Tennis News

– The Carnage Continues: Playing her first match of the 2016 season, Garbiñe Muguruza was forced to retire from a tight second round encounter with American Varvara Lepchenko. Lepchenko had taken the opening set in a thrilling tiebreaker when the World No.3 took a medical timeout to address her left foot, which was later confirmed to be a recurrence of plantar fascia:

.@GarbiMuguruza on her left foot injury @BrisbaneTennis. pic.twitter.com/8F5PGNuvt3

— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) January 6, 2016

– Epic Win: Naomi Broady aspires to be the WTA’s Ivo Karlovic, but mixed raw power with unfiltered drama at the ASB Classic against 18-year-old wildcard Jelena Ostapenko. Down 1-5 in the final set, the Brit won a match that must be seen to be believed. 

– Upset Stomach: Over at the Shenzhen Open, Petra Kvitova had her own woes in the form of an unexpected GI illness that kept her from finishing her first round match against Zheng Saisai. While physically fit, the virus did keep the two-time Wimbledon champion off the practice court.

More on Kvitova’s retirement in Shenzhen: She was unable to hit for the last four days. Stayed in bed trying to recover.

— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) January 6, 2016

– Ailing Aussies: Ajla Tomljanovic and Samantha Stosur are both dealing with physical issues early in the season; the former pulled out of the doubles tournament in Brisbane with an abdominal injury, while the 2011 US Open champion underwent an MRI that revealed tendon sheath damage to her right wrist. Both hope to be ready for their home major tournament in two weeks.

– Down, But Not Out: Simona Halep’s tournament may have ended before it began, but the World No.2 is still eager to serve up something major to start the season:

No tennis for 2 days but working hard to be ready for Sydney and/or Melbourne. Fingers crossed ? pic.twitter.com/Edv6VMKEem

— Simona Halep (@Simona_Halep) January 6, 2016

– Making a Racket: One former No.1 enjoying a clean bill of health is Victoria Azarenka; the two-time Australian Open champion eased past lucky loser Ysaline Bonaventure, who acquitted herself well in her second marquee match (The Tennis Island spoke with the Belgian last summer). Meanwhile, Azarenka remained coy about a possible equipment change in press:

Asked Azarenka whether she’s playing with the same racket as last year or if she’s changed it up. Her answer: “We’ll see.”

— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) January 6, 2016

– Young Gun: Samantha Crawford’s star looked set to rise in 2012 when she qualified for the US Open main draw and went on to win the girl’s singles title – beating Anett Kontaveit in the final. Injuries have curtailed her progress, but the American is hitting her stride in Brisbane, upsetting Belinda Bencic to reach her first Premier quarterfinal. Learn more about the big-hitting Crawford here.

– Comeback Kid: Tamira Paszek came up in the same cadre of current WTA stars as Azarenka and Caroline Wozniacki, but an adductor injury nearly took her off the tour for good. Now fit, healthy, and back with former coach Andrei Pavel, Paszek has been making waves once again at the ASB Classic, overcoming reknowned battlers Francesca Schiavone and Svetlana Kuznetsova to reach her first WTA quarterfinal since 2012 (Seoul). WTA Insider spoke with the Austrian last fall.

– Dance Off: From the All-Blacks’ stint as ballboys for Caroline Wozniacki, Venus Williams and Bethanie Mattek-Sands. Williams whipped and nae-nae’d her way to a perfect practice with a little help from Julian Savea.

– Out From Under: Andrea Petkovic wasn’t sure if she would even be in Australia last fall, but a detour through the streets of Manhattan brought her back to Brisbane in stunning style; the German is into the quarterfinals after defeating Ekaterina Makarova in straight sets, and put on an even bigger show in the press conference:

When @andreapetkovic finds out 2 journos don't know who The White Stripes frontman Jack White is… #BrisbaneTennis
https://t.co/PX76FQv0xM

— Brisbane Intl (@BrisbaneTennis) January 6, 2016

BRISBANE, Australia – Simona Halep and Maria Sharapova have unfortunately had to withdraw from the Brisbane International due to injury. Sharapova was the defending champion at the Premier event.

