Tennis Frontier

Category: WTA Tour

Tennis Frontier News from the WTA Tour

Naomi Osaka wins maiden major at the US Open amid controversy

20th seed Naomi Osaka has secured the first grand slam title of her career at the US Open by defeating American Serena Williams at Flushing Meadows.

In a match clouded with controversy, Osaka prevailed 6-2 6-4.

Williams, bidding for a 24th major title to tie the record of Margaret Court was defaulted a game late in the second set after calling umpire Carlos Ramos a “thief” for calling a prior violation for coaching. The other violation came courtesy of a smashed racquet.

The crowd appeared sympathetic to Williams and boos rang out until the ceremonies. Osaka was left in tears on the podium.

September 9, 2018
Angelique Kerber Claims First Wimbledon Title

Angelique Kerber claimed her first Wimbledon title and third major with an almost flawless performance against Serena Williams.

The 30 year old German won the encounter in straight sets 6-3, 6-3 and rarely looked pressured on the way to victory. She made only 5 unforced errors in the entire match.

Williams, who defeated Kerber in the 2016 final had only given birth to her daughter 10 and half months ago and this match was just her fourth tournament since returning to the tour. Her finals appearance validated the decision of the Wimbledon committee who seeded her for the tournament.

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Kerber was the first German to win Wimbledon since Steffi Graf took the title in 1996 and only a French Open title leaves her short of a career Grand Slam.

Photo by TennisStreaming

July 16, 2018
Simona Halep Wins Her Maiden Major at Roland Garros

World Number One Simona Halep has secured the first grand slam title of her career at the French Open by defeating American Sloane Stephens at Roland Garros.

In a match of momentum swings, Halep prevailed 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 to take a major at her fourth attempt.

Stephens dominated the early proceedings and led by a set and break. Ironically, this was the same situation as Halep had been in against Jelena Ostapenko during the 2017 final before losing the match. The irony was not lost on Halep.

Halep said. “So I said there is a chance to come back and win it. So I believed in that and my game was more relaxed. I could make more things on court, and that’s why I could win.”

“All the experience from those three finals that I lost … was a positive thing and gave me a little bit more power to believe,”

As Halep continued to extend the rallies, Stephens began to tire. Her unforced error count increased and her serve became less potent.

Halep wrapped up the second set and then leaped out to a 5-0 lead in the third set before Stephens finally got on the scoreboard. The Romanian then served out the match to secure her first major title.

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Photo by TennisStreaming

June 10, 2018
J&T Banka Prague Open, WTA International

Stuttgart champion Karolina Pliskova has dropped out of the J&T Banka Prague Open. Pliskova was originally drawn to play her twin sister Kristyna in the first round. This wasn’t a scenario she looking forward to, citing “our matches are terrible” and “I do not want to beat her.”

The top seed will now be the local favourite and two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova.

Seeds:

2 KVITOVA, Petra
3 KASATKINA, Daria
4 GAVRILOVA, Daria
5 STRYCOVA, Barbora
6 ZHANG, Shuai
7 BUZARNESCU, Mihaela
8 SINIAKOVA, Katerina
9 SASNOVICH, Aliaksandra

Strange but true:

Prague hosts a graffiti wall devoted to John Lennon. Since 1980, it’s been repainted numerous times and is laced in graffiti lyrics from Lennon and The Beatles.

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April 30, 2018
Grand Prix Der Sar La Princesse Lalla Meryem – Tennis Morocco

Serena Williams spoke in a recent interview with BBC Sports of bringing a WTA event to Africa.

“I think it would be amazing. It would be so fun – the help that we could do, and the awareness and the athletes and the amazing players that would come out of Africa would just be unbelievable.”

Serena might have overlooked the Grand Prix Der Sar La Princesse Lalla Meryem, a WTA International event hosted in Morocco since 2007… or more likely she is considering an event on a larger scale.

Either way, the Morocco Grand Prix has been flying the flag for the WTA in Africa since 2007.

Hosted at the Club des Cheminots in Rabat, the tournament offers a $250,000 prize pool and while it might not attract the global superstars of women’s tennis, it does attract some well-known faces from the tour. Elise Mertens (1) and Dominika Cibulkova (2) head the field this year.

