Madrid: Kvitova Interview
An interview with Petra Kvitova before her first round match at the Mutua Madrid Open.
An interview with Petra Kvitova before her first round match at the Mutua Madrid Open.
MADRID, Spain – No.3 seed Garbiñe Muguruza closed out a decisive 6-2, 7-5 win over Anna Karolina Schmiedlova, winning her first round match at the Mutua Madrid Open in just over 90 minutes on Court Manolo Santana.
Watch live action from Madrid this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!
“Of course I was a little bit nervous and tense because the first matches are always complicated,” Muguruza told press after the match.
:In Madrid we have this extra pressure because I’m here at home. Perhaps you’re a little bit more nervous because of that. But my first feeling is that I’m satisfied for winning the match, fighting, as I fought a lot.”
Coming off of another successful Fed Cup outing and a run to the quarterfinals of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, Muguruza is quite comfortable on clay – despite her breakout Wimbledon fortnight less than a year ago – and used that experience to take the ascendency on Schmiedlova, who has only won one WTA main draw match thus far in 2016.
Hitting 22 winners to the Slovak’s five, Muguruza closed off more than her fair share of points at the net, venturing forward 12 times and converting eight of those advances. Schmiedlova, by contrast, hit 28 unforced errors and seven double faults, though she pushed the former World No.3 to play her best tennis in the second set.
Still in her first full season as a top ranked player, the Spanish youngster admitted she is still navigating the waters of the big leagues, but feels she is acquitting herself well.
“I think it’s difficult. It’s something that requires you to play very well, not only tennistically talking, but in everything you do. You have to put everything in.
“I’m very happy to be up there and very fortunate to be there. I’m discovering how to handle it the best possible way. To feel more confident, comfortable.
“Right now I’m feeling well.”
Up next for the two-time French Open quarterfinalist is Irina-Camelia Begu, who outlasted Eugenie Bouchard, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 late on Sunday evening.
“Every time I go out there and play a game I’m very competitive and I want to win. It doesn’t matter if I defend points or not.”
Around the grounds, Daria Kasatkina fought valiantly through injury concerns and an inspired opponent in qualifier Patricia Maria Tig, but ultimately fell to the Romanian, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2. Sabine Lisicki made short work of another qualifier, Monica Puig, as the German emerged in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3. On the bubble to qualify for the Rio Olympics, Lisicki saw herself get bumped from her country’s Top 4 when Laura Siegemund reached the final of Stuttgart two weeks ago, and will need to put together some solid results of her own to reassert her presence on the national team. Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova set up a second round encounter with Camila Giorgi when she defeated Lesia Tsurenko, 6-2, 6-1 – Tsurenko herself was playing with a heavily strapped right thigh.
American qualifier Louisa Chirico turned heads with a 7-5, 6-1 win over Monica Niculescu; the Romanian veteran had pushed Petra Kvitova to the brink in Stuttgart, but Chirico had all the answers in the one hour, 35 minute match. Winning 70% of her first serve points and breaking serve six times, the 19-year-old New York native could next play 2008 French Open champion Ana Ivanovic in the second round. Get to know the young American in a new interview from WTA Insider.
Volvo Car Open finalist and qualifier Elena Vesnina began her red clay campaign with a 7-5, 6-0 win over Jelena Ostapenko, who was hoping to build on her run to the semifinals of the Katowice Open after a runner-up finish in Doha. Vesnina will next play defending champion Kvitova, who eased past Lara Arruabarrena, 6-3, 6-2, in just over an hour. A two-time winner in Madrid, Kvitova reached the semifinals of Stuttgart continued looking comfortable on clay on Sunday, striking 29 winners to 27 unforced errors against the Spaniard, who pushed Angelique Kerber to a third set tie-break a few weeks ago in Charleston.
A drop shot to end the first set! ?
Defending #MMOpen champion @Petra_Kvitova takes the opening set 6-3! https://t.co/OJTu24Fpa6
— WTA (@WTA) May 1, 2016
An interview with Simona Halep before her first round match at the Mutua Madrid Open.
MADRID, Spain – Former Australian Open finalist Dominika Cibulkova finally got the big win she was looking for in 2016, surviving a second set hiccup to unseat top seeded Agnieszka Radwanska, 6-4, 6-7(3), 6-3, to reach the second round of the Mutua Madrid Open.
