Sunday, March 24, 2019

Between a Hard Rock and a Miami Place

A few first week headlines from South Florida...

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She is who we thought she was.

Indian Wells champ Bianca Andreescu came to Miami with every right to be exhausted (and likely is, at times). She's been winning almost non-stop since last fall, after all. She had the opportunity presented to her to gracefully bow out early on this week, but the competitor in her simply wouldn't allow it.

Though she *did* get an extra day between events due to the early-week rain in South Florida, the 18-year old found herself down 6-4/5-1, and serving at love/30, in the 1st Round against Irina-Camelia Begu. Admitting during the week that she really needs two or three weeks off to allow her body to recuperate, she'd been given a pass if her time in Miami was short. But rather than accept her seeming fate (down 4-1 in the 2nd), after being calmed by coach Sylvain Bruneau when the shots that had just won her a big title weren't working against the Romanian, she first mentally grabbed onto a match-saving hand hold and avoided slipping off the cliff, an act which then allowed her to physically to do the same soon afterward. Again, Bruneau stressed the positive. What happened next was another example not only of the fight inside Andreescu, but the good work being done by her team (Bruneau, but also Virginie Tremblay, who'd been with her during her Auckland run) when it comes to knowing how to motivate and bring out the best in her when times are stressful, while also not making an unseemly courtside scene.




While Begu held a MP and twice served for the match, Andreescu rallied to win the 2nd in a TB (securing it with a drop shot winner, naturally), then cruised to a 3rd set victory, setting up another shot at Sonya Kenin, who'd outlasted the Canadian in the Acapulco semis before the teenager headed off to the desert for what turned out to be *the* monumental tournament of her career. She won in straight sets.

Things got no easier from there, as the Miami Open's unwillingness to conduct a draw with the Indian Wells results (and new rankings) in mind -- instead it's about where players stood *six* weeks ago -- Andreescu next met up with Angelique Kerber, the German vet she'd taken down in three tough sets in the I.W. final last weekend.

At the end of a very long day in which the Stadium Court saw every match go the distance, Andreescu/Kerber II didn't start until after 11 p.m. But that didn't prevent the contest from being another intriguing clash between the two...(wait for it)...won by the Canadian.



Kerber broke to open the match, but the teenager soon began to find her footing (you knew she was fully "on" when she pulled another drop-and-lob combo reminiscent of several she pulled off vs. Kerber last Sunday). Kerber's DF handed the break back for 2-2, and Andreescu pulled out back-to-back power shots to close out a hold for 4-3 after encountering danger at 30/30. While the 18-year old was raising her game level, Kerber was increasingly bothered by the variety of paces, slices, high bounces and angles coming at her. Andreescu broke to take, dare I say it, a nearly "routine" 6-4 set.

Andreescu nearly ran away with things in the 2nd, taking a 2-0 lead. When a third consecutive game saw the returner take a love/40 lead, Kerber battled back to deuce, but still dropped serve to fall behind 3-1. She trailed 4-1, as Andreescu didn't appear "tired" in the least after all her match play of late and in 2019 (Tennis Channel's Paul Annacone had earlier been following along with the understandable conventional thinking since Auckland that assumes Andreescu will surely begin to tire at some point... though it's maybe only really played out that way in the Acapulco semi vs. Kenin). She served up 6-4/4-2 and appeared on her way to a hold, only to play a few loose points and open the door for the German, who'd begun to wince and flex her wrapped left thigh, as her movement was showing signs of becoming an issue.



Andreescu couldn't get the break back, and instead saw Kerber buckle down and direct a series of relentless rallies, with shot after shot going to the Andreescu backhand, which cracked just enough to get give Kerber a break lead at 5-4. She served out the set a game later and the two were headed to another deciding set.



But Andreescu (did we expect anything different?) didn't wilt or slink away. Instead she changed up the pattern of her own game, working in more angled shots and moving forward toward the net behind her power shots. She got a break to lead 3-1, and again held a 4-1 edge. This time, though, she didn't let up, getting an insurance break for a 5-1 advantage. She served out the set at 6-1 around a quarter past 1 a.m. to record her fourth Top 10 win in four matches vs. Top 10 players since January, adding yet another feather to an already crowded cap (though not the one she'd started the match with, as she'd had to switch to a white one after her original black visor broke in the middle of a point), while a frustrated/ticked-off and maybe sore Kerber was curt with her handshakes with Andreescu and the chair umpire before swiftly exiting the court.



