ASB Classic - Auckland 2017

[Hoergren]

My first "trip" 2017 is to New Zeeland and the international tournament in Auckland - here is a little about that:

Tournament Info
Tier: International, Prize Money: $226,750, Surface: Hard, Director: Karl Budge
The formation of what now is known as the ASB Classic occurred when Ari Hallenberg and Global Sports saw a hole in the marketplace and asked Tennis New Zealand about creating an event in Auckland.

The first staging was held in 1985 as part of the 1986 tour and it moved to its current pre-Australian Open spot on the calendar, New Zealand's lone stop, in 1996. It was named the WTA's Tournament Of The Year/APAC in 2014.

Champs at the tournament - staged at the ASB Tennis Arena - include Marion Bartoli, Lindsay Davenport, Elena Dementieva, Jelena Jankovic, Agnieszka Radwanska, Ana Ivanovic, Sloane Stephens and Venus Williams.

Auckland, also known as the City of Sails, features black sand beaches, endless water activities and fantastic dining options. It is the largest and most populous urban region in New Zealand.

Main draw tomorrow - here is a list of known players

Serena Williams
Venus Williams
Caroline Wozniacki
Barbora Strycova
Kiki Bertens
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
Jelena Ostapenko
Naomi Osaka
Ana Konjuh
Johanna Larsson
Julia Görges
Lauren Davis
Kirsten Flipkens
Danka Kovinic
Kurumi Nara
Naomi Broady
Marina Erakovic

 

[Hoergren]

Training pass with Venus and Caroline:

 

[Hoergren]

The main draw

1WILLIAMS, Serena USA
2PARMENTIER, Pauline FRA
3QUALIFIER
4BRENGLE, Madison USA

5QUALIFIER
6LUCIC-BARONI, Mirjana CRO
7ERAKOVIC, Marina NZL
8OSTAPENKO, Jelena LAT

9STRYCOVA, Barbora CZE
10QUALIFIER
11SAFAROVA, Lucie CZE
12ALLERTOVA, Denisa CZE

13NARA, Kurumi JPN
14LOTTNER, Antonia GER
15DAVIS, Lauren USA
16BERTENS, Kiki NED

17PAVLYUCHENKOVA, Anastasia RUS
18GOERGES, Julia GER
19BROADY, Naomi GBR
20KOVINIC, Danka MNE

21QUALIFIER
22LEPCHENKO, Varvara USA
23GIBBS, Nicole USA
24WOZNIACKI, Caroline DEN

25KONJUH, Ana CRO
26FLIPKENS, Kirsten BEL
27WICKMAYER, Yanina BEL
28LARSSON, Johanna SWE

29BECK, Annika GER
30OSAKA, Naomi JPN
31LEWIS, Jade NZL
32WILLIAMS, Venus USA

 

[Shivashish Sarkar]

All the best to Serena for her 23rd slam.

Sent from my Titanium Octane using Tapatalk

 

[Hoergren]

Order of play Monday, January 02, 2017 PLAY SUSPENDED FOR THE DAY

Centre Court
10:00 - Jamie Loeb (USA) V [6] Taylor Townsend (USA) Q 76 61
12:30 - Lucie Safarova (CZE) V Denisa Allertova (CZE) 61 62
14:30 - Annika Beck (GER) V Naomi Osaka (JPN)
16:30 - Alicja Rosolska / Taylor Townsend (POL / USA) V Marina Erakovic / Laura Robson (NZL / GBR)
18:30 - [1] Serena Williams (USA) V Pauline Parmentier (FRA)
20:30 - [8] Ana Konjuh (CRO) V Kirsten Flipkens (BEL)

Grandstand
10:00 - Barbora Stefkova (CZE) V Tereza Martincova (CZE) Q 61 63
12:30 - Kurumi Nara (JPN) V Antonia Lottner (GER) 62 62
14:30 - Lauren Davis (USA) V [5] Kiki Bertens (NED)
16:30 - Naomi Broady (GBR) V Danka Kovinic (MNE)
18:30 - Yanina Wickmayer (BEL) V Johanna Larsson (SWE)

Court 2
11:00 - Mona Barthel (GER) V [8] Dalila Jakupovic (SLO) Q 62 61
13:00 - [1] Nao Hibino (JPN) V Arina Rodionova (AUS) Q
15:00 - Tatjana Maria / Nicole Melichar (GER / USA) V Demi Schuurs / Renata Voracova (NED / CZE)
17:30 - Jade Lewis / Erin Routliffe (NZL / CAN) V Shuko Aoyama / Makoto Ninomiya (JPN / JPN)

