Charleston: Stephens vs. Gavrilova
Sloane Stephens takes on Daria Gavrilova in the third round of the Volvo Car Open.
Sloane Stephens takes on Daria Gavrilova in the third round of the Volvo Car Open.
KATOWICE, Poland – Francesca Schiavone is into her second quarterfinal of the year with a straight sets win over Alizé Cornet at the Katowice Open, 7-5(6), 6-1.
Watch live action from Katowice this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!
Although her ranking has dipped to just outside the Top 100, Schiavone, a WTA veteran, won her seventh career title earlier this year in Rio de Janeiro. In Katowice, she was up against Frenchwoman Alizé Cornet, who was making her way back to the tour after a two-month injury layoff.
Despite Cornet’s inspired performance in the previous round – she had to battle through a tough three-set challenge from Bulgarian qualifier Isabella Shinikova – the Frenchwoman couldn’t make it past one of her toughest rivals. Schiavone’s mastery of the angles kept confounding and wrong-footing Cornet, the same way she has done to win nine of their previous 11 encounters.
The two played a tortuous and highly competitive first set, which saw Cornet break Schiavone while the Italian was serving for the set at 5-4 then go on to send it to a tiebreak. A couple of Cornet’s double faults gave Schiavone the edge, and she grabbed the first set after an hour and 10 minutes.
The second set was more one-way traffic for the Italian, despite Cornet throwing everything she had at her opponent. A line-to-line rally at 2-0, 40-30 left both players out of breath and laughing, even going up to shake hands at the net. Schiavone quickly closed out the set 7-5(6), 6-1.
“It was a really tough match, a close match, in the first set,” Schiavone said. “Then I managed to win the tie-break playing aggressive – I took my chances.
“The match was really in the balance until then, but in the second set I think [her level] went a little bit down and mine went up.”
Joining Schiavone in the Katowice quarterfinals are No.7 seed Timea Babos and Polish favorite Magda Linette – who both fought their way back to victory after dropping the first set 1-6 – as well as Pauline Parmentier.
Good, ladies? @alizecornet @Schiavone_Fra @KatowiceOpen_ pic.twitter.com/6XzbzPQwdf
— Team♡Alize Cornet (@teamalizecornet) April 7, 2016
An interview with Angelique Kerber after her win in the third round of the Volvo Car Open.
All season long we’ve been challenging your favorite players to a skill test that you may not see on the courts, but needless to say, is a tough task – and it’s all right here on wtatennis.com.
The WTA Frame Challenge is a game of keepy-uppy using a tennis ball and any part of the racquet frame. We challenge players to see how many times in a row they can keep the tennis ball in the air, and capture it all on video.
Here’s how the WTA Frame Challenge Leaderboard stands:
48 Sam Stosur
28 Bethanie Mattek-Sands (watch it here)
24 Carla Suárez Navarro (watch it here)
15 Jelena Jankovic (watch it here)
12 Andrea Petkovic (watch it here)
10 Casey Dellacqua
10 Daria Gavrilova (watch it here)
6 Monica Puig (watch it here)
While Stosur is in the lead for now, it could all change when the next WTA star takes the challenge. Stay tuned…
Find all of the latest WTA Frame Challenge videos right here!
Andrea Petkovic has Wednesday’s shot of the day at the Volvo Car Open.
CHARLESTON, SC, USA – 2004 Volvo Car Open champion Venus Williams made a thunderous return in Charleston, hitting 20 winners to ease past Alison Riske, 6-4, 6-2.
Watch highlights, interviews and more video from Charleston right here on wtatennis.com!
“It wasn’t easy,” the former No.1 told Andrew Krasny during her on-court interview. “It was great tennis from both of us, an hour and a half of slam, bam, thank you m’am!
“I was really impressed with her; it was great to have Americans playing well.”
Keeping up a high first serve percentage, the elder of the Williams sisters hit three aces and broke serve five times in the nearly 90 minute match; despite it being her first clay court match of 2016, she still found her way to the net 26 times, winning 17 of those points. What made the difference for Venus in a battle of big hitters?
“I don’t know; I’m a little bit taller? Maybe that’s an unfair advantage,” she said with a laugh. “Thanks Mom; thanks Dad! But I think just experience definitely helped; she’s played good matches and won titles, so just the experience of playing those important points helped me a little more today.”
