Monday, October 07, 2019

Wk.40- The Second Wave of Osaka

As things have turned out, while Ash and Bianca were rising, Naomi never left.



As the 2019 campaign enters the closing kick to a fascinating season, Beijing offered everyone a brief window into what might not only be the WTA tour's immediate future (i.e. the WTA Finals' inaugural stop in Shenzhen which, if the China Open is any sort of harbinger, could be epic) but also its longer range landscape as we hop, skip and jump into a new tennis decade a few months from now.

With mere weeks remaining on the schedule, arguably this season's three top players all came to play in the Chinese capital, with the one who was the best on the week emerging as the legitimate champion, having gotten through the unofficial round robin with an unscathed record. The next time the three meet, it could go a different way. And the same (meaning still another different ending) could happen the time after that, too.

Oh, yes... bring on *that* era. Quickly, and as many times as possible.




*WEEK 40 CHAMPIONS*
BEIJING, CHINA (Premier Mandatory/Hard Court Outdoor)
S: Naomi Osaka/JPN def. Ash Barty/AUS 3-6/6-3/6-2
D: Sofia Kenin/Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA/USA) def. Alona Ostapenko/Dayana Yastremska (LAT/UKR) 6-3/6-7(5) [10-7]


Naomi Osaka/JPN
...2018 was about the Great Wave of Osaka's arrival on the WTA shores. 2019, in the end, has shown the 21 (soon to be 22) year old's ability to surf that wave and ultimately find her new footing, something she most assuredly has done while compiling a 10-0 run this 4th Quarter. After already winning in Osaka this fall, the world #4 followed up this past week in Beijing with her second career Premier Mandatory title.



After a season that has seen her win a second slam title, release two coaches, gain and then lose the #1 ranking (and then re-gain and lose it again) while trying to keep one step ahead of the expectation game, Osaka has come out on the other side in Asia in recent weeks seemingly better off for it all. In Beijing, she battled fatigue, in-form opponents and (reminding us just how early in the process she still is in this whole thing) a schedule that saw her have to win big matches on back-to-back days in a big event (remember, I.W., the Open and AO's schedules are all more spread out) while struggling to remain "fresh."



She handled it all quite well, stringing together wins over Jessica Pegula, Andrea Petkovic, Alison Riske, Bianca Andreescu, Caroline Wozniacki and Ash Barty while dropping just two sets (vs. Andreescu and Barty, forcing her to rally from a set back to get the win down the stretch both times vs. the season's two "most professional match winners"). The title improves her career record in WTA finals to 5-2, while the win over Barty gives her a second over a world #1 (the other was a defeat of Simona Halep collected while winning Indian Wells last year) and increases her career Top 10 win total to ten (w/ five of them coming in '19).

Assuming she's traversed the usual rough waters after her immediate breakthrough, could these last few weeks/months give us an indication of that the "Second Wave" of Osaka might be like? Since the start of the U.S. Open, Osaka has gone 14-1 (18-3 since the beginning of the summer HC season).



Indeed.
===============================================
RISERS: Ash Barty/AUS and Kiki Bertens/NED
...Barty's "Player of the Year"-worthy campaign has gotten some competition in the closing weeks of the season with Bianca Andreescu's U.S. Open title run and Osaka's dominant Asian swing, though the Aussie's overall season, #1 ranking, tour-leading match win total and awaiting Fed Cup final date continue to keep her (at least) a head in front of her immediate challengers, even as she lost a face-to-face battle with Osaka this week in Beijing.



The Aussie showed her fight hasn't waned as the season has gone on (that'll come in handy vs. the Pastries in Perth, a match-up 33 days away as the week begins), and her three consecutive three-set wins in Beijing proved it out. After opening with a victory over Yulia Putintseva, Barty went the distance and prevailed over Zheng Saisai, Petra Kvitova (what a series *they've* had in '19, as Ash essentially *stole* this one from the Czech) and Kiki Bertens (who served for the match and held a MP), the latter two wins giving her a 7th and 8th Top 10 win on the season. After taking the 1st set in the final vs. Osaka, Barty was bested by the hard-charging Japanese former #1, dropping her to 17-5 in three-set matches this year. She's 33-7 on hard courts in '19.



