Miami: Kuznetsova vs Makarova
Svetlana Kuznetsova takes on Ekaterina Makarova in the quarterfinals of the Miami Open.
Svetlana Kuznetsova takes on Ekaterina Makarova in the quarterfinals of the Miami Open.
Is it time to hit the panic button on Serena Williams?: No, of course not. But things just never seemed quite right with Serena throughout her week in Miami. She carried an air of exhaustion all week and looked sluggish against eventual semifinalist Svetlana Kuznetsova on Monday in a 6-7(3), 6-1, 6-2 loss in the round of 16. It was Serena’s earliest exit from the tournament since 2000, when she lost to Jennifer Capriati at the same stage. Going into the match Serena was a three-time defending champion of a tournament she’s won a record eight times; her loss snapped a 20-match win streak in what has been considered her backyard tournament.
Serena offered no excuses or explanation for her loss when she spoke the press in a brief interview after the match. “I can’t win every match,” Serena said. “The players come out and play me like they’ve never played before in their lives. You know, the best that I could do today. I have to be 300% every day.”
Serena now heads into clay without a title under her belt. The last time she played four tournaments without winning a trophy was in 2012. Her next scheduled tournament won’t come until the end of April at the Mutua Madrid Open.
Despite the numbers and the losses any rush to panic is premature. The theories for her inability to close are rampant. Is this a continued emotional hangover from her incredibly stressful 2015 season, which she shut down early after losing to Roberta Vinci in the US Open semifinals? After that near-historic season, is she struggling with her motivation when there is (marginally) less on the line? As she nears 35-years-old, are the bad days at the office coming more and more frequently? Or are these one-off losses that can explained by extreme emotional circumstances (US Open, Indian Wells), a quality opponent having a career day (Australian Open), or simple exhaustion (Miami)?
Serena keeps her cards close to her chest so a definitive answer won’t come anytime soon. But she has made it clear that her season revolves around the Slams, especially as she’s just one major title away from tying Steffi Graf’s Open Era record of 22 major titles. It’s easy to sit and scratch our heads after her surprising results in March, but it’s important to remember there are three more majors left in the season. I’m not inclined to worry until after Wimbledon.
Champions are human. Never forget that.
Here’s Svetlana Kuznetsova’s take on the “Serena Slump”: “I mean, you say drama when somebody, No.1, which is probably one of the greatest in the history of athletes didn’t win four slams,” Kuznetsova said. “This is drama. For me this would be miracle of the year. For us it’s drama that she didn’t win the fourth Grand Slam of the year.
“She struggled a little bit probably because she lost Australian Open, but, I mean, she is still No. 1 and she still plays great. I don’t see much to be depressed about.”
Timea Bacsinszky back on track: After a knee injury ended her breakout season, Bacsinszky started 2016 behind the 8-ball. With only an abbreviated preparation she knew she was undercooked when she made the decision to play in Australia. The cautious player might have skipped that swing to stay home and continue training. Bacsinszky chose to put herself out there, take the bad losses, and try and train and play herself into form.
It wasn’t easy and there were a few bumps in the road – she got horribly sick after Fed Cup – but with her semifinal run in Miami, beating two Top 5 players en route in Agnieszka Radwanska and Simona Halep, Bacsinszky is rounding into form just in time for her favorite part of the season.
“I think I physically got back more or less where I was I don’t know last year,” she said. “I’m slowly getting it back. It feels great to be able to win four matches in a row, especially that I played yesterday and it’s the first time I played two days in a row and I’m able to win against such a great player.
“So it shows me that I’m on a good way and that we’re working well. Gives me a lot of motivation also for my future.”
Simona Halep and Garbiñe Muguruza head to clay on the rise: It was an undoubtedly disappointing start to the season for both women, who were ranked No.2 and No.3 in the rankings respectively back in January. But Muguruza began to show signs of life at the Qatar Total Open in February and Halep’s level improved dramatically in Indian Wells and Miami, where she made back-to-back quarterfinals.
For Muguruza, the positives come from how she battled through three tough sets to beat Dominika Cibulkova in the second round in Miami, blitzed Nicole Gibbs in straight sets, and then played her part in the best match of the tournament so far in a 7-6(6), 7-6(4) loss to the hottest player on tour, Victoria Azarenka. The level is there. She just needs that extra nudge.
