Tennis News

TOKYO, Japan – No.6 seed Zhang Shuai ended Naomi Osaka’s hopes at the Japan Women’s Open Tennis with a straight set victory in their second-round clash on Thursday.

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

Making the most of fast starts to both sets, Zhang completed a 6-3, 6-2 win in style, firing a wonderful forehand winner into the corner.

This year Osaka has started to deliver on her boundless potential, but against Zhang was unable to find the consistency to match her shotmaking. She netted a forehand to fall an early break behind and despite reducing her arrears to 4-3 was unable to rescue the first set.

Zhang continued to play the steadier tennis in the second set, punctuating her metronomic groundstrokes with occasional moment of inspiration; with Osaka serving at break point down in the second game, Zhang soaked up a series of heavy-duty groundstrokes before arrowing a pin-point forehand onto the baseline.

Another break soon followed as she confidently set up a quarterfinal meeting against Varvara Lepchenko.

Elsewhere there were contrasting fortunes for Zhang’s fellow seeds, Yulia Putintseva and Christina McHale.

To the delight of the crowd Kurumi Nara produced one of her best performances of the year to swat aside No.3 seed Putintseva and keep live homes of a Japanese champion. McHale, the No.7 seed, was made to work considerably harder, coming within two points of defeat against qualifier Rebecca Peterson before pulling through, 2-6, 6-2, 7-6(4).

“It was a very tough match, very physical – the points were very long – so I’m really happy to have won and be moving on to the next round,” McHale said.

Fellow American Alison Riske continued her impressive progress through the draw, easing past Misaki Doi’s conqueror, Aliaksandra Sasnovich, 6-3, 6-1, while Viktorija Golubic defeated last year’s finalist Magda Linette, 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-3.

Naomi Osaka is back home in Japan and into the second round of the Japan Women’s Open Tennis, and the 18-year-old celebrated in the best way: by joining Twitter.

This isn't as complicated as I thought… 10/10 on IGM ? (anyone who got that joke is 100.) #FirstTweet #Hashtags

— NaomiOsaka大坂なおみ (@NaomiOsakaWTA) September 10, 2016

 Naomi famously quoted the Pokémon theme song to a room full of confused journalists earlier in the year, and she kept to the theme on Twitter, bringing all of her dry humor to 140 characters. 

A nice person just gave me a map for #pokemongo ? pretty soon I'm gonna have to #pokemonstop ちずありがとう！ pic.twitter.com/u5K6ZvVb68

— NaomiOsaka大坂なおみ (@NaomiOsakaWTA) September 11, 2016

上野のちかく drove somewhere near #ueno Japan is so cool. pic.twitter.com/ZjL6UV20iy

— NaomiOsaka大坂なおみ (@NaomiOsakaWTA) September 12, 2016

Wake up the sun is shin- ohhh….wow ok nevermind -the wake up sun shining is a Naruto song but idk which one- #rain pic.twitter.com/wbup5pJaoY

— NaomiOsaka大坂なおみ (@NaomiOsakaWTA) September 12, 2016

Lowkey waiting for America to wake up so I can post “dank memes” lol… おなかすいた やきにくたべたい…. Hnghhhhhhh 🙁 do you guys know Yakiniku?

— NaomiOsaka大坂なおみ (@NaomiOsakaWTA) September 13, 2016

But quickly after posting her first few tweets, she ran into her first social media roadblock… herself.

Or, well, sort of.

When you finally passed yourself in followers lol. IDK what you guys mean by, “Are you the real Naomi?” ? conti- pic.twitter.com/kW3U9bbhCD

— NaomiOsaka大坂なおみ (@NaomiOsakaWTA) September 13, 2016

Turns out, there’s a long-inactive Naomi Osaka account floating around on Twitter, and now it was up to the real Naomi Osaka to defeat her Shadow Clone…

How do I even prove I'm me?How should I even…How….can mirrors be real if our eyes aren't?????? -Jaden Smith 2013 lolololol #sorry

— NaomiOsaka大坂なおみ (@NaomiOsakaWTA) September 13, 2016

I took a picture holding my name,but then I remembered.Never post a pic holding a sign on the Internet. #photoshop pic.twitter.com/a4bbMTrxBL

— NaomiOsaka大坂なおみ (@NaomiOsakaWTA) September 14, 2016

Literally this is so embarrassing. I wrote it on see-through paper so it's harder to photoshop. #dontyouguysdare ? pic.twitter.com/uBQ0es8yQa

— NaomiOsaka大坂なおみ (@NaomiOsakaWTA) September 14, 2016

Well, I think that proves it.

Welcome to Twitter, Naomi Osaka! Next step: a blue checkmark.

Alizé Cornet has been training for the WTA Frame Challenge all season long, and she certainly delivered.

Check out the video above to watch Alizé shatter the WTA Frame Challenge record of 108 bounces set by Sara Errani. Can you keep track of all the bounces?

@SaraErrani pretty cool but I'm coming for you ?! @WTA come on guys when are you gonna show my #WTAFrameChallenge ?!