The No.3 seed will have an even greater height advantage in her next round as she takes on the 5’4″ Yulia Putintseva for a spot in the quarterfinals. Putintseva rallied from losing the second set of her match against 2013 Wimbledon finalist Sabine Lisicki to serve out a titanic third set against her more experienced opponent, 7-5, 4-6, 6-3. Williams and Putintseva have met thrice before, with the American winning all three matches in tight, two-set matches. No doubt another advantage will be the enthusiatic Charleston crowd, who cheered for the decorated veteran throughout her second round victory.
'It's like my second home.'
Venus Williams declared her love for #Charleston following her win over Riske. #VCO2016 pic.twitter.com/eTiRAyeTQu
— Volvo Car Open (@VolvoCarOpen) April 6, 2016
“Thank you guys for rooting me on; I love being here. I love Charleston. It’s like my second home, and so I’m looking forward to the next match!”
Earlier in the day, No.7 seed Sloane Stephens won her first match since hoisting her second title of the season by defeating Danka Kovinic, 6-4, 6-3. Former Charleston finalists Lucie Safarova and Madison Keys eached dropped their opening round matches to Louisa Chirico and Laura Siegemund, respectively. Safarova, the No.4 seed and 2015 French Open finalist, was playing her first match on clay and only her fourth singles match of 2016 after illness and injury interrupted her start to the season.
Keys appeared on well on her way to moving past a tricky veteran in Siegemund, but the 28-year-old beguiled last year’s runner-up with an array of dropshots to edge out the victory in three sets.
“I think it was a very high level that we both played,” Siegemund said after the match. “I think it was a great match in general. I had chances in the first set, had a set point, but she played very well in the tough moments, so I had to be patient and wait for more chances to come.”
Third set!@LauraSiegemund forces a decider over Keys 6-7(3), 6-4! #VCO2016 https://t.co/yijErccUs8
— WTA (@WTA) April 6, 2016
Variety was the name of the game for Siegemund, who in the midst of a career-best season after reaching the third round of the Australian Open – her best-ever Grand Slam finish – back in January.
“I’m definitely a clay court player and against someone like Madison who’s a hard hitter and likes to hit fast balls, I like to mix it up, play higher, lower, try to play slices and drops. That’s just my game and I think it worked well.”
Siegemund will play another big-hitter in Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, who saved four match points to defeat Kristina Mladenovic on Tuesday.
“Honestly, I haven’t thought about it much yet because I was thinking about my performance today and going through that. It’s just another match so I’ll focus, regroup and go out and try to play well again tomorrow.”
On the outer courts, No.14 seed Daria Kasatkina continued her clay court domination with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over fellow 18-year-old and former junior rival, Ana Konjuh. Kasatkina will next play Chirico for a spot in her first WTA clay court quarterfinal.
It was a tough finish for 2014 semifinalist Eugenie Bouchard, who had just leveled her match against Lourdes Domínguez Lino when she was forced to retire with a left abdominal injury; the Spanish veteran was leading the former World No.5, 6-4, 1-6, 1-0.
“I wanted to give it another game in the third set, and when I realized I couldn’t serve faster than I could serve lefty, then I thought I should probably stop playing,” she said after the match.
“It’s the same one [from last summer], which is why I’m concerned and why I did retire, to not get in the same situation as I was last year where I pushed way too much with an injury and made it worse.”
Also dealing with injury was No.2 seed Belinda Bencic, who is still dealing with back issues that forced her to retire from her match at the Miami Open. Playing 2011 runner-up Elena Vesnina, Bencic only managed two games as the Russian ran away with the affair, 6-1, 6-1.
“It wasn’t easy because Belinda is having a great season,” she said during her on-court interview. “She’s a young player in the Top 10 already. I saw at the end of the second set she started moving slowly. She had some problems with her back, but she started swinging and hitting as she could and it wasn’t easy. But I’m happy that I won this match and I’m sorry for Belinda; I hope she will be ready for the next tournaments.”
Vesnina has been surging back up the rankings following a year of inconsistent results; the former World No.21 has already earned wins over Simona Halep, Venus Williams, and Caroline Wozniacki. What’s her secret?
“Maybe because I got married? I guess so, because my results are getting better and better every week. I’m really enjoying my time here and I love Charleston. I love coming back here; my friends live here and they came to support me!”
The last match of the day was a night session match between Andrea Petkovic and Monica Puig, who roared back from 5-2 down in the openng set to defeat the 2014 champion, 7-5, 6-2.
