Tennis News

MELBOURNE, Australia – On Day 3 at the Australian Open, a smattering of upsets was overshadowed by the youth movement through the draw. Will 2016 be the year the next generation makes an impact? They certainly think so.

– Serena, Sharapova, and Radwanska roll on: Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova each dropped just three games en route to easy wins, with Serena beating Hsieh Su-Wei 6-1, 6-2, and Sharapova beating Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-2, 6-1. Agnieszka Radwanska played some of her best tennis of the year to hold off Eugenie Bouchard 6-4, 6-2.

– Kristyna Pliskova sets a record…only to lose: You have to feel for Kristyna Pliskova. She broke Sabine Lisicki’s record of 27 aces in a match, firing 31 aces against Monica Puig. Yet despite the cannonballs coming off her racket and holding five match points, Pliskova lost 4-6, 7-6(6), 9-7 in a heartbreaker.

Said a disappointed Pliskova: “I would rather hit 20 aces and win.”

– Daria Gavrilova embraces her moment: Inspired by the crowd, the court, and a vulnerable opponent, Gavrilova knocked out No.6 seed Petra Kvitova 6-4, 6-4 in 90 minutes on Margaret Court Arena. It’s a disappointing trip down to Australia for Kvitova but Gavrilova was one of the most dangerous unseeded players in the draw. It was never going to be easy.

– Kataryna Bondarenko douses Svetlana Kuznetsova: Kuznetsova has been on fire over the last week, dating back to her title run at the Sydney International. But Bondarenko took it to her, firing 28 winners to 14 unforced errors to end the No.26 seed’s Australian Open and advance to her first third round at a major since 2011.

– Don’t look now: Belinda Bencic is cruising through the draw. She plays Bondarenko in the third round and could play Sharapova in the Round of 16.

– Spoilers back-up their upsets: It’s a common pattern. Pull off a big win and go out meekly in the next round. But that hasn’t been the case in this year’s Australian Open. Five of the seven players who knocked out seeds in the first round — Kasatkina (d. Schmiedlova), Margarita Gasparyan (d. Errani), Yulia Putintseva (d. Wozniacki), and Lauren Davis (d. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova), and Elizaveta Kulichkova (d. Petkovic), won through today.

– Youth Brigade: 10 of the 16 players into the third round in the top half of the draw are aged 22 and under, with three of them being teenagers: Daria Kasatkina (18), Margarita Gasparyan (21), Yulia Putintseva (21), Belinda Bencic (18), Lauren Davis (22), Monica Puig (22), Anna Lena Friedsam (21), Elizaveta Kulichkova (19), Kristina Mladenovic (22), and Daria Gavrilova (21).

Of that group, six are into the third round of a major for the first time in their careers. Nice to see some fresh faces to start the season.

“It’s great,” Gavrilova said. “We’re all excited. We’re all pretty friendly. We hang out together. Yeah, like I said, we’re all supporting each other. I think it’s going to be awesome.”

– Bouchard bows out: Bouchard led 4-2 in the first before Radwanska reeled her back in for a 6-4, 6-2 win, but the Canadian once again showed flashes of her brilliant 2014 form. She just couldn’t sustain the level throughout the match. With the loss, Bouchard will drop out of the Top 50 for the first time since 2013.

“That was a great challenge for me to play somebody like Eugenie in the second round,” Radwanska said. “But I think I was doing everything right today. That’s why I win that match in two sets. Definitely not an easy draw.”

Notable: Radwanska is 14-0 in sets this year. She plays Puig next.

– Puig’s change of perspective: Puig has had a strong start to 2016, making her first Premier final at the Sydney International and now into the third round at the Australian Open for the first time. It’s a strong rebound from a disappointing 2015 campaign and Puig says she’s playing better simply because she’s fallen back in love with the sport.

– Top half of the draw set: Here are Friday’s third round matches: Serena vs. Kasatkina, Gasparyan vs. Putintseva, Bencic vs. Bondarenko, Davis vs Sharapova, Radwanska vs. Puig, Friedsam vs. Vinci, Suarez Navarro vs. Kulichkova, Mladenovic vs. Gavrilova.

– The Origins of DropshotPova: Turns out Sharapova’s decision to add the dropshot to her arsenal was driven by pure competition.

“It’s something that I have added. It’s actually something that I had to add, because I was getting really frustrated losing to my hitting partner all the time. He just stood so far back behind the baseline I was like, just can’t handle him beating me so often. I have to just change things around. That’s kind of when I started getting into that a little bit.

