Tennis News

MALLORCA, Spain – When the 19-year-old Spaniard Sara Sorribes Tormo takes the court against the No.3 seed Ana Ivanovic for a spot in the Mallorca Open quartefinals, she’ll be facing off against a very familiar opponent.

The two have never played before, at least not in real life, but when it comes to playing as Ivanovic in video games, Sorribes Tormo is an expert.

“It’s such a dream to play Ivanovic,” Sorribes Tormo said. “Back when she won Roland Garros, playing Wii was a big thing, I had the tennis game and I always picked her as my player. In fact, yesterday I was talking to my brother and he reminded me of it.

“Obviously we don’t play video games anymore because we’ve grown up, but she’s a player that I really like.”

Ivanovic and Sorribes Tormo are set to take the stage in Mallorca tomorrow at 7:00 pm local time, and it’ll be the first time the Spaniard plays on the tournament’s sunken center court. She comes into the matchup fresh off a grass court title at the ITF 50K in Essen.

“It’s a huge motivation to play on the center court,” she assured. “I’m in a moment where I’ve been playing very well, with confidence.

“I know that it is a match where I have to try to do my best and focus only on me. I have to forget who is at the other side of the net and do my job.”

Sorribes Tormo made her way to the second round after coming back from 0-3 down against fellow Spaniard Paula Badosa Gibert, 6-3, 7-5, while Ivanovic pushed past Pauline Parmentier 6-4, 6-4.

Modo Winner…?ON! @AnaIvanovic ya está en los cuartos en dobles. Mañana turno para el cuadro individual. pic.twitter.com/40t5JLcS75

— MallorcaOpen (@MallorcaOpen) June 15, 2016

– Via Mallorca Open

MALLORCA, Spain – Jelena Jankovic survived more than one scare at the Mallorca Open, where she found herself battling back from a love set down to advance 0-6, 6-4, 6-3 against Elise Mertens for a spot in the quarterfinals.

Watch live action from Birmingham and Mallorca this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!

“It was a very, very tough match,” Jankovic said afterwards. “I played against a young opponent who came through qualies and has done quite well recently. She’s played a lot of matches on grass and so she’s quite confident.”

Playing against the Belgian qualifier for the first time, Jankovic couldn’t find a way to make Mertens uncomfortable as her opponent ripped winner after winner and put the No.2 seed down 0-6 in 28 minutes.

“I was playing everything that she likes, because also I don’t know her game very well,” Jankovic said. “I didn’t know the way she plays or her style. I’ve just seen a little bit of her match yesterday, and she played very differently against me which was a surprise for me.”

The former No.1 found her rhythm in the second and third set. Although Mertens broke to start the second set, Jankovic quickly replied in kind and did a bit of problem-solving to expose the weaknesses in the 20-year-old’s game. From then on, it seemed almost inevitable as Jankovic grabbed the next two sets to complete her comeback.

Despite her dominating performance in the last half of the match, Jankovic herself never seemed comfortable on the grass throughout the match. Despite winning a title in Birmingham in 2007, grass has never been the Serb’s favored surface, evidence by her many slips and tumbles today.

“It’s not easy, on this surface,” Jankovic said. “I can play well on grass, but I just think it’s more mental for me than anything else. Maybe I just put it into my head that I don’t like the surface. Because I fell a few times, I became scared to move freely.

“I was scared to move and was a little bit tentative. On other surfaces I move without thinking and hit my shots, but here, once I fell down I became so scared. But that happens to everyone, and I just have to fight and keep playing.”

Jankovic will need to find her nerve on this surface again in her quarterfinal with Sorana Cirstea, who moved past Daniela Hantuchova 6-3, 6-4.

“I think on grass, the most important thing is mentality, because everything goes so quick,” Cirstea said. “If your mind is off for a few seconds, straightaway they can break you. One break can mean one set.

“Here it’s so important to stay focused every single point, it takes more energy. Even if the matches are shorter, it’s a lot on the mental side.”

Also moving on are Mariana Duque-Mariño, who dealt a huge upset to grass-court stalwart Sabine Lisicki, toppling her 1-6, 6-3, 6-4. No.8 seed Eugenie Bouchard also tumbled out, falling to Anastasija Sevastova 6-3, 6-3.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: Svetlana Kuznetsova will be looking to end her runner-up jinx when the Russian heads to the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on February 19.

The 31-year-old, who is currently enjoying a rich vein of form having recently retained her Moscow title as well as reaching the fourth round of the Australian Open, has climbed into the top ten in the world rankings for the first time since 2010.

Talking to the Gulf News, Kuznetsova says she is in a confident frame of mind approaching a tournament in which she has been the bridesmaid on three previous occasions, losing out to Justine Henin in 2004, Elena Dementieva in 2008 and Caroline Wozniacki in 2011.

“People see me differently now because I’m a Top 10 player again,” she admitted. “Players will only see you by the ranking, and ranking reflects everything. You can’t cheat the ranking, that’s for sure. All players want to beat me.

“Of course, everyone expects good tennis from me and that can be hard to deal with. But I feel confident, I feel happy and healthy. Those are the main things and I love the game. I enjoy it.

.@SvetlanaK27 is happy to get the win in her hometown! ? pic.twitter.com/myRumeFCIW

— WTA (@WTA) February 1, 2017

“I would love to take some of the consistency into this season. In the last few years, I haven’t been so good,” she added. “I was always there, but couldn’t quite flip the switch. I would love to stay with the switch on, because it’s the key for me.

“I feel that I’m playing as well as the best in the world, and I have a chance to beat them and be ranked among them everywhere I go. It’s a great feeling because I worked really hard to be there.”

The WTA Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships runs from 19 February. Click here for tickets.