\n
\n\tINDIAN WELLS:\u00a0Aryna Sabalenka avenged her Australian Open loss to Madison Keys, thrashing the American 6-0, 6-1 to book an Indian Wells title showdown with teen sensation Mirra Andreeva.<\/p>\n
\n\tRed-hot Russian 17-year-old Andreeva showed plenty of poise in a 7-6 (7\/1), 1-6, 6-3 victory over defending champion Iga Swiatek, ending the second-ranked Pole\u2019s bid to become the first woman to win three titles in the California desert.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI was hungry,\u201d said Sabalenka, who had made no bones about wanting revenge after Keys denied her bid for a third straight Australian Open title in January.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThat Australian Open match was really heartbroken for me, and I really needed some time to recover after that.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cAnd if I would lose today again, it would get in my head and I didn\u2019t want that to happen. I was really focused \u2014 I was just really hungry to get this win against Madison.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tKeys, who was riding a 16-match winning streak, couldn\u2019t get a foot in the door.<\/p>\n
\n\tSabalenka was untroubled by the cold, swirling wind on Stadium Court as she won the first 11 games.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI think tactically I played really great tennis,\u201d said Sabalenka, adding her strategy was to \u201cjust keep her out of the rhythm.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe misfiring Keys finally held serve for 5-1 in the second, but minutes later Sabalenka sealed the win and lined up a shot at the WTA tour\u2019s newest sensation Andreeva in what 26-year-old Sabalenka quipped would be \u201ckind of like an old mama playing against a kid.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAndreeva beat Swiatek for the second time in as many tournaments, having stunned the Polish star in the quarter-finals at Dubai last month on the way to becoming the youngest ever WTA 1000 champion.<\/p>\n
\n\tSwiatek, who hadn\u2019t dropped a set in winning 10 straight Indian Wells matches, looked supremely confident as she dropped just one point in her first three service games.<\/p>\n
\n\tBut it was Andreeva who claimed the first break of the tense first set for a 5-4 lead.<\/p>\n
\n\tAfter Swiatek broke back and they reached the tiebreaker, Andreeva seized control, opening with a blistering backhand winner and pocketing the set on her first opportunity as Swiatek sent a backhand wide.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI felt like I\u2019m gonna go and play the tiebreak like it\u2019s the last tiebreak of my life,\u201d she said. \u201cSo I just went for all my shots. My serve was great. I just felt super comfortable and confident,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\n\tSwiatek put her frustrations aside and broke Andreeva to open the second set, breaking her twice more as the Russian\u2019s errors multiplied under pressure from her opponent.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe second set, it was a bit weird,\u201d Andreeva said. \u201cI just felt like she literally overplayed me, because she was playing pretty deep with good height over the net. It was really hard to do something with these shots.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe roles reversed again, however, when Andreeva stepped up her attack and broke Swiatek to open the third, and she sealed the win with her third break of the set.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI just decided to kind of still play the same but maybe go for my shots more, trying to play a little bit more aggressive,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI feel also that I was dealing with the nerves and the pressure pretty good, so I just feel proud of myself.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
INDIAN WELLS:\u00a0Aryna Sabalenka avenged her Australian Open loss to Madison Keys, thrashing the American 6-0,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":54547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5695,5696,356,5694,626],"class_list":["post-54545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport","tag-aliou","tag-cisse","tag-coach","tag-hires","tag-libya"],"yoast_head":"\n
Libya hires Aliou Cisse as new head coach - Gulf Times | News by the minute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2593372\/sport\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Libya hires Aliou Cisse as new head coach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gulf News| UAE's Largest News aggregator site\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2593372\/sport\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gulf Times | News by the minute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-12T10:03:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/4582283-698699025.avif\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"660\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"371\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"gulftimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Gulftimesuae\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Gulftimesuae\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"gulftimes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Libya hires Aliou Cisse as new head coach - Gulf Times | News by the minute","description":"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2593372\/sport","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Libya hires Aliou Cisse as new head coach","og_description":"Gulf News| UAE's Largest News aggregator site","og_url":"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2593372\/sport","og_site_name":"Gulf Times | News by the minute","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786","article_published_time":"2025-03-12T10:03:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":660,"height":371,"url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/4582283-698699025.avif","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"gulftimes","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Gulftimesuae","twitter_site":"@Gulftimesuae","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"gulftimes","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2593372\/sport#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=54545"},"author":{"name":"gulftimes","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/person\/4c5b0f90aae48bb43165ee6e39ddc977"},"headline":"Libya hires Aliou Cisse as new head coach","datePublished":"2025-03-12T10:03:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=54545"},"wordCount":565,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2593372\/sport#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/4582283-698699025.avif","keywords":["Aliou","Cisse","coach","hires","Libya"],"articleSection":["Sport"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2593372\/sport#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=54545","url":"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2593372\/sport","name":"Libya hires Aliou Cisse as new head coach - Gulf Times | News by the minute","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2593372\/sport#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2593372\/sport#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/4582283-698699025.avif","datePublished":"2025-03-12T10:03:00+00:00","description":"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2593372\/sport#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2593372\/sport"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2593372\/sport#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/4582283-698699025.avif","contentUrl":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/4582283-698699025.avif","width":660,"height":371},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2593372\/sport#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Libya hires Aliou Cisse as new head coach"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#website","url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/","name":"Gulf Times | News by the minute","description":"Largest News Aggregator in the Gulf","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#organization"},"alternateName":"Gulf News Aggregator","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#organization","name":"Gulf Times","url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"","contentUrl":"","caption":"Gulf Times"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786","https:\/\/x.com\/Gulftimesuae"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/person\/4c5b0f90aae48bb43165ee6e39ddc977","name":"gulftimes","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8f9c2e07a9cd7e7e7c302c8c7ce8d5e0865a0bbcc732793d6e761588fd10b03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8f9c2e07a9cd7e7e7c302c8c7ce8d5e0865a0bbcc732793d6e761588fd10b03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8f9c2e07a9cd7e7e7c302c8c7ce8d5e0865a0bbcc732793d6e761588fd10b03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"gulftimes"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/gulftimes.ae"],"url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/54547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}