Sunday, July 18, 2021

Wk.25- Czeching All the Boxes

She. Just. Keeps. Getting. Better.








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*WEEK 25 CHAMPIONS*
PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC (WTA 250/Hard Outdoor)
S: Barbora Krejcikova/CZE def. Tereza Martincova/CZE 6-2/6-0
D: Marie Bouzkova/Lucie Hradecka (CZE/CZE) def. Viktoria Kuzmova/Nina Stojanovic (SVK/SRB) 7-6(3)/6-4
BUDAPEST, HUNGARY (WTA 250/Red Clay Outdoor)
S: Yulia Putintseva/KAZ def. Anhelina Kalinina/UKR 6-4/6-0
D: Mihaela Buzarnescu/Fanny Stollar (ROU/HUN) def. Aliona Bolsova/Tamara Korpatsch (ESP/GER) 6-4/6-4
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND (WTA 250/Red Clay Outdoor)
S: Tamara Zidansek/SLO def. Clara Burel/FRA 4-6/7-6(5)/6-1
D: Susan Bandecchi/Simona Waltert (SUI/SUI) def. Ulrikke Eikeri/Valentini Grammatikopoulou (NOR/GRE) 6-3/6-7(3) [10-5]


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PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Barbora Krejcikova/CZE
...last week in the updated "Ms.Backspin" rankings I noted how Krejcikova this season has won slam titles in all three disciplines, picked up her maiden title and climbed into the Top 15, and yet seemed to still be getting better with every tournament she plays. Well...

This week the 25-year old destroyed the field in Prague, picking up her *third* title of the season, her first on home soil, and did it without dropping a set. Krejcikova allowed just *eight total games* against QF/SF/F opponents Katerina Siniakova, Wang Xinyu and Tereza Martincova. Less than ten months after she arrived in Paris ranked #114 before reaching her first slam 4th Round, Krejcikova will be #11 on Monday, just 2 points behind Simona Halep from making her Top 10 debut.

From her Strasbourg title run forward, the Czech has now put together a 20-1, three-title stretch on three different surfaces, losing only to eventual Wimbledon champ Ash Barty in the Round of 16 at SW19.

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RISERS: Tamara Zidansek/SLO and Tereza Martincova/CZE
...for Zidansek, her surprise Roland Garros semifinal run was just the beginning. This week in Lausanne, the 23-year old Slovenian claimed her first tour-level singles crown in her third career final. The #1 seed, Zidansek dropped just the opening set of her 1st Round match (vs. Marina Melnikova) and the first in the final (vs. Clara Burel, against whom she then rallied from 4-2 down in the 2nd set TB, then took the 3rd at 6-1). In between she posted wins over veteran Mandy Minella, qualifier Lucia Bronzetti and Maryna Zanevska. She'll rise from #50 all the way up to a new career high of #37 this week.



Meanwhile, though she's been more under the radar, Martincova's rise through the first seven months of the '21 season is almost as impressive as Zidansek's simply because it's been so unexpected. The 26-year old concluded 2020 at a career-best season-ending #120, but in '21 has risen into the Top 100, posted her first MD wins at both Roland Garros and Wimbledon, and this week reached her maiden tour-level singles final (she'd gone 0-3 in WTA semis in 2016, '17 and '20) in her hometown of Prague.

After falling five times in qualifying when the tournament was held on clay, this year's hard court switch seems to have benefited Martincova greatly. With wins over the likes of Asia Muhammad, Viktoria Kuzmova and Greet Minnen before falling to Krejcikova, the Czech's result gives her a QF-QF-3r (Wimb)-RU stretch during which she's now gone 12-4. 29-17 across all levels this season, she'll have nearly halved her season-starting ranking come Monday, rising to a career-best #67.

