IT was a bit of a mixed bag of results across the WTA Tour’s two grass court events yesterday, with two seeds making their way through in each of the Viking Classic and Bett1Open quarter finals, whilst in the other two matches the underdog prevailed. In Berlin, fifth seed Belinda Bencic advanced through to the final four with a hard-fought three-set win over Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4 4-6 7-6, needing two hours and 31 minutes to dismiss her opponent.
The Swiss star will now face Frenchwoman Alize Cornet who stunned Grand Slam winner and sixth seed Garbine Muguruza in an epic contest, winning in a third set tiebreaker, 7-5. The overall match saw Cornet come from behind to post a 4-6 6-3 7-6 win over the Spanish seed in two hours and 40 minutes to claim her spot in the final four. Cornet won 76.6 per cent of his first serve points and broke twice from her two chances, whilst rallied hard against a solid Muguruza who broke twice form four chances, and won 67.9 and 70 per cent of her first and second serve points.
“It was a long match with a lot of emotion, especially in the tiebreak,” Cornet said post-match. “I can’t believe I made it at the end. She’s a champion, she never gives up. I should have gone for a it a bit more, I was waiting for a mistake and I was a bit tight – it’s normal. But I was very resilient too, I was always behind in the score in the third set but I kept grinding, I kept fighting to the end and it’s a really nice victory.
“I had a really tough clay season, I couldn’t play well and I don’t know why – but to play well on grass, it’s unexpected but beautiful.”
Wildcard Eala upsets former top 30 player in Madrid
SHE might be her nation’s only ranked player, but Phillipines’ Alexandra Eala showed she can punch above her weight with the world number 170 getting the job done against former top 30 player, Lesia Tsurenko, at the Madrid Open. The 18-year-old talent came back from a set down on Arantxa Sanchez Stadium to post a […]
CLAY court season is well underway and it is time for another combined 1000 event between the WTA and ATP Tours, with the world’s best players descending on Spain for the Madrid Open. The clay court event features 96 players in the women’s singles draw, with the 32 seeded players receiving a bye in the […]
AUSTRALIA will contest the 2024 Billie Jean King Cup Finals after the green and gold whitewashed Mexico in the Qualifiers to reach the 16-team event. The Aussies won 4-0 over their Central American opponents in a result that came as no surprise considering the relative ranking difference between the nations. Aside from Arina Rodionova getting […]
RISING WTA Tour stars Dominika Salkova and Talia Gibson have both earned their way into the Top 200 for the first time in their respective careers. The young guns reached the recent W75 Maribor final where the teenager Czech saluted in straight sets, 6-2 6-4. Both players entered the tournament unseeded with Salkova ranked 204th […]
AUSTRALIAN teenager Maya Joint continues to enjoy a strong ITF Tour season, winning her second title in four tournaments across the past month. Taking home the trophy in her home nation at Burnie last month, Joint doubled up with a victory in the Dominican Republic the past week. The 14th seed at the event only […]
SPANISH former world number two Paula Badosa played the role of party pooper against former world number one Simona Halep, with the latter returning to the WTA Tour for the first time in 18 months at the Miami Open. Despite Halep completely dominating the first set, Badosa worked her way back into the contest, and […]
A NEW champion will be crowned in Miami over the next two weeks as the last major tournament of the first calendar year quarter kicks off tomorrow. Czech Petra Kvitova is the defending champion at the WTA 1000 event, but is not playing this year due to her pregnancy with her first child. However last […]
Swiatek storms past Sakkari for Indian Wells title
WORLD number one Iga Swiatek showed no mercy against Greek top 10 talent Maria Sakkari, defeating her comprehensively in the 2024 Indian Wells WTA 1000 final, the second time in three years.The pair met back in 2022 with the result the same, though this time it was even more one-sided with Swiatek trouncing the world […]
Indian Wells D10 wrap: Sakkari shocks Coco to reach final
GREEK talent Maria Sakkari has turned around her recent 2024 form to reach the WTA 1000 Indian Wells final with a huge upset over local hope and third seed, Coco Gauff. Sakkari, who entered the tournament having not won back-to-back matches since the China Open in early October, strung together five in a row out […]
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