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Kerber Moves Past Mladenovic

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

CINCINNATI, OH, USA – No.2 seed Angelique Kerber began her quest to become World No.1 in earnest on Wednesday, dispatching the always dangerous Kristina Mladenovic, 6-0, 7-5, to reach the third round of the Western & Southern Open.

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“It wasn’t so easy to come to a tournament with just one or two days to prepare, and first rounds are always tough,” she told Andrew Krasny during her on-court interview. “But I was trying to play my game, and it’s so nice to be back in Cincinnati; I have great memories from the last few years, and the fans are amazing. It’s just so nice to be back here on the Center Court.”

Kerber arrived in Cincinnati fresh off her run to the final of the Olympic tennis event – where she became the first German woman since Stefanie Graf in 1992 to medal in tennis.

“It was really special, one of the really special weeks in my career so far. Winning a medal was a dream; when I was young, I was the Olympics at home and to go back home with a medal right now is an incredible feeling. I had an incredible week there.”

The World No.2 ultimately showed few showed few signs of fatigue against Mladenovic, who was playing her second match of the day after Tuesday’s rain interrupted her first round match against Kateryna Bondarenko. While both players hit 18 winners, it was Kerber’s consistency that won the day, with 20 unforced errors to 44 from the Frenchwoman, who was a game from forcing a deciding set before the German clinched the match in one hour and 15 minutes.

Up next for Kerber is the unseeded and looming World No.20 Barbora Strycova; the Olympic Bronze medalist in women’s doubles will be playing with Co-No.1 Sania Mirza for the first time this week in Cincinnati, but has been equally impressively in singles this season. Surviving a topsy-turvy first set against No.14 seed Samantha Stosur, Strycova saved a set point in the first set tie-break – and needing six of her own – to ultimately beat the Aussie, 7-6(11), 6-3.

Kerber leads their head-to-head 4-1 but the two have split their 2016 meetings and Strycova won their most recent encounter at the Mutua Madrid Open.

It’s an important week for the reigning Australian Open champion and Wimbledon finalist; should she win the Western & Southern Open title, she would end Serena Williams’ 183 straight weeks atop the WTA rankings and become the top seed at the US Open, the final Grand Slam tournament of the year.

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Insider Podcast: Czeching Into Cincy

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

CINCINNATI, OH, USA – The quicker conditions at the Western & Southern Open tripped up a few of the returning Olympians arriving from Rio de Janeiro, but women’s doubles Bronze medalist Barbora Strycova had no such problems, overcoming a maddening number of rain delays – and a most dangerous qualifier in former World No.5 Eugenie Bouchard – to advance into the second round in straight sets.

Karolina Pliskova missed the Olympic tennis event, opting to spend the time gearing up for the final stretch of the season, one that had been particularly successful for her in 2015 when she won the Emirates Airlines US Open Series.

WTA Insider caught up with both Czech starlets in the second Daily Dispatch from Cincinnati:

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Strycova On Pairing With Sania Mirza

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

CINCINNATI, OH, USA – When Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza announced the end of their illustrious partnership last week, all eyes were on the partners that the World Co-No.1s had chosen to play with at the US Open, which they won together last summer.

Hingis announced her intention to play with American powerhouse CoCo Vandeweghe, while Mirza opted to partner Czech veteran Barbora Strycova, who just claimed an Olympic Bronze medal in women’s doubles alongside Lucie Safarova; the pair upset three-time champions Venus Williams and Serena Williams in the first round.

“Sania asked me in Rio if I had someone to play with,” Strycova told WTA Insider in Tuesday’s Daily Dispatch from the Western & Southern Open. “Normally, I’m supposed to play with Misa, Michaella Krajicek, but she was playing singles in US Open qualies, so we weren’t sure if we were going to play together.

“So I was kind of free, and I had to give it a shot because she’s No.1 in the world and she asked me. I was really happy about that. We’ll try to play here and the US Open, and we’ll see how it goes. Maybe we’ll play together more after that.”

Strycova and Krajicek narrowly missed out on qualifying for the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global last year, reaching the semifinals of the Australian Open and the quarterfinals of Roland Garros. A Top 40 doubles player who has been ranked as high as No.14 back in 2011, Strycova plays doubles nearly every week in addition to singles, but has never partnered Mirza before.

They’ve faced off in the format eight times with different partners, and Mirza leads 5-3, her most recent win coming with Hingis against Strycova and Krajicek en route to last year’s US Open title.

“We’ve talked to each other a lot. She’s a funny girl and I think we’ll be good on court. She plays the kind of tennis I like; she goes for it and I will be at the net. I think we’ll be a good team.”

Strycova and Mirza are seeded No.7 in Cincinnati, and will play a tough team in Darija Jurak and Anastasia Rodionova in the first round; Jurak and Rodionova won their first title as a pair back at the Aegon International in Eastbourne and reached a second final at the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford.

Hear more from Strycova and compatriot Karolina Pliskova in the latest episode of the WTA Insider Podcast:

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Halep Leads Stacked Schedule In Cincy

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

WTA Insider | On the latest WTA Insider Live Blog, all of the top seeds are on the schedule to take Cincinnati by storm after a rainy Tuesday at the Western & Southern Open.

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Puig Talks Olympics With Telemundo

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

MIAMI, FL, USA – Before heading off to Puerto Rico next week for her big Olympic welcome, Monica Puig made a stopover in her hometown of Miami for a quick cuddle with her new dog Rio and the first leg of her media whirlwind.

While in town the gold medalist, who made history for her country by becoming the first Puerto Rican athlete ever to win a gold medal hit Telemundo’s Miami studios for her first televised interview since her big win in Rio.

“I’m still super emotional,” Puig told the morning talk show Un Nuevo Día. “I don’t even know how to talk about it because I still feel like I’m living a dream.”

“It’s been a long year with a lot of sacrifices, but everything’s worked out well for me so I can’t complain.”

Puig also shared the meaning of her social media rallying cry, the hashtag #PicaPower. The tag comes from the saying “picar piedras,” meaning “to break rocks” and is Spanish slang for working long and hard at small tasks for small rewards.

“You’ve got to break a lot of rocks to accomplish what you want,” she said.

Puig was joined on the show by Grammy-winning merengue singer Elvis Crespo, who surprised her by dedicating a rendition of the iconic song “Qué Bonita Bandera” to the island’s new national hero.

The singer even performed an ode to her Olympic feat to a merengue version of “La Borinqueña,” Puerto Rico’s official anthem, which was heard at the Olympics for the first time ever last week.

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