Bertens finds herself in a similar position to Elina Svitolina a year ago, scrambling to make the WTAF field (and we know how *that* turned out for the Ukrainian). Sure, if not for the Dutch woman's 2r-2r-3r-3r slam results in '19 she wouldn't find herself in such a position, but if such a goal-oriented mindset in the closing weeks (she's taken a WC into Linz) works and gets her into the Shenzhen round robin, it could turn out to be a very good thing (again, see Svitolina). In Beijing, Bertens turned around what had been a combined 4-6 mark since the end of the clay season, posting wins over Donna Vekic, Dayana Yastremska, Polona Hercog and (ironcially) Svitolina before coming within an unconverted MP vs. Barty from reaching her second Premier Mandatory final of the year (Madrid W, when she knocked four former slam champions en route to the title).
===============================================


SURPRISE: Jennifer Brady/USA
...Beijing is a big event, so naturally Brady made her presence known. The Bannerette made it through qualifying, then posted back-to-back three-set wins over Amanda Anisimova and Madison Keys. The wins over the world's #29 and #15-ranked players were her best since defeating Caroline Garcia in March (at Indian Wells, naturally). She lost to Andreescu, but her 3rd Round result matches her best career Premier Mandatory/Premier results (both came earlier this year, at I.W. and Dubai). Brady will rise to a new career high of #56 on Monday.
===============================================


VETERAN: Caroline Wozniacki/DEN
...much like Venus Williams in the aftermath of her Sjogren's diagnosis, Wozniacki has had to learn to adjust to the new reality of her rheumatoid arthritis condition and how to deal with it *and* still be successful on the WTA tour. As a result, 2019 has been a difficult year. She came to Beijing as the tournament's defending champ, facing her first truly big title defense since the Australian Open, as well knowing that she would close up shop for the season once the week was over. She didn't defend the crown, officially ending her streak of eleven straight seasons with at least one WTA title (tied for the fifth longest in tour history), but she *did* have one of her best performances of the campaign.

Wozniacki posted wins over Lauren Davis, Christina McHale, Katerina Siniakova and Dasha Kasatkina to reach her first SF since playing in the Charleston final in the spring, and only her second since winning Beijing last fall. She had chances to make a match of things vs. Osaka, but was 0-for-7 on BP opportunities. Still, she'll drop out of the Top 20 with the result, coming in at #24 on Monday, meaning '19 will be the first season she won't finish in the Top 20 since 2007.
===============================================


COMEBACK: Dasha Kasatkina/RUS
...Kasatkina seems to be (sometimes painfully) slowly making her way back. In Beijing, as the Kremlin Cup back home in Russian sparkles just around the corner, she had maybe her best week of the season, declaring at one point that, "The Russian Wall came back in China!" Kasatkina made her way past Peng Shuai, Wuhan champ Aryna Sabalenka and Ekaterina Alexadrova to reach the QF, her first such result since playing in (ding!) Saint Petersburg, Russia in February, Though, since that one came after a 1st Rd. bye and 2nd Rd. walkover, maybe one should look back to last October when she won the title in (ding!) Moscow for a better and more appropriate call back.



Kasatkina had a brief hard court uptick in results this summer only to then drop four straight, so whether this is a sustainable (for whatever time is left in '19) resurgence remains to be seen. Either way, Kasatkina's offseason *must* be constructed differently than it has been in recent years, whatever that ultimately entails. Her offseason has traditionally led to slow starts the following January that take her weeks or months to course-correct. This year, the switch was never fully flipped, causing her to cut loose a coach (Philippe Dehaes) in the process as she's watched her ranking slip from Top 10 to fighting to stay in the Top 50 (she gets a bump from #45 to #39 this week) in the closing weeks of the season. New coach Carlos Martinez *seems* to have helped, but the rebuild doesn't end once the 2019 WTA schedule is complete.
===============================================


FRESH FACE: Bianca Andreescu/CAN
...Andreescu's long winning streak finally came to an end in Beijing, but her aura persists. Betraying no signs of blinking in the face of elevated expectations after winning the U.S. Open, the 19-year old continued to show that no deficit (big or small) is a hindrance to her finding her way to a victory, as she recovered from an early hole vs. Aliaksandra Sasnovich, as well as a 2nd set one vs. Elise Mertens (saving a SP and coming back from 4-1 down, then 3-1 in the TB, to win in straights), the Belgian she defeated from a set down in the U.S. Open QF. The win extended her 2019 tour-best win streak to 16 straight (with a 17-match run without a loss, as she had that RG 2nd Rd. walkover that restarted her "streak" one win in Paris).