He was a little surprised (laughter). But it started working, so that was good.

– Serena’s sarcasm: I think it’s safe to say Serena probably isn’t too excited to hear Roberta Vinci’s name anymore. When a journalist asked Serena whether she’s watched her US Open loss to Vinci — this was the third question about Vinci in the press conference — Serena quipped: “Yeah, I watch it every day. Every night to get ready.”

– Catching up with Li Na: The 2013 Australian Open champion was downright chatty on a wet Wednesday morning as she met with reporters. The main conversation point surrounded the four Chinese women — Wang Qiang, Han Xinyun, Zhang Shuai, and Zheng Saisai — who progressed to the second round. It’s the first time four Chinese women have made the second round at a Slam since 2006.

“I remember last year in Wuhan, one reporter asked me what do you think about the Chinese players, they always lose in the first round,” she said. “I got a little bit angry. They need more space. They need more time.” She was right.

– Simona Halep’s off-season problems: After her first round loss on Tuesday, Halep revealed to the Romanian press that she fell ill during her off-season training block and had to be hospitalized and put on antibiotics.

– Hate the player, not the game: Liked this from Radwanska, who went out of her way to point out that the increased depth on tour means every player is dangerous: “As we see now the ranking, it sometimes didn’t really showing the game, what the player actually showing. You play against the player, not the ranking.”

– Best Friends Forever: Kasatkina and Kulichkova are best friends with very different personalities and interests. One example: Kasatkina worships at the throne of Rafael Nadal. Kulichkova is a Federer fan. Somehow their friendship survives.

True Friendship: Fedfan @LizaKulichkova on teasing BFF/RafaKAD @DKasatkina after the Verdasco/Nadal match. pic.twitter.com/fOsQsDDaqp

— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) January 20, 2016

All photos courtesy of Getty Images.

MELBOURNE, Australia – Playing in the Australian Open under the local flag for the first time, Daria Gavrilova pulled off the upset of the night, shocking the No.6 seeded Petra Kvitova 6-4, 6-4 on Margaret Court Arena.

Gavrilova – who scored wins last year over Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic and Lucie Safarova and was voted WTA’s Most Impressive Newcomer – wasn’t intimidated by the two-time Wimbledon champion across the net. And with the yellow-clad Aussie crowd firmly behind her, the 21-year-old was relentless.

“It was unreal,” a smiling Gavrilova said to the crowd after the win. “I was so nervous in the end… you probably could tell!”

In the second set, Gavrilova surged to a 5-2 lead and actually had a match point at 5-3 on her serve, but her nerves got the best of her and she sent a backhand into the net.

When the match point came again at 5-4, Gavrilova used a different tactic.

“In that last game I told myself, ‘You’re actually down 5-3 and you’re trying to stay in the match,'” Gavrilova said. “And obviously that helped.”

Kvitova did her best to tamp down her surging opponent and silence the raucous Aussie crowd, but her unforced errors got the best of her. The Czech’s reliable groundstrokes and serve became vulnerable: she hit 35 errors to 17 winners and seven double faults, including one when she was serving to stay in the match.

Gavrilova, who began competing for Australia in 2015, was feeling the Aussie spirit even down to her fingernails, which were painted royal blue and featured Australian flag designs.

“You guys are crazy!” she laughed, thanking the crowd who had been cheering and chanting for her all match long. “But obviously good crazy – you helped me a lot. It was unreal, I’m just really proud.”

Gavrilova now stands alone as the single Australian woman left in the draw – Ajla Tomljanovic, Samantha Stosur, Storm Sanders, Priscilla Hon, Maddison Inglis, Kimberly Birrell, Jarmila Wolfe and Tammi Patterson were all defeated in the first round.

With the win, Gavrilova improves to a 4-10 record against Top 10 players and is into the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time. She’s set to play the No.28 seed Kristina Mladenovic in what will be the pair’s first meeting.

MELBOURNE, Australia – Two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka continued her incredible start to her 2016 title campaign, notching a swift win over Montenegrin player Danka Kovinic to advance to the third round.

Azarenka needed barely an hour to cruise past Kovinic 6-1, 6-2. The Belorussian has yet to lose a set in 2016 – in fact, she has only dropped 20 games all year, and only three so far in the tournament.

