Miami: Shot Of The Day (Tuesday)
Svetlana Kuznetsova had Tuesday’s shot of the day at the Miami Open.
Svetlana Kuznetsova had Tuesday’s shot of the day at the Miami Open.
MIAMI, FL, USA – In the wake of Angelique Kerber’s most unexpected of triumphs at this January’s Australian Open, the tennis world was intrigued to find out what was next for its newest major champion.
Would she quickly be sucked back into the pack or at 28 was she now ready to use this breakthrough as a springboard to elevate her game to the next level?
In her first outing as a Grand Slam champion, Kerber was brought back to earth with a bump, slumping to a shock defeat at the hands of Zheng Saisai at the Qatar Total Open. By her own admission, Kerber struggled to deal with the occasion, her metronomic groundstrokes breaking down under the strain.
Worse was to follow at the BNP Paribas Open, the German crashing out at the first hurdle to another unheralded opponent, Denisa Allertova. These sobering experiences provided a wake-up call, and she redoubled her efforts to rediscover the winning formula in Miami.
“Actually, it was not so easy because I had so many things to do, and also after Indian Wells where I was still not feeling 100%. Had like few days before coming here to focus again on my practice, on my work on court, and to make sure I play good matches here.”
A routine victory over Barbora Strycova was followed by more testing assignments against Kiki Bertens and Timea Babos, which she came through before playing her best tennis of the week to stymie the big-hitting Madison Keys in the quarterfinals.
“I had tough matches in the early rounds. Today I was feeling much better, and I think that the matches here give me again more confidence for the next tournaments and that my game’s still in a good way.”
And she will need to be firing on all cylinders against her next opponent, the WTA’s form player, Victoria Azarenka. “She had a great start of the year, of course. She is on fire I think right now. I will just trying to play my game go out and try to beat her. I mean, we played two times already this year and that’s the third time.
“I will try to enjoy it. I know that I must play really my best tennis to beat her because she won Indian Wells; she’s here now in the semis.”
The two are well acquainted with one another, having met twice at the start of year in Australia; Azarenka took the spoils on the first occasion in a one-sided Brisbane final before Kerber gained revenge en route to her Melbourne triumph.
This was Kerber’s first victory over Azarenka in seven attempts and she is planning to adopt a similarly positive approach for the rematch. “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. It was 0-6; now it’s 1-6,” Kerber said.
“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.”
Timea Bacsinszky takes on Simona Halep in the quarterfinals of the Miami Open.
Two former champions will look to return to the Miami Open final on Thursday. But Angelique Kerber and Timea Bacsinszky have other ideas. We preview today’s semifinal matchups here.
Thursday, Semifinals
[15] Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS #19) vs. [19] Timea Bacsinszky (SUI #20)
Head-to-head: Kuznetsova leads, 2-0
Key Stat: Kuznetsova can break into the Top 10 for the first time since 2010 by winning the title in Miami this weekend.
Svetlana Kuznetsova and Timea Bacsinszky have combined to knock off three of the tournament’s top five seeds in Miami. On Thursday, they’ll set their sights on one another for a spot in the prestigious Miami final. Whether or not Bacsinszky emerges victorious, she wants the world to know that she intends to have many more chances at greatness. “I’m never satisfied,” Bacsinszky told press after her impressive takedown of No.5 seed Simona Halep on Tuesday. “You’re going to probably see me around in the next years as well because I love what I do. I’m just going to try to improve and to be better every week, every day, every month, every year.” The Swiss will try to overcome Kuznetsova with the same world-class defense and variety off of both wings that she used to deconstruct Halep’s game on Tuesday, while Kuznetsova will look to impose herself in the rallies with her athleticism, power and pace. The Russian, who backed up her win over World No.1 Serena Williams with a grueling three-set triumph in the quarterfinals against Ekaterina Makarova, told the crowd she just wanted to sleep after that match. After a few good nights of rest, will the 2006 Miami champion continue turning back the clock to her heyday? Or will the crafty Bacsinszky become the first Swiss player to reach the final here since Martina Hingis in 2001?
Pick: Bacsinszky in three
[13] Victoria Azarenka (BLR #8) vs. [2] Angelique Kerber (GER #3)
Head-to-head: Azarenka leads, 6-1
Key Stat: With her victory over Johanna Konta on Wednesday, Azarenka has assured a return to the Top 5 next week.
Scorching-hot Victoria Azarenka is now two matches away from becoming the first player to claim the elusive Indian Wells-Miami “Sunshine Double” since 2005. Standing in her way on Thursday is Angelique Kerber, the only player to have registered a victory over the Belarusian this season. On Wednesday Azarenka continued her torrid tennis by easing past Great Britain’s Johanna Konta to notch her eleventh consecutive win. In her victory, the two-time Miami Open champion continued to reap the benefits of a beefed-up service attack, saving all five break points she faced. It’s a trend Azarenka is very excited about. “If you compare to Australia it’s a big difference from Indian Wells and here,” Azarenka said of her serve. “I’m really trying to work on it and make adjustments to use it more as a weapon.” Azarenka is currently the WTA’s leader in percentage of service games won in 2016. She says she has her team to thank for that statistic. “I think that’s been missing for a long, long time to really take my game to next level,” she said of her newfound serving prowess. “I’m glad I have team around me to push me, to learn to trust myself, and really take that and improve it.”
Kerber needed some time to catch her breath after winning the Australian Open in January. But here in Miami she has snapped a three-match losing streak by reeling off four victories, including a straight-sets trouncing of No. 22 seed Madison Keys on Wednesday. Kerber broke a six-match winless streak against Azarenka in Australia when she defeated her in the quarterfinals en route to her maiden major title. She hopes the force will still be with her on Thursday when they meet again. “I will go out there and try to focus on my game, be aggressive and try to beat her,” Kerber said.
Pick: Azarenka in three
-Chris Oddo, wtatennis.com contributor
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