Hingis Completes Career Slam In Mixed
Martina Hingis completed her boxed set of major titles in mixed doubles, pairing with Leander Paes to outlast Sania Mirza and Bruno Soares in a match tie-break.
Martina Hingis completed her boxed set of major titles in mixed doubles, pairing with Leander Paes to outlast Sania Mirza and Bruno Soares in a match tie-break.
Eugenie Bouchard got a cold welcome in The Netherlands, where she is set to play the Ricoh Open next week in ‘s-Hertogenbosch.
Maybe they were basking in the glow of having their first Roland Garros semifinalist since 1971 in Kiki Bertens. Maybe they were unaware the festivities in Paris are winding down, as the tournament enters its final stage. Or maybe, just maybe, the Dutch are incredibly adept at constructing the perfect burn.
Whatever the reason, this exchange between Bouchard and a Dutch border control agent escalated quickly:
Immigration entering Holland:
Him: Purpose of trip?
Me: Tennis tournament
Him: Oh, shouldn't you still be in Paris then?
Me: …— Genie Bouchard (@geniebouchard) June 3, 2016
Bouchard lost in the second round of the French Open last week to Timea Bacsinszky. The Dutch immigration officers must not follow Genie on Twitter. She’s been training and relaxing in London since leaving Paris.
A bit windy London pic.twitter.com/W4rwioiDIz
— Genie Bouchard (@geniebouchard) May 31, 2016
The Ricoh Open begins on June 6th. Jelena Jankovic, CoCo Vandweghe, and Jelena Ostapenko are in the draw, along with Belinda Bencic, who is scheduled to make her return after a lower back injury.
A Wimbledon finalist in 2014, Bouchard is scheduled to play a full grass court schedule over the upcoming weeks. After the Ricoh Open she will head to the WTA’s new grass court event at the Mallorca Open, then to the Aegon International in Eastbourne, England before heading to Wimbledon.
Defending champion Serena Williams overcame a tight opening set to end Kiki Bertens’ fairytale run to get within one match of tying Steffi Graf’s 22 Grand Slam titles in Paris.
No.4 seed Garbiñe Muguruza served her way into her first French Open final, ousting 2010 finalist Samantha Stosur in straight sets.
When was the last time a Dutch player reached the final? What first is Garbiñe Muguruza hoping to achieve? And just how impressive has Samantha Stosur’s serving been?
And then there were four. Who will be left standing in Paris for Saturday’s Roland Garros final? We preview today’s semifinal action right here on WTATennis.com.
Friday, Semifinals
[1] Serena Williams (USA #1) vs. Kiki Bertens (NED #58)
Head-to-head: Williams leads, 1-0
Key Stat: Bertens has won 12 matches in a row to reach her first Grand Slam semifinal.
Serena Williams has won 10 matches in a row. Kiki Bertens has won 12 matches in a row. Something will have to give on Friday as the tour’s two hottest players collide with a spot in Saturday’s final on the line in Paris. Bertens prolonged her magical run on Thursday when she defeated Timea Bacsinszky in straight sets to become the first Dutchwoman to reach the Roland Garros semifinals since 1971. But the 24-year-old will have to steady herself for one of the toughest challenges in tennis when she takes the court against top-seeded Serena Williams on Friday. Williams, arguably the best big-match player of all-time, owns a 26-4 record in Grand Slam semifinals and has won 12 of her last 13. Bertens, who hits an extremely heavy ball, will have to go big or go home against Williams. After suffering an injury to her left calf during the win over Bacsinszky, she’ll likely take a more aggressive approach against Williams, hoping to get the World No.1 on the run early and often. “I have some problems with my calf,” she admitted on Thursday. “I’m just gonna prepare again for tomorrow, do everything what I can with the physios, and we will see how it is.” Williams was disappointed with her effort against Yulia Putintseva in Thursday’s quarterfinal, and was quick to admit that fact in press. “I just was not playing my best,” Williams said. “I kept missing, just misfiring. Honestly, at one point I didn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.” Williams scraped through the second set and then dominated the third in vintage fashion to advance. She knows she’ll need a more Williams-like effort to survive Bertens’ bullets on Friday. “Obviously she has a big serve and a big forehand,” Williams said. “She really moves the ball around well… I have to do something better and different if I’m going to stick around.”