“I really don’t count the games,” Azarenka said after the match. “What really works for me is to stay in the moment. I enjoy my time on the court and play every point like it’s my last.

“I just want to enjoy the journey. Right now I just can’t wait to be out here again.”

Her new outlook is paying dividends: the No.14 seed hit only nine unforced errors to Kovinic’s 22, and blasted 19 winners, including a huge around-the-post forehand winner.

“I played really well, especially in the beginning,” Azarenka said. “I just tried to just create opportunities and not let her dictate the points.”

Up next, Azarenka is set to face the unseeded Japanese 18-year old Naomi Osaka, who won 6-4, 6-4 in an upset over No.18-seeded Elina Svitolina.

“I never feel pressure from playing someone that’s supposed to be like better than me, sort of,” Osaka told the press of playing No.14 seed Azarenka. “I’m just going to go in there happy and hopefully try to pull off an upset.”

Osaka is into the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time in her career, previously never having advanced past qualifying. Last season at the WTA Finals in Singapore, Osaka announced herself as a young talent to watch by taking home the title at the WTA Rising Stars Invitational.

MELBOURNE, Australia – Monica Puig survived a full-on service onslaught from Kristyna Pliskova, who fired off a record 31 aces in their second-round match before losing 4-6, 7-6(6), 9-7.

“At one point I just had to laugh, during the changeover, because it was so unbelievable,” Puig commented after the win.

Pliskova’s dominant serve is the hallmark of her game, and it was in full strength during the match. Her 31 aces set a new women’s tennis record, breaking Sabine Lisicki’s previous record of 27 aces last year in Birmingham.

But even making tennis history was no consolation for the tough loss.

“I don’t care about that right now,” Pliskova said to press afterwards. “It’s nice, but I wish I could have hit like 20 and won.”

Puig, who made the biggest final of her career last week in Sydney, approached the booming serve by keeping a positive mentality even when the win seemed just out of reach – she saved three match points in a row in the second set tie-break and another two in the third set.

“I think I just tried to stay as positive as possible, even though it was difficult at times,” Puig said. “You know, you get upset: she fires another ace and you’re just like, okay! I just tried to stay relaxed in those important moments.”

“I think it’s just about believing that you can come out of a moment like that, that at any moment you can get a second wind and come out of it.”

Up next for the 22-year-old Puerto Rican is the No.4 seed Agnieszka Radwanska. Radwanska defeated the resurgent Eugenie Bouchard 6-4, 6-2 in the second round (read about the win – here).

The all-time WTA leaderboard for most aces in a single match (WTA main draw-level only):

31 – Kristyna Pliskova
[l. Monica Puig in 2016 Australian Open second round, 4-6, 7-6(6), 9-7]

27 – Sabine Lisicki
[d. Belinda Bencic in 2015 Birmingham second round, 6-1, 7-6(4)]

24 – Serena Williams
[d. Victoria Azarenka in 2012 Wimbledon semifinals, 6-3, 7-6(6)]

24 – Kaia Kanepi
[d. Lucie Safarova in 2008 Tokyo [Japan Open] first round, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4]

23 – Serena Williams
[d. Zheng Jie in 2012 Wimbledon third round, 6-7(5), 6-2, 9-7]

Welcome to the Coach’s Corner, a new WTAi series that speaks to the coaches, physios, and fitness trainers tasked with helping turn the WTA players into Grand Slam champions. In this first edition, get to know Scott Byrnes, the man who helped Ana Ivanovic to her maiden major victory, and Eugenie Bouchard to her first major final at the 2014 Wimbledon Championships.

MELBOURNE, Australia – Maria Sharapova, Victoria Azarenka, Ana Ivanovic, and Eugenie Bouchard all have something in common. Each has entrusted Scott Byrnes with her physical training. The 44-year-old Queenslander has become a staple on the tour since he first began as former Australian No.1 Alicia Molik’s traveling trainer in 2001.

Byrnes’ most successful turn came with Ivanovic. Brought onto the team in 2006, Byrnes helped transform Ivanovic into a Slam champion in 2008 at the French Open. He has also worked extensively with Sharapova, Azarenka, Bouchard, and Vera Zvonareva in many of their training blocks in the United States. Now he hopes to do the same for another young hitter in 21-year-old American Madison Keys, with whom he’s worked since the middle of last season.

An entrepreneur and self-described “gypsy”, Byrnes sat down with WTA Insider to discuss his experience as full-time traveling fitness coach, how the physical side of the women’s game has evolved over the years, and his unique methodologies that have made him one of the most sought after trainers in the sport.

