Tennis News

INDIAN WELLS, CA, USA – World No.5 Simona Halep had begun to find her form in the opening set of her match against unseeded and looming Barbora Strycova at the BNP Paribas Open, but after winning five games in a row, the Czech called the trainer to court for an upper respiratory illness, ultimately sending Halep into the quarterfinals, 6-3, 1-0, ret.

Watch highlights, interviews and more video from Indian Wells right here on wtatennis.com!

The pair had split their prior two meetings and Strycova, fresh off a run to the finals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, initially took advantage of an out-of-sorts Halep, who was playing her first day session match on Stadium Court 3.

Halep, however, has been in stellar form throughout her opening round matches, and with a little help from coach Darren Cahill, the former World No.2 slowly shifted into turbo as Strycova became overcome, calling the trainer on the set break.

“I feel sorry for her, being sick,” she said during her on-court interview. “I know how it is, and it’s tough to continue to play the match. It was a good start for me; I played a good first set, but the conditions are really difficult because I played two matches in the cold weather, and now it’s hot. I tried everything to keep things going in the right away, so I’m happy to be into the quarterfinals.

“I adjusted my game very well, just wanted to make fewer mistakes and keep the ball into the court. I moved better than I did in the beginning of the match, and I’m looking forward to the next one, where I hope to play better.”

Awaiting Halep in the quarterfinals will be the winner of World No.1 Serena Williams and qualifier Kateryna Bondarenko; the 2014 French Open finalist was set to play Williams in last year’s semifinal before the American was forced to pull out with a knee injury.

“I would like to play against her; I’m looking forward to it, and I know she’s the best player in the world, so I have nothing to lose. I want just to go and fight for my chance – I know that I have a chance.

“I will go with confidence, positivity and just fighting for the match.”

INDIAN WELLS, CA, USA – Top seed Serena Williams endured a few frustrating moments against a resurgent Kateryna Bondarenko, easing past the qualifier, 6-2, 6-2 at the BNP Paribas Open.

Watch highlights, interviews and more video from Indian Wells right here on wtatennis.com!

Bondarenko came back to tennis just over 18 months ago after giving birth to a daughter, but has been playing some of the best tennis of either of her two careers in 2016, reaching the Australian Open third round as she slowly creeps back to her former career-high of No.29.

“It definitely wasn’t an easy match,” Williams told Andrew Krasny during her on-court interview. “She’s obviously been a good player in the past, and she knows how to play on big courts against big players. So, it was a good match for me.”

In complete control through the first six games, the American lost serve a game from the opening set, and battled through windy conditions and some evident angst through the 72 minute match. In the end, she hit 26 impressive winners to only 22 errors, while Bondarenko hit 13 winners to 21 unforced.

“Regardless of whether it’s windy, not windy, and you just have to be able to adjust. I always think things can be worse!”

Up next for the 21-time Grand Slam champion is No.5 seed and defending BNP Paribas Open champion Simona Halep; Williams triumphed in both of their 2015 encounters – including a tight two-set win in the finals of the Western & Southern Open.

Back at Indian Wells for only the second time since 2001, Williams said she’s feeling the love from fans in the California desert, and hopes to be the crowd favorite come the quarterfinals.

“I want to scream back that I love you too – I’m not sure if that’s appropriate – but I do; I love you guys, and thanks for your support.”

INDIAN WELLS, CA, USA – On Episode 20, WTA Insider Senior Writer Courtney Nguyen checks in from the desert where the biggest WTA tournament of the season is underway at the BNP Paribas Open. She’s joined this week by WTA CEO Steve Simon for a lengthy discussion of his first few months at the helm of the tour. We discuss Maria Sharapova’s stunning announcement last week, his take on the first two months of an unpredictable WTA season, and his desire to see the current circuit structure changed to ensure the tour can consistently deliver for its tournaments while ensuring the players remain healthy through the end of a long and grueling season.

Five-time WTA Fan Favorite winner Agnieszka Radwanska also joins the podcast to discuss how she became the WTA Hot Shot Queen. She talks about the surprising results last week in Indian Wells, the importance of improvisation on the tennis court, and her worst trip ever.

Simon on Sharapova: “Well, it’s obviously been a busy week, and you never like to start your week with a player, an athlete, receiving a positive drug test. I feel not only terrible for Maria but any athlete that it does occur to, I really do. That being said, the test was positive. No athlete is above the rules, so we will now go through the process with the [Tennis] Anti-Doping Program and whatever decisions that they may make we will of course support as a member of that program. But it’s my hope that we can continue to work and hopefully this doesn’t happen again.”

