Sunday, March 31, 2019

Wk.13- Ash Takes Miami, but the Barty Party May Be Only Just Beginning

So far, 2019 has been a dream season for Ash Barty. But there's still so much that she could accomplish before she's finished. Don't look away -- a great season could very well be about to turn into a monster one.



Bang your head, the Hard Rockin' Barty Party in South Beach could wake the dead. Well, let's not overhype things *too* much.

After all, Barty's run to the Miami crown was hardly as stunning as, say, Bianca Andreescu's just completed Indian Wells triumph. Largely that's because even while the Aussie has yet to reach a slam semifinal and was stationed just outside the Top 10 coming into the event, you'd have to have been deaf to not have been hearing her footsteps along the path to such a win for a while now.

Hmm, maybe the actions in "The Scream" -- recently brought into question after 126 years -- were simply a future reaction to Ash loudly "sneaking" up behind everyone's back.



Barty closed out 2018 looking like a player ready to make a *big* move this season, wrapping up the year by winning the Elite Trophy title. While that event, as well as its machinations, were notably dubious (at best) last fall, the Australian's performance in Zhuhai wasn't. She finished the season on a 17-6 singles run and reached a career high ranking of #15.

She hit the ground running in '19, too. In her tour-level season debut in Sydney, she reached her second straight final at the tournament and knocked off the likes of Alona Ostapenko, Simona Halep, Elise Mertens and Kiki Bertens. She was a 3rd set TB away from wrestling the title away from Petra Kvitova. She then went to Melbourne and became the first Aussie woman to reach the AO QF in a decade, then soon after headed off to the U.S. and led her nation (taking part in all three points in a 3-2 win) into the Fed Cup semis.

Miami was simply the 22-year old's next logical step.

Her Florida run saw her drop just two sets in six matches (to Bertens and Kvitova), knocking off '19 tour title winner Dayana Yastremska, countrymate Sam Stosur, #8 Bertens, #2 Kvitova (getting her first win in five career meetings) and Anett Kontaveit to reach her biggest career final. There she overcame a slow start (3-1 down) to take control of the match against #7 Karolina Pliskova, downing the tiring Czech in straight sets by running her from sideline to sideline and commanding the action with her all-court game.

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?? #4

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A year after winning the Miami doubles title with CoCo Vandeweghe, she also reached the WD semis with Vika Azarenka this time around, knocking out #1-seeded Krejcikova/Siniakova ('19 I.W. runners-up, and the Miami finalists last year) along the way.



The results will make Barty the first Aussie to debut in the singles Top 10 since 2010, and the first player on tour to simultaneously appear in both Top 10 rankings since February 2016.

And she might not be finished, either. A slam breakthrough, a Fed Cup power play, five Top 10 wins and now a big event title run have positioned Barty, especially in a season characterized by the balance of power on tour (fourteen different champions have been crowned in fourteen events), firmly in the conversation for Player of the Year at the end of the season's 1st Quarter.

Miami, as big of a career moment as it is, may turn out to simply be an early chapter in a far bigger and more intriguing novel of a season.

Good on ya, Ash. And on and on...



*WEEK 13 CHAMPIONS*
MIAMI, FLORIDA USA (Premier Mandatory/Hard Court Outdoor)
S: Ash Barty/AUS def. Karolina Pliskova/CZE 7-6(1)/6-3
D: Elise Mertens/Aryna Sabalenka (BEL/BLR) def. Samantha Stosur/Zhang Shuai (AUS/CHN) 7-6(5)/6-2



PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Ash Barty/AUS
...with Miami in her back pocket, what's next in what could become a monster season for Barty? Well, first up will be Fed Cup. After leading the Aussies over the Bannerettes in the 1st Round, Barty should be in Brisbane for a semifinal match-up with Belarus in April. Australia's last FC final appearance was in 1993, and the nation's most recent title came forty-five years ago in 1974.

And she's still got unfinished business in the majors, as well.

Coming off a final eight run in Melbourne, it shouldn't be overlooked that Barty is a former Wimbledon girls champ, and her love of grass court tennis is no secret. Still, she's so far underperformed at SW19 in her career, going just 2-3. She's posted her two top career performances in majors in her last two outings (4r-QF), though, and set personal best marks at the last three (3r-4r-QF).

While the clay season may not provide her with a platform on which to fully thrive, London and New York could. At the very least, she's proven over the past year to be very adept on hard courts in North America, with some other very good '18 results (Montreal WD title/WS SF and U.S. Open doubles crown) coming before this season's big moments.

It could be quite an ongoing Barty Party come summertime.


===============================================
RISERS: Karolina Pliskova/CZE, Anett Kontaveit/EST and Wang Yafan/CHN
...Pliskova still isn't the highest-ranked Czech (that'd be Petra -- one spot and a mere 65 points ahead of her at #3), nor did she manage to finally give the '19 season its first two-time singles champ. But her Miami runner-up result adds to an admirable run of consistency that she'll carry into the clay season, where a year ago she won in Stuttgart and reached the Madrid semis. She's reached at least the QF in six straight events, and nine of twelve starting with last year's U.S. Open, right after she started working with Rennae Stubbs (now along w/ Conchita Martinez). Wins over Petra Martic, Alize Cornet (in 3), Yulia Putintseva (3), Marketa Vondrousova and Simona Halep (where she was down a break twice in the 1st and rallied from 5-3 to win ten of the final eleven games of the match) pushed Pliskova into her 24th career tour singles final. After getting off to a 3-1 1st set start vs. Ash Barty, the Czech ran out of steam as the varied game of the Aussie pulled away for a straight sets win.



Pliskova has put up W-SF-QF-QF-RU results in '19. She's one of five players to appear in multiple finals this season, is tied for the most semis (3), and trails only Halep (20 to 18) for final appearances over the last five WTA campaigns.