Watch live action from Madrid this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!
Cibulkova has had the game’s best on the ropes in the early rounds throughout the season – holding match points against Radwanska at the BNP Paribas Open and leading Garbiñe Muguruza at the Miami Open – but the 2009 French Open semifinalist refused to relinquish this chance against the Pole in the final match of the day on Court Manolo Santana.
Battling the crafty World No.2 for two hours and 37 minutes, each woman hit 43 winners in a high-quality affair that saw stunning power from the Slovak to edge ahead by a set and a break and serve for a spot in the second round.
On her least favorite surface, Radwanska wouldn’t back down so easily and broke back to level the set, and though she would prove unable to serve out the set herself, she snuck away with the ensuing tie-break and took a 2-0 lead in the decider.
Poised for a third straight loss to a Top 4 player at a Premier Mandatory, Cibulkova dug deep to win six of the last seven games of the match, converting all four break point opportunities in the final set and clinching victory with a thudding forehand winner.
The former World No.10 is coming off a win at the Katowice Open – having already reached a final earlier in the year in Acapulco – and a deep run in Madrid could be crucial as she aims to get back into the seeded position at major tournaments. Standing between her and the third round is Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia, who advanced earlier in the day when Johanna Konta was forced to retire with an upper respiratory illness.
Over on Court 6, Timea Bacsinszky completed an impressive turnaround from winning the GP SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem in Rabat 24 hours earlier to edge past 2014 French Open semifinalist Andrea Petkovic, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3.
“I was aware that I would have a low in my match,” Bacsinszky said of the understandable fatigue that caused her to fall behind 5-0 in the second set.
“I needed to adapt, know I’d have my chances, and just get into it. At the beginning, it was really going well for me. But after the the end of the first set, you could see I didn’t have the tension to be committed on important points. I was angry at myself, but thinking longterm, that it would be a long match. I tried to kick my butt in the beginning of the third, and the level went up.
“I didn’t want to be brilliant, just efficient.”
Also through late on Sunday was Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu; suffering from foot blisters in the second and third sets, Begu fought off a late charge from the Canadian youngster to survive the topsy turvy encounter, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.
More to come…
An interview with Carla Suárez Navarro before her first round match at the Mutua Madrid Open.
MADRID, Spain – This morning the Mutua Madrid Open made history by setting a new Guinness World Record for the most people bouncing tennis balls on tennis racquets at the same time for ten seconds.
On a sunny morning in the Caja Mágica and with participation from a host of spectators, the Madrid tournament beat the record of 767 people set at the China Open last year.
In total, according to the official count from the assistant judges and the official Guinness World Record judge Anna Orford, the number achieved in Madrid was 1,474, giving the Mutua Madrid Open a new record.
WTA players in attendance included Alla Kudryavtseva, Vania King, Arantxa Parra Santonja, Anabel Medina Garrigues, and Olga Savchuk.
Stay tuned for the best photos and videos here on wtatennis.com!
An interview with Garbiñe Muguruza before her first round match at the Mutua Madrid Open.
It’s time to crown April’s WTA Shot Of The Month. There were some incredible shots to choose from this month, and we narrowed it down to the five best – have a look at the nominees in the above video and cast your vote for your favorite shot before voting ends Thursday at 11:59pm ET!
The winner will be announced Friday, May 6.
How it works: five shots are selected by wtatennis.com, and the winner is then determined by a fan vote on wtatennis.com.
An interview with Victoria Azarenka before her first round match at the Mutua Madrid Open.
MADRID, Spain – When Louisa Chirico’s plane landed in Madrid on Thursday, she and a slew of fellow players on her flight fired up their phones and waited for their roaming cell phone data plans to kick in. Just a few hours earlier Chirico hopped on a plane in Prague, where she lost in qualifying at the J&T Banka Prague Open a few days earlier, and flew to Madrid hoping that by the time she landed she would hear she whether she had actually got into the Mutua Madrid Open.
“I wasn’t originally inside the cut,” Chirico told WTA Insider. “We found out the day before I came here. I was entered in another tournament just in case and then switched our flight. I was three out of qualifying and then I moved in at the last minute. So very happy and lucky but trying to do my best to use the opportunity.”