Meanwhile, Andreescu plays on and (at some point) will seek out a spot in her schedule for a break. She's still committed (for now) to play in Charleston, and two weekends after that it's hard to imagine she'll pass up leading the Canadian Fed Cup team against the Czechs on the road in Prostejov in the World Group Playoffs. That doesn't leave much time for rest. She may end up being forced to make a very tough decision (or maybe a few of them) if things fall a certain way between now and then.
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La Divine has a Parisian sister. Stadium court, that is...



For the record, Mathieu (if she sounds familiar, it's because the Roland Garros women's doubles trophy -- spelled differently, as the "Coupe Simone-Mathieu" -- is named for her) inherited the role as France's top female player in the 1930's from Suzanne Lenglen. She was a 13-time slam champ (behind only Lenglen's 31 on the all-time list of French women's titlists), winning two RG singles titles, nine slam WD and two mixed championships in her career. In 1939, she swept all three titles in Paris.

After reaching the RG singles final in '29, from 1930-39 Mathieu would never do worse than the QF in twenty combined RG/Wimbledon events (and at 21 of 22 majors, as she also reached a U.S. Open QF in '38 in her first of two appearances in the tournament). She played in eight RG women's finals (winning twice), and was a 6-time Wimbledon semifinalist (all between 1930-37).


Mathieu was head of the Corps Féminin Français, the women's branch of the Free French Forces, during World War II. She received the title of Officier de la Légion d'honneur. After the resumption of the tennis slam schedule in Europe after the war, she made her final appearance in a major at age 38 at Wimbledon in 1946, seven years after she'd last played in a slam event at the '39 U.S. Open. She lost in the 1st Round.

Mathieu was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2006.
===============================================
And the course correction has begun...


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How are things going for the defending Miami Open champ? Well, Sloane Stephens began the week...



Heading into the weekend, after posting a 2nd Round win over Ons Jabeur (just her second since the AO), things were still going well...



Sloane also turned 26 on Wednesday.



As for last year's runner-up, Alona Ostapenko? Well, she's already out, dropping a second straight match to her Indian Wells conqueror, Marketa Vondrousova in her opening 2nd Rounder. One event after falling to the Czech in three, Ostapenko lost 7-5/6-1 this time after having served for the 1st set and then barely winning another game. She's 3-8 in tour matches (+ 1-0 FC) in '19, after ending '18 having gone 4-7 after her Wimbledon semi while dealing with a wrist injury in the closing months.
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Speaking of course corrections. While this week offered up more coach/player break-ups (including those involving Potapova and Pavlyuchenkova), Simona Halep went the other way and finally brought aboard a full-timer...


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April is Poetry Month, so take a moment to take a look at a sample of the work of Women Who Serve's Diane Dees, a longtime FOB ("Friend of Backspin," of course)...



More information on her chapbook soon!
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Chakvetadze Sighting! Well, maybe it should be a Chakvetadze sighting?


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While recent retiree Aga Radwanska is absent from the courts, she's been burning up the dance floor in Poland's version of "Dancing with the Stars." Here are her four outings so far...



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In the ITF, junior and wheelchair world...

Aussie Destanee Aiava, having drifted a bit out of the spotlight after being seen as one of tour's teens to watch a couple of seasons ago, won her first challenger title since April of last year. The 18-year took the Canberra $25K with a straight sets win over Risa Ozaka. Aiava came into the week at #202 after having finished '18 at #249. She was ranked a high as #147 in September '17.

Meanwhile, AO girls champ Clara Tauson has won another challenger title, this time a $15K in Xiamen, China vs. teenager Guo Meiqi. With her three-set win, the 16-year old Dane has won back-to-back-to-back ITF events and is now 15-0 in pro events in '19 (with her only two singles losses -- at any level, from the juniors to the pros -- since September coming in Fed Cup play in February).

17-year old Maria Camila Osorio Serrano (COL/Jr. #9), a week after retiring (down 5-1 in the 3rd) from a $15K final in Cancun, will play for another (career title #2) in the same city, this time against Kiwi Mary Paige Hourigan

...the Cajun Classic Super Series wheelchair event in Baton Rouge, Louisiana will be decided between #1 Diede de Groot and countrywoman Aniek Van Koot (#3), meeting in a final for the second straight week. The pair have already combined to take the doubles title, defeating Angelisa Bernal and Dana Mathewson (who had quite the week in singles, too, upsetting Sabine Ellerbrock to reach her first Super Series semi).