In the much-anticipated first-time clash with Osaka, Andreescu grabbed the early lead but couldn't hold onto 3-1 leads in the 2nd and 3rd sets as Osaka raised the level of her game and edged out the Canadian in a match that lived up to the hype, and would have seen her surpass Osaka in the rankings had the result been flipped. It was Andreescu's first loss in a completed match since falling to Sofia Kenin in Acapulco in early March. She's 48-5 on all levels for the season, and 67-8 dating back one full year (and that's *with* the break after the shoulder injury this spring).


===============================================
DOWN: Angelique Kerber/GER and Simona Halep/ROU
...it's hard to truly jump on any results at this time of year, with the finish line in sight and most season goals having already been met (or by now out of reach), other than to point out a few trends. Both of these two have some recent ones.

Kerber opened with a three-set win over Zhang Shuai in Beijing, only to fall 4 & 2 to Polona Hercog a round later. The loss catches her in another short-term dip in results (1-3), as well as a slightly longer downturn (4-9 since defeating Halep in the Eastbourne QF). Before the defeat at the hands of the Slovenian, Kerber had defeated Hercog five straight times (all their previous tour-level meetings), and hadn't lost to her in a decade (in a $100K in '09).

Halep has already qualified for the WTA Finals, so one suspects that's where what remains of her focus for '19 is at this point. Still, her 2nd Round loss in Beijing to Ekaterina Alexandrova gives the Romanian four straight 1-1 events since since retiring in the Cincinnati QF in her first post-Wimbledon event. Since winning at SW19, while fighting various injuries, Halep has dropped matches to players ranked #91 (ret.), #116, #50 (ret.) and #38.
===============================================
ITF PLAYERS: Caroline Dolehide/USA and Asia Muhammad/USA
...21-year old Dolehide continued her late summer/early fall run of good results, picking up her second $60K challenger title in recent weeks with a 6-2/6-7(5)/6-0 win in the Charleston final over countrywoman Grace Min. The Bannerette has responded remarkably well to her experiences at the Pan-American Games a month prior to the start of the U.S. Open. In Lima, Peru Dolehide won the doubles Gold, and nearly swept the singles, as well, only to fall to Nadia Podoroska in the final after having a MP at 5-2 in the 3rd set and leading the deciding TB by a 4-0 score. Since then, Dolehide has rebounded by qualifying for the U.S. Open, reaching the WD semis at Flushing Meadows and winning two $60K titles, both matching the biggest win of her career.

In Brisbane, 28-year old Muhammad carried on her September run Down Under. Going into the week, she'd already gone to Cairns ($25K) and won the singles and reached the doubles final, then followed that with a $60K singles semi in Darwin. This week, she cut a path through another $25K draw, taking out Aussies Priscilla Hon (QF) and Maddison Ingliss (in the final, where she lost her only set of the week), to pick up career challenger title #9. During her recent 13-1 stretch, she's dropped a total of three sets.

View this post on Instagram

Great week! I love me some Brissy ????

A post shared by Asia Muhammad (@asia.muhammad) on


===============================================
JUNIOR STAR: Savannah Broadus/USA
...the 17-year old Texan, the recent Wimbledon girls doubles champion (w/ Abigail Forbes) recorded her best pro event singles result to date with a semifinal run in the $15K in Norman, Oklahoma, matching her final four finish in an event in Evansville, Indiana in July of last year. Broadus lost her SF match to eventual champ Anna Turati, 6-2/7-5. Broadus next heads to Lexington, Kentucky for the Grade B1 Pan American Closed championship event where she'll be the #2 seed behind U.S. Open finalist Alexandra Yepifanova.

