Monday, April 26, 2021

Wk.13- Two Bartys are Even Better than One

In Stuttgart, there was more than enough Ash to go around.






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*WEEK 13 CHAMPIONS*
STUTTGART, GERMANY (WTA 500/Red Clay Indoor)
S: Ash Barty/AUS def. Aryna Sabalenka/BLR 3-6/6-0/6-3
D: Ash Barty/Jennifer Brady (AUS/USA) def. Desirae Krawczyk/Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA/USA) 6-4/5-7 [10-5]
ISTANBUL, TURKEY (WTA 250/Red Clay Outdoor)
S: Sorana Cirstea/ROU def. Elise Mertens/BEL 6-1/7-6(3)
D: Veronika Kudermetova/Elise Mertens (RUS/BEL) def. Nao Nibino/Makota Ninomiya (JPN/JPN) 6-1/6-1


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PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Ash Barty/AUS
...whenever given the chance this season, Barty has almost always given an excellent account of herself (often more) and reminded everyone why she seized the #1 ranking in the first place. In Stuttgart, while the going wasn't always easy, the Aussie proved to be the smartest, most resilient and, in the end, most versatile player in the building on her way to winning not one, but two, titles on the slippery indoor red clay surface.



After opening with a win over Laura Siegemund, Barty put together back-to-back comeback victories over Top 10 players, virtually stealing a QF win over Karolina Pliskova after the Czech served for the match at 5-4 in the 3rd but never held a MP (Barty swept the final three games), and then (on her 25th birthday) rallying after Elina Svitolina served for the match (again) at 5-4 in the 3rd without (again) ever finding herself MP down in the SF contest.

In the final, Barty saw Aryna Sabalenka get a late 1st set break to win the opener, but then the world #1 reeled off nine straight games (20/23 points in one stretch) en route to a three set win to pick up her eleventh career tour singles title, and her first on clay since winning Roland Garros two years ago. A few hours later, Barty claimed the doubles alongside Jennifer Brady to become the first woman to sweep both titles in a tournament this season.

The first to win three singles titles in '21, as well as the first with four overall crowns, Barty is 20-3 on the season (her .870 win percentage leads the tour when it comes to players with a significant number of matches under their belts), 3-0 in finals (winning on both hard court and clay) and 6-0 against the Top 10. In fact, with her three wins in Stuttgart, the Aussie has now won ten straight vs. Top 10 players. Going back to "where it all began," Barty is 23-4 against Top 20 players since the start of the '19 RG.
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RISERS: Aryna Sabalenka/BLR and Elise Mertens/BEL
...not together, but separately (but they combined for three finals in Week 13).

Sabalenka's big game has mostly found its sweep spot on hard courts, but she proved (albeit indoors on a surface and in conditions that won't be replicated the rest of this spring) that her success *can* translate to clay, as well. Wins over Zheng Shuai, Anna Lena Friedsam and Anett Kontaveit preceded a masterful overpowering of Simona Halep in the SF (the Belarusian ended both the 1st and 2nd sets of the 6-3/6-2 win with aces) for her first Top 10 win of the season as she reached just her second (of 14) tour-level finals on the surface in her career.



In the final against Ash Barty, Sabalenka rode a late break to claim the 1st set, but quickly lost her concentration in the 2nd after a few key points slipped through her fingers. She dropped nine straight games, and once 20 of 23 points, as her lead turned into a bagel 2nd and 3-0 deficit in the 3rd set. She managed to right herself and stay within a single break of getting back into the deciding set, but Barty held firm to win 6-3.

The top seed in Istanbul, Mertens arrived off a very rare one-and-out result two weeks ago in Charleston (just her second in 26 events, ending her streak of eleven straight multi-win tournaments). She reached her tenth career tour singles final (second in '21) with wins over Lara Arruabarrena, Viktorija Golubic, Katerina Siniakova and Veronika Kudermetova. Though she has tour final wins over three other Romanians (Halep, Buzarnescu and Niculescu) on her WTA resume, the Belgian couldn't make Sorana Cirstea the fourth. Up 5-2 in the 2nd, Mertens seemed set to push things to a 3rd set before her opponent surged back to win.

Not able to pick up singles title #7, Mertens came back later on Sunday and won doubles title #12 (five came w/ Sabalenka, including two majors) with Kudermetova, defeating the all-Japanese team of Hibino/Ninomiya 1 & 1. It was Mertens' first doubles final with someone other than Sabalenka since 2018, though her appearance in the WTA 250 championship match was her smallest in a while (her last nine came in Premier events or higher).



The doubles win was Kudermetova's second on tour. Her other title came in Wuhan in '19 with Duan Yingying, where the pair won a final match-up with, yes, Mertens/Sabalenka.
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SURPRISES: Paige Hourigan/NZL and Sada Nahimana/BDI
...with so many Aussies having fun and picking up titles on the WTA tour, let's not forget about the Kiwis on the ITF level. Or at least one in particular.

