WTA Finals & ATP Paris Masters Daily Preview: Swiatek, Djokovic Play on Tuesday - UBITENNIS
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WTA Finals & ATP Paris Masters Daily Preview: Swiatek, Djokovic Play on Tuesday

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Iga Swiatek on media day in Fort Worth (twitter.com/wta)

Tuesday’s singles play in Fort Worth sees World No.1 Iga Swiatek face Daria Kasatkina, who is making her debut at this event.  Another debutante, Coco Gauff, will play Caroline Garcia, who returns to the WTA Finals for the first time since 2017.

In Paris, defending champion Novak Djokovic makes his 2022 debut at an event he’s won six times, against serve-and-volleying American Maxime Cressy, who was born in Paris.  Another multi-time Major champ, Stan Wawrinka, takes on Next Gen standout Holger Rune, who is nearly half his age.  And Andrey Rublev and Hubert Hurkacz both play on Tuesday, as they aim to earn a spot in the ATP Finals later this month in Turin.

Each day, this preview will analyze the most intriguing matchup from both the WTA Finals and the ATP Paris Masters, while highlighting the other matches on the schedules.  Tuesday’s play in Paris begins at 11:00am local time, while play in Fort Worth begins at 3:00pm local time.


Novak Djokovic (6) vs. Maxime Cressy – Fourth on Court Central in Paris

After missing the entire summer hard court season, the unvaccinated Djokovic returned at Laver Cup.  Despite going 1-1 in singles at that event, he promptly won back-to-back titles in Tel Aviv and Astana.  In Astana, he defeated both Stefanos Tsitsipas and Daniil Medvedev.  Cressy had a great start to the year, reaching the final of an Australian Open tune-up event, and the second week at the season’s first Slam itself.  He also gained success on grass, winning titles in both Eastbourne and Newport, and upsetting Felix Auger-Aliassime at Wimbledon.  His attacking style is often rewarded on fast surfaces, and the courts in Bercy are some of the fastest on tour.  But in his first meeting against the 21-time Major champ, it would be surprising if Maxime pulls off the upset.


Iga Swiatek (1) vs. Daria Kasatkina (8) – Not Before 5:00pm local time in Fort Worth

Swiatek is a stellar 64-8 on the year, with eight titles, two of which were Majors (Roland Garros, US Open).  A year ago, she failed to advance out of the round robin stage of this event, going 1-2.  Kasatkina has compiled a record of 40-20, with two titles.  And she advanced to her first Slam semifinal at Roland Garros.  But in that semi, she was dominated by Iga 6-2, 6-1.  Overall Swiatek is 4-1 against Kasatkina, with all four victories coming in straight sets this season.  Across those eight sets contested within 2022, Daria has managed only a total of 12 games.  With three of those matches taking place on hard courts, there’s not much evidence to suggest a different outcome in this lopsided rivalry on Tuesday.


Other Notable Matches on Tuesday:

John Isner vs. Andrey Rublev (7) – Rublev currently sits in the eighth and final qualifying spot for Turin, with Taylor Fritz and Hubert Hurkacz needing to at least make the final to have a chance of surpassing him.  Isner is a former runner-up at this event, and is 3-0 against Andrey, which includes two matches on hard courts.

Hubert Hurkacz (10) vs. Adriann Mannarino (WC) – Hurkacz is now 40-20 on the year, but losses in the quarterfinals of three tournaments in October hurt his qualifying chances for Turin.  Mannarino is only 8-11 lifetime at this event in his home country, but he did take out Hurkacz in straight sets at this year’s Australian Open.

Holger Rune vs. Stan Wawrinka (PR) – Rune has claimed 13 of his last 15 matches, reaching three consecutive finals, and winning the title over Stefanos Tsistipas in Stockholm.  Wawrinka was a quarterfinalist last week in Basel, where he upset US Open finalist Casper Ruud. 

