Tennis News

Santina In The Sun: Co-No.1s Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza come into the Miami Open at their most vulnerable since their partnership began, having won just won match since their winning streak of 41 straight came to an end at the Qatar Total Open. Santina took their first straight-sets defeat since last summer at the BNP Paribas Open, falling in the second round to doubles threats Vania King and Alla Kudryavtseva.

King and Kudryavtseva once again find themselves in Santina’s quarter of the draw, but the good friends will have to first get past nemeses Julia Goerges and Karolina Pliskova. Runners-up in Indian Wells, Goerges and Pliskova have ended both of King and Kudryavtseva’s quarterfinal runs at the Australian Open and again last week in the California desert. With both potential quarterfinal opponents for Hingis and Mirza, the reigning Wimbledon, US Open, and Australian Open champions will have their work cut out for them as they attempt to regain their stunning ascendency ahead of the clay court season and win their fifth title of 2016.

Team Bucie Reunites: Bethanie Mattek-Sands just won her first title since last summer’s Rogers Cup with CoCo Vandeweghe in Indian Wells – taking out No.2 seeds and sisters Chan Hao-Ching and Chan Yung-Jan along the way – but while her countrywoman rejoins regular partner Anna-Lena Groenefeld, Mattek-Sands will be joined by former partner Lucie Safarova in Miami. Mattek-Sands and Safarova were the stories of the start of 2016, getting halfway to the Calendar Year Grand Slam with wins in Australia and Paris.

Safarova’s injuries and illnesses – most recently a battle with reactive arthritis – have kept the team apart, but No.3 seeds have a chance to reassert their presence in the hyper-competitive doubles field with a first round encounter with American wildcards Madison Keys and Sloane Stephens. Likely looming in the second round would be Daria Kasatkina and Elena Vesnina, the very team who ended Santina’s streak in Doha. Drawn into the same quarter as Australian Open finalists Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka, a lot will depend on the state of Safarova, who only returned to tennis a few weeks ago.

Second Chances: Timea Babos was already starting fresh in 2016 when regular partner Kristina Mladenovic opted for an all-French pairing with Caroline Garcia, but the Hungarian youngster was left adrift when she ended what was meant to be a season-long partnership with Katarina Srebotnik after the Australian Open. In search of a full-time partner, Babos had success with Julia Goerges through the Middle East Swing, and kept up her winning ways when the German reunited with Pliskova by partnering Yaroslava Shvedova, who finds herself available as partner Casey Dellacqua continues her comeback from a late-season concussion.

Reaching the semifinals in Indian Wells, Babos and Shvedova narrowly lost to eventual champs Mattek-Sands and Vandeweghe in a match tie-break; seeded No.4 in Miami, they are projected to face No.6 seeds Garcia and Mladenovic in the quarterfinals, but could play Dellacqua and new partner Samantha Stosur in the second round. A back injury to Garcia took the French Connection out of the California desert before the doubles event began; how will the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships runners-up bounce back in Florida?

Wildcard Watch: Stephens and Keys are not the only singles players to give Miami a go. Simona Halep, who enjoyed a mixed doubles run at last year’s US Open with Horia Tecau, has entered the fray with fellow former BNP Paribas Open champion Daniela Hantuchova. They will play a hotly contested first round match with Doha finalists and Dubai semifinalists Sara Errani and Carla Suárez Navarro.

Russians Svetlana Kuznetsova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova – who narrowly missed out on qualifying for last year’s BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore present by SC Global and started the season with Vesnina – also earned a wildcard into the doubles draw, playing Chinese No.8 seeds Xu Yi-Fan and Zheng Saisai. Finally, youngsters Monica Puig and Heather Watson are ones to watch as potential second round opponents against Santina, should they get past Margarita Gasparyan and Monica Niculescu.

What did the top seeds have to say before play began at the Miami Open? The WTA stars told all at the pre-tournament Media Day…

Serena Williams

On her New York Times Op-Ed on keeping the Miami Open in Miami…
This is the tournament that I’ve grown up coming to. Being a local, it’s so easy for me to go home, come here and it’s also been just so great to tennis for decades. So it’s just been a wonderful place to have this event.

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On “friendly rival” Victoria Azarenka’s return to the Top 10…
It’s really impressive. She’s been through a lot, a lot of disappointments, and obviously so many injuries. But she’s always been a really good player, and she’s just continued to prove that. She’s always been a big fighter as well. For me, I’m always excited to see the success of someone else, just to do well. It motivates me to do better, and I think we just have to always motivate each other. I think that’s exciting.

On equal prize money…
Women’s tennis is the biggest sport for women, period, stop, end all, done. Men’s tennis is probably not the biggest sport for men, but it’s still a huge sport. But you do have football, soccer, basketball. Every athlete, men and women, work extremely hard. I think it just boils down to, if I had two kids, I would never tell my son or my daughter that one deserves more because of their sex.

Simona Halep

On whether it’s harder to get to the Top 5 or stay there…
To get there is tough because first you have to win many matches, many tournaments in a row to get to the top. But to stay there, you have to repeat what you have done already. It’s tough, both of them, but that’s why it’s special to be in the Top 5, and that’s what I’m working hard for, to stay there.

On the Romanian fans who attend her matches…
Not only Romanians, also others! I want to thank them for their support. It’s amazing that they are coming always to support me, everywhere I go. I want to thank all the fans, actually, because it’s nice when I go out, they want my autograph or a picture with me. It’s nice. I’m enjoying this moment; I think it’s one of the best and I’m trying to be ok all the time but sometimes it’s tough. When you lose, it’s tough to smile. I’m trying to do it, stay close to them with Instagram and Facebook. But I’m not very good in that way. I’m trying just to stay relaxed, to thank them by playing my best when they come to see me.

Petra Kvitova

On how she plans to explore Miami…
I’ve been on the beach before I started practicing here; it was great. I’m planning some shopping as well. Of course, we are most of the time on the court, and on site, but if I find any time, it’s great to do something else.

On preparing for the Rio Olympics…
I just feel that the Olympic Games is just one more Grand Slam coming up. It’s as big a goal for me, definitely, and I will do my best over there as well. I’m not pretty sure what I can do there. I’m going to focus on tennis, definitely, and if I have time afterwards, I will watch some other sports probably.

Angelique Kerber

On the resurgence of tennis’ popularity in Germany…
It feels good because now I am seeing that tennis is going up again in Germany. Football is the biggest sport there, and I love to watch it; I’m a big football fan. It’s great to see, after Steffi Graf and Boris Becker, that now again the people are watching tennis and the focus is getting bigger on tennis again. This feels good and I’m proud that I am the person that makes tennis so popular again.

Agnieszka Radwanska

On the balancing her schedule with the Olympic experience…
I’m always trying to see other sports when I’m there, but sometimes it’s very tough with the schedule. You just go there and try to prepare as best you can. It’s not that easy to go somewhere, and when you’re done, you’re going to some other tournament, it’s not like any other sport where you’re done for a year. Next week, we have another tournament and three weeks later we have a Grand Slam. It’s never over for us, so it’s sometimes hard.

Belinda Bencic

On her adjustment to the WTA from juniors…
I don’t think it went really fast. At the start, I played a couple of tournaments, and then I went back to juniors, and then came back. It was like I already knew what was coming to me. I think you get used to it, and obviously, it’s great to be around all these champions and great players, and it was very inspiring for me. That’s why I felt quite good here, and I’m starting to really feel like I’m a part of this whole thing.

On her social media presence…
I think it’s nice to let the fans know what you’re doing off the court. When I was younger, I would also like to know what my idols were doing off the court, not always on.