23-year old Kontaveit was one of several young players who followed up a second week Indian Wells run with similar or better results in Miami. After a Round of 16 I.W. finish, the Estonian put together a semifinal performance that topped her other previous slam/PM personal bests (including runs at the '15 U.S. and '18 AO/RG) and will push her into the Top 15 for the first time this week. Three-set wins over Amanda Anisimova and Ajla Tomljanovic preceded a streak-ending (albeit via retirement) victory over Bianca Andreescu and rally from a 4-0 deficit in the 3rd vs. Hsieh Su-wei in the QF (with an assist from a very un-Sylvian Bruneau like coaching session with Nigel Sears). She fell in straight sets in one of many late-week rain delayed/interrupted matches to eventual champ Ash Barty.



Acapulco champ Wang recorded her first career Top 10 win in the 2nd Round over Elina Svitolina in between victories in Miami over Kristina Mladenovic and '18 tournament (and '19 AO) semifinalist Danielle Collins to reach her first career Premier Mandatory Round of 16. Once there she lost to countrywoman Wang Qiang. Her result improves her record to 10-3 since the Australian Open, and 14-5 overall this season.


===============================================
SURPRISES: Polona Hercog/SLO and Seone Mendez/AUS [Wk.12: Dana Mathewson/USA (WC)]
...in Miami, the 28-year old Slovenian put up her best Premier Mandatory result since 2013 (Beijing), reaching the 3rd Round after entering the draw as a lucky loser (due to Lesia Tsurenko's withdrawal) following a qualifying loss to Laura Siegemund. Hercog receivied Tsurenko's 1st Round bye, they posted a win over Misaki Doi. She led Simona Halep by a set and was a tie-break win away from posting what would have been her biggest career victory, but the Romanian rallied to dominate the 2nd set TB and the deciding 3rd. While this ended up being a successful tournament for Hercog, she still hasn't had a multiple-MD win tour-level event since her Bucahrest semifinal run last July.

And...

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When u hear em say clay seasonnnn up next ??????

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In Antalya, Turkey it was Aussie Mendez, 19, winning her second consecutive ITF title. Mendez stretched her winning streak to ten matches with a 7-5/7-6(3) win in the final of 18-year old Yuki Naito (JPN), who'd been seeking her maiden pro title. It's Mendez's fifth career title.


===============================================
VETERANS: Hsieh Su-wei/TPE and Petra Kvitova/CZE
...Hsieh seemed well on her way to another groundbreaking result in Miami, as she'd followed up her first week win over #1 Naomi Osaka (her fifth Top 10 win since the start of '18, with all six in her suddenly newly-blooming singles career having come since she turned 31 in January '17) with a three-set triumph over Caroline Wozniacki to reach the QF. She led Anett Kontaveit 4-0 in the 3rd, but saw the Estonian find a way to end her run when an uncharacteristically high number of errors overcame Hsieh's game. Still, she's up to #24 this week, just one off the career high she set six years ago.



After wins in Miami over Maria Sakkari, Donna Vekic and Caroline Garcia, Kvitova was in pursuit of the #1 ranking that has long eluded her. Well, it's still managing to escape her grasp. The Czech's three-set loss to eventual champ Ash Barty, after having defeated the Aussie in their two previous '19 match-ups, ended yet another quest.


===============================================
COMEBACKS: Simona Halep/ROU and Yulia Putintseva/KAZ [Wk.12: Misaki Doi/JPN and Ajla Tomljanovic/AUS]
...two years ago, Miami was the site of the strategic ultimatum that came to "make" Halep's career, as then coach Darren Cahill walked away after believing she'd given up in a QF loss to Johanna Konta. It proved to ultimately allow Halep to reassess her sometimes crippling perfectionism, learn to take a breath and *still* bring forward her inner warrior. She first reached #1 later that year, finished her first of back-to-back seasons atop the rankings and won last year's Roland Garros.

Halep showed up at the Miami Open's new Hard Rock site with a new coach (Daniel Dobre) and a chance to reclaim the #1 ranking. While she came up a match short of taking back what Naomi Osaka seized in Melbourne (she'll be 239 points behind heading into Week 14), Halep continued to gradually round into early-season shape after missing her usual offseason training regiman while recovering from a back injury. It wasn't easy, though. After a win over Taylor Townsend, she had to rally to down lucky loser Polona Hercog in three (taking control with a 7-1 2nd set TB win) before allowing just six games to Venus Williams and staging a 2nd set comeback (5-1 down) to take out Wang Qiang in straight sets. Against Karolina Pliskova in the semis, just one match away from assuring a climb back to #1, Halep failed to take the 1st despite twice being up a break and serving for the match lead at 5-3. The Czech dominated what remained of the final match of a rain-marred day, but Halep leaves Florida with a 16-6 season mark, with multiple wins in five straight events as she heads toward Romania's semifinal road clash with France and her nation's opportunity to reach a first-ever Fed Cup final.

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Love ... ??

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Meanwhile, Putintseva overcame her previous 1-5 MD career record in Miami by reaching the Round of 16 with wins over Kirsten Flipkens, Belinda Bencic and Anastasija Sevastova. It's the 24-year old's best career PM result, having previously only advanced to a 3rd Round at Indian Wells three years ago (though she does have a pair QF at Roland Garros in 2016/18). #44 coming into the event, Putintseva will climb to #38 in the new rankings, within earshot of the career high (#27) she set in February '17.
===============================================
FRESH FACE: Marketa Vondrousova/CZE [Wk.12: Bianca Andreescu/CAN, Whitney Osuigue/USA and Taylor Townsend/USA]
...the 19-year old Czech didn't follow in the footsteps of Andreescu in Indian Wells, but Vondrousova backed her QF run in the desert (wins over Siegemund, Kasatkina, Ostapenko and Halep) with another Elite 8 result in Miami with wins over Barbora Strycova, Ostapenko (again), Elise Mertens and Tatjana Maria. It's enough to jump her ranking up sixteen spots this week, leapfrogging her previous career high (#50) to #43.


