US Open: Errani stops Venus and Lucic-Baroni beats Halep - UBITENNIS
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US Open: Errani stops Venus and Lucic-Baroni beats Halep

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10 years ago

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TENNIS US OPEN – The action in the bottom half of the women’s draw has been hot on Day 5. The temperatures again remain moderate like Day 4 but it seems as though there was a strong wind as top seeds and favourites fell by the wayside in a violent manner. From New York, Cordell Hackshaw

US Open: All the interviews, results, draws and OoP

The biggest story of the day has to be the 3rd round dismissal of Venus Williams (19) by Sara Errani (13). Williams came into this match with a 3-0 lifetime record against the Italian. Playing in front of home crowd and considering her past success her at the Open, Williams was the definite favourite. However, Williams had one of the worst starts to a match ever. She dropped the opening set 0-6 in 26 minutes. Williams was simply too erratic with 18 errors alone in the 1st set. She won only 8 points on serve whilst Errani dropped only 5 points on her serve. Who would have thought that Sara Errani could be outserving Venus Williams? “[F]irst set I start very good, very aggressive … She didn’t put too many first serves, so maybe that was a bit [of] the key,” Errani said. Of the 23 first serves that Williams attempted to put in, she only made 7; a staggering 30%.

As if the opening set was not a weird aberration in and of itself, the 2nd set rolled around and it was more of the same but only this time, Williams was the one in control. The American bageled Errani, 6-0, in 29 minutes. Williams lost only 9 points on serve and Errani only won 6 points on serve. The match was level and after two sets, no two players had won games in any of the set. Oddly enough, this is not the first match with such a strange scoreline that Williams has been involved in. In the 4th round of the 2009 US Open, Williams fell to Kim Clijsters 0-6 6-0 4-6 in the 4th round.

The 3rd set finally saw both players holding serve in their respective opening service game. Then there were four successive breaks of serve. It was not until the 7th game of the set that Williams held serve again to lead 4-3. She then broke Errani for the third consecutive time to lead 5-3 with a chance to close out the match. However, Williams problematic serve came under extreme scrutiny again as Errani broke her to get back on serve. Williams said after the match “I think at that point I went for too much … I hit some balls, you know, I think maybe early in the rally.” The aggressive returning that saw Williams break Errani 6 of the last 7 times, the Italian served was gone. Williams was appearing timid on court and Errani regained confidence to be the more aggressive one.

Williams held serve and again could not break Errani to finish the match. Hence at 6-6 in the 3rd set, a tiebreak was necessary to decide the winner. Errani got a 2-0 lead when Williams committed 2 errors on her backhand. She would extend this lead to 5-2 when again made 2 more errors on her backhand. Williams then won the next 3 points for 5-5. The crowd was beside itself. They were chanting and cheering Williams on with everything they had. In this clutch moment, Errani with two serves and the chance to close it out, the Italian withstood the pressure to secure the win with two amazing winners, 6-0 0-6 7-6(5).

Errani’s opponent in the Round of 16 is a bit of a surprise as she will play qualifier Mirjana Lucic-Baroni who upset the Simona Halep (2) in straight sets, 7-6 6-2. Fans were still reacting to the Williams/Errani result when they realized that the world’s number 2 was sent packing. Halep was leading 5-2 in the 1st set and had two set points but failed to convert allowing Lucic-Baroni to gain the necessary confidence boost to knock out a top player. “[S]he came back really well and she started to hit every ball. Everything was in for her. It wasn’t my best day, but still I did everything I could on court,” Halep said. In the 2nd set, Lucic-Baroni continued to hit out and Halep wilted under the pressure. The Croat closed out the match in just over an hour and 34 minutes. Lucic-Baroni noted after the match, “I finally been able to play the tennis that I love the way I love to play … being very aggressive and consistent at the same time.”

No sooner had this match concluded than yet another upset took place. Angelique Kerber (6) was dismissed in straight sets by Belinda Bencic 6-1 7-5. Bencic raced out to a 3-0 lead before Kerber got on the scoreboard but this made little difference as the momentum was clearly in Bencic’s favour. She closed out the set by taking the next three games. In the 2nd set, Kerber seemed to be on the comeback trail as she was up 5-2. However, poor play from the German continued to plagued her as Bencic fought her way back into the set and claimed the match by winning the last 5 games. “[I]t feels amazing. I played a really good match right from the start, and then I had a little bit timeout in the second. But I’m happy that I came back. It’s amazing that after last year I played juniors here, and this year I’m in the fourth round. So it’s incredible,” Bencic said after the match.