— Alize Cornet (@alizecornet) August 28, 2016

That’s right – Alizé scored more than double the bounces that Sara did, becoming the new all-time leader in the WTA Frame Challenge. Will anyone top that?

Maybe Lara Arruabarrena, who scored one of the fanciest trick serves earlier this year, is up for the challenge? After all, she had a few words for both Sara and Alizé:

@alizecornet @SaraErrani you both are lucky they didnt ask me to do it?

— Lara Arruabarrena (@laraarrua) August 28, 2016

Can Alizé’s record hold? She’s shattered the previous record and now sits head and shoulders above the rest, but that could all change when the next WTA star takes on the WTA Frame Challenge.

Stay tuned…

TOKYO, Japan – Katerina Siniakova advanced to the quarterfinals of the Japan Women’s Open Tennis after a marathon victory over Louisa Chirico on Wednesday.

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

Top seed Misaki Doi’s surprise exit has left the top half of the draw wide open and, despite an almighty struggle to cross the finishing line, Siniakova refused to let her own challenge be derailed.

Leading by a set and 5-2, Siniakova appeared to be cantering to victory. Chirico, though, refused to go down without a fight, breaking three times in the next five games to take the match the distance.

The deciding set followed a similar pattern, the Czech squandering a 5-3 lead before finally closing out a 6-4, 5-7, 7-6(3) victory after one minute shy of three hours on court.

Also advancing to the last eight were a couple more unseeded players, Varvara Lepchenko and Jana Cepelova. Lepchenko upset No.4 seed Johanna Larsson, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, while Cepelova eased past qualifier Jang Su Jeong, 6-3, 6-1.

Earlier, there were wins for Naomi Osaka, Yulia Putintseva and Magda Linette in their rain-delayed opening round matches.

Osaka produced a clinical display to see off Anett Kontaveit, 6-0, 6-2, in under an hour, while Linette, last year’s finalist, was every big as impressive in a 6-1, 6-0 win over Erika Sema. No.3 seed Yulia Putintseva was kept on court slightly longer, defeating Maria Sakkari, 6-4, 6-3.

Venus Williams has issued the following statement in response to Tuesday’s hack on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s databases, which led to the public release of her confidential medical data:

“I was disappointed to learn today that my private, medical data has been compromised by hackers and published without my permission. I have followed the rules established under the Tennis Anti-Doping Program in applying for, and being granted, ‘therapeutic use exemptions’.

“The applications for TUEs under the Tennis Anti-Doping program require a strict process for approval which I have adhered to when serious medical conditions have occurred. The exemptions posted in the hacked report are reviewed by an anonymous, independent group of doctors, and approved for legitimate medical reasons. I am one of the strongest supporters of maintaining the highest level of integrity in competitive sport and I have been highly disciplined in following the guidelines set by WADA, USADA, the ITF and collectively the Tennis Anti-Doping Program.”

Travis Tygart, CEO of the United States Anti-Doping Agency also issued a statement denouncing the hack and supporting the athletes.

“It’s unthinkable that in the Olympic movement, hackers would illegally obtain confidential medical information in an attempt to smear athletes to make it look as if they have done something wrong. The athletes haven’t. In fact, in each of the situations, the athlete has done everything right in adhering to the global rules for obtaining permission to use a needed medication. The respective International Federations, through the proper process, granted the permission and it was recognized by the IOC and USADA.”

QUÉBEC CITY, Canada – Barbora Stefkova was a match from reaching the main draw after falling in qualies, but got a lucky break that the Czech youngster took with gusto to knock out defending champion Annika Beck, 2-6, 7-5, 6-3, to reach the second round of the Coupe Banque Nationale.

“I was a little bit lucky to get in as a lucky loser,” she said after the match. “It definitely wasn’t an easy match because she doesn’t make a lot of mistakes. She’s really solid from the baseline, running so much. There weren’t too many easy points for me, but I’m happy I made it.:

Stefkova was a late addition to the draw, but made the most of her opportunity against Beck, who’d taken the title in Québec one year ago. Down a set and 5-3, the 21-year-old saved two match points before roaring back to level the match. Recovering from a break deficit in the decider, Stefkova served out the win on her first match point.

“I just tried to keep my game, tried to play fast, and hope for the best!”

A stunned Stefkova was extra exhilarated to learn just how big her win over the No.2 seed was after the match.

“She won last year? I didn’t know that, or check her profile. So it’s a nice result for me! I just knew my first round, so I’ll need to check now!”

Stefkova next plays Alison Van Uytvanck, who began the day with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Elitsa Kostova.

It was a tough day for seeds as No.4 seed Julia Goerges bowed out to the big-hitting Ekaterina Alexandrova (who beat Ana Ivanovic in the first round of Wimbledon), 6-4, 7-6(1), and No.5 seed Naomi Broady fell to Oceane Dodin, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4. For Dodin, today’s win marked her first on the WTA level, though she had already won two main draw matches at Grand Slams.

Young Canadian Francoise Abanda ended the night with a straight-set win over Mona Barthel.