===============================================
DOWN: Sloane Stephens/USA [Wk.12: Madison Keys/USA, Alona Ostapenko/LAT and Naomi Osaka/JPN]
...Stephens' Miami Open started out well enough (even if she didn't open her title defense on the much talked about (tennis-court-within-a-football-stadium) Stadium court, and instead was on Grandstand), but ended after just a single win as she went down without much of a fight against Tatjana Maria in a 3 & 2 3rd Round loss. Still seeking to get a foothold on the season as things head to the 2nd Quarter of the schedule, Stephens is just 6-6 in 2019.



The huge slip in result only drops Stephens two spots (#6 to #8) in the new rankings, with her Roland Garros, Montreal and WTAF finals her biggest remaining points defenses this season.
===============================================
ITF PLAYERS: Vitalia Diatchenko/RUS and Ipek Soylu/TUR [Wk.12: Clara Tauson/DEN and Destanee Aiava/AUS]
...Diatchenko claimed the biggest challenger event of Week 13, a $60K in Croissy-Beaubourg, France. Wins over Antonia Lottner, Maryna Zanevska, Tereza Smitkova and Robin Anderson in a 2 & 3 final gives the Hordette three 2019 circuit titles, and sixteen in her career. The crown ties for the biggest since 2015, after which many of her recent seasons have proven to be injury-marred and abbreviated. Diatchenko picked up her biggest win in a WTA 125 Series event back in 2014 (def. Latisha Chan in the singles final), and won a pair of $100K titles in 2011 and '14.

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In Sharm El Sheikh, Soylu swept the singles and doubles titles at the $15K Egyptian challenger event. The 22-year old Turk defeated Nadja Gilchrist (USA) to take the singles, and combined with Swede Jacqueline Cabaj Awad in the doubles. The singles win is the first since 2015 for the '14 U.S. Open girls doubles champion and three-time tour-level WD winner (all in '16). She'd been just 1-6 in ITF singles finals since the fall of 2014, falling to the likes of Dasha Kasatkina, Anastasija Sevastova, Olga Govortsova and Sofya Zhuk during the stretch.


===============================================
JUNIOR STARS: Emma Navarro/USA and Alexandra Vecic/GER [Wk.12: Coco Gauff/USA and Maria Camila Osorio Serrano/COL]
...17-year old Bannerette Emma Navarro (jr. #22) swept the singles and doubles crowns at the closed Easter Bowl championships at Indian Wells. She dropped no sets en route to the singles title, defeating 14-year old Robin Montgomery in a 6-0/7-6(2) final. She and Chloe Beck (the AO girls runner-ups), the #2 seeds, took the doubles with a win over #1 Hurricane Tyra Black/Lea Ma in the championship match.




Navarro gets a MD wild card (vs. Siegemund) in Charleston this coming week, while the WC duo of Beck/Navarro will face Jurak/Ostapenko in the opening round of WD play.

Meanwhile, in the week's lone Grade 1, the champion of the Juan Carlos Ferrero event in Villena, Spain has yet to be determined as of this posting (I'll add an update later).

The final is set to be contested between a pair of 17-year olds seeking their first G1 crown. #16-seeded Pasty Carole Monnet (jr. #107), coming in off a Grade 2 final (a loss to Malta's Helene Pellicano), defeated top-seeded Hungarian Adrienn Nagy en route to the championship match and had yet to lose a set prior to the final. Her opponent is unseeded German Alexandra Vecic (#164), who upset #2-seeded Marta Custic (ESP) and had dropped just one set.

UPDATE: Vecic won 6-1/6-4


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


DOUBLES: Elise Mertens/Aryna Sabalenka, BEL/BLR
...in just their third event together, Mertens & Sabalenka have already made history, pulling off a "Sunshine Double" two-fer by following up their win in Indian Wells with another in Miami. They didn't have an easy-breezy draw, either. After opening against Collins/Ostapenko, wins over Hsieh/Strycova (via a final TB in their only match to go the distance), Dabrowski/Xu and Azarenka/Barty set up a final confrontation with AO champs Samantha Stosur & Zhang Shuai. Mertens/Sabalenka won 7-6(5)/6-2, securing the title on Zhang's DF on MP #2.



="SUNSHINE DOUBLE" IN DOUBLES=
1997 Natasha Zvereva, BLR
1999 Martina Hingis, SUI
2002 Lisa Raymond/Rennae Stubbs, USA/AUS
2006 Lisa Raymond/Samantha Stosur, USA/AUS
2007 Lisa Raymond/Samantha Stosur, USA/AUS
2015 Martina Hingis/Sania Mirza, SUI/IND
2016 Bethanie Mattek-Sands, USA
2019 Elise Mertens/Aryna Sabalenka, BEL/BLR
--
NOTE: Jana Novotna/Helena Sukova won both IW & Miami as non-consecutive events in 1990

Mertens/Sabalenka have won ten straight matches and are a combined 12-1 in their three career pairings (the duo debuted at the AO).

Sabalenka is the third Belarusian to accomplish the "Sunshine Double" in some form (after Azarenka in singles in '16, and Zvereva in doubles in '97), while Mertens joins Kim Clijsters (WS '05) as the two Belgians to do the "coast-to-coast thing."
===============================================
WHEELCHAIR: Donna Jansen/NED [Wk.12: Aniek Van Koot/NED]
...21-year old Jansen, yet another in the long line of Dutch women's WC athletes, claimed her fifth Futures Series singles title in the past year with a win in the Vilamoura Open in Portugal. The #1 seeded Jansen topped the #2, 39-year old Italian Marianna Lauro, in a 2-6/6-3/6-2 final. Lauro (w/ Silvia Morotti) defeated Jansen (w/ Najwa Awane) in the WD final.

