WTA

Poor Sportsmanship Allegations Overshadow Dominika Cibulkova’s Wimbledon Win

The former world No.4 has blasted The All England Club following her latest match.

Published

2 years ago

09/07/2018

Adam Addicott

Dominika Cibulkova (zimbio.com)

Dominika Cibulkova’s journey to this year’s Wimbledon Quarter-finals will be one she won’t forget for a while, but not for a good reason.

The Slovakian has launched a scathing attack on officials following her 6-4, 6-1, win over Hsieh Su-Wei on Monday. During the first set, the match was halted for several minutes. Leading 5-4, a Cibulkova shot was called long before it was corrected by the umpire. Prompting the point to be awarded to her initially. Then a lengthy appeal by Su-Wei prompted the tournament supervisor to come on and eventually overturn the decision. Forcing both players to replay the point. The reason was that Su-Wei got the ball back into play.

“It was ridiculous what happened there. It never happened to me in my career,” an annoyed Cibulkova said during her press conference.
“Sometimes I’m also complaining because I think it was a wrong call. But it never happened to me that the umpire changed the decision.
“It was really ridiculous for me. I think it was a really bad decision from the supervisor and from the umpire.
“They changed their mind. The umpire told me she don’t remember what happened after the ball. Is it my fault you don’t remember if she hit the net or if she put it on my side?
“It doesn’t matter. The call was after when she played the ball. She made a decision.
“After she was complaining, they were talking in Chinese, whatever language.
“It really messed with me, then I tried to just calm down, to play my game.”

Cibulkova has been accused of showing poor sportsmanship. Commenting on the incident for the BBC, Tracey Austin said ‘she (Cibulkova) has absolutely zero case about how she won the point because Hsieh got the ball back in play.’

Continuing her outspoken comments, Cibulkova maintained that she should have been awarded the point. Saying that she has no sympathy for her opponent because her argument was solely about the umpire.

“I was not upset with her. I was upset with the chair umpire.” She states.
“This happened to me so many times that I had exactly the same point, and the point was given to the other player. I had no sympathy because it’s just about the chair umpire.
“I’m a fair player. When I feel like this is something that should not happen, I would be maybe sympathy with her. In my opinion, this was not right what they do, what they did.”

Cibulkova has reached the last eight of Wimbledon for the third time in career. She is unseeded in the draw after being moved down a spot by Serena Williams. Williams was granted a special accepting into the seedings by The All England Club. A subject that the world No.33 no longer wants to talk about.

“I’m not going to comment this any more. This question I’ve been asked so many times this week, last week. I just don’t want to talk about it any more, about the seeding thing. It’s over.” She said.

In the quarter-finals Cibulkova will play Jelena Ostapenko.

WTA

Krystina Pliskova upsets Petra Martic to reach the third round at the Prague Open

Published

2 hours ago

12/08/2020

sampaolo

Krystina Pliskova upset Petra Martic 6-1 7-5 after 1 hour and 22 minutes to reach the third round at the Prague Open. Pliskova hit 28 winners to 13 unforced errors. The twin sister of Karolina Pliskova scored her seventh career top 20 win and the second this season after beating Aryna Sabalenka in Shenzhen last January.

Krystina reached the Prague tournament final in 2017. The Czech player reached her eighth WTA clay quarter final or better since 2017.

Pliskova won the first game with four unreturned serves and reeled off nine of the first ten to open up a 3-0 lead. The Czech player saved two break points with heavy groundstrokes in the third game before breaking serve in the sixth game to close out the first set with three consecutive aces.

Martic saved a break point in the third game of the second set. Pliskova fended off a break point in the fourth game with a service winner. Martic saved the first three break points, but Pliskova converted her fourth opportunity to take a 6-5 lead in a marathon five-deuce game before sealing the win on her second match point.

“I feel I am playing on clay each year. Everybody was saying I cannot move and stuff, but I don’t think it’s like this. I have more time, so it’s good for me that clay is not that fast, I can focus on my game”, said Pliskova.

WTA

Serena Williams sets up clash against her sister Venus

Published

17 hours ago

11/08/2020

sampaolo

Former world number 1 and 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams rallied from one set down to beat her compatriot Bernarda Pera 4-6 6-4 6-1 to reach the second round at the inaugual edition of the Top Seed Open in Lexington (Kentucky).