For Halep, there’s no shame in losing to Serena Williams, which she did in Indian Wells, but the loss to Bacsinszky will sting. That’s a match she needs to win but she ran into a physical wall early in the second set and never recovered. Hopefully she can use that disappointment as motivation on the practice court as she prepares for her best surface, clay.
Santina slumping?: The most dominant doubles team of the last 12 months is suddenly in a rut. Since their 41-match win-streak was snapped by Elena Vesnina and Daria Kasatkina in Doha, Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis have yet to win back-to-back matches. They lost to Vania King and Alla Kudryavtseva in Indian Wells 7-6(7), 6-4 and Margarita Gasparyan and Monica Niculescu in Miami 6-4, 6-2.
All photos courtesy of Getty Images.
An interview with Timea Bacsinszky after her win in the quarterfinals of the Miami Open.
MIAMI, FL, USA – Victoria Azarenka continued her march towards a third Miami Open title with a straight set win over Johanna Konta in Wednesday’s quarterfinal.
Watch highlights, interviews and more video from Miami right here on wtatennis.com!
In a high-quality encounter, Azarenka withstood some early pressure before raising her game to prevail, 6-4, 6-2.
“She’s such a great player and it’s interesting to see what sort of player she was last year and playing well here, so I see a lot of potential,” Azarenka told ESPN’s Mary Joe Fernandez afterwards. “I couldn’t actually get a read on her serve in the beginning – it was tough for me to adjust – but then I got a bit lower and tried to get more returns in, be a bit more aggressive.”
Playing her first match on Crandon Park’s cavernous Stadium court, Konta started brightly, breezing through her first two service games whilst exerting early pressure with some aggressive returning.
But in the seventh game, Azarenka created an opportunity of her own, punching away a volley to earn her first break points. Konta produced some smart play to reach the safety of deuce only to succumb two points later when she double faulted for the first time.
This lapse proved a costly one, Azarenka’s serve holding firm to close out the set in a fraction under an hour. With Konta’s level dropping, Azarenka began to pile on the pressure, a brilliant stretching forehand return bringing up three break points early in the second set.
Once again, Konta’s serve wilted, a second double fault putting the No.13 seed in the driving seat. She soon stretched this lead to 5-1 and despite some spirited late resistance eventually crossed the finish line to register her 11th straight victory.
“I think there are adjustments every day; it depends on the opponent you play, the conditions you play – I’ve played some night matches, I played some matches where it was really hot, today it’s really windy – so I think it’s all about adaptation every single day and for me focusing on my recovery because I’ve been playing a lot of tennis!”
After her Indian Wells triumph, the Belarusian remains on course to become just the third player to win Indian Wells and Miami in the same season. However, Azarenka, who lifted Miami titles in 2009 and 2011, refused to get drawn on her chances of becoming first player since Kim Clijsters to complete the feat: “Right now I’m looking forward to the semifinal. If I can make it, it’s great. Right now it seems so close but I want to stay in the present and continue to fight and keep getting better.”
Meeting Azarenka for a place in the final will be the winner of the evening encounter between Madison Keys and No.2 seed Angelique Kerber.
It was a pleasure to share the court with you @vika7 https://t.co/JXkFvNjzJD
— Johanna Konta (@JoKonta91) March 30, 2016
An interview with Svetlana Kuznetsova after her win in the quarterfinals of the Miami Open.
MIAMI, FL, USA – No.2 seed Angelique Kerber put on a comprehensive display against No.22 seed Madison Keys, dispatching the young American, 6-3, 6-2 and reach her first career semifinal at the Miami Open.
Watch highlights, interviews and more video from Miami right here on wtatennis.com!
Kerber came to Miami without a WTA win since capturing her maiden Grand Slam title at the Australian Open, but a few tense matches – most notably a third set comeback over Timea Babos in the fourth round – appears to have helped the German rediscover her confidence.
“It’s nice to play a match like this,” Kerber said after the match. “I was feeling good. Madison is always a tough opponent. I know this because we had a lot of tough battles in the past.
“I knew that I must play very good to beat her because she played very well here in the last few matches. So it’s good. It’s good.”
Playing in her signature style, she drew 39 errors from Keys, who had taken Kerber to three sets in their last two meetings.