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


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Birthday morning like this ??!! #family

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[Miami Sunday to Sunday]
1. Miami 3rd Rd. - Tatjana Maria def. Sloane Stephens
...6-3/6-2. The German's defeat of the tournament's defending champ (#6) is her third career Top 10 win. The others: #7 Bouchard (2015) and #5 Svitolina (2018).



===============================================
2. Miami QF - Ash Barty def. Petra Kvitova
...7-6(6)/3-6/6-2. Barty finally gets a Petra scalp of her own, after losing to the Czech in the Sydney final and AO quarters this season (as well as previous defeats in 2012 and '17).
===============================================
3. Miami 4th Rd. - Anett Kontaveit def. Bianca Andreescu
...6-1/2-0 ret. Andreescu's dramatic coast-to-coast run (including the I.W. title and 10 consecutive wins, three over Top 10ers) finally came to an end when she finally wasn't able to answer the call in the Round of 16.



She then pulled out of Charleston, allowing her to get some rest before (likely) heading to Europe for Canada's Fed Cup match-up against the Czechs next month, followed by the remainder of the clay court season. Of course, it wasn't the end of the drama for The Saint, err, St.Bibi... umm, "Queenie?" Or maybe "Queenescu?" Hey, why not?

I suppose she comes by it naturally... she does have Romanian roots, after all.

Of course, it started with the boomlet caused by Angelique Kerber's "you're the biggest drama queen ever" fly-by dig at the net after losing to the teenager for the second time in a week (I put that one in the same category as Pliskova's umpire chair destruction moment from last season -- uncalled for and worthy of criticism, but a bad moment that doesn't really alter a career full of positive ones), which was followed by debate over whether Andreescu really *is* a "drama queen." Own it, I say... so I'm still hoping for a *real* t-shirt emblazoned with "Drama Queen" before, you know, it appears on the BSA Bookstore shelves at the end of the year.

For her part, Andreescu didn't personally poke the bear. Of course, that didn't mean others couldn't... which they did when she posted an otherwise innocent "Caption This" photo for her social media followers. Naturally, Kerber's words became a focal point of many, which the Canadian pointed out while laughing at a few of their submissions.



Did she *have* to do that? No. Is it some sort of unpardonable sin? Also no. Even if she *had* been the origin of the attempts at humor, since when is the player on the receiving end of name-calling by a future Hall of Famer supposed to be the one who has to bite their tongue?

Honestly, though, I think Ben was making a bit more out of it all than it really deserved.

Meanwhile, Andreescu will climb to a new career-high of #23 in the new rankings, pulling to within legitimate striking distance (w/ really no big point totals to defend all season) of in short order becoming the fourth Canadian woman to reach the Top 20 (and still climb higher). She has a few points coming off due to a $25K title in April and $60K SF in July, but nothing more before her late summer/early fall post-U.S. Open challenger results (when she went 18-3 heading into '19) begin to reach their 12-month expiration.
===============================================


4. Miami 4th Rd. - Wang Qiang def. Wang Yafan
...7-5/6-4. A match-up of two of the four Wangs in the draw, minus both Xiyu or Xinyu. There are two others waiting in the wings, with Wang Meiling coming into the week at #433 and Wang Jiaqi a Top 100 junior. The win gave "Q", who'll rise to a career-best #16 on Monday, her first Premier Mandatory QF result.
===============================================
5. $25K Canberra Final - Olivia Rogowska def. Priscilla Hon
...7-6(6)/6-3. Rogowska wins the all-Aussie battle, picking up career title #16 (but her first since 2017).


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





[Miami Sunday to Sunday]


1. Miami QF - Anett Kontaveit def. HSIEH SU-WEI
...3-6/6-2/7-5. In order to reach her first PM semi, Kontaveit had to dig out of a 4-0 3rd set deficit against a suddenly error-prone Hsieh.


===============================================
2. Miami SF - KAROLINA PLISKOVA def. Simona Halep
...7-5/6-1. A win away from the #1 ranking, Halep twice held a break lead in the 1st, and served for the set at 5-3. Serving to reach a TB, she was broken from 40/15 up and didn't win another game against an in-the-zone Pliskova until after a rain delay when she was down 5-0 in the 2nd.


===============================================
3. Miami Final - Ash Barty def. KAROLINA PLISKOVA
...7-6(1)/6-3. Barty's biggest title makes her the first Aussie to win the singles at either end of the Indian Wells/Miami stretch on the WTA schedule.




All right, what did the Prediction Blowout have listed for Ash in 2019?

"...a Top 10 run, her biggest title to date (a Premier 5 or better), her first (and second) slam QF run, at least five Top 10 wins and maybe, just maybe, a lead role in what could be Australia's best chance for a huge FC victory in a while (it's AUS vs. USA in the 1st Round in February)... a slam WD title with CoCo Vandeweghe... and (she'll) be the first player since February 2016 (Lucie Safarova) to be ranked in the WTA Top 10 in both singles and doubles simultaneously during the season."