Who knows, maybe Carrollton will have something more to celebrate soon?



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


DOUBLES: Sofia Kenin/Bethanie Mattek-Sands, USA/USA
...with Lucie Safarova retired, Mattek-Sands needs a new partner in crime. While come 2020 it might more likely be someone such as good friend and soon-to-return Sania Mirza, or CoCo Vandeweghe (assuming Ash Barty & Vika follow up for more next year), maybe Kenin should be given some consideration. In their first pairing, the Bannerettes were given a wild card into the Beijing draw and went about claiming the title while winning three match TB's (1st Round/QF/Final) and posting victories over #3 seeds Mertens/Sabalenka, #5 Groenefeld/Schuurs, Aoyama Shibahara and, in the title decider, Alona Ostapenko & Dayana Yastremska (one of the more fun combos we've seen in '19). The win is Kenin's second career crown to go along with her Week 1 win in Auckland, while BMS is now 27-13 in tour finals. It's Mattek-Sands' sixth straight win (since 2015) in a Premier Mandatory/Premier 5 final. In fact, since 2012 "Big Match Bethanie" is a combined 16-2 in PM/P5, slam WD/MX, WTAF and Olympic finals.


===============================================
WHEELCHAIR: Yui Kamiji, JPN
...in Sardinia, Kamiji once again rolled, taking the Series 1 crown while ripping through a series of opponents. The world #2 allowed just one game to the newly-unretired Jiske Griffioen (after double-bageling her last week), shut out Katharina Kruger and dropped just one game to Jordanne Whiley. In the final, it wasn't *quite* as easy. Kamiji won 6-1 sets in the 1st and 2nd over Wimbledon champ Aniek Van Koot, but the Dutch vet *did* manage to swipe a 6-3 2nd to make things interesting. Kamiji has now won ten straight matches and three consecutive titles, compiling a 13-1 mark since losing to Diede de Groot in the U.S. Open final.

Meanwhile (aside from the comment of "Mr. Missing-the-Point-Entirely" here)...



Here's a good segment from this week on PBS about wheelchair tennis...



Dialed up to the story at 44:40...

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







1. Beijing SF - Ash Barty def. Kiki Bertens
...6-3/3-6/7-6(7). In one of the many back-and-forth battles held in Beijing, Barty rallies from a break down in the 3rd and 0-3 in the deciding TB, saving a MP to reach her fifth final of the season and win her third straight three-setter of the week. Bertens had served for the match at 5-3, then saw Barty hold a MP at 6-5 in the TB. The Dutch woman was a point away at 7-6, before the Aussie put away her second MP on the breaker's 8-7 point.


===============================================
2. Beijing QF - Ash Barty def. Petra Kvitova
...4-6/6-4/6-3. Meeting for the fourth time this season, Barty evened the '19 head-to-head at 2-2 in the pair's third three-setter on the season (and fourth in six overall meetings). The Czech probably should have closed this out in two, but failed to convert any of five BP in the 2nd, then saw Barty convert on her first of the *match*, steal the set and then take the 3rd.
===============================================
3. Sardinia Open Final - Michaela Spaanstra/Aniek Van Koot def. Charlotte Famin/Huang Hui Min
...6-4/6-3. Van Koot, just off having completed a Doubles Grand Slam in '19 with Diede de Groot, has won her last 17 doubles matches and is 29-3 on the season.
===============================================
4. Beijing QF - Kiki Bertens def. Elina Svitolina
...7-6(6)/6-2. If Bertens is going to qualify for the WTA Finals field in Shenzhen, she knew she needed this one. If anyone didn't know how important it was, they did immediately after MP. (Or at least they did after regaining their bearings after likely being startled and/or confused.)


===============================================
5. Beijing 2nd Rd. - Dasha Kasatkina def. Aryna Sabalenka
...6-4/7-6(5). The Hordette's win over #14 Sabalenka (just crowned Wuhan champ last week) wasn't her biggest win rankings-wise this season (that'd be the one over then-#13 Kerber in Toronto), but it's arguably her most *important* as she tries to right her shaky '19 ship before the curtain comes down on 2019.
===============================================
6. Sardinia Open 2nd Rd. - Yui Kamiji def. Jiske Griffioen
...6-0/6-1. Kamiji won 6-0/6-0 in Griffioen's first event back, and 6-0/6-1 this time. Then this... (uh-oh?)


