WTA Insider Courtney Nguyen | World No.1 Angelique Kerber leads a stacked field at the Apia International Sydney that also features WTA Finals winner Dominika Cibulkova; check out the full entry list here on wtatennis.com.
BEIJING, China – Friday’s China Open draw placed Agnieszka Radwanska on a last 16 collision course with former World No.1 Caroline Wozniacki.
Over the past fortnight, Radwanska and Wozniacki have crossed paths in Tokyo and Wuhan, and should both clear the opening couple of hurdles in the Chinese capital another showdown awaits. Wozniacki came back from the brink to win in Tokyo – where she went on to lift the title – before the Pole gained revenge this week in Wuhan to reduce her arrears in the career head-to-head to 5-9.
Radwanska, the No.3 seed, begins the calendar’s final Premier Mandatory event against Wang Qiang, with the winner of Elena Vesnina and Ekaterina Makarova lying in wait in the second round. Wozniacki, the 2010 champion, is unseeded and was paired alongside CoCo Vandeweghe first up. Victory over the big-serving American could see her meet No.13 seed Roberta Vinci.
New Word No.1 Angelique Kerber begins her challenge against a qualifier, while No.2 seed and defending champion Garbiñe Muguruza faces Irina-Camelia Begu.
Muguruza has endured a disappointing second half of the season and is in need of a good run in Beijing to confirm her return to the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global. Her hopes of doing so were done no favors by the draw, which placed Petra Kvitova, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Madison Keys in her quarter.
The prospect of meeting Kvitova in the third round will be particularly daunting, given her spectacular form in Wuhan, while Kuznetsova and Keys are both looking to secure a place in Singapore. Whoever is left standing after running this gauntlet is likely to face No.4 seed Simona Halep for a place in the final.
In the top half, Kerber finds herself in a section that also includes Barbora Strycova, Elina Svitolina and No.6 seed Venus Williams.
Draw @ChinaOpen is out. 1R highlights: Wozniacki-Vandeweghe, Pliskova-Safarova, Stosur-Zhang, Mladenovic-Jankovic. pic.twitter.com/Rsz6DFuCbl
— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) 30 September 2016
An interview with Petra Kvitova after her win in the final of the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open.
Victoria Azarenka
2016 Quick Hits
Week 1 Ranking: No.22
Year-End Ranking: No.13
Season Highlights: Titles at Brisbane, Indian Wells & Miami
Best Major Result: QF (Australian Open)
13 Days left until the 2017 #WTA season! pic.twitter.com/8SEKBlJltK
— WTA (@WTA) 19 de diciembre de 2016
2017 Outlook
Two-time Grand Slam champion Victoria Azarenka tore off the blocks in 2016, winning the first title of the year at the Brisbane International in emphatic style. She was just as ruthless in Indian Wells and Miami, where she became the first woman in over a decade to clinch the elusive “Sunshine Double.”
And the 2016 SAP Match Stats reflect her torrid form: she dropped just 17 games en route to lifting the trophy in Brisbane – the fewest games lost in winning a WTA title in the entire year.
But after the clay season, the former No.1 announced that she was putting an end to her season in order to take on her biggest challenge yet: motherhood.
Looking ahead to 2017, Azarenka has plans to return to the sport but admits she won’t put a date on her comeback.
“I don’t put any time frame on myself,” Azarenka said in an interview with Tennis Channel. “I would love to make it as soon as possible, but give myself a reasonable time to fully recover and be ready. I’m not going to rush anything, and it’s hard to tell before the birth actually happens.
“So, we’ll see, but I’m confident that I’ll be able to play tennis again pretty soon.”
An interview with Madison Keys before her first round match at the China Open.
ORLANDO, FL, USA – On-the-rise American Christina McHale took a break from her off-season preparations to take WTA fans on an exclusive tour of the new USTA National Campus in Orlando, set to open in early 2017.
“It’s just a really great environment to be in,” said McHale, who was in town for a practice session on the Team USA Player Development courts.
