Moscow: Shot Of The Day (Wednesday)
Daria Gavrilova has Wednesday’s shot of the day at the Kremlin Cup.
Daria Gavrilova has Wednesday’s shot of the day at the Kremlin Cup.
An interview with Daria Gavrilova after her win in the quarterfinals of the Kremlin Cup.
SINGAPORE – Naomi Osaka has been named 2016 WTA Newcomer of the Year.
The 19-year-old Japanese player has enjoyed a breakthrough year on the tour in 2016, rising to a career-high ranking of No.40 after finishing 2015 ranked No.203.
Osaka made an impact at Grand Slam level, reaching the third round at all three Slams she played – Australian Open, French Open and US Open.
In addition to her Grand Slam feats, she was a force on the tour as well and she became the first Japanese player since 1995 to reach the final at the Toray Pan Pacific Open. As a wildcard, she knocked out Misaki Doi and Dominika Cibulkova before losing to Caroline Wozniacki in the final. Additionally, she was a three-time quarterfinalist: Abierto Mexicano TELCEL, Brasil Tennis Cup and Tianjin Open.
.@Naomi_Osaka_ named #WTA Newcomer of the Year! pic.twitter.com/D38TOrccp8
— WTA (@WTA) 21 October 2016
Osaka won the prize with 42 votes ahead of Viktorija Golubic with six, and Jelena Ostapenko and Louisa Chirico with one apiece.
WTA Newcomer Of The Year Winners
2016: Naomi Osaka
2015: Daria Gavrilova
2014: Belinda Bencic
2013: Eugenie Bouchard
2012: Laura Robson
2011: Irina-Camelia Begu
2010: Petra Kvitova
2009: Melanie Oudin
2008: Caroline Wozniacki
2007: Agnes Szavay
2006: Agnieszka Radwanska
2005: Sania Mirza
Complete listing of the historical WTA Awards.
MOSCOW, Russia – Svetlana Kuznetsova kept up her chances of qualifying for the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global by beating Elina Svitolina, 6-1, 6-7(2), 6-4, in Friday’s Kremlin Cup semifinals.
Watch live action from Moscow & Luxembourg this week at WTA Live Powered By TennisTV!
The Russian must win the tournament to overtake WTA Most Improved Player of the Year Johanna Konta and secure a spot in Singapore.
After Svitolina started the match with a routine hold, the Ukrainian squandered three chances to move a break ahead and the Russian never looked back in the first set.
In the second set, however, the World No.15 provided much sterner opposition, breaking to love in the fifth game. Kuznetsova broke back immediately but once again fell behind a break in the very next game, despite saving two break points.
Svitolina tightened up when serving for the set, falling 0-40 behind in flash. She saved all three but succumbed to the pressure on the fourth.
However, she was not left to rue her profligacy and she claimed a highly attritional tie-break convincingly after producing a series of excellent groundstrokes, with Kuznetsova making some untimely unforced errors.
Kuznetsova appeared to be tiring but soon stopped Svitolina’s march. After a lengthy break before the decider, the top seed returned with renewed vigour, sending down a series of vicious shots to break in the opening game.
The 31-year-old saved two break points in the following game to consolidate her advantage but from there she was well on top and Svitolina was unable to get back in the match as Kuznetsova got her WTA-leading 20th three-set match win of 2016.
Kuznetsova has won 20 3-set matches in 2016. She won 17 3-set matches in 2014 and 2015 COMBINED https://t.co/kdPEISJspn
— Kevin Fischer (@Kfish_WTA) October 21, 2016
“I knew what I had to do but in the second set I stopped playing the ‘right’ tennis. I realized what was going on, I understood it was wrong but couldn’t do anything about it. And I had to play three sets,” Kuznetsova said in her post-match press conference.
Kuznetsova will face Daria Gavrilova in the final after she overcame Julia Goerges, 7-5, 6-1. Gavrilova, who was born in Moscow, received plenty of support from the Russian crowd, helping her through a rollercoaster first set and into the first final of her career.
“When I arrived in Hong Kong a few weeks ago, I didn’t expect to be finishing the season so well,” Gavrilova told wtatennis.com. “Playing here in Moscow I’m getting a lot of support – I have a lot of friends and family in the crowd – and even though I’m very tired this helped me come through the difficult moments in the match today.
