Serena Williams and Svetlana Kuznetsova Winners on Hardcourts

Serena wins Bank of the West Classic

This week Serena Williams made a return statement. With an impressive run through the draw she clinched her third Bank of the West Classic title in California. 

Angelique Kerber started off to a flyer and raced to a 5-1 lead, then Williams' survival mode kicked in and she rattled of that first set and sprinted though the second to a 7-6(1), 6-3 victory.

It hasn't been the greatest of years for Serena in the majors, but on the Women's tour, she now leads the ladies again with 4 titles on tour this year.

Serena looks set for a three-peat at Flushing in less than a month's time.

Read the in-depth article here:

http://www.wtatennis.com/news/article/4051465/title/serena-storms-back-wins-stanford

Svetlana Kuznetsova wins the City Open in Washington DC

And on the other front, Svetlana Kuznetsova has won her first title in 4 years, when she defeated an inspired Kurumi Nara over three sets 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

Sveta as she is affectionately known, now boasts with 14 titles on the WTA. And she has climbed to 23 in the race to Singapore leaderboard. 

Read the full report here:

http://www.wtatennis.com/news/article/4051681/title/kuznetsova-ends-four-year-drought

The year-end race is about to get heated. Stay tuned for the Roger's Cup in Montreal this week where Maria Sharapova returns to the court for the first time since Wimbledon. With a possible 2nd round encounter with the Serena Slayer, Garbine Muguruza. 

Garbine does it again...

Garbine Muguruza likes defeating defending champions

Garbine Muguruza is no stranger to upsets, and clearly she has a preference to upend defending champions.

Everyone came to know the name Garbine Muguruza when she thrashed Serena Williams out of Roland Garros, in the second round, whilst Serena was defending her title. She also very, very nearly upended Maria Sharapova at Roland Garros, but sheer willpower brought the Champion through on that occassion.

Yesterday, she went and did it again, in the first round of the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, California, Garbine again slay the defending champion of the tournament. Australian Open runner up Dominika Cibulkova was outclassed in the first set, and for a while found her wheels in the second set to level the scores, but at 1-all, Mugu pulled away again and finished off the "Pocket Rocket" from Slovakia 6-2, 4-6, 6-2... Definitely a future 

I had been busy with my WTA RISING STAR piece on Muguruza, but now it will have to be placed on the backburner for another couple of days. 

I think we need to track her progress through the draw at Stanford. 

Wanna follow the scores and matches this week... the best place to do that is on the Official WTA website. 

http://www.wtatennis.com/

Sabine Lisicki blasts fastest recorded serve

Sabine's service motion captured on record serve

Tuesday, 29 July 2014, and Sabine Lisicki firmly (and finally) "officially" placed herself in the record books at the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, California.

In her first round, against crowd pleaser Ana Ivanovic, Sabine blasted her way to the fastest serve ever recorded on the women's tour. 131mph (210kph)

Former top professional Brad Gilbert once referred to Sabine as "Boom Boom Lisicki" and the name has affectionately stuck. 

You can look at the serve at: 

http://www.wtatennis.com/news/article/4042056/title/lisicki-hits-fastest-serve-ever

This is not the first time however, Lisicki had previously served a 210kph serve at the Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions in Bali, that was back in November 2009. This was not recognised, because IDS, the official statistician of the WTA, was not on site in Bali, and unless data is recorded by them, no records are officially recognized.

You can see that unofficial record serve here... 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmjZdqcEd0c

Venus Williams was another player who was robbed of a record in Tokyo in September 2013 when she struck her fastest serve at 129.9mph (209kph), but even in the case that both of their serves had been officially recorded, at that time Lisicki would still have topped the list. 

There are not many players that can outclass Venus or Serena on serve, but this popular German boomer has surpassed them both at least on two occassions. What a phenomenal feat. 

"Congratulations Sabine... what a gal!"

The table below is taken from wikipedia and I cannot take responibility for the accuracy, but it is an interesting page to have a look at.

1	Sabine Lisicki	210.8 km/h (131.0 mph)	2014 Stanford Classic[15]
2	Venus Williams	207.6 km/h (129.0 mph)	2007 US Open
3	Serena Williams	207.0 km/h (128.6 mph)	2013 Australian Open
4	Julia Görges	203.0 km/h (126.1 mph)	2012 French Open
5	Brenda Schultz-McCarthy	202.7 km/h (126.0 mph)	2007 Indian Wells Masters
6	Nadiya Kichenok	202.0 km/h (125.5 mph)	2014 Australian Open
7	Anna-Lena Groenefeld	201.1 km/h (125.0 mph)	2009 Indian Wells Masters
8	Ana Ivanovic	201.0 km/h (124.9 mph)	2007 French Open
9	Kristina Mladenovic	200.0 km/h (124.3 mph)	2009 French Open
10	Tatjana Maria	199.6 km/h (124.0 mph)	2012 US Open

See more here: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fastest_recorded_tennis_serves

Here's Sabine's twitter reaction

http://twitter.com/sabinelisicki/status/494345123455442946/photo/1

Sabine Lisicki reacts on Twitter.

