Katie Volynets hangs on, reaches 1st WTA semifinal at Austin

Associated PressMar 4, 2023, 2:33 PM EST

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AUSTIN, Texas — Katie Volynets reached her first WTA semifinal by taking big leads in each set and holding off reigning NCAA singles champion Peyton Stearns to win 7-5, 6-3 in a matchup between a pair of 21-year-old Americans at the ATX Open.

Volynets, a Californian who is ranked 92nd, went ahead 4-0 in the opening set, then found herself at 5-all. But she managed to run off seven games in a row from there to claim that set and lead 5-0 in the second.

Once again, things got a bit complicated against Stearns, who starred at the nearby University of Texas, helping the school win a team title in 2021 before she claimed the singles trophy last year. Stearns won two lower-level ITF events before coming to the inaugural edition of the hard-court WTA tournament in Austin, and collected her first two WTA match wins this week.

Stearns, a wild-card entry, saved one match point while Volynets served for the victory at 5-0 in the second, then broke at love when Volynets served for it again at 5-2. In the last game, Volynets needed three more match points to finally seal it, using a big forehand on the 12th stroke of a baseline exchange to draw a backhand that landed long.

Volynets was making her WTA quarterfinal debut and got there by saving a match point and erasing a 5-0 deficit in the third set against third-seeded Anastasia Potapova.

She did not want to be on the opposite end of that sort of comeback.

“I just was telling myself to keep going and to just keep playing my game. And sometimes it wasn’t happening,” said Volynets, who advanced to the third round of the Australian Open in January. “But when someone goes down (by) a big lead, sometimes there’s nothing to lose anymore. It happened to me a couple of days ago, actually. So I was just trying to stay tough.”

She meets 88th-ranked Varvara Gracheva next. Gracheva beat 2017 U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens 7-6 (4), 6-3 in the tournament’s last quarterfinal.

Eighth-seeded Marta Kostyuk made it to the final four of a tournament for the first time in 2023 by defeating Anna-Lena Friedsam 7-6 (6), 6-2. Kostyuk overcame nine double-faults and getting broken four times.

Kostyuk entered the day 0-2 in quarterfinals this season. Now she’ll try to reach the first WTA final of her career when she faces 2022 Australian Open runner-up Danielle Collins.

The fourth-seeded Collins grabbed 11 of the last 12 games to come back and eliminate Anna Kalinskaya 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 in the quarterfinals.

Martina Navratilova says doctors told her she is cancer-free

Associated PressMar 21, 2023, 10:53 AM EDT

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LONDON — Martina Navratilova returned to TV work at Tennis Channel for its coverage of the Miami Open, less than three months after saying she had throat cancer and breast cancer.

“It’s great to be back. … Thrilled to be here,” said the 18-time Grand Slam singles champion and member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame. “So happy to be working. How many people can say that?”

The 66-year-old Navratilova said her sense of taste disappeared during the treatment for cancer and she lost 15 pounds. She did not appear on television during the Australian Open in January or the BNP Paribas Open this month.

“It puts you face-to-face with your mortality, No. 1, because at the beginning, I wasn’t sure if it was treatable, so that was hard,” she said. “But once I got into the program, it was a little easier emotionally, but more difficult physically. … But I’m still standing.”

In an interview with Piers Morgan on TalkTV scheduled to air Tuesday, Navratilova said she has been told by doctors that, “as far as they know, I’m cancer-free,” and that she should be “good to go” after some additional radiation treatment.

According to The Sun newspaper, Navratilova also told Morgan that when she was diagnosed, “I was in a total panic for three days, thinking I may not see next Christmas” and came up with a bucket list of things she wanted to do.

She noticed an enlarged lymph node in her neck while attending the season-ending WTA Finals in Fort Worth, Texas, in November, and a biopsy showed early stage throat cancer. While Navratilova was undergoing tests on her throat, she said, the unrelated, early stage breast cancer was discovered.

Navratilova was diagnosed with a noninvasive form of breast cancer in 2010 and had a lumpectomy.