24-year old New Zealander Hourigan, of part Maori descent, claimed her second title this month at the $15K in Monsatir, Turkey. The Georgia Tech product's 6-3/6-2 win in the final over Monika Kilnarova improved her career record in ITF finals to 4-0.

Hourigan is 14-2 on the season.

In Antalya, Turkey, it was 20-year old Nahimana grabbing her second career challenger crown at the $15K event, where she also doubled up by running off with the doubles title, partnering Aussie Olivia Gadecki into the winner's circle. The Burundian defeated Ukraine's Anastasiya Soboleva in a 6–4/7–6 (8) singles final, becoming the only woman from the continent of Africa to win a circuit singles title through the first four months of '21.

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VETERAN: Sorana Cirstea/ROU
...Cirstea's recent forays in tour-level finals haven't worked out well for her. After splitting a pair of finals in 2007-08 when she was still a teenager, her appearance in the '13 Rogers Cup championship match against Serena Williams ended with the Romanian having won just two games and in tears during the post-match ceremony. It took six years for her to reach another final, which she lost in three sets to Alison Van Uytvanck in Tashkent (an event she'd won eleven years earlier) in '19. This week in Istanbul, with Cirstea now a tour veteran at 31, all that was washed away as she finally won her second career crown. The twelve years and seven months wait for her next title is the third longest between title runs in tour history.



Cirstea's no-sets-lost run began with a victory over Kateryna Kozlova, then was followed up with wins over Anastasia Potapova, Fiona Ferro (ret. in the first game of the 2nd set) and Marta Kostyuk, and ended with a 6-1/7-6(3) mini-adventure in the final over top-seeded Elise Mertens. There, Cirstea, trailed 5-2 in the 2nd, battled back to serve for the match only to be broken, but then rebounded by squelching many of her old demons by taking the TB 7-3 to end the match.

Cirstea will climb nine spots to #58 this week, her highest ranking since 2018. She ranked just outside the Top 20 (#21, to be exact) in August 2013.
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COMEBACKS: Karolina Pliskova/CZE and Elina Svitolina/UKR
...neither Pliskova nor Svitolina had what could be considered "perfect" weeks in Stuttgart, as both their signifcant moments were matched -- and maybe exceeded? -- by their ultimate crashes out of the main draw. But both, especially the Czech, left Germany having collected something that should be useful in the coming weeks and months of the 2021 season.

Pliskova's act of soaring to her greatest career height is getting further and further in our rear-view mirrors. She reached the U.S. Open final nearly five years ago, and reached #1 the following season. While she hasn't slipped out of view -- she reached a slam SF in '19, won the Italian Open that year and returned to the final a year later, and went 5-2 in finals the last two years -- she surely has taken up a spot just left of center when it comes to talked-about contenders for major titles. Pliskova herself seemed to acknowledge as much with her big-time offseason coaching hire of former WTA Coach of the Year Sascha Bajin.

But Pliskova's early season results under Bajin have so far been unpromising. She arrived in Stuttgart sporting a 7-6 record, with a loss to the world #292 and with multiple wins in just one of her first six events. The Czech won twice this past week, though it took three sets to finally escape against both lucky loser Tamara Korpatsch and Alona Ostapenko. Her matches against the Latvian have always been close, but the 21 aces she put up against Ostapenko this time around -- the most on tour in '21, and the most in her career -- was a case of Pliskova turning back the clock to the halcyon days of half a decade ago when her "Ace Queen" moniker was well-earned and not just ceremonial. Seeming to have a breeze behind her back, Pliskova appeared ready to take down #1 Ash Barty in the QF. She served for the win at 5-4 in the 3rd, having saved 13 of 17 BP in the match before the Aussie finally broke her on her fifth BP of the game.

What was nearly Pliskova's third career #1 win and first since 2018 turned into a squandered lead and match against what would be the eventual tournament champ. But her big ace total vs. Ostapenko showed that the Czech is still capable of (on occasion) controlling a match with her serve (it's been a while), and her near-miss against Barty makes one think she might just be capable of a few huge wins under Bajin after all. She hasn't bailed on the partnership yet, and if this week was any indication it might still be worth saving.



Frankly, Svitolina creates more headlines and conversation off court these days than she does on it. She managed to contain most of the news within the lines in Stuttgart, enough of it good to at least earn a tip of the hat.



Of course, things *should* have gone the other way, as Svitolina trailed Petra Kvitova big on the scoreboard in what would have been a "meh" QF run (just a win over Angelique Kerber, which isn't as noteworthy as it once was) ended in straight sets by the defending champion of the event. But when Kvitova blew her 7-6/5-2 lead, with Svitolina saving two MP and going on to win 11 of 13 games as the Czech seemed to crack under the threat of a Svitolina comeback (her second against the Kvitova in '21, having pulled out another over her in Miami, as well).

