Garbine Muguruza Named WTA Player of the Year

Garbine Muguruza is capping off the year with a special honor…

The 24-year-old Spanish-Venezuelan player, this year’s Wimbledon champion, has been named the WTA Player of the Year.

Garbine Muguruza

The women’s tennis tour announced the annual honors Friday. The awards are voted on by members of the media.

Muguruza beat Venus Williams in the Wimbledon final in July for her second Grand Slam title, then moved up to No. 1 in the rankings for the first time in September.

US Open champion Sloane Stephens is the Comeback Player of the Year.

Other award recipients include French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko as Most Improved Player, CiCi Bellis as Newcomer of the Year, and Martina Hingis and Chan Yung-Jan as Doubles Team of the Year.

Garcia Reaches Women’s Doubles Final at the French Open

Caroline Garcia has reached her first Grand Slam women’s doubles final…

The 22-year-old part-Spanish tennis player and her partner Kristina Mladenovic beat Margarita Gasparyan and Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 in Friday’s semifinal at the French Open.

Caroline Garcia & Kristina Mladenovic

The all-French team, the obvious local favorites at Roland Garros, will face off against Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina of Russia in the final.

Last year, Garcia reached the third round at the French Open with then partner Katarina Srebotnik.

But this year, Garcia and Mladenovic won the women’s doubles title at the Mutua Madrid Open, defeating the No. 1 seeded team of Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza in the final, 6–4, 6–4.

Pasarell Inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame

Charlie Pasarell has entered the tennis hall

The 69-year-old Puerto Rican former-tennis-player-turned-commentator-and-promoter has been inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island.

Charlie Pasarell

Pasarell was a prestigious junior player, even gracing the cover of World Tennis Magazine at the age of 11. He won the NCAA men’s singles and doubles titles in 1966 while attending the University of California, Los Angeles.

He competed in major pro tournaments from 1960 through 1979, proving most successful in doubles. Pasarell reached the finals in men’s doubles at the U.S. Championships in 1965 and 1969, the French Open with Arthur Ashe in 1970, and the Australian Open in 1977.

Charlie Pasarell

He also served as a member of the United States’ Davis Cup team in 1966, 1967, 1968, and 1974, helping the U.S. to victory in the 1968 Davis Cup competition.

After retiring, Pasarell was instrumental in the development of the Masters 1000  tennis event, the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. He served as the tournament director until retiring from the post in 2012. He’s credited with helping the tournament grow from drawing 30,000 people to bringing in 370,000 tennis fans.

Pasarell is also a commentator for The Tennis Channel.

Other inductees this year include former players Ion Tiriac, Cliff Drysdale and Martina Hingis.

Puig Upsets Fifth-Seed Sara Errani in the First Round at Wimbledon

Mónica Puig has registered the first major upset at Wimbledon

The 19-year-old Puerto Rican tennis player hit 38 winners to defeat Italy’s Sara Errani, the tournament’s fifth seed, 6-3, 6-2 on Monday in the first match on Court 18 of the grass-court Grand Slam tournament.

Monica Puig

Puig, playing in her first grass-court tournament as a professional, completely outplayed Errani with her hard-hitting baseline game.

Errani was the runner-up at last year’s French Open and had reached at least the semifinals of three of the last five Grand Slams. But on the slick grass at the All England club on Monday, she had only 13 winners and was broken four times.

Puig squandered five match points before hitting a forehand winner past Errani to close out the match. She then dropped her racket to the turf and covered her face in her hands.

Errani withdrew from last week’s grass-court warmup at Eastbourne with a leg injury, but showed no signs of any physical problems during the match.

It’s the third time a top-5 women’s seeded player has lost in the first round at Wimbledon since 2001. The others were Martina Hingis in 2000 and Francesca Schiavone in 2010.

Monday’s defeat marked another humbling Wimbledon exit for Errani.

Last year, the Italian went an entire set without winning a point in losing 6-0, 6-4 in the third round to Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan. Shvedova was the first player in a Grand Slam to achieve a so-called “golden set” by winning 24 straight points.

Puig reached her first WTA main draw quarterfinal at the 2013 Portugal Open. She defeated number 8 seed and former top-15 player Julia Görges in round one before beating former French Open champion Francesca Schiavone in the second round. She lost in the quarterfinals to number 4 seed Carla Suárez Navarro of Spain.

At the 2013 French Open, Puig had the most remarkable win of her career before her big Wimbledon win when she defeated world number 11, Nadia Petrova, in three sets.

She next faces Spain’s Silvia Soler Espinosa in the second round.