed to end either of her previous Olympic campaigns on the podium. And even when the cause appeared lost, her desire for this missing medal ensured a tense finale.

Serving for the match at 5-3, Konta came within two points of victory only to falter. This saw the momentum swing back towards the Russian and in Konta’s next service game she carved out three more break points.

Back came the World No.13, a sequence of fearless ball striking enabling her to edge ahead once more. With the finishing line within reach once more, Konta’s nerves reappeared, squandering three match points closing out a famous victory at the fourth time of asking.

Konta, who was ranked outside the Top 200 four years ago, is making her Olympic debut and has found it hard not to become swept up in the spirit of the Games: “Well once you get on court it’s about the opponent, it’s about yourself, it’s about competing. But I do think there are slight differences especially this year there are no ranking points. A lot of players play inspired when it comes to their country and that’s how it should be.”

In the last eight, Konta will face either No.2 seed Angelique Kerber after she brushed aside Samantha Stosur, 6-0, 7-5.

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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

INDIAN WELLS, CA, USA – Chinese qualifier Peng Shuai turned the tables on one of the most cerebral players in the game, using all the variety in her arsenal to upset No.6 Agnieszka Radwanska in straight sets at the BNP Paribas Open, 6-4, 6-4.

Peng came into the matchup with two wins over the World No.6, and needed an hour and twenty-six minutes to score another one, defeating Radwanska 6-4, 6-4 in her first Top 10 win since 2014.

“She’s a really good player and we’ve faced each other many times – sometimes I win, sometimes I lose, but I’m really happy I won today,” Peng said in her on-court interview.

“I’m really happy that I can come back and play this tournament again – after my back surgery [in 2015] I almost ended my career. But I spent a lot of time and fight hard to be here.”

The Chinese player had a long road to the third round; she made it through two rounds of qualifying to reach the main draw, then dispatched Lesia Tsurenko and ousted No.31 seed Ana Konjuh to bring up the matchup with Radwanska. She racked up a total of six hours and 20 minutes on court; Radwanska, by contrast, had spent just one hour and 43 minutes.

That battle-readiness showed for Peng as she kept pace with the 2014 finalist, trading breaks twice in the opening set. Peng gave Radwanska a taste of her own medicine, changing the pace and bringing out the variety that Radwanska herself is usually known for and drawing out the errors.

The pair wrestled with the momentum for much of the opening set before a late wobble from Radwanska gave Peng the opening. Radwanska’s first serves abandoned her at the worst time, and Peng broke to take the set.

She jumped out ahead to a 5-2 lead before Radwanska regained her footing; the Chinese player was a point away from bringing up match point on Radwanska’s serve when a netcord point breathed new life into the Pole’s game. She found her range to cut down on Peng’s lead, but it was too little too late as Peng broke again to take her spot into the BNP Paribas Open round of 16.

Peng will take on Venus Williams in the next round for a spot in the quarterfinals. She won the pair’s most recent encounter last year, beating the former World No.1 in straight sets at the China Open.

“I remember our last match in Beijing,” Peng said. “I had been back on the tour [from back injury] for half a year and then I beat her at the China Open.

“She’s an amazing player, so I just hope to keep going and try to fight and play some good tennis next round.”

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Sam Stosur's Pre-Match Waffles

Sam Stosur's Pre-Match Waffles

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

USANA brand ambassador Samantha Stosur shared with us her tried and true recipe for her favorite pre-match snacks – which you can make right at home with only three ingredients and some waffles.

For a healthy, anytime snack (or for some pre-match fuel), spread toasted waffles with a layer of peanut butter for a dose of protein then top with freshly sliced bananas. Sprinkle in some chia seeds, which are packed with omega-3 fatty acids, fiber, and calcium, for a nutritious energy boost.