Pick: Williams in two
[4] Garbiñe Muguruza (ESP #4) vs. [21] Samantha Stosur (AUS #24)
Head-to-head: Stosur leads, 1-0
Key Stat: Stosur owns a 2-2 record in Grand Slam semifinals
2010 Roland Garros runner-up Samantha Stosur has found her groove in Paris in what will be her last event with her longtime coach David Taylor in her box. Can the 32-year-old Aussie prolong Taylor’s coaching career for one more day? To do so she’ll have to get past a scorching-hot Spaniard who is looking more and more impressive with each passing round. Garbiñe Muguruza has won her last ten sets on the terre battue and is wearing the calm, collected expression of a champion in the making. Already a Wimbledon finalist, the Spaniard is hungry to prove that she’s an all-surface maven this weekend. Muguruza overcame a slow start to defeat Shelby Rogers in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, but is well aware that another slow start could mean the death of her dream in Paris. “I need to dictate play from the very beginning of the match,” Muguruza said afterwards. “I know that my opponent started in full swing; I shouldn’t wait for my opponent to dictate play.” Stosur hasn’t been this deep at a major since she reached the semis at Roland Garros in 2012, but the 32-year-old has demonstrated remarkable poise throughout the fortnight, weathering difficult conditions, a tricky draw and an injured left wrist to reach the final four. Now she knows the margins are thin and the intensity will be high, but it’s a challenge she appears more ready to accept than ever. “I probably have more belief in some ways now than what I did then,” Stosur said, referring to her lone Grand Slam title in 2011, after defeating Tsvetana Pironkova in the quarterfinals on Wednesday. “You don’t know if you can do that. Now I know I have done that. I know I can do it.”
Pick: Muguruza in three
Around the Grounds: The French duo of Kristina Mladenovic and Caroline Garcia is the highest-seeded team remaining in the doubles draw. The fifth seeds will take on Russia’s Margarita Gasparyan and Svetlana Kuznetsova for a spot in the doubles final on Friday. The other doubles semifinal will be contested by seventh-seeded Russians Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina and the unseeded Czech duo of Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova.
By The Numbers
3 – Number of players to own more than three Roland Garros singles titles (Evert, 7, Graf, 6, Henin, 4).
26 – Williams has reached 26 major finals, compared to three for the other three semifinalists, combined.
27 – Bertens is projected to reach a career-high ranking of 27 as a result of her semifinal appearance in Paris. She could go as high as No.10 if she wins in the title.
1977 – The last time a Dutchwoman reached the semifinals of a major (Betty Stove, U.S. Open).
2 – Number of players born in the 1990’s remaining in the draw (Muguruza, Bertens). The only player born in the ’90s to have previously won a major is Petra Kvitova.
-Chris Oddo, wtatennis.com contributor
PARIS, France – World No.1 Serena Williams survived a scare from No.60 Yulia Putintseva, while No.58 Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands continued her incredible run in Paris, stunning No.8 seed Timea Bacsinszky.
Kiki Bertens puts cancer scare behind her: Confession time: Heading into the quarterfinal round of Roland Garros, there was only one permutation of results that was going to leave me truly shocked in Paris. Yulia Puntintseva beating Serena Williams? I could understand that. Tsvetana Pironkova beating Samantha Stosur or Shelby Rogers beating Garbiñe Muguruza? I could see a situation where that could happen.
But Kiki Bertens knocking out No.8 seed Timea Bacsinszky in straight sets to make her first Slam semifinal? No, that one I did not see coming. Neither did Bertens. Or her family. On match point she fell to the ground in disbelief, stood up, and looked at her box, which was full of family and friends.
She shrugged.
“I was like, Can you believe it?” Bertens beamed, while speaking to reporters. “Because I cannot. And also my parents were like, No, this is not happening.
“But, yeah, it is.”
Yeah. It is.
On yet another cold wet day in Paris, Bertens became the first Dutch woman since 1971 to advance to the French Open semifinal, beating Bacsinszky, 7-5, 6-2, to score her 12th consecutive win. She’ll face World No.1 Serena Williams on Friday. Behind in much of the first set, Bertens battled back from a break down time after time until she was able to reel off the last three games to take the set. She continued her roll in the second set, racing to a 4-0 lead, before holding off Bacsinszky for the win.
“The circumstances were really tough,” Bertens said. “The court is really slow. The balls are heavy. It’s really tough to play aggressive, and especially with Timea. She is like changing a lot, like with some slower balls and some higher ones, so it was pretty tough for me.
