Sunday, February 03, 2019

Wk.5- Plan 5 From B (Bertens) to Y (Yastremska)

A week after the Australian Open, the titles trophies just keep getting bigger and bigger.



Hopefully, Dayana Yastremska will recover from her hernia surgery and be back out there seeking career title #3 soon.

(Kidding.)





*WEEK 5 CHAMPIONS*
Saint Petersburg, RUS (Premier/Hard Court Indoor)
S: Kiki Bertens/NED def. Donna Vekic/CRO 7-6(2)/6-4
D: Ekaterina Makarova/Margarita Gasparyan (RUS/RUS) d. Anna Kalinskaya/Viktoria Kuzmova (RUS/SVK) 7-5/7-5
HUA HIN, THA (International/Hard Court)
S: Dayana Yastremska/UKR def. Ajla Tomljanovic/AUS 6-2/2-6/7-6(3)
D: Irina-Camelia Begu/Monica Niculescu (ROU/ROU) d. Anna Blinkova/Wang Yafan (RUS/CHN) 2-6/6-1 [12-10]



PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Kiki Bertens/NED
...with the week after the season's first major the initial battleground on which players who put up disappointing slam results can rebound and "restart" their season, Bertens (after a somewhat surprising 2nd Round AO loss to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova) passed with flying colors in Saint Petersburg.



For one, after an opening win over Ysaline Bonaventure, Bertens got some measure of revenge on Pavlyuchenkova by taking *her* out in a QF match-up. Her '19 slate effectively refreshed, the Dutch woman out-hit fellow Top 10er Aryna Sabalenka (her 13th Top 10 win the last two seasons, and 16th for her career) to reach her fifth singles final since last April (and fourth straight on hard court, after having her first seven career WTA finals come on clay). After falling behind Donna Vekic 5-2 in the 1st set, Bertens stormed back to take the set in a tie-break and won in straights, serving out the 6-4 2nd (though she was made to work a little extra by the Croat, winning on MP #4). With her third hard court title since the start of '18, Bertens (former "clay court specialist") is in a six-way tie for the most tour titles on the surface over the last thirteen-plus months.
===============================================
RISERS: Donna Vekic/CRO and Aryna Sabalenka/BLR
...Vekic has made steady progress the last few seasons, with '18 being her third consecutive season with an improved final ranking, as she climbed from #56 to #34, reached her first slam Round of 16 (Wimbledon) and notched more Top 10 wins last year alone (3) than she'd previously had in her entire career. With a SF (Brisbane) and final (Saint Petersburg) already in 2019, the trend is continuing.



Last week included wins over Timea Bacsinszky, Veronika Kudermetova, Petra Kvitova (at #2, she's Vekic's biggest career win) and Vera Zvonareva. She led Kiki Bertens 5-2 in the 1st set of the final, her biggest to date, before the Dutch woman took control. Still, Vekic will add yet another career milestone (a new career high of #25) on Monday, as her hunt for still bigger things pushes ever forward.

Sabalenka didn't reach her second '19 final in Saint Petersburg, but in her first event since reaching the Top 10 she rebounded from her disappointing AO result (a not-close loss vs. teenager Amanda Anisimova in the 3rd Rd.) by having her her fifth SF-or-better result since August (a stretch which has seen the Belarusian win three titles, and reach two SF and two QF) with wins over Alison Van Uytvanck and Ekaterina Alexandrova.

View this post on Instagram

Sometimes it’s happens?? @andrey_plus

A post shared by Aryna Sabalenka (@sabalenka_aryna) on


===============================================
SURPRISES: Magda Linette/POL and Jen Brady/USA
...now the top-ranked woman from Poland (44 spots ahead of 17-year old Iga Swiatek heading into Week 5), Linette went to Hua Hin and put up her best result since reaching the semis in Nanchang last July. Wins over Priscilla Hon, Monica Niculescu and Wang Yafan got the 26-year old within one win of her second tour final ('15 Tokyo), but she fell short with a loss at the hands of Dayana Yastremska in the semifinals. Linette will jump from #98 to #89 on Monday. She was at a career high #55 last February, after she'd followed up a 3rd Round AO result (def. Kasatkina) with a QF at the Taiwan Open a year ago this week.