Coco Gauff (4) vs. Caroline Garcia (6) – Gauff is 38-19 in 2022, though her only appearance in a final was her straight-set loss at Roland Garros to Swiatek.  Garcia started the year ranked 74th in the world, but is 41-19 on the season, with three titles on three different surfaces, and achieved her first Major semifinal in New York.  Gauff leads their head-to-head 2-1, though Caroline took out Coco in the US Open quarterfinals.


Tuesday’s full Order of Play at the WTA Finals is here, and the Paris Masters schedule is here.

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Alcaraz Halts Sinner’s Winning Streak To Reach The Final In Indian Wells

Carlos Alcaraz earns the right to defend his title at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells fending off Jannik Sinner’s assault to his ATP no. 2 spot

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Jannik Sinner (left) and Carlos Alcaraz (right) - Indian Wells 2024 (photo Twitter X @BNPPARIBASOPEN)

All good things come to an end. Jannik Sinner was on a 19-match winning streak since his loss to Novak Djokovic in the final of the Nitto ATP Finals that included his first Grand Slam win in Australia last January, and appeared as the most in-form player at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, the first Masters 1000 tournament of the season. But as he faced Carlos Alcaraz in an eagerly-awaited semifinal, he was unable to continue his quest for the third consecutive title of the season, succumbing to the Spaniard 1-6, 6-3, 6-2.

The match was a face-off for the no. 2 spot in the ATP ranking that Alcaraz will still occupy next Monday regardless of the result of Sunday’s final, and this is a much-needed confidence boost for him after a disappointing start of the season where he was handily beaten in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open by Zverev and did not win any tournament during the South American clay court swing where he was ousted by Nicolas Jarry in Buenos Aires and had to retire for an ankle injury at the Rio Open.

The match, originally scheduled for 1.30 pm Pacific Time, had to be suspended for over three hours after only three games because of an unusual downpour. As the match resumed, Sinner appeared once again the perfectly-tuned machine that had been crushing opponents with metronomic regularity for the past weeks while Alcaraz was struggling to keep up with his opponent’s pace from the baseline.

The first set was smooth sailing for the Italian who cruised to a comprehensive 6-1 in 27 minutes: Alcaraz was tentative from the baseline and could not find the right position to fire his screamers and change the tactical discourse of the match. “Then at the beginning of the second set, as I saw he was making a lot of mistakes, I tried to be as solid as possible when I should have kept pushing instead – Sinner said during his press conference – and that’s what cost me the match in the end”.

While serving at 1-2 in the second set, a few uncharacteristic forehand mistakes started to dot his thus far spotless game, and that cost him the break that sent Alcaraz flying to a 4-1 advantage. The Spaniard then found the confidence to change his return position and make Sinner work a lot more on his service games, as the Italian struggled to find a countermeasure to the tactical shift in the match: “I kept doing the same thing over and over again”, Sinner stressed, and forehand unforced errors started to pile up to reach the burdensome number of 27 at the end of the match.

Sinner had the chance to find his way back into the second set while Alcaraz was serving at 3-5, but Carlos cancelled his break point with a laser backhand down the line that had the 15,000-strong crowd cheering on their feet.

The third set ran away very quickly from the Italian, who started touching repeatedly the back of his left leg around his knee. Sinner got broken again during the third game, and while going for a last-ditch attempt to recover a short volley by Alcaraz he tumbled to the ground slightly injuring his right elbow and arm. From there onwards it was just more mistakes by Sinner and a clinical execution by Alcaraz on how to take home a match.

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“It Feels Great’ – Novak Djokovic Marks Indian Wells Return With Milestone Win

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Novak Djokovic - Indian Wells 2024 (foto Ubitennis)

Novak Djokovic says he still has a ‘great feeling’ in Indian Wells after playing his first match at the event for five years. 

The world No.1 battled to a 6-2, 5-7, 6-3, win over Aleksandar Vukic in what was his first taste of competitive tennis since losing in the semi-finals of the Australian Open. It was a far from smooth encounter for Djokovic, who hit 23 winners and won 83% of his first service points. In the second set, he was broken twice with the second of those occurring when he was serving at 5-6. Nevertheless, he battled back in the decider to win. 