Unseeded Shuai Peng followed up her 2nd round upset of Agnieszka Radwanska by taking out another seeded player in the 3rd round. Roberta Vinci (28) lost 4-6 3-6 in an hour and 14 minutes. “I was for sure really happy win today. Before the match, actually I was nervous. I really want to win because I know I have the chance,” Peng said after the match. An interesting note about all these 3rd round upset victims, they all struggled in the earlier part of the tournament. In particular Halep, Kerber and Williams all struggled mightily in their opening round matches having to come through in 3 sets. Vinci had a tough 3-set match in the 2nd round.

All the other winners in the draw stayed on course as the higher seeded player won in relatively easy fashion. Maria Sharapova (5) in last women’s match of the day, took out Sabine Lisicki (26) in straight sets 6-2 6-4. Sharapova used to the night matches on the Arthur Ashe stadium looked quite at home as Lisicki struggled to maintain any momentum in the match. Sharapova will next face Caroline Wozniacki (10) who took out Andrea Petkovic (18) also in straight sets 6-3 6-2.

Luci Safarova (14) is continuing her success at the majors this year as she knocked out Alizé Cornet (22) in a hard fought encounter 6-3 6-7 6-4. Safarova will take on Peng in the Round of 16 for a place in the quarterfinals. The other winner on the day was Jelena Jankovic (9), 2008 finalist who is quietly moving through the draw. She dismantled Johanna Larsson 6-1 6-0 in under an hour. After the match Jankovic stated, “[I]t’s quite hot out there … I wanted to get the job done as soon as possible. I was very focused from the beginning to till the end.”

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World No.634 Laura Samson Reaches First WTA Quarter-Final At 16

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3 days ago

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24/07/2024

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Laura Samon - image via itftennis.com/ photo credi: Manuel Queimadelos

Laura Samson has become the first player born in 2008 to reach the quarter-finals of a WTA event after producing a surprise win on Tuesday. 

The 16-year-old wildcard stunned second seed Katerina Siniakova 1-6, 7-5, 6-3, in the second round at the Prague Open. Her triumph occurred a day after she dropped just two games against Tara Wurth in her opening match. This week is Samson’s Tour debut after playing 10 events on the lower-level ITF circuit. 

“I’m extremely surprised,” she said during her on-court interview after beating Siniakova. “I didn’t go into it as favorite. I’m so proud of myself and I hope I will continue to play like this. As I was going into the second set I thought, ‘I have nothing to lose, I didn’t play good in the first set.’ I’m not really sure when [I thought I could win], I just believed myself in the third set.” 

Samson is the latest Czech player to break through following a sucessful junior career. Last year she won the Wimbledon girls’ doubles title and was runner-up in the French Open singles tournament in June. She is currently No.3 in the ITF junior rankings but has been ranked as high as No.1. 

Earlier this year, Samson decided to change her name on the Tour by dropping the last three letters (ova). The reason why she did so was to avoid getting confused with another player. 

“I first noticed it last year, there was a problem that I was getting strings (the) of Lyudmila Samsonova,” she told tenisovysvet.cz.

“I also talked about it with her and, for example, according to the schedule, she also sometimes thought she was playing, but it was me,” 

“I would have liked the ending -ová, but unfortunately it turned out like this.”

The teenager will next take on world No.248 Oksana Selekhmeteva with the winner of that match progressing to their first WTA semi-final.  21-year-old Selekhmeteva is a former top 10 junior player who came through two rounds of qualifying to reach the main draw. She is a two-time junior Grand Slam champion in doubles. 

There are five seeds remaining in the tournament, including top seed Linda Nosková who will play Germany’s Ella Seidel in her next match. 

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Krejcikova Comes Alive With Her Serve To Win 12th Grand Slam Title At Wimbledon

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2 weeks ago

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14/07/2024

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image via x.com/wimbledon

It must have seemed like the whole world was against her when Barbora Krejcikova served for the match for a third time against crowd favorite Jasmine Paolini.