Now 23, Brady had her coming out party during the 2017 season. That year, she reached the Round of 16 at the Australian and U.S. Opens in her debut appearances in those events, reached her career high (finishing at #64) and played in her maiden tour-level singles semifinal in Hong Kong. The Bannerette is *still* seeking her first multiple MD win WTA event since that run in October '17, but her last two outings have produced a number of moments of note. In Melbourne, she teamed with Alison Riske to upset the likes of Melichar/Peschke and the Chan sisters en route to the doubles semis, and this past week in Hua Hin she qualified and notched a 1st Round upset over #2-seeded Caroline Garcia, her first MD tour-level win since last September and second career Top 20 victory. She very nearly reached the QF, but lost out to Tamara Zidansek in one of those "special" matches that we see on occasion. After trailing 5-1, 40/love and saving three MP in the final set, Brady ultimately had three MP of her own, but ended up losing on the Slovenian's seventh MP. Of course, as luck would have it, while Brady's week was encouraging, she'll actually fall from #117 to #120 on Monday.


===============================================
VETERAN: Vera Zvonareva/RUS
...Zvonareva has pretty put together a "stealth" comeback over the last year or two, but a few more weeks like the one she just had in Saint Petersburg and that will no longer be the case.

The 34-year old, former world #2 and slam finalist won two WD titles last year (both in Russia), posted her first MD slam win since 2015 and her first Top 10 victory (Pliskova) since 2011 while rising back into the Top 125. This year she's already reached a SF in Shenzhen and returned to the Top 100 for the first time in six years (before her 2013 shoulder surgery, and prior to her two-year break from the sport during which she was married and had a baby before returning in 2017).



Back home in Russia, Zvonareva reached her first Premier event singles semifinal since '11, posting a win against Ekaterina Makarova and back-to-back Top 20 victories over Dasha Kasatkina and Julia Goerges before a loss to Donna Vekic. She didn't reach her first tour level WS final in eight years, but she'll jump from #97 to #76 in the new rankings.
===============================================


COMEBACK: Ajla Tomljanovic/AUS
...it's the last hurdle that's becoming the highest for Tomljanovic.

The Croat-turned-Aussie has made a successful comeback from 2016 shoulder surgery, reaching her third singles final in the last two years in Hua Hin and on Monday rising to what will be a new career high of #41. But the 25-year old is still in search of her first tour-level singles title, as she now stands at 0-4 on the WTA level. Since 2011, she's picked up just a single title (at a $50K challenger in '13), and has now lost all eight of her ITF/WTA finals from 2013-19.

She did come perilously close this weekend, though. After wins over Stefanie Voegele, Kateryna Kozlova, Zheng Saisai and Tamara Zidansek, she faced off with Dayana Yastremska for the crown. After dropping the 1st set, Tomljanovic rallied as the teenager's service woes helped to level the match. She led 5-2 in the 3rd set, but had a difficult time closing out her maiden title run after the Ukrainian's "well-timed" MTO just before the Aussie was set to serve for the match. Of course, Tomljanovic got *two* opportunities to do so, and twice came within two points of the win (at 30/15 and deuce) in her first try, then led 2-0 in the deciding TB, only to win just one more point the rest of the way.


===============================================


FRESH FACES: Dayana Yastremska/UKR, Tamara Zidansek/SLO and Veronika Kudermetova/RUS
...Yastremska isn't likely to win any Miss Congeniality awards anytime soon, but she's already starting to rack up titles.

The 18-year old Ukrainian won her second tour-level title in her last six events (W-SF-q-QF-AO 3r-W) in Hua Hin, dropping just one set all week while taking out the likes of a former slam semifinalist (Peng Shuai), former #1 and slam winner (Garbine Muguruza), Poland's #1 (Magda Linette) and a three-time 2018-19 finalist (Ajla Tomljanovic) in the championship match. After taking the 1st from Tomljanovic, the Yastremska serve went away (she had 13 DF in match) and she dropped the 2nd. She rebounded to lead 2-0 in the 3rd, but saw the Aussie reel off five straight games and head to the changeover area to prepare to serve for her first title. Of course, that's when Yastremska took a surprise MTO, further cementing a certain negative "tag" that had already been attached to her after over the past two seasons after retiring from one match when MP down, and then another this year while losing 6-2/5-1.