* - Top 10 (yes, on Monday)
* - biggest title to date/Premier 5+ (yes)
* - first two slam QF (one so far)
* - five Top 10 wins (she's *already* got 5)
* - Fed Cup (she was the FC "Overall MVP" in leading AUS over the U.S.)
* - slam WD title (CoCo is still rehabbing, but maybe w/ Vika?)
* - Top 10 in WS/WD (yes, on Monday, as she'll be #9 in both)
===============================================
4. Miami 4th Rd. - Simona Halep def. VENUS WILLIAMS
...6-3/6-3. Halep wins her fourth straight over Venus, with the six games she dropped here the most in any of those head-to-head encounters. She now leads their career series 4-3, having not lost to Williams since 2013.
===============================================
5. Miami SF - Samantha Stosur/Zhang Shuai def. CHAN HAO-CHING/LATISHA CHAN
...6-7(6)/7-5 [10-5]. In their third 3rd set match TB of the event, the sisters finally fall. Still, they're 23-5 on the year with a RU-W-QF-W-SF-SF-SF run recorded in ink on their season's scorecard.
===============================================
HM- $15K Tabarka TUN Final - Nicole Gadient/CHICHI SCHOLL def. Nagomi Higashitani/Satsuki Koike
...7-5/7-5. 26-year old Bannerette School picks up career doubles win #16, her fourth ITF title since last November.
===============================================









































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Hey guys ??????! Wanted to give you a little update on my health issues. I been straggling with knee pain for the past 5 weeks. Unfortunately it got worst after long matches and MRI scans confirm it. My team been working really hard to make me feel less pain, so I could compete during US swing. But now I strongly been recommend by doctors to take my time to let it heal. I will do everything what’s in my power to speed up my recovery and come back healthier. I want to thank everyone for the support and love ?? Eli ? ???? ??????!???? ?????? ? ?????????? ? ???? ??????????? ???? ????? ???? ??????'?. ?????? 5 ?????? ? ??????? ?? ????????? ????? ? ??????. ??????, ???????? ?????? ??????????? ????? ???????? ??????, ? ??? ??????????? ???????? ??????????. ??? ??????? ?????? ??? ???????, ??? ? ?????????? ????????? ???? ? ????? ???????? ?? ???? ??? ??? ????????????? ????? ????????. ??? ????? ?????? ???????????? ???? ??????? ????? ? ?????????? ?? ??????. ? ???????? ??? ??? ???? ???????, ??? ?????????? ?????? ??????????? ? ??????????? ?? ???? ? ?????? ????????????. ???? ?????????? ???? ?? ????? ?? ?????????. ?? ???? ?????.

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*2019 SLAM/PREMIER MANDATORY FINALS*
AO: #4 Naomi Osaka/JPN def. #6 Petra Kvitova/CZE
DUB: #45 Belinda Bencic/SUI def. #4 Petra Kvitova/CZE
IW: #60 Bianca Andreescu/CAN def. #8 Angelique Kerber/GER
MIA: #11 ASH BARTY/AUS def. #7 KAROLINA PLISKOVA/CZE

*2019 WTA FINALS*
3 - Petra Kvitova, CZE (1-2)
2 - Bianca Andreescu, CAN (1-1)
2 - ASH BARTY, AUS (1-1)
2 - Sonya Kenin, USA (1-1)
2 - KAROLINA PLISKOVA, CZE (1-1)

*MOST SINGLES TITLES - LAST 3 SEASONS, 2017-19*
9...Elina Svitolina, 5/4/0
7...Petra Kvitova, 1/5/1
6...Kiki Bertens, 2/3/1
6...Karolina Pliskova, 3/2/1
5...Julia Goerges, 2/2/1
5...Elise Mertens, 1/3/1
5...Caroline Wozniacki, 2/3/0
4...ASH BARTY, 1/2/1
4...Simona Halep, 1/3/0
4...Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 3/1/0

*2019 WTA CHAMPIONS BY RANKING*
#4 - Naomi Osaka, JPN (Australian Open)
#8 - Karolina Pliskova, CZE (Brisbane)
#8 - Kiki Bertens, NED (Saint Petersburg)
#9 - Petra Kvitova, CZE (Sydney)
#12 - ASH BARTY, AUS (MIAMI)
#13 - Aryna Sabalenka, BLR (Shenzhen)
#14 - Julia Goerges, GER (Auckland)
#21 - Elise Mertens, BEL (Doha)
#45 - Belinda Bencic, SUI (Dubai)
#47 - Dayana Yastremska, UKR (Hua Hin)
#50 - Alison Van Uytvanck, BEL (Budapest)
#56 - Sonya Kenin, USA (Hobart)
#60 - Bianca Andreescu, CAN (Indian Wells)
#65 - Wang Yafan, CHN (Acapulco)

*RECENT TOP 10 DEBUTS*
[2017]
Elina Svitolina, UKR
Alona Ostapenko, LAT
Caroline Garcia, FRA
Kristina Mladenovic, FRA
CoCo Vandweghe, USA
[2018]
Julia Goerges, GER
Sloane Stephens, USA
Naomi Osaka, JPN
Kiki Bertens, NED
Dasha Kasatkina, RUS
[2019]
Aryna Sabalenka, BLR
ASH BARTY, AUS

*AUSTRALIANS IN TOP 10 - by debut year*
1975 Evonne Goolaong
1975 Margaret Court
1975 Kerry Melville-Reid
1976 Dianne Fromholtz-Balestrat
1977 Wendy Turnbull
1988 Hana Mandlikova (previously as TCH in 1980)
2001 Jelena Dokic
2005 Alicia Molik
2010 Samantha Stosur
2019 ASH BARTY

*MOST WTA SINGLES TITLES - AUS*
92 - Margaret Court, 1968-76
68 - Evonne Goolagong-Cawley, 1970-80
17 - Kerry Melville-Reid, 1968-79
15 - Dianne Fromholtz-Balestrat, 1973-79
9 - Samantha Stosur, 2009-17
9 - Wendy Turnbull, 1976-83
6 - Jelena Dokic, 2001-11
5 - Alicia Molik, 2003-05
4 - ASH BARTY, 2017-19
4 - Anne Minter, 1987-89
3 - Nicole Provis-Bradtke, 1992-95
3 - Elizabeth Smylie, 1982-87

*CANADIANS IN TOP 20*
#5 - Genie Bouchard (high 2014)
#8 - Carling Bassett-Seguso (high 1985)
#13 - Helen Kelesi (high 1989)
[others]
#21 - Aleksandra Wozniak (2009)
#23 - BIANCA ANDREESCU (ON MONDAY)
#28 - Patricia Hy-Boulais (1993)