Watch live action from Brisbane, Shenzhen & Auckland on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!

Sharapova’s announcement came just hours before she was to take the court for her opening match.

“I hurt my forearm in practice a couple of days ago and need to precautionarily withdraw, with the Australian Open starting in just a matter of time,” Sharapova said. “This is such a special event for me, especially being the defending champion. I look forward to seeing all my fans in Brisbane next year.”

Shortly after the No.3-seeded Sharapova withdrew, the tournament’s No.1 seed, Simona Halep, was also forced to pull out, due to a left leg injury. She was going to play her opening match on Wednesday.

“I had problems with my Achilles in August and September, and then I didn’t feel it anymore, but now I’ve already had a couple of weeks again with the pain,” Halep told reporters. “I thought I would be ready to play here, to start the year here in Brisbane, but I don’t think that I can play a full match.

“I think it’s more important to be ready and take a little bit of a break.”

Halep is scheduled to play the Apia International Sydney next week – and she’s hopeful she will.

“Yeah, I’m planning to go to Sydney. Actually tomorrow I’m going there,” the World No.2 said. “It’s nothing dangerous – I did an MRI and it’s nothing dangerous. But it’s still an inflammation.

“I just have to take a few days’ rest.”

Sharapova and Halep were replaced by lucky losers Margarita Gasparyan and Ysaline Bonaventure.

Despite Tuesday’s withdrawals, the Premier event still has a dynamite field, led by 2015 Wimbledon finalist Garbiñe Muguruza. The No.2-seeded Spaniard will kick her campaign off on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, in second round play, No.8 seed Roberta Vinci cruised past Dominika Cibulkova in a battle of Grand Slam finalists, 6-1, 6-1, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova won a see-saw against Alizé Cornet, 6-2, 1-6, 6-4, and No.6 seed Carla Suárez Navarro took on Samantha Stosur in the feature night match.

Ekaterina Makarova beat Gasparyan in the last first round match of the week, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3.

SHENZHEN, China – World No.5 Agnieszka Radwanska registered an expected win, in unexpected circumstances, to get her 2016 campaign up and running at the Shenzhen Open.

Heavy rain forced the tournament organizers to move the majority of Tuesday’s order of play indoors, although the change of venue failed to distract Radwanska, who needed little over an hour to outfox Krunic, 6-4, 6-3, in her first match since lifting the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.

“Of course we all saw the weather and knew it would be difficult,” Radwanska said. “There was not much time to wait and I was prepared for that. Of course I came here to play outdoors, but we both had the same conditions and I’m happy I played my match today.”

With memories of Singapore fresh in her memory, Radwanska did not take long to knock off any rustiness, saving three break points in the second set to keep another of the game’s more cerebral competitors at arm’s length.

“I feel like I played my last match in Singapore a week ago! It’s always tough to come back to the match rhythm, but actually I was feeling really good and didn’t have any problems doing what I wanted to do on court and for the first match I played good tennis so I’m happy with that,” she added.

“I think the first matches are always the worst and the toughest. Every tournament has different conditions, especially here – I’ve never played indoors at a tournament that was outdoors. It’s a little bit of a new experience but everything went well so that’s the most important thing.”

In the second round the Pole will face wildcard Zhang Shuai, a 6-3, 6-3 winner earlier on over Irina Khromacheva. Elsewhere, there were mixed fortunes for three of Radwanska’s fellow seeds, Petra Kvitova, Eugenie Bouchard and Johanna Konta.

No.6 seed Bouchard put her difficult 2015 season behind her with a determined performance against Donna Vekic, overcoming a mid-match blip to come through, 6-4, 1-6, 7-5.

Unlike Bouchard, Konta, the No.5 seed, arrived in China with plenty of momentum after a brilliant second half to the previous campaign. However, in her first seeded outing at a WTA event, she slipped to a surprise defeat to Wang Qiang, going down to the World No.110, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

In the final match, Kvitova’s Australian Open preparations suffered a setback when she was forced to retire midway through her match against Zheng Saisai with a gastrointestinal illness. Zheng, who took the first set 6-2, will now meet Anett Kontaveit for a place in the quarterfinals.