Truth be told, though she's still a teenager and early in her career, it's probably going to be something that'll be hard to shake in some corners (you *know* how long and nasty the memories of tennis Twitter opinionators are). After the '16 Wimbledon girls final I likened the Ukrainian's on-court mannerisms and manner to a young Victoria Azarenka, and I think this little aspect of her career so far somewhat speaks to that.

Yastremska will rise thirteen spots to a new career high of #34 in the new rankings, keeping a step ahead of younger (but still visible in her rankings rear view mirror) Top 100 players Amanda Anisimova (17), Bianca Andreescu (by one month) and Anastasia Potapova (17) as the highest ranked under-19 player on tour.

21-year old Zidansek's semifinal run at Hua Hin was her second at a tour-level event (Moscow River Cup last July), and she had to fight tooth and nail to get there. After Timea Babos retired from their 1st Round match, the Slovenian squandered three MP and a 5-1 3rd set lead against Jennifer Brady, then *saved* three MP before finally winning on MP #7. A round later in the QF it took six MP to finally put away Viktorija Golubic. Zidansek was no match for a massively on-form Ajla Tomljanovic in the semis (example: the Aussie closed out the match by firing two return winners and a crosscourt passing shot to emphatically secure three of the four points in her match-ending break of serve), but her result will push her up eleven spots to #63, a new career high.



Kudermetova had quite the rollercoaster week back home in Russia. After posting qualifying round wins over Martina Trevisan and Belinda Bencic, the 21-year old fell to fellow Hordette Margarita Gasparyan a round short of the main draw. But she entered the MD as lucky loser and posted a 1st Round victory over Olga Danilovic (the Serb's seventh straight loss). She lost a round later to Donna Vekic. Still, her week adds another to the Russian's list of productive outings in '19, a season which had already seen her qualify in both Shenzhen (she defeated Blinkova, Begu and Pavlyuchenkova on her way to the QF) and at the Australian Open. With her 3-2 mark this week, she's now 10-4 on the season and will crack the Top 100 (#98) for the first time in her career on Monday.


===============================================
DOWN: Julia Goerges/GER and Caroline Garcia/FRA
...Goerges' season started in auspicious fashion, as she became the first woman to successfully defend the Auckland singles title since 2004 (Greece's Eleni Daniilidou). Since then, though, she's lost two of three matches despite winning the 1st set. She served for the match in the 2nd set in the Australian Open vs. Danielle Collins, only to lose in three to the eventual semifinalist. This week in Saint Petersburg, after a 1st Round win over Maria Sakkari (the best WTA player from Greece since Daniilidou), Goerges fell to Vera Zvonareva in the 2nd Round, also after having claimed the opening set.

Meanwhile, Garcia's season, to say the least, has so far failed to launch. Barely holding onto her Top 20 ranking (#19), the Pastry came into Hua Hin having lost both her two previous 2019 matches in straight sets to Ivana Jorovic and Sonya Kenin. She made it 0-3 with her 6-4/7-6 1st Round loss to Jen Brady this week, giving her a combined 1-4 mark since her whew!-that-was-close late season (and only '18) title run in Tianjin last fall.

Considering some of the bottom-dropped-out performances Garcia produced last year *after* her father was called in for an on-court coaching session, it's hard to disagree with this assessment...



Up next: scheduled for this coming next week in Liege, Belgium...



This should be interesting, long overdue and maybe -- just maybe -- somewhat cathartic detante for everyone. For the record, Garcia is 0-3 in '19, while Mladenovic is 0-4.
===============================================
ITF PLAYER: Caty McNally/USA
...the season's first $100K challenger went to 17-year old Bannerette wild card McNally. It's the first pro singles title for the former Roland Garros girls finalist and two-time junior doubles slam champ (2-3 in gd slam finals).