“But I think afterwards I was 4-2 down, and then I was just like, Okay, we are just gonna be calm and try to fight for each point. I did it and I won the first set.”
It sounds so simple. It’s been anything but.
“The last two years were pretty hard for me,” Bertens said. “First I had my ankle surgery and afterwards I had some issues with my health, so that was like pretty tough two years. But since this season we worked really hard to be healthy again, to be fit again. So, yeah, I feel really good now.”
It was a year ago here at Roland Garros, after a 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 first round loss to Svetlana Kuznetsova, that Bertens gave a tearful interview to the Dutch press revealing a cancer scare that had plagued her for over a year. According to the Dutch press, Bertens went in for a WTA health exam during the Miami Open in 2014 and a WTA physiotherapist discovered a lump on her thyroid gland.
Bertens sought out tests in the Netherlands but continued to play for over a year not knowing if the lump was cancerous or not. She had scheduled surgery on the lump after the French Open that year but after a miracle run to the fourth round as a qualifier, she canceled the surgery for fear of the risks.
The stress led to sleepless nights and anxiety. She told Dutch reporters that she was resigned to the idea that she had cancer, trying to prepare herself for the worst. But the uncertainty continued to eat at her. It wasn’t until last year, right before Roland Garros, that she got the green light. She had done a test in America and the lump was benign. The tears she shed with reporters were tears of relief and joy. She could finally move on.
“Now I can start again at zero,” she said last year at Roland Garros. “Stress does so much with your body. I have not slept for a year.”
But Bertens’ struggles didn’t end there. Due to the stress of the cancer scare she was unable to train at an elite level and her fitness slipped. She struggled to get through matches for the rest of the year. She lost 6-1, 6-0 to Petra Kvitova in the first round a few weeks later. With her ranking outside the Top 100, she played mainly on the ITF Circuit, popping up only a the tour’s lower level events.
Last September she hired Raemon Sluiter, a former ATP player, as her new coach. Their off-season priority was to get her back to a top-level of fitness.
“In the preseason I did a lot of work,” Bertens said. “Like the first three weeks was only physical practices, like two, sometimes three times a day. It was hell really, but I’m really glad we did it. Like with my whole team we were like working every day like really hard.”
The hard work has paid off. Along with a new diet – she doesn’t eat carbohydrates in the evening and says she’s sleeping better and has more energy in the mornings – Bertens looks as fit as ever. It’s translated directly into her game. When the tour transitioned to her favorite clay, the wins began to come in bunches.
She beat Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic in Fed Cup, then proceeded to make the semifinals of Rabat, where she had match point to make the final but lost to Marina Erakovic.
“I had match point there I [lost] the match and in my head I was so stressed and all the time and we were like talking with my coach after that match for so long. I think after that match I just was so calm in my head and just trying to go out there every day and just give everything and then just do my own thing. I think that’s the most important thing.”
Then came Nürnberg. Playing the week before the French Open, Bertens won the title as a qualifier, her first trophy since Fes in 2012. Heading into the French Open only Samantha Stosur had more clay court wins than Bertens this year. Back in action immediately in Paris, she scored the biggest win of her career, beating No.3 Angelique Kerber in the first round and has since knocked out Camila Giorgi, No.29 Daria Kasatkina, No.15 Madison Keys, and now No.8 Bacsinszky.
“Mentally I feel pretty good,” Bertens said. “But physically, yeah, it was tough today out there. I think I had some problems with my calf today, so especially in the second set it was really hard to push off with the serve.”
Her physically state will surely be tested against Serena. Bertens took a medical timeout after the first set against Bacsinszky to get her calf taped. Regardless of how the match turns out, this has been the most surprising of fortnights for Bertens.
Bacsinszky undone: Timea Bacsinszky has spent much of the last two months adapting to the conditions and her opponents. But she couldn’t solve the puzzle of Kiki Bertens. The Swiss struggled in the heavier conditions and simply couldn’t execute her game plan to keep Bertens off-balance.
“The conditions, they were heavier than yesterday,” Bacsinszky said. “I was really struggling with my ball length, so I couldn’t really find a good spot to bother her. Well, she was probably having also a great momentum.