She won 59 Grand Slam titles overall, including 31 in women’s doubles and 10 in mixed doubles. The last was a mixed doubles championship with Bob Bryan at the 2006 U.S. Open, a month shy of her 50th birthday.

Navratilova originally retired in 1994, after a record 167 singles titles and 331 weeks at No. 1 in the WTA rankings. She returned to the tour to play doubles in 2000 and occasionally competed in singles, too.

Alcaraz wins Indian Wells over Medvedev, regains No. 1 rank

Associated PressMar 20, 2023, 1:00 AM EDT

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INDIAN WELLS, Calif. – Carlos Alcaraz defeated Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 6-2 to win the BNP Paribas Open title and regain the world’s No. 1 ranking.

The 19-year-old Spaniard will move from second to first in the ATP Tour rankings on Monday, displacing Novak Djokovic. The Serb withdrew from Indian Wells before the tournament began when he couldn’t gain entry to the U.S. because he’s unvaccinated for COVID-19.

“For me, it’s a dream come true again,” Alcaraz said. “Obviously being in front of such great players like Novak, it’s an amazing feeling.”

“I would say this has been the perfect tournament,” he said.

In the women’s final, Elena Rybakina beat Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (11), 6-4 and handed the world’s second-ranked player just her second loss this year.

Last year, Alcaraz became the youngest man to reach No. 1 in ATP history after his title at the U.S. Open.

He achieved another mark in the third round at Indian Wells. That’s when Alcaraz notched his 100th career match victory, the second-quickest player behind John McEnroe to do so.

Alcaraz also became the first man to win the tournament without dropping a set since Roger Federer in 2017 and the youngest man to win the title in the desert.

“I really trust in every shot that I hit,” he said. “If I miss, I don’t mind.”

Alcaraz hit 19 winners and had 10 unforced errors while keeping Medvedev off-balance with a steady array of serve-and-volley and drop shots. The teenager never faced a break point while opening leads of 3-0 in the first set and 4-0 in the second.

“What I improve a lot is to don’t take the pressure, just to play relaxed,” Alcaraz said. “That’s why I show a great level, because I feel like I have no pressure. I enjoy. I’m playing relaxed.”

Medvedev’s 19-match winning streak ended. It went back to his title run in Rotterdam in February. He then won tournaments in Doha and Dubai.

“I want to congratulate you for the work you have done in the last few months,” Alcaraz told his opponent. “Winning three titles in a row and reaching the finals here is an amazing achievement.”

Alcaraz and Rybakina earned $1,262,220 each for their wins.

Rybakina carried the momentum from her straight-set semifinal upset of top-ranked Iga Swiatek into the final and beat Sabalenka for the first time in five career meetings.

For the first time in their budding rivalry, the match didn’t go three sets. Sabalenka went the distance to beat Rybakina in the Australian Open final in January. In that match, Sabalenka fired 17 aces and rallied from a set down to win her first Grand Slam title.

This time, the 10th-seeded Rybakina had seven aces and No. 2 seed Sabalenka committed 10 double faults. Sabalenka won just 11 of 35 second-serve points.

“I would say that I was super disappointed with my serve, so I was back to old habits,” she said. “I was like a little bit overreacting on things, and I wasn’t there in the first two games in the second set.”

Rybakina broke for leads of 2-0 and 5-2 in the second set before Sabalenka closed to 5-4. But Rybakina served out the victory in just over two hours.

“This tiebreak was really epic, I would say, with all these double faults and nerves,” Rybakina said. “In the end, it was just focusing on every point and try to fight till the end.”

Rybakina improved her match record to 16-4 this year; Sabalenka fell to 17-2.

“This tough loss will motivate me more because I don’t like to lose in the finals,” Sabalenka said. “This is the worst.”

During the victory ceremony, Rybakina, the current Wimbledon champion, told the crowd it was the first time she’d beaten Sabalenka.

Sabalenka stepped forward, took the mic and said, “I will make sure it was the last one.”

Then she smiled.