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SURPRISES: Anhelina Kalinina/UKR and Greet Minnen/BEL
...a week after breaking into the Top 100 and claiming her fourth ITF title of the season ($100K Contrexeville), Kalinina reached her third final in three weeks in Budapest, her first ever on the WTA level. The 24-year old Ukrainian posted no-sets-lost victories over Anna Kalinskaya, Bernarda Pera, Panna Udvardy and Danielle Collins before being shut down 4 & love by Yulia Putintseva in the championship match, ending Kalinina's 13-match clay court winning streak (which had started immediately after her 14-match clay streak had ended in Paris w/ a loss to Collins).



28-2 in her last 30 clay matches, and 31-4 on the surface in 2021, Kalinina rises to a new career high of #81 this week.

Meanwhile Minnen has gotten a lot of attention due to being the fiancee (and, recently, doubles partner *and* opponent) of Alyson Van Uytvanck, but the Belgian has also been steadily climbing the WTA ranks.



In Prague, the 23-year old reached her maiden tour-level semifinal with victories over Giulia Gatto-Montcone, Anastasia Gasanova and Storm Sanders. Already a three-time slam qualifier in 2021, Minnen previously reached a QF this season in Lyon. She'll come in at #110 in the new rankings, not far off her career-best standing of #103 (attained right before last season's shutdown).
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VETERAN: Yulia Putintseva/KAZ
...2021 has been a trying campaign for Putintseva, littered with winnable matches lost (several after having held MP) and a middlin' (3-3) record in slams. But the 26-year old Kazakh made up for some of that in Budapest, winning her second career tour title after stringing together wins over Ekaterine Gorgodze, Ana Konjuh, Kateryna Kozlova and Dalma Galfi (the latter two in three sets) before handling a previously (very) in-form Anhelina Kalinina (who was on a 28-1 run on clay) in a four & love final.

Putintseva's win ties her with Elena Rybakina for the most singles titles won by a player representing Kazakhstan in WTA tour history.

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COMEBACK: Maryna Zanevska/BEL
...the 27-year old Waffle (since 2016, before which she'd represented Ukraine), Zanevska played her way into her maiden WTA singles SF (she's 0-3 in doubles finals) nearly four years after having reached her career-high in August '17 (#105) and played in her most recent slam MD ('17 Wimbledon, after which she's gone 0-for-9 in qualifying attempts, including an AO Q3 loss this season).



Zanevska, a two-time junior doubles slam champ ('09 US'11 RG), has been winning pro titles on the ITF circuit since she was 15 years old in 2009, but her early career success hasn't translated to the tour level until now. Yes, it helps that her career-best run comes in a three-tournament tour week, in a "thinner than normal" draw immediately following a major and right before the Olympics, but her wins in Lausanne this past week over Jil Teichmann, Stefanie Voegele and Natalia Vikhlyantseva would have been on par with a good many 250 events over the course of the season.

Zanevska lost to Tamara Zidansek in the semis, but will climb to #165 on Monday, her best ranking since 2018.
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FRESH FACES: Clara Burel/FRA, Dalma Galfi/HUN and Wang Xinyu/CHN
...with the top of the French women's tennis rankings wobbling a bit of late -- though Alize Cornet had a good grass court run, only to then be quarantined for COVID, and Caroline Garcia reached a SF this week -- it's time for the PDQ generation to start flexing its collective muscle a bit. Right on cue, the ITF circuit in recent weeks has seen Diane Parry and Tessah Andrianjafitrimo go on title runs (and Elsa Jacquemot reach a final). This week Clara Burel got in on the act on the tour level in Lausanne.

The #125-ranked former top junior, now 20, already having won a career-best $60K crown in May, hit her way into her maiden WTA final on the backs of wins over Susan Bandecchi, Kamilla Rakhimova, defending champ Fiona Ferro and the aforementioned Garcia. She fell to Tamara Zidansek in the final, but claimed the opening set, led 4-2 in the 2nd set TB and came within two points of her first career win before falling in three. Burel will now make her Top 100 debut, coming in at #99 while firmly establishing herself as a Top 5 Pastry on tour.