Racing out to a 4-0 lead in the second set, the 2015 Australian Open semifinalist could do little more than force her more experienced opponent to serve out the victory in just over an hour. Speaking to media following the win, Kerber admitted to feeling overwhelmed after her big breakthrough in Melbourne.
“Actually, it was not so easy after, you know, because I had so many things to do, and also after Indian Wells where I was still not feeling 100%. I had few days before coming here to focus again on my practice, on my work on court, and to playing here good matches.
“I had also had a tough match in the last round. Today I was feeling much better, and I think that the matches here. They give me more confidence for the next tournaments and that I’m still on a good way.”
Looming next for Kerber is former No.1 and BNP Paribas Open champion Victoria Azarenka. The Belarusian, who defeated top-ranked Brit Johanna Konta earlier in the day, had looked the clear favorite to reach the final Down Under with a title in Brisbane and a 6-0 head-to-head against Kerber heading into their quarterfinal.
Kerber nonetheless turned the tables on the two-time Australian Open champion and earned her first win in their rivalry in straight sets, going on to defeat World No.1 Serena Williams in the final.
“I went out there and trying to be really aggressive from the first point, trying to really believe in myself, because until this time I never won the match against her,” she said of that fateful match in January. “It was 0-6; now it’s 1-6. I will try to go out there again like in Australia and try to believe in my game and myself and, yeah, trying to challenge her.
“It will be not easy. It will be tough match. But this is for what I am practicing, for the big matches out there, to really show what, yeah, we can do and playing the best tennis.
“So I’m really looking forward to play against her again this year.”
Kerber & Azarenka will be No.1 & 2 atop Road to Singapore on Monday. Order could change pending results, but the two best in 2016 so far
— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) March 31, 2016
The winner of Kerber’s semifinal with Azarenka will reach their third final of the season; Kerber will be keen to nab her first WTA title since capturing Grand Slam glory while Azarenka is a mere two matches from becoming the third woman in WTA history to complete the Indian Wells-Miami “Sunshine” Double. Steffi Graf twice won both titles in 1994 and 1996, while Kim Clijsters most recently achieved the feat in 2005.
More to come…
Great hustle from @AngeliqueKerber! ? https://t.co/fCbLR0GtbT
— WTA (@WTA) March 31, 2016
MIAMI, FL, USA – Everyone needs a little bit of luck sometimes. For No.20 Timea Bacsinszky, she’s had one of the best athletes in the world cheering her on in Miami and it’s paid dividends.
Bacsinszky backed up her big win over No.2 Agnieszka Radwanska with another stunner just 24 hours later, beating No.5 Simona Halep, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, to advance to the semifinals of the Miami Open on Tuesday. In the stands supporting her all week was Switzerland’s Lara Gut, the No.1 Alpine skier in the world, who just two weeks ago won the Alpine Skiing World Cup. The 24-year-old became the first Swiss woman since 1995 to win.
“She wrote me the Friday before, so it wasn’t official that she was going to be in Miami,” Bacsinszky told WTA Insider. “But she finished her competition on Sunday for the Crystal Globes, and she wrote me on Friday like, ‘Hey, it would be fun if I could come watch you in Miami,’ so I knew she was coming to Miami anyway. It was actually a big thing in Switzerland; no one knew where she was, and I was reading Swiss news headlines that were asking, ‘Where Has Lara Gone For Holidays?'”
“I finished my season last Sunday and it was important for me to have a break,” Gut told WTA Insider after Bacsinszky’s quarterfinal win. “I decided to come to Miami and I found out there was a tennis tournament. So I contacted Timea and she got me a badge. I started coming the first day and I got interested and she was playing so well that I came the second day and she was still winning. I was supposed to fly home yesterday but since she won I tried to stay here for one more day. She’s playing awesome and it’s really fun to watch.”
And the winner is… @TimeaOfficial !! Yeeeeeeeees! ??#WTA @MiamiOpen pic.twitter.com/TaFJQUlsMX
— Lara Gut (@Laragut) March 29, 2016
Bacsinszky and Gut first met in 2009 but have become closer recently after Gut began working with Bacsinszky’s manager. Gut was scheduled to leave for Switzerland after Bacsinszky’s win over Radwanska but she knew she couldn’t leave her friend out in the cold.