*HIGH-RANKED CHINESE WOMEN*
#2 - Li Na (2014)
#14 - Peng Shuai (2011)
#15 - Zheng Jie (2009)
#16 - WANG QIANG (ON MONDAY)

*2019 WINS OVER FORMER/CURRENT #1 PLAYERS(#)*
5 - BIANCA ANDREESCU, CAN
4 - HSIEH SU-WEI, TPE
3 - ASH BARTY, AUS
3 - Belinda Bencic, SUI
3 - Simona Halep, ROU
3 - KAROLINA PLISKOVA, CZE
--
(#)- Azarenka,Halep,Kerber,Muguruza,Osaka,Ka.Pliskova,
Sharapova,S.Williams,V.Williams,Wozniacki

*LONG 2019 WTA+FC WIN STREAKS - WS/WD*
12...Belinda Bencic, SUI [Feb/Mar, ended by Kerber] - WS
11...Petra Kvitova, CZE [Jan., ended by Osaka] - WS
10...Karolina Pliskova, CZE [Jan., ended by Osaka] - WS
10...BIANCA ANDREESCU, CAN [Mar., ended by Kontaveit/ret] - WS
10...MERTENS/SABALENKA, BEL/BLR [MARCH - ACTIVE] - WD

*2019 SLAM/PREMIER MANDATORY CHAMPIONS*
[singles]
AO: Naomi Osaka, JPN
DU: Belinda Bencic, SUI
IW: Bianca Andreescu, CAN
MI: Ash Barty, AUS
[doubles]
AO: Stosur/Sh.Zhang, AUS/CHN
AO: Barbora Krejcikova, CZE (MX)
DU: Hsieh/Strycova, TPE/CZE
IW: Mertens/Sabalenka, BEL/BLR
MI: Mertens/Sabalenka, BEL/BLR

*"SUNSHINE DOUBLE" WINNERS*
[singles]
1994 Steffi Graf, GER
1996 Steffi Graf, GER
2005 Kim Clijsters , BEL
2016 Victoria Azarenka, BLR
[singles]
1997 Natasha Zvereva, BLR
1999 Martina Hingis, SUI
2002 Lisa Raymond/Rennae Stubbs, USA/AUS
2006 Lisa Raymond/Samantha Stosur, USA/AUS
2007 Lisa Raymond/Samantha Stosur, USA/AUS
2015 Martina Hingis/Sania Mirza, SUI/IND
2016 Bethanie Mattek-Sands, USA
2019 Elise Mertens/Aryna Sabalenka, BEL/BLR
--
NOTE: Jana Novotna/Helena Sukova won both IW/Mia as non-consecutive events in 1990

*2019 WTA DOUBLES FINALS*
[duos]
3...Chan/Chan (2-1)
2...MERTENS/SABALENKA (2-0)
2...STOSUR/SH.ZHANG (1-1)
[individuals]
3...Chan Hao-ching (2-1)
3...Latisha Chan (2-1)
2...ELISE MERTENS (2-0)
2...ARYNA SABALENKA (2-0)
2...Ekaterina Makarova (1-1)
2...Katerina Siniakova (1-1)
2...SAMANTHA STOSUR (1-1)
2...ZHANG SHUAI (1-1)

