Dubai: Wednesday Highlights
Highlights from the second round action at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
Highlights from the second round action at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
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 Doha and Acapulco…
1) Doha is the first Premier 5 tournament of 2016.
The Qatar Total Open is a Premier 5 event and part two of the WTA’s fortnightly tour of the Middle East – part one is the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. There’s nearly $3 million on the line, with the winner pocketing $518,500 and a whopping 900 points for the Road To Singapore leaderboard.
Click here for a full analysis of the Doha draw.
2) World No.2 Angelique Kerber plays her first tournament since winning the Australian Open.
Kerber played a solid weekend in Fed Cup – going 1-1 in her singles matches against Timea Bacsinszky and Belinda Bencic – but the German comes to Doha looking to build on her early season momentum; she remains the only player to reach more than one final in 2016. It won’t be easy for the 2014 finalist with her fellow Top 8 seeds in tow: Simona Halep, Agnieszka Radwanska, Garbiñe Muguruza, Petra Kvitova, Bencic, Lucie Safarova, and Carla Suárez Navarro.
3) Agnieszka Radwanska is also hoping to build on her strong start to the season.
Out since the Australian Open with a left leg injury, the reigning BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global champion was undefeated through the semifinals in Melbourne, having won the title at the Shenzhen Open. Though she fell to World No.1 Serena Williams in her last match, the Pole has otherwise looked good since last year’s US Open, and is poised to rise to World No.3 on Monday.
4) Defending champion Lucie Safarova makes her 2016 debut.
Safarova’s stellar 2015 season started off last year in Doha. The Czech earned back-to-back Top 10 wins and beat former No.1 Victoria Azarenka in the final, parlaying that result into a maiden Grand Slam final at the French Open. A bacterial infection derailed her season after the US Open, and though she qualified for Singapore, Safarova hasn’t played since, but with several weeks of practice in Doha, look for the defending champ to make some noise with her big lefty game.
5) Can Halep, Muguruza or Kvitova kickstart their years in Doha?
No.2 seed Halep has been looking for matches all season, but they were hard to come by in Dubai; the Romanian had to face former No.1 Ana Ivanovic in her opening round match, losing in straight sets. Muguruza has been dealing with a foot injury that has kept her from feeling prepared to play her best tennis, while Kvitova has won just one match all season and has yet to name a replacement coach since splitting the David Kotyza. All three have the talent to win in Doha; can one or more catch fire this week?
6) Azarenka does Acapulco.
While most of the game’s biggest names are duking it out in Doha, Victoria Azarenka has opted to ease into her North American hardcourt swing by playing her first tournament since the Australian Open at this week’s International event at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel. Top seed in Acapulco, Azarenka is joined by tricky opposition in Sloane Stephens, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, and Dominika Cibulkova.
7) Can Konta go further?
Johanna Konta rocked the tennis world when she made her historic run to the semifinals in Melbourne. A likely seed in Acapulco, how will the Brit back up that result as she aims to continue her march up the rankings; she is currently at a career-high ranking of No.27.
8) How will Sloane Stephens rebound?
Stephens came to Melbourne looking like a dangerous floater having won her second career title at the ASB Classic, but took a surprising first round loss to Wang Qiang. How will the American fare in her first event since then?
9) Welcome back, Galina.
Former World No.42 and No.1 Kazakh Galina Voskoboeva was close to a career-high ranking when multiple foot injuries kept her off the court for nearly two years. Playing her first matches earlier this month at Fed Cup and an ITF Challenger, Voskoboeva makes her WTA return in doubles this week with Anastasia Rodionova. Stay tuned for more insight into Voskoboeva’s comeback on WTA Insider.
10) Find out where you can watch live action this week.
Highlights from the quarterfinal round action at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
The loquacious Ashleigh Barty was uncharacteristically short of words after winning her first singles title at the ALYA Malaysian Open.
Sara Errani has Friday’s shot of the day at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
Before heading to the desert for Indian Wells, Garbiñe Muguruza and Venus Williams stopped at New York City’s Madison Square Garden for the BNP Paribas Showdown.
Played in honor of World Tennis Day, the 10th anniversary of the BNP Paribas showdown was a night of exhibition matches that pitted the world’s best players against each other.
Venus and Garbiñe were joined by some of the ATP’s past and present stars like: Jack Sock, Juan Martin del Potro, Andy Roddick, Nick Kyrgios, Kei Nishikori and Lleyton Hewitt.
Before the Showdown, the players took to the JW Marriott Essex House for a meet and greet, where they signed lots of autographs.
This year’s Showdown pitted Team America against Team World. Garbiñe and Kei represented Team World, alongside Nick Kyrgios and Lleyton Hewitt…
…with Venus and Andy representing Team America, alongside Jack Sock and Juan Martin del Potro.
Madison Square Garden was packed on Monday night as the BNP Paribas Showdown kicked off.
Players take the court for a night of fun and world-class tennis.
Venus teamed up with Juan Martin for mixed doubles.
They took on Team World’s Garbiñe and Kei.
It was Team World who emerged victorious, winning 5-3 against America.
In fact, it wasn’t a good day at the office for Team America, as Team World won almost every match.
Venus rescued Team America from a total shutout, though.
She beat Garbiñe 5-4 for Team America’s lone win.
Sara Errani has Saturday’s shot of the day at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams announced her withdrawal from both the BNP Paribas Open and Miami Open due to a left knee injury.
DOHA, Qatar – On Monday, Agnieszka Radwanska met the press ahead of the Premier 5 level event in Doha, the Qatar Total Open, and she discussed everything from her strong start to the season, her Fed Cup plans and the next generation of tennis. Here’s what the World No.3 had to say…
On her red-hot start to the season, which saw her win a title in Shenzhen and reach the semifinals at the Australian Open…
“I had very good start, and I just hope I can keep going and playing the same good tennis I was playing in Australia. I have a good rest after that. I was practicing at home and working hard. Hopefully I can really do well here.”
On the challenge of the “openness” of the women’s game…
“For us, for some players that being in the Top 10 for a while, it’s also tough to stay there. There are a lot of talented, young players coming up and playing great tennis. This is another challenge for us to stay there.
There’s a lot of players deserve to be Top 10. We can also see everything is changing every week about the majors as well.”
On how Serena Williams’ dominance affects that openness…
“Of course Serena is always there, especially last year, but other years totally different. She’s definitely dominating if she’s on fire. When she’s playing her best tennis, she just playing unbelievable and too good, but otherwise it’s open.”
On her plans to play in Poland’s Fed Cup tie against Taiwan…
“I want to help my team in April to stay in that World Group, so this is my plan and I hope I can play that. Of course we can see individually busy schedule and tight schedule because of the Olympics, so I really want to stay healthy the whole year. But here we have match at home, so I’m ready to play.”
Monica Puig takes on Danielle Collins in the first round of the BNP Paribas Open.