McNally's path to her maiden title was littered with high seeds, as she knocked off the three of the Top 4 -- #1 Rebecca Peterson in the SF, #3 Madison Brengle in the QF, #4 Jessica Pegula in the final, her second straight after falling to Andreescu in the WTA 125 Newport Beach event last week -- as well as #7 (1st Rd./Nicole Gibbs) and Rebecca Marino (2nd) for good measure.

It's been said before that McNally often resembles CoCo Vandeweghe on the court. Well...sister-like, at least.




===============================================
JUNIOR STAR: Abigail Forbes/USA
...the Grade 1 Mundial Juvenil event went off in Ecuador without the field of juniors who competed in Melbourne, but it *did* include Forbes, a winner of one of the season's earlier G1 events (in Costa Rica. The 17-year old Bannerette (#110 girl/#5 seed) picked up her second big title of the season, taking a 6-2/6-2 final over unseeded Emma Jackson (USA), the unseeded 16-year old who'd won a G1 doubles title in Colombia a week ago and knocked off three singles seeds en route to the final this week.

Extra points to both for the matching fedoras...



===============================================
DOUBLES: Ekaterina Makarova/Margarita Gasparyan (RUS/RUS) and Irina-Camelia Begu/Niculescu (ROU/ROU)
...2019 isn't an Olympic year, but Week 5's doubles champions proved to be made up of countrywoman fighting shoulder-to-shoulder into the winner's circle.

In Saint Petersburg, three-quarters of the doubles finalists were Russian, so a home grown champion was assured. As it turned out, there were *two* as Gasparyan & Makarova took the honors in their first event together. After surviving a 10-8 deciding TB vs. Azarenka/Gavrilova in the 1st Round, the Hordettes didn't lose another set on their way to the title, finishing things off with a 7-5/7-5 win in the final over countrywoman Anna Kalinskaya & Slovak Viktoria Kuzmova. It's Gasparyan's first doubles title since before her multiple knee surgeries (2016 Prague), while it's Makarova's second title (and third final, with three different partners) since usual doubles mate Elena Vesnina left the tour to have a baby, and the fifteenth of her career (Vesnina-12, Gasparyan/Hradecka/Kleybanova-1 each).



In Hua Hin, Romanians Begu & Niculescu won their second title as a pair (they were 1-3 in finals from 2012-15) with a 12-10 TB-for-the-crown win in the final over Anna Blinkova & Wang Yafan. They hadn't dropped a set all week until losing the 1st in their last match. It's Begu's eighth career title, and Niculescu's ninth.


===============================================
WHEELCHAIR: ---
...no wheelchair winner this week, but Marjolein is keeping busy.


===============================================


Goodbye New Haven, hello new Miami Open...







1. Hua Hin 2nd Rd. - Tamara Zidansek def. Jennifer Brady
...6-3/0-6/7-6(9). In a week short on many "crazy" matches, this one sort of took it upon itself to carry the load. Zidansek led 5-1, 40/love in the 3rd, but squandered three MP. Before she knew what hit her she was saving three *Brady* MP at 6-4 in the deciding TB. Brady soon after saved three more MP, only to see Zidansek advance after converting on MP #7.
===============================================
2. Saint Petersburg Final - Kiki Bertens def. Donna Vekic
...7-6(2)/6-4. Vekic led 5-2 in the 1st before Bertens got her clutches on the match and wouldn't let go. She ran off ten of the next fifteen games until she was serving up 5-4, 40/love. Vekic saved three MP (after Serena/Pliskova, your eyebrows always perk up now no matter what the scoreboard says), but Bertens finally put the title in her back pocket on #4 on a fortunate net cord shot.



I think the trophy presentation is over now. I mean, unless that Russian singer who performed before the ceremony in the longest post-match concert in recorded history is singing AGAIN, or *another* message from Vladimir Putin is being read to everyone.


===============================================
3. Saint Petersburg QF - Donna Vekic def. Petra Kvitova
...6-4/6-1. The biggest win (vs. the world #2) of Vekic's career, and her third Top 4 win since the start of last year's Wimbledon.