===============================================
7. Beijing 1st Rd. - Elina Svitolina def. Anastasija Sevastova
...6-7(4)/6-1/6-1. Remember this summer when Sevastova was on the cusp of the Top 10, knowing that if she didn't get there it was a good chance she might *never* do it? Well, this loss drops her seven spots and out of the Top 20 to #25 this week.
===============================================
8. $25K Pula ITA Final - Tena Lukas def. Teliana Pereira
...6-4/6-3. She didn't get the win, but this was the now #487-ranked Pereira's first singles final since 2015. That season, she won two WTA titles and became the second Brazilian woman in the Open era to win a tour-level singles crown in Brazil en route to finishing that year at #45 the season before Rio hosted the Olympics.


===============================================
9. $15K Santiago CHI Final - Fernanda Brito def. Eugenia Ganga
...6-2/6-3. The Chilean gets her second title of '19, after having collected 22 over the previous five seasons (eight last year).


===============================================
10. Linz Q1 - Coco Gauff def. Liudmila Samsonova
...6-7(10)/6-2/6-2. The kid is back, and stands a Q2 match vs. Tamara Korpatsch away from reaching the MD in Linz.


===============================================
HM- Tianjin Q3 - Wang Xinyu vs. Wang Xiyu
...TBD. The junior doubles partners are making their way up the pro ranks, and will face off in Tianjin qualifying as the week begins as they stand in a virtual tie in the WTA singles rankings, just outside the Top 150.
===============================================




1. BEIJING QF - NAOMI OSAKA def. Bianca Andreescu
...5-7/6-3/6-4. While the expectations were high for meeting #1, it's safe to say these two met them in a seesaw affair that whetted the appetite for more (even if a tired Osaka jokingly said after the match she was just fine with a one-and-done head-to-head history between the winners of the last two Indian Wells titles and last three hard court majors). Showing that she has the same sort of turn-it-around gene present within the Canadian, Osaka overcame 3-1 deficits in both the 2nd and 3rd sets to battle back after dropping the 1st, ending Andreescu's '19 tour-best winning streak (16 straight wins, but 17 matches w/o a loss) and her string of 13 three-set victories, handing Andreescu her first career loss in nine matches vs. Top 10 players *and* first defeat in a *completed* match since falling vs. Sofia Kenin in Acapulco in the opening days of March.




===============================================
2. Beijing Final - NAOMI OSAKA def. Ash Barty
3-6/6-3/6-2. Now 5-2 in WTA finals, what's Naomi's next mission? Winning big away from hard court. All seven of her tour-level finals have come on hard court, as have four of her five on the 125/challenger level (her lone non-HC deciding match was in the Surbiton $50K grass event in 2015, a loss to Vitalia Diatchenko that was part of her 0-5 mark in non-tour level finals). She's 27-6 in the HC slams in Melbourne and New York with two titles, but just 10-7 at RG/WI and without a second week result.


===============================================
3. $15K Norman, Okla. USA Final - ANNA TURATI def. Dalayna Hewitt
...6-2/6-3. For the second straight week, 18-year old Bannerette Hewitt (after upsetting the #1 & #3 seeds) reaches a challenger final in search of her maiden pro title. For the second straight week, she comes up short. This time to #2-seeded University of Texas product Turati, who picks up her fourth title of the season. She also won the doubles.



===============================================
4. Beijing 3rd Rd. - NAOMI OSAKA def. Alison Riske
...6-4/6-0. Riske lost here, but will make her Top 20 debut at age 29 this week.


===============================================
5. $15K Antalya TUR Final - RINA SAIGO/YUKINA SAIGO def. Anna Kubareva/Nika Shytkouskaya
...6-2/6-3. Japan's Saigo sisters take out the Belarusians, claiming their third title of '19 in their third straight final appearance this season.