WTA Insider: How did you first start in this business?
Byres: I had a personal training business called Complete Fitness in Sydney, Australia. I started training some of the young Australian players out of the gym and then they asked me to travel with them. Back then in 1997 the physical side of things in women’s tennis really wasn’t focused on. It was still in its infancy. There was a niche for having someone working on a player’s fitness.

At that time there wasn’t a lot of physical trainers traveling. Coaches used to do most of the training for the players and I used to look at them and think ‘Oh my god what’s going on here’? It was really old school stuff.

My first private player was Alicia Molik. She was ranked in the 100s at the time and finished with her highest ranking at No.8 in the world. Then it just snowballed from there.

Then there was Ana. She went through a great transformation. I got her at an age when she wasn’t as athletic. We worked hard for 1.5 years before we really had results. She made the final here in 2008 and lost to Maria and then a few months later she won the French Open.

Once you get known in the industry and people see what you’re doing, it gets going from there. Vera Zvonareva for two years, Maria Sharapova for just under a year, Azarenka for just under a year. Then Genie for a year and a half and then I started with Madison.

WTA Insider: That’s quite the resume.
Byrnes: Yeah, it is. I’ve been very fortunate and lucky to work with them. I have a great relationship with all of them. I consider myself privileged.

WTA Insider: Why is it important for players to have a traveling full-time fitness trainer?
Byrnes: What’s important for a trainer traveling with a player is you should have to know the blocks you’re working on. Every session is going to have a different tempo and different loading. So if Madison is in a power block, there’s going to be no slow-twitch repetition. It will all be done in a fast, powerful manner. And the technique has to be correct. So with the trainer being there you’re following the block and he or she can make sure you’re doing it correctly.

There’s also tennis specific exercises which I’ve designed myself since being on the tour since 1997. There’s a lot of tennis specific exercises that are about stability of shot, speed out of the corners and movement. What I do with band work is kind of unique.

What works is that when I work on these exercises with the players they buy into it. It clicks with them and it improves their movement on court. The minute the player sees the work they’re doing off-court pays off on-court, they’re more motivated. Eventually you get a system in place. So you need to have someone who knows what they’re doing and overseeing your fitness on a daily basis.

WTA Insider: Why tennis? How did you become a sport-specific trainer?
Byrnes: I only played recreationally but I liked the sport. It was just a niche at the time. I grew up watching Pat Cash win Wimbledon and I loved Ivan Lendl. So to be on the tour was really special. You get really hooked on it, that whole competitiveness, the build up to big tournaments. When you’re part of the team it’s very special.

WTA Insider: What specific things do you have to be mindful of as a tennis-specific trainer?
Byrnes: With tennis it’s a very specific sport and, I think, one of the hardest sports to do periodization for because the tournaments run throughout the year. You’re trying to peak for specific tournaments but you’re trying to peak for the Grand Slams which are so spread out, or in the case of Wimbledon and the French Open, back-to-back.

It’s almost impossible to have your player peak for those big events. But there are ways you can periodize and have them at 80-90%. So periodization is one of the hardest things and that comes with experience. You have to do a lot of maintenance. The benefits of traveling with your player is if they bomb out of one tournament you can make up for some lost time as well and train. That’s the advantage of having a traveling trainer.

WTA Insider: What specific things do you have to be mindful of when training the women?
Byrnes: With women specifically there has to be a lot of work on the hips. I find there’s a lot of instability with the women in the hips, with female athletes in general. When there’s dysfunction in the hips it can either go up or down the chain. Usually you’ll find problems through the groin area. A lot of the women are pulling their adductor for example.

A lot of the women have an anterior pelvic tilt, which puts pressure on their back as well. There’s too much back extension. So you work on that by building their core muscles, and loosening up the hamstrings and strengthening their posterior chain.

The way you go about training the core has changed. The last year or two years have totally blown out the old crunches and old school exercises that really aren’t helping in a sport specific movement. Especially in tennis, when the hips and racket have to come through together, if there’s a break in the chain the technique breaks down. So a lot of anti-rotation work is required, medicine ball, plank work, as opposed to the old school “six-pack for show” type of work.

