All posts tagged: WTA

AFP Sports Diary for January 18 to February 14

AFP Sports Diary for January 18 to February 14

Published by Parlour News

AFP Sports Diary for January 18 to February 14: HT Image Saturday, TENNIS: ATP and WTA at Australian Open, Melbourne GOLF: PGA Tour’s The American Express at California; European Tour’s Dubai Desert Classic CRICKET: Pakistan v West Indies at Multan, 1st Test ALPINE SKIING: Men’s downhill at Wengen, Switzerland; Women’s downhill at Cortina, Italy RUGBY UNION – Champions Cup round four; Challenge Cup round four CYCLING: UCI women’s Tour Down Under at Adelaide AMERICAN FOOTBALL: NFL Divisonal play-offs AFC Kansas City Chiefs v Houston Texans at Kansas City; NFC Detroit Lions v Washington Commanders at Detroit Sunday, TENNIS: ATP and WTA at Australian Open, Melbourne GOLF: PGA Tour’s The American Express at California; European Tour’s Dubai Desert Classic CRICKET: Pakistan v West Indies at Multan, 1st Test ALPINE SKIING: Men’s slalom at Wengen, Switzerland; Women’s super-G at Cortina, Italy RUGBY UNION – Champions Cup round four; Challenge Cup round four CYCLING: UCI women’s Tour Down Under at Adelaide AMERICAN FOOTBALL: NFL Divisional Play-offs AFC Buffalo Bills v Baltimore Ravens at Buffalo; NFC Philadelphia Eagles v …

STAT OF THE DAY: America’s Coco Gauff breaks Maria Sharapova’s 20-year-old record after winning WTA Finals | Tennis News

STAT OF THE DAY: America’s Coco Gauff breaks Maria Sharapova’s 20-year-old record after winning WTA Finals | Tennis News

Published by Webster

With her 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (6-2) win over Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen of China in the WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday night, 20-year-old American Coco Gauff became the youngest player since Maria Sharapova won the event in 2004 to win the title. While Sharapova had won the WTA Finals title in 2004 with a win over Serena Williams, Gauff won the Billie-Jean King Trophy with a second career win over Zheng. Gauff, who was born in 2004, the same year Sharapova had won the title, pocketed 4.8 million dollars of prize money for the title win. The feat also made her the first American to win the WTA Finals with the last American women player to achieve the feat being Serena Williams in 2004. “This means a lot to me,” Gauff said post her win. She had earlier defeated Zheng in Rome earlier this year and the 20-year-old had also scored wins over world number one Aryna Sabalenka in the semi-final and world number two Iga Swiatek en route to the semi-final. …

Iga Swiatek Comes From Behind To Beat Barbora Krejcikova At WTA Finals

Iga Swiatek Comes From Behind To Beat Barbora Krejcikova At WTA Finals

Published by Webster

Iga Swiatek kicked off her WTA Finals title defence with a hard-fought victory, rallying back from a set and a double-break down to overcome eighth-seeded Barbora Krejcikova in Riyadh on Sunday. The Polish second seed kept her hopes of wrestling back the number one ranking from Aryna Sabalenka alive with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 performance against Krejcikova.   Making her first competitive appearance in two months, Swiatek fell behind 4-6, 0-3 before she mounted a successful comeback against the crafty Czech. “For sure it wasn’t easy. At the beginning I felt a bit rusty but I’m happy I found a way to play a little bit more solid,” said Swiatek on court. “I tried to do the usual stuff that I do to control the ball a bit more because it was flying like crazy off my racquet. “I knew I had this game in me, I just needed to find it. It was hard to be patient with that but at the end I’m glad I just kept it going and didn’t think …

WTA Finals: Amidst accusations of ‘sportswashing’, American tennis star holds talks with Saudi leaders on treatment of women | Tennis News

WTA Finals: Amidst accusations of ‘sportswashing’, American tennis star holds talks with Saudi leaders on treatment of women | Tennis News

Published by Webster

Ahead of the women’s tennis year-end tournament in Saudi Arabia, which has attracted plenty of criticism due to the alleged rights violations in the country, world number 3 Coco Gauff said she held discussions with country’s leaders over the issue. The American tennis star said her father was ‘concerned’ over her visit to the country and she had ‘reservations’ about participating in the WTA Finals starting Saturday. Gauff said she met with Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud, the Saudi Ambassador to the United States, and discussed the treatment of women in the country. “We spoke with a lot of women here in Saudi. Multiple calls with her, how the best approach would be to enter into this different place that women have never kind of, women from the US, have never kind of been in. I think for me it was important, and it was one of the questions I brought up because about LGBTQ issues, women’s rights issues, how we can help with that,” the 20-year-old told reporters on Friday. Saudi Arabia has …

India’s Shrivalli Bhamidipaty And Zeel Desai Impress With Shock Wins In L&T Mumbai Open WTA 125K

Published by Webster

Indian challengers Shrivalli Bhamidipaty and Zeel Desai put on a fantastic show, causing major upsets in first round qualifying matches, as top-level tennis returned to Mumbai after a hiatus of six years. The 22-year-old Indian Shrivalli making her debut on the WTA Tour showed remarkable poise and confidence as she came from behind to knockout second seed Valentini Grammatikopoulou from Greece winning in straight sets in the L&T Mumbai Open WTA 125K match on Centre Court at the Cricket Club of India on Saturday. The 26-year-old 117-ranked Greek player started powerfully and raced to a 3-1 lead. But Shrivalli, the Indian National champion in both singles and doubles, showed tremendous resilience and won the five games in succession to wrap up the first set. That win further boosted her confidence as she started to serve stronger and dominated the rallies and went on to take the second for a satisfying 6-3, 6-2 win. In another contest, Wild Card entrant Zeel brushed aside the challenge of another Greece’s player Sapfo Sakellaridi, winning in straight …

Sania Mirza ‘Plans’ To Retire At WTA 1000 In Dubai In February

Published by Webster

File photo of Sania Mirza.© Instagram Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza has revealed her plans to retire from the sport. During a recent interview, the player said that she is planning to call time on her illustrious career at the upcoming WTA 1000 event in Dubai in the month of February. Notably, Sania had earlier decided to hang up her boots following the end of 2022 season but she withdrew her decision later after injuries sidelined her. “I was going to stop right after the WTA Finals, because we were going to make the WTA Finals, but I tore my tendon in my elbow right before US Open so I had to pull out of everything,” Mirza told wtatennis.com. “And honestly, the person that I am, I like to do things on my own terms. So I don’t want to be forced out by injury. So I’ve been training. “The plan is to try and retire in Dubai during the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships,” she said. Sania Mirza will pair up with Kazakhstan’s Anna …