*MIAMI, FLORIDA USA (Premier Mandatory/Hard)*
=WS FINALS=
1985 Martina Navratilova d. Chris Evert 6–2, 6–4
1986 Chris Evert d. Steffi Graf 6–4, 6–2
1987 Steffi Graf d. Chris Evert 6–1, 6–2
1988 Steffi Graf d. Chris Evert 6–4, 6–4
1989 Gabriela Sabatini d. Chris Evert 6–1, 4–6, 6–2
1990 Monica Seles d. Judith Wiesner 6–1, 6–2
1991 Monica Seles d. Gabriela Sabatini 6–3, 7–5
1992 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario d. Gabriela Sabatini 6–1, 6–4
1993 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario d. Steffi Graf 6–4, 3–6, 6–3
1994 Steffi Graf d. Natasha Zvereva 4–6, 6–1, 6–2
1995 Steffi Graf d. Kimiko Date 6–1, 6–4
1996 Steffi Graf d. Chanda Rubin 6–1, 6–3
1997 Martina Hingis d. Monica Seles 6–2, 6–1
1998 Venus Williams d. Anna Kournikova 2–6, 6–4, 6–1
1999 Venus Williams d. Serena Williams 6–1, 4–6, 6–4
2000 Martina Hingis d. Lindsay Davenport 6–3, 6–2
2001 Venus Williams d. Jennifer Capriati 4–6, 6–1, 7–6(4)
2002 Serena Williams d. Jennifer Capriati 7–5, 7–6(4)
2003 Serena Williams d. Jennifer Capriati 4–6, 6–4, 6–1
2004 Serena Williams d. Elena Dementieva 6–1, 6–1
2005 Kim Clijsters d. Maria Sharapova 6–3, 7–5
2006 Svetlana Kuznetsova d. Maria Sharapova 6–4, 6–3
2007 Serena Williams d. Justine Henin 0–6, 7–5, 6–3
2008 Serena Williams d. Jelena Jankovic 6–1, 5–7, 6–3
2009 Victoria Azarenka d. Serena Williams 6–3, 6–1
2010 Kim Clijsters d. Venus Williams 6–2, 6–1
2011 Victoria Azarenka d. Maria Sharapova 6–1, 6–4
2012 Agnieszka Radwanska d. Maria Sharapova 7–5, 6–4
2013 Serena Williams d. Maria Sharapova 4–6, 6–3, 6–0
2014 Serena Williams d. Li Na 7–5, 6–1
2015 Serena Williams d. Carla Suarez Navarro 6–2, 6–0
2016 Victoria Azarenka d. Svetlana Kuznetsova 6–3, 6–2
2017 Johanna Konta d. Caroline Wozniacki 6–4, 6–3
2018 Sloane Stephens d. Alona Ostapenko 7-6(5), 6-1
2019 Ash Barty d. Karolina Pliskova 7-6(1), 6-3
=WD FINALS=
1985 G.Fernandez/Navratilova d. Jordan/Mandlikova
1986 Shriver/Sukova d. Evert/Turnbull
1987 Navratilova/Shriver d. Kohde-Kilsch/Sukova
1988 Graf/Sabatini d. G.Fernandez/Garrison
1989 Novotna/Sukova d. G.Fernandez/McNeil
1990 Novotna/Sukova d. Nagelsen/White
1991 MJ.Fernandez/Garrison-Jackson d. G.Fernandez/Novotna
1992 Sanchez Vicario/Savchenko-Neiland d. Hetherington/Rinaldi
1993 Novotna/Savchenko Neiland d. Hetherington/Rinaldi
1994 G.Fernandez/Zvereva d. Fendick/McGrath
1995 Novotna/Sanchez Vicario d. G.Fernandez/Zvereva
1996 Novotna/Sanchez Vicario d. McGrath/Savchenko Neiland
1997 Sanchez Vicario/Zvereva d. Appelmans/Oremans
1998 Hingis/Novotna d. Sanchez Vicario/Zvereva
1999 Hingis/Novotna d. MJ.Fernandez/Seles
2000 Halard-Decugis/Sugiyama d. Arendt/Bollegraf
2001 Sanchez Vicario/Tauziat d. Raymond/Stubbs
2002 Raymond/Stubbs d. Ruano Pascual/Suarez
2003 Huber/Mag.Maleeva d. Asagoe/Miyagi
2004 Petrova/Shaughnessy d. Kuznetsova/Likhovtseva
2005 Kuznetsova/Molik d. Raymond/Stubbs
2006 Raymond/Stosur d. Huber/Navratilova
2007 Raymond/Stosur d. C.Black/Huber
2008 Srebotnik/Sugiyama d. C.Black/Huber
2009 Kuznetsova/Mauresmo d. Peschke/Raymond
2010 Dulko/Pennetta d. Petrova/Stosur
2011 Hantuchova/A.Radwanska d. Huber/Petrova
2012 Kirilenko/Petrova d. Errani/Vinci
2013 Petrova/Srebotnik d. Raymond/Robson
2014 Hingis/Lisicki d. Makarova/Vesnina
2015 Hingis/Mirza d. Makarova/Vesnina
2016 Mattek-Sands/Safarova d. Babos/Shvedova
2017 Dabrowski/Xu Yifan d. Mirza/Strycova
2018 Barty/Vandeweghe d. Krejcikova/Siniakova
2019 Mertens/Sabalenka d. Stosur/Sh.Zhang

*MIAMI FINALISTS NEVER TO SLAM FINAL*
1990 Judith Weisner, AUT
1995 Kimiko Date, JPN
1996 Chanda Rubin, USA
1998 Anna Kournikova, RUS
2015 Carla Suarez-Navarro, ESP
2017 Johanna Konta, GBR (W)
2019 Ash Barty, AUS (W)

*MIAMI FINALIST NEVER WON SLAM TITLE*
1990 Judith Weisner, AUT
1994 Natasha Zvereva, BLR
1995 Kimiko Date, JPN
1996 Chanda Rubin, USA
1998 Anna Kournikova, RUS
2008 Jelena Jankovic, SRB
2012 Aga Radwanska, POL (W)
2015 Carla Suarez-Navarro, ESP
2017 Johanna Konta, GBR (W)
2019 Ash Barty, AUS (W)
2019 Karolina Pliskova, CZE

*EASTER BOWL (CLOSED) CHAMPIONS - since 2008*
2008 Melanie Oudin, USA
2009 Christina McHale, USA
2010 Krista Hardebeck, USA
2011 Kyle McPhillips, USA
2012 Taylor Townsend, USA
2013 Mayo Hibi, JPN
2014 CiCi Bellis, USA
2015 Claire Liu, USA
2016 Alexandra Sanford, USA
2017 Claire Liu, USA
2018 Katie Volynets, USA
2019 Emma Navarro, USA


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Coming up next, it's 1st Quarter awards time! And...



All for now.

posted by Todd.Spiker @ 5:34 PM 

7 Comments:

Blogger colt13 said...

Expected the title to be Moonballs Over Miami.

Epic fail by Kerber. As a German, she needed to rock the Mavs 41 jersey. Especially since there still is a pic of her in a Miami Heat uni from a couple of years back.

Miami played like a clay court. So being in of Pliskova as a French Open darkhorse is on track.

Except for the rain marred SF, Miami put on a good show.

All of the field fillers in force in Charleston. Qualifying had Hradecka and Perrin, who try both, plus doubles specialists Melichar, Klepac, Rosolska, Aoyama, Both Kichenoks, Spears, Marozava, Schoofs, and Jurak.

Stat of the Week-9- The number of doubles titles won by Hingis/Mirza win they won the Sunshine Double back in 2015.

The difference between them and Mertens/Sabalenka? They saved their bodies, so much so that neither one played a regular season singles match, though that was the year Hingis went 0-2 in Fed Cup 3 weeks after the double.

What is noticeable is that we are getting into rare territory, at least for somebody not named Williams. Since both Mertens and Sabalenka are ranked high in both singles and doubles, there is something to look at. Although Stosur, Clijsters, Pennetta and others have won both singles and doubles slams, we haven't had a non Williams win both in the same season since 1999, when Hingis did-AO for both. We havent had a team do it since Hingis/Novotna won 3 doubles slams in 1998, when Hingis won the Australian and Novotna Wimbledon.

With Mertens a darkhorse for the French, and Sabalenka a US Open threat, we could see something we haven't seen too often.

