Stuttgart: Friday Highlights
Highlights from quarterfinal action at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.
Highlights from quarterfinal action at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.
The 2016 Aces For Humanity campaign was launched by USANA and the WTA at the BNP Paribas Open and continued in Stuttgart at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, where every ace hit by a WTA player at Premier-level events translates into a donation to the USANA True Health Foundation, whose mission is to provide the most critical human necessities to those who are suffering or in need around the world. For every ace hit by any player the WTA donates $5, and for every ace hit by a USANA Brand Ambassador, it’s $10.
USANA Brand Ambassadors Eugenie Bouchard, Samantha Stosur, Kristina Mladenovic, Madison Keys, Sloane Stephens, Monica Puig, and Zheng Saisai.
Read more about the campaign here and see below to find out who’s hit the most aces so far!
#AcesForHumanity Fan Giveaway
It’s simple: before each WTA Premier tournament guess how many total aces will be hit.
Next up is the Mutua Madrid Open in Madrid. Last year there was a total of 400 aces hit. It’s now your turn, take your best guess of how many will be hit this year.
How To Enter:
• Follow @WTA and @USANAFoundation on Twitter and before each WTA Premier tournament tweet the number of aces you predict will be hit during the whole tournament (Singles, Main Draw)
• Include the hashtag #AcesForHumanity
• Madrid deadline is May 1st at 11:59pm ET
• The winner will be announced May 9th
Aces For Humanity is a joint WTA and USANA initiative that benefits the USANA True Health Foundation, which provides critical human necessities to those in suffering or in need around the globe.
For full rules on how to enter, click here.
RABAT, Morocco – No.2 seed Ekaterina Makarova grabbed the first win of her clay court campaign, advancing into the second round of the Grand Prix SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Alexandra Dulgheru.
Watch live action from Rabat & Prague this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!
The international-level tournament is the WTA’s lone stop in Africa, and has been staged in several cities in Morocco including Casablanca, Fes, Marrakech and finally Rabat.
Makarova, a former Top 10 player who reached the final in 2009 at the tournament’s Fes staging, had little trouble against the Romanian. Dulgheru has struggled recently and hasn’t won a match since January, but she owns the head-to-head record against Makarova with two wins in both of their previous encounters.
The match started out with five breaks of serve in the first six games, and Makarova scoring the lone hold to get ahead at 3-1. The Russian fought off three break points to keep the lead at 5-3, and stayed steady to close out the first set. Makarova cruised in the second set and closed out the match after one hour and thirty-six minutes.
No.5 seed Timea Babos – a finalist last year in the tournament’s Marrakech staging – had a tougher road to the second round, surviving a rollercoaster second set to advance 6-3, 6-7(8), 6-1.
A pair of seeds weren’t so lucky, as No.3 Anna Karolina Schmiedlova and No.6 Annika Beck were sent crashing out of the first round. Kiki Bertens dropped just one game in her 6-0, 6-1 romp over Schmiedlova, and Teliana Pereira eased into the second round with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Beck.
No.1 seed Timea Bacsinszky will wrap up Rabat’s first round action tomorrow when she takes the court against Russian wildcard Anna Blinkova.
PRAGUE, Czech Republic – Lucie Safarova returned to winning ways by battling past Mariana Duque-Mariño at the J&T Banka Prague Open on Tuesday afternoon.
Watch live action from Prague & Rabat this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!
Since returning from the bacterial infection that blighted the end of her 2015 campaign and forced her to skip the Australian Open, Safarova has found wins hard to come by. In fact, the Czech had fallen at the first hurdle at all five tournaments since making her comeback.
When she dropped the opening set to Duque-Mariño, another disappointment looked on the cards. However, perhaps buoyed by the home crowd, the No.2 seed fought back to complete a 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory in a fraction over two hours.
“I’m so happy because this is my first win this year in singles and obviously it means a lot,” Safarova said. “I was trying to be positive after coming back from this long sickness, but obviously it’s about the wins. That’s why I was so excited.”
Having dropped the first set, Safarova began her comeback midway through the second, a sliding drop shot in response to a net cord bringing the decisive break. She carried this momentum into the decider, breaking once more when Duque-Mariño sent a tired backhand long. The Colombian had her chances to get back into the contest, seeing several chances to draw level slip by in the sixth game as a relieved Safarova held on.
“I fought so hard and it wasn’t easy – I lost the first set but came back well in the second and played really well in the third,” Safarova added. “I hope to continue to play well here because the crowd was fantastic. It’s so nice to play in front of your home crowd and hopefully I can continue to do so for some more matches.”
Fellow Czech Lucie Hradecka is next up after she saw off doubles partner Andrea Hlavackova, 6-4, 6-1.
Victories for Barbora Krejcikova, Barbora Strycova and 2015 champion Karolina Pliskova provided further cheer for the locals on another chilly day. Pliskova began the defense of her title with a straightforward 6-, 6-3 win over Stefanie Voegele, while Strycova saw off Olga Govortsova, 6-3, 7-5, and lucky loser Krejcikova made the most of her second chance by upsetting No.7 seed Dominika Cibulkova, 6-2, 6-2.
PRAGUE, Czech Republic – Lucie Safarova saw off Fed Cup teammate Karolina Pliskova in two tight sets on Friday to reach the final of the J&T Banka Prague Open.
Watch live action from Prague & Rabat this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!
After taking a tight opening set, No.2 seed Safarova came from a break down in the second to complete a 6-4, 7-6(4) victory.
In the final she will face Samantha Stosur, after she profited from the last-minute withdrawal of top seed Svetlana Kuznetsova.
More to follow…
Mirjana Lucic-Baroni and Shelby Rogers had a guac-off in Acapulco at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel!
Venus Williams might be 36 years old – but she’s already got her eyes focused on playing an event in three years’ time.
That’s when she will get the chance to reclaim her Olympic doubles gold in Tokyo with sister Serena.
“That’s my absolute dream,” she told Reuters. “I have a dream partner. I would love that.”
The pair are three-time champions but could not defend their title in Rio last year, where they were eliminated in the first round by Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova.
Venus attributed her long career partially to a sheer love of the game.
“You have to love it, it’s a lot of work,” she told the Associated Press. “If you feel like you have more to give, the heart is in it, that makes it pretty easy to get out there and pay the price.”
She has plenty of other interests off the court, though – not least her fashion line, EleVen by Venus, which will be worn by ballgirls and ushers at the BNP Paribas Showdown at Madison Square Garden on Monday evening, where she will also be playing a singles exhibition match against Garbiñe Muguruza.
She is also studying for a Masters degree in interior design, but her millions of fans will be relieved to know she won’t be putting down her racquet permanently for a long time yet.
“I’m planning on playing tennis for a very long time yet,” Williams said. “That dream is still going strong.”
WTA Insider Courtney Nguyen | With Serena Williams’ announced withdrawal, what can we expect from a reshuffled draw at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells?
Angelique Kerber talks before the start of the BNP Paribas Open.