Tennis News

The grass court season has been a time of respite and opportunity for Agnieszka Radwanska. This year she comes into Wimbledon with less pause and more purpose. The World No.3 limited her clay court schedule this year, an aggressive signal that the 27-year-old is more about quality than quantity these days. Her focus now is to take advantage of the surface that has always been good to her.

The 2012 Wimbledon finalist has made the semifinals or better at two of her last three trips to the All England Club. While she grew up playing on fake grass back home in Poland, she did not step foot on the real thing until 2005. That year she would go on to win Junior Wimbledon.

“I was really comfortable on that from the first day,” Radwanska said. “Since then I had this feeling I feel really good on the surface. I feel really comfortable and I can do whatever I want there. It hasn’t changed since then.”

Heading into Wimbledon, Radwanska has played 10 events this year (including Fed Cup), four fewer than in each of her last two seasons and her fewest since 2011. And yet she’s in the midst of one of her strongest 12-month runs, winning four tournaments, including the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global, and making the Australian Open semifinals.

“If you ask me five years ago I would say, Yeah, it’s very scary [to play less] and I would feel weird not to play hundred matches,” Radwanska said. “Here it’s a different story.

“Every year you have a different experience and now when you’re older then you really have to think [about] it twice. So I really feel much better. It’s still not over, it’s just half the season. There’s still a few months to go with the Olympics and two Grand Slams so you you really need to think about the whole season.”

As a result, Radwanska has been the healthiest she’s ever been at this point of the season. As she joked in Paris, she’s not being held together by tape and she’s been able to play freely without much concern. This week she’s already into the quarterfinals at the Aegon International, where she was finalist last year, and will go into Wimbledon with a few quality matches under her belt. Regardless of whether she wins the title in Eastbourne, Radwanska has rediscovered her comfort level on grass.

“Sometimes I lost in the first round at Eastbourne and then I made the finals and semifinals at Wimbledon, not once but three times,” she said. “But I really want to take advantage of the fact that I really like grass. It’s good to have a couple matches before the Grand Slams.”

Click here to read more about this year’s Wimbledon Contenders, courtesy of WTA Insider.

LOS ANGELES, CA, USA – ESPN revealed today the nominees for The 2016 ESPYS presented by Capital One, and Serena Williams, Garbiñe Muguruza, Flavia Pennetta, Angelique Kerber and Roberta Vinci all received award nods across two categories.

The ESPYS recognize outstanding athletic achievements in the calendar year preceding the awards ceremony, and are awarded via an online fan vote.

Four WTA players are nominated for Best Female Tennis Player including World No.1 Serena Williams, who is chasing her eighth ESPY in the category (2003-2004, 2009-2011, 2013, 2015). Last year, Williams took home three of the four Grand Slam titles and was voted as 2015 WTA Player of the Year. Her 175 consecutive weeks at No.1 make up the second-longest streak in WTA history.

Williams faces a field of first-time nominees for the award, including reigning Roland Garros champion Garbiñe Muguruza, who avenged her 2015 Wimbledon final loss to Williams by upsetting her in the 2016 French Open final to win her career-first major and rise to World No.2.

Also vying for the Best Female Tennis Player award are Angelique Kerber, 2016 Australian Open champion and Flavia Pennetta, 2015 US Open champion.

In addition, Roberta Vinci’s upset of Williams at the US Open is up for Best Upset, a category that also includes Holly Holm knocking out Ronda Rousey and No.15 Middle Tennessee State defeating No.2 seed Michigan State in the NCAA Tournament.

The unseeded Vinci pulled off the upset of the year when she famously halted Williams’ quest for a Calendar-Year Grand Slam, shocking everyone – including herself. Afterwards she addressed the crowd, saying: “Today is my day. Sorry guys!”

Click here to vote for Best Upset!

Fans will determine the winners in most ESPYS categories by voting online up to the start of The 2016 ESPYS. View all the categories and nominees, and cast your vote now at www.espys.com – voting ends on Wednesday, July 13th 8 p.m. (ET)!

LONDON, England – On Thursday morning The All England Club announced the seeds for the most historic tournament on the tennis calendar, Wimbledon. Here is the full list:

Updated 6/23/16 to reflect the withdrawal of No.6 seed Victoria Azarenka (knee injury):

(1) Serena Williams (USA #1)
(2) Garbiñe Muguruza (ESP #2)
(3) Agnieszka Radwanska (POL #3)
(4) Angelique Kerber (GER #4)
(5) Simona Halep (ROU #5)
(6) Roberta Vinci (ITA #7) 
(7) Belinda Bencic (SUI #8)
(8) Venus Williams (USA #9) 
(9) Madison Keys (USA #10)
(10) Petra Kvitova (CZE #11) 
(11) Timea Bacsinszky (SUI #12)
(12) Carla Suárez Navarro (ESP #13)
(13) Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS #14)
(14) Samantha Stosur (AUS #16)
(15) Karolina Pliskova (CZE #17)
(16) Johanna Konta (GBR #18) 

(17) Elina Svitolina (UKR #19)
(18) Sloane Stephens (USA #20)
(19) Dominika Cibulkova (SVK #21)
(20) Sara Errani (ITA #22)
(21)Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS #23)
(22) Jelena Jankovic (SRB #24)
(23) Ana Ivanovic (SRB #25)
(24) Barbora Strycova (CZE #26)
(25) Irina-Camelia Begu (ROU #27)
(26) Kiki Bertens (NED #28)
(27) CoCo Vandeweghe (USA #29)
(28) Lucie Safarova (CZE #30)
(29) Daria Kasatkina (RUS #31)
(30) Caroline Garcia (FRA #32)
(31) Kristina Mladenovic (FRA #33)
(32) Andrea Petkovic (GER #34)

There are some dangerous floaters among those to have missed the cut, including Caroline Wozniacki and former finalists Sabine Lisicki and Eugenie Bouchard.

Qualifying at Roehampton’s Bank of England Club finishes later this week, with main draw action starting on Monday June 27.