Here’s everything you need:

Samantha Stosur

USANA is the Official Vitamin & Supplement Supplier of the WTA, and over 170 Athletes – including 8 out of the Top 10 and 15 out of the Top 20 use USANA products. Former No.1 Caroline Wozniacki, Samantha Stosur, Eugenie Bouchard, and Madison Keys are among several USANA ambassadors, and 2016 marks the 10th Anniversary of the USANA-WTA partnership.

 

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Insider: Hingis & Mirza Part Ways

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

The World No.1 team of Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza have split, according to multiple reports. Mirza and Hingis – self-dubbed “Santina” – dominated the doubles tour for over a year, having joined forces for the first time at the 2015 BNP Paribas Open. Together the pair won 13 titles over a 16-month span, including three consecutive majors at 2015 Wimbledon, the 2015 US Open, and 2016 Australian Open, as well as the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global last fall.

But ever since their 41-match winning streak was snapped in February at the Qatar Total Open by Elena Vesnina and Daria Kasatkina, the team never fully recovered. After their lightening start to 2016, winning their first four tournaments of the year, Hingis and Mirza have won just one title since. As defending champions they lost in the second round at both the BNP Paribas Open and Miami Open this spring and lost back-to-back finals at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix and Mutua Madrid Open to the No.2 team of Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic.

After winning their first title in nearly three months at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, Hingis and Mirza took two surprising straight-set exits at the French Open and Wimbledon. In all, they failed to make it past the quarterfinals of their last four events.

So what does this mean for Hingis and Martina going forward?

Who will they play with now?

According to reports out of India, Hingis will pair with CoCo Vandeweghe and Mirza with Barbora Strycova. Mirza will link up with Strycova at next week’s Western & Southern Open before partnering with Bethanie Mattek-Sands at the Connecticut Open. The plan is to re-team with Strycova at the US Open.

What about the No.1 ranking?

The pairing was a milestone launcher for Mirza. She became the first Indian woman to hold the No.1 ranking after the pair won their third straight title last year at the Volvo Car Open and she won her first major doubles title at Wimbledon a few months later. The two became joint No.1s in January of this year and they will continue to hold the top spot through the US Open unless one of them either reaches the Cincinnati final or wins New Haven.

What does this mean for the WTA Finals in Singapore?

Hingis and Mirza were the first doubles team to qualify for this year’s WTA Finals. Despite their struggles over the last four months they still sit atop the Road to Singapore. Under WTA Rules, Hingis and Mirza can still play as a team in Singapore, but if one of them qualifies with another partner, that player may then choose which team she competes with for the WTA Finals. The player she chooses not to complete with will then be ineligible unless that player has also qualified as part of another team.

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Insider Notebook: Generation Next

Insider Notebook: Generation Next

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

MELBOURNE, Australia – On Day 3 at the Australian Open, a smattering of upsets was overshadowed by the youth movement through the draw. Will 2016 be the year the next generation makes an impact? They certainly think so.

– Serena, Sharapova, and Radwanska roll on: Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova each dropped just three games en route to easy wins, with Serena beating Hsieh Su-Wei 6-1, 6-2, and Sharapova beating Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-2, 6-1. Agnieszka Radwanska played some of her best tennis of the year to hold off Eugenie Bouchard 6-4, 6-2.

– Kristyna Pliskova sets a record…only to lose: You have to feel for Kristyna Pliskova. She broke Sabine Lisicki’s record of 27 aces in a match, firing 31 aces against Monica Puig. Yet despite the cannonballs coming off her racket and holding five match points, Pliskova lost 4-6, 7-6(6), 9-7 in a heartbreaker.

Said a disappointed Pliskova: “I would rather hit 20 aces and win.”

– Daria Gavrilova embraces her moment: Inspired by the crowd, the court, and a vulnerable opponent, Gavrilova knocked out No.6 seed Petra Kvitova 6-4, 6-4 in 90 minutes on Margaret Court Arena. It’s a disappointing trip down to Australia for Kvitova but Gavrilova was one of the most dangerous unseeded players in the draw. It was never going to be easy.

– Kataryna Bondarenko douses Svetlana Kuznetsova: Kuznetsova has been on fire over the last week, dating back to her title run at the Sydney International. But Bondarenko took it to her, firing 28 winners to 14 unforced errors to end the No.26 seed’s Australian Open and advance to her first third round at a major since 2011.

– Don’t look now: Belinda Bencic is cruising through the draw. She plays Bondarenko in the third round and could play Sharapova in the Round of 16.

– Spoilers back-up their upsets: It’s a common pattern. Pull off a big win and go out meekly in the next round. But that hasn’t been the case in this year’s Australian Open. Five of the seven players who knocked out seeds in the first round — Kasatkina (d. Schmiedlova), Margarita Gasparyan (d. Errani), Yulia Putintseva (d. Wozniacki), and Lauren Davis (d. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova), and Elizaveta Kulichkova (d. Petkovic), won through today.

Daria Gavrilova

– Youth Brigade: 10 of the 16 players into the third round in the top half of the draw are aged 22 and under, with three of them being teenagers: Daria Kasatkina (18), Margarita Gasparyan (21), Yulia Putintseva (21), Belinda Bencic (18), Lauren Davis (22), Monica Puig (22), Anna Lena Friedsam (21), Elizaveta Kulichkova (19), Kristina Mladenovic (22), and Daria Gavrilova (21).

Of that group, six are into the third round of a major for the first time in their careers. Nice to see some fresh faces to start the season.

“It’s great,” Gavrilova said. “We’re all excited. We’re all pretty friendly. We hang out together. Yeah, like I said, we’re all supporting each other. I think it’s going to be awesome.”

– Bouchard bows out: Bouchard led 4-2 in the first before Radwanska reeled her back in for a 6-4, 6-2 win, but the Canadian once again showed flashes of her brilliant 2014 form. She just couldn’t sustain the level throughout the match. With the loss, Bouchard will drop out of the Top 50 for the first time since 2013.

“That was a great challenge for me to play somebody like Eugenie in the second round,” Radwanska said. “But I think I was doing everything right today. That’s why I win that match in two sets. Definitely not an easy draw.”

Notable: Radwanska is 14-0 in sets this year. She plays Puig next.

Monica Puig

– Puig’s change of perspective: Puig has had a strong start to 2016, making her first Premier final at the Sydney International and now into the third round at the Australian Open for the first time. It’s a strong rebound from a disappointing 2015 campaign and Puig says she’s playing better simply because she’s fallen back in love with the sport.

– Top half of the draw set: Here are Friday’s third round matches: Serena vs. Kasatkina, Gasparyan vs. Putintseva, Bencic vs. Bondarenko, Davis vs Sharapova, Radwanska vs. Puig, Friedsam vs. Vinci, Suarez Navarro vs. Kulichkova, Mladenovic vs. Gavrilova.

– The Origins of DropshotPova: Turns out Sharapova’s decision to add the dropshot to her arsenal was driven by pure competition.

“It’s something that I have added. It’s actually something that I had to add, because I was getting really frustrated losing to my hitting partner all the time. He just stood so far back behind the baseline I was like, just can’t handle him beating me so often. I have to just change things around. That’s kind of when I started getting into that a little bit.

He was a little surprised (laughter). But it started working, so that was good.

– Serena’s sarcasm: I think it’s safe to say Serena probably isn’t too excited to hear Roberta Vinci’s name anymore. When a journalist asked Serena whether she’s watched her US Open loss to Vinci — this was the third question about Vinci in the press conference — Serena quipped: “Yeah, I watch it every day. Every night to get ready.”

Li Na

– Catching up with Li Na: The 2013 Australian Open champion was downright chatty on a wet Wednesday morning as she met with reporters. The main conversation point surrounded the four Chinese women — Wang Qiang, Han Xinyun, Zhang Shuai, and Zheng Saisai — who progressed to the second round. It’s the first time four Chinese women have made the second round at a Slam since 2006.

