{"id":16178,"date":"2026-01-08T06:45:54","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T06:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=16178"},"modified":"2026-01-08T06:46:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T06:46:26","slug":"a-showdown-1200-matches-in-the-making","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=16178","title":{"rendered":"A showdown 1,200 matches in the making"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-widget=\"article-table\/article-table\">\n                        Thursday\u2019s pivotal match could well be the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz meeting between Elise Mertens and Barbora Krejcikova. Hard to believe, but the 30-year-old veterans have played more than 1,200 combined singles matches &#8212; and never, ever faced each other.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Krejcikova, a two-time Grand Slam singles champion, is coming off an injury-riddled season in which she only played 36 matches. Before the event, she was asked what her expectations were for 2026.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yLW8AEK1vqM?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t really have any, to be honest,\u201d Krejcikova told wtatennis.com. \u201cI\u2019m just going out, trying to have fun. I have great people around me right now. I\u2019m enjoying my time traveling and playing some matches.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf I can stay healthy and win some matches \u2026 that would be great. For me, from my perspective after turning 30, I want to enjoy the time I have left in this career. That\u2019s how I approach it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Krejcikova has won both her singles matches, most recently 6-4, 6-1 over Australia\u2019s Maya Joint &#8212; Czechia\u2019s only point in the tie that sent both teams through to the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was trying to be aggressive from the start, and it\u2019s nice to have some matches under my belt,\u201d Krejcikova said afterward. \u201cI felt a little better on the court today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Belgium came through with a resounding 3-0 win over Canada to win Group B when all three teams, including China, went 1-1.<\/p>\n<p>Mertens, with two singles wins, has contributed three of Belgium\u2019s four points. She was a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 winner over Canada\u2019s Victoria Mboko.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know we had to win this tie with a 3-love,\u201d Mertens told reporters afterward. \u201cI think you still focus on your own game, what you can do. She&#8217;s a young player. Yeah, I have a little bit of experience now.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou give yourself 100 percent, which we did. The team behind me gave me a lot of energy.\u201d<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Schedule: Sydney quarterfinal No. 1: Belgium (1-1) vs. Czechia (1-1)<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p><em>Start Time: (5:30 p.m. local, 1:30 a.m. ET)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Men\u2019s singles: Zizou Bergs vs. Jakub Mensik<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Women\u2019s singles: Elise Mertens vs. Barbora Krejcikova<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Mixed doubles: Mertens and Bergs vs. Krejcikova and Mensik<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Brisbane International<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Savor this true-to-form Round of 16:<\/p>\n<p>Eleven of the top 12 seeds here won their second-round matches, setting up some terrific matchups featuring all seven of the top 10 players who began the tournament.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a super-strong field and there\u2019s a lot of top players,\u201d said Amanda Anisimova, probably speaking for all of them. \u201cI\u2019m really excited and looking forward to it. I hope I can play a lot of matches here.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"articleWidget center\">\n<figure class=\"embeddable-video embeddable-widget \">\n<div class=\"embeddable-video__wrapper\"><figcaption class=\"embeddable-video__caption\">\n<h2 class=\"embeddable-video__title b-s-m\">\n                        Anisimova opens 2026 season with 63-minute defeat of Birrell in Brisbane<br \/>\n                    <\/h2>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Anisimova will have to play her best to reach the quarterfinals of this WTA Tour 500 event because her opponent, Marta Kostyuk, owns a 2-1 head-to-head advantage.<\/p>\n<p>No. 1 seed Aryna Sabalenka and Sorana Cirstea are 1-1 in previous matches. Cirstea defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the first round and upset No. 14 seed Jelena Ostapenko in the second.<\/p>\n<p>No. 3 seed Elena Rybakina has a challenging matchup against No. 15 Paula Badosa. Rybakina leads the head-to-head 4-3.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Schedule of play<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p><em>PAT RAFTER ARENA starts at 11 a.m.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>[WTA] [1] A. Sabalenka vs S. Cirstea (ROU)<br \/>[WTA] [3] E. Rybakina (KAZ) vs [15] P. Badosa (ESP)<br \/>[ATP] NB 2:30 p.m.\u00a0[Q] R. Hijikata (AUS) vs G. Mpetshi Perricard (FRA)<br \/>[ATP] NB 6:30 p.m.\u00a0[Q] R. Collignon (BEL) vs G. Dimitrov (BUL)<br \/>[WTA] NB 8 p.m.\u00a0[16] M. Kostyuk (UKR) vs [2] A. Anisimova (USA)<\/p>\n<p><em>SHOW COURT 1 starts at 11 a.m.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>[ATP] [7] C. Norrie (GBR) vs A. Kovacevic (USA)<br \/>[ATP] NB 12:30 p.m.\u00a0[Q] Q. Halys (FRA) vs B. Nakashima (USA)<br \/>[WTA] NB 2:30 p.m.\u00a0[12] D. Shnaider vs [5] M. Keys (USA)<br \/>[WTA] D. Yastremska (UKR) vs [4] J. Pegula (USA)<br \/>[WTA] [6] M. Andreeva vs [9] L. Noskova (CZE)\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>SHOW COURT 2 starts at 11 a.m.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>[WTA] [4] I. Khromacheva \/ A. Panova vs L. Kichenok (UKR) \/ N. Kichenok (UKR)<br \/>[WTA] NB 12:30 p.m.\u00a0[11] K. Muchova (CZE) vs [7] E. Alexandrova<br \/>[WTA] [Q] A. Sasnovich vs [10] L. Samsonova<br \/>[WTA] [3] C. Bucsa (ESP) \/ E. Perez (AUS) vs [2] A. Danilina (KAZ) \/ A. Krunic (SRB)<\/p>\n<h3><strong>ASB Classic<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Four spots in the quarterfinals are on the line in Auckland, New Zealand.<\/p>\n<p>Top seed Elina Svitolina headlines the action in a match against wild card Katie Boulter. They\u2019ve previously met only once, with Svitolina winning their first-round match at the 2020 Australian Open.<\/p>\n<p>The opening match features No. 4 seed Alexandra Eala opposite Petra Marcinko.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Schedule of play<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p><em>CENTRE COURT starts at 11:30 a.m.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>NB 1 p.m. P. Marcinko (CRO) vs [4] A. Eala (PHI)<br \/>[5] M. Linette (POL) vs E. Cocciaretto (ITA)<br \/>NB 6 p.m. [1] E. Svitolina (UKR) vs [WC] K. Boulter (GBR)<br \/>E. Seidel (GER) vs S. Kartal (GBR)\n                    <\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wtatennis.com\/news\/4430120\/united-cup-preview-a-showdown-1400-matches-in-the-making\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thursday\u2019s pivotal match could well be the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz meeting between Elise Mertens and Barbora Krejcikova. Hard to believe, but the 30-year-old veterans have played more than 1,200 combined singles matches &#8212; and never, ever faced each other.\u00a0 Krejcikova, a two-time Grand Slam singles champion, is coming off an injury-riddled season in &#8230; <a title=\"A showdown 1,200 matches in the making\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=16178\" aria-label=\"Read more about A showdown 1,200 matches in the making\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/A-showdown-1200-matches-in-the-making-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16178"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16180,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16178\/revisions\/16180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}