“Yesterday after Timea’s win I had to call Swiss Air to see if they could change my flight,” Gut said. “I could stay here one day longer because I’m supposed to leave tomorrow for training. So it’s going to be a bit stressful when I come home but it was more important to stay here and cheer on Timea than have more time to pack.”
“In Switzerland it’s a small country. We have a chance to meet other athletes. We have such strong athletes like Timea, Roger, Stan, and Belinda. We were still kids when we first met. It’s cool to see what she has done all these years and that she’s still improving.”
Getting the credential for Gut proved slightly more difficult than Bacsinszky expected. Switzerland may be a skiing-mad country, but trying to explain the situation in Miami proved a little tricky.
“In Switzerland, she can’t walk around, everyone knows her,” Bacsinszky said. “Here too, she didn’t want to attract attention. I know Lindsey Vonn is well-known, but the No.1 [skier] is at your tournament and no one knows it.
“When I asked for a badge for her at accreditation I said, ‘You know Lindsey Vonn?’ and they said, ‘Yeah, yeah,’ and I said, ‘Well, the girl who’s just in front of her in the rankings and just won the Crystal Globe is coming, so provide it now,” she said laughing. “Just Google her name.”
Bacsinszky will play Svetlana Kuznetsova on Thursday for a spot in the Miami Open final. After a slow start to the season after rehabbing from a bad knee injury, Bacsinszky has played herself into form, reaching her best result since the China Open final last fall. A title in Miami would boost her back in the Top 10. It’s all clicking for Bacsinszky and having a great champion in her box this week certainly hasn’t hurt.
“It’s funny to talk about sport and to like exchange what you feel during a race, what do I feel during a match,” Bacsinszky said. “We have so many things to talk about. It gives many, many new [perspectives], views on sports. It was really, really interesting for me. Yeah, lucky charm for sure.”
I am so happy and proud of you Timea Bacsinszky ! It was a pleasure to see you playing and I think my job as your lucky charm wasn't that bad either 😉 See you soon and have fun on that tennis court :*
Posted by Lara Gut on Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Serena Williams had Monday’s shot of the day at the Miami Open.
MIAMI, FL, USA – No.3 seeds Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova are moving on in the Miami Open after booking their spot in the doubles semifinals with a win over the No.5 seeded team of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka, 7-5, 6-3.
The Mattek-Sands and Safarova partnership had a very successful 2015, winning two WTA titles and two Grand Slams as well as qualifying for the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global. This year the pair took some time apart, though, as Safarova focused on her singles game and Mattek-Sands put together her bid for a spot on the US Olympic team with CoCo Vandeweghe.
They picked up right where they left off as they reunited for Miami, flying through all of their matches en route to the quarterfinals in straight sets. They faced more resistance in the form of the No.5 seeded Czech duo, longtime partners who earlier this year reached the final of the Australian Open.
Hlavackova and Hradecka – known to their fans as ‘The Silent Hs’ – broke Mattek-Sands and Safarova (‘Bucie’) early on to go up 4-2 in the first set. They had a chance to break again to extend their lead but the No.3 seeds halted their progress, winning three straight games to dig out of the hole and take back the lead at 5-4. The two teams stayed on pace until Mattek-Sands and Safarova struck again, breaking once more to take the first set.
Team Bucie was more clinical in the second set – they broke the Silent Hs twice right away to go up 5-1. They quelled any ideas of a late comeback from the Czechs to claim the match in just over an hour and fifteen minutes and advance to the Miami Open semifinals.
Teamwork makes the dream work.
Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova are on to semis! (? via @tennis_shots) pic.twitter.com/pwQqdXeVey
— Miami Open (@MiamiOpen) March 30, 2016
Also into the semifinals are No.4 seeded Kazakh-Hungarian duo of Timea Babos and Yaroslava Shvedova, who knocked out the Ukrainian pairing Kateryna Bondarenko and Olga Savchuk 6-2, 6-4.
Babos and Shvedova were dominant from the start, going up a double break and getting off to a 4-1 lead. Though Bondarenko and Savchuk broke back to narrow the gap, but the No.4 seeds broke a third time to take the first set 6-2. They broke the Ukrainian’s serve one last time in the second set and stayed steady to close out the match.