Tennis News

INDIAN WELLS, CALIFORNIA, USA – Former World No.1 Maria Sharapova announced that she would be unable to participate in the upcoming BNP Paribas Open due to an ongoing left forearm injury that saw her miss the Middle East Swing.

“I am extremely disappointed that I am unable to compete in this year’s BNP Paribas Open,” she said. “I have been focused on healing my left forearm injury and tried to get my body to be 100% ready to play this event, as it is one of my favorites on the WTA and so close to my home in LA. I know the tournament will be a great success this year and I will be anxious to return next year and hopefully many years after.”

A two-time winner in Indian Wells (2006, 2013), Sharapova pulled out of the Brisbane International to start the season due to pain in her left forearm, and though she reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, the Russian has not played a match since.

With her withdrawal, Mariana Duque-Mariño moves into the main draw.

Due to a forearm injury, @MariaSharapova is out of #BNPPO16. “I'm extremely disappointed.” https://t.co/Cdfw4Uuv9g pic.twitter.com/vOPkCpf1du

— BNP Paribas Open (@BNPPARIBASOPEN) March 3, 2016

MONTERREY, Mexico – No.2 seed Caroline Wozniacki dodged a stern second-round challenge from Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, advancing to the quarterfinals of the Abierto Monterrey Afirme 6-4, 6-4.

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“It was very tough,” Wozniacki said after the match. “[Lucic-Baroni] plays really strong and really hard from the baseline and I didn’t have much time to get ready for my shots. So yeah, I’m very happy to be through.”

Wozniacki found herself in trouble early on – she quickly found herself down 4-2 in the first set, overpowered by Lucic-Baroni’s heavy groundstrokes and returns. After a word with her coach, Wozniacki came back with more aggression, winning the next four games to take back the set 6-4.

The pair contested a tight second set, holding serves and trading breaks at 3-3, staying level until Wozniacki sealed the match with a final break to Lucic-Baroni’s serve as the Croatian sent a forehand wide.

“I think I just kept my head cool and just got that extra ball back, try to get a little extra pop in my shots when she was attacking me,” Wozniacki said of her first-set comeback. “I got a lot of returns back and I kept the ball deep.”

Wozniacki is set to face Britain’s Heather Watson in the Monterrey quarterfinals.

Earlier in the evening, No.1 seed Sara Errani was no match for the inspired performance of 20-year-old Anett Kontaveit, who sent her packing 6-1, 6-3.

Kontaveit’s first-round win over Cibulkova – a former Australian Open finalist – fired a warning shot to her Monterrey rivals, and although Errani had never played against her she knew to expect a challenge.

“No, I have seen her on television in a couple of games but I don’t know her,” Errani said ahead of their match. “I have seen her play very well, hit the ball very hard, but let’s see.”

Errani was confounded by Kontaveit’s short-angled forehands and pace, and once the Estonian found her footing in the match there was no looking back. After Errani’s service hold in the first game of the set, Kontaveit won the next six to win the first set 6-1 in barely 22 minutes. Errani’s troubles continued in the second set; though Errani broke Kontaveit’s serve twice, the 20-year-old kept the pressure on and kept the points short, marching to a 6-1, 6-3 victory.

MONTERREY, México – Monterrey is a long way – culturally, geographically and meteorologically – from Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova’s hometown of Samara.

However, the city will always be a home away from home for Pavlyuchenkova. In 2010, Monterrey’s Sierra Madre Tennis Club was the site for a teenage Pavlyuchenkova’s maiden WTA title and the subsequent years have brought two further titles and countless more memories.

Unfortunately for the Russian, this year’s visit to the Abierto Monterrey Afirme ended in disappointment – a first-round loss to Pauline Parmentier dashing hopes of a fourth trophy and first at the tournament’s new home, Club Sonoma.

During her stay, the 24-year-old did have time to sit down and discuss her unlikely journey from bashing balls on the banks of the Volga to the top of the women’s game.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Eugenie Bouchard continued her recent resurgence with a dominant second-round win over Kurumi Nara at the BMW Malaysian Open on Wednesday.

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Following a difficult 2015, Bouchard has been quietly playing herself back into form with encouraging showings at Shenzhen, Hobart and Doha. Against Nara she impressed once again, breaking four times to wrap up a 6-1, 6-2 victory.

“No match is easy. I was focused on every single point and I just tried to stay aggressive and that worked well today,” Bouchard said.

Struggles on the court and injuries off it precipitated a slide down the rankings for Bouchard. However, with the help of new coach Thomas Hogstedt – whom she teamed up with last autumn – the Canadian is relishing the rebuilding process.

“I’m on the right path, but I’m not expecting it to come in one day,” she added. “I know it’s a long journey and I had a lot of time off because of injury. It’s going to take a least a few months to get back to where I was, but I’m just trying to stay positive and focused on one tournament at a time.

“This is an opportunity to get more matches and that’s what I need right now, so I’m happy I got two here already and I’m looking forward to a couple more, hopefully.”

