Notes & Netcords: April 25, 2016

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

THE WINNERS

Reigning Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber won her second title of the season at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, dispatching qualifier and countrywoman Laura Siegemund, the tournament’s Cinderella story, 6-4, 6-0.

“I was just trying to enjoy the atmosphere, the fans and to play here again in the finals,” Kerber said. “So, I was trying to relax a little bit but also in the same moment to be focused. It helped me yesterday, so I was trying and hoping that it will help me today as well!”

Though Siegemund finished the match with more winners (22 to 16), Kerber played her counterpunching style to perfection, hitting just nine unforced errors in 80 minutes to win the final 10 games of the match.

It was nonetheless a stellar week for the 28-year-old veteran, who will bound up nearly 30 spots to a career-high ranking of No.42; more importantly, she leapfrogs four of her compatriots to become the No.4 German woman on the WTA rankings – putting her in pole position to round out the national team who can be sent to the upcoming Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Read the full story and watch highlights here.

Meanwhile, unseeded Cagla Buyukakcay’s fairytale week at the TEP BNP Paribas Istanbul Cup came to a thrilling conclusion when the hometown favorite recovered from a set down to defeat No.5 seed Danka Kovinic, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.

Set to crack the Top 100 for the first time in her career, Buyukakcay was making history with every win this week in Istanbul, becoming the first Turkish woman to reach a WTA semifinal, then a final, and against Kovinic, the first Turkish WTA titlist in history.

“It’s an incredible week for me to win the title at home, to break into the Top 100 with this tournament, to play against someone with my crowd,” she said after the match. “This is a tournament I’ve been playing since 2005, when I was 15, and I saw the best players at this tournament when I was young. So I dreamed of winning the title since then; it’s very special for me.”

Read the full story here.

GAME, SET, MATCH: WTA Insider

Game: Angelique Kerber turns the page.

Kerber’s successful title defense at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix capped off a five-week run of play that saw her put her post Australian Open malaise behind her and re-assert herself as a force on clay. After two opening round losses after winning her maiden Slam, the German has now made the semifinals or better at her last three events. Her Stuttgart title builds her lead at No.1 on the Road to Singapore, nearly 500 points clear of No.2 Victoria Azarenka.

Kerber is the first to admit clay has never been her favorite. But that began to change last year when her titles in Charleston and Stuttgart kickstarted what has been a career-best 12 months. Kerber has yet to maintain her success in the early part of the clay season through to Paris. She has made the quarterfinals just once at the French Open and in the last two years she has won just one match combined in Madrid and Rome. So long as she’s healthy and stays aggressive from the baseline, there’s no reason Kerber can’t be a force on the red dirt.

 Hear from Stuttgart champion Kerber in this week’s WTA Insider Champion’s Corner.

Set: Cagla Buyukakcay historic on home soil.

Home court advantage doesn’t always ring true in tennis. Playing at home can be paralyzing given the pressure to perform. But this week saw both singles champions win their home tournaments, with No.118 Cagla Buyukakcay becoming the first Turkish woman to win a WTA title. The 26-year-old was 0-7 at the Istanbul Cup before last week but she made good on her wildcard to snag five wins en route to the title. The win vaults her into the Top 100 for the first time at a career-high No.82.

Match: Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic stop SanTina.

The French duo is riding an eight-match win streak after winning their second consecutive title, edging out No.1s Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza 2-6, 6-1, 10-6 to win the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. Garcia and Mladenovic have been flying since the tour turned to clay, winning their first title at the Volvo Car Open, winning the decisive doubles in France’s 3-2 win over the Netherlands at Fed Cup, and now beating the game’s best in Stuttgart.

As for Hingis/Mirza, the duo have not won a title since having their 41-match win streak snapped by Daria Kasatkina and Elena Vesnina at the Qatar Total Open.

Hingis and Mirza are now in the midst of a four tournament title drought. Time to panic? Not really. The pair went five tournaments without a title last year, mostly on their worst surface of clay. They went on to win Wimbledon, the US Open, and the WTA Finals.

RANKING MOVERS:
Notable singles ranking movers for the week of April 25, 2016.

Cagla Buyukakcay (TUR), +36 (No.118 to 82): Turkey’s Buyukakcay owns this week’s biggest ranking jump after her fairytale run at the TEP BNP Paribas Istanbul Cup ended with the hometown favorite becoming her country’s first WTA titlist. She now sits at a career-high No.82.

Laura Siegemund (GER), +29 (No.71 to 42): Another Cinderella story unfolded at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, which saw Siegemund upset player after player to reach her first WTA final and vault to a career-high No.42.

Danka Kovinic (MNE), +13 (No.60 to 47): Kovinic also posts a career-high ranking this week after reaching her second WTA final at Istanbul.

Petra Kvitova (CZE), +1 (No.7 to 6): Kvitova’s run to the Stuttgart semifinals causes the only Top 10 shuffle of the week, leapfrogging Simona Halep to reach the No.6 spot.

UPCOMING TOURNAMENTS

GP SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem
Rabat, Morocco
International | $226,750 | Clay, Outdoor
Monday, April 25 – Saturday, April 30, 2016

J&T Banka Prague Open
Prague, Czech Republic
International | $226,750 | Clay, Outdoor
Monday, April 25 – Saturday, April 30, 2016

Mutua Madrid Open
Madrid, Spain
Premier Mandatory | €4,771,360 | Clay, Outdoor
Sunday, April 30 – Saturday, May 7, 2016

Internazionali BNL d’Italia
Rome, Italy
Premier | – | Clay, Outdoor
Monday, May 9 – Sunday, May 15, 2016

TOP 20 PLAYER SCHEDULES
1. Serena Williams – Madrid, Rome
2. Agnieszka Radwanska – Madrid
3. Angelique Kerber – Madrid, Rome
4. Garbiñe Muguruza – Madrid, Rome
5. Victoria Azarenka – Madrid, Rome
6. Petra Kvitova – Madrid, Rome
7. Simona Halep – Madrid, Rome
8. Roberta Vinci – Prague, Madrid, Rome
9. Maria Sharapova
10. Belinda Bencic – Madrid, Rome
11. Carla Suárez Navarro – Madrid, Rome
12. Flavia Pennetta
13. Svetlana Kuznetsova – Prague, Madrid, Rome
14. Venus Williams – Madrid, Rome
15. Timea Bacsinszky – Rabat, Madrid, Rome
16. Lucie Safarova – Prague, Madrid, Rome
17. Elina Svitolina – Madrid, Rome
18. Karolina Pliskova – Prague, Madrid, Rome
19. Ana Ivanovic – Madrid, Rome
20. Sara Errani – Madrid, Rome

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
Best wishes to those celebrating birthdays this week:

Jarmila Wolfe (AUS) – April 26, 2016
Misaki Doi (JPN) – April 29, 2016
Sara Errani (ITA) – April 29, 2016
Shahar Peer (ISR) – May 1, 2016

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