Ashleigh Barty set for first WTA Finals appearance

Associated PressOct 26, 2019, 4:05 PM EDT

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SHENZHEN, China — Top-seeded Ashleigh Barty of Australia is ready to cap off the most successful season of her career with a first appearance in the year-end WTA Finals.

Barty achieved a number of career firsts this season from winning her inaugural Grand Slam title at the French Open, earning world No. 1 status, and leading Australia to the upcoming Fed Cup final.

“It’s been an incredibly consistent year across all surfaces, across all continents in the world,” Barty said. “I feel like (I’ve) played an exceptional level of tennis.”

This year’s WTA Finals, debuting for its scheduled 10-year run in Shenzhen, is welcoming more members of the younger generation to its eight-player lineup than in the recent past.

The 23-year-old Barty is joined in Shenzhen by 19-year-old Bianca Andreescu of Canada, who won her first Grand Slam trophy at the U.S. Open last month; 22-year-old Naomi Osaka of Japan, the 2018 U.S. Open and 2019 Australian Open champion; and 22-year-old Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, the last player to qualify for the field.

Only Osaka of the four has played in the WTA Finals in the past, and lost all three of her round-robin matches in her debut last year. She’s hoping that although she’s arrived here tired from winning the Osaka and Beijing titles, she will have a better showing than in 2018.

“I think last year, the end of the year was just so hectic for me, and I didn’t really remember anything,” Osaka said. “Honestly, by the time I got here, I was just so tired.

Barty, Osaka and Bencic feature in the Red group along with two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic. Andreescu is in the Purple group with reigning Wimbledon champion Simona Halep of Romania, Karolina Pliskova of Czech Republic, and defending champion Elina Svitolina of Ukraine.

This year’s singles winner’s is guaranteed at least $ 4.1 million, which makes it the richest tournament paycheck for men or women in the sport. If the WTA Finals champion goes through to victory with an undefeated 3-0 record in round-robin matches they would earn $4.725 million in prize money.

Many are touting that one of the younger generation will hoist the trophy, but Barty doesn’t believe that any of the players have an advantage over the other competitors.

“In my opinion, I don’t think there ever is a favorite,” Barty said. “I think everyone is deserving to win that’s in the draw. On any given day, anyone can be beaten. That’s the beauty of sport, there are no certainties.”

Andreescu seems remarkably mature and capable of handling all the notoriety that’s come along with her recent U.S. Open victory. This coming week will provide her initial test in dealing with star status at an elite event.

“I found that I deal pretty well under pressure,” Andreenscu said. “Don’t ask me how. I think my game just elevates to another level unconsciously, which I’m really grateful for. I think that’s why I play my best against the top players. That was more when I was an underdog, so let’s see how it is now.”

The WTA Finals start on Sunday in the Red group when Osaka will try to improve her career record to 2-0 over Kvitova, while Barty and Bencic have a first career meeting.

Raducanu, Stephens, Murray lose in first round at Miami Open

Associated PressMar 23, 2023, 12:00 AM EDT

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MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – Former U.S. Open champions Emma Raducanu and Sloane Stephens were knocked out of the Miami Open on Wednesday, hours after No. 1-ranked and defending champion Iga Swiatek pulled out of the tournament because of a rib injury.

Bianca Andreescu – the 2019 U.S. Open champ – defeated Raducanu 6-3, 3-6, 6-2. Andreescu improved to 2-0 lifetime against Raducanu, the 2021 winner at Flushing Meadows.

“Miami has a special place in my heart,” Andreescu said. “I’ve been coming here since I was I think 12 years old, whether it’s for vacation or training or, yeah, Orange Bowl. I love that tournament very much. Yeah, coming back here, I think it’s just good vibes overall.”

Andreescu moves on to face 10th-ranked Maria Sakkari, who had a first-round bye.

Shelby Rogers beat Stephens 6-4, 3-6, 6-2. Stephens has six hard-court titles, including the U.S. Open in 2017 and Miami in 2018.

Rogers will face Australian Open champion and world No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka, who beat Rogers in the second round at Melbourne Park. Sabalenka is coming off a loss in the final at Indian Wells, California, last week.

On the men’s side, Dusan Lajovic beat three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray 6-4, 7-5.

“I served pretty well, but the rest of the game was a bit of a problem today,” the 35-year-old Murray said. “Made a number of errors that obviously I wouldn’t expect to be making. I didn’t really feel like I moved particularly well, which is really important for me.”

Lajovic, a 32-year-old Serbian, will face Maxime Cressy, who had a first-round bye.

Swiatek withdrew because of a rib injury that she is hoping will heal during a break from competition. The 21-year-old from Poland also will sit out her country’s Billie Jean King Cup qualifier matches against Kazakhstan on April 13-14.

“I wanted to wait ’til the last minute” to decide whether to play in Miami, Swiatek said at a news conference at the site of the hard-court tournament that began Tuesday. “We were kind of checking if this is the kind of injury you can still play with or this is kind when you can get things worse. So I think the smart move for me is to pull out of this tournament because I want to rest and take care of it properly.”

In other action, 24-year-old American J.J. Wolf defeated Alexander Bublik 7-5, 6-3. He’ll face No. 7-ranked Andrey Rublev, who had a first-round bye.

Gael Monfils retired from his match against Ugo Humbert due to a persistent wrist injury.

Iga Swiatek out of Miami Open with rib injury

Associated PressMar 22, 2023, 12:29 PM EDT

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MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Defending champion Iga Swiatek withdrew from the Miami Open because of a rib injury that she is hoping will heal during a break from competition.

The No. 1-ranked Swiatek, a 21-year-old from Poland, also will sit out her country’s Billie Jean King Cup qualifier matches against Kazakhstan on April 13-14.

“I wanted to wait ’til the last minute” to decide whether to play in Miami,” Swiatek said at a news conference at the site of the hard-court tournament. “We were kind of checking if this is the kind of injury you can still play with or this is kind when you can get things worse. So I think the smart move for me is to pull out of this tournament because I want to rest and take care of it properly.”

She was supposed to face Claire Liu in the second round.

As a seeded player, three-time Grand Slam champion Swiatek received a first-round bye at an event she won a year ago during a 37-match unbeaten run that was the longest in women’s tennis in a quarter of a century.

“I was also aware at the beginning of the season that it’s going to be hard for me to defend all these (ranking) points,” she said, “because … these streaks, winning all these tournaments – looking logically and statistically, it’s not like it’s going to happen every year.”

Swiatek said after a 6-2, 6-2 loss to eventual champion Elena Rybakina in the BNP Paribas Open semifinals that her rib was bothering her. She explained in Miami that the problem first surfaced late in her quarterfinal victory against Sorana Cirstea a day earlier in California.

“Basically, it’s not like it happened in one minute or one second. It’s not, like, a serious thing, because we caught it … pretty early. So I felt like it was a process,” Swiatek said. “At first with these minor things, your body doesn’t feel anything.”

She said the issue was a problem “in certain movements,” including a “little bit when I served,” but Swiatek also said she’s not too worried about how long she will be sidelined.

The next Grand Slam tournament is the French Open, which Swiatek won last year for the second time. Play begins in Paris on May 28.

Instead of playing Swiatek, Liu will go up against 94th-ranked Julia Grabher, who lost in qualifying but now gets to move into the draw.

Liu advanced Tuesday when her first-round opponent, Katerina Siniakova, stopped playing in the second set because of a hurt wrist. Siniakova also pulled out of the doubles event with Barbora Krejcikova; the Czech duo has won the past four Grand Slam tournaments they’ve entered together, and seven major doubles titles overall.