De Groot is seeking her eleventh straight singles match win. She enters the final with a 13-1 record this season, having held five MP in her one loss vs. Yui Kamiji just before the AO. She's 21-1 since the start of last year's U.S. Open, and holds a 12-5 career edge over Van Koot, going 11-2 in matches from 2017-19.

UPDATE: Van Koot upset de Groot 6-1/6-4, while Hourigan defeated Osorio Serrano


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Meanwhile, why is this woman so happy? Well...

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[Miami Monday to Saturday]
1. Miami 1st Rd. - Bianca Andreescu def. Irina-Camelia Begu
...4-6/7-6(2)/6-2. As if Andreescu didn't already have a handful of signature matches and moments in 2019, she added a few more vs. Begu, coming back from 6-4/5-1 down and saving a MP after another memorable changeover session with Sylvain Bruneau.


===============================================
2. Miami 3rd Rd. - Bianca Andreescu def. Angelique Kerber
...6-4/4-6/6-1. Two wins over Kerber in a week's time. 6-2 vs. the Top 20 in '19. 4-0 vs. the Top 10. 2-0 vs. the Top 5. Andreescu has a Round of 16 vs. Kontaveit, with the winner vs. Hsieh/Wozniacki, to have a shot to follow up her I.W. win with (at least) a semifinal.

Who knows, maybe the "novel" concept of a player with power who doesn't almost exclusively rely on it, but rather employs it as part of larger arsenal will catch on. Maybe.


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3. Miami 1st Rd. - Wang Yafan def. Kristina Mladenovic
...6-3/6-3. The Acapulco champ hands Mladenovic her fourth loss in five matches since the Pastry got a win over #1 Osaka. She and Timea Babos also lost their 1st Round match in doubles, while Babos fell in singles qualifying to Kaia Kanepi.

Meanwhile, Caroline Garcia coasted into the Round of 16 on Saturday after having posted wins over Victoria Azarenka and Julia Goerges.
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3. Miami 1st Rd. - Magdalena Rybarikova def. Natalia Vikhlyantseva
...1-6/7-5/7-6(4). It wasn't easy, but Rybarikova snapped her nine-match losing streak, recording her first win since CoCo Vandeweghe retired in the 3rd set of their 1st Round in New Haven last summer.
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4. Miami Q1 - Misaki Doi def. Anastasia Potapova
...3-6/7-6(10)/7-6(12). Doi has been surging of late, and posted a series of nice wins before falling in the 2nd Round to Polona Hercog. She saved three MP in the 2nd set TB (and a fourth in the 3rd) vs. Potapova, who dismissed her coach soon afterward, then defeated Mandy Minella from a set down to reach the MD, where she outlasted Wang Xiyu in three.
===============================================
5. Miami Q1 - Nao Hibino def. Genie Bouchard
...4-6/6-0/6-4. Meanwhile, the Canadian #2 wasn't jolted into action in her first match after Andreescu's I.W. title run. Bouchard has slipped (no pun intended) again of late. After ending '18 with a qualifier-to-semifinalist run in Luxembourg (6-1), then opening '19 with a WD title in Auckland and a singles QF result while starting 5-3, she's now lost four of five.
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6. Miami Q1 - Taylor Townsend def. Zheng Qinwen
...4-6/7-5/6-4. Townsend trailed Zheng 6-4/5-1 before rallying to win, then downed Beatriz Haddad to reach the MD. She lost in the 2nd Round to Simona Halep.
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7. Miami 2nd Rd. - Samantha Stosur def. Madison Keys
...6-4/4-6/6-4. Keys loses her third straight. She's 7-7 since her U.S. Open semifinal (with three of those wins coming at the AO). Miami just isn't a big enough event, I guess.
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8. Miami 2nd Rd. - Wang Yafan def. Elina Svitolina
...6-2/6-4. Wang's first career Top 10 win gives Svitolina a chance to rest her knee. The Ukrainian has now gone six events without a final appearance. She went nine (after winning Rome) before her Singapore title run to end '18.
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9. Miami 1st Rd. - Coco Gauff def. Caty McNally 3-6/6-3/6-4
Miami 2nd Rd. - Dasha Kasatkina def. Coco Gauff 6-3/6-2
...getting your first win...



Getting what surely *feels* like your first win...



Venus is next for Dasha.
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10. Miami 2nd Rd. - Ajla Tomljanovic def. Aryna Sabalenka
...6-3/6-4. Has Sabalenka been getting something of a "pass" for her slow start because of the fact that she "slid" into a title in Week 1 and that the seasons of many other top players (Kastakina, Ostapenko, etc.) have had an even more difficult time kicking into gear?