Galfi's recent ITF circuit momentum -- which included s/d finals in the $100K Contrexeville last week -- carried over to the tour level in Budapest, as the #176-ranked Hungarian wild card reached her maiden WTA semifinal with wins over Aliona Bolsova, Anna Karolina Schmiedlova and Olga Danilovic without dropping a set. Once there, she pushed top-seeded Yulia Putintseva to three sets before her time in front of the home fans finally came to an end.



The 2015 U.S. Open junior champ, 22-year old Galfi's tour success has been a bit slower coming than many other recent junior would-be stars (Paula Badosa was also a girls slam winner that season), as six of the eight 2017-18 winners have already won tour titles (and one slam). Galfi has yet to make her slam MD debut, and has gone 1-5 in ITF finals since November '16 after winning her first seven pro finals on the circuit. She'll climb 24 spots in the rankings this week to #152, her highest standing since 2017 (the year she reached her career high of #136).

Another former junior slam champ (2018 AO/WI girls doubles), Wang Xinyu reached her own maiden singles semifinal at the tour level in Prague. The world #147 notched wins over Leonie Kung, Liang En-shuo (her '18 AO GD partner) and Grace Min before adding hers to the growing list of Barbora Krejcikova's fallen opponents. The 19-year old, who just qualified to reach her first Wimbledon MD (below), will grab a new career-high (#131) on Monday.

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DOWN: Danielle Collins/USA
...for a bit, it seemed as if Collins was finally going to remove her name from the list. Well, at least one of them, maybe. Not just as one of the annual highest-ranked players in the sport who've yet to win a tour title, but pretty much *always* as the ongoing most accomplished (w/ a slam SF and QF, Top 25 ranking, and six Top 10 wins, including one this year over #1 Ash Barty) woman on tour yet to have reached her maiden WTA final.

As the #2 seed in Budapest, Collins pushed her way into her first clay court semifinal without losing a set. A win away from her maiden final, she was set to meet Anhelina Kalinina, the same Ukrainian she'd defeated love & 2 at Roland Garros to end her then-14 match clay winning streak (which had then been followed up by another 13 consecutive wins on the surface coming into their second '21 match-up).



But Collins' meeting with Kalinina couldn't have gone much worse, as the Bannerette lost a winnable 1st set, argued with the chair umpire about effectively losing out on a winning point when a ball kid moved during a rally that seemed about to end with Collins winning the point, complained about not being able to see the ball in fading light and Kalinina's supporters cheering her errors, took a medical timeout for an injured arm, retired down a set and 4-1, and then beat a hasty retreat from the court in blink-and-you-missed-it fashion.



So, though she's not currently the highest-ranked woman doing so (that'd be about-to-be #37 Nadia Podoroska, through the Argentine has only really been in the mix for about nine months), new #44 Collins (up 5 spots) *continues* to seek her still-elusive first tour-level final.
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ITF PLAYERS: Francesca Jones/GBR and Rebeka Masarova/ESP
...Jones won't be in Tokyo representing Team GB next weekend, but the 20-year old has consistently been making an upward push all season long. From her tour MD debut (Yarra Valley), qualifying for the Australian Open, posting her first tour-level MD win (in Philip Island over Zheng Saisai, her first Top 50 victory), reaching a $25K final, cracking the Top 200, and even pushing Coco Gauff in the 1st Round at SW19 (losing 7-5/6-4) as a Wimbledon wild card, Jones has never been far from knocking down a new door.

Still, she came into this week's $60K Biarritz challenger on an eight-match losing streak, having not won since mid-April.

Jones recovered well, taking her biggest career title (ITF #6) without dropping a set, defeating Russian teen Oksana Selekmeteva 6-4/7-6(4) in the final. She'll climb *back* into the Top 200 with the result, reaching a new career high of #180 and passing Emma Raducanu to become the British #4.