It was enough to make the possibility of Svitolina surging forward to win the Stuttgart title an actual conversation piece. But, of course, it's never that easy with the Ukrainian. For what Elina giveth, Elina also taketh away.

Facing Ash Barty in the semis, Svitolina had the match and her seventh career #1 win on her racket (the only active players with more are named Williams... that's it, that's the list), serving for the win at 5-4. Barty broke and forced a TB, which Svitolina led 4-2, only to drop the final five points, then the 3rd set at 6-2.

Of course, such a comeback and near-miss mean nothing in the grand scheme when it comes to whether or not Svitolina will get over the proverbial "hump" in her career, but even a Backspinner sometimes gets tired of consistently dumping on a player he used to believe was on the cusp of winning a major.

So, strained as it may be, hat tipped. Next time I won't be so easy.
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FRESH FACE: Marta Kostyuk/UKR
...Kostyuk's BJK Cup singles win last week ended her recent three-match losing streak (which occurred around a positive COVID test earlier this season), and the 18-year old continued this week to find her '21 footing. In Istanbul, she reached her second semifinal of the year (w/ Abu Dhabi) after wins over Kamilla Rakhimova, Dasha Kasatkina and Ana Konjuh.

She'll move up nine spots in the new rankings to a new career high of #76.

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DOWN: Kristina Mladenovic/FRA and Petra Kvitova/CZE
...Mladenovic's "focus on singles" continues, charitably, to be a "work in progress." After managing to advance past lucky loser Barbara Haas (1-10 in her last 11 WTA MD matches) in three sets in the 1st Round in Istanbul, the Pastry fell in another three-setter to Katerina Siniakova a round later. 6-10 in 2021, Mladenovic is 1-5 in her last six outings and 11-20 in MD matches since the start of last season. Though it's traditionally been her ticket to success (and maybe a way to boost her confidence in singles), the seven-time slam champ (5 WD/2 MX) and former world #1 hasn't played a doubles match this season. She's down to #55 in the new singles rankings, her lowest standing since May '19.

The defending champ (from '19) in Stuttgart, Kvitova seemed destined for great success in her first indoor event of the year. She opened with a good victory over Jennifer Brady, then outlasted Maria Sakkari in three sets. She led Elina Svitolina 7-6/4-1 (and was up 15/40 while receiving serve), and later 5-2 in the 2nd (holding 2 MP in two different Svitolina serve games), in the QF. But, just as she did last month against the Ukrainian in Miami (when she'd led 6-2/5-4, then 4-3 in the 3rd), Kvitova managed to find a way to get upended by the current Top 10 player voted (not really, but she'd surely win the poll) most likely to lose such a lead herself.

Kvitova dropped 11 of the final 13 games, missing overheads at important moments, and maybe tiring down the stretch (though she couldn't pin it on the weather's bad mix with her asthma this time), but it looked more like the sort of "run-of-the-mill" breakdown in form that you usually see when a player gets frustrated and has an opponent "in her head."

Imagine that... having *Svitolina* in her head on key points in a close match, rather than it being the other way around. Kvitova may just be unique when it comes to ailing from that condition on tour. With two long-haul losses to the Ukrainian in '21 in matches she could have (or in the case of this week, should have) won, the Czech has now lost three in a row to Svitolina after having previously won seven straight in the series.

After returning to the Top 10 at the start of the week, Kvitova will drop out once again as the new one begins.
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ITF PLAYERS: Anhelina Kalinina/UKR
...neither Elina Svitolina not Marta Kostyuk walked away with a title a week after leading Ukraine over Japan in BJK Cup play, but countrywoman Kalinina did.

At the $25K in Oeiras, Portugal, a week after falling in another event there in the SF against eventual champ Polona Hercog, the 24-year old claimed career challenger win #11 (her first since '19) after posting victories over Maryna Zanevska, Eva Guerrero, Simona Waltert and Jang Su-jeong in a 6-4/4-6/6-4 final.

Kalinina reached the U.S. Open girls final in 2014, losing to Marie Bouzkova, as well as a pair of junior slam doubles finals (losing the '13 Wimbledon, but winning at the AO a season later).

Meanwhile, I'm thinking these comments came after Kalinina's QF match (her third of the week after a 1st Round bye), as that's the one that began with her losing the 1st set at love to Guerrero before winning 0-6/7-5/6-1. Either way, she ended up satisfied when it was all over.

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JUNIOR STARS: Hanne Vandewinkel/BEL
...the girls #46, 16-year old Vandewinkel was ice (ice, baby... sorry, couldn't resist) in the Grade 2 Haskovo Cup in Bulgaria, matching her biggest career title by dropping just one set over five matches en route to the crown. The #5 seed, the Waffle knocked off #2 Melodie Collard in the semis, then defeated #7-seeded Italian Lisa Pigato in a 7-5/6-2 final.