She's 14-6 on the year in all matches, but just 7-6 in tour matches since winning in Shenzhen.
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HM- Miami 1st Rd. - Victoria Azarenka/Ash Barty def. Barbora Krejcikova/Katerina Siniakova 6-3/6-7(1) [10-7]
Miami 1st Rd. - Julia Goerges/Simona Halep def. Timea Babos/Kristina Mladenovic 4-6/6-1 [10-6]
...the top two women's doubles seeds fell on Saturday in 3rd set TB's against some very intriguing duos.



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





[Miami Monday to Saturday]
1. Miami 3rd Rd. - HSIEH SU-WEI def. NAOMI OSAKA
...4-6/7-6(4)/6-3. While Hsieh is pretty much always an opponent who'll threaten to twist a match into a pretzel that might leave a "favored" player tied up in the corner, especially one like Osaka who enjoys pace *and* is susceptible to high UE totals, one simply *has* to wonder if she'd have found a way to out-hit the veteran before the coaching change. Her decision there has invited such questions, and will for a while still.



As it is, Osaka led 2-0 in the 3rd and then Hsieh took over to record her second career #1 win (Halep - '18 Wimbledon). The result leaves Halep, Petra Kvitova and Angelique Kerber (thanks to Bibi) with a shot at #1 at the end of this tournament.
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2. Miami 2nd Rd. - SERENA WILLIAMS def. Rebecca Peterson
...6-3/1-6/6-1. After struggling to get by Peterson, Serena let everyone in on the story a day later.



Out with a knee, will Serena even bother to play before Roland Garros? And if she thinks she's no true threat to win on clay without a tune-up period, might it be the grass season before she's seen between the lines again? It'd hardly be a *shocking* chain of events.
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3. Miami 1st Rd. - Whitney Osuigwe def. MARI OSAKA
...6-2/6-4. A match-up of wild cards, one deserving and the other, well, not exactly that. Whatever the reason the match-up took place, the "right" player won.


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HM- $15K Le Havre Final - TAYISIYA & YANA MORDERGER def. Eleonara Molinaro/Svenja Ochsner
...6-4/6-3. The German twin sisters win their seventh career challenger title together. Tayisiya had defeated Yana in the 2nd Round of singles.


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*2019 WINS OVER #1*
Sydney 2nd Rd. - #15 Ash Barty def. #1 Halep
Australian 4th Rd. - #16 Serena Williams def. #1 Halep
Dubai 2nd Rd. - #67 Kristina Mladenovic def. #1 Osaka
Indian Wells 4th Rd. - #23 Belinda Bencic def. #1 Osaka
Miami 3rd Rd. - #27 HSIEH SU-WEI def. #1 Osaka

*ANDREESCU vs. TOP 20*
=2017 (1-0)=
W: #13 Mladenovic
=2019 (6-2)=
W: #3 Wozniacki, #4 Kerber, #6 Svitolina, #8 Kerber, #18 Q.Wang, #20 Muguruza
L: #12 Sevastova, #14 Goerges
--
vs. Top 10 (4-0)









































While there may be no Russians in the WTA Top 20...




All for now.

posted by Todd.Spiker @ 2:33 AM 

10 Comments:

Blogger Hoergren said...

(From a twitter source) At the $15K tournament in Xiamen, China, Clara Tauson (Den), 16, WTA 407, ITF 259) overcame a slow start and defeated Guo Meiqi (CHN), 19, (WTA 626, ITF 138) 2-6 6-3 6-2. It was her fifth tournament win in as many tries in 2019, and her match win streak is now at 27. It was also her third consecutive pro tournament win. She is now 107 in the ITF World Tour rankings, and should be enough tor DA to main draws in many $15K tournaments. Her WTA ranking of 407 also means she can have DA to quali for some $25K+tournaments.

Sun Mar 24, 04:13:00 AM EDT  
Blogger colt13 said...

Premiers shift the landscape, so a whole bunch of thoughts:

I'm claiming that my IW and Miami Up Sides were reversed :)

Like the Kenin video.

All of the #1 losses this year on your list were to women outside the Top 10/before the QF.

Like the Miami venue, but Court 6 is a fail. A bunch of good matches, but a number of players slipping, no serve speeds, but most importantly, no hawkeye. Somebody is going to have a meltdown. Maybe Andreescu. Kidding, but she has had a number of racket abuse warnings, and even got one for ball abuse at IW.