===============================================


4. Saint Petersburg QF - Vera Zvonareva def. Dasha Kasatkina
...6-3/7-6(3). Though Kastakina reached the QF, her best result since winning the Kremlin Cup last October, she's still seeking her first win of 2019 (0-4). After a 1st Round bye, she received a walkover from Maria Sharapova.
===============================================
5. Saint Petersburg 2nd Rd. - Dasha Kasatkina w/o Maria Sharapova
...walkover. Hmmm. After a good opening round win over Dasha Gavrilova, Sharapova never made it to her second Dasha match-up of the week, citing yet another lingering physical ailment (this time concerning her shoulder, which is never a good thing for a player whose career nearly ended because of a shoulder injury). On any given day, Sharapova can still turn back the clock (see vs. Wozniacki in the AO), but stringing together not just wins, but matches themselves, continues to be a troubling issue.



At some point you wonder when the frustration overrules the necessary efforts to get back (and attempts to stay). While some have and will continue to try to link the "r"-word to her 2019 story, one would expect her to try to at least push through to next year's Olympics in Japan. But after that, well, I guess she'll cross that bridge (too far?) when she comes to it.
===============================================
6. Hua Hin QF - Dayana Yastremska def. Garbine Muguruza
...7-6(5)/6-1. Though she hasn't crushed a big moment on a huge stage (yet), this result against the former #1 and two-time slam champ really wasn't the sort of result that made you blink an eye. By the end of the season (summer? spring?) it might be seen as a routine outing for the teenager. Actually, maybe it already is, considering she defeated the Spaniard 2 & 3 in their only previous meeting in Luxembourg last October.
===============================================
7. Hua Hin 1st Rd. - Garbine Muguruza def. Sabine Lisicki
...6-3/6-4. One of those moments that'll likely have a lively afterlife on social media, be it for tennis purposes or otherwise.


===============================================
8. Saint Petersburg 1st Rd. - Alona Ostapenko def. Kristina Mladenovic
...6-1/0-6/6-0. Alona's first win of 2019, it also dropped the Pastry to 0-4 on the season a week ahead of (she'd hope) a personal course-correcting opportunity during the upcoming Fed Cup weekend.
===============================================
9. Saint Petersburg 2nd Rd. - Petra Kvitova def. Victoria Azarenka
...6-2/7-6(3). From 2011-13, Petra and Vika won three major titles in a seven-slam stretch. If you take that period out to Kvitova's second Wimbledon title in '14, in a thirteen-slam time frame they won four titles, reached two additional finals and five semis. In the eighteen slams since, they've combined for just one SF+ result, the Czech's runner-up in Melbourne a week ago.

So much has happened to both of them, good and bad, since at least one finished the season in the Top 5 for four years running from 2011-14 (with both doing so in '11 - Petra #2, Vika #3).

Hopefully this first meeting since 2015 -- and just their second since facing off five times from 2009-11 (three times in slams, plus in finals at the Madrid Premier Mandatory event and the WTA Championships) -- will prove to be symbolic moment on the way to a return to "the good old days" for both.
===============================================
10. Saint Petersburg Q1 - Magdalena Frech def. Oksana Selekhmeteva
...4-6/6-4/7-5. Even with the loss, not a bad WTA tournament debut for the 16-year old Hordette. Selekhmeteva (jr. #35) has played just six matches in pro events, with the the other five coming in $25K challengers in October and January. In 2018, the Russian posted junior slam wins over Elisabetta Cocciaretto ('18 AO semifinalist) and Daria Snigur ('19 AO semifinalist), and in the Youth Olympics upset Lulu Sun and Diane Parry, then took eventual Gold medalist Kaja Juvan to three sets in the QF.


===============================================
11. $100K Midland Final - Olga Govortsova/Valeria Savinykh def. Coco Gauff/Ann Li
...6-4/6-0. With a win over the U.S. teenagers (14-year old Gauff was playing in her first final at a pro event), 30-year old Govortsova (who also upset #2 seed Tatjana Maria in the 1st Rd.) picked up her first title since her return to tennis after having become a mother. It's the Belarusian's first doubles title of any kind since 2012. Gauff had just turned 8.