Vandewinkel ended 2020 with back-to-back Grade 3 finals, going 1-1 with a title in Tunis.

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DOUBLES: Ash Barty/Jennifer Brady, AUS/USA
...while Barty and Barty had very different weeks in singles in Stuttgart, with Barty winning the title long after Brady had exited in the 1st Round at the hands of Petra Kvitova, they joined forces to wrap up the week as the event's doubles champions.

The unseeded pair lost no sets in getting to the final, defeating Christian/Santamaria, as well as #2-seeded Xu/Zhang. In the final against #1 seeds Krawczyk/Mattek-Sands, Barty & Brady finally dropped a set and were forced to a deciding match TB. They won 10-5, giving Brady her first WTA doubles win, while Barty evened up her career totals by adding an 11th WD crown to the 11th in singles she'd won a bit earlier in the day.

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1. Stuttgart QF - Elina Svitolina def. Petra Kvitova
...6-7(4)/7-5/6-2. Last month in Miami, Kvitova led Svitolina 6-2/5-4 (on serve), then rallied from 0-3 down in the 3rd to lead 4-3 before the Ukrainian eventually served out a comeback victory on her second try as Kvitova struggled across the finish line in the Florida heat. Indoors in Stuttgart, the Czech made that loss look routine.

Here, Stuttgart defending champ Kvitova led 7-6/4-1 and 15/40 on Svitolina's serve. She failed to get the break for the huge lead there, but held BP in every Svitolina service game in the set. She ultimately only broke once in the 2nd, but still led 5-2 and held MP in consecutive Svitolina serve games at 5-2 and 5-4. But as the scoreline got tighter, so did Kvitova. She missed multiple overheads, including one on BP down at 5-3, then again at 5-5, 30/30.

After Svitolina had had just four BP on Kvitova's serve up until 7-6/5-2, she converted on two of three chances to close out the set, serving things out at 7-5 after having saved two BP in her previous serve game (Kvitova was 3-for-16 on BP in the first two sets).

Svitolina would ultimately win 11 of the final 13 games, yet still missed on two MP chances up 5-1 in the 3rd, finally putting Kvitova away on MP #4 two games later in a loss that will knock the Czech out of the Top 10.

Kvitova will be #12 in the new rankings, matching her lowest standing since early 2018.

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2. Stuttgart SF - Ash Barty def. Elina Svitolina
...4-6/7-6(5)/6-2. Barty pulls one out on her 25th birthday, while Svitolina hands back her bid for her seventh career #1 win (which would have tied Svetlana Kuznetsova for third amongst active players, behind Serena's 17 and Venus' 15).

A round after her Houdini-esque escape against Kvitova, Svitolina paid the Tennis Gods back with interest, as she ralled from 4-1 down in the 2nd with four consecutive games that allowed her to serve for the match at 6-4/5-4. After Svitolina dropped serve, Barty held to force a TB, which the Ukrainian again led (4-2) before losing the final five points. Barty took control in the 3rd, breaking to take a 2-1 lead that she never relinquished.

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3. Stuttgart Final - Ash Barty def. Aryna Sabalenka
...3-6/6-0/6-3. Sabalenka's game #8 break and subsequent hold gave her the set lead after the 1st, but she almost immediately surrended it as Barty grabbed the early lead in the 2nd and rode it to a streak of nine straight games and 20 of 23 points in one stretch as Sabalenka, who had her leg wrapped, grew more and more frustrated. Though she collected herself late after falling behind 3-0 in the 3rd, it was already too late.

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4. Istanbul Final - Sorana Cirstea def. Elise Mertens
...6-1/7-6(3). In picking up her first title in more than a dozen years, Cirstea had to rally from 5-2 down in the 2nd to avoid being taken the distance by Mertens. The Romanian was broken when serving for the match, but took the TB to close out her week and become, at 31, the tour's oldest singles champion so far in '21.

Mertens is now 3-2 vs. Romanians in tour singles finals, having previously gone 1-1 vs. Simona Halep and 1-0 against both Mihaela Buzarnescu and Monica Niculescu.

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5. Stuttgart Final - Ash Barty/Jennifer Brady def. Desirae Krawczyk/Bethanie Mattek-Sands
...6-4/5-7 [10-5] This result leaves Mattek-Sands still with just one tour-level WD title ('19 Beijing w/ Kenin) since the end of her partnership with the now retired Lucie Safarova (or really since Mattek injured her knee in '17 at Wimbledon, where the duo had been seeking their fourth straight slam crown and, of course, a Career Doubles Slam). She's gone 1-3 in doubles finals since, though she has picked up two MX slam titles.
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6. Istanbul 1st Rd. - Anastasia Potapova def. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
...7-6(2)/6-7(8)/6-4. Pavlyuchenkova avoided defeat by coming back from 7-6/5-4, love/40 down to knot the match, saving four MP, then winning a 10-8 TB. Had things continued, she may have had the emotional edge. But the contest was suspended for the day following the 2nd set after many weather-related stoppages, and when things resumed a day later it was Potapova who'd righted the ship and emerged with the win.



