Jennifer Brady Archives - Page 4 of 4

Dubai PHOTOS: Halep saves match point against Jabeur to advance to quarterfinals

Wednesday at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships featured eight second-round matches that shaped up the tournament’s quarterfinal field.

The day opened with second seed Karolina Pliskova‘s commanding 6-1 6-2 victory over Kristina Mladenovic, followed by the continued progress of qualifier Jennifer Brady, who won 11 of the last 12 games to recover from a 6-4 4-1 deficit against Marketa Vondrousova and win 4-6 6-4 6-1.

Australian Open finalist and ninth seed Garbine Muguruza is still enjoying good results, her latest being a win in an entertaining encounter with talented Veronika Kudermetova 7-5 4-6 6-4. Eighth seed Petra Martic beat Barbora Strycova 6-3 6-3, while Elena Rybakina reached her fourth quarterfinal of the season by knocking out Katerina Siniakova with the same scoreline.

Seventh seed Aryna Sabalenka enjoyed a straight-set win over Elise Mertens, just as Anett Kontaveit over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

The highlight of the day was definitely top seed Simona Halep‘s thriller against wildcard Ons Jabeur, who recovered from 1-4 to 4-4 in the decider and fought off three match points in the tiebreak before earning one of her own. Halep saved that match point and Jabeur’s back-to-back forehand misses gave the favorite a fourth match point which she didn’t miss, 1-6 6-2 7-6(7).

It’s hard to believe, but our hard-working photographer Jimmie48 made it to all but one of these second-round singles matches and to almost all doubles matches on Wednesday’s schedule. Enjoy his photo gallery!

MORE 2020 DUBAI DUTY FREE TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS PHOTOS:

February 19, 2020

Childhood photos of American dark horse Jennifer Brady

After starting the season on a high note with a run to the Brisbane International quarterfinals, 24-year-old Jennifer Brady is again drawing blood as a qualifier, having ousted two-time champion Elina Svitolina in the first round of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday. Let’s go through the American’s tennis beginnings and childhood photos.

Brady was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and started playing tennis at the age of seven.

The current world No.52 moved to Florida when she was nine. The reason behind the move was not tennis, but it obviously ended up working out. She went to Evert Tennis Academy.

The first time Jennifer made headlines was during the 2017 Australian Open, when she reached the fourth round as a qualifier. Her third-round upset of Elena Vesnina was her first Top 20 career win and just her fifth tour-level win overall. That same year Jennifer also advanced to the fourth round of the US Open, the tournament where she had made her pro debut three years earlier.

Jennifer took her dark horse status to new levels at this year’s Brisbane International, where she scored her maiden Top 10 win over world No.1 Ashleigh Barty in the second round. Qualifier Jennifer’s first-round victim in Brisbane was five-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova.

This week in Dubai, Brady beat Kristyna Pliskova, Gabriela Dabrowski and Hsieh Su-Wei in qualifying and then dismantled world No.6 Elina Svitolina, who had lifted the Dubai champion’s trophy in 2017 and 2018 and had not lost before the semifinals since her 2015 debut. Brady opens Wednesday’s second-round action in Dubai against Marketa Vondrousova on Court 1.

February 19, 2020

Dubai PHOTOS: Kenin, Bencic, Svitolina knocked out in first round

Tuesday at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships was full of upsets, as reigning Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin, defending champion Belinda Bencic, and 2017 and 2018 tournament titlist Elina Svitolina all fell in the first round.

Just two days after playing the St. Petersburg final and a day after making a Top 20 debut, Elena Rybakina continues her astonishing season by eliminating fresh Melbourne champion Sofia Kenin 6-7(2) 6-3 6-3. The Moscow-born Kazakh Rybakina leads the tour in three-set wins this year, having won all seven deciders she’s played so far. Moreover, Rybakina topped the WTA ace leaderboard with 104 aces and match win leaderboard (15-3 win-loss) heading into Dubai.

Belinda Bencic‘s match against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was very strange. The Swiss defending champion won the first 19 points of the first set and was just five points away from a Golden Set, but then evaporated into the air to lose 1-6 6-1 6-1 as Pavs started blasting winners.

Qualifier Jennifer Brady upset error-prone two-time Dubai champion Elina Svitolina in straight sets 6-2 6-1, continuing a fruitful 2020 season which included another Top 10 win, over top-ranked Ashleigh Barty in the opening round of the Brisbane International in January.

It was an awesome day for qualifiers in Dubai. Besides Brady, qualifier Veronika Kudermetova recovered from 2-5 in the third set to defeat Dayana Yastremska 5-7 6-3 7-6(2), Katerina Siniakova beat Karolina Muchova 6-4 4-6 6-0 in an all-Czech meeting, while Kristina Mladenovic was better than fellow qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-4 6-3.