Seeds:

1 Elise Mertens
2 Dominika Cibulkova
3 Petra Martic
4 Timea Babos
5 Timea Bacsinszky
6 Zarina Dyas
7 Aleksandra Krunic
8 Su-Wei Hsieh

Strange, but true…

For a period of the 17th century, Rabat was run by pirates under the Republic of Bou Regreg. These Barbary pirates used the city (along with its neighbor Salé) as a base for their attacks on ships in the area.

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April 30, 2018
Istanbul Cup 2018, WTA Tennis

Caroline Wozniacki will be the marquee name heading up the field at the Istanbul Cup. The Australian Open champ is the only Top 10 player heading to the Turkish tournament with most of her peers electing to play the Premier event in Stuttgart.

Despite the lack of other Top 10 entrants, the field is given a boost in name value by double major winner Svetlana Kuznetsova, Agnieszka Radwanska and the in-form Naomi Osaka. 2017 winner Elina Svitolina is not defending her title.

Photo by karlnorling

$226,750 prize money is on offer for this WTA International event.

Fact Flash

Istanbul is the only city in the world that straddles two continents: Asia and Europe.

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April 21, 2018
Porsche Tennis Grand Prix – WTA Stuttgart Open 2018

Known locally as the “Cradle of the automobile”, Stuttgart is home to Daimler, Mercedes-Benz, primary sponsor Porsche and of course, the Stuttgart Open – a WTA premier event.

The city is the capital of the German state of Baden-Württemberg and ranks as the country’s sixth largest.

The Open is the oldest indoor tennis tournament in Europe and the only indoor venue to use clay. It’s been a Premier event on the WTA circuit since 2009. $816,000 of prize money is on offer with sponsors Porsche throwing in an added bonus of a gleaming new 718 Boxster GTS for the champion.

The winner of the Stuttgart Open won’t be getting a bus home. Porsche will be providing a new 718 GTS Boxster.

Who’s playing?

The better question might be, “Who isn’t playing?” given the star cast signed up for Stuttgart.

Serena Williams is sitting this one out. Tournament Director Markus Günthardt said the American wasn’t planning on coming to Europe so early and would arrive on the continent in time to play Madrid, Rome and Roland Garros.

Sister Venus will not play either. The only other Top 10 player not to feature is Caroline Wozniacki. The Dane has elected to play in Istanbul.

World #1 Simona Halep tops the seeds. Halep made the semi-finals last year and will be looking for a strong start to the clay swing.

Simona Halep will be looking to go better than her 2017 Semi-Final.

Germany is well represented, with two-time former champion Angelique Kerber, in-form Julia Görges and defending champion Laura Siegemund in the mix. Kerber professes not to like clay too much, but she clearly likes the indoor venue at Stuttgart and will be one to watch.

Garbiñe Muguruza and Jelena Ostapenko could also feature strongly. Ostapenko won the doubles here last year and demonstrated her clay court prowess at the highest level by annexing the French Open last year. Muguruza can’t be ruled out on any surface, let alone clay, a surface on which she triumphed at the 2016 French Open.

US Open champion Sloane Stephens will play. The enigmatic American has one (green) clay title on her resume but is enjoying a purple patch after following up her Flushing Meadows title with a win in Miami.

Other top players who will challenge include Caroline Garcia, Petra Kvitova, and Elina Svitolina.

Fact Flash:

Stuttgart has been voted by the players on the WTA tour as their favourite premier event for 9 of the last 11 years. Indian Wells won the vote in 2009 and 2013.

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April 21, 2018
The Top 10 Social Media Followings in Women’s Tennis

Serena Williams has been the dominant player of her era, but is she the Queen of social media?

Tennis Frontier went on a fact-finding mission to see which players were rocking the realm of Cyberspace with social media followings. We checked out the Twitter, Facebook and Instagram followings of the major players. Overall figures are shown in brackets.

No.10 Agnieszka Radwanska (Followers: 1,543,660)

Polish playmaker, Aga Radwanska squeezes into the Top 10 edging out Spanish starlet Garbiñe Muguruza (1,524,314) and Martina Hingis (1,353,066) by virtue of a pretty hefty Facebook following.

