Tributes Start To Pour In For Caroline Wozniacki Ahead Of Australian Open Farewell - UBITENNIS
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Tributes Start To Pour In For Caroline Wozniacki Ahead Of Australian Open Farewell

The 29-year-old is making her final preparations ahead of her last grand slam appearance.

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The Australian Open has been a tournament of many happy memories for former world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki.

 

During her 2008 debut, she won back-to-back grand slam matches for the first time in her career en route to the fourth round at the age of 17. Three years later she reached the semi-finals before losing to Li Na. However, the most special moment in Wozniacki’s career didn’t take place until 2018 when she finally claimed her first ever grand slam title. A perfect way to hit back at the many who criticised her in the past for being a world No.1 without a major title of any sort.

It is for these reasons why Melbourne Park is the perfect venue for the Dane to say goodbye to the sport. The upcoming Australian Open will be her 51st appearance in a grand slam main draw and the last tournament she plays before officially retiring.

“There’s been a lot of thoughts. It’s been something I’ve been thinking about for a long time, for a while. I just looked at my life, at my career, everything else, and I just had a look inside of myself, and it felt right. It felt like the right time for many reasons.” Wozniacki told reporters on Saturday.
“I’m out here, and I love the sport, I love everything that it’s given me, I love being out there and competing, but I’m ready to start a new chapter in my life.”

During her career, the Dane has won 30 WTA titles and spent 71 weeks as world No.1. She insists that her decision to walk away from the sport at the age of 29 is not connected to her health. In 2019 Wozniacki was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. An auto-immune condition that affects a person’s joints.

Life on the tour hasn’t always been plain-sailing for a player who has also endured her injury issues. However, Wozniacki is confident that she will have no ill feelings regarding her decision in the future.

“I’m leaving with no regrets at all because I’ve worked so hard my whole life, my whole career. I’ve given it literally everything that I have to reach where I got.” She stated.
“I can look back at my career and say I’m very proud of everything that I’ve achieved, very proud of the ups and the downs. But especially to be able to just continually push myself to be a better player, I feel like I’ve given a lot to the sport that I can be very proud of.”

The upcoming departure is one that will gap in the women’s game, according to some of her closest rivals. Two out of Karolina Pliskova’s three WTA titles won during the 2017 was due to wins over Wozniacki in the final. The Czech said she was ‘very sad’ to see her opponent stepping away from the tour.

“I’m sure she’s going to be missed. I think she’s a great person and a great player, too.” Said Pliskova.
“I think she played very good tennis and very good to watch, too. Also in the practice, she always tried hard. Always in the matches, I think it was always great quality against her.”

Simona Halep was the player who Wozniacki beat to win the 2018 Australian Open. The Romanian echoed similar sentiments to Pliskova when speaking out about her.

“She’s a very nice person. We (my team) actually got used to seeing her every day in the tournaments on tour, for sure.” Said Halep.
“She’s going to be missed. Also, I’m sure she has many good things ahead. She will be happy.”

Petra Kvitova played down the idea that Wozniacki’s retirement is premature. The two have locked horns 15 times on the tour at events including the WTA Finals, 2016 Olympic Games Wimbledon. However, they have never got to face off against each other in a final.

“She looks very happy, so I hope that she going to be happy when she stop playing tennis as well. I just wish her the best.” She said.

Wozniacki, who is unseeded in the draw, will start her Australian Open campaign on Monday. In the first round she plays America’s Kristie Ahn.

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Danil Medvedev sets up all-Russian semifinal against Karen Khachanov in Miami

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Danil Medvedev edged US qualifier Christopher Eubanks 6-3 7-5 in a rain disrupted match to reach the semifinals at the Miami Open for the first time. 

 

Medvedev has reached the semifinals at a fifth consecutive ATP tournament after winning three consecutive titles in Rotterdam, Doha and Dubai and reaching the final in Indian Wells. Medvedev has won 22 of his past 23 matches. 

Medvedev saved break points in the fourth game. The match was delayed by rain for half an hour. As the match resumed Medvedev reeled off the next four games to close out the first set 6-3.

Medvedev broke serve in the sixth game to take a 4-2 lead. Eubanks broke straight back for 3-4. Medvedev broke again in the 12th game as Eubanks mishit a return on the third match point. 

“I did not play my best tennis before the rain delay. The rain helped go out and have more energy. It helped me and I only played better and better, apart from one bad game on my serve, but it happens”, said Medvedev. 

Medvedev set up a semifinal clash against his compatrion Karen Khachanov, who edged past Francisco Cerundolo 6-3 6-2. Khachanov reached his first ATP Masters semifinal since 2019. 

Cerundolo earned the first break of the match in the fifth game of the first set, but Medvedev broke straight back in the sixth game to draw level to 3-3. Khachanov broke for the second time in the eighth game to close out the first set 6-3. 

Khachanov broke twice in the first and fifth games to win the second set 6-2. Cerundolo won just four of 18 points and made 22 unforced errors. Khachanov hit 22 winners to Cerundolo’s 19.

Cerundolo entered this match with a 8-1 record at the Miami Open after reaching the semifinal in last year’s edition. 

Khachanov has moved up to 11th in the ATP Live Ranking and will return to the top 10 if he wins the title. He reached the semifinal at the Australian Open last September. 

“At the end of the day it was a question of finding rhythm. At the beginning, it was pretty windy and I could not where the wind was coming through. I then started to hit through the ball more and I felt better and better. After I broke him back I felt I was on a good rise and felt that I could not miss. That is good feeling to have during a match”, said Khachanov. 

