Tokyo: Osaka vs Sasnovich
Naomi Osaka takes on Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the quarterfinals of the Toray Pan Pacific Open.
Naomi Osaka takes on Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the quarterfinals of the Toray Pan Pacific Open.
Serena Williams announced today that due to a continuing shoulder injury she will not compete in the upcoming Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open and the China Open in Beijing.
“I am disappointed that I will not be able to compete at the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open or the China Open due to continuing issues with my right shoulder,” Williams said in a statement. “I have been practicing and playing but my shoulder is still not fit for tournament play.”
“I wish the tournaments great success and I’m sure the fans will enjoy some great tennis. I am focused on getting ready to compete at the WTA Finals in Singapore.”
Williams recently told CNN’s Ravi Ubha, “I’m tired of playing tournaments unhealthy and taking losses that I would never lose.”
Williams has played eight tournaments this year, the fewest she has played in a season since returning from injury in 2011. She has won two titles (Rome and Wimbledon) and finished as runner-up three times – Australian Open (lost to Angelique Kerber in final), Indian Wells (lost to Victoria Azarenka in final) and Roland Garros (lost to Garbiñe Muguruza in final).
Her coach Patrick Mouratoglu stated in an interview with CNN, “It’s a bad season for her. She has been a lot injured. For Serena any other result that is not a title is a bad result. The final at a Grand Slam is a bad result for her. We cannot be satisfied with one Grand Slam Serena Out Of Wuhan, Beijing – Targets Singapore Return and two finals lost.”
As Williams seeks time to recover from her injury, she will look to return to action in Singapore for the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global, an event she has competed in nine times and won five titles.
Caroline Wozniacki takes on Magda Linette in the quarterfinals of the Toray Pan Pacific Open.
WUHAN, China – If Angelique Kerber thought reaching the top of the rankings would make life any easier at the WTA’s flagship events, she was given a rude awakening at Friday’s draw for the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open.
Indeed, Kerber’s first event since lifting the US Open and usurping Serena Williams as World No.1 will be far from straightforward after a number of potential banana skins were placed in her path at the Premier 5 event.
As one of the leading eight seeds, Kerber is the recipient of a first-round bye, meeting either Kristina Mladenovic or CoCo Vandeweghe in her opening match.
The German, a quarter and semifinalist in Wuhan’s first two years on the calendar, is projected to face No.14 seed and 2014 champion Petra Kvitova in the third round, with possible showdowns versus Carla Suárez Navarro and Simona Halep lurking further down the line.
In the bottom half of the draw, defending champion Venus Williams faces a slightly less threatening start. Her opening opponent will be either Anastasija Sevastova or Yulia Putintseva, while Svetlana Kuznetsova and Agnieszka Radwanska are likely to lie in wait in should she clear the early hurdles.
Serena Williams’ late withdrawal promoted Garbiñe Muguruza, last year’s runner-up, to No.2 seed, and she will begin against either Daria Gavrilova or former World No.1 Jelena Jankovic. This was not the only eye-catching first round match-up of a draw which also threw together No.16 seed Samantha Stosur and the resurgent Caroline Wozniacki.
The official draw for the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open 2016….you saw it here first. Some top matches coming your way! #wuhanopen pic.twitter.com/xOILshaqzE
— Wuhan Open (@wuhanopentennis) September 23, 2016
Agnieszka Radwanska takes on Monica Puig in the quarterfinals of the Toray Pan Pacific Open.
TOKYO, Japan – Agnieszka Radwanska kept her Tokyo title defense on track with an emphatic win over Olympic gold medalist Monica Puig, defeating her 6-2, 6-3 to claim her fifth semifinal berth at the Toray Pan Pacific Open.
Watch live action from Tokyo this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!
As SAP’s Behind The Numbers revealed, Radwanska’s game flourishes post-US Open, and is especially lethal during the WTA’s Asian Swing. She holds the record for most matches and most titles won in the Asian swing since 2011, and looks set to add to her tally after straight sets victory over Puig.
“I definitely played my best tennis today,” Radwanska said in her on-court interview. “I was serving well and keeping the ball very well. Obviously I knew [Puig] is a really great player, playing in a very top form. So I’m really glad I could do everything today, in my game.”
Radwanska hit 16 winners and allowed just 10 unforced errors during the one hour and 16 minute encounter, not giving Puig much to work with as the Puerto Rican hit 19 winners to 30 unforced errors.
Radwanska’s serve played a decisive role in the match, bailing her out of tricky situations time and time again. She struck eight aces – including a rare second serve ace to bring up set points – and won 66 percent of points behind her first serve.
“I just felt like John Isner for a little bit there!” Radwanska joked with the Japanese crowd. “I think I was serving very well today, and of course that helped me a lot. Especially because from her side the ball is coming so fast, so the serve was the key today as well.”
Radwanska awaits the winner of the day’s second quarterfinal between Caroline Wozniacki and Magda Linette for a spot in the semifinals and a shot at a third Tokyo trophy.
5th @TorayPPO Semifinal for @ARadwanska! ? pic.twitter.com/7JjtpbhMFr
— WTA (@WTA) September 23, 2016
An interview with Elina Svitolina after her quarterfinal match at the Toray Pan Pacific Open.