===============================================
12. $15K Antalya Final - Viktoriia Dema def. Daniela Vismane
...4-6/6-3/6-3. Another Ukrainian teen who lifted a trophy this weekend, 18-year old Dema knocked off the #2, #4 and #8 seeds (18-year old Latvian Vismane being the latter) en route to her second career ITF title.
===============================================


Cuckoo for CoCo?



Just plain cuckoo...






1. Hun Hin Final - Dayana Yastremska def. AJLA TOMLJANOVIC
...6-2/2-6/7-6(3). The teenager is gonna get a rep, I tell ya. In the changeover before Tomljanovic was set to serve for the match at 5-2, Yastremska took a unexpected MTO, making the Aussie sit a little while longer before attempting to win her first career title. She got within two points of the crown in game #8, but dropped serve there, then did it again two games later in her second attempt to close things out. Tomljanovic did manage to hold to force a TB, and held an early mini-break lead at 2-0. But the Ukrainian won seven of the final eight points to secure her second career title in her last six events.


===============================================


Chakvetadze+1 sighting!




Alrightythen. Now we know truly know the score with Sloane...



Meanwhile...












































View this post on Instagram

For real ??

A post shared by Maria Sharapova (@mariasharapova) on





**WTA HARD COURT TITLES - 2018-19**
3...KIKI BERTENS, NED (2/1)
3...Julia Goerges, GER (2/1)
3...Petra Kvitova, CZE (2/1)
3...Naomi Osaka, JPN (2/1)
3...Aryna Sabalenka, BLR (2/1)
3...Elina Svitolina, UKR (3/0)
2...Simona Halep, ROU (2/0)
2...Karolina Pliskova, CZE (1/1)
2...Wang Qiang, CHN (2/0)
2...Caroline Wozniacki, DEN (2/0)
2...DAYANA YASTREMSKA, UKR (1/1)

**TEEN WTA SINGLES FINALISTS - 2018-19**
17 - Amanda Anisimova, USA (2018 Hiroshima-L)
17 - Anastasia Potapova, RUS (2018 Moscow RO-L)
17 - Anastasia Potapova, RUS (2018 Tashkent-L)
17 - Olga Danilovic, SRB (2018 Moscow RO-W)
18 - Dayana Yastremska, UKR (2018 Hong Kong-W)
18 - Bianca Andreescu, CAN (2019 Auckland-L)
18 - DAYANA YASTREMSKA, UKR (2019 HUA HIN-W)
19 - Aryna Sabalenka, BLR (2018 Lugano-L)

**18-and-Under WTA SINGLES TITLES - since 2012**
2 - Belinda Bencic, SUI (2015)
2 - DAYANA YASTREMSKA, UKR (2018-19(
1 - Tima Babos, HUN (2012)
1 - Olga Danilovic, SRB (2018)
1 - Ana Konjuh, CRO (2015)
1 - Elina Svitolina, UKR (2013)
1 - Donna Vekic, CRO (2014)
1 - Marketa Vondrousova, CZE (2017)

**SELECTED "WORST" WTA FINAL RECORDS OF ACTIVE PLAYERS**
0-7 - Lucie Hradecka, CZE
0-4 - AJLA TOMLJANOVIC, AUS
0-3 - Yulia Putintseva, KAZ
1-6 - Alison Riske, USA
1-7 - Kristina Mladenovic, FRA

**2019 TOP JUNIOR EVENT CHAMPIONS**
TRARALGON AUS G1: Clara Tauson/DEN
COFFEE BOWL CRA G1: Abigail Forbes/USA
RPM JUNIOR OPEN CZE G1: Kristyna Lavickova/CZE
AUSTRALIAN OPEN JUNIORS: Clara Tauson/DEN
COPA BARRANQUILLA COL G1: Savannah Broadus/USA
MUNDIAL JUVENIL DE TENIS ECU G1: Abigail Forbes/USA

**JUNIOR TOP 10 - post-AO**
1. Clara Tauson, DEN
2. Coco Gauff, USA
3. Clara Burel, FRA
4. Maria Camila Osorio Serrano, COL
5. Leylah Annie Fernandez, CAN
6. Wang Xiyu, CHN
7. Iga Swiatek, POL
8. Caty McNally, USA
9. Zheng Qinwen, CHN
10. Yuki Naito, JPN


Just another week for Canada's #1-ranked player...