Williams was playing her first match since the Fed Cyp tie where she helped lead the United States to a Fed Cup win over Latvia.

Croatian-born player Pera broke into the top 100 for the first time in 2018, when she reached the third round at the Australian Open and scored her first win over a top 10 when she beat Joanna Konta. She reached three semifinals in Prague, Lausanne and Juurmala, where she beat former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in the first round.

In the opening set Pera earned a break in the fifth game and saved two break points on her serve. Pera converted her first set ooprtunity with a forehand winner.

Williams rallied from 0-40 down at the start of the second set and opened up a 3-1 lead with a break before Pera broke back to draw level to 3-3. When she was down 0-40 at 4-4 Williams saved four break points that would have helped Pera serve for the match.

Williams earned two set points on Pera’s serve and converted her second chance with a forehand. Williams broke serve at the start of the third set to take a 3-1 lead and fended off two break points in the next game. Williams rallied from 0-40 down by winning the final nine points to claim the win.

“It was a really calm atmosphere, really chill. I can’t say I disliked it. It was different. I have been through so many things in my career. I think I won today because I was calm for once, so that was really helpful”, said Serena Williams after the match.

Serena set up a clash against her sister Venus, who beat Victoria Azarenka 6-3 6-2. Serena holds a 18-12 head-to-head lead over Venus.

Both players held serve in the first four games. She hit an ace to hold serve for 3-2 before earning three break points. The US player converted her first chance to take a 4-2 lead after a double fault from Azarenka. Williams served for the set at 5-3. Azarenka earned a chance to get back on serve as Williams netted a forehand error at 30-30. Williams saved it and earned a set point.

Azarenka made a double fault in the first game of the second set to face a break point. Williams got a double break to open up a 3-0 lead. Azarenka got her first game at 4-1. Williams pulled away to 5-1 with her solid serve. Azarenka held serve for 2-5. In the next game Williams earned her first match point and sealed the win with a lob winner.

Latest news

Simona Halep makes a winning start to her Prague Open campaign

Published

23 hours ago

11/08/2020

sampaolo

Number 1 seed and last year’s Wimbledon champion Simona Halep edged past Polona Hercog 6-1 1-6 7-6 (7-3) in two and a half hours in the opening round of the Prague Open on her seventh match point after 2 hours and 31 minutes. Halep played her first match since claiming her 20th title in Dubai.

Halep wasted six match points before claiming the win in the tie-break of the third set to secure his spot in the Round of 16. Halep won four points more than Hercog and saved five of the 11 break points he faced.

Both players traded breaks in the second and third games of the opening set. Halep earned two consecutive breaks in the fourth and sixth games to win the first set 6-1, as Hercog made 12 unforced errors to only two winners.

Hercog came back from a break down early in the second set to get three consecutive breaks and won the second set 6-1.

Both players traded breaks in the fourth and fifth games of the decider. Halep earned another break to open up a 5-3 lead. Hercog broke back in the ninth game and saved six match points in the 10th and 12th games to set up a decisive tie-break. Halep claimed the tie-break 7-3.

Before the five-month break Halep lost to Garbine Muguruza in the semifinal of the Australian Open and won the Dubai final.

Last week’s Palermo semifinalist Camila Giorgi came back from one set down to beat Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk 4-6 6-2 7-6 (7-4) after 2 hours and 14 minutes. Giorgi converted six of her eight break points.

Kostyuk earned the first break in the fourth game. Giorgi broke straight back in the fifth game. Both players traded breaks in the sixth and seventh games. Giorgi saved a break point in the eighth game to draw level to 4-4. Kostyuk broke for the third time in the 10th game to win the first set 6-4 after 44 minutes.

Giorgi broke twice in a row to race out to a 4-0 lead, Kostyuk pulled one break back in the sixth game for 2-4, but Giorgi broke again in the seventh game to win the second set 6-2 in 31 minutes.

Kostyuk broke serve in the third game of the decider to open up a 3-0 lead. Giorgi broke back to draw level to 3-3. In the eighth game the Italian star fended off another break. The set came down to the tie-break. Giorgi opened up a 4-2 lead. Both players traded mini-breaks. Giorgi earned two match points and converted her first chance to win the tie-break 7-4.