Simon on balancing the interests of its members: “Clearly your tournaments will have a perspective, of course, of a probably longer term vision, and investment – because they’re making the investment to not only the facility but the prize money and all of the other things that come with it – and your athletes will have a tendency to have probably more of a short term view because their competitive window is much shorter: ‘How does this affect me today and tomorrow?’ Not so much, ‘What about the next group coming through?’ And that’s all understandable; there’s nothing wrong with that. Now, how do we respect those things and get to something that balances that is what we have to try to do.”

Simon on what he’s hearing from the players: “It’s calendar, calendar and calendar, right now, as well as having a sustainable business model for the bulk of the players, for the athletes. Right now, do I think we have too many players that are dependent upon the Grand Slams to make their money each year? I think we have to work on our system where we’re not as dependent on the Grand Slams. That doesn’t take anything away from the Grand Slams; they’re the history and I’m not trying to say that they’re not important and don’t deserve their place in the world. We have to become less dependent upon them, and I think that would make a healthier tour as well.”

Simon on striking a balance: “We have 56 events in 2017 and a 42 week calendar taking out the WTA Finals and Zhuhai. That’s a lot of tournaments in that short period of time. That is certainly an issue, and there’s always a basis that, if you’re going to compress the calendar and you still want it to be healthy, should you actually be eliminating tournaments vs. adding tournaments? That’s an ongoing dynamic because more tournaments means more jobs and more opportunities to make money. We have to find a better balance between that and I think that’s what we have to look at in this next stage so that, the players that want to play a lot have the ability to play a lot, because that’s how they get their success, and the players that want to have a healthier schedule and play a little bit less can do so as well.”

Radwanska on the importance of improvising: “We all have the same type of reaction and coordination is very similar. But I think the shot selection [makes a difference]. Tennis is so fast so you have just less than a second to make a choice. Sometimes other players aren’t making the right choices. I think shot selection is the most important thing.”

Radwanska on the need for variety: “Everyone can hit forehands and backhands. It’s not like someone can’t do that. It’s about other things that you have or you don’t. Maybe that’s why other players can play great tennis but they don’t have the last thing about the reaction and shot selection, a little more thinking and not panicking in the important moments. To win a match there are so many things together that if you’re missing one thing, you’re not there.”

Radwanska on tension: “Sometimes you can be so tight. You’re playing such good tennis but you’re so tight, the legs are not moving. It’s like you’re in a band-aid, like you’re a mummy.”

– Round of 16 set: It’s an “all-skate” on Tuesday, as the schedule gets reset and the entire Round of 16 is in play. In the top half of the draw: Serena Williams vs. Kataryna Bondarenko, Barbora Strycova vs. Simona Halep, Agnieszka Radwanska vs. Jelena Jankovic, Nicole Gibbs vs. Petra Kvitova.

In the bottom half: Magdalena Rybarikova vs. Roberta Vinci, Victoria Azarenka vs. Sam Stosur, Daria Kasatkina vs. Timea Bacsinszky, and Karolina Pliskova vs. Johanna Konta.

– Gretzky’s orders: Timea Bacsinskzy overcame a bad fall that left her scraped and bruised to beat Eugenie Bouchard, 6-2, 5-7, 6-2, to advance to the Round of 16 at the BNP Paribas Open for the second straight year. She’ll play Daria Kasatkina on Tuesday. Bacsinszky looked in control of the match until she slipped and fell forward early in the second set and landed flush on her hip, the gritty court surface leaving her covered in bleeding cuts that required an 11-minute medical timeout.

Bacsinszky said her hip was left bruised by the fall, but taking the fall just 40 feet from the great Wayne Gretzky left an even bigger bruise on her ego. Just a few days earlier she was able to get a photo with The Great One, which left her Canadian boyfriend Andreas fuming.

“He knows all the statistics of Gretzky, NHL, NFL, he loves it,” Bacsinszky said. “It’s his hobby. We talked at dinner and he said the only one he would love to take a picture with is Wayne Gretzky. The next day I met him in the lounge!”

“I just told him, ‘Hey the three last letters of my last name are the same as yours’. He laughed. He was really really nice. As a legend he’s one of the biggest sportsmen for me, of any sport. He’s so humble, he’s super nice.

“Today he was eating and I didn’t recognize him and he said, ‘Hey! Good luck!’ I was like, hey my boyfriend didn’t talk to me for two hours yesterday – this is true. He was really pissed. Then Gretzky told me is he here? Tell him to come! And I said, yeah he’s too shy he would never ask, I know him. And he said, ‘No it’s an order. You have to tell him to come.’ So he came and they took the picture.”

