Yad Sloof Lirpa Yppah!
Oediv siht ni no gniog s’tahw tuo erugif uoy nac? Sreyalp ruo morf egassem laiceps a raeh ll’uoy nac uoy fI…
Oediv siht ni no gniog s’tahw tuo erugif uoy nac? Sreyalp ruo morf egassem laiceps a raeh ll’uoy nac uoy fI…
An interview with Victoria Azarenka after her win in the quarterfinals of the Miami Open.
MIAMI, FL, USA – Victoria Azarenka took a huge step in her journey for the elusive Sunshine Double – winning Indian Wells and Miami back to back – with a straight sets win over Angelique Kerber for a spot in the Miami Open final.
Watch highlights, interviews and more video from Miami right here on wtatennis.com!
Azarenka, who’s back into the WTA Top 5 for the first time since 2014, is bidding to become only the third woman to win titles in Indian Wells and Miami in the same year, a feat only accomplished by Steffi Graf (1994, 1996) and Kim Clijsters (2005).
But standing between her and the final was Kerber, a familiar foe in 2016 – this match is already their third encounter this year alone. Though Azarenka has more career wins over the German, Kerber famously snapped her streak of six consecutive losses to Azarenka in their last match on her way to her maiden Australian Open title.
Under the lights in Miami it was Kerber who was in danger early on. The match started off with three consecutive breaks of serve before Azarenka found her footing at 3-1, keeping her intensity at the max and going up 5-1. Kerber finally withstood Azarenka’s all-court assault – including a line-to-line rally Azarenka won off a drop shot on the run – to grab her first hold of the match, but it was too little too late as the Belarusian clinched the first set.
Kerber refused to wilt away in the second set, but as her level raised so did Azarenka’s. They stayed toe-to-toe and traded five straight breaks of serve, Azarenka getting the edge as she closed in on the final.
A late wobble from Azarenka almost allowed Kerber to come back and force a decider – while serving for the set up 5-4, Azarenka’s serve misfired horribly, flubbing three double faults to hand the game to Kerber. She broke right back and didn’t falter in her next service game though, and took the match 6-2, 7-5.
Two-time champion @Vika7 Azarenka is heading back to the @MiamiOpen final! ? #WTA https://t.co/nptWLSLbor
— WTA (@WTA) April 1, 2016
Awaiting Azarenka in the Miami final is Svetlana Kuznetsova, who battled past Timea Bacsinszky in the day’s first semifinal.
“We haven’t played each other in a while but I think we know each other pretty well,” Azarenka said. The two have played eight times previously, but their last encounter was more than three years ago.
She went on: “The last time we played we were both in different stages of our career so it’s interesting to see us coming back and playing such a high level of tennis. It’s gonna be tough but I’m very looking forward to this challenge.”
An interview with Angelique Kerber after her win in the quarterfinals of the Miami Open.
Svetlana Kuznetsova secured the first Miami Open final spot after a hard-fought win over Timea Bacsinszky on Thursday.
MIAMI, FL, USA – How many minutes has Svetlana Kuznetsova spent on court? Who has hit the most aces? And just how impressive has Angelique Kerber’s returning been? These are just a few of the questions answered in a Miami Open semifinal edition of wtatennis.com’s By The Numbers.
20,000,000 – Should Svetlana Kuznetsova reach the final she will pass $20million in career prize money.
575 – Kuznetsova has taken 575 minutes to win her four matches – 128 minutes more than her semifinal opponent, Timea Bacsinszky. Victoria Azarenka and Angelique Kerber have spent 379 and 343 minutes, respectively, on court thus far.
75 – Azarenka’s improved serve has helped her fend off 12 of 16 (75%) break points this fortnight – the best among the four remaining players. In her quarterfinal with Johanna Konta, the Belarusian saved all five break points faced.
51.4 – The percentage of return points Kerber has won in her four matches at Crandon Park. She has also converted a staggering 77.8% of her break point opportunities.
42 – Azarenka has won 42 of her 54 meetings with left-handers on tour. Six of these have come against Kerber. However, her solitary defeat against the German came in arguably their most high-profile meeting, at this year’s Australian Open.
22 – Kuznetsova has struck more aces, 22, than any other player en route to the last four. Kerber, meanwhile, has hit just two.
20 – Victory over Konta took Azarenka’s 2016 match win tally to 20. Last season, the former No.1 did not reach this total until Wimbledon.
15 – Bacsinszky is bidding to become the first Swiss finalist in Miami since Martina Hingis finished runner-up 15 years ago.
5 – By virtue of her run to the semifinals Azarenka will return to the Top 5 (at No.5) for the first time since May, 2014, at the expense of Simona Halep. This will be the first time Halep has been ranked outside the Top 5 since March, 2014.
4 – Four different nationalities are represented in the semifinals at Crandon Park for the fifth year in succession.
2 – Azarenka has reached the last four in Miami twice, in 2009 and 2011, and on both occasions she went on to win the title.
1 – Before this fortnight, Kerber and Kuznetsova had registered a combined total of one main draw win since the Australian Open.
0 – The number of sets Azarenka has dropped en route to the semifinals. The last player to be crowned Miami champion without dropping a set was Agnieszka Radwanska in 2012.
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.