As doubles partners, Pavlyuchenkova/Potapova fell in the SF to Kudermetova/Mertens, who also played each other the singles semifinals.
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7. Istanbul 2nd Rd. - Ana Bogdan def. Barbora Krejcikova
...6-3/6-3. The Romanian's first Top 50 win since Dubai (Zhang Shuai) last February gets her into her first QF of the season.

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8. $15K Cario EGY Final - Maria Timofeeva def. Sandra Samir
...6-3/6-3. The 17-year old Russian steals the show against Samir on the Egyptian's home soil, getting the title sweep by also winning the doubles with fellow Hordette Elina Avanesyan.



Earlier this year, Timofeeva won a $15K doubles title with recent Charleston quarterfinalist Linda Fruhvirtova.
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HM- $25K Oeiras POR 3rd Rd. - Mandy Minella def. Diane Parry
...6-4/7-6(9). After missing thirteen months while having a baby, in her second event since her return to action, Minella reaches the QF with wins over Brit Emily Webley-Smith and Pastry Parry.

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1. Stuttgart QF - Ash Barty def. Karolina Pliskova
...2-6/6-1/7-5. Pliskova served at 5-4 in the 3rd for her first #1 victory since 2018. While she never reached MP, the Czech got within two points of the win five different times in the set. She'd saved 13 of 17 BP in the match, while converting all three of her own opportunities up until Barty converted to knot the set at 5-5 on her fifth BP of the game. The Aussie then held and broke back to take the match, at the eleventh hour converting the last two BP chances she saw on the day (in games #25 and #27 of 27).

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2. Istanbul 1st Rd. - Veronika Kudermetova def. Bernarda Pera
...6-4/3-6/7-6(4). Kudermetova trailed 4-2, love/40 down in the 3rd, but climbed back into the fight and won in 3:00 en route the semifinals.
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3. Stuttgart 2nd Rd. - Karolina Pliskova def. Alona Ostapenko
...6-7(7)/6-4/6-3. Is 21 aces more impressive for Pliskova than it was frustrating for Ostapenko, or vice versa?

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HM- Istanbul Final - Veronika Kudermetova/Elise Mertens def. Nao Hibino/Makoto Ninomiya
...6-1/6-1. Hibino/Ninomiya hadn't dropped a set on their way to the final, but that didn't matter much against the #1 seeds. It's Mertens' first title without Sabalenka since winning Rosmalen with Demi Schuurs in '18, while Kudermetova's fourth career WTA WD final came with her fourth different partner.

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=STUTTGART, GERMANY=



=ISTANBUL, TURKEY=







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*MOST WTA FINALS in 2021*
3 - ASH BARTY, AUS (3-0)
3 - Garbine Muguruza, ESP (1-2)
2 - Dasha Kasatkina, RUS (2-0)
2 - Veronkika Kudermetova, RUS (1-1)
2 - ELISE MERTENS, BEL (1-1)
2 - ARYNA SABALENKA, BLR (1-1)
2 - Viktorija Golubic, SUI (0-2)
[2020-21]
5 - 3/2 = ARYNA SABALENKA, BLR (4-1)
5 - 5/0 = Elena Rybakina, KAZ (1-4)
4 - 1/3 = ASH BARTY, AUS (4-0)
4 - 2/2 = ELISE MERTENS, BEL (1-3)
4 - 1/3 = Garbine Muguruza, ESP (1-3)

*WTA SINGLES & WTA DOUBLES TITLES IN 2021*
ASH BARTY, AUS = Yarra Valley/Miami/Stuttgart WS; Stuttgart WD
VERONIKA KUDERMETOVA, RUS = Charleston WS; Istanbul WD
ELISE MERTENS, BEL = Gippsland WS; Aust.Open/Istanbul WD
Aryna Sabalenka, BLR = Abu Dhabi WS; Aust.Open WD
Astra Sharma, AUS = Charleston 2 WS; Guadalajara WD

*SINGLES/DOUBLES CHAMPION IN SAME EVENT*
[2017]
Kuala Lumpur: Ash Barty, AUS
Bucharest: Irina-Camelia Begu, ROU
Gstaad: Kiki Bertens, NED
[2018]
Shenzen: Simona Halep, ROU
Lugano: Elise Mertens, BEL
[2019]
Hiroshima: Nao Hibino, JPN
[2020]
Ostrava: Aryna Sabalenka, BLR
[2021]
Stuttgart: Ash Barty, AUS