Meanwhile, at the $60K Vitoria-Gasteiz (ESP) challenger, Masarova claimed her biggest career singles title to improve to 3-0 in circuit finals in 2021 (she also won the doubles w/ Aussie Olivia Gadecki). After defeating #2-seed Veronica Cepede Royg in the QF, Masarova took out new Wimbledon girls champ Ane Mintegi del Olmo in the final, 7-6(3)/6-4. The Spanish teenager was in the tournament via a wild card and was looking to pick up her maiden pro title (she'd defeated #5 Pemra Ozgen and #1 Lesley Kerkhove en route).

While Mintegi del Olmo's SW19 win made her just the third Spanish girl (Dominguez Lino & Badosa) to win a slam junior singles crown, Masarova (now representing ESP) is something of an "unofficial" fourth, having won the RG girls in 2016 while playing for Switzerland.

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JUNIOR STAR: Alex Eala/PHI
...#3-ranked junior Eala, 16, claimed her second career Grade 2 title ('19 Cape Town) with a win on the clay in Milan. The #1 seed, the Filipina knocked off Brenda Fruhvirtova (Linda's younger sister), Kayla Cross (who was up a set and a break on Linda F. in the 1st Rd. of the Wimbledon juniors before eventually having to retire), and #6 Sofia Costoulas (WI junior doubles finalist) to reach the final, where she defeated #16-seeded Czech Nikola Bartunkova 3 & 3 to earn the title. Eala & Madison Sieg won the doubles in a 13-11 match TB in the championship match.

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DOUBLES: Marie Bouzkova/Lucie Hradecka, CZE/CZE
...Krejcikova wasn't the only home favorite to win in Prague, as Bouzkova & Hradecka made it a Czechs-only party at the champions table, taking the title without dropping a set. As the #3 seeds, the duo defeated both the #2 (Muhammad/Sanders in the SF) and #1 (Kuzmova/Stojanovic in the final) en route to their second title (Birmingham) of the season.

The title is Bouzkova's second, while 36-year old Hradecka has now totaled 26 in her career. Her two wins in '21 are the most she's collected in a season since she most recently won a pair with Andrea Hlavackova in 2016 and '13.

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WHEELCHAIR: Jiske Griffioen/NED
...original Wimbledon WC champ Griffioen wasn't able to participate in this year's SW19 competition, but the 36-year old former #1 continues her comeback with the hope of getting into the slam mix again at some point. She picked up her second title of the season at the Swiss Open in Geneva, knocking off two Top 3 seeds (#1 Dana Mathewson/QF and #3 Manami Tanaka/SF) before defeating Chile's Macarena Cabrillana in the final. Griffioen also reached the doubles final alongside Lucy Shuker, dropping a 10-8 match TB to the top-seeded duo of Takamuro/Tanaka.

Griffioen went into the week at #17 in the wheelchair rankings.

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1. Prague 1st Rd. - Rebecca Sramkova def. Petra Kvitova
...7-6(5)/3-6/6-4. Off her 1st Round exit at Wimbledon, Kvitova falls in match #1 on Czech soil to #226 Sramkova, who records her first WTA MD in four years. Sramkova would lose to Viktoria Kuzmova in the 2nd Round.

It's Kvitova's worst ranking loss since she was "upset" by then #934-ranked Sloane Stephens in Toronto in the lead up to her injury comeback run to a U.S. Open title in August '17.

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2. Budapest 1st Rd. - Ivana Jorovic def. Jaqueline Cristian
...5-7/7-6(6)/7-6(3). The Serb saves a MP in the 2nd, then nearly squanders a 5-2 lead in the 3rd. Jorovic ultimately wins a deciding TB to end the 3:20 match, picking up her first win (in her fifth event back) since elbow surgery.
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3. Lausanne Final - Tamara Zidansek def. Clara Burel
...4-6/7-6(5)/6-1. Burel led by a set, held a 4-2 lead in the 2nd set TB and got within two points of her maiden title. But Zidansek's revelatory season continues. Although her next mission must be to translate her great clay success this season (21-6) to hard courts (5-6).

All three of Zidansek's WTA singles finals have come on clay, as well as 18 of 24 on the ITF level.