Dubbed “the new Home Of American Tennis,” the National Campus will serve as the home base of USTA’s Player Development and USTA’s Community Tennis divisions as well as host USTA Pro Circuit events. Formerly in New York at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, which hosts the US Open, the new Orlando facility is one of the largest tennis facilities in the world.
Check out the video above to follow McHale on a first look at the brand new facility!
Fast Facts About The USTA National Campus:
· With 64-plus acres and 100 lighted tennis courts, the National Campus is one of the largest tennis facilities in the world.
· The USTA National Campus will open January 2, 2017 with the first tournament scheduled for January 6th.
· The Campus will host over 80 tournaments and events in 2017 with approximately 30,000 participants.
· An expected 80,000-100,000 attendees will visit the Campus in 2017.
· The USTA’s Community Tennis and Player Development divisions will be headquartered at the National Campus. It will also be home to the national training center for USTA-certified officials.
An interview with Garbiñe Muguruza before her first round match at the China Open.
Doubles World No.1 Sania Mirza is closing in on 90 weeks at the top of the rankings, but she’s still got unfinished business to take care of in 2017.
The Indian star ended the season as the world’s top doubles player for the second straight year, capping off a stellar run which saw her win three Grand Slams in a row, go on a 41-match winning streak and rack up an incredible 15 titles with four different partners.
But despite the impressive trophy haul, there’s still one title missing from her resume, and in 2017 Mirza intends to make things right on the red clay of Paris.
“In 2017, I would love to win a Grand Slam,” Mirza said, speaking at a promotional event in India. “If that [winning the French Open] does happen, it would be amazing. I won’t kill myself, if I don’t [win the French Open].
“It would be amazing for me to have three back-to-back years with at least one Grand Slam. So, that would be my goal really and everything else follows.”
Mirza came close to lifting the French Open doubles trophy in 2011 when she reached the final with then-partner Elena Vesnina, but six years down the road the World No.1 is heading to Paris in search of her first Coupe Simone-Mathieu and the Career Slam.
BEIJING, China – World No.3 Agnieszka Radwanska defeated the tricky Ekaterina Makarova in straight sets to advance to the third round of the China Open and put herself in pole position to qualify for the WTA Finals.
Watch live action from Beijing on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!
Makarova did well to avoid the first set shutout – she was down 5-0 when she finally got on the scoreboard and began to mount a comeback – but Radwanska powered through 6-3, 6-4 after just over an hour an thirty minutes on court.
Everything seemed to be going Radwanska’s way at the China National Tennis Center on Monday night. Despite facing fierce resistance from the Russian in the second set, Radwanska struck 20 winners and just eight unforced errors against Makarova’s 25 winners and 31 unforced errors. She also served at 52 percent and fired five aces.
.@ARadwanska with the drop shot to lob combo! ? https://t.co/mjfnrJ9FJ7
— WTA (@WTA) October 3, 2016
With the victory Radwanska edges even closer to qualifying for the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global. In fact, she’s one win away from a spot in the season-ending event, but she could still qualify without lifting a racquet if both Johanna Konta and Svetlana Kuznetsova lose in the second round.
“I just hope I can [qualify] here, that’s for sure,” Radwanska said after her win last round. “But, well, I had the situation last year when I had to win the Tianjin Open to qualify for Singapore, and I did it. Of course, it was last-minute qualifying.
“I will try everything to qualify a bit before that this year. Everything is open. This is a big event. Everybody can do a lot of points here.”
That doesn’t mean Radwanska’s in the clear just yet – standing between her and a ticket to Singapore is the winner between giant-killer Roberta Vinci and familiar rival Caroline Wozniacki. It would be the third meeting in as many weeks for Wozniacki and Radwanska, with the pair splitting their previous encounters and Tokyo and Wuhan.
Watch all the best moments from WTA All Access in 2016, from Andrea Petkovic meeting the man of her dreams to Angelique Kerber trying the Porsche Parking Challenge!