Montréal: Stosur Interview
An interview with Sam Stosur after her win in the first round of the Rogers Cup.
An interview with Sam Stosur after her win in the first round of the Rogers Cup.
THE WINNERS
Johanna Konta captured her maiden WTA title at the Bank of the West Classic. The British No.1 defeated top seed Venus Williams for the second time in 2016, 7-5, 5-7, 6-2. Konta is now up to a career-high ranking of No.14 and has re-entered the Top 8 on the Road to Singapore leaderboard.
“It’s not just a final,” Konta told WTA Insider. I was playing against Venus Williams, such a champion. I was playing in a Premier tournament, as well. It was quite a lot of things. I’m really happy with how I was able to deal with that and really appreciate the situation for what it was and really be grateful and humbled by it. I’m just looking forward to reinvesting this experience that I gained today into future matches in my career.”
Read the match recap here and Konta’s Champions Corner interview here.
Yanina Wickmayer pulled off a DC double at the Citi Open, defeating first-time finalist Lauren Davis, 6-4, 6-2 and pairing with Monica Niculescu to capture the doubles title on Saturday.
Read the match recap here.
Six years after making her WTA main draw debut at the Ericsson Open, Laura Siegemund came full circle in Bastad to win her maiden WTA title. The German veteran, who qualified for ther first Olympic Summer Games following a stunning season on the European clay courts, defeated Czech youngster Katerina Siniakova, 7-5, 6-1.
“I got a new perspective on tennis,” Siegemund said after the match. “It’s a great sport, and that kind of gave me some freedom on the court to try things and change my game.”
Read the match recap here.
RANKING MOVERS:
Notable singles ranking movers for the week of July 15, 2016.
Dominika Cibulkova (+2, No.12 to No.10): One of Konta’s victims in Stanford was the in-form and newlywed Cibulkova. The semifinal defeat, though, failed to end her summer honeymoon – the 185 points gained confirming a return to the Top 10 for the first time since January 2015.
Laura Siegemund (+8, No.40 to No.32): Not so long ago Laura Siegemund and her fellow German Angelique Kerber existed in very different worlds on tour. Now, following a title run in Bastad that pushed her up to No.32 in the rankings, Siegemund could very well be seeded alongside her compatriot at the upcoming US Open.
Yanina Wickmayer (+8, No.44 to No.36): Yanina Wickmayer was hot in Washington DC. Literally. It was hard not to be with temperatures in the capital threatening 100°F. However, Wickmayer wisely kept her time on court to a minimum, dropping just one set en route to her fifth career title. She is now at her highest ranking since April 2013.
Alison Riske (+20, No.78 to No.58): While Riske was unable to complete her rousing comeback to defeat Venus in the Stanford semifinals, victories over seeds Varvara Lepchenko and CoCo Vandeweghe ensured the tournament remained a highly encouraging one. She is now closing in on returning to the Top 50 for the first time since last September.
Katerina Siniakova (+13, No.92 to No.79): Former junior No.2 Katerina Siniakova’s progress up the senior ranks has come in fits and starts. In Bastad, the Czech took a significant step in the shape of a maiden WTA final, a result that edged her 13 places closer to a Top 50 debut.
UPCOMING TOURNAMENTS
Rogers Cup
Montreal, Canada
Premier | $2,413,663 | Hard, Outdoor
Monday, July 25 – Sunday, July 31
Brasil Tennis Cup
Florianopolis, Brazil
International | $226,750 | Hard, Outdoor
Sunday, July 31 – Friday, August 5
Jiangxi Women’s Tennis Open
Nanchang, China
International | $226,750 | Hard, Outdoor
Monday, August 1 – August 7
TOP 20 PLAYER SCHEDULES
1. Serena Williams –
2. Angelique Kerber – Montréal
3. Garbiñe Muguruza – Montréal
4. Agnieszka Radwanska – Montréal
5. Simona Halep – Montréal
6. Venus Williams – Montréal
7. Victoria Azarenka –
8. Roberta Vinci – Montréal
9. Carla Suárez Navarro – Montréal
10. Dominika Cibulkova – Montréal
11. Svetlana Kuznetsova – Montréal
12. Madison Keys – Montréal
13. Petra Kvitova – Montréal
14. Johanna Konta – Montréal
15. Timea Bacsinszky –
16. Belinda Bencic –
17. Karolina Pliskova – Montréal
18. Samantha Stosur – Montréal
19. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova –
20. Elina Svitolina – Montréal
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
Best wishes to those celebrating birthdays this week:
Maria Sakkari (GRE) – July 25, 1995
Patricia Maria Tig (ROU) – July 27, 1994
Victoria Azarenka (BLR) – July 31, 1989
The story of the tournament from the Bank of the West Classic.