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








































*2019 WTA SINGLES TITLES*
4 - Karolina Pliskova, CZE
3 - Ash Barty, AUS
3 - Bianca Andreescu, CAN
3 - Sofia Kenin, USA
3 - NAOMI OSAKA, JPN

*2019 SLAM-WTAF/PREM.MANDATORY/PREM.5 CHAMPIONS*
Australian Open - Naomi Osaka, JPN
Dubai - Belinda Bencic, SUI
Indian Wells - Bianca Andreescu, CAN
Miami - Ash Barty, AUS
Madrid - Kiki Bertens, NED
Rome - Karolina Pliskova, CZE
Roland Garros - Ash Barty, AUS
Wimbledon - Simona Halep, ROU
Toronto - Bianca Andreescu, CAN
Cincinnati - Madison Keys, USA
US Open - Bianca Andreescu, CAN
Wuhan - Aryna Sabalenka, BLR
Beijing - Naomi Osaka, JPN
WTAF -
[doubles]
Australian Open - Stosur/Sh.Zhang, AUS/CHN
Dubai - Hsieh/Strycova, TPE/CZE
Indian Wells - Mertens/Sabalenka, BEL/BLR
Miami - Mertens/Sabalenka, BEL/BLR
Madrid - Hsieh/Strycova, TPE/CZE
Rome - Azarenka/Barty, BLR/AUS
Roland Garros - Babos/Mladenovic, HUN/FRA
Wimbledon - Hsieh/Strycova, TPE/CZE
Toronto - Krejcikova/Siniakova, CZE/CZE
Cincinnati - Hradecka/Klepac, CZE/SLO
US Open - Mertens/Sabalenka, BEL/BLR
Wuhan - Duan/V.Kudermetova, CHN/RUS
Beijing - Kenin/Mattek-Sands, USA/USA
WTAF -

*WTA CAREER WD TITLES - active*
41 - Sania Mirza, IND
39 - Katarina Srebotnik, SLO
34 - Kveta Peschke, CZE
33 - Latisha Chan, TPE
27 - Sara Errani, ITA
27 - Andrea S.-Hlavackova, CZE
27 - BETHANIE MATTEK-SANDS, USA
27 - Barbora Strycova, CZE

*2019 WEEKS AT #1 - as of October 7*
[singles]
25 - Naomi Osaka, JPN
12 - ASH BARTY, AUS
4 - Simona Halep, ROU
[doubles]
21 - Katerina Siniakova, CZE (solo)
12 - Barbora Strycova, CZE
6 - KRISTINA MLADENOVIC, FRA
2 - Barbora Krejcikova/Katerina Siniakova, CZE/CZE (co)

*WTA ALL-TIME SEASON TITLE STREAKS*
21 - Martina Navratilova (1974-94)
18 - Chris Evert (1971-88)
14 - Steffi Graf (1986-99)
13 - Maria Sharapova (2003-15)
11 - Evonne Goolagong (1970-80)
11 - Virginia Wade (1968-78)
11 - Serena Williams (2007-17)
11 - Caroline Wozniacki (2008-18)
--
LONGEST ACTIVE: 9 - Petra Kvitova (2011-19)































via GIPHY




All for now.

posted by Todd.Spiker @ 1:30 AM 

9 Comments:

Blogger colt13 said...

I did finish(eventually) the prior post, so thoughts combined in this one.

Was initially surprised about Wozniacki being as low as she was for Australia, then realized that everyone above her had won a slam there.

Makarova-AO, Stosur-French, and Lisicki-W, deserved their plaudits even without a title.

Osaka's defense won her the Andreescu match. Projects as a Wimbledon winner down the line, but obvious that she is a notch above on hard. YEC favorite as of now.

Stat of the Week- 16- The amount of titles won by the last 10 doubles #1's this season.

That actually didn't change, because either if you did it at the beginning of the week with Strycova, or after with Mladenovic, Mattek-Sands is 11 back. That's right, in the last 2 1/2 years, 10 other women have held the spot. And there could be another one soon, as Mertens should get there before her IW points come off in March.