But Krejcikova was only going for her 12th Grand Slam title. She was well prepared.

So, she released her patented way-out-wide serve to the smallish Paolini’s backhand, and the best the Italian could do was get her racket on the ball enough to return the serve far off the court, long and wide.

ARMS UP FOR A CHAMPION

The weight of the world was gone as Krejcikova threw her arms over her head and calmly walked to the net to greet the Wimbledon runner-up.

Now, Krejcikova was half-way home to a career Grand Slam in singles. She already owns a career Grand Slam in doubles among her dozen Grand Slam titles that also include one mixed doubles Grand Slam title.

She has won the hard ones, the French Open on clay and Wimbledon on grass.

At 28 years old, anything must look possible to this 5-10 Czech.

KREJCIKOVA COMES THROUGH UNDER PRESSURE

Paolini simply was out played in a second straight Grand Slam final, on clay and on grass. Now she faces the real tests, two straight Grand Slam tournaments on hard surfaces that might not be overly friendly to the 5-4 Paolini.

But there it was, a 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 victory for Krejcikova on Wimbledon’s famed Center Court.

After what might be called a throw-away second set for Krejcikova, she came alive in the third set, pinning Paolini to the deep corners while nailing low hard-hit balls to both corners.

Krejcikova got off to 40-0 starts on her first four service games of the decisive set and ended all four with service winners to take a 5-3 lead (with the aid of the only service break of the third set). She yielded only one point in those four service games, a double fault at 40-0 that was followed by an ace.

Of course, it was the serve again that saved the day for Krejcikova and gave her set points two and three, then sealed the deal for a spot in Wimbledon history.

—

James Beck was the 2003 winner of the USTA National Media Award  for print media. A 1995 MBA graduate of The Citadel, he can be reached at Jamesbecktennis@gmail.com. 

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Wimbledon Finalist Jasmine Paolini – ‘I’m A Little Bit Scared To Dream Too Much’

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2 weeks ago

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13/07/2024

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After coming close to her maiden Grand Slam title at Wimbledon, Jasmine Paolini believes consistency is key to having another shot at glory.

The 28-year-old dropped only one set en route to becoming the first Italian woman to reach a Wimbledon final. However, she was denied the title by Barbora Krejcikova, who won in three sets. Paolini was broken once in the decider which was due to a double fault from the Italian following an unsuccessful hawk-eye challenge made on her first serve. Then she failed to convert two break points when down 4-5 before Krejcikova held to seal glory.

“I started bad,” she reflected afterwards.

“I took some time and try to relax and to come back in the second set stronger to try to push the ball more because I was a little bit controlling too much, and I missed a lot of shots.

“She was playing, honestly, very good the first set. She was serving really, really good. High percentage of first serves.

“It was tough but I think I did better than the last final (at the French Open), but still it’s not enough.”

Prior to Saturday, Paolini had scored wins over former US Open champion Bianca Andreescu, Medison Keys (via retirement) and a marathon victory over Donna Vedic. She has now won 15 Grand Slam matches in 2024 compared to just one last season.

The defeat comes less than two months after the French Open where Paolini contested her first major final but lost in two sets to world No.1 Iga Swiatek. Since the start of this season, she has risen more than 20 places in the rankings and will reach No.5 on Monday.

Despite being in her late 20s, the Italian is producing some of her best tennis on the Tour. Something she credits to a combination of things. 

“I improved my game a little bit. I believe more in myself. I improved my serve. I think I improve the return.” She explained.

“I think physically I’m better than two years ago. I’ve been working with a new fitness coach for one-and-a-half years.

“There are many things, I think. Not just one. I think also winning matches helps a lot.”

Whilst she is heading in the right direction on the Tour, Paolini has vowed not to get too ahead of herself.

“Sometimes I’m a little bit scared to dream too much.” she said.

“I’m going back, trying to practice and stay in the present. This is the goal for me and my team, to try to keep this level as much as possible.

“If I keep this level, I think I can have the chance to do great things.

“Today I was dreaming of holding the (Wimbledon) trophy but it didn’t go well.

“I’m just enjoying the position where I am right now.”

Paolini has won 30 out of 43 matches on the Tour so far this season.

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