Did not know Mattek-Sands had another surgery.

Rough take, but I will go there. Serena and 24. Wimbledon is supposed to be her best shot, but with as many ankle and foot issues as she has had in the past, adding a bad knee on that surface is a recipe for disaster.

6 women left to prevent the 14th different winner this season.

Osaka is 3-3 as #1, which also means 3-3 without Sascha. Touch being the hunted. What is tough to watch is that both her game and emotions are swinging like a pendulum.

Stat of the Week-1- The amount of 2018 events in which Babos/Mladenovic did not reach the QF.

By the way, that was Miami. There may be an expiration date on this partnership, but only partially because of the recent results. As a reminder, they played together in 2014-15, before Mladenovic decided to team with Garcia for the Olympics. So let's take a look at the recent numbers, and compare them to the past.

2018-19 Babos/Mladenovic
19-Events
3-W
3-F
1-SF
8-QF

2014-15 Babos/Mladenovic
26-Events
3-W
4-F
5-SF
4-QF

Pretty similar. The difference is that they won slams this time, unlike the 2014 Wimbledon loss to Errani/Vinci. But because the numbers aren't dramatically different, it is easier for them to switch, knowing that they can always try again and have success. Probably will happen sooner than later, especially with Babos' singles ranking dropping to the point that she can't get into every event.

Quiz Time!
Team Bucie will make one final appearance. With which Czech player has Mattek-Sands not won a doubles title?

A.Vladimara Uhlirova
B.Barbora Strycova
C.Lucie Safarova
D.Iveta Benesova





Answer!
It was too easy to say who won the most, as (C)Lucie went 11-2 with Bethanie.

(D)Benesova is also incorrect, as they won Charleston together back in 2008.

(A)Uhlirova is also incorrect, as they won Colombia, also in 2008.

That leaves (B)Strycova as the answer, because she was the loser, as they reached the final of Quebec City in 2010.

Sun Mar 24, 09:32:00 AM EDT  
Blogger Diane said...

Andreescu’s name is still on the Charleston entry list, but I expect it to be gone any moment. (Right now, I’m more concerned with my own participation—I am very sick 😞).

Thanks for the shout-out, Todd!

Sun Mar 24, 11:45:00 AM EDT  
Blogger Todd.Spiker said...

L-
By the luck of a draw we might just get the rare Dane vs. Dane match-up in a WTA 1st Round somewhere soon. ;)

And while I hate always throwing it in (because it sounds like I'm lessening her run in some way), I always mention her two Fed Cup losses (to Swiatek and Vikhylyanseva) because it *does* bug me a bit with the (now) "27-match" streak being mentioned in so many places. If the streak is *only* in pro challengers, okay. If it's juniors, okay. But if people are going to combine unrelated pro & junior runs than, really, the Fed Cup matches should be included, too, and they alter the length of the winning streak because they happened right in the middle of the timespan.

Still, she's playing great. :)

C-
The Kenin video was even more effective because it took a few seconds before you saw her in it. The anticipation about how young she'd be worked out really well. (Even if Jensen continued to talk to her like she was three, even after it was apparent she was more serious than he was anticipating). :)

Ha! You know, maybe that's why vs. Kerber you could see Andreescu winding up to smack her racket (or a ball) after losing a few points -- like she did a few time in IW -- but she stopped herself before doing any damage.

Yeah, the BMS announcement of her surgery was more of a surprise to me than the news she and Safarova were playing in Prague. I think people assumed when she pulled out of the AO that Lucie would likely play her final event in the CZE instead.

An even rougher take might be that Serena's last best chances to get #24 were at last year's U.S. Open (melting down vs. a first-time finalist) and this year's AO (up 5-1 and MPs vs. Pliskova and losing in the QF).

Osaka recently often resembles a slightly better version of her pre-Sascha self.

And you wonder with Babos and Mladenovic, quite the opposite of when players use doubles success to help their singles, if the sinking singles fortuens of both might force them to focus on their individual games. Which would be ironic in a mildly hilarious way, considering the grief Kiki gave Garcia when she ended their partnership to focus on *her* singles.

Quiz: ah, went with Benesova. I thought Mattek/Strycova might have gotten one. :(

Sun Mar 24, 11:51:00 AM EDT  
Blogger Todd.Spiker said...

D-
You're welcome! And get well! :)

Sun Mar 24, 11:52:00 AM EDT  
Blogger Todd.Spiker said...