2019 Titles for last 10 number 1's:

4-Strycova
2-Mladenovic
2-Siniakova
1-Krejcikova
2-Babos
0-Vesnina
1-Makarova
4-Chan
0-Hingis
0-Safarova

Shows how wild this year has been when you realize that someone 20+ #1's ago in Stosur won a doubles slam this season. Add the expected 2020 returns of Mirza, Sestini, Vesnina, and Makarova, and doubles in an Olympic year should be good.

Quiz Time!

With a number of doubles stars on break, who is the last of this group to have won a title?

A.Ekaterina Makarova
B.Andrea Sestini
C.Sania Mirza
D.Elena Vesnina


Season winding down, just 2 regular season weeks left to go.



Answer!

I came up with this because Mertens and Mladenovic had the chance to become #1 as of today. Thankfully, Mattek-Sands was not included, as it would already be out of date.

(C)Mirza is the most obvious wrong answer, as it has been almost 3 years since her last title-Brisbane 2017, in which she beat Makarova/Vesnina. She will bring starpower, as that was her 41st title out of 61 finals.

It is also not (B)Sestini, though seasonally relevant as she won the China Open last year for her 27th title. Has reached the magic number of 50 finals.

Of course I was going to mention Makarova/Vesnina together. Even though that hasn't always been the case. In fact, 2011 French Open was won by Sestini(Hradecka) over Mirza/Vesnina. (D)Vesnina has reached 26 of 44 career finals with Makarova, plus 5 with Mirza. But is also the wrong answer as her last title was 2018 Madrid.

That leaves Makarova, the only one not on pregnancy leave. A futile season in singles this year may have obscured the fact that she actually reached 2 doubles finals, having won St. Petersburg(Gasparyan) for her 15th title before shutting it down.

Mon Oct 07, 04:24:00 AM EDT  
Blogger colt13 said...

Kenin pulled out of Tianjin, so probably in on Linette.

Bertens needs the points, but still all in on Mladenovic at Linz.

Mon Oct 07, 04:42:00 AM EDT  
Blogger Todd.Spiker said...

C-
Aha! I got Makarova!

Yeah, as I noted in the U.S. Open listings, Wozniacki had a very good run *there* during the decade, but it was in Melbourne (where she really hadn't) that she actually won her maiden slam. Go figure.

Hey, Colt (Thankfully Not) McCoy (sorry, just had to...), on another note, are the images/graphics working for you on the site? I've heard from a few people having issues with that, but it may be confined to just those viewing things on certain products. (Or something, since I've had it up-to-here with images suddenly not working for no apparent reason, out of the blue.)

Mon Oct 07, 09:51:00 AM EDT  
Blogger colt13 said...

Yes on phone, no on laptop aka chromebook.

Mon Oct 07, 12:47:00 PM EDT  
Blogger Todd.Spiker said...

Thanks. I might just end up starting over and keeping this as a striped-down archive page.

Mon Oct 07, 12:56:00 PM EDT  
Blogger Todd.Spiker said...

Do *any* images/logo show up on phone? Other than Twitter/Instagram embeds, I mean.

Mon Oct 07, 01:04:00 PM EDT  
Blogger colt13 said...

OT-Nationals win! After watching the Giants do it for years with Lincecum and Bumgarner, nice to finally see Washington use starters as relievers.

Kendrick won 2 games with hits, and lost 2 with errors/bad baserunning.

Speaking of weeks that could have turned out differently, Bonaventure(10) was the first LL placed, which means that Gauff(9) missed sign in, or didn't want to be LL. Got another chance the next day, and cracked the Top 100.

Thu Oct 10, 01:29:00 AM EDT  
Blogger Todd.Spiker said...

Don't really have much of a choice, what with the scary prospect of using 80% of the rest of that crew in the bullpen, but whatever works. ;)

As Kendrick came up, I said all (errors, base-running screw-ups and poor at-bats) would be forgiven with a hit. He got a Grand Slam, so... clean slate vs. St.Louis. :)

Oh, and... .... (HeeHee)

Thu Oct 10, 02:03:00 PM EDT  
Blogger colt13 said...

If Gauff wins the title, I hope Austrian Tamira Pazsek is there to present the trophy. Would be nice to have two girls that won titles at 15 on the podium.

Sat Oct 12, 11:53:00 AM EDT  

Post a Comment

<< Home