*LONGEST TIME BETWEEN WTA TITLES*
16y,4m = Mirjana Lucic-Baroni [98 Bol/14 Que.City]
13y,1m = Kimiko Date-Krumm [96 San Diego/09 Seoul]
12y,7m = SORANA CIRSTEA [08 Tashkent/21 Istanbul]
9y,9m,1w = Pauline Parmentier [08 Bad Gastein/18 Istanbul]
9y,3m,2w = Kateryna Bondarenko [08 Birm./17 Tashkent]

*2021 WTA DOUBLES FINALS*
3 (3-0) = Shuko Aoyama, JPN
3 (3-0) = Ena Shibahara, JPN
3 (1-2) = DESIRAE KRAWCZYK, USA
3 (0-3) = Hayley Carter, USA
3 (0-3) = Luisa Stefani, BRA

*CAREER WTA TITLES - ROMANIANS, active*
22 - Simona Halep (2013-20)
4 - Irina-Camelia Begu (2012-17)
3 - Monica Niculescu (2013-16)
2 - SORANA CIRSTEA (2008-21)
2 - Alexandra Dulgheru (2009-10)
1 - Mihaela Buzarnescu (2018)
1 - Patricia Maria Tig (2020)

*2021 WTA CHAMPIONS BY AGE*
18 - Clara Tauson (Lyon)
18 - Leylah Fernandez (Monterrey)
19 - Maria Camila Osorio Serrano (Bogota)
19 - Iga Swiatek (Adelaide)
22 - Aryna Sabalenka (Abu Dhabi)
23 - Dasha Kasatkina (Phillip Island Melb.)
23 - Dasha Kasatkina (Saint Petersburg)
23 - Veronika Kudermetova (Charleston)
23 - Naomi Osaka (Australian Open)
24 - Ash Barty (Yarra Valley Melb.)
24 - Ash Barty (Miami)
24 - Sara Sorribes Tormo (Guadalajara)
25 - ASH BARTY (STUTTGART)
25 - Elise Mertens (Gippsland Melb.)
25 - Astra Sharma (Charleston 2)
27 - Garbine Muguruza (Dubai)
30 - Petra Kvitova (Doha)
31 - SORANA CIRSTEA (ISTANBUL)
-
vacant - Kontaveit (25) vs. Li (20) [Grampians Melb. not played]





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When you say stealing two of nine items whenever you have the chance ≠ "rigging the game" then you're (insert name of various Republican senator). In this case, Ted Cruz.




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Well, this sounds familiar... (see this space last spring and summer)




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Just hold on a little while longer.
All for now.

posted by Todd.Spiker @ 2:26 AM 

14 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Begu has won four WTA titles, second among active Romanians. Todd, you even got her winning 2017 Bucharest a few lists earlier 😊

Mon Apr 26, 05:23:00 AM EDT  
Blogger colt13 said...

That pic of Turkey looks like it could be form the 1200's. Postcard worthy.

No Up/Down side until Madrid's draw comes out tomorrow. What we know is that Serena never entered, while Andreescu and Kenin are scratched. Due to this, and other withdrawals like Collins, Vekic, etc, Vesnina made it into singles.

Potentially Hsieh/Mertens and Dabrowski/Schuurs in doubles.

Now coming to a theater near you: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Dress. I am convinced that Nike made one black dress that magically fits all.

Best bad match of the year? Potapova/Pavlyuchenkova. Two frustrated players who couldn't get any rhythm battled it out for 3:20. Add rain delays and darkness, and this was dramatic.

Pavlyuchenkova having 17 Double faults was the difference in a match that could have gone either way.


On the other hand, Kostyuk/Kasatkina was a shotmaking spectacle in parts.

Barty is that one. Pliskova served for the match. Barty won the tournament. Kozlova had match point. Same. Even had that modified super tiebreak vs Rogers in Yarra Valley. Never count her out.

Goerges retired, and now there are 4 events(Stuttgart, Berlin, Bad Homburg, Hamburg) in Germany.

Schunk is probably 3 years away, but the #928 ranked lefty showed flashes in Stuttgart. Her next step is to be more effective on her opponent's serve.

Shvedova's BJK Cup win in doubles was her first in 4 years.

Halep was the best player in Stuttgart until she ran into Sabalenka. Aryna was almost unplayable in that match.

Rankings will shift with Madrid being a 1000. Plus 2019 Prague will also drop. Morocco won't, so Konta keeps final points.

French has a Top 50 player again as Ferro reaches 49, while Strycova, Sevastova and Zheng fall out.

Didn't link to that Tennis Channel FAA/Ashe mixup as I haven't verified if that was real.

Mon Apr 26, 06:20:00 AM EDT  
Blogger colt13 said...

Stat of the Week- 16- The number of years between titles for Mirjana Lucic Baroni.

