Player Reactions & Interviews
Step inside the world of WTA player reactions and interviews, where emotions, insights, and unfiltered moments tell the stories behind the matches.
Here you’ll find players speaking openly about their performances, rivalries, comebacks, and goals throughout the season — from tense Grand Slam press conferences to candid reflections at smaller tournaments.
Whether it’s a fiery post-match reaction, a thoughtful analysis of a hard-fought win, or a glimpse into life beyond the court, this hub brings together the voices that define women’s tennis today.
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Jovic Rides Early-Season Rhythm Into Melbourne, Keeps Her Feet Firmly on the Ground
Iva Jovic arrived at the Australian Open with momentum already humming — and she made sure it stayed that way. The 18-year-old American opened her campaign with a composed 6–2, 6–3 win over fellow American Katie Volynets, extending a start to 2026 that increasingly looks like more than a hot streak. There was no drama,…
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Anisimova Gets Down to Business in Melbourne, Then Lets Her Personality Breathe
Amanda Anisimova opened her Australian Open with the brisk efficiency of a contender who knows exactly why she is here — and with just enough humanity to remind everyone she is still enjoying the ride. A 6–3, 6–2 dismissal of Simona Waltert took barely an hour, but it revealed both the steel and looseness of…
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Kasatkina Walks Out as One of Australia’s Own — Pride First, Pressure Second
Daria Kasatkina has played the Australian Open ten times. On Sunday, she finally does it as a local. When she steps onto court to face 18-year-old Czech qualifier Nikola Bartunkova, it will mark her first Grand Slam match under the Australian flag — a quiet but deeply significant shift in a career shaped by constant…
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Raducanu Survives the Wait, Then Sets the Tone in Melbourne
Emma Raducanu spent the days before her Australian Open opener talking about compromise. Late arrival. Late start. Limited preparation. Modest expectations. By the time she left Rod Laver Arena on Sunday night, she had turned all of that into a controlled 6–4, 6–1 win over Mananchaya Sawangkaew — and a reminder that disruption does not…
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Naomi Osaka Breaks Silence on Evolve Exit: “I Never Had Any Equity”
Naomi Osaka has finally drawn a firm line under the confusion surrounding her departure from Evolve, insisting she was never an owner of the agency so often described as her own. Speaking candidly in a recent interview, the four-time Grand Slam champion pushed back against the narrative that framed her exit as a dramatic split…
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Zheng Qinwen’s Melbourne Heartbreak as Elbow Injury Forces Australian Open Withdrawal
Zheng Qinwen’s love affair with Melbourne has been put on hold. The former Australian Open finalist will not feature at the 2026 season opener after deciding her right elbow still isn’t ready for the brutal demands of a Grand Slam. It is a sobering moment for a player who had been pushing firmly into the…
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Mirra Andreeva Finds Her Feet Again in Brisbane, One Match at a Time
Mirra Andreeva did not stride into 2026 announcing herself. She edged in, breathless but standing, the kind of opening-night win that says more about survival than sparkle. A 4:6, 6:1, 6:2 escape against Olivia Gadecki at the Brisbane International was hardly flawless, yet after a brittle end to 2025 it was precisely the sort of…
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Kasatkina Stirs the Pot: Why Women’s Slam Tennis Feels Sharper Than the Men’s Right Now
Daria Kasatkina has never been one to hide behind polite phrasing, and she is not starting now. In a thoughtful YouTube-interview with Tennis Australia, the former Top 10 player offered a clear-eyed assessment of modern tennis — and lobbed a grenade into the ongoing men-versus-women debate at Grand Slams. According to Kasatkina, the women’s game…
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Iga Swiatek’s Coach Wim Fissette on the Mental Switch Behind Her Wimbledon Miracle
Winning Wimbledon was never meant to be part of Iga Swiatek’s script for 2025. Not after a bruising clay season, not after doubts crept in where dominance once lived. And yet, as Wim Fissette now reflects, that improbability is precisely why this year may echo longest. A Title That Defied Logic — And History For…
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Fast-Forward Fame and the Cost of Growing Up: Why Elena Dementieva Sees a Bigger 2026 for Mirra Andreeva