UPDATE: Van Koot upset de Groot 6-1/6-4, while Hourigan defeated Osorio Serrano.

And, of course, that odd ending at the net to the Andreescu/Kerber match -- Angie actually said "you're the biggest drama queen ever" -- has developed into a mini-Twitter bomb, bringing out all the worst in everyone. From people attacking Kerber for her definitely uncalled for "moment" (she may have been referencing BA's MTO's or seeming-to-be-injured actions which then didn't show up during points... really, though, she was probably just P.O.'d and forgot the filter between her subconscious and her mouth) to people dragging Andreescu or bringing other players (take a guess) into the argument who have nothing to do with it. Even Kyrgios got into the act on Sunday when referencing Kerber's better-thought-out complimentary post-match tweet.

Personally, I wonder if BA really immediately *needs* some of the attention she's been getting in matches (since Auckland, really), or if it's as much about her knowledge of her own injury past and her efforts to stay out in front of things so a true injury doesn't happen that is making her extra (overly) vigilant for both her body and peace of mind's sake.

Sun Mar 24, 05:02:00 PM EDT  
Blogger colt13 said...

Kerber's handshake was poor, but Kvitova's after the Williams match at IW was too, just without the extra words.

Andreescu is a bit of a drama queen, and I include Yastremska in this also, in that they are 18 yr olds who don't fully know their changing bodies yet.

They don't know if they are playing with pain, or playing injured, so better to be safe than sorry. Vondrousova had her breakout stalled by arm issues(probably overuse) and then played poorly for 6 months. And Laura Robson is the poster child for not taking enough of a break.

I pretty much could just cut and paste, but Sloane didn't adjust to Maria's throwback style. Because Maria beat the previous seed(Giorgi), Sloane still has not played anybody in the Top 30.

Players in Top 30 without a win against one in 2019 entering Miami:
Suarez Navarro 0-4, did not play seed.
Giorgi 0-3, did not play seed.
Stephens 0-0, did not play seed.
Goerges 0-2, did, and lost to Garcia.

One left has a chance to take her name off the list, as Wozniacki(0-1/Sharapova) plays Hsieh.

Mon Mar 25, 10:01:00 AM EDT  
Blogger Todd.Spiker said...

I can see players having issues with the MTO, etc. But it's still a really bad (and uncharacteristic) look after you've lost to the same "drama queen" twice in a week. :/

(P.S.: BA needs to print up some "Drama Queen" t-shirts for practice and surf the wave.)

So far, many of the high profile coaching firings aren't going so well, are they? Although, Sloane trades off being so *way* down and then so *remarkably* high, it's hard to tell if there's much of a real difference with or w/o Murray.

Mon Mar 25, 11:44:00 AM EDT  
Blogger Diane said...

I still don’t think it was about the MTOs alone, but rather, an accumulaion of thing: The cramping , immediately followed by superb running and serving. The MTOs. The repeated whacking of balls that kept hitting Angie in the back. Kerber, never known for good handshakes, anyway, just cracked. It was unfortunate and I wish she hadn’t done it. I should add, however, that I find Andreescu a bit drama queeny myself, but I’m chalking it up to age and lack of experience.

Mon Mar 25, 04:42:00 PM EDT  
Blogger colt13 said...

Russia had 6 women in the draw, and Kasatkina was the only one to win a match.

Notes on the Final Four+

Mertens/Sabalenka trying to be the first pure "Sunshine Double" winner since Hingis/Mirza in 2015. Mattek-Sands won both in 2016, but won with Vandeweghe at IW and Safarova in Miami.

Cut and paste notes from Andreescu and Canada, and apply them to Kontaveit/Estonia. Same thing, would be first premier mandatory winner. Will be highest ranked Estonian ever as she will be no worse than 14. Kanepi's career high is 15. If she reaches the final, second year in a row that would have a finalist from the Baltic region.

Barty will make her Top 10 debut. Since the tournament didn't start until 1985, they missed the golden age of Aussie tennis. Although it has happened 9 times in doubles, including 2005 when Molik/Kuznetsova beat Raymond/Stubbs, an Aussie has never reached the singles final.

Tripling down on this theme, Jana Novotna won doubles here 7 times, but Pliskova is trying to be the first Czech player to reach the final. If she does, Osaka stays #1.

Halep has won Indian Wells before, but might as well continue the theme. If she wins her SF, she will become #1, and become the first Romanian to have reached the final in singles or doubles.

Thu Mar 28, 09:05:00 AM EDT  

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