FED CUP
=1st Round=
ROU at CZE
FRA at BEL
BLR at GER
AUS at USA
=WORLD GROUP II=
ITA at SUI
SVK at LAT
ESP at JPN
CAN at NED
=ZONES - round robins=
Europe/Africa I (event A at POL) = BUL,DEN,EST,POL,RUS,SWE,UKR
Europe/Africa I (event B at GBR) = CRO,GBR,GEO,GRE,HUN,SLO,SRB,TUR
Asia/Oceania I (at KAZ) = CHN,IND,INA,KAZ,KOR,NZL,THA
Americas I (at COL) = ARG,BRA,CHI,COL,ECU,MEX,PAR,PUR
Europe/Africa Group II (at LUX) = AUT,BIH,ISR,LUX,POR,RSA,TUN
=======================================
...I'll post Fed Cup picks in a few days, once the rosters are (mostly) set for a final time.







All for now.

posted by Todd.Spiker @ 4:10 PM 

4 Comments:

Blogger colt13 said...

Did Lauren Davis lose a bet? My Polar Vortex story-5 days ago -15 degrees, yesterday 51 degrees, today 10 degrees.

Re:Gauff- Was initially disappointed with her 2nd rd loss, then realized that it was to Peterson, who is right outside the Top 50. Still on schedule.

With apologies to Kristen Visbal, I will refer to Yastremska, Anisimova, Andreescu, Swiatek and the like as the Fearless Girls.

Can't be to mad at Yastremska for the MTO. She actually pointed to her calf at the end of the first set, and if I question why Williams didn't call a trainer up 5-2, can't question why you do at 2-5.

Bertens/Sabalenka was the epitome of big babe tennis.

Vekic showed growth. yes, she blew the first set, but the Vekic of last year would have gotten steamrolled in the second.

Muguruza needs to show some fight. After losing a winnable set vs Yastremska which went 1:07, she disappeared.

Stat of the Week- 13- Number of points scored by the Patriots in the Super Bowl.

Not the real stat, but even if you aren't a Patriots fan, you have to respect them.

Stat of the Week-13- The amount of women in the Top 100 at the beginning of the season who are still winless.

Now this wont include Danilovic-7, or Vandeweghe-9, as they just missed the cutoff, so here is the list with current losing streak first, then number of losses this season. Plus notes on some that are not on the list.

8-2 Rybarikova
7-3 Buzarnescu
6-4 Arruabarrena
6-2 Makarova
5-4 Kasatkina*
5-4 Mladenovic
5-4 Voegele
5-3 Gavrilova
4-3 Jakupovic
4-3 Bogdan
3-2 Cibulkova
3-0 Kumkhum
2-1 Kanepi

Some missed the list but deserve mention:

Watson won in qualies but has lost last 5 WTA MD.

Townsend got off the list by winning 2 matches at Newport Beach. Odd scheduling in that she has only played 8 times since Roland Garros.

Hercog's 3 wins are ITF.

Larsson is in a 2-8 stretch, and 1 win was via ret.

Stosur just won a slam, but has a 1-9 stretch in which her only win is vs Cibulkova.

Pera on 1-7 streak in which only win has been in qualies.

Siniakova 2-4 stretch also is only qualies wins, including one over Pera.

Garcia's 2-5 stretch raises eyebrows, as the two wins were against players outside the Top 200.

Kasatkina has a walkover from Sharapova but has not won an on court match.

Arruabarrena is on the list, but is 2-13 in her last 15.

Last is Ostapenko, who is 3-9 in her last 12, which is a HUGE RED FLAG. Let's put it this way, if Ostapenko went to Daytona, they would stop the 500. Yes, that is this month. You see, in her case it is the resistable force vs the moveable object. Look at the names on the list, then realize that her three wins are Mladenovic, Rybarikova, and Arruabarrena.

Mon Feb 04, 10:18:00 AM EST  
Blogger colt13 said...