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4. Prague Final - Barbora Krejcikova def. Tereza Martincova
...6-2/6-0. Who woulda thunk it... but Krejcikova is a legitimate "Ms.Backspin"/WTA Player of the Year candidate. If she outperforms Ash Barty at the Olympics and U.S. Open (or one significantly, while maybe adding another doubles slam and/or Gold), she might even be the *favorite* heading into the 4Q.

In many ways, she's having the ultra-versatile season that Barty herself had in 2019. Remarkable.

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5. Prague QF - Barbora Krejcikova def. Katerina Siniakova
...6-3/6-0. Siniakova saved a MP in the 2nd Rd. (in a two-day match vs. Tereza Smitkova) in order to reach the QF and play her doubles partner in singles for the first time. She found out that it's far better to have Krejcikova on her side than against her.

Still, Siniakova's recent good run (10-4), added with that of Krejcikova (20-1) as well as their doubles duo record (6-1), since the week before Roland Garros makes the Czechs a combined 36-6 over the last two months. A singles/doubles sweep of Olympic Gold isn't out of the question for Krejcikova, especially with half the top-level Tokyo field seemingly dropping like flies beneath a porch zapper over the past week.

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6. Lausanne SF - Clara Burel def. Caroline Garcia
...5-7/6-2/6-2. The French #5 cracks the Top 100 after defeating the French #1 (defending champ Fiona Ferro) and #4 (Garcia). As the dust settles on the week, Kristina Mladenovic, just 15-19 on the season, jumps Ferro and Alize Cornet to become the new French #1 even while being ranked just #63. (Shakes head.)



Obviously, the rise to relevance of youngsters Burel and Diane Parry (and later Elsa Jacquemot) couldn't come quickly enough.
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7. Prague 1st Rd. - Liang En-shuo def. Conny Perrin
...6-3/6-4. In a 1st Round battle of lucky losers, Liang gets the win but Perrin get the highlight (aka combining to do "the dance of Monfils").

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8. Budapest 2nd Rd. - Panna Udvardy def. Aliaksandra Sasnovich
...7-6(4)/6-2. The 22-year old Hungarian wild card (#204) reaches her maiden WTA QF, taking her place in the Six Degrees of Serena Williams game ("in two steps...") with a win over the Belarusian who advanced past Williams via retirement in the 1st Round at Wimbledon.

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9. Budapest Final - Mihaela Buzarnescu/Fanny Stollar def. Aliona Bolsova/Tamara Korpatsch
...6-4/6-4. Both Buzarnescu and Stollar pick up their second career tour WD titles, three seasons after winning their first. The Romanian's previous title came in San Jose in '18, while Stollar's other run also occurred in Budapest.

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10. Lausanne Final - Susan Bandecchi/Simona Waltert def. Ulrikke Eikeri/Valentini Grammatikopoulou
...6–3/6–7(3–7) [10–5]. Both sides of the Bandecchi/Waltert pair pick up their maiden tour titles, as well as become the first all-Swiss duo to claim the doubles title in the long history of the Swiss Open, be it held in Gstaad, Lugano, Geneva, Lucerne, Gstaad (again) or, since 2019, Lausanne. Past Swiss WD champs have included Christiane Jolissaint (3) and Xenia Knoll.

The newly-retired Timea Bacsinszky reached the doubles final in 2018.

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11. Budapest Final - Yulia Putintseva def. Anhelina Kalinina
...6-4/6-0. Three of the 46 WTA MD comeback victories from MP down in 2021 have featured Putintseva on the wrong side of the ledger: vs. Kenin (Abu Dhabi), Azarenka (Grampians) and Stojanovic (Miami). She was due a clean week.

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12. Prague 2nd Rd. - Storm Sanders def. Nuria Parrizas Diaz
...4-6/6-3/6-1. The much-improved Aussie adds a bookend to her Adelaide QF, coming back from a set down to knock off Marie Bouzkova in the 1st Round, then last week's Bastad 125 champ Parrizas Diaz in the 2nd, to reach a new career high of #134.