Quiz Time!
Until April 1st 2019, Kaia Kanepi was the highest ranked Estonian in history at 15. Who has the lowest career ranking of the 8 finalists she has played?

A.Peng Shuai
B.Caroline Wozniacki
C.Carla Suarez Navarro
D.Daniela Hantuchova
E.Dominika Cibulkova
F.Flavia Pennetta
G.Kim Clijsters

Interlude-More Up/Down Side with Charleston as a Premier.






Answer!
There are only 7 options, as Kanepi played (B)Wozniacki twice. She is an obvious no, as she was #1, as was Clijsters. Kim was at #6, the highest ranked woman Kanepi played in a final, which is ironic considering that Kanepi's ranking of 91 was her lowest of the 8.

(C)Suarez Navarro is also a no, but the fact that she was ranked at 58 meant that this was the only final in which Kanepi was the higher ranked player.

Everybody left is at the very least a slam SF, and (A)Peng is the answer, meaning that with a career high of 14, everybody Kanepi played in a final has a better career high. And she went a credible 4-4.

Sun Mar 31, 07:51:00 PM EDT  
Blogger colt13 said...

5 On the Up Side-The did Diane make it to Charleston edition?

1.Bertens-The heavy favorite, she has been steady if not spectacular. Has won at least two matches in every event this year, except for Dubai and AO. If she goes out, probably a shock winner.
2.Riske-A risky pick for Monterrey, but she lost there last year to the winner. Out of the US, she should be in much better shape, as the woman who reached 2 finals in her last 52 weeks, of the 27 WTA matches she won, TWENTY FIVE of them were outside the US.
3.Rogers-Has only played 2 matches since the end of 2017. Her IG posts show her playing golf lefty, so this feels like a hometown girl going for the last hurrah, just in case. Not expecting a win, just love from the crowd.
4.N.Kichenok- L.Kichenok won one mach in qualies, then offered a walkover. N.Kichenok made it through, and will play her first singles match since 2016, when she lost to Ostapenko in Florianopolis. If she wins, it would be her 5th MD win, having beaten Birnerova, Fichman, then Babos twice.
5.Siegemund-The person most happy to switch to clay. From the start of 2017 until she got injured in May, she had 8 Top 30 wins. A year into her comeback, she has had 2, one on clay.

Sun Mar 31, 08:01:00 PM EDT  
Blogger colt13 said...

5 On the Down Side.

1.Larsson- Much better on clay, but has a problem. Has lost her last 18 matches vs the Top 30. Hasn't defeated one since Vinci at New Haven back in 2016. The oddity is that her last 3 Top 30 wins were as a LL. And not in the same tournament, as one of those wins was the prior week in Cincinnati.
2.Andreescu-Pulled out, but just tempering expectations. Bianca has only played 9 MD events. All on hard. I lied, she made through qualies.....at Wimbledon, so 1 grass event, none on clay. As her favorite surface, finding her game shouldn't be hard. What might be is the step up in class. A .500 record on clay this year would be a nice start.
3.Bencic-Used the Hopman Cup as a springboard for this season, something she cant do next, as it got rolled for an ATP event. Also, due to injury, Bencic hasn't had a win on clay outside of RG since 2015. So the over/under for clay season wins for her and Andreescu is 5.
4.Osaka- Was 5-4 on clay last season, and with a new coach, nobody knows what to expect.
5.Pavlyuchenkova- 4 time Monterrey winner is on a 3 match losing streak. But don't count her completely out. She had a similar streak in 2013, when she won the third of her 4 titles.

Sun Mar 31, 08:10:00 PM EDT  
Blogger Todd.Spiker said...

I'd maybe throw Barty in there as a potential one-player S/D slam winner, too. Once CoCo gets back (or even w/ Vika), she could pick up another WD slam. I wasn't sure coming into '19 if she was quite there yet as a singles threat, but after how far she's come already by the time Wimbledon and the Open get here, who knows?

Quiz: went w/ CSN. :/

Siegemund continues to exist as a big comeback story waiting to happen. Last year's clay season was a bit too early for something to realistically happen. But now...?

Weird truth: we're coming up fast on the two-year anniversary of Bertens' last singles title on red clay, and it doesn't even feel strange to say that anymore. If 2016-17 us could hear us now they'd think we were crazy.

Pavlyuchenkova *has* been quiet of late... so it's probably about time for her to win something. The next would be #13, by the way, which would tie her w/ Svitolina as the only two players with 13 titles but no slam semifinal.

P.S. - I hear Diane is seeing Italians in strange places in Charleston. :)

Mon Apr 01, 12:13:00 AM EDT  
Blogger colt13 said...

Barty is a threat in both. Jokingly, one could say that the Aussies are going for the doubles calendar slam. With Barty winning in NY, and Stosur down under, they will be going for a 3rd straight title for the first time since 1963-64 when Ebben/Court won the US Open, followed by Dalton/Bowrey, Court/Bowrey, then Court/Bowrey once more.

The weird thing about 1999 is that it actually happened 3 times, each time with the same person winning singles and doubles at the same slam. Hingis(Australian), Davenport(Wimbledon), and Serena(US).

Mon Apr 01, 09:11:00 AM EDT  
Blogger Todd.Spiker said...

Ah, good point on the Aussies. It's in play. ;)

They were talking during TC's doubles final coverage on Sunday about who has the most overall titles in tour history (Navratilova, of course) and noted how big a lead she has on the #2 on the list, and that the otherworldly distance between her and today's players will never be bridged simply based on the fact that top players don't consistently play WD as it was when that was "just how they did things" in the early days of the WTA.

Mon Apr 01, 12:35:00 PM EDT  
Blogger Diane said...

If Siegemund is in form (and I have no idea if she is), she will probably meet Bertens rather soon, and--if she is in form--that could be a blockbuster match.

Tue Apr 02, 02:21:00 PM EDT  

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