Oh what a night!!!! Thanks for the fun and laughs and funny kiss cams ?! Cant wait for tomorrow!!! ?⭐️? pic.twitter.com/q9Mmj53VfF
— Monica Puig (@MonicaAce93) April 7, 2016
Laura Siegemund takes on Madison Keys in the second round of the Volvo Car Open.
On this episode, WTA Insider Senior Writer Courtney Nguyen reviews the final weekend of the Miami Open, where Victoria Azarenka continued her incredible start to the season by winning her third title of the year, beating Svetlana Kuznetsova in straight sets to win Miami and become just the third woman to complete the Sunshine Double. Hear from Azarenka herself as she discusses her upcoming transition to the clay, the inherent stress of going for the American sweep in March, and how she feels to be back in the conversation amongst the game’s elite.
Nguyen is also joined by 18-time major champion and BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore ambassador Martina Navratilova to analyze the first three months of the season and preview the upcoming clay swing. Are World No.1s Serena Williams and Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis stuck in a slump? Can Victoria Azarenka continue to rack up titles on a less favorable surface like clay? Can Petra Kvitova win without a coach? Navratilova weighs in on those questions and more in a free-ranging discussion of 2016’s contenders and pretenders so far.
Azarenka: “Being a part of the discussion, I don’t listen to it that much, because it’s not interesting to me. Opinions, talks, it’s all more for people who are outside the sport. For me, I need to work and focus on my work, because it’s not going to happen if I don’t put the work in.”
Navratilova on Serena: “You don’t panic. Not when it comes to a great player like Serena Williams. I just think she needs to find some joy. It seems to me she’s just not happy on the court. Even when things were ot going her way it seemed like she was embracing that fight and right now I don’t see her embracing that fight. Sometimes that’s enough to not be able to finish those comebacks. If she finds that emotion, that passion for being in those fights then I think she’ll right the ship. There’s nothing wrong with her game.”
Navratilova on Kvitova: “Coachless doesn’t work. You can’t coach yourself. Even Roger Federer needed a coach. He was always with Severin Lüthi but he would pick up other people.”
Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or on any podcast app of your choice and reviews are always helpful, so if you like what you’ve heard so far, leave one. Get new episode alerts by following us on Twitter @WTA_Insider.
Elena Vesnina takes on Belinda Bencic in the second round of the Volvo Car Open.
KATOWICE, Poland – She needed six match points and more than two hours but No.5 seed Camila Giorgi is through to the quarterfinals of the Katowice Open with a win over Russian qualifier Ekaterina Alexandrova, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.
Watch live action from Katowice this week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!
The big-hitting Italian was under pressure from the word go, dropping her opening service game and letting slip five break back opportunities in the next game to allow Alexandrova an early lead. History repeated itself, but this this time in favor of Giorgi – the Italian broke Alexandrova’s serve then saved four break points to even up the score at 3-3. Aided by her huge first serves – she hit nine aces during the match – the Russian took the first set 6-4.
But Alexandrova, who was playing in her career first WTA main draw, couldn’t keep up the intensity against the two-time Katowice finalist. Giorgi quickly took back the second set, and the two traded breaks early in the deciding set. Alexandrova showed plenty of fight while serving to stay in the match – she relied on her heavy first serves to keep her in as Giorgi brought up match point after match point. In the end, the Italian converted on her sixth opportunity, booking her spot into the Katowice quarterfinals with a hard-fought win.
“I’m really happy for this win today,” Giorgi said. “It wasn’t easy in the third set and I really want to say thank you to the fans for all the support. I hope everyone can come back on Friday [for my quarterfinal] and I can keep going in the tournament.”
Giorgi is set to play No.9 seed Kirsten Flipkens, who also made her way to the quarterfinals today with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Andreea Mitu, in the next round.
Things were more difficult for No.2 seed Anna Karolina Schmiedlova after Pauline Parmentier dealt her the biggest upset of the day. The Frenchwoman defeated her soundly 6-2, 6-0 and sent the defending Katowice champion crashing out in the first round in less than an hour.
“I was very focused from the beginning of the match,” Parmentier said. “After breaking straight away in the first game, I was really feeling good in my game. I served good, was really aggressive, and obviously it worked perfect today.”
The rest of the seeds at the Katowice Open advanced with ease, with Dominika Cibulkova, Jelena Ostapenko and Timea Babos notching straight sets wins.