Magda Linette gave Venus Williams a scare last week in Stanford. Fresh from a confidence-boosting win in qualifying can she cause 2012 champion Petra Kvitova problems in Montréal?
Highlights from final round action at the Bank of the West Classic.
Johanna Konta has been one of the best servers on the WTA in 2016, and she continued to use that strength to secure her first career title with a 7-5, 5-7, 6-2 win over Venus Williams in the Bank of the West Classic.
In Sunday’s final, Konta won 61% of her service points, slightly ahead of her season performance of 60%, which ranks 10th on the WTA.
SAP Tennis Analytics for Coaches shows that in the three-set final, Konta’s service numbers were significantly better in the first and third sets, both of which she won, compared to the second. In the two winning sets combined, she won 68% of points on her serve. In the second set, which she lost, she won just 51% of service points.
Konta started the second set well, winning eight of her first 10 service points while opening up a 4-1 lead. However, in the next four service games of the set, she won just 41% of her service points, allowing Williams to force the decider.
In the third set, Konta showed resiliency by responding to win 66% of her service points. She faced three break points in that final set, saving all of them.
Overall for the match, Konta saved 67% of the break points she faced. She served up an ace on two of the eight break points she won.
The SAP Coaches View combines scoring information direct from the chair umpire with tracking data from HawkEye to allow for an in depth look at five different aspects of a match. Each tracking option can be filtered to narrow the focus to specific situations within a match, such as break points. This information is available directly to coaches in real-time during a match on their SAP tablet and also available to them online after matches.
“Service” tracking shows the landing point for all serves. The display differentiates between first serves, second serves and aces. Additional data on the screen shows the percentage of overall service points won as well as looking specifically at first and second serves. It can also be narrowed to show the performance on particular points in the match, such as break points.
Service success was the difference as Konta won her maiden WTA title.
Venus Williams had Sunday’s shot of the day at the Bank of the West Classic.
STANFORD, CA, USA – No.3 seed Johanna Konta played one of the best matches of her career to dismiss former No.1 and two-time Bank of the West Classic champion Venus Williams, 7-5, 5-7, 6-2, to capture her first WTA title.
Watch live action from Bastad, Stanford and Washington DC this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!
“It’s quite an incredibly humbling experience,” she said after the match when asked about winning her first title. “It’s a validation of all the hard work you’ve already put in and a motivator on the things you want to keep improving on, and the lengths you might go to in order to become that much better at your discipline
Konta kicked off her career-best season with a win over the elder Williams sister in the first round of the Australian Open, going on to become the first British woman to reach semifinals Down Under since Sue Barker in 1977. The top-ranked Brit has only continued to rise since then, making the second week of both Indian Wells and Miami, and finishing in the semifinals of the Aegon International in Eastbourne.
“I’ve played her twice before and knew I’d be playing a magnitude of experience. Venus Williams doesn’t need an introduction, and I knew going into that I’d need to stay focused on myself and to be really grateful for the experience and try to learn from her within the match. I wanted to leave it all out there, but also absorb everything that I could possibly reinvest in my career moving forward.”
Playing Stanford for the first time at 25 years old, Konta overcame a quarterfinal wobble against Zheng Saisai to emphatically defeat No.2 seed Dominika Cibulkova on Saturday, and was on course for a similarly landmark win against Williams on Sunday, surging out to a set and 4-1 lead.