Sorana Cirstea's first clay final in 14 years- Budapest 2007, and first title in 13-Tashkent 2008, sent me here. Even with the small crowd, that had to have been satisfying.

Lucic, at one time a potential star, had a career long drought. Partially due to off the field issues, after Bol win in 1998, she only reached 2 SF before her next final. The first was Rome, which was the week after Bol, then the famous Wimbledon run in 1999.

18 years later, she reached the Australian Open SF, then did the same in both Acapulco and Charleston, giving her 3 in a 5 event span.

Quiz Time!

Mirjana Lucic Baroni played 5 career finals. Which player did she play twice?

A.Venus Williams
B.Corina Morariu
C.Caroline Garcia
D.Stephanie Graf

Interlude- The NFL Draft is this week, so why not Jake "the Cajun Snake" Delhomme?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76kMTTSIwNA


Answer!

There are 3 ways to guess this. Either shoot for the first half of her career, the second half, or someone who covers both like Venus.

(D)Graf was one time only, as the Strasbourg loss in 1997 was to her. She will however, show up again in Lucic's career.

19 years after that final, Lucic had a second chance in Strasbourg. Again she lost, this time to (C)Garcia.

Seemingly, the best guess should be (A)Williams. That would be wrong, but Venus in embedded in Lucic's history.

You see, even though we tell the tale of Lucic reaching slam semi's 18 years apart, the truth is they also are her only slam QF. Venus reached the QF in both.

In 1999, Lucic was slated to play Venus in an all teen matchup, but lost to Graf 6-4 in 3rd, while in 2017, Lucic is the one that fell in SF while Venus beat Coco. No, the other one in Vandeweghe. So it only seems fitting that the title that ended the 16 year streak was vs Venus- Quebec 2014.

Even her one mixed final went through Venus(SF). But that was Wimbledon, so Serena won that with Mirnyi in 1998.

That leaves (B)Morariu. Lucic won Bol twice, both in 97 and 98. But don't feel bad for Corina. She went back there in 1999 and lifted the trophy.

Mon Apr 26, 06:49:00 AM EDT  
Blogger Todd.Spiker said...

U-
Darn it... I checked my original list and it had Begu on it, but for some reason I edited her out when I cut it down to only active players (thanks for catching that!):

22 - Simona Halep (2013-20)
12 - Virginia Ruzici (1975-85)
4 - Irina-Camelia Begu (2012-17)
4 - Irina Spirlea (1994-98)
4 - Ruxandra Dragomir (1996-97)
=ACTIVE=
3 - Monica Niculescu (2013-16)
2 - Sorana Cirstea (2008-21)
2 - Alexandra Dulgheru (2009-10)
1 - Mihaela Buzarnescu (2018)
1 - Patricia Maria Tig (2020)


C-

I liked Jake "The Cajun Snake" Delhomme, but I was more partial to Jake "The Snake" Plummer, Az.State/Cardinals version, less so w/ Broncos. Loved the Steve Smith "you complete me" cameo at the end of that Delhomme "Bojangles/Jerry Maguire" ad. ;)

Quiz: went w/ Venus because I thought there was a connection. Sorta, but not enough of one. :(


D (from the previous post)-

I get what you mean about the BJK Cup name change. "Fed Cup" *was* perfectly fine. In writing the Playoffs post, it was a little unwieldy. I even tried switching it up and using "King Cup" at times, which is maybe marginally better. Might start using "Billie Jean" in some fashion in the search for a better way. As good of an idea as it seemed, it *was* a bit unnecessary... and now they'll never change it back, either.

Mon Apr 26, 01:17:00 PM EDT  
Blogger Diane said...

Hmm...I wonder about King Cup for a women's event (for those who don't know the context), though it certainly sounds better than Billie Jean King Cup. I'm hoping that the abbreviation takes hold, and we all just call it the BJK Cup. (And that sounds stupid, too.)

Mon Apr 26, 03:13:00 PM EDT  
Blogger Todd.Spiker said...

Yeah, I know... even a shortened version of the actual name has inherent "issues." Hmmm... "Billie Jean Cup." That sounds odd, too. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Maybe they should have gone w/ a compromise w/ a BJK-flavored edge, like "Liberation Cup" or "Freedom Cup."

Oh, so Andreescu has COVID, not just an "illness." Sigh. Always something. Hopefully she'll get through it like she does everything else, then come back like she was never gone.

Mon Apr 26, 03:36:00 PM EDT  
Blogger Diane said...

I'm not convinced that she has Covid--it could be a false positive, what with the positive test immediately following two negative tests. Bianca is possibly even more snake-bitten than Vika; I worry about her.

Tue Apr 27, 10:10:00 AM EDT  
Blogger colt13 said...

Federation Cup became Fed Cup, so Billie Jean King Cup can be BJK Cup.

OT-NFL wish list for Jags:
1.Trevor Lawrence
25.Zaven Collins
33.Landon Dickerson

Now onto the wildness that should be Madrid.