Serena on the way to train in Auckland

 

[Hoergren]

A smiling way to start 2017 - me thinks

ASB Charity Match Up. Classic Day Out for the city of Kaikoura earthquake relief fund with Caroline Wozniacki, Venus and Serena Williams

 

[Hoergren]

ORDER OF PLAY - TUESDAY, JANUARY 03, 2017

CENTRE COURT start 12:30 pm

[1] S. Williams (USA) vs P. Parmentier (FRA) 63 64
A. Beck (GER) vs N. Osaka (JPN) 26 46
[WC] M. Erakovic (NZL) vs [7] J. Ostapenko (LAT) 16 26
N. Gibbs (USA) vs [3] C. Wozniacki (DEN) 16 06clap
Not Before 6:30 pm
[WC] J. Lewis (NZL) vs [2] V. Williams (USA) Postponed
[6] A. Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) vs J. Goerges (GER) Postponed

GRANDSTAND start 12:30 pm

[4] B. Strycova (CZE) vs [Q] B. Stefkova (CZE) 64 63
L. Davis (USA) vs [5] K. Bertens (NED) 76 64
Y. Wickmayer (BEL) vs J. Larsson (SWE) 61 62
[8] A. Konjuh (CRO) vs K. Flipkens (BEL) Postponed
N. Broady (GBR) vs D. Kovinic (MNE) Postponed

COURT 2 start 12:30 pm

Qualifying - [1] N. Hibino (JPN) vs A. Rodionova (AUS) 36 76(3) 46
[Q] M. Barthel (GER) vs M. Lucic-Baroni (CRO) 36 63 36
[Q] J. Loeb (USA) vs M. Brengle (USA) 46 67
Rodionova (AUS) vs V. Lepchenko (USA) 36 46
Not Before 5:00 pm
T. Maria (GER) / N. Melichar (USA) vs D. Schuurs (NED) / R. Voracova (CZE) POSTPONED

You can see stream from Auckland - try this link: http://videostream.dn.ua/videopage/videoPage.php?g=c2JyY3ZsK2FuY3VkcWdZ&c=en&i=eWl6aXFnc2hxZQ%B9f%B9f&hc_location=ufi

 

[Hoergren]

Order of play Wednesday, January 04, 2017

Centre Court
12:30 - Jade Lewis (NZL) V [2] Venus Williams (USA) 67 26
14:30 - [4] Barbora Strycova (CZE) V Lucie Safarova (CZE) 76 36 76
16:30 - [1] Serena Williams (USA) V Madison Brengle (USA) 46 76 46
18:30 - Naomi Osaka (JPN) V V.Williams W/O Venus has withdrawn
18:30 - [8] Ana Konjuh (CRO) V Yanina Wickmayer (BEL) 61 62
20:30 - Varvara Lepchenko (USA) V [3] Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) 36 36clap
22:00 - Jade Lewis / Erin Routliffe (NZL / CAN) V Shuko Aoyama / Makoto Ninomiya (JPN / JPN) 46 36

Grandstand
12:30 - [8] Ana Konjuh (CRO) V Kirsten Flipkens (BEL) 64 36 63
14:30 - [6] Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) V Julia Goerges (GER) 36 46
16:30 - Mirjana Lucic-Baroni (CRO) V [7] Jelena Ostapenko (LAT) 26 67
16:00 - Alicja Rosolska / Taylor Townsend (POL / USA) V Marina Erakovic / Laura Robson (NZL / GBR) 16 57
18:00 - Julia Goerges (GER) V Naomi Broady (GBR) 75 64

Court 2
11:00 - Tatjana Maria / Nicole Melichar (GER / USA) V Demi Schuurs / Renata Voracova (NED / CZE) 64 46 7-10
12:30 - Naomi Broady (GBR) V Danka Kovinic (MNE) 76 63
14:30 - Kurumi Nara (JPN) V Lauren Davis (USA) 36 36
18:30 - Kirsten Flipkens / Jelena Ostapenko (BEL / LAT) V [2] Hao-Ching Chan / Yung-Jan Chan (TPE / TPE) 75 36 10-5
20:30 - Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova / Yanina Wickmayer (RUS / BEL) V [3] Kiki Bertens / Johanna Larsson (NED / SWE) 67 36

Court 5
12:30 - [4] Gabriela Dabrowski / Zhaoxuan Yang (CAN / CHN) V Jocelyn Rae / Anna Smith (GBR / GBR) 75 62
14:30 - María Irigoyen / Ipek Soylu (ARG / TUR) V Miyu Kato / Arina Rodionova (JPN / AUS) 62 76

 

[Hoergren]

If you missed to see a lady in control - here is your chance - take it - she's good:

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzmSK5C9KTs[/video]

 

[Hoergren]

WTA Scores ‏@Scores_WTA 20 sec ago

BOMBSHELL: 72-ranked Brengle upsets world #2 Serena Williams to make her 1st #WTA QF since June. Grabs 2nd top 5 victory and 3rd from top 10

So BOTH Williamses are out as Venus has withdrawn

 

[kskate2]

Brengle completely deserves this win. She stayed calm and held onto her serve in the decider.