TOKYO, Japan – Former champion Caroline Wozniacki ended qualifier Magda Linette’s run at the Toray Pan Pacific Open with a straight-set win in Friday’s quarterfinal.
Watch live action from Tokyo this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!
Continuing the form that took her to the US Open semifinals and past No.4 seed Carla Suárez Navarro in the previous round, Wozniacki overcame a spirited showing from Linette to run out a 6-4, 6-3 winner in an hour and 22 minutes.
World No.109 Linette needed nearly three hours to get past Yulia Putintseva on Thursday and despite having chances in both sets was unable to upset her more celebrated hitting partner.
“She’s been playing really well lately, had a lot of matches. She’s a good friend of mine and we practice a lot so we know each other’s game,” Wozniacki said. “I was just happy that I stayed tough and managed to serve it out in the end.”
Another good day at the office! Semifinals tomorrow ???? #tokyo pic.twitter.com/0CkWKkmXfv
— Caroline Wozniacki (@CaroWozniacki) September 23, 2016
The Dane drew on all her experience to take an evenly contested opening set, breaking in the final game when Linette netted with a tired forehand. Making a mockery of her lowly ranking, Linette continued to pose questions in the second set, attacking the net with relish. Ultimately, though, Wozniacki had too many answers, taking the final four games to reach a fifth semifinal in the Japanese capital.
In 2010 Wozniacki ended up going all the way and she continues her bid to reclaim the title against another Pole, No.2 seed Agnieszka Radwanska.
“We’ve played many times before, and again she’s a close friend. It’s going to be another tough one because she’s been playing well this week, but I’m just happy to be in the semifinals again.”
An interview with Agnieszka Radwanska after her quarterfinal at the Toray Pan Pacific Open.
The introduction of Open Tennis in 1968 meant amateur and professional players could compete on the same stages – bringing an end to the hypocrisy of ‘shamateurism’ – but it didn’t do much for the women who played the sport. In fact, in the first couple of years the gulf in prize money offered to men and women only grew. Adding insult to injury, there were few opportunities for the women to shine on their own terms. Tournaments were joint but far from equal.
Matters came to a head in the summer of 1970, when Jack Kramer’s prestigious Pacific Southwest event proposed paying the men more than eight times as much as the so-called ‘fairer sex’ – even though the intended women’s field was packed with stars.
Enter Gladys Heldman, the savvy founder and publisher of World Tennis magazine. Devoted to the sport and a passionate advocate of the women who played it, Heldman counseled Billie Jean King, the powerbroker among the players, against a boycott of Kramer’s event. Instead, when Kramer would not budge on prize money, Heldman arranged for the Houston Racquet Club to host a women-only tournament.
Riding the winds of societal change, the initial $5,000 purse was to come from ticket sales to women’s groups associated with tennis in the city. Heldman also persuaded her friend Joseph Cullman III, an avid tennis fan and chairman of tobacco giant Philip Morris, to provide an additional $2,500 in return for naming rights for his Virginia Slims brand.
For the new Virginia Slims Invitational, Heldman set about recruiting players who signed weeklong $1 contracts with her company. More than just a symbolic act, this approach protected the tennis club from any lawsuit that might be launched by the tennis establishment.
Despite threats from the United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA) that they would be banned from competing at Grand Slams and lose their national rankings, nine women signed up: King, Rosie Casals, Nancy Richey, Judy Dalton, Kerry Melville Reid, Julie Heldman, Kristy Pigeon, Peaches Bartkowicz and Valerie Ziegenfuss.
They became known as the Original 9.
“I felt a sense of both fear and exhilaration,” recalled King, four decades on. “We knew we were making history and we had such a strong sense of purpose. I just kept thinking about the vision we had for the future of our sport. We wanted to ensure that any girl in the world that was good enough would have a place to go and make a living playing tennis.”
Any fears were not unfounded, for the rebels did suffer consequences: The two Australians in the group, Dalton and Melville Reid, were forced out of their national championships, for instance. Dalton – who would finish runner-up to Casals at Houston – was even prevented from using her Slazenger racquet for two years.
Still, so pleased was Virginia Slims with the Houston spectacle that its sponsorship skyrocketed; the resulting 21-event World Tennis Women’s Pro Tour offered a total prize purse of some $336,100 in 1971. It was a politically fraught time for the sport as a whole, with the USLTA mounting a rival circuit that relied heavily on the talents of the young Chris Evert and foreign stars such as Margaret Court, Evonne Goolagong and Virginia Wade.
Ultimately, though, the marketing savvy of Virginia Slims and the determined promotional efforts of the players saw the Slims roadshow win the PR battle. In 1973 the sport’s rival factions cast aside differences and the WTA was formed. For the first time, all of the top women would present a united front and the tour hasn’t looked back since: the 2016 edition of the WTA’s Road to Singapore will travel through 33 countries with 56 events, plus the four Grand Slam tournaments, players competing for more than $137 million in prize money.
“Today’s players are living our vision,” King said. “In 1970, and even a few years after we signed the $1 contract with Gladys, people never believed women’s tennis would be a global sport and that players would be making the money they make today. But it is a reality and I know today’s players will continue our dreams for future generations in tennis and inspire other women’s sports as well.”
— Adam Lincoln