Chirico was originally entered in another ITF tournament for this week, but as more withdrawals came in Madrid she soon saw herself very close to making the cut. After losing in the final round of qualifying in Prague, she and coach stayed there to practice and wait until it was time to head to their next tournament.
“I wasn’t planning on playing a match until Monday at the other tournament and then found out we might be in here and I had to play the next day on Friday,” Chirico said. “Obviously I want to play here, it’s the biggest tournament right now. That wasn’t a question. But the travel and everything, planning the weeks ahead can be difficult. Everyone has to go through it. You just have to make the adjustments and make the best of it.”
Chirico did make the best of it. Ranked No.133, the 19-year-old American beat Irina Falconi and Mariana Duque-Mariño without losing a set to qualify for her first Premier Mandatory event. Her successful qualifying campaign in Madrid continues what has been a strong run of form for the New York native.
Since the tour has turned to clay she made good on a wildcard into the Volvo Car Open to make the Round of 16, beating Lucie Safarova and Naomi Osaka en route. Then came a strong qualifying run in Stuttgart, where she qualified for the main draw with wins over Barbora Krejcikova, Daniela Hantuchova, and Camila Giorgi – again, without losing a set. Last year she won the USTA French Open wildcard play-off to earn her first Grand Slam main draw appearance.
Chirico’s comfort on clay stems from growing up playing on green clay. It’s not often you hear an American player say they wished the clay season was longer.
“Extending the clay season as much as possible? I’m all about it.”
“For me it’s always been natural to move [on clay] because I grew up playing most of the summers on green clay,” Chirico said. “So it didn’t even come into my mind until I came out here and noticed people didn’t really like playing on clay. I guess that gives me an advantage going in. I think it suits my game pretty well. Hopefully I can stay on the clay as long as possible, play as many matches on it as possible.
Get to know the 19-year-old from Westchester, New York. Just don’t call her Lil Weezy.
Q: So let’s back up. How did you first start playing tennis?
A: Actually I played a lot of sports when I was younger. I played soccer pretty seriously, I played basketball, a little bit of figure skating, and ice hockey. I was all over the place. I always loved playing sports. I was always running around and staying active.
My mom enrolled me in a clinic one day and from that moment I just loved it and decided to keep playing. I ended up choosing between tennis and soccer. Those were the two sports that I was most serious about.
Q: What position did you play in soccer?
A: Sweeper. Middle defender. I decided around 12 or 13 that I only wanted to play tennis. And the rest of it is history. I loved it right away.
Q: Speaking of those two sports, soccer is obviously a team sport and tennis is completely individual. Why choose tennis over being with a team?
A: I think the cool thing about tennis is that it is individual so it’s you out there. It’s solving the puzzle by yourself. Obviously you have your coach and your team at the side of the court but when you’re out there they can’t help you. It’s a battle against another persona and you’re countering their moves as well. You never know what is going to happen so it’s like boxing. I think that’s a really cool aspect and I enjoy that.
hello again red clay ? #favoriteseason pic.twitter.com/m9aPJYLEhv
— Louisa Chirico (@Louisa_Chirico) April 16, 2016
Q: So you chose tennis over soccer. At one point did you think you could actually play tennis for a living?
A: It was once I started playing some of the bigger events in juniors, going against the best juniors around my age at the ITFs or junior Slams. That’s when I realized maybe I can do this as a career and really pursue it. I really wanted to but I had to gauge where I was. I was in regular school so I was only playing in the US or locally so I had no idea. There are so many players in other countries.
So once I started playing at the highest level and I had some success in the lower level Futures and stuff, that opened my eyes a little bit and I thought I could do this as a career.
Q: You’re 19-years-old, traveling the world playing sports for a living. Your friends are probably all in college. When you talk to them, what’s the biggest misconception they have about your life?
A: Geez, I don’t know. I think the funniest thing I get is “So what do you do for food?” I’m like, well…I still eat regular food [laughs]. I guess with the diet and the sleeping everyone thinks we’re robots and on a schedule. Obviously we have to be professional and on a schedule. It’s funny to hear those questions.
