Tennis News

Top 10 Watch

Serena Williams will continue to extend her stay at No.1: The top seed at the BNP Paribas Open recovered from a slow start on Sunday, ultimately sprinting past Yulia Putintseva, 7-6(2), 6-0; Williams is defending semifinal points from last year, and is under no threat at the top spot ahead of the Miami Open, a tournament she has won eight times. 

Agniezka Radwanska has a chance to overtake Angelique Kerber: The reigning BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global champion can climb to No.2 in the Rankings – overtaking the Australian Open winner – if she is able to reach the semifinals. Radwanska will play Jelena Jankovic in the round of 16 (Radwanska leads 6-2) with a possible match against the winner of Petra Kvitova (Kvitova leads 6-3) vs. Nicole Gibbs (first meeting).

Garbiñe Muguruza will maintain her current ranking: Despite a disappointing finish at Indian Wells – losing her second round match to American Christina McHale – Muguruza will remain at No.4 behind some combination of Williams, Kerber, and Radwanska.

Simona Halep, the defending the champion: Halep has been playing some of her best tennis of the year at Indian Wells this week, but the defense of 1000 points prevents her from moving up this week, and will fall between No.5 and No.7, defending on her final finish; the Romanian is projected to play Williams in the quarterfinals should the former defeat Barbora Strycova and the latter move past Kateryna Bondarenko on Tuesday.

Elina Svitolina, Victoria Azarenka and Ana Ivanovic can move into the Top 10: Three women have the chance to crack the Top 10 on Monday, but only if they win the title at Indian Wells. For Svitolina, it would shatter her current career-high ranking of No.14 and be her Top 10 debut, while Azarenka and Ivanovic would be making their returns for the first time since August 2014 and September 2015, respectively.

Also Worth Noting…

Svitolina will need to reach the quarterfinals or better to have a chance to improve her ranking: The Ukrainian is set to play No.9 seed Roberta Vinci (tied 1-1) on Monday.

Jo Konta has a chance to move into the Top 25 on Monday: Depending on other results, the Australian Open semifinalist will likely need to reach the round of 16 at the very least; she plays Denisa Allertova in the third round on Monday. Konta would first British woman in Top 25 since the week of March 15, 1987, when Jo Durie held the No.24 ranking spot; the last time a Brit was ranked in the Top 20 was nearly 30 years ago (week of October 13, 1986; Jo Durie, No.20)

Olympic Hopes: Should she defeat Monica Puig on Monday, Daria Kasatkina will have a chance of making her Top 40 debut and will overtake Margarita Gasparyan as the No.5 ranked Russian.

INDIAN WELLS, CA, USA – Whisper it quietly, but Eugenie Bouchard is beginning to resemble the player who took the tennis world by storm two years ago.

While the player herself has been quick to downplay her revival, there is no denying that some of the swagger of old can be seen in the Canadian’s game. On Saturday evening she came out on top in her eagerly anticipated clash with childhood sparring partner Sloane Stephens to reach the third round of the BNP Paribas Open.

Remarkably, Stephens is the highest-ranked player Bouchard has beaten since September 2014, and the significance of the result was not lost.

“It’s important to me because it’s kind of on my comeback as I have kind of called this year,” Bouchard said in her post-match press conference. “It gives me confidence looking forward. You know, I don’t want to look back or don’t want to think about 2014 or 2015 really, so this one is important. It’s kind of a step forward, and I just want to keep going.”

Bouchard may not have wanted to dwell on those two campaigns, but the tennis world felt differently, conducting a thorough post-mortem.

With Thomas Hogstedt now in her corner, a refreshed and revitalized Bouchard has gone about proving the naysayers wrong by doing what she does best: winning matches.

In fact, the 22-year-old has already posted more victories in the opening two and a half months of this campaign (13) than in the whole of 2015 (12). And with this success comes the confidence so vital at the game’s summit.

Unfortunately for Bouchard, it also attracts the odd celebrity admirer.

“The Great One” @OfficialGretzky in the house supporting fellow Canadian @GenieBouchard! ?? #WTA https://t.co/QPXdQmamp3

— WTA (@WTA) March 13, 2016

“Actually, as soon as I saw him I lost a game and played pretty bad and I was wondering if he would leave or whatever,” Bouchard said when quizzed on the appearance of ice hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, in her box. “I was thinking, I have to get my game up a little. I know his daughter is an aspiring tennis champion. It’s cool that they are really into it and supportive.”

Should she get past Timea Bacsinszky in the next round, the clamor for a spot in the Canadian’s corner will only intensify. So, having been unnerved by Canadian sporting royalty last time out, whose face could send her over the edge?

“The prime minister? The president? Yeah – that would make me nervous!”

