Czechia claims top gong in historic mixed doubles win
CZECHIA is the toast of mixed doubles tennis at the Paris Olympics, after Katerina Siniakova and Tomas Machac proved too strong for China’s Xinyu Wang and Zhizhen Zhang in the gold medal match. In a match that lasted about an hour and a quarter, the Czach duo ultimately prevailed in the third set tie breaker […]
Qinwen in seventh heaven, reaches Olympic final
AFTER half a dozen losses to Iga Swiatek, Chinese Top 10 talent Qinwen Zheng found the winning formula to defeat the world number one and reach the 2024 Paris Olympics Gold Medal Match. In a match that was riddled with errors and breaks of serve early, it was Zheng who kicked away in the second […]
Mixed doubles means more mixed up expectations
IF there is one thing to learn from the mixed doubles draw at the 2024 Olympics, it is that rankings are often nothing more than just a number. American third seeds Coco Gauff and Taylor Fritz learnt this the hard way, losing to their northern neighbours Gabriela Dabrowski and Felix Auger-Aliassime in three sets. The […]
Czeched out: It’s Schmiedl-ova for Wimbledon champ
GIANT-KILLING Slovakian Anna Karolina Schmiedlova is the major surprise packet through to the 2024 Paris Olympics medal matches with a straight sets victory over ninth seed and Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova. Already a Olympic gold medalist in doubles, Krejcikova’s quest for a singles medal is over at the final step, losing in the quarter finals. […]
BJK Cup semi-finalists out of 2023 Finals
BILLIE Jean King Cup reigning semi-finalists Great Britain were eliminated from the 2023 title race after bowing out to France in the Qualifiers over the weekend. Twelve months ago, then top-ranked France suffered a shock loss to Italy in the Qualifiers to miss out on competing at the Finals, but after defeating Netherlands in the […]
Swiss salute to face Czech mates in semis
SWITZERLAND has overcome a red-hot Canada to reach the semi-finals of the Billie Jean King (BJK) Cup in a bid to go one better than last year. The nation fell to Russia in the 2021 decider, and due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the top seeds were banned from all tennis team competitions in 2022. […]
Fernandez stars in crushing Canadian win
CANADA has set up a virtual elimination final with top seeds Switzerland after sweeping Italy 3-0 in convincing style. The North American nation handed the Italians their second successive 3-0 sweep after Italy copped a similar beating from the Swiss the day before. On this occasion, it included a double-bagel 44-minute obliteration from US Open […]
Billie Jean King wrap: Day 2 – Barty-less Australia Storm Belgium as Russia oust Canada
NO Ash Barty or Ajla Tomljanovic? No worries for Australia, as the green and gold stunned Belgium to move one win away from an unlikely semi-final spot and automatic qualification to next year’s Billie Jean King Finals. The Aussies came in with former Top 30 player Daria Gavrilova – now ranked 412th in the world […]
Billie Jean King Cup day one wrap: Day 1 – Canada stuns France as Belgium wins opening tie
CANADA has stunned reigning champions France on the opening day of the Billie Jean King Cup despite being heavily understrength for the clash. The North American nation was without Bianca Andreescu or Leylah Fernandez, but just found a way to topple the world number ones who chose not to use second ranked player Caroline Garcia. […]
2021 Billie Jean King Cup preview: Group A
AFTER completing our team-by-team previews ahead of the Billie Jean King Cup, Draft Central now focuses the attention on the Group-by-Group previews. Over the next four days we will run through the four groups and who is anticipated to progress, the stars, and the ones to watch in each of the groups. GROUP A TEAMS […]
