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Post by Admin on Jun 6, 2015 19:57:52 GMT
“It’s hard to think about the match or winning another Grand Slam title right now. I just have to hope that tomorrow I will be feeling a lot better and able to give my best on the court.” As far as statements of confidence go, this is probably not what fans want to hear from their favorite player the day before a French Open final. But that’s where Serena Williams stood on Friday—if she could stand. Suffering from what she called a “kind of flu” that she first felt at the start of the week, Serena was compelled to skip her pre-final practice session and hole up in her hotel room. We all know the feeling; any kind of flu, or anything resembling a flu, is no fun, and it was almost painful to watch her fight through it against Timea Bacsinszky in the semis. Though once she was behind, being ill may have actually helped Serena focus; she knew she had to go for the kill, and more often than not, she killed it. On Thursday, Serena said she hoped her flu had reached its nadir, but it didn’t seem to be any better by Friday. Can she climb out of her sick bed and do it again? It’s still very hard to imagine, even if she says she can’t think of winning a Grand Slam at the moment, that she won’t be doing just that on Saturday afternoon in Paris. The odds are heavily stacked in her favor. Serena leads their head-to-head 8-0. This shouldn’t be surprising; Serena dominates virtually all of her opponents, and Safarova has never even been a Top 10 player. Yet Lucie should—or at least could—match up decently against Serena. Safarova likes pace, and, as she showed in her semifinal against Ana Ivanovic, once she starts catching up to her opponents' shots, she can use their power to her advantage. No woman gives her opponents more pace than Serena. Safarova has also played the most aggressive tennis of her career at this event, and knocked off two former champions, Ivanovic and Maria Sharapova, on her way to the final. And she’ll obviously have nothing whatsoever to lose, at least when the match begins. She says she'll try to use her lefty body serve against Serena, and she'll need the shot she rode to her semifinal win over Ivanovic, her inside-out forehand, to be clicking. I think, like Bacsinszky, Safarova will surprise some people.
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Post by Admin on Aug 10, 2015 19:53:23 GMT
You picture Angelique Kerber as the type of kid who wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. If she wanted something badly enough, it came her way — and professional tennis was definitely one of those things. She hasn’t been among the strongest players in the women’s game, or the fastest, or the most dangerous in the late stages of Grand Slam events. But she never, ever goes away. Her dogged retrieving ability is revered on tour, making her a defensive standout of the highest order, and on a hot, breezy day on the Stanford campus, it was pure determination that earned her a title. Clearly bothered by discomfort in her right thigh over the match’s final hour, Kerber nevertheless managed a 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 victory over Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic in Sunday’s final of the Bank of the West Classic. In many ways, Kerber was up against the future: yet another hard-hitting, tall European, and in Pliskova’s case, the world’s No. 7 ranking was there for the taking. Kerber wouldn’t let it happen. There will be many great days for Pliskova, 23, but the left-handed German made sure that Sunday wasn’t one of them. “I was just fighting until the last point, trying to be in the moment and not think about … nothing,” said a smiling Kerber, who will be No. 11 when Monday’s rankings are announced. “Just hit the ball and go for it. I did it, and it’s an amazing feeling right now.” This steamy afternoon was a test for everyone, including a number of spectators grateful that the tournament passed out caps and fans. Pliskova appeared to have grown weary at times, surely a reason behind her alarming total of unforced errors (52 to Kerber’s 14, including a netted forehand on match point). But there were some sensational exchanges, neither player giving in to frustration. In a downright crazy development, there were seven consecutive service breaks in the second set and 18 for the match. In the end, as Kerber earned her fourth title of the year, the two shared a warm embrace at the net. Kerber’s defensive mastery was prevalent throughout. It’s rare that she can’t get to a ball, and she often drops into a squat to get as low as possible on the really difficult propositions. By the third set, however, her thigh was a recurring issue. She was able to run laterally, but those low returns became increasingly cumbersome and her service motion was significantly affected.
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Post by Admin on Aug 13, 2015 19:36:40 GMT
Simona Halep said she entered her second-round match at the Rogers Cup stress-free. For the majority of the match on Wednesday afternoon it looked like she played that way, too. Halep was unbroken in her service games and came out on top on Centre Court at the Aviva Centre, winning 6-3, 6-4 against Jelena Jankovic. “I feel happy that I could win in two sets,” she said after victory. “Always I play about three hours against her and I had always tough matches. I just went on court to play my best game,” she said. “I didn’t think about the score too much. Just I tried to do everything I can to win.” Much like Canadian Eugenie Bouchard, Halep had her breakout season in 2014, which saw her make the final at the French Open, the semis at Wimbledon and finish her year at No. 3 in the world. However, this season has featured a few blips. It started on a high with three titles, including her biggest one yet at Indian Wells in March. She’s posted a 32-9 record and reached the quarter-finals or better in eight of 11 events. Yet in back-to-back Grand Slam events, Halep was unable to replicate the success she had one year earlier, bowing out in the second round of the French Open and the first round at Wimbledon, both to lower ranked opponents. And while she may have entered Wednesday’s match stress-free, her rise to the top of the women’s game has come with new pressures. “My life has changed a lot,” she said. In her country, she says she’s constantly being recognized and, when things aren’t going well on the court, she hears the criticism. It’s a scenario that also might sound familiar to Bouchard.
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Post by Admin on Aug 25, 2015 12:51:49 GMT
Serena Williams successfully defended her title at the Western & Southern Open on Sunday against Simona Halep. After starting hot to take the first set, Williams found a way to grind out a tiebreaker to claim victory 6-3, 7-6 (5). Williams' superior power was on full display, as she smashed 15 aces to just two double-faults in gaining leverage on her exceptional opponent. It helped her overcome a 3-1 hole in the opening set to notch five unanswered games and find the upper hand. Tough as Williams often was on her first serves, she lost 22 of 32 second-serve points to Halep for the match. Halep hit 73 percent of her first serves in play to keep the pressure on as well. Moments of resilience from Halep included fending off two break points to hold serve at 4-3 in the second and the magnificent forehand winner that was a near double-liner on the first match point. The WTA revealed how Halep tried to extend the match, only to see her drop shot fall short.
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Post by Admin on Sept 13, 2015 1:28:08 GMT
It was a U.S. Open final no one expected and -- in the U.S. -- not many wanted but Flavia Pennetta could not care less. Pennetta beat childhood pal and fellow Italian Roberta Vinci 7-6 (4) 6-2 in the title match in New York, a day after the runner-up engineered one of the biggest shocks in tennis history by ousting Serena Williams. Speaking of shocks, Pennetta then said in her on-court interview Saturday she was retiring from tennis. At first it was thought Pennetta was stopping now but she later told reporters she'll finish the season. She made the decision at a tournament in Toronto last month. All of Italy rejoiced having two home-grown players in the final -- Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi even flew to the Big Apple for the unprecedented occasion -- but pockets of Arthur Ashe stadium, the largest regularly used stadium in tennis with a capacity of about 23,000, were empty. Had the U.S.'s Williams reached the final, it certainly wouldn't have been the case. Chasing a calendar-year grand slam heading into the year's last major, the women's final at the U.S. Open sold out prior to the men's for the first time.
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