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World Tennis Conference 3: The high-level training for tennis coaches is back

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The third edition of the world conference for tennis coaches, organized by GPTCA and Segal Institute, with ATP as institutional sponsor, will be held from 30th of March to 2nd of April. Many big names in the world of tennis are among the speakers, including Toni Nadal, Sergi Bruguera, Brad Gilbert, Gilles Cervara, Magnus Norman and Vincenzo Santopadre. And also Ubitennis.

 

Published by Ubitennis.com on 21 March  2023, translated by Massimo Volpati

A well-established high-level training for tennis coaches, teachers and instructors. We are talking about the World Tennis Conference (WTC), the online conference for tennis coaches from all over the world, now at its third edition, which will be held from 30th March to 2nd April 2023. The organization is managed by GPTCA – Global Professional Tennis Coach Association, the world association of tennis coaches recognized by ATP which deals with the training and updating of tennis coaches at an international level, and by SI – Segal Institute, an organization that provides advice and services in the field of tennis. The high quality of the event is confirmed by the presence, for the third consecutive year, of ATP as institutional sponsor, which together with GPTCA certifies the conference as a professional development event for coaches.

World Tennis Conference is designed for tennis coaches from all over the world with the aim of providing, in four intense days of training in e-learning mode, the most exhaustive possible picture of the knowledge, skills and competences that a tennis coach should develop. This edition will feature for the first time the  “NextGen Tennis Coaches programme”. This is an initiative that wants to support the entry of young people into the coaching profession world. This year twelve young coaches, aged not over 30, will be offered a free participation in the event.

The names of the speakers featured at WTC 2023 well illustrate the commitment of GPTCA and Segal Institute to making the conference a key reference event for the training of professional tennis coaches. In fact, 68 speakers – mainly tennis coaches, physical trainers, mental coaches and top-level sports scientists – will take the floor on the virtual stage of WTC.

By sharing their experiences and skills, they will highlight the fundamental aspects required for obtaining excellent tennis performances. Just to mention but a few: famous coaches such as Toni Nadal and Alberto Castellani, Grand Slam champions such as Sergi Bruguera and Pat Cash, as well as former top ten players such as Brad Gilbert, Jimmy Arias, Magnus Norman, Rainer Schuttler and Tommy Haas.

And speaking about current top players coaches, as well as Toni Nadal (who currently is following Auger-Aliassime), WTC 2023 will host Sergi Bruguera (since last year with Zverev), Vincenzo Santopadre (Berrettini’s lifelong coach),  Gilles Cervara, Daniil Medvedev’s coach, Frederic Fontang, head coach of Aliassime, and Michael Russell, Taylor Fritz’s coach. And last but not least, when it comes to excellent performances, the physical trainer of Novak Djokovic: Marco Panichi.

The conference aims to train coaches at 360 degrees, thus also dealing with the skills a coach should develop outside the canonical technical, tactical, physical and mental areas, in order to be able to support his player even more effectively and better organize his manifold activities. Hence the focus on relations with media and  external communication, Topics which, were already discussed during the first edition.

This time also Ubitennis will take part in the virtual stage of WTC. In fact, the Live Panel “Communications Training” will see among the Special Speakers our Director Ubaldo Scanagatta, with his decades of experience as a journalist, reporter and correspondent at over 160 Grand Slams, but also former director of the ATP tournament in Florence, from 1974 to 1979, and our collaborator Ilvio Vidovich, member of the Scientific Committee and press officer of ISMC  (International Sports Mental Coach Association).

The event will take place on the CoachTube e-learning platform. Further information is available on the event website https://worldtennisconference.com/.

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Draw of the Davis Cup Finals Group Stage announced in Malaga

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The Draw of the Davis Cup Finals Group Stage took place in Malaga on Wednesday afternoon. 

 

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) has confirmed the host nations for the 2023 Davis Cup Finals Group Stage. 

The Unipol Arena in Bologna (Italy) and the Pabellon Municipal Fuente de San Luis in Valencia will return as host venues after staging successful events in 2022. 

Host team Italy will take on defending champions Canada, who won the Davis Cup Trophy for the first time in history beating Australia. The Group A will also feature Sweden and Chile. 

Italy features a potential strong team that includes Jannik Sinner, who reaches the Indian Wells and Miami Open semifinals and the Rotterdam final this year, and 2021 Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini. 

Felix Auger Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov helped Canada beat Australia in the final in Malaga last November. 

“In 2022 our unbelievable run in Malaga was a dream come true, and I am extremely proud of what the team and our country managed to accomplish. As we get set the launch our title defence, we expect the pressure to be on us, and we can’t wait to prove to the world that we truly belong at the top. Back-to-back champions has a nice ring to it, and we will do everything we can to keep the Davis Cup in Canada”, said Canadian Davis Cup captain Frank Dancevic.  

Spain will fight for a spot in the knock-out stage against Serbia, Czech Republic and South Korea in Group C in Valencia. The draw set up a possible match-up between the top two players Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic, who won the US Open in 2022 and the Australian Open in 2023. Spain beat Serbia in last year’s group stage, when neither Rafa Nadal nor Novak Djokovic took part

Manchester will host Davis Cup matches for the first time since July 1994, when Great Britain took on Romania at the Northern Lawn Tennis Club. The O2 Arena in Manchester will host the Group B which features Great Britain, last year’s finalists Australia, France and Switzerland. 

Croatia will be Group Stage host nation. The venue will be announced soon. Two-time Davis Cup champion Croatia will play against the USA, the Netherlands and Finland. The Finals Group Stage takes place on 12-17 September 2023. The top two teams from each group will reach the Final 8 knock-out stage at the Palacio de Deportes José Maria Martin Carpena in Malaga. On 21-26 November 2023.

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