Mirra Andreeva did not ease her way into the elite in 2025. She burst through the door, rearranged the furniture and left the tour scrambling to recalibrate its expectations. Two WTA 1000 titles, deep Grand Slam runs and a ranking surge compressed into a single season can distort perspective. Elena Dementieva, who knows a thing…
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Inside Sabalenka’s 2025 Formula: The Team, the Truths and the Discipline Behind World No.1
Aryna Sabalenka’s dominance in 2025 did not come from brute force alone. It was engineered—carefully, relentlessly—by a support team that understood how thin the line is between supremacy and self-destruction at the top of the game. Behind the world No.1’s second straight season of control sat a tightly run operation led by performance coach Jason…
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‘It Was Very Touching’: Petra Kvitova Given Emotional Farewell at Golden Canary Gala
Petra Kvitova walked back into the Czech tennis spotlight not as a competitor, but as a legacy. Just months after her retirement, the two-time Wimbledon champion was the emotional center of the Zlatý kanár (Golden Canary) Gala in Přerov — and the room knew it. The annual ceremony, staged by Tenis magazine and the Czech…
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Lilli Tagger Keeps Moving as 2026 Comes Into Focus
Lilli Tagger has chosen motion over pause. With the season barely in the rear-view mirror, the 17-year-old Austrian has relocated to Dubai, not for a reset but for continuity, treating the weeks after her breakthrough year as an extension rather than an ending. The choice fits a player whose 2025 season recalibrated expectations. Junior success…
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Rybakina, Vukov and the Noise: How Riad Turned a Season of Doubt into a Statement of Power
Elena Rybakina didn’t just win the WTA Finals in Riyadh. She walked straight through one of the loudest controversies of the season and left it echoing behind her. All Ways Lead to… Stefano Vukov For months, the conversation around the former Wimbledon champion had little to do with forehands or first-serve percentages. It revolved around…
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“I knew I’d have to bust my ass, but I was ready for that” — Anisimova’s Year of Reinvention
Amanda Anisimova did not so much climb back to the top of women’s tennis as hammer her way through the ceiling. A season that began with quiet optimism ended with the most complete year of her career: two Grand Slam finals, two WTA-1000 trophies, and a return to the world’s top five. Not bad for…
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Maya Joint Eyes 2026 Breakthrough After Stunning Rise Into WTA Top 32
Every breakout season has a moment where promise hardens into proof, and for Maya Joint that moment arrived long before the world fully caught on. The 19-year-old Australian didn’t burst onto the scene so much as glide into the elite, stringing together results with a poise far beyond her age. Now, with two WTA titles,…
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Inside the Off-Season: Keys, Pegula and Brady Reveal the Truth About Exhibitions — And the Sabalenka vs Kyrgios Showdown
Exhibitions may sit on the fringes of the tennis calendar, but for players they often reveal far more than a routine week on tour. In a refreshingly frank episode of Players Box, Madison Keys, Jessica Pegula and Jennifer Brady peeled back the curtain on the off-season’s travelling roadshow — the invitations, the incentives, the unspoken…
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Sorana Cirstea Opens Up on Choosing Her Final Season — A Fresh Mindset Inspired by an 80-Year-Old Lady
Sorana Cirstea has spent nearly twenty years wrestling with the sport that shaped her. Now, at 34, she has finally made peace with an idea she once rejected outright: ending her career on her own terms. In a strikingly open conversation on the Tennis Insider Club podcast, the Romanian laid out why 2026 will be…
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Vondrousova Calls Out Late-Night Doping Test — A Wimbledon Champion Draws a Line on Privacy
It takes a lot to unsettle Marketa Vondrousova, but a knock at 8:15 p.m. managed it. The 2023 Wimbledon champion ended her season bruised, patched up, and plotting a healthier 2025 — only to be met by an unexpected visitor who wasn’t interested in slice volleys or rehab updates, just her urine sample. And crucially,…
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Olga Danilovic: Finding Strength in the Shadow of a Giant
For Olga Danilovic, growing up Serbian in tennis means living under the long shadow of Novak Djokovic — but also occasionally basking in his light. The 24-year-old left-hander, once ranked as high as No. 32, has not only shared the court with the men’s world No. 1 but shared his counsel, his energy, and —…