WTA Insider: What are the biggest developments on the fitness that you’ve seen from when you first started?
Byrnes: The biggest thing is the way periodization (systematic training to peak for specific competitions by rotating focused training blocks) is coming into the training. You don’t just work endurance-based strength training. People are beginning to understand the power that goes into the sport. Tennis is an anaerobic sport with lots of different interval efforts. So the old school hopping on the treadmill and running may not be appropriate.

Also pre-hab. The trainer really needs to work in with the medical side of things. The top players now have their own medical teams. The therapist and the trainer have to work hand in hand so that you’re not loading on dysfunction. Let’s say your pelvis is rocked. If you go into the weight room and do heavy lifting, you’ll make it worse. So the team has to communicate and work together to keep the player healthy.

WTA Insider: Is it difficult for players to be patient when it comes to their fitness? Given the tennis season I would think it takes years to get a player to their optimum fitness level.
Byrnes: It is. Honesty is the best policy. If you take a job and tell them great things are going to happen in the next three months, you’re screwed. That’s not going to happen. Don’t focus on long-term goals. Breaking the goals down to smaller goals is important. That keeps the athlete more motivated.

WTA Insider: The season goes for 10 to 11 months. Where are the actual training blocks when you can really focus on fitness as opposed to tournaments?
Byrnes: The greatest time for me is the actual off-season. That’s where you can really make some gains. The second block is after Wimbledon. You can also get a block after the Australian Open depending on the tournaments they play. Madison won’t be going to the Middle East so we’ll have a block after that.

There’s also a short one after Miami depending on how they do there. That works out well because you’re going from hard court to clay, so you want to work on footwork and movement. It’s good because the gaps usually correspond with the surface changes, except from clay to grass. Then you’re just trying to get them into Wimbledon healthy.

WTA Insider: How difficult is it to get a player physically ready for Wimbledon? When I see them in Birmingham and Eastbourne they’re usually sore in the lower back or quads or glutes from having to behind down lower to hit the balls.
Byrnes: It’s funny because the guys are almost treating the grass court like a hard court. They wear hard court shoes and slide on the grass. The majority of the women don’t have the speed after the shot to get that slide. Because of that if there’s any problems with the surface, lumps of grass or sand, then you’ll slide. You’re trying to get them familiar with the surface so that they feel stable so they can play confidently while also avoiding injury.

WTA Insider: This may be a minor question, but how much training equipment do you have to travel with?
Byrnes: I’ve probably paid off a house when it comes to excess baggage. I carry a small suitcase of equipment. I travel with a 1kg medicine ball so you can do speed work, which is important. One of the most useful tools which is light is the bands. I use them a lot.

But now, compared to 15 years ago, the gyms at the tournaments are much better. There are smaller tournaments where you need to be adaptable and come up with some things. But it’s good for the players. It gives them something different.

WTA Insider: What gives you the most job satisfaction?
Byrnes: Knowing that you’ve prepared the player to the best of your ability. That should be the focus on the whole team, that we’re focusing on the whole process and not the result. That will translate to the player’s confidence as well. Where they know they had a good off-season or training block and a 10-15 shot rally comes up they know they’ve been pushed hard and they can handle it.

When you’re traveling with the player you want them to be happy, that’s the second thing. You need to do the little things to take pressure off them or little things that make them smile. It’s tough, you know? Madison is 21 years old. They’re spending 5-6 days under strenuous labor. You’re traveling with them 24-7 so you need to be able to have that side of your personality to make them smile.

WTA Insider: What’s the most stressful situation for you?
Byrnes: Injuries. It’s inevitable. These women are throwing themselves around the court and there’s not a lot of down time between tournaments. If they go deep one week there’s going to be some niggling thing that could add up to the next week as well. Unfortunately it takes time to heal, but you have a tournament straight after. So you have decide whether to play the tournament or not.

WTA Insider: What was it like being in the support box and watching Ana win the French Open?
Byrnes: That was huge. That’s by far my standout moment in my career because we worked damn hard for it. I know how hard she worked for it and the sacrifices she made to get there. Especially coupled with the fact that we made the final the year before and Justine [Henin] won there. Just being part of a team was just such a great moment.

WTA Insider: How are you with all the travel?
Byrnes: I’m a bit of a gypsy. I’m a bit of a free spirit. I guess it’s my Sagittarius zodiac. I get itchy feet when I’m in one place for too long. I love traveling, I love the whole sporting environment, I like watching other people train. I’m just lucky to be 24-7 around a sport I love. I think if I was stuck in an office I’d go crazy.

All photos courtesy of Getty Images and Scott Byrnes.