Quiz Time!
The Connecticut Open is moving to Zhengzhou. Which player in the event's history has the most titles? Multiple answers accepted.

A.Venus Williams
B.Stefanie Graf
C.Petra Kvitova
D.Caroline Wozniacki
E.Lindsay Davenport


Fed Cup thoughts coming later in the week.






Answer!
This was sort of a trick question. So let's start with the trick. (B)Graf is technically one of the right answers, as she won 4 times. However, her inclusion helps me point out a couple of things. Zhengzhou will be the 12th stop for this tournament, as when it was first created in the 40's as the US Hardcourt Championships, it was meant to be played at a different venue every year.

They then stopped the tournament from 1970-1987, restarting in 1988 in San Antonio. Graf won 3 of the 5 years it was held there, then once in Connecticut.

It is not (E)Davenport, though I can't blame you for that guess. A 7 time finalist, she only came away with 2 titles.

It also is not (C)Kvitova, as her 3 titles leaves her one short.

The pride of Yale (D)Wozniacki is a correct answer as she also won the title 4 times, all of them in New Haven, as the 21 year stretch has their longest in any location.

That leaves (A)Venus, who also won the event 4 times, but now will have been the last person to do the Connecticut Open-US Open double when she did it back in 2001. But of course, she is a Williams, so this was the 2nd time, as she did it the previous year.

Mon Feb 04, 10:18:00 AM EST  
Blogger Todd.Spiker said...

My "Polar Vortex story": down to 5 degrees about five days ago, just about choked to death on a green bean three days ago, BUT still here today. ;)

(Not kidding, by the way.) ;)

If the Super Bowl was the women's tour: "The offenses were atrocious! What an embarrassment!"

If the Super Bowl was the men's tour: "The defenses were great! An old school classic!"

(Or so it seems, as usual.)

Wow, I knew a lot of players were having a hard time getting out of the gate, but that's really something. You wonder how much of this points to individuals, or that the offseason just isn't long enough to recover from the previous season and be fully ready for the new one.

The one that I wasn't expecting is probably Siniakova, since you'd think that after ending on such a high she'd come into '19 in full stride. Oddly enough, the *other* Fed Cup final star (Kenin) *has* started well, winning a title (+WD) and generally continuing her momentum.

Ah, another example of why Stosur should maybe focus on putting together a second HoF-worthy doubles stretch in her career.

Ostapenko finally mentioned not being ready for the season because of her wrist, and it's questionable whether that's changed a month into the season. She's always going to be streaky, but it's been really one-sided most of the time since the injury in the final stages of '18. And her confidence level seems *really* low, too. Yet she hasn't taken a long break to get right.

I do believe Yastremska had some sort of injury. I just think that she, like Vika before her, is so concentrated and in a such a mental bubble when she plays that she just immediately reacts to what she feels she needs to do without any thought to how it will be received/perceived by her opponent or others. There's nothing wrong with it, but it *is* the sort of thing that dogged Vika for a long time (and she even referenced in that press conference after her AO loss via the stress she felt from the sniping at her about that SF MTO and other things that were perfectly fine, but easy for others to raise an eyebrow at and hate on). I just hope Yastremska doesn't have to go through the same ridiculousness from the usual suspects. So far her similar situations have come on small stages, but if it happens in a big event she might have to brace for some ugly blowback.

Quiz: I'd picked Wozniacki because I remember her being atop the list of "Wozniacki Open" title winners. I thought maybe Kvitova's most recent win had tied her, though. Hadn't realized Venus won it so often. Of course, it's been SEVENTEEN years since she won it, so it's easy to forget, I guess. :)

Will be interested to see if you'll go with AUS over the Bannerettes. I'm not sure yet.

Mon Feb 04, 12:44:00 PM EST  
Blogger colt13 said...

Not sure yet either, because Gavrilova poses a huge problem for her own team.

The one team that jumps out at me so far, besides the Romania/Czech Republic tie, which could be bonkers, is Columbia hosting a pod on clay. Arango and Osorio Serrano are young, but it is almost the perfect storm.

Mon Feb 04, 01:15:00 PM EST  

Post a Comment

<< Home