“So I think we played kind of equal all the first set. I mean, I could have won also those games. It could have gone either way. And it was the same in the second set, too. So congrats to her, because she she was able to win the important points.”
After the match, Bacsinszky pointed out that she hasn’t been as in the zone as people think.
“People think, Okay, you get to win many matches and it’s like, Oh, just playing too good and you’re just feeling it. Last year I was mentioning two matches that I had my eyes shut and everything was going in. But all year long, like this year, it didn’t happen yet for me to have such a match. So many times I was feeling kind of not that well in the match but I was able to turn it around.
“Luckily for me it doesn’t happen quite often that I cannot turn it around, but this time I really couldn’t.”
Serena Williams fends off The Feisty One: To paraphrase Andy Murray after the 2012 Wimbledon final, “She’s getting closer.” Yulia Putintseva had twice taken Serena Williams to a first set tie-break only to see the American run away with the match in straight sets. This time Putintseva played a fantastic match to keep Serena off-balance, taking the first set 7-5 and earning break point late in the second set for a chance to serve out the match, only to see Serena roar back to win, 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 in the quarterfinals.
“I think I have more experience now, because I played two times before with Serena on the big courts,” Putintseva said. “This time I was just more confident when I was serving for a set. I was just not thinking. I was just doing it and it went well.”
As for Serena, it wasn’t her best day. It was a frustrating performance from the American, who is trying to defend her French Open title and match Steffi Graf’s Open Era record of 22 major titles. “I just was not playing my best,” Serena said. “I kept missing, just misfiring. Honestly, at one point I didn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. I guess I was not the most positive mentally, but obviously I didn’t want to stop.”
Despite coming so close to a massive upset – she was just five points away from the win and joked afterwards that a couple of let-cord winners would have sealed it – Putintseva took nothing but positives from her performance.
“I think the match was very close and very far from being on my side,” Putintseva said. “I was trying to do everything what I can, to run, to cover, to attack when I can, to go forward. But it just was unlucky situation end of the second set for me. But it’s okay. I mean, still have some years to play Grand Slams.”
Simultaneous Semifinals Set for Friday: Starting at 1pm it will be Serena vs. Bertens on Court Philippe Chatrier. Garbiñe Muguruza vs. Samantha Stosur will also start at 1pm on Court Suzanne Lenglen.
In the doubles, the semifinals are also set. No.5 seed Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic take on Margarita Gasparyan and Svetlana Kuznetsova, while No.7 seeds and 2013 champions Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina play Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova.
All photos courtesy of Getty Images.
PARIS, France – Defending champion and top seed Serena Williams was on the ropes for much of her quarterfinal encounter with Yulia Putintseva, but the American found a way to outgut the inspired young Kazakh, 5-7, 6-4, 6-1, to reach the last four at the French Open.
Putintseva was playing her first Grand Slam quarterfinal, but the 21-year-old proved more that ready for primetime on Court Philippe Chatrier, winning three games in a row to capture her first set over Serena in three previous meetings.
Undaunted, the American appeared on course to quickly level the contest when she recovered from an early break to race out to a 4-1 lead in the second, but Putintseva dug deep to earn two break points in the ninth game, which would have given her the chance to serve for a spot in the semifinals.
“I just kept hitting balls out,” Serena told press, assessing her performance. “I just wasn’t firing the way I wanted to. I definitely knew I needed to do something different if I was going to stay in the tournament.
“I always try to have a plan B and C and go from there. But I felt like in the beginning of the second set, I started playing better, but then I let her come back.
“I also think she’s an incredible fighter, so she kind of came back through her will and making shots.
“Then after that I was like, I have to do something better and different if I’m going to stick around.”
23-shot rally between Putintseva & Williams = ??? #RG16 https://t.co/b0tQw0fxb5
— Roland Garros (@rolandgarros) June 2, 2016
Williams ultimately held firm and weathered one last surge late in the decider from the youngster – who saved three match points in a row in that final game – to advance in just over two hours, hitting 36 winners to 43 unforced errors.
“I think the match was very close and very far from being on my side,” Putintseva told press after the match. “I was trying to do everything what I can, to run, to cover, to attack when I can, to go forward. But it just was unlucky situation end of the second set for me.
“But it’s okay. I mean, still have some years to play Grand Slams.”
In all, Putintseva can be pleased with a clean score sheet, hitting 18 winners to 16 unforced, but wasn’t able to dicate play in the key moments against the World No.1 and 21-time Grand Slam champion.
