Around the Tour: Osaka breaks grass drought
FORMER world number one Naomi Osaka cruised to her first win on grass court since the 2019 Birmingham Classic, taking care of Belgian Elise Mertens at the Libema Open. Osaka won 6-2 6-4 at the ‘s-Hertogenbosch event in the Netherlands, needing 69 minutes to knock off the 32nd ranked Belgian. Holding a wildcard at the […]
Gracheva stuns Sakkari in Roland Garros boilover
FORMER Top 40 talent Varvara Gracheva has stunned the Roland Garros crowd by coming from behind to knock over sixth seed Maria Sakkari. The current world number 88 – who was playing her first Roland Garros under the French flag since changing allegiances from Russia – is yet to win a WTA Tour title, but […]
Sorana stuns Sakkari to reach Abu Dhabi quarters
A GOBSMACKING performance from Sorana Cirstea resulted in the Romanian world number 26 completely dismantling Greek third seed Maria Sakkari to reach the WTA 500 Abu Dhabi quarter finals overnight. Though Cirstea had a 2-1 head-to-head record over the top 10 talent, few could have seen the 33-year-old winning 6-2 6-1 in an hour and […]
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 […]
Popyrin gains vital match practice in Fritz loss
AUSSIE Alexei Popyrin had some additional match practice in against world number nine Taylor Fritz at the Kooyong Classic on Thursday. The 6-7 1-6 loss to the American is his seventh match of 2022, after he qualified and reached the quarterfinals of the Adelaide International last week before going down in a close bout against […]
Greek stars reach final four
GREECE might only have a combined two players inside the Top 100 from both the ATP and WTA Rankings, but that pair was able to help book the Mediterranean nation’s spot in the United Cup semi-finals. Both Stefanos Tsitsipas and Maria Sakkari were able to win their respective singles against Croatian opponents, then team up […]
Iga and Hubi lead Poland to United Cup win
POLAND faces Switzerland to determine the Group B winner after the former took care of Kazakhstan in a 4-1 fashion over the last two days. Both Iga Swiatek and Hubert Hurkacz pulled double duty for the winners in the tie, as the European nation set up an effective elimination final to determine which nation advance […]
Brits back from brink against Spaniards
GREAT Britain is just one win away from qualifying for the knockout stage of the United Cup, after both Cameron Norrie and Katie Swan staged comebacks to help the nation lead Spain 2-0. In a remarkable day of action in Sydney, Norrie and Swan both lost their respective first sets against Rafael Nadal and Nuria […]
Sakkari sets Greece up for great win
GREECE is on the board officially in the 2022 United Cup, with a double-up performance from Maria Sakkari helping secure a 4-1 win over Bulgaria and open the tournament with a win. After leading 2-0 from the opening day, Sakkari won her individual singles match, then came back and got the job done alongside fellow […]
2022 United Cup preview: Group D
GROUP D continues our 2022 United Cup preview series leading up the brand new event taking place across three Australian cities. Group A and Group F are in Perth, with Group B and Group E in Brisbane, and Group C and Group D are in Sydney. There are 18 teams battling it out for ultimate […]