Also in the first round, seventh seed Aryna Sabalenka knocked out Maria Sakkari 6-2 4-6 6-1.

MORE 2020 DUBAI DUTY FREE TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS PHOTOS:

February 18, 2020

Brisbane PHOTOS: Keys, Kvitova, Osaka, Pliskova reach the semifinals

Semifinals at the 2020 Brisbane International are set, as Madison Keys, Petra Kvitova, Naomi Osaka and Karolina Pliskova won their quarterfinal matches on Friday.

Eighth seed Madison Keys dropped just four points on serve in the first set and two in the second to dispatch fellow American Danielle Collins 6-4 6-1 and for the first time make the semifinals in her first tournament of the season.

Fifth seed and 2011 Brisbane champion Petra Kvitova was tested in the first set, but faced no break points in the second set to win 6-4 6-2 and stop the spectacular run of American qualifier Jennifer Brady, who ousted Maria Sharapova and world No.1 Ashleigh Barty en route to the quarterfinals. The world No.53 Brady will make her Top 50 debut on Monday, rising to a career-high No.49.

In a match between two Top 10 players, third seed Naomi Osaka recorded the decisive service breaks late in the first and third sets to move into the Brisbane semifinals for the second straight year with a 6-3 3-6 6-3 over sixth seed Kiki Bertens. Osaka is now on a 14-match winning streak, as her last loss was at the US Open, while she’s lost just two completed matches since Wimbledon.

Second seed Karolina Pliskova completed the semifinal lineup with a 7-6(6) 6-3 victory over American Alison Riske. The Czech defending champion led 5-2 in the first set, but her opponent clawed back and earned a tiebreak in which she had two set points at 6-4. Pliskova saved them both and won the set when Riske double-faulted, continuing the momentum into the second set, as inconsistency again dogged Riske, who cracked the Top 20 in the second half of 2019.

Enjoy our photo gallery by Jimmie48!

MORE BRISBANE INTERNATIONAL 2020 PHOTOS:

January 10, 2020

Brisbane PHOTOS: Barty upset, Osaka & Pliskova advance to quarterfinals

After Alison Riske, Danielle Collins and Madison Keys reached the quarterfinals on the perfect Wednesday for American tennis at the Brisbane International, qualifier Jennifer Brady became the fourth American in the final eight by upsetting world No.1 Ashleigh Barty 6-4 7-6(4) on Thursday without facing a break point.

In the quarterfinals, Brady will play fifth seed Petra Kvitova, as the Czech breezed past Russia’s Liudmila Samsonova 6-3 6-2 in 61 minutes.

Third seed Naomi Osaka wasted four set points at 5-4 in a tight first set, as Sofia Kenin managed to hold serve and then edge the breakless set in a tiebreak. After getting really tight and making bad decisions during the pressure moments in the first set, Osaka improved that aspect in the second and third set and saw off the American she’s known since junior days 6-7(3) 6-3 6-1.

Speaking about Kenin’s game, Osaka said:

She’s the girl that was younger than me but better than me. In the juniors she used to kill everybody. But I didn’t really play juniors, but in the times that I did, she was like the one winning everything.

In the first round of the Brisbane International, Osaka hit personal best 16 aces, while against Kenin she surpassed that personal record with 18 aces. Osaka’s quarterfinal opponent will be sixth seed Kiki Bertens, as the Dutch battled past Anett Kontaveit 6-3 2-6 7-5.

Defending champion and second seed Karolina Pliskova fought past Ajla Tomljanovic 6-4 6-7(5) 6-1 to move into the quarterfinals, where she’ll face Alison Riske, one of the three Americans that made the final eight yesterday.

The fourth quarterfinal pair will be an all-American encounter between eighth seed Madison Keys and Danielle Collins. They will open Friday’s schedule at 11 a.m. local time at Pat Rafter Arena.

Our photographer Jimmie48 attended all Thursday’s second round matches! Enjoy the gallery below.

MORE BRISBANE INTERNATIONAL 2020 PHOTOS:

January 9, 2020

Ashleigh Barty’s season opens in defeat to qualifier Jennifer Brady

The first match of world No.1 Ashleigh Barty‘s 2020 season ended in a 6-4 7-6(4) defeat to in-form qualifier Jennifer Brady, who closed out their second-round encounter in front of a very tough crowd at the Brisbane International for her first Top 10 victory and a place in the quarterfinals.

The world No.53 Brady backed up her first-round win over Maria Sharapova by winning 85% first serve points and not facing a single break point against the 23-year Barty at Pat Rafter Arena. As Barty emphasized, the fact that the entire match featured just one break of serve, shows how well both players served. When it comes to the 24-year-old Brady, she has played 24 consecutive service games without facing a break point.

It’s the first time in three attempts that Brady has beaten Barty, who has never been past the second round in Brisbane in her five appearances.