– Karolina Pliskova’s mental vacation: Pliskova played the heaviest schedule of any top player last year and she continued to play through the off-season, signing up for a full exhibition schedule. But after Australia she was mentally fried and confessed to needing a week away from the courts after going winless in the Middle East. Pliskova got some much needed R&R in Monaco, where she now has a residence; the rest seems to have paid off. She’s into the fourth round with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Ana Ivanovic. She plays Johanna Konta for a spot in the quarterfinals.

“The draw was good to me because I know Ana and I know Shelby,” Pliskova told WTA Insider. “Against Ana I won all of the matches so I was pretty confident in this match and I knew if I played at the level I played in Australia I could beat her. I definitely feel well and I rested a little bit so mentally I feel fine. That’s the main thing.”

– Daria Kasatkina saves match point to advance: The 18-year-old continues her trend of making debuts to remember. In her first trip to Indian Wells she’s into the Round of 16 after beating Monica Puig, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(2), saving match point along the way.

“From the first practice I feel like my spins are flying and the balls are good,” Kasatkina told a small group of reporters while breathlessly cooling down on an eliptical machine after the match. “I like to play here because it’s a surface for me I think.”

– Belinda Bencic’s desert dry spell: While the court may suit a junior French Open champion like Kasatkina, it has flummoxed junior Wimbledon champion Bencic. The No.7 seed bowed out 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 to Magdalena Rybarikova.

“First of all, I didn’t have my game, second of all I really don’t like to play her,” Bencic said. “She plays really tricky for me. I cannot [use] the power from her. Especially with these conditions it’s not really the best for me. It bounces high for me, it’s slow, it’s just weird. Last year I played good here but also had my trouble. It’s not like grass where I come and just play great.”

– Jelena abandoned: Jelena Jankovic has a tough task on Tuesday, facing No.3 Agnieszka Radwanska. The Serb hasn’t had the best start to the season but seems to be finding her form here in the desert, where she made the final last year. Jankovic said her off-season preparation was poor and she’s playing catch-up with her fitness.

“During the off-season my fitness trainer he had to go train someone in the soccer team,” Jankovic told WTA Insider. “It was during the off-season when I needed to train physically and I didn’t do that very well, I didn’t prepare very well. Since Dubai I hired a new one from Thailand. He used to work with Srichiphan. I’m happy I have him with my team and I’m working hard to get physically fitter.”

– Nicole Gibbs’ key to success: The American qualifier is putting together her best career result after coming through qualifying to beat Alexandra Dulgheru, Madison Keys, and Yaroslava Shvedova to earn a shot against Kvitova in the fourth round. Since teaming up with Roger Smith after the US Open, Gibbs’ results in 2016 have seen a marked improvement. She’s won 10 of her last 11 matches.

“He’s a really supportive person, just really, really positive,” Gibbs said. “He kind of complements my personality really well. We get along really well, which hasn’t always been the case with my coaches in the past. I can be really stubborn. I can be a little difficult sometimes. He’s been really great in that sense.

“And then he just knows the game so well. Sees it so well. Gives me unbelievable game plans. You know, we have just been working really hard on making me more of an all-court player and a little bit less defensive.”

The gritty court seems to be favoring Gibbs’ game too. “I have been hitting the ball a little bit heavier, which I think picks up well on the slower courts,” she said. “Maybe I’m throwing people’s timing off, I’m not sure, but I have been enjoying the conditions out here. I think it plays fast through the air but kicks up off the court, which is nice for me.”

– No dream team for Kvitova: When Kvitova split with David Kotyza the first name on everyone’s lips was Martina Navratilova. Oh well:

Q. If Martina came in that door right now and said, I’ll coach you, would you consider her?
PETRA KVITOVA: Probably no.

– Former WTA CEO Stacey Allaster returns to tennis: Allaster announced that she will be joining the United States Tennis Association to become the new Chief Executive of professional tennis; the post is tailor-made for the one who spent nearly 10 years with the WTA. 

“I worked 28 years straight, hard between the Ontario Tennis Association, Tennis Canada and the WTA, and that was a mistake,” Allaster said by telephone Friday from a wellness retreat in California. “There needs to be these scheduled breaks. Academics do it. A lot of law firms do it. Nike does it. It just rejuvenates you physically, mentally and emotionally and brings you back stronger. And I am at that place and super excited to join the U.S.T.A.”

– Hear from Steve Simon and Agnieszka Radwanska: Both are great, insightful guests on the new episode of the WTA Insider Podcast: