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Kvitova Back Into New Haven Quarterfinal

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

NEW HAVEN, CT, USA – Defending champion Petra Kvitova kept her bid for a fourth Connecticut Open title firmly on track as she powered past Eugenie Bouchard 6-3, 6-2 to book a spot in the quarterfinals.

Watch live action from New Haven this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!

Much like in her previous match, it took a few games for Kvitova to get going and find her rhythm against Bouchard. The Czech surrendered the first break to give Bouchard a 3-1 lead in the first set. But losing serve first just served to galvanize the No.6 seed, who broke back immediately and reeled off 10 straight games to put herself up a set and 5-0.

Kvitova closed out the match after just over an hour and advanced to her fifth consecutive New Haven quarterfinal. It was also Kvitova’s tenth win in a row in New Haven, improving her record at the tournament to an impressive 17-2.

With the win Kvitova sets up a quarterfinal clash with Ekaterina Makarova, an opponent she’s all too familiar with. This will be the fourth time they’ll have met this year, with Makarova owning wins at Miami and Wimbledon and Kvitova getting her revenge at the Olympic tennis event in Rio.

“I feel like I meet Ekaterina every week, it’s really funny,” Kvitova said of the matchup. “I remember one year we played here as well and I beat her. So I hope that I can take some of the good memories from here and try to play my best again.”

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Vinci Vaults Past Konjuh In New Haven

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

NEW HAVEN, CT, USA – No.2 seed Roberta Vinci made her way to the quarterfinals of the Connecticut Open for the first time after a 6-2, 6-2 win over Ana Konjuh.

Watch live action from New Haven this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!

“It was not an easy match,” Vinci admitted afterwards. “It’s always tough, the first round for me. She played well, but the court is so fast. I played consistent and tried to stay focused every point.”

Eighteen-year-old Konjuh was making her New Haven debut after coming through three rounds of qualifying, and she came out swinging against the No.2 seed. She brought up two break points right away against the Italian’s serve, unleashing her powerful groundstrokes to yank Vinci from line to line.

The Italian held on, though, and took advantage of a loose service game – including two double faults – to get the first break to love at 4-2. She rattled off another two games and took the opening set. The second set unfolded in the same pattern as the first, with Vinci grabbing two late breaks to take the match after just under an hour.

With the win Vinci advanced to the New Haven quarterfinal and notched her ever best result at New Haven, having reached just two second round appearances in 2011 and 2015.

“I love to play here in New Haven, I have great memories here from last year,” she said. “And now I’m in quarterfinals, for the first time, so I’m so happy. I will try my best for tomorrow.”

Vinci is set to play Johanna Larson in the next round for a spot in the semifinals.

Also in action today was lucky loser Kirsten Flipkens, who upset the higher-ranked Caroline Garcia, 7-6(3), 7-5.

Her reward? A quarterfinal clash with top seed Agnieszka Radwanska.

“She’s a great player, she’s very talented,” Flipkens said. “I’ve already had some matches against her in the past.

“I just hope that I can go out there and do my best and have a good match, no matter what the result.”

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Keys Named FearlesslyGIRL Ambassador

Keys Named FearlesslyGIRL Ambassador

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

Madison Keys is in the midst of the best season of her career, becoming the first American woman to break into the Top 10 since Serena Williams and constantly putting herself in contention for the game’s biggest prizes. But she doesn’t just want to make an impact on the court. Now it’s time to make an impact off the court.

The 21-year-old has signed on to become the ambassador of FearlesslyGIRL, an international organization dedicated to empowering young women in their local schools and communities. Founded by in 2004 by Kate Whitfield, the organization takes its message straight to the next generation of young women, holding summits for teenage girls to encourage an open dialogue to foster a sense of community and support during a time when their confidence and self-esteem is at its most critical.

“I think it’s so important that we help younger girls get rid of the ‘Mean Girl’ mentality,” Keys told WTA Insider. “You can be a positive, nice person, but still go out and kick butt.”

WTA Insider spoke to Keys about the partnership and why she feels the adolescent years are the best time to help girls prepare for a world full of self-doubt, sexism, and opportunity.

WTA Insider: How did you decide to partner with FearlesslyGirl?
Keys: After reading about it, I immediately knew I wanted to be a part of it any way that I could. I just think that’s it’s so special. I feel like I’m going to be able to help younger girls through that difficult time of transitioning and getting through high school. I know that’s a tough time for all of us, so being able to help in any way that I can meant a lot to me.

WTA Insider: You have two younger sisters and you’ve gone through that time yourself. What do you see as the particular issues that affect young girls who are entering high school?
Keys: Your self-confidence is up and down through those years and that’s never easy to go through alone. But all of us go through these issues, and I think we isolate ourselves into thinking, ‘I’m the only one going through it, no one understands me.’ What’s so great about the FearlesslyGirl summits is you sit down and these girls get to talk to each other and realize that she’s going through the exact same thing I’m going through.

I think being able to talk to each other helps lighten that load. But also you’re able to help each other through it and when you have someone else to talk to and relate to it’s so much easier to deal with these things. You get more confident asking for help without seeming weak or feeling vulnerable.

Asking for what you deserve is not being needy or bossy. It’s the typical ‘Oh she’s asking for this, she’s so bossy.’ When a guy does it it’s great leadership.

Madison Keys

WTA Insider: Why do you think girls internalize their doubts and insecurities instead of openly talking about them?
Keys: I don’t know why we do that. I still struggle with it right now. You think no one will understand it, but logically you know someone has gone through it as well. If I just talk to someone I’m sure it would be a lot easier to deal with rather than by myself.