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13. Lausanne 2nd Rd. - Lucia Bronzetti def. Anna Blinkova
...6-1/6-2. Already with five ITF finals (2-3) to her credit this season, 22-year old Italian qualifier Bronzetti reaches her first tour-level QF in her tour MD debut with her maiden Top 100 win over the Russian. Bronzetti pushed top-seeded Tamara Zidansek to three sets a round later.

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14. $25K Evansville USA Final - Rebecca Marino def. Mayo Hibi
...6-3/3-6/6-0. Marino picks up her twelfth career ITF win, her first since May '19.

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15. $15K Monastir TUR Final - Eliessa Vanlangendonck def. Tiphanie Fiquet
...6-3/6-4. The 24-year old Waffle, who'd previously been 0-12 in career ITF semifinals, *finally* breaks through to her first singles final and walks away with her maiden title.
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HM- Palermo Q2 - Gabriela Ruse d. Camilla Rosatello
...6-1/6-0. The last time Ruse qualified for a tour-level event, she took home the title in Hamburg during the second week of Wimbledon.
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1. Lausanne 1st Rd. - Astra Sharma def. Krystina Pliskova
...2-6/7-6(4)/6-1. After losing to the Czech on the grass (in three sets) as a mid-week LL at Wimbledon, the Aussie (just in off of reaching the Hamburg doubles final) gets some measure of revenge with a comeback win on the clay in Switzerland.
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*2021 WTA FINALS*
5 - Ash Barty, AUS (4-1)
4 - BARBORA KREJCIKOVA, CZE (3-1)
3 - Dasha Kasatkina, RUS (2-1)
3 - Aryna Sabalenka, BLR (2-1)
3 - Garbine Muguruza, ESP (1-2)

*2021 FIRST-TIME WTA CHAMPIONS*
Lyon - Clara Tauson, DEN (18/#139)
Guadalajara - Sara Sorribes Tormo, ESP (24/#71)
Monterrey - Leylah Fernandez, CAN (18/#88)
Bogota - MC Osorio Serrano, COL (19/#180)
Charleston - Veronika Kudermetova, RUS (23/#38)
Charleston 250 - Astra Sharma, AUS (25/#165)
Belgrade - Paula Badosa, ESP (23/#44)
Strasbourg - Barbora Krejcikova, CZE (25/#38)
Birmingham - Ons Jabeur, TUN (26/#24)
Berlin - Liudmila Samsonova, RUS (22/#106)
Hamburg - Gabriela Ruse, ROU (23/#154)
LAUSANNE - TAMARA ZIDANSEK, SLO (23/#50)

*2021 FIRST-TIME SINGLES FINALISTS*
Abu Dhabi - Veronika Kudermetova, RUS (#46, 23)
Grampians - Ann Li, USA (#99, 20) - DNP
Lyon - Clara Tauson, DEN (#139, 18) - W
Guadalajara - Sara Sorribes Tormo, ESP (#71, 24) - W
Bogota - MC.Osorio Serrano, COL (#180, 19) - W
Belgrade - Paula Badosa, ESP (#44, 23) - W
Berlin - Liudmila Samsonova, RUS (#106, 22) - W
Hamburg - Gabriela Ruse, ROU (#154, 23) - W
PRAGUE - TEREZA MARTINCOVA, CZE (#78, 26) - L
LAUSENNE - CLARA BUREL, FRA (#125, 20) - L
BUDAPEST - ANHELINA KALININA, UKR (#95, 24) - L

*RECENT WTA ALL-NATION FINALS*
[2017]
(USA) Australian Open - S.Williams d. V.Williams
(RUS) Indian Wells - Vesnina d. Kuznetsova
(AUS) Strasbourg - Stosur d. Gavrilova
(USA) Stanford - Keys d. Vandeweghe #
(USA) US Open - Stephens d. Keys #
[2018]
(CHN) Nanchang - Q.Wang d. Sai.Zheng #
(RUS) Tashkent - Gasparyan d. Potapova
[2019]
(FRA) Lausanne - Ferro d. Cornet
(JPN) Hiroshima - Hibino d. Doi #
[2020]
(USA) Auckland - S.Williams d. Pegula
(BLR) Ostrava - Sabalenka d. Azarenka
[2021]
(RUS) Saint Petersburg - Kasatkina d. Gasparyan #
(CZE) Prague - Krejcikova d. Martincova #
-
#- tournament in home nation