Best support team! Thank you @OfficialGretzky & the future tennis star ?? pic.twitter.com/zBI0RtP4Ja

— Genie Bouchard (@geniebouchard) March 13, 2016

SAN ANTONIO, TX, USA – Ana Konjuh marked the opening day of the inaugural San Antonio Open by upsetting No.3 seed Jelena Ostapenko in straight sets.

Having fallen at the first hurdle in qualifying for Indian Wells, Konjuh made the five-hour journey to Texas with plenty to ponder. However, against Ostapenko she was full of positive intent, coming from behind in both sets to run out a 7-5, 6-4 winner.

Konjuh, like Ostapenko, was an outstanding junior, lifting the Australian and US Open trophies at 15. And the Croatian’s rise up the senior ranks has been swift, breaking the Top 100 by the end of 2014, before lifting her maiden WTA title the following summer, in Nottingham.

While progress has stalled somewhat in the opening months of 2016, she showed no shortage of fighting spirit against Ostapenko; in the first set she fended off a set point at 5-3 down and then overcame a 3-0 deficit in the second.

Ostapenko was not the only first-round casualty either. In the bottom half of the draw, Samantha Crawford recovered from match point down to defeat No.2 seed Irina-Camelia Begu, 2-6, 6-1, 7-5.

Elsewhere, there were rather more straightforward wins for Kirsten Flipkens and Tsvetana Pironkova. No.7 seed Flipkens survived a late scare to defeat Mariana Duque-Mariño, 6-3, 7-6(4), while Pironkova raced past Dellacqua, 6-1, 6-0, in just 43 minutes.

This week’s tournament is the first WTA event in San Antonio since the US Women’s Hardcourt Championships in the early 1990s. Also appearing at the recently renovated McFarlin Tennis Center are Daria Gavrilova and Yanina Wickmayer, both of whom begin their challenges on Tuesday.

ST. PETERSBURG, FL, USA – The WTA announced today its calendar for the 2017 season as well as a recent addition to the 2016 calendar.

Click here to check out the 2017 WTA Calendar!

The 2017 WTA season is comprised of 23 WTA Premier and 33 International events, with all roads leading to the season finale BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global, followed by the WTA Elite Trophy in Zhuhai. Beginning in 2017, WTA Media, together with WTA tournaments, will produce all main draw singles matches and the semifinals and finals of all doubles matches.

“The 2017 season promises to be the WTA’s most exciting year to date, building on the existing cornerstones of the women’s tour, said WTA CEO Steve Simon. “With more fans than ever accessing our sport to watch an unprecedented depth of player field, the WTA promises another intense race on the Road to Singapore in 2017,” Simon added.

Changes and additions to the 2017 calendar:
• St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy (Russia) and Taiwan Open (Kaohsiung): switch to week 5 (from week 6), beginning January 30
• Qatar Total Open (Doha): Premier event, switch to week 7 (from week 8), beginning February 13
• Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships: Premier 5 event, switches to week 8 (from week 7), beginning February 20
• Rio Open (Brazil): switches to week 8 (from week 7), beginning February 20.
• Abierto Mexicano TELCEL presented by HSBC (Acapulco, Mexico) switches to week 9 (from week 8), beginning February 27
• Abierto Monterrey Afirme (Mexico): switches to week 14 (from week 9), beginning April 3, after the Miami Open
• Jiangxi Open (Nanchang, China): switches to week 30 (from week 31), beginning July 24

Olympic Shifts:

• Bank of the West Classic (Stanford), Rogers Cup (Toronto), Western and Southern Open (Cincinnati) and Connecticut Open presented by United Technologies (New Haven): return to consecutive weeks, beginning July 31 after dates shifted in 2016 due to Olympic Games

Welcome Gstaad, Mallorca, and Louisville:

Ahead of 2017, a new addition to the 2016 calendar was announced March 11, the Ladies Championship Gstaad, Switzerland, which replaces the Nurnberger Gastein Ladies International tournament, held in Bad Gastein since 2007.

This year’s Gstaad event will be held July 9-17, the first women’s tennis event in Switzerland since the Zurich Open in 2008. The event couldn’t be returning to Switzerland at a better time, with Swiss tennis going through a golden era – both Belinda Bencic and Timea Bacsinszky are ranked inside the Top 20 and, International Tennis Hall of Famer, Martina Hingis is co-ranked at World No.1 in doubles.

The 2016 WTA calendar also introduces the Mallorca Open (June 13-19), a new addition to the grass court season, while the Louisville International Open in host city Louisville, Kentucky, USA, will offer an additional final hard court tune-up in August before the final Grand Slam of the year at the US Open.

Other changes in 2016, announced earlier this season, included February’s spectacular inaugural event in Russia, the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy, as well as International tournament moves to Kaohsiung and Nanchang.