“In the final I know Sveta will get a lot of support, but this is normal. It has been a great week and I am playing with no pressure so I will go out and play my game and see what happens.”
Venus Williams takes on CoCo Vandeweghe in the semifinals of the Australian Open.
The partnership of SAP and the WTA took home the award for Best Partnership, Single Sport, on Friday’s 2016 Sports Technology Awards.
The Sports Technology Awards celebrate breakthrough technologies in sports. The partnership between SAP and the WTA triumphed over other successful entities including WSC Sports/NBA and Toshiba/Rugby World Cup 2015.
In 2013, SAP and the WTA began working together to create solutions in order to elevate the sport for players, coaches and fans. Last year at the Bank of the West Classic, SAP and the WTA unveiled SAP Tennis Analytics for Coaches, which gives coaches access to real-time performance data during live match play.
SAP and the WTA were also shortlisted for Best Use of Technology by a Sponsor. To see all winners and nominees from the 2016 Sports Technology Awards, click here.
To read more about SAP and the WTA partnership, click here.
BOGOTA, Colombia – Irina Falconi and Sílvia Soler-Espinosa will meet for the first time as they face off on Sunday in the final of the Claro Open Colsanitas, after advancing past tough semifinal matchups in three-set battles.
The Ecuadorian-born American Falconi overcame a mid-match wobble to move past the on-fire Lara Arruabarrena, who had only dropped five games in the three matches leading up the semifinals. But the Spaniard couldn’t find any answers for Falconi’s dictating play or her short-angled inside out forehands in the day’s first semifinal match.
Arruabarrena quickly found herself down a set and 2-4, but she was able to bring herself back from the brink of defeat as Falconi’s groundstrokes misfired. The American held steady in the third set though, breaking early to get a lead ahead at 3-1, and hanging on to win the match 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 after almost two hours.
Falconi, who is into her first WTA final at the Claro Open Colsanitas, is set to face Soler-Espinosa for the title, who overcame a tough challenge from Brazil’s No.2, Paula Cristina Goncalves.
The 25-year-old from Sao Paolo has found great success on the South American red clay: she made her WTA main draw debut in Rio de Janeiro, where she made the quarterfinals and her semifinal appearance here in Bogota is her career best. By contrast, Soler-Espinosa came to Bogota having only won one match all year. She found her game on the red clay, and in the last round she ended Amra Sadikovic’s fairytale comeback – the Swiss retired in 2014 and reached the quarterfinals in her WTA return this week.
Goncalves found her usually reliable serves under fire early on. She lead the pack having hit 22 aces in three matches, but against Soler-Espinosa she was broken in the fifth game of the match, giving the Spaniard just enough of an edge to take the opening set. They stayed in touching distance during the second set, with Goncalves recovering from 2-4 down to force a tiebreak and send the match into a deciding set. But the tide turned as the Brazilian lost her serve in the longest game of the match to go down 2-4 again in the final set. Soler-Espinosa didn’t let her escape a second time, though, and booked her spot in the final 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-2.
More to come…
SINGAPORE – The BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global draw was completed on Friday night, with top seeds Angelique Kerber and defending champion Angieszka Radwanska headlining the Red and White round robin groups set to begin on Sunday.
Click here to check out the full Insider Draw Analysis.
Senior Writer Courtney Nguyen and WTA Web Editor David Kane reunite after an impressive Asian Swing to break down the two groups, and who has what it takes to pull off a surprise run to the semifinals in the latest WTA Insider Podcast:
Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn or on any podcast app of your choice to ensure you never miss an episode when they go live. Reviews are always helpful, so if you like what you’ve heard so far, leave us one. You can also get new episode alerts by following us on Twitter @WTA_Insider.
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SINGAPORE – No.3 seed Simona Halep kicked off her season-ending campaign with a 6-2, 6-4 win over No.6 seed Madison Keys on Day 1 of the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.
Read how the match unfolded in the WTA Insider Live Blog.
– Simona Halep relishes this match-up.
Halep moves to 1-0 in the Red Group after a remarkably clean performance against Keys, a player she knows how to beat. The two played three times this year, all in the second half of the season, and Halep won all three matches, two of which came on hard courts. There’s just something about Halep’s game that continues to puzzle Keys, who has yet to find the sweet spot between minimizing errors by not going for too much and being the first-strike aggressor.
“I think one of her strengths is making you feel like you have to go for more and taking the risk,” Keys said. “I think just going in and knowing she’s going to get the balls back but continuing to play my game is the big thing. I think sometimes she makes me uncomfortable and I back away from playing my game and start going for things in a way that I shouldn’t.”
On paper, Keys should be able to take advantage of Halep’s serve with her forehand return and open up the court with her heavy cross-court shots. But Halep always seems one step ahead of Keys. The Romanian, who is now 6-5 against Top 10 players this year, has a fairly simple game plan against the American: Keep the ball on Keys’ backhand, minimize errors, and, most importantly, run. Even in straight sets, these are physical matches for Halep, but she seems to have unshakable faith in her gameplan and she’s now 5-1 against Keys.
– Positivity the key for Halep.
After taking the first set in 27 minutes — with a big help from Keys, who hit 18 unforced errors in the set — Halep had looks to break early in the second set and did not capitalize. You could see her frustration begin to set in. The clouds began to gather in her head, but she snapped out of it after a great coaching timeout with Darren Cahill at 2-1.
Coach @darren_cahill talks to @simona_halep, encouraging her to keep her level, before closing with a “Sorry, Sorry!” #WTAFinals pic.twitter.com/fnjhI1GEvf
— WTA (@WTA) October 23, 2016
“First game of the second set I had two break points and I missed that forehand very easy,” Halep said. “Yeah, I was a little bit pissed. I called Darren at 2-1. He told me to calm down, so [that’s] everything that I did.
“Then I just stayed more focused. I felt that she’s coming back, she’s playing better and better, so I had to stay for every point there. With Madison it’s always important to play every point and win every point.”
Halep immediately broke in the next game and took control from there. Even after Keys broke back to level to 4-4, Halep again stayed positive and got the break with the shot of the match:
A sensational backhand pass from @Simona_Halep to now serve for the match! #WTAFinals pic.twitter.com/Na7q8vXvfF
— WTA (@WTA) October 23, 2016
– Never underestimate the nerves of a first-timer.
If you successfully qualify for the WTA Finals, chances are you’ve gone through a few years on tour, so going to a new tournament in a new place is a rare experience. For a debutante like Keys, her experience in her first WTA Finals was markedly foreign. And it showed.
“It was obviously a very new feeling for me,” Keys said. “Then once I got on the court I definitely felt the nerves of the occasion.
“Definitely doesn’t feel like any other tournament. I think it’s been a while since I’ve gone to a tournament and it’s all felt new and it was new nerves and new occasion. So that was kind of difficult to deal with. I think at the beginning of the second set I felt like I settled in a little better.”
– Keys will likely need to beat Kerber for a chance to qualify for the semifinals.
Keys finished the match with 41 errors to just 16 winners. In a very telling stat, she hit just one ace in the match. Her return let her down in a big way, as she struggled to put any pressure on Halep’s serve, earning just two break points in the match. The Keys return against the Halep serve should go the way of the American, but her execution tonight was poor.
“I think today a big thing was this court stays really low,” Keys said. “The ball doesn’t bounce up very high. I think for me I was definitely getting caught either too far behind the ball or kind of running into it. I wasn’t timing it super well.”
The loss means her next two matches against Kerber and Cibulkova are virtually must-win matches. While she’s 3-0 against Cibulkova, she’s 1-5 against the World No.1.
– Halep could be the favorite to qualify out of the Red Group.
In a group that includes No.1 Angelique Kerber, Dominika Cibulkova, and Keys, Halep sent a strong message to the field with her steady play tonight. In addition to her performance tonight, Halep already had the best combined record against the Red Group. Going into this match, Halep held a 10-7 head-to-head advantage in the Red Group compared to Kerber (8-13), Cibulkova (7-9) and Keys (5-9).
“It’s not about the pressure,” Halep said, when asked about the effect of getting a win in your first match of group play. “I think it’s about the confidence. [Winning] gives you confidence. If you win you are more positive. When you go to the second one you say that you feel the game. You feel the court. You feel great here. So I can play my best tennis and…give everything without thinking of the score.”