All my friends are interested and they’re like have you played Serena or Sharapova yet? They don’t really get the tiers of the tour. So when I tell them I’m playing qualifying for a tournament they’re like, “So you’re playing a tournament to get into another tournament?”
But they’re all really supportive and I’m really lucky to have friends that are that supportive of me. I think it’s really important to have friends outside of tennis so you’re not always consumed with it. Sometimes you just need to relax and get a break. It’s nice to not talk about tennis 24/7. Because when we’re out here I do enjoy talking tennis. I think we all do. It’s what we do. We love it. But it’s nice to have a couple friends who don’t know anything about the game.
Q: So what do you do to get your mind off tennis?
A: I like to read. I like to sketch and draw a little bit. It’s the artistic outlet, I guess. I love music. You’ll always see me with my headphones in. I like to hang out with my friends. I like to keep it social.
Q: So what are you listening to these days? What’s on repeat?
A: I’m pretty into house music so I was really excited coming to Europe. I always leave Europe and I have a whole new playlist! Currently on repeat is the new Calvin Harris song that came out with Rihanna. It’s really good. I recommend you listen to it.
“Is it snow?” @goofa01 pic.twitter.com/5rTtvFR2BF
— Louisa Chirico (@Louisa_Chirico) April 30, 2016
Q: Alright, I’m going to fire off some quick-hit questions now.
A: Oh boy.
Q: Would you rather have a night out or an evening in?
A: Evening in.
Q: Extroverted or introverted?
A: Extroverted.
Q: TV or book?
A: TV.
Q: TV or movie?
A: Movie.
Q: What’s the last movie you saw?
A: I saw Concussion in the theater. It was really good. Interesting story.
Q: Twitter or Instagram?
A: Instagram.
How I feel when I see that @LamorneMorris followed me back!? ? #lifemade #winniethebish @NewGirlonFOX pic.twitter.com/3VgbxWrUsj
— Louisa Chirico (@Louisa_Chirico) February 26, 2016
Q: Would you rather swim in a pool or the ocean?
A: Ocean.
Q: Name three things you would take to a desert island?
A: My phone, a book, and a friend.
Q: If money were no object, what would you do all day?
A: Play tennis.
Q: Did you always want to be a professional tennis player?
A: When I was younger and I played soccer I wanted to be Mia Hamm.
Q: Do you have any nicknames?
A: Lou. My trainer calls me Lil Weezy. He’s the only person who can do that. I wouldn’t really respond to anyone else yelling that.
Q: I have this theory that everyone has an X-Men power. Something you naturally do better than anyone else that is your gift as well as your curse. What’s yours?
A: I always have energy. I don’t drink coffee, I don’t need caffeine. I always have energy and for what we do that’s an advantage. So…Energizer Bunny over here.
Q: What’s your favorite family tradition?
A: Christmas every year. I have a pretty big family. My dad’s side of the family all lives in New York. My mom’s side lives half in Korea and half in California. But my dad’s side is in New York and we all get together every Christmas. It’s the one time of the year everyone is together. It’s really nice. We go around the table and talk about what we’re thankful for. It keeps you grounded. It’s really special to me.
Q: Do you still sit at the kids table?
A: I am now old enough that I no longer have to sit at the kids table.
Sizzling forehand from @Louisa_Chirico #tennisgifs #VCO2016 pic.twitter.com/ctKob1hwRb
— Tennis Captions (@tenniscaptions) April 8, 2016
Q: How many languages do you speak?
A: Fluently? English. I took a little bit of Spanish. I took 3 years of Mandarin in school but I wouldn’t say I’m fluent.
Q: So you’re not Christina McHale (McHale speaks Mandarin)?
A: No, I’m not Christina. I didn’t go to Asia last year but this year hoping to so I’ll brush up on my Chinese.
Q: Do you speak Korean?
A: No, actually. Just hello and stuff.
Q: Do you have a Starbucks name?
A: I’ve given Rihanna. Because I just love her.
Q: She’s your girl?
A: She’s my girl.
Q: If you could have coffee with anyone in the world, who would it be?
A: Ellen Degeneres. I think she’s hilarious and I would love to be on her show.
Q: Well if you make a deep run at the US Open…
A: Exactly. That’s the goal, right? But I’ll settle for coffee with her.
Follow Louisa on Twitter @Louisa_Chirico!