Tennis News

MELBOURNE, Australia – On Friday, USANA & the WTA “celebrated” in Melbourne to a crowd of over 1,100 Associates – up a few hundred Associates from last year – at USANA Australia Celebration. Hometown favorite and 2011 US Open champion Samantha Stosur was joined by fellow USANA players Sloane Stephens and Zheng Saisai.

As part of a three-day event taking place at the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre, Stosur participated in an autograph session with the Associates, while Stephens and Zheng were on stage to speak about their career, motivations, and how USANA supplements have aided them in their athletic endeavors.

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, Genie Bouchard, and Madison Keys are among several USANA ambassadors, and 2016 marks the 10th Anniversary of the USANA-WTA partnership.

Check out some photos from the celebratory event:

All photos courtesy of USANA.

SYDNEY, Australia – It was a dream day for Svetlana Kuznetsova on Friday, as she not only scored her biggest win in six and a half years against Simona Halep in a rain-delayed semifinal, but she then played a near-flawless final against Monica Puig to win the Premier-level Apia International Sydney.

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

Just hours after completing a 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-3 semifinal victory against No.2-ranked, No.1-seeded Halep – her biggest win since defeating then-World No.1 Dinara Safina in the final of the 2009 French Open – Kuznetsova completely overpowered Puerto Rican qualifier Puig for the Sydney title, 6-0, 6-2.

Kuznetsova won more than twice as many points as Puig in the 55-minute demolition, 53 to 23.

“It’s great. I mean, honestly, I didn’t expect this, but I’ve also never gone into a tournament thinking about winning, never even once,” Kuznetsova said after the match. “I just went out there and performed, and everything went my way. Now I just want to keep focused for the Australian Open.”

The Russian, who picked up her 16th WTA title – a haul that includes two Grand Slams – was asked how she recovered so well after a near-three-hour match against Halep to play so well against Puig.

“Actually somebody asked me before the match, the supervisor, ‘How do you feel?’ Everybody probably thinks because I’m 30 that I’m really old and need to pick myself up. But I felt great. I felt better than most days here. First matches of the year you’re sore, but after you get going, it’s great.”

She was also asked whether she thinks it’s possible to win another Grand Slam title: “I never dreamed of winning one. I never thought of winning one. It just happens behind hard work, effort, and just having pleasure playing tennis. If I have this opportunity and I can take it, I would love to, of course.

“But if not, my life isn’t going to end. I love the game. It’s great I can still win titles.”

Puig still has a lot to celebrate – she reached the first Premier final of her career in Sydney.

“There wasn’t really too much I could do. I definitely ran around the court and tried to get every single ball I could back, but the only answer I have today is that she was the better player,” Puig commented. “I had an incredible week coming through qualifying, my first time here in Sydney, and I made my first final of a Premier tournament. Overall it was a very good week and I’m very happy about it.

“I’m really not going to get disheartened about this final. She just played unbelievable.”

SYDNEY, Australia – Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza extended their winning streak to 30 matches in a row by edging Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic in the Apia International Sydney final.

Hingis and Mirza, who already went into the match with the longest winning streak since Jana Novotna and Helena Sukova in 1990 – they won 44 in a row – were down and out against No.3 seeds Garcia and Mladenovic, falling behind 6-1, 5-2 to one of the craftiest, hardest-hitting pairings out there.

But the No.1-seeded Hingis and Mirza fought back like they’ve done so many times, reeling off five games in a row to push it to a match tie-break, where they would finally end it, 1-6, 7-5, 10-5.

“It was definitely a great test, and against a great new team,” Hingis said afterwards. “They were playing together for the first time this week, and I think we’re going to see a lot more of them.

“We had to take our chances. You don’t see much light in a dark tunnel, but then we had one or two opportunities here and there, and with one little chance we were able to turn the match around.”

“At 6-1, 5-2 the only thing we could say to each other was that it was only one break,” Mirza added. “That’s the only positive you can find from a situation like that. We tried to hold our serve for 5-3 to give ourselves another chance, then we had a huge game at 5-3 and the momentum went in our favor.

“We’re really happy to win another tournament. We’re really happy with the way we fought.”

They now have 11 WTA doubles titles together: Indian Wells, Miami, Charleston, Wimbledon, US Open, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Beijing and WTA Finals last year, now Brisbane and Sydney this year.

The Swiss-Indian partnership is also an incredible 11-1 together in WTA doubles finals.

And the icing on the cake? On Monday, Hingis is projected to join Mirza as co-World No.1 on the WTA Doubles Rankings. It will be Hingis’ first time at No.1 since the Indian Wells fortnight in 2000.

“I think it’s another chapter in my career, definitely,” Hingis said. “When Sania became No.1 in Charleston that was a huge stepping stone for her, and now for me, 16 years later, who would have thought I would have another opportunity to become No.1 again? It was a dream and now it’s reality.

“But I’ve felt we’re the No.1 team for a while now. It was just a question of time.”

“Ditto!” Mirza added with a laugh.

HOBART, Australia – Eugenie Bouchard battled past fellow former Top 10 player Dominika Cibulkova on Friday to reach the final of the Hobart International, her first WTA final since Wuhan in 2014.

The unseeded Bouchard, who had already taken out No.8 seed Alison Van Uytvanck and No.2 seed Camila Giorgi in the last two rounds, won the first set in just 22 minutes and was up a break four times in the second but ended up having to go to a third to edge the No.3-seeded Cibulkova, 6-1, 4-6, 6-4.

“I’m just happy I got through today,” Bouchard said. “The first set was a great level for me – I can’t remember the last time I played that well. Now the important thing is to keep that consistency. It was hard to keep it up – it’s another lesson I’ve learned, to control my emotions a little bit better.

“I don’t think I held serve in the second set, which is absolutely disgusting – I’m so disappointed in myself for that. But she was really putting pressure on me with her returns out there today.”

The 2014 Wimbledon finalist and former World No.5 has now won six of seven matches to start 2016.

She knew she was feeling good coming into Hobart – she spoke about it in her pre-tournament presser.

“I’m feeling pretty good. I wouldn’t want to play if I was somewhat prepared, so I worked really hard in the off-season to catch up a little bit,” Bouchard said. “I’m just so happy to be back on the court. That’s the most important thing – I’m so grateful and excited to be back playing on the tour again.

“I just love the feeling of playing tennis,” she added. “When you’re forced not to do something you really love, you realize you truly love it, and, for me, I realized how much I truly missed it.”

The other semifinal took place later in the afternoon and lasted 53 minutes, as No.7 seed Alizé Cornet held all seven of her service games and broke five times to beat Johanna Larsson, 6-1, 6-1.

Though Cornet is the higher-ranked of the two, No.42 to No.47, Bouchard leads the Frenchwoman in their head-to-head series, 2-1, winning their last two meetings in a row in straight sets, as well.

Cornet does have more experience in WTA finals though, going 4-5, while Bouchard is 1-3 lifetime.