5 On the Up Side- The Mid Week Edition.

1.Muguruza- 5 clay events so far in 2021, dominated by 1st timers. Kudermetova, Osorio Serrano and Sharma for their first titles anywhere, Cirstea got her first on clay, and Barty got her first on clay outside of Roland Garros. In the weakest section of the draw, she gets a chance to get her first on clay outside of RG, if she is healthy- retired in last match.
2.Halep- Was my pick before the draw came out, but has a number of land mines, starting with Sorribes Tormo. Never count her out here, as she is a 4 time finalist, 2 time winner.
3.Jimenez Kasintseva- "The first to.." will be used constantly this week, as she is the first person from Andorra to make a main draw. Even more interesting is that Diego Barbiani spoke this into existence. He posted a video of Kasintseva and Bertens on the podium together yesterday, from 2019, in which Kasintseva had won Madrid 16u while Bertens won Madrid. Also note that as a junior slam winner from a non slam nation, nice to see her get WC here. That puts the 2020 group on the clock, and with only 2, Elsa Jacquemot should get one. FFT isn't automatic, but she's French. That leaves Snigur as the only recent junior winner without one, and Wimbledon normally reserves one. Zhuk was the last not get one.
4.Gauff- Expecting a clay breakout? I am, but won't be shocked if she doesn't reach the final. Since this event started in 2009, there have only been 2 Americans to reach one. Serena and Venus.
5.Kvitova- Don't have huge hopes here, but she is a 3 time winner. Probably opens against 2 Czech players.

Tue Apr 27, 10:15:00 AM EDT  
Blogger colt13 said...

5 On the Down Side.

1.Bertens- Favored vs Jimenez Kasintseva,but is she healthy enough to follow it up? Not only that, she loses 1000 pts here, plus a chunk in Rome, so a weak showing will leave the returning Top 10 member below 16.
2.Zhang- With that BJK Cup played on clay, Zhang rode the bench. One reason why is that she went 1-4 on the surface in 2019, only against players ranked below her. On a six match losing streak, making her one of a small bunch(Riske, Strycova, Yastremska) that started the year in the Top 50 and still are winless. Note Bertens has BJK Cup win only. All 6 of those losses have been in straight sets.
3.Martic- 4-7 on the year doesn't sound so bad. Then you look at the numbers, and what your eyes tell you is even worse. On a 4 match losing streak, has no Top 100 wins, hasn't played a Top 50 player this year, or a Top 20 player since the restart. Silver lining? She opens with a qualifier, so maybe a 5th sub 100 win?
4.Podoroska- Similar to Martic, getting wins, but not big ones. 6-9 on the season, only has one Top 80 win(Kvitova). On this list, because with a chance to get some big wins here, she isn't in the field.
5.Hercog- Started the season at 49, now sits at 73. 35% of her points come from ITF events, including winning Oeiras, which is sandwiched between her 4 match losing streak at WTA level. Has to make it through Q.

Tue Apr 27, 10:31:00 AM EDT  
Blogger Todd.Spiker said...

D-

I wonder if she was going to be healthy enough (after Mia. inj) to play anyway?


C-

WFT Draft
1st (#19)- LB Parsons (if slips), LB Owusu-Koramoah, one of the OL, maybe a CB
-
1st (fun long shots)- WR D.Smith (if fell because of size), WR Toney
-
1st (trade up to around 8-10 if slips)- QB Lance (through it'd probably be Fields)

Any chance JV would go for RB at top of 2nd (like say another CLEM in Etienne)? I know they had a 1000-yd rusher in '20, but it was w/ a diff. coaching staff, so...

Meanwhile, Mladenovic nearly lost to 17-year old junior Ane Mintegi del Olmo (girls #32/WTA #716) in qualifying, in what was her very first match at tour level.

With Strycova pregnant and Sabalenka focusing on singles, Hsieh signed up w/ Mertens for Madrid doubles. Hmmm.

Tue Apr 27, 12:41:00 PM EDT  
Blogger colt13 said...

With the Jaguars,anything is possible, as we have multiple needs.

I am biased, since Lance played for the local team here, but would be a great pick. Needs a redshirt year, though.

Fernandez went down to Konjuh in a highly anticipated matchup.

Tue Apr 27, 06:00:00 PM EDT  
Blogger Diane said...

Good point, Todd. It's so disheartening :(

Tue Apr 27, 06:32:00 PM EDT  
Blogger Todd.Spiker said...

C-
Well, Fitzpatrick has a history of filling that sort role for a while before a young QB takes over.

Wed Apr 28, 01:57:00 PM EDT  
Blogger Diane said...

At the end of the season, when all the majors have been played, will any Zombie Queen be able to truly rule over Jill Teichmann?

Thu Apr 29, 08:46:00 PM EDT  

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