“I remember last year in Wuhan, one reporter asked me what do you think about the Chinese players, they always lose in the first round,” she said. “I got a little bit angry. They need more space. They need more time.” She was right.

– Simona Halep’s off-season problems: After her first round loss on Tuesday, Halep revealed to the Romanian press that she fell ill during her off-season training block and had to be hospitalized and put on antibiotics.

– Hate the player, not the game: Liked this from Radwanska, who went out of her way to point out that the increased depth on tour means every player is dangerous: “As we see now the ranking, it sometimes didn’t really showing the game, what the player actually showing. You play against the player, not the ranking.”

– Best Friends Forever: Kasatkina and Kulichkova are best friends with very different personalities and interests. One example: Kasatkina worships at the throne of Rafael Nadal. Kulichkova is a Federer fan. Somehow their friendship survives.

All photos courtesy of Getty Images.

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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

INDIAN WELLS, CA, USA – Reigning French Open champion Garbiñe Muguruza brought No.10 seed Elina Svitolina’s 15 match winning streak to an emphatic end with a 7-6(5), 1-6, 6-0 victory at the BNP Paribas Open to book an intruiging match-up with No.3 seed Karolina Pliskova in the quarterfinals.

“I think it was a very difficult match today,” she said in her post-match press conference. “It was like a test, because she has been winning, like, 15 matches in a row, and she just getting to Top 10, as well.

“I was, like, okay, it’s going to be a tough match and she has a very difficult game, as well. I’m pretty happy about my match. It wasn’t easy at all.”

Svitolina has quickly become the player to beat after back-to-back titles at the Taiwan Open and the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships – with wins in Fed Cup in between – helping her become the first Ukrainian women to crack the Top 10.

Muguruza, by contrast, came to the California desert with question marks after a left achilles injury forced her to retire from her opening round in Dubai, and was a set from defeat against 17-year-old wildcard Kayla Day on Sunday.

Still, the Spaniard raced out to a 5-2 lead to start and survived a late surge to hold off Svitolina in the ensuing tie-break.

“I felt like I almost had to control the match. Not really the second set. I think she played very good in the second set. But in that first set, I started very well, and I knew that that match can turn around so easily, you know. It’s going to be a battle.

“I accept it that she came back. Then I kept fighting until the tie-break, and it was, like, two points’ difference!”

Undeterred, the Ukrainian youngster took the momentum from the end of the first set into the second, roaring to a decider, dropping just five points on her first serve and converting all three break points to level the match.

“Today was a bit of a mental struggle,” Svitolina told WTA Insider. “When I woke up this morning, I was feeling tired, and I needed to fight through the fatigue. It was up and down, but I needed to fight through it and I was feeling like I did the right things, and that I had my chances throughout the match.

“But there are a lot of positives I can take from a match like this, and I can be proud of myself that I’d been able to fight through so many days like today. I’ve had some incredible matches and I can be proud of those and move forward.”

The first three games of the final sent would go to deuce, but Muguruza would win each one and never looked back, converting the bagel on her second match point.

“I think I can play in a number of different ways. And today I knew it was going to be difficult, because even though you try different things, you are playing against a Top 10 player and you can, you know, not win.

“I was just trying to do my game today, basically, because I think that was the way to win.”

Up next for Muguruza is Czech nemesis Pliskova, who has won their last five matches of their head-to-head after losing their first meeting at the 2013 French Open.

The pair most recently played ta Fed Cup, where the No.3 seed triumphed in straight sets, though Muguruza pushed Plisova to three sets in their round robin match at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.

“I think it’s one of the toughest matches I can have now. I think she’s playing very good. She has been very consistent, and I have been watching her.

She has her game, which is very aggressive with good serve. So I’m just going to go out there and try to do my game, try to be concentrate. I know it’s a tough match.

“I cannot do more than give it all there.”

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