Facebook: 948,660
Twitter: 312,000
Instagram: 283,000

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No.9 Petra Kvitova (1,553,991)

Czech powerhouse and two-time major winner Petra Kvitova chimes in at Number 9 on the list. Petra has a pretty balanced following across all three of the major social media networks.

Facebook: 664,991
Twitter: 535,000
Instagram: 354,000

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No.8 Angelique Kerber (1,649,984)

Former world number one Angelique Kerber ranks 8 on the list. The German star posts in both English and her native language.

Facebook: 834,984
Twitter: 357,000
Instagram: 458,000

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No.7 Simona Halep (2,219,669)

The pride of Romania, Simona Halep performs solidly on Facebook and Instragram, less so on Twitter where she would rank outside the Top 10.

Facebook: 1,412,669
Twitter: 196,000
Instagram: 611,000

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No.6 Victoria Azarenka (3,500,028)

Vika has a solid following of over 3.5 million. The Belarusian former world number one is particularly active on Twitter and this reflects in her numbers.

Facebook: 1,490,028
Twitter: 1,410,000
Instagram: 600,000

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No.5 Eugenie Bouchard (4,924,200)

Genie bats way above her tennis accomplishments when it comes to social media. The Canadien weighs in at Number 5 on the overall list and No.3 on Instagram. Photogenic, sassy and a marketers dream.

Facebook: 1,524,200
Twitter: 1,700,000
Instagram: 1,700,000

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No.4 Venus Williams (4,995,700)

Legendary veteran Venus Williams appears at Number 4 on the list. Not quite as active on social media as some of her counterparts, she still rides high.

Facebook: 2,285,700
Twitter: 1,770,000
Instagram: 940,000

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No.3 Caroline Wozniacki (5,947,376)

Caro’s recent major winning exploits have given her a boost, but she was doing pretty well in any event. Wozniacki is very active in promotional work and Sports Illustrated photoshoots don’t harm the cause.
The Danish star ranks 3.

Facebook: 1,567,376
Twitter: 3,180,000
Instagram: 1,200,000

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No.2 Serena Williams (23,996,996)

Serena Williams transcends the sport. Nearly 24 million followers give her a buffer of over 18 million followers to third-placed Caroline Wozniacki. Williams is ranked #1 on both Instagram and Twitter in comparison to her peers.

Facebook: 5,296,996
Twitter: 10,800,000
Instagram: 7,900,000

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No.1 Maria Sharapova (26,834,575)

Maria Sharapova comes top of the list, courtesy of a mammoth 15 million + Facebook following. The Russian can rightfully claim the title of “Tennis Queen of Social Media”. With nearly 27 million overall followers, Sharapova is the marketing gift that just keeps giving.

Facebook: 15,214,575
Twitter: 8,620,000
Instagram: 3,000,000

Photo by Visit Victoria

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April 13, 2018
Serena all set for tennis return

Serena Williams. Photo by Edwin Martinez

Serena Williams sabbatical from the women’s tour will come to an end as she prepares for her first match in 14 months at Indian Wells.

The last time Williams set foot on the court for a competitive tour match was January 2017, where she completed a successful Australian Open campaign in Melbourne to net her 23rd Grand Slam title.

The American star’s time out of the game has been eventful. She married Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and gave birth to a baby girl, Alexis.

Serena Williams on X (formerly Twitter): “Thrilled to cover @voguemagazine’s February issue with my daughter! This is a moment I will never forget: https://t.co/aQ6ZpxZeB4 pic.twitter.com/iTwDMoGZf7 / X”

Thrilled to cover @voguemagazine’s February issue with my daughter! This is a moment I will never forget: https://t.co/aQ6ZpxZeB4 pic.twitter.com/iTwDMoGZf7

March 4, 2018
Tennis Frontier Weekly Update: November 9, 2015

Djokovic Wins 6th Masters and 10th Title of 2015

Venus Climbs Back into the Top Ten after a Four-Year Absence

Historical Smash Shots 1: Generational Diversity in the 1974-75 Rankings

2015 ATP World Tour Finals

2015: Review

November 10, 2015