“I had some great wins here. I win some really good matches in straight sets. I’m really happy with that. I’m really happy with the level that I was playing during all of this tournament.
“I got a lot of experience now. I played on center court here in Roland Garros, which is great. I just hope to come back stronger and next time to play better in important moments.”
Set to play Kiki Bertens – who upset No.8 seed Timea Bacsinszky on Court Suzanne Lenglen – in the semifinals, Serena stands just two wins away from tying Steffi Graf’s Grand Slam haul of 22 titles.
“I remember her being just really tough, and, you know, giving a good, tough performance,” Serena said about when she last played Bertens at the US Open. “I was happy to get through that match. Just, you know, every match counts and every match, you know, leads to a new one.
“I know she won the week before and she’s been playing really well. I saw a little bit of her match. We kind of finished around the same time so I didn’t get to see all of it, but I saw some of the highlights.
“She’s a really sweet girl. It’s always good to see someone like that do well.”
Serena slams the door on Putintseva, closes out the 21-year-old 6-1 in the 3rd. She's back in the SFs for 5th time. pic.twitter.com/XkEtAvrKq0
— Roland Garros (@rolandgarros) June 2, 2016
PARIS, France – Kiki Bertens continued her French Open fairytale on Thursday afternoon with a straight set victory over No.8 seed Timea Bacsinszky.
Prior to this fortnight, Bertens had only ever been beyond the second round of a major once before – reaching the fourth round here in 2014 – but after defeating Bacsinszky, 7-5, 6-2, she will now face reigning champion Serena Williams for a place in the final.
An opening set littered with breaks and momentum shifts hinged on the 11th game when Bertens bucked the trend by holding serve. A sequence of errors from Bacsinszky brought three set points, Bertens wrapping it up courtesy of a thumping forehand.
By contrast, the second set was all Bertens, her confidence soaring after prevailing in the 70-minute opening stanza. Understandably given her recent exploits – this was her 20th match in singles and doubles in the past 20 days – the Dutchwoman began to run out of steam as the finishing line approached.
Bacsinszky, though, proved to be equally exhausted, dragging a forehand wide to bring up match point. Moments later it was over – Bertens tumbling to the clay, scarcely able to believe her accomplishment.
Afterwards, Bertens was quick to highlight the importance of the see-saw first set: “I think it was really difficult today. The circumstances were really tough. The court is really slow. The balls are heavy. It’s really tough to play aggressive, and especially with Timea. She is like changing a lot, like with some slower balls and some higher ones, so it was pretty tough for me.
“But I think afterwards I was 4-2 down, and then I was just like, Okay, we are just going to be calm and try to fight for each point. I did it and I won the first set. Yeah, it was just keep on fighting for every ball.”
The last Dutchwoman to make it this far at one of the four majors was Betty Stove, who lost in the semifinals of the 1977 US Open, while the last in Paris was Marijke Schaar, six years earlier.
It has been a remarkable clay court season for Bertens, who kicked it off by nearly leading the Netherlands to the Fed Cup title. This was followed by a semifinal in Rabat and then a title in her last tournament before Roland Garros, in Nürnberg.
The turning point came in Rabat, a particularly painful loss to Marina Erakovic leading to a frank post-mortem in the Bertens camp. “I remember like one thing I remember is like my semifinal in Rabat. I had match point there I was losing the match and I wasn’t just – in my head I was so stressed and all the time and we were like talking with my coach after that match for so long.
“I think after that match I just was so calm in my head and just trying to go out there every day and just give everything and then, yeah, just do my own thing. I think that’s the most important thing.”
Having ended 2015 at No.101, the new rankings will see Bertens break into the Top 30 for the first time in her career. It is the reward for an arduous training regime that allowed Bertens outplay and outlast Angelique Kerber, Daria Kasatkina, Madison Keys and now Bacsinszky.
“I think like in the pre-season I did a lot of work. Like the first three weeks was only physical practices, like two, sometimes three times a day. It was a hell really, but I’m really glad we did it. Like with my whole team we were like working every day like really hard. Physically I feel good the whole year. I played a lot of matches, so I feel good.”
Shelby Rogers and Yulia Putintseva have both enjoyed reputation-enhancing fortnights in Paris. Along with the fame and prize money came another perk: the Road To Roland Garros treatment…