Roberta Vinci's trophies stolen from Italian residence

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2015 US Open runner-up Roberta Vinci became a victim of theft last weekend. The Italian reported that the trophies that she has won over the span of her career were taken from her residence in Taranto, Italy.

“Unfortunately, a few days ago a group of thieves entered my house and stole valuable objects, including some objects for which the economic value is not even comparable to their emotional value to me: the trophies that I won over my career,” Vinci posted Friday on Instagram. “They can’t take away the memories, the tears, the sweat, the effort, the dedication, the smiles and the sacrifices made to achieve these goals.”

She did not specify whether the silver platter she was awarded during her US Open final to Flavia Pennetta was one of the items missing. Vinci became a pro in 1998 and since has won ten WTA singles titles and 25 in doubles action. Since the end of 2016, Vinci’s record of 547-385 has seen her struggle having won St. Petersburg as her only title of the season.

Aside from being a three time Olympian, the Italian played on her country’s Fed Cup team from 2001-07, 09-16 winning four titles in the span.  

Petkovic advances to QF at Citi Open

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Andrea Petkovic took a good step in the right direction at the Citi Open Thursday. In what was a tough up and down battle with Eugenie Bouchard ended in a shutout in the final set that gave the German a 6-2, 4-6, 6-0 win on Grandstand court William H.G. Fitzgerald Tennis Center. It was the first time this season that Petkovic had advanced to a quarterfinal giving her a boost of confidence from the win.

Both players hadn’t faced one another in two years giving the Canadian an opportunity to turn their personal series around. She only found a way to defeat her German opponent once making their second round match up a challenge. Bouchard came out blazing in her defeat of Christina McHale winning in straight sets with a bagel to finish off the first round. With her offense having a good start, the 23 year old hoped to put together a pattern of consistency.

She and Petkovic both had a good start to their opening service games, but as the German took the next step, she made her stance clear to the Canadian. The fourth was her moment to defend tough against Bouchard’s serve and win the break point. The two made it the longest game of the set lasting several breaks with the 29 year old coming out of the dust victorious. She consolidated her efforts with a second straight win that saw Bouchard call for help. Coach Tomas Högstedt came out to speak with Bouchard in order to help turn the tide quickly. She put together a strong service hold on Petkovic but there was still plenty of ground to cover.

Petkovic made that task difficult for the Canadian as she delivered a response in the seventh formulating an offense that Bouchard couldn’t deal with. She found herself on the edge handing the German two set points finishing with a forehand error to conclude 34 minutes. Petkovic delivered a solid run with her first serve near 75 percent. The second serve from the German took its toll on Bouchard who struggled on the returns.

The second set began with Petkovic making the steps forward to dictate but the Canadian wasn’t having any upsets take place. She rallied back to overtake the German and lead heavily on the score. Petkovic rallied back to attempt a dead lock in the tenth to play the set deeper but the 23 year old managed to hold on to three set points and win her way to playing a decider. By the end of it, the tables and turned for the two with Petkovic suffering on the second serve where she landed just 3 of 15 and was dismal on both sides of her return game. With life back in the hands of the Canadian, the third was up for anyone to take in hand.

The German was under pressure at the start with Bouchard getting a grip on the break with unforced errors playing their role. Petkovic struck back to force deuce where after three breaks she got the win to her name. It was only the start of something bigger for Petkovic who seemed to have Bouchard beaten through the next three decisions.

Both maintained first serve shots, but the leverage was in the hands of the 29 year old who blasted shots across making them count overall. She had Bouchard facing a bagel in the sixth having yet found ways of defeating Petkovic. The unforced errors were overwhelming the 23 year old who couldn’t do much to adjust quickly and fell after 1 hour and 41 minutes.

The 29-year-old took her two game streak in hand and prepared for an interesting day of action Friday facing the winner between Bianca Andreescu of Romania and second seeded Kristina Mladenovic of France.

Muguruza storms through Day at Bank of the West Classic

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Garbine Muguruza showed her strengths in spades at the Bank of the West Classic Wednesday night. The 2017 Wimbledon champion dominated Kayla Day in a straight sets victory that went 6-2, 6-0 on Center Court at the Taube Family Tennis Center on the campus of Stanford University. It was her eighth consecutive match win since playing at Wimbledon with more to come with such tremendous power coming from her first serve.

The two met in the third round at Indian Wells this season which the Spaniard didn’t find easy to play. She received an epic fight from the 17-year-old but managed to come out on top of the three setter. In the current tournament, the teen took care of her match against Misaki Doi allowing her opponent two game winners onto her straight sets success.

With a much heavier opposition in the round of 16, the world number 129 had Muguruza for a second time hoping to pull off a stronger showing. The number one seeded star in the tournament had a very good run at the first half of the hard court season despite not titles coming from it, but in her second appearance at Stanford, the 23 year old gave herself just as good a chance as any to begin her quest.

Muguruza set the bar high to start the opening set and took the teen for a ride with a 3-1 lead. Muguruza’s hard smashes in the rallies were becoming too much for the teen who ran from side to side of the court. The recent Wimbledon champion turned out a 4-1 run indicating her breeze through games and a need for reset from Day’s camp. Rog Anderson came out to speak to her letting her know that the sun was going away giving her an even advantage to bring her best game going forward.

She didn’t get the best chance to do so despite picking up another victory against the world number six. The inevitable was in play during the eighth game which did go three breaks but finished with Muguruza winning the set in half an hour. The 23 year old had her game on lock maintaining with 71 percent of her first serves landing for points against Day. Her 29 total points against the 17 year old took its toll on the second serve which ended at 17 percent through the first eight games.

Her fight was put under a microscope against the Spaniard who charged in the first two games winning 8 of 11 points. She went on to win the next pair putting Day into a very tough situation with no sign of getting herself back in competition. A chance to get on the board appeared in the fifth with her fighting to reach deuce. The struggle came on saving the break points as Muguruza put fierce energy on the ball to win the third attempt.

The 17 year old was clearly irritated by her game while the number one seed sat one game from a straight sets victory. She made good on finishing off her competitor with a hard win to get the night over and done with finishing just two minutes short of an hour on court. “It was a great match and nice to come back after three years,” Muguruza said to Andrew Krasny after the match. “It feels good to come back and you have great memories from that time because it was one of the first tournaments I won in doubles.”

“I think I learned a lot from my previous match with Kayla. She won the US Open juniors so I knew she was going to be difficult so I really trained hard and prepared and be concentrated today.” The concentration takes a different shape going into Friday’s quarterfinals where she’ll face Ana Konjuh who also won her match in straight sets.