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Sabalenka Ends Her Champion’s Year with a Brazilian Reset — and Eyes an Even Fiercer 2026
Sometimes a season doesn’t finish on a tennis court but somewhere far quieter, where no one asks about unreturned serves. Aryna Sabalenka closed out her extraordinary 2025 exactly like that — soaking in Brazil, meeting her partner’s family and friends, and even sharing a moment with football icon Ronaldo. The world No. 1 allowed herself…
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Victoria Mboko Says “There’s So Much More to Come” as She Reveals Her Off-Court Love for Bruno Mars
After a season that stretched her body, mind and diary to breaking point, Victoria Mboko can finally stop running. The 19-year-old Canadian, who rattled through 76 matches and rocketed to No. 18 in under a year, has at last been granted something alien to her in recent times: a proper breather. “It just feels good…
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Rybakina’s Post-Riyadh Interview — Rhythm Found, a Guinness Record Earned, and a Sweet End to a Wild Season
For a player who only just squeezed into the WTA Finals, Elena Rybakina ended the season like someone who had been circling Riyadh on her calendar since January. She arrived late to the party, but once inside, she rearranged the furniture. The Moscow-born Kazakh, who needed a razor-sharp Asian swing to edge Mirra Andreeva out…
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Simona Halep Slips Out the Side Door — No Tour, No Tears, Just a Clean Break
Simona Halep didn’t wait for a farewell wave or a sunset ceremony. She simply drifted off court in Cluj-Napoca at the Transylvania Open nine months ago and, somewhere between a throbbing knee and a 6–1 first set lost to Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti, realised she’d reached the end. No drama, no dossier. Another 6–1 in the…
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Dementieva and Kafelnikov on Vukov-Gate, Serve Speeds, Being an Alternate, and the WTA Finals Final : “Elena Rybakina Was Brilliant”
Russian tennis has rarely lacked for character, and few embody that better than Elena Dementieva and Yevgeny Kafelnikov — two champions who defined their eras with contrasting flair. Their insights are revealing — always filtered through a distinctly Russian lens. As Svetlana Kuznetsova remarked earlier this week, from their perspective Moscow-born Rybakina remains a Russian…
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Rybakina’s Riyadh Triumph Turns Political — Kuznetsova Applauds, Shriver Condemns as WTA Rift Deepens
Elena Rybakina should have been basking in glory. A 6-3, 7-6(0) masterclass over world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka delivered her the WTA Finals crown — the biggest title of her career outside Wimbledon. But instead of a victory lap, the 26-year-old found herself at the centre of another storm. Her refusal to stand beside WTA…
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Drunk, Seemingly Polish Fan Derails Swiatek — Season Ends on a Sour Note
It was meant to be a straightforward night for Iga Swiatek — one set up, one foot in the semifinals, and total control. Instead, a “drunk fan,” shouting apparently in Polish between serves, managed to throw the world No. 2 off her rhythm — and out of the WTA Finals. The man, apparently intending to…
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Don’t Toss the Toss: Unshaken Rybakina Serves Through Fatigue Into WTA Finals Semis
There’s a certain inevitability to an Elena Rybakina victory when the serve starts clicking — a quiet storm that no opponent seems able to read, let alone withstand. On Wednesday afternoon in Riyadh, it was Ekaterina Alexandrova who felt the full weight of that precision, as Rybakina eased into the WTA Finals semifinals with a…
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“Not just breathe, eat, and do the same thing every day”: Why Ons Jabeur Had to Step Away
Ons Jabeur didn’t walk away from tennis because she stopped loving it — she did it because that love started to hurt. Speaking in Riyadh this week, the Tunisian star opened up about her decision to take an indefinite break after Wimbledon 2024, describing a painful emotional shift that even she hadn’t seen coming. “The…
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Sabalenka’s Emotional Fire Burns Bright — but How Hot Is Too Hot?
Aryna Sabalenka once again delivered a reminder in Riyadh that her tennis is powered as much by heart as by muscle. Her 6–4, 2–6, 6–3 win over Jessica Pegula was not just a test of execution but of emotion — the kind of volatile performance that lays bare both her greatest weapon and her biggest…