This year is the first time Djokovic has been able to play in the Masters 1000 event since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After the 2020 tournament was cancelled, he was unable to play the next three editions due to restrictions placed on unvaccinated foreign visitors to America. Despite the absence, the five-time champion states that his love for the event is as strong as ever.

“It feels great to come back with the win. It’s been five years and the great feeling is still there. I enjoyed myself very much. Beautiful stadium. Great atmosphere.” Djokovic said during his press conference. 
“I was a bit nervous at the beginning. I haven’t played a match in more than five weeks. I thought the start was good. Then I think he upped his game.
“I probably lost a little bit of the momentum. We got into the third set, I thought the level of the tennis was pretty good in the third. Great points. He made me produce some really important points in games in order to prevail in this match. I’m glad that I was pushed, as well, which is important.”

Djokovic’s latest victory is his 400th in a Masters 1000 tournament. He is only the second player in history to have reached this milestone since the tournament category was introduced in 1990. The first to do so was Rafael Nadal who currently has 406 wins to his name. 

He could create more history in Indian Wells should the Serbian go on to claim the title this year. If he does, he would become the first man to have won it for a sixth time. Although Djokovic is refusing to get too far ahead of himself. 

“I would love to,” he said of trying to claim a sixth title. “Obviously there is still a long way to get to the title match, but it’s a good start.’
“I know I can always produce better tennis. Obviously very self-critical, and I think some extent it’s also important because then it puts you in the right mindset of wanting to work more and being engaged in the process of improving on a daily basis, or trying to perfect your game and right the wrongs that you’ve done in a previous match or previous practice session.
“So that’s what I’m going to keep doing and hopefully building my game as this tournament is played over 10 to 14 days, so it allows you to have the practice days also between matches, which then allows you to work on certain specifics in the game.”

Djokovic will play Italy’s Luca Nardi in the next round. 

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Carlos Alcaraz Brushes Aside Injury Doubts To Reach Indian Wells Third Round

Carlos Alcaraz is into the third round at Indian Wells after a three set win over Matteo Arnaldi.

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(@BNPPARIBASOPEN - Twitter)

Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz overcame injury doubts to edge past Matteo Arnaldi 6-7(5) 6-0 6-1 at Indian Wells.

The world number two had to endure an aggressive opening set from the in-form Italian to reach the third round.

After a tight opening set, Alcaraz raced through the last two sets as he set up a third round showdown with Felix Auger-Aliassime.

The Spaniard had entered this match with injury doubts after retiring from his match with Thiago Monteiro in Rio De Janeiro.

However Alcaraz was very pleased with how his ankle held up as he moved on in California, “Honestly it surprised me. I felt great, moving normally without thinking about it,” Alcaraz told the ATP website.

“It was a really good match to realise that I am better than I thought. I think I played great tennis because of that. I had to change just a few things. I made a few mistakes in the first set… I had to put in more first serves in the second and third set, and I think that was a big key to improving my level a little bit, to be in the rallies — long rallies as well, to get the rhythm, and I’m really happy to get it at the end.

“But right now I’m getting better and feeling really, really well. But I think I have to get a good rhythm step by step. I think that’s the big difference between last year and this one. This [is a] really special tournament for me. I want to do it well. This is the first match playing high intensity and I didn’t know how it’s going respond, the ankle.

“I have to deal with it, but I didn’t deal with the nerves very well in the first set, moving differently, hitting the ball differently. My game is playing aggressive all the time. And try to stay calm and wait for my chances.

“When you get nervous, you don’t think about it. You don’t hit the ball as good as you want. You don’t move as good as you want. I think that’s the big difference.”

Alcaraz will hope for a good week this week as he defends the Indian Wells title as he aims to win a first title since Wimbledon this week.

Next for the Spaniard will be Felix Auger-Aliassime, who defeated Constant Lestienne in straight sets.

Auger-Aliassime currently leads the head-to-head 3-1 but Alcaraz won their last meeting in Indian Wells last year.

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