 

[kskate2]

This is Caroline's tournament to win. She shouldn't have too much trouble with the remaining players. Osaka is good, but hasn't learned how to temper her power yet.

 

[Hoergren]

Brengle completely deserves this win. She stayed calm and held onto her serve in the decider.

She sure did - Serena looked quite ruste and made lots of errorsa but it's her first tournamen since US Open so it's expected. Match caught in one picture me thinks:

Comment from Serena

WTA Insider ‏@WTA_insider 3 min

Serena: “Trying to think of a word that’s not obscene, but that’s pretty much how I played. 88 UFE is too much. Couldn’t get used to wind

 

[lomaha]

If Caroline wins her next match (up 5-2 in the first set) she will be among the seeded players in Australian Open :thumbsup:

 

[Hoergren]

Order of play Thursday January 5th 2017

CENTRE COURT Starting at: 12:30 pm

Barbora STRYCOVA (CZE) [4] vs Lauren DAVIS (USA) 16 67
Madison BRENGLE (USA) vs Jelena OSTAPENKO (LAT) [7] 57 36
Ana KONJUH (CRO) [8] vs Naomi OSAKA (JPN) 30 ret.
Not Before 6:30 pm
Julia GOERGES (GER) vs Caroline WOZNIACKI (DEN) [3] 16 63 64:cry
[WC] Marina ERAKOVIC (NZL)/Laura ROBSON (GBR) vs Kiki BERTENS (NED)/Johanna LARSSON (SWE) [3] 36 46

GRANDSTAND Starting at: 12:30 pm

Gabriela DABROWSKI (CAN)/Zhaoxuan YANG (CHN) [4] vs María IRIGOYEN (ARG)/Ipek SOYLU (TUR) 62 63
Lucie SAFAROVA (CZE)/Barbora STRYCOVA (CZE) [1] vs Demi SCHUURS (NED)/Renata VORACOVA (CZE) W/O
Shuko AOYAMA (JPN)/Makoto NINOMIYA (JPN) vs Kirsten FLIPKENS (BEL)/Jelena OSTAPENKO (LAT) 26 61 7-10

 

[the AntiPusher]

Brengle completely deserves this win. She stayed calm and held onto her serve in the decider.

She sure did - Serena looked quite ruste and made lots of errorsa but it's her first tournamen since US Open so it's expected. Match caught in one picture me thinks:

Comment from Serena

WTA Insider ‏@WTA_insider 3 min

Serena: “Trying to think of a word that’s not obscene, but that’s pretty much how I played. 88 UFE is too much. Couldn’t get used to wind

88 ufes, that's almost unthinkable, !

 

[Hoergren]

Brengle and coach having a funny time talking about Serena

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GonNHnYEPlc[/video]

And this is a nice picture

 

[kskate2]

Brengle completely deserves this win. She stayed calm and held onto her serve in the decider.

She sure did - Serena looked quite ruste and made lots of errorsa but it's her first tournamen since US Open so it's expected. Match caught in one picture me thinks:

Comment from Serena

WTA Insider ‏@WTA_insider 3 min

Serena: “Trying to think of a word that’s not obscene, but that’s pretty much how I played. 88 UFE is too much. Couldn’t get used to wind

88 ufes, that's almost unthinkable, !

That's what happens when you take 3.5 months off the tour. You can't expect to waltz into a tournament and win the thing. She's 35 now. Those days of long layoffs w/ no match play are over.

 

[tossip]

Serena was not moving her feet and was huffing and puffing a lot,she needs a lot of matchplay to win big events.She is now very predictable and players are just keeping the ball in play to test her patience and fitness...Svitolina did the same thing now Brengle just kept the ball in play and the hyena smile on her her coach was sickening now Madison can go to Madison avenue to get that money..

 

[GameSetAndMath]

So, top 6 seeds are gone and we have a possibility of two unseeded players facing each other in the finals. What a great way to start the season for WTA :cover