Tennis News

SYDNEY, Australia – Simona Halep made a winning start to the 2016 season on Tuesday night, grinding past giant-killer Caroline Garcia in her opening match at the Apia International Sydney.

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

Things didn’t go completely smoothly for Halep – after taking the first set, she watched on as Garcia came alive, ripping more than three times as many winners (10 to 3) to run away with the second set.

But the World No.2 regrouped in a big way, kicking her aggression up a notch – and pulling off some awe-inspiring winners off the ground – to close the unseeded Frenchwoman out, 6-4, 2-6, 6-1.

“It was a tough match. I actually expected a tough match because I know her pretty well. She’s strong and she hits the ball strong. She has a good serve,” Halep said. “I think I did well today though. Especially in the third set I think I was strong and solid – I played my best tennis in the third set.

“In the second set I did a step behind the baseline. Maybe that’s why she dominated me. But then I went closer to the baseline and hit the ball earlier, opened the court and made the points shorter.”

Halep was set to make her 2016 debut at the Brisbane International last week but had to pull out right before her first match there due to a left leg injury. Before playing her Sydney opener, she discussed the injury – and declared she was ready to get her 2016 season going in Sydney this week.

Next up for the No.1-seeded Halep will be No.5-seeded Karolina Pliskova, who played a near-flawless second set to run away with it against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova earlier in the day, 6-3, 6-0.

Halep has beaten Pliskova in both of their previous meetings, though both were tight two-setters.

There were mixed fortunes for the other two seeds in action on Tuesday, with No.4 seed Angelique Kerber having to withdraw from the tournament due to illness prior to her match against Ekaterina Makarova, but No.8 seed Belinda Bencic outdoing Bulgarian wildcard Tsvetana Pironkova, 6-3, 6-3.

Round out the winners were Sara Errani, who saved seven set points in the second set to edge Jelena Jankovic, 7-6(3), 7-6(8), Svetlana Kuznetsova, who outlasted Sabine Lisicki, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, Samantha Stosur, who gave her Aussie home crowd something to cheer about with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Daniela Hantuchova, and Puerto Rican qualifier Monica Puig, who beat Anna Karolina Schmiedlova, 6-1, 6-0.

All four quarterfinals of the Premier-level tournament will take the courts on Wednesday.

Sorry that I had to withdraw from @SydneyTennis it is always great to play in this city#sydney now recovery and getting ready for melbourne?

— Angelique Kerber (@AngeliqueKerber) January 12, 2016

MELBOURNE, Australia – Victoria Azarenka’s revival at the Brisbane International, where she stormed to her first WTA title in almost two and a half years without losing a set, couldn’t have come at a better time, with her favorite Grand Slam – the Australian Open – just a matter of days away.

She’s hoping her journey back to the top of the tennis world will continue at the Happy Slam.

“I’m excited to follow my journey. I’m excited to live my journey,” Azarenka said. “It’s a great feeling. Stay in the moment, be present – I’m really enjoying this moment. I think it’s precious. So I just want to enjoy that and see how I feel tomorrow, see what I want to do, and just try to keep going.

“The focus is still very much on Melbourne. I’m going to do everything I can to prepare and feel the most comfortable to start the tournament. I can’t wait to be in Melbourne. I love the city.”

After three blockbuster seasons – she finished 2011 at No.3, 2012 at No.1 and 2013 at No.2 – the injury bug bit Azarenka hard, limiting her to just nine tournaments in 2014 and 14 in 2015, and at one point pushing her as far down as No.50 in the world, her lowest ranking since all the way back in 2007.

But the Brisbane title propelled her from No.22 to No.16 on this week’s WTA Rankings, not just guaranteeing her a Top 16 seed for the Australian Open, but her highest ranking since August 2014.

The former World No.1 isn’t calling this a comeback, though. “I don’t think there’s a name for it,” she told reporters in Brisbane. “I think it’s more for you guys to put as a headline. For me, it’s like you’re reading a book, and you just turn the page. That part of it was over – you just flip the page.

“I think that’s really exciting. And I can’t wait to read the next page.”

That next page will be written at the Australian Open, and it’s her best Grand Slam for a reason – she won her first two Grand Slam titles there in 2012 and 2013, beating Maria Sharapova and Li Na in those two finals, respectively, and even through her injury-marred seasons since then she still made it deep, reaching the quarterfinals in 2014 (falling to Agnieszka Radwanska) and the fourth round in 2015 (falling to Dominika Cibulkova). She’s also won 35 of her last 39 matches in Australia, period.

And given she’s been Serena Williams’ toughest match-up the last few years – she’s the last player to beat the World No.1 in a final, at Cincinnati in 2013, and she pushed her to three sets in all three of their meetings in 2015 – could a rejuvenated Belarusian be the one to stop Williams Down Under?

Tell us what you think: Can Azarenka win a third Australian Open crown this year?

Her relentless pursuit of the highest echelons of tennis now comes with the reality of having to deliver week-in and week-out. Ranked World No.3, Garbiñe Muguruza has gone from underdog to favorite, and along with that comes the inevitable – pressure.

“Before, I was Garbiñe who had chances to win; now I’m Garbiñe who is supposed to win,” Muguruza told Spanish reporters during the off-season.

“Until now I had never found myself in a situation with so many expectations and so much pressure. It’s something I have to take in, because you can’t learn that off of the court. You’re out there and you have to manage it.”

But the 22-year-old Spaniard remains undaunted by the big task of meeting high expectations – in fact, she’s learned to relish the pressure.

“It’s about dealing with it on your own,” she said, “because there’s no one who can teach you how to handle it all. It’s a part of my job – all this pressure. And I love it.”

And another thing Muguruza is loving are her chances at the Australian Open despite having to bow out of the Brisbane International early, her first tournament of 2016 cut short by the flare up of a long-standing foot injury. She’s optimistic that it won’t be a problem in Melbourne.

Muguruza hasn’t made it past the fourth round at Melbourne yet, but she also has never been seeded so high – her ranking guarantees a Top 4 seed. The only people to knock her out of the Happy Slam – Serena Williams and Agnieszka Radwanska – are both in the Top 4 as well, so she won’t have to face them until at least the semifinals.

Can the youngest member of the WTA Top 10 seize this opportunity and win the biggest title of her career in Melbourne?

SYDNEY, Australia – Sara Errani looked on course for a three-setter during her second round encounter with Jelena Jankovic; the Italian managed to up her game at the right moment at the Apia International Sydney, saving a whopping seven set points to take out the former No.1, 7-6(3), 7-6(8), in two hours and 30 minutes.

The 2012 French Open finalist, Errani had eked out the opening set against an opponent she had beaten in three of their last four meetings. But Jankovic won their last match at the Huajin Securities WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai and appeared poised to extend the match to a decider when the Serb raced out to a 5-1 lead.

“Yeah, it was 5-1, but I had many games with 40-Love, 40-15, and advantage, and so it didn’t really feel like 5-1,” Errani said.

“I was just thinking that I was near my best level, and to just try to keep going, play all the points, and finally was 5-All, and 5-5, 6-All, and really tough the tiebreaker.”

Undaunted, Errani saved her best tennis for when her back was against the wall, breaking the 2008 US Open runner-up twice in a row to level the set and overcome the loss of multiple match points to eventually earn the win in straight sets. Speaking to press after the match, Errani admitted that she was expecting a battle from the outset.

“It was very tough, physically. With her all of our matches is like this. We play always long matches, long points.”

Errani next plays the winner of the second round match between a pair of former Top 5 players, Sam Stosur and Daniela Hantuchova.