I think it’s something I’ve definitely had to get better at. Even small things like being really nervous before a match, hanging on to that and not talking about it and just pushing it down and avoiding it just makes it bigger and harder to deal with, instead of going to Scott [her trainer] or Thomas [her coach] and saying ‘I’m really nervous today, this is what i’m dealing with’. Usually, just talking about it makes it not as big of a deal. Often they actually have advice that can help.

It’s amazing that the feeling of being vulnerable and putting yourself out there and saying you’re not 100% confident right now and I need help — doing that is scary. It’s not easy. So I think talking to girls when they’re younger and getting them more comfortable doing that is really important. Not feeling that asking for help means that you’re weak or you don’t know what you’re doing. Everyone needs help.

So I think talking to these girls during a time when they need help, hopefully if you can get them to open up to each other when they’re younger they become more comfortable doing it later in life, and once they’re older they can help younger girls do it.

Madison Keys

WTA Insider: What do you think you being a professional athlete adds to the discussion?
Keys: One of the things I feel like I can bring to the table is that so often we have this girl versus girl mentality. I just want people to know you can be competitive with other girls but still be friends. That’s literally our whole lives. We go out and we play each other and we both want to win this match, but then we come off the court and we know nothing is personal. She can beat me one week and I can beat her the next week and we’re exactly the same.

Learning how to do that is so necessary because you can be competitive with another girl and still want the best for them. I can be on a court and want to beat someone and let’s say they beat me, but then the next day I can say ‘Oh I hope she does well.’ It doesn’t have to be tearing each other down. You can be competitive and you can want to beat someone but you can also be positive and help push other girls to be good.

WTA Insider: So what exactly is your involvement going to look like?
Keys: I’m going to do as many summits as I can next year. It’s fun because there are some in Canada, some in England, and I think they’re trying to get some in Australia Too. So it’s amazing that I can be a part of it wherever I am. I’ll be a part of the summits and get to talk to the girls, which is really what I want to do. I didn’t want to be the face of it and not actually do any of it. If at the end of the day I wasn’t the face of it but I was still doing it, I’d be really happy.

I think Fearlessly Girl is amazing because they bring in these leaders, juniors in high school, and they help run the summits. So they can help the freshmen and the sophomores do it next year. Its tarts with changing middle schools and high schools. You can change the whole high school and those girls go off to college, and the influence continues. Starting small we can do a lot and it spreads.

Keys is set to compete at the US Open starting next week. For more information about FearlesslyGIRL, click here.

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SAP Behind The Numbers: Summer Swing

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

How dominant is Serena Williams on serve? And how about on the return? Catch up on all the numbers ahead of the last Grand Slam of the year as SAP takes you Behind The Numbers.

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Radwanska Wins Ostapenko Opener

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

NEW HAVEN, CT, USA – Top seed Agnieszka Radwanska overcame an early challenge from 19-year-old Jelena Ostapenko to advance in straight sets in her opening match at the Connecticut Open.

Watch live action from New Haven this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!

Radwanska took a wild card into the event in search of extra tune-up matches ahead of the US Open, and she was certainly put through her paces against the young Ostapenko.

“I was actually really surprised,” Radwanska said after the match, which was the pair’s first encounter. “She’s really a very smart and solid player. She’s very young and she can already do everything on court. She can play a really good game and for sure she’s gonna be good.”

Ostapenko and Radwanska traded breaks at the start of the match and held level throughout, with Radwanska’s cerebral game matching up against the teenager’s aggressive style. Ostapenko held a set point at 5-4 on Radwanska’s serve in the first set but was unable to convert as her backhand misfired and the unforced error count did her in. The Pole held her serve and won seven games on the trot to take the opening set and a commanding 4-0 lead in the second before easing through 7-5, 6-1.

Now into the quarterfinals, Radwanska is seeking one more win to end a drought dating back to April: the former World No.2 hasn’t reached a semifinal since the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, a streak she’s certainly hoping to snap heading into the US Open.

“I think these kind of matches is always good to have before a Grand Slam,” she said. “It was a great match and I’m really happy I could play my best game. I just hope that I could play the same tennis the next match and be fully prepared for the Grand Slam.”

Radwanska awaits the winner between Caroline Garcia and lucky loser Kirsten Flipkens.

Injuries and withdrawals may have wreaked havoc on the New Haven draw, but Flipkens is one player who’s certainly not complaining. The Belgian was called in at the last minute to replace Lesia Tsurenko, another lucky loser who had to pull out from the main draw with a right knee injury.

“Well, it was a crazy story,” Flipkens said of getting the call to play. “There were so many lucky losers, and I only found out at 12:15 today that I was going to play at two o’clock!”

The Belgian took full advantage of the second chance against Belinda Bencic, defeating the Swiss teenager 6-1, 4-6, 7-5. Bencic served for the match at 5-4 in the third, but Flipkens rallied to win four games in a row and advance.

Along with Radwanska, three other players booked early spots into the New Haven quarterfinals. Ekaterina Makarova grabbed the first quarterfinal berth after a 6-3, 6-2 win over Anastasija Sevastova. Meanwhile, Elena Vesnina booked a clash against the No.10 seed Elina Svitolina. Vesnina made her way to the quarterfinals after Anett Kontaveit retired at 6-4, 1-0, while Svitolina swept past Evgeniya Rodina 6-3, 6-1.

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