Kateryna Bondarenko left the WTA tour in 2012, thinking she had accomplished everything she could in a sport where she had been a Top 30 singles player, Australian Open doubles champion, and US Open quarterfinalist.

Four years and one daughter later, who’d’ve thought the Ukrainian veteran would back and close to breaking new ground in Melbourne?

“Yesterday, before I went to sleep, I was thinking about how I’d never passed the second round at the Australian Open,” she told WTA Insider.

She actually reached the third round once before, losing to Svetlana Kuznetsova in 2009. But the 29-year-old woke up on Wednesday morning and did it again, getting her revenge on the former No.2 and Apia International Sydney champion, 6-1, 7-5, to reach her first third round at any major tournament since 2011.

“It’s amazing. I didn’t think I’d come back because in 2012, I was already tired of tennis and I decided to stop.

“Then I got pregnant, so definitely I decided to stop.”

One half of Ukraine’s preeminent tennis sister act, Kateryna and Alona Bondarenko played some of their best tennis in the late 2000s, coming together to capture the Australian Open women’s doubles trophy in 2008 and backing it up with a run to the semifinals of the French Open a few months later.

Alona had the higher career-best singles ranking when she retired (No.19), but Kateryna had the better Grand Slam finish, upsetting former No.1 Ana Ivanovic in a thrilling three-setter on Louis Armstrong Stadium and double bageling Gisela Dulko en route to her first major quarterfinal at the US Open.

“The tour has become even stronger; if you don’t practice all day, you won’t be able to play a normal match on the court because everyone is getting stronger. Every year, it’s stronger and faster.”

Bondarenko played the last match of what she considers her “first career” in Flushing back in 2012; she got married and gave birth to daughter Karina soon after. It wasn’t long, however, before she felt the urge to return to the game.

“I missed tennis so much and it was boring at home, doing nothing. The emotion when you win a match or even a point is great. You miss these emotions.

“So I decided to play tennis again. I didn’t think that I could make it because in the 25Ks, I was losing in the first round – passing through the qualifying, but still losing first round. I was thinking, ‘Ok, why did I start again?’

“Now when I have a good result, it’s just amazing to be a good player again.”

Eighteen months into her comeback, the former World No.29 re-entered the Top 100 thanks to a solid run at the US Open that took her through qualifying and into a quality second round encounter with No.2 seed Simona Halep.

“Before, I was just focusing on myself and all my thoughts were on the match, and that’s it. Now it’s kind of different, better, because now I always have my husband and daughter. I have to take care of them and I also have to practice all the time.

“It’s a little bit difficult but still it’s nice to have them with me.”

One of the few traveling mothers on tour, Bondarenko admits it’s not always easy, but at nearly three years old, her daughter is enjoying the ride, and between herself, her husband and a plethora of relatives, a veritable village is on hand to help her raise her child.

“She’s always by my side, always with me. We travel to every tournament together with my husband. Most of the time, we take somebody to take care of my daughter because mu husband goes with me to the court for practice and matches. It’s good to travel with the whole family.

“She likes to travel. We’ll tell her, ‘We’re going to go to America and then Australia,’ and then when we’re in America she says, ‘Now I want to go to Australia!’ As long as she’s with her parents, she likes it.”

Back in position to reach the second week of Grand Slam tournaments, Bondarenko doesn’t see herself as an inspiration, but rather believes her balancing act has made her an even tougher competitor eager to keep up with an ever-improving WTA cohort.

“It’s difficult to start over; I don’t think many people could do what I’ve done.”

Photos courtesy of Christopher Levy and Getty Images.

USANA brand ambassador Samantha Stosur shared with us her tried and true recipe for her favorite pre-match snacks – which you can make right at home with only three ingredients and some waffles.

For a healthy, anytime snack (or for some pre-match fuel), spread toasted waffles with a layer of peanut butter for a dose of protein then top with freshly sliced bananas. Sprinkle in some chia seeds, which are packed with omega-3 fatty acids, fiber, and calcium, for a nutritious energy boost.

Here’s everything you need:

USANA is the Official Vitamin & Supplement Supplier of the WTA, and over 170 Athletes – including 8 out of the Top 10 and 15 out of the Top 20 use USANA products. Former No.1 Caroline Wozniacki, Samantha Stosur, Eugenie Bouchard, and Madison Keys are among several USANA ambassadors, and 2016 marks the 10th Anniversary of the USANA-WTA partnership.