Rather than instigate a complete overhaul, Hogstedt, whose previous charges include Maria Sharapova, Li Na and Tommy Haas, is tinkering with his new pupil’s game.

“He thinks highly of my game and he really believes in my style of play. We’ve been working a lot on trying to stay low during the point, the footwork a little bit – I play my best when I’m in position for each ball. Some basic things like that, but it’s important to make sure everything’s as good as it can be – if you can improve something 1% it’s important because against the top players it makes a difference.”

There were contrasting fortunes for the other two seeds hoping to join Bouchard in the quarterfinals. No.3 seed Sabine Lisicki overcame a slow start to defeat Barbora Krejcikova, 7-5, 6-3, while former champion and No.7 seed Hsieh Su-Wei went down to Kristina Kucova, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3. 

After two months of unexpected results, what does it all mean as the tour prepares for the grueling high-stakes tournaments in tennis’ version of March Madness at the BNP Paribas Open and Miami Open?

On this episode, WTA Insider Senior Writer Courtney Nguyen and Web Editor David Kane reconvene to discuss the action at the Qatar Total Open in Doha, where Carla Suárez Navarro emerged from the beaten and battered draw to win the biggest title of her career. They also talk about the impressive week from 18-year-old Latvian Jelena Ostapenko, who tore through the Doha draw to make her second WTA final, and have mixed emotions surrounding Agnieszka Radwanska, Garbiñe Muguruza and Andrea Petkovic’s recent results.

Courtney and David also discuss the action at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel in Acapulco, where Sloane Stephens and Dominika Cibulkova played one of the best matches of the year in the final, which saw Sloane edge it out to become the first woman to two titles this year.

Kane on Suárez Navarro: “It’s very impressive but I still think there are a lot of questions about what this means for Suarez Navarro in terms of where she goes from here. She ended up having the best week of the top-ranked players but still, when she is in really high pressure situations against the biggest names in tennis, how will she stand up? I think mentally we’ve seen her answer a lot of those questions so far this year alone. Setting goals to be in the Top 10? Check. Top 5? Really close. Of all the players to make New Year’s Resolutions, I think you want to model your New Year’s Resolution game after Suárez Navarro. She’s one of the few big names getting things done in 2016.”

Nguyen on Radwanska: “I’m curious to see what she does in Indian Wells and Miami. Was this just a bad day at the office, a tough turnaround of 24-hours to play that match, or is it more of a sign? Obviously she’s great on hardcourts and is a former champion in Miami. If she can rebound there, then she’s all right. She’s still one of the best players at the start of the season. So maybe it was just a bad day. We’ll see.”

Nguyen on ‘Winning Ugly’: “On some level you wonder if this is a generational thing. If you are younger and you’ve grown up in this era of parity, in this era of everyone’s on upset alert at all times, everyone can pull up an upset at all times, and you’re just used to it, maybe you don’t panic as much because it’s the new normal. It is just what you are to expect in a tennis match.”

Kane on Stephens: “This is the best I’ve seen Sloane Stephens play a match from start to finish. For all the hype and all the prognosticating about the future and the potential of Sloane Stephens we really saw everything from her in this final. We saw the power, we saw the athleticism, most impressively we saw the defense, and more impressively, we saw she did not get down on herself.”

The nominees for the prestigious Laureus World Sports Awards have been announced and after a near-perfect season, World No.1 Serena Williams is up for the biggest award of them all, Laureus World Sportswoman Of The Year.

The Laureus World Sports Awards began in the year 2000 and in the 16 previous editions, Laureus World Sportswoman Of The Year has gone to WTA players four times – Jennifer Capriati in 2002, Williams in 2003, Justine Henin in 2008 and Williams again in 2010. Williams and pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva are the only two women ever to win the award twice – Isinbayeva won it in 2007 and 2009.

No woman has ever won the award three times – if she wins this year’s, Williams will be the first.

In addition to the American, the other nominees for Sportswoman of the Year include Genzebe Dibaba (athletics), Anna Fenninger (skiing), Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (athletics), Katie Ledecky (swimming), and Carli Lloyd (football).

Williams was a wall-to-wall No.1 for the second time in her career, finishing the season atop the WTA rankings for the fifth time (2002, 2009, 2013, 2014). She won a WTA-leading five titles, including the first three Grand Slams of the season at the Australian Open, French Open, and Wimbledon – winning her second Non-Calendar Year “Serena Slam” and becoming the closest to achieve the Calendar Year Grand Slam since Steffi Graf in 1988. With a 53-3 record, she earned the  most prize money in 2015 – surpassing her 2014 record for second highest total prize money won in a single season at $10,582,642.

The 21-time Grand Slam champion is the only WTA player nominated this year, and one of three tennis members of the tennis world, alongside Novak Djokovic and the British Davis Cup Team.

Largely considered “the Oscars of sports”, the Laureus World Sports Awards have been held in major cities all over the world with an all-star cast of hosts, including Jeff Bridges, Heidi Klum, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey and Benedict Cumberbatch. This year’s awards are in Berlin on April 18.