WTA Rising stars Elina Svitolina and Bojana Jovanovski clashed for the Baku Cup

Elina Svitolina in action yesterday

Baku Cup

Country: Baku, Azerbaijan

Surface: Hard court

Draw: 32 players

Tier: International level event

Ranking points: 280 WTA ranking points 

Two more of the youngsters on my list of WTA challengers has made good again this week. I have yet to discuss either Bojana Jovanovski or Elina Svitolina, but they are both on that “Stars of tomorrow” list, so keep your eyes peeled for those in the coming weeks. 

This Sunday both these rising stars faced each other in the final. 

Elina Svitolina won the title here last year, making her the only teenager to win a WTA title in 2013, when she defeated Shahar Peer, she was 18. This year, she won through the draw beating former French Open champion Francesca Schiavone in the semi-finals.

Svitolina, who turns 20 this coming September is the first teenager to win 2 WTA titles since 2010, when Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova did the same, she actually won 3 while she was a teenager. Elina did it in style though, by defending her first title successfully yesterday and losing only 1 set en-route to the final. She is also the first player to defend the Baku title since its inception in 2011.

Nerves must have gotten the best of Bojana Jovanovski in the first set, Svitolina needed just 22 mins to bag the first set, the second set, however, was a different story. Jovanovski refused to surrender her serve again in the match, after 12 straight holds, a rarity on the women’s tour, both these ladies looked good for the tiebreak. But again, Svitolina raced ahead, taking the first 4 points of the tiebreak. She didn’t look back, closing the match out on her first match point while her counterpart could only muster 2 points in the tiebreak.

“I think we were both nervous at the start of the match, but I handled it really well.

In the second set she was trying to fight, and she’s not the type of person who gives up - I’ve watched her fighting for every ball and for every set before and I was actually expecting this fightback.

But I was playing really well here and I’m happy I could defend my title. I’m really happy with the way I’m playing and I’m enjoying myself - I’m feeling really confident with my game right now.” said Svitolina.

Elina Svitolina, holds the Baku trophy for the second
consecutive year

For all other information on Women’s tennis, visit

http://www.wtatennis.com/

Donna Vekic - success, promise, talent

Donna Vekic with her maiden WTA title at the BMW Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur

Donna Vekic was born in Osijek, Croatia on 28 June 1996, into a gifted sporting family. Her family over 3 generations, ranged from Physical Education teachers, Archers, professional Soccer players and even a professional track athlete, but not one tennis player in the family. 

Donna herself started out as a Gymnast but fate intervened very early on, at 6 years old, she hurt her ankle... Whilst recovering from the ankle injury, she became bored of doing nothing and she begged her dad to take her to tennis practice. Hobbling around on a hurt ankle clasping onto an oversized racquet, the Tennis Gods called her name and, well, that as they say, was that. 

It truly seems that she took to tennis like a duck to water. Donna developed at a rapid rate and a mere 10 years down the road, she was chosen to represent Croatia in the Fed Cup in 2012, she was 16. That same year she reached her first WTA tour final at the Tashkent Open in Uzbekistan. She won 7 matches in a row, through qualifying into the final, making her the youngest player in 6 years to make it to a WTA final. She ended losing 6-4, 6-4 to Irina-Camelia Begu.  She also reached 4 finals on the ITF circuit in 2012, winning 2 titles.  

In 2013, she reached the final of the Aegon Classic in Birmingham, a warmup tournament on grass, where she was toppled by the crisp skills of the experienced Daniella Hantuchova. She also added another ITF title to her resume that year. 

She finally broke through on the WTA tour with her maiden title in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in April this year when she defeated Australian Open runner up, Dominika Cibulkova in a marathon match, 5-7 7-5 7-6(4). Coming from a set down, to avenge her second round loss to Domi a month earlier at Indian Wells. 

Have a look at Donna in action here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBHnVBVHKLg

Donna’s rankings in itself tells of success, promise and talent. She started out locally on the ITF Pro circuit in Croatia in 2010. That year, she would not play any WTA level events. In 2011, winning 1 title on the ITF circuit she managed to end the 2011 at #392. One year on, 2 ITF titles, and her first final appearance on the WTA level later she ended 2012 in the top 150 at #118. In 2013 she broke the top 100, with a career high of #62 in July, but ultimately fell down the rankings to #86 to close out 2013. Thus, making the youngest player in the top 200 when the Year End ranking list was brought out on 4 November 2013.

A strange factoid on the young Croat, with the exception of some legendary advisors who Donna has worked with, the likes of Nick Bolletieri, Chris Evert, Sven Groeneveld and Miljenko Rak, all her coaches' names start with a D... Damir Barišić, Domagoj Lacković, Davor Grgić, Dado Majoli and David Felgate. Even her conditioning trainer’s name is Dario Novak. 

Donna Vekic with Dominika Cibulkova

2014 has yet to reap exceptional rewards for the very gifted young Vekic, but be sure to keep an eye on her, her sights firmly set on breaking into the top 50 in 2014, may be a goal that’s not impossible to reach.

Follow Donna on social media:

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/donnavekic

Twitter:

@DonnaVekic 

or 

visit her website for more information:

http://donnavekic.com/