“Credit to her for playing great tennis; she played so well and all of her balls were landing today,” Venus said after the match. “It wasn’t my best day, but I tried to stay in there and fight, and that helped me get an opportunity to win the match.”
Where Konta was making her debut, Venus’ story began in Stanford over 20 years ago, playing her first WTA tournament at the Bank of the West Classic – even winning a match before falling to Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario in three sets. The American has played incredible tennis in her own right this season, and the Wimbledon semifinalist wouldn’t go down without a fight.
“Just because it’s 4-1 doesn’t mean the match is over; it’s not a favorable scoreline if you happen to be down, but it’s not over.”
From the aforementioned deficit, Venus won six of the next seven games to level the match at a set apiece.
“Quite honestly, you’d expect nothing less from a champion,” Konta said. “They don’t give away any match, much less a final. It was her 80th, so you could only imagine the number of different situations that she’s already been in. It was about keeping things in perspective, and understanding there’d be ebbs and flows in the match.”
Konta recovered in surprising fashion in the decider, relying on a fabulous serving day – one in which she hit 12 aces to three from Venus – and an aggressive ground game (42 winners to 39 unforced errord) to shake off a tricky final game to serve out her maiden WTA trophy.
“Every single point was a battle, and I tried to win as many battles as possible.
“The simpler you keep things, the more clarity you have, and the less dumb you play!”
Believe it @JoKonta91! ? #BOTWC pic.twitter.com/qO3pqpmmtO
— WTA (@WTA) July 24, 2016
A preview of the Bank of the West Classic final between Venus Williams and Johanna Konta.
BASTAD, Sweden – No.6 seed Laura Siegemund captured her maiden WTA title after a stunning week at the Ericsson Open, dispatching rising Czech star Katerina Siniakova, 7-5, 6-1.
Watch live action from Bastad, Stanford and Washington DC this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!
“This is one of my favorite tournaments, and I can’t believe I won this one!” Siegemund said after the match.
“I was in good shape, and was playing well last week as well. I knew I could do well here but winning the whole thing is something you might not really expect or think about.”
Siegemund, who made her main draw debut in Bastad back in 2010, first showed off her clay court prowess earlier in the season at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix – where she defeated Simona Halep, Roberta Vinci, and Agnieszka Radwanska to reach her first WTA final as a qualifier.
“I remember being a qualifier was a big deal back then, and I’ve always played well here from some reason. I guess it has to do with really liking the place and enjoying your off-court time.”
But the 28-year-old came full circle in Bastad, outlasting former Stuttgart finalist and countrywoman Julia Goerges in the semifinals and surviving a tricky opening set against Siniakova to run away with the win in 83 minutes.
“I tried to find my game from the beginning. I wanted to be aggresisve and play some clay court tennis because she certainly likes to hit and be inside the court to dominate. I wanted to make her move; it didn’t work quite as well as I’d hoped, and at times I wasn’t happy with my game, but it’s not about perfection, it’s about making it work in that moment. Obviously, it worked out in the end.”
Set to make her Olympic debut at the Summer Games in Rio, Siegemund is projected to not only crack the Top 40, but also tentatively reach a career-high ranking of No.32, putting her in contention for a seed at the upcoming US Open.
“I got a new perspective on tennis; it’s a great sport, and that kind of gave me some freedom on the court to try things and change my game.
“When I’m tight, like today in the final, I take a minute to sit on the bench, close my eyes. If it all gets too much, I think about how this is amazing, and who wouldn’t want to be here? It’s great weather, your favorite place to be, and all these people are here to watch you play and do what you love to do. It might be a feeling of thankfulness, and trying to stay out of that narrow, unhappy perspective. I try to see the big picture more now, than before.”
Time to celebrate! Pop the ? @LauraSiegemund!! #EricssonOpen pic.twitter.com/Iq0WTimmD3
— WTA (@WTA) July 24, 2016