*WTA TITLE LEADERS - KAZAKHSTAN*
2 - YULIA PUTINTSEVA (2019 Nuremberg, 2021 Budapest
2 - Elena Rybakina (2019 Bucharest, 2020 Hobart)
1 - Zarina Diyas (2017 Tokyo)
-
NOTE: Shvedova won 1 representing RUS in '07; 0-1 in finals as KAZ

*MOST WTA WEEKS AT #1 - week of July 19*
[w/ titles; slam wins]
377 - Steffi Graf (107/22)
332 - Martina Navratilova (167/18)
319 - Serena Williams (73/23)
260 - Chris Evert (154/18)
209 - Martina Hingis (43/5)
178 - Monica Seles (53/9)
117 - Justine Henin (43/7)
98 - Lindsay Davenport (55/3)
85 - ASH BARTY (12/2)
71 - Caroline Wozniacki (30/1)
65 - Simona Halep (22/2)
51 - Victoria Azarenka (21/2)
39 - Amelie Mauresmo (25/2)
34 - Angelique Kerber (13/3)
26 - Dinara Safina (12/0)
25 - Naomi Osaka (7/4)
21 - Maria Sharapova (36/5)
21 - Tracy Austin (30/2)
20 - Kim Clijsters (41/4)
18 - Jelena Jankovic (14/0)
17 - Jennifer Capriati (14/3)
12 - Arantxa Sanchez Vicario (29/4)
12 - Ana Ivanovic (15/1)
11 - Venus Williams (49/7)
8 - Karolina Pliskova (16/0)
4 - Garbine Muguruza (8/2)
2 - Evonne Goolagong (68/7)

*2021 ALL-NATION WD CHAMPS IN HOME NATION*
Charleston, USA - Hailey Baptiste/Caty McNally
Belgrade, SRB - Aleksandra Krunic/Nina Stojanovic
LAUSANNE, SUI - SUSAN BANDECCHI/SIMONA WALTERT
PRAGUE, CZE - MARIE BOUZKOVA/LUCIE HRADECKA

*2021 TOP JUNIOR EVENT CHAMPIONS*
SVYATOPETRIVSKE VILLAGE UKR J1: Anastasiia Gureva/RUS
SALINAS ECU J1: Natalia Szabanin/HUN
ASUNCION BOWL PAR J1: Petra Marcinko/CRO
PORTO ALEGRE BRA J1: Natalia Szabanin/HUN
BANANA BOWL BRA GA: Oceane Babel/FRA
BARRANQUILLA COL J1: Johanne Christine Svendsen/DEN
SAN DIEGO USA J1: Alexandra Yepifanova/USA
VILLENA ESP J1: Diana Shnaider/RUS
PLOVDIV BUL J1: Michaela Laki/GRE
YELTSIN CUP RUS J1: Alina Shcherbinina/RUS
RICANY CZE J1: Julia Middendorf/GER
BYTOM POL J1: Dominika Salkova/CZE
ROLAND GARROS: Linda Noskova/CZE
ROEHAMPTON GBR J1: Linda Fruhvirtova/CZE
WIMBLEDON: Ane Mintegi del Olmo/ESP
MILAN ITA GA: Alexandra Eala/PHI






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All for now.

posted by Todd.Spiker @ 6:54 PM 

3 Comments:

Blogger colt13 said...

Saw the random objects elsewhere. Delightfully weird.

Bronzetti was this week's eye opener. Has a Top 100 game and had a real entertaining match vs Sugnaux, even though Sugnaux only won 1 game.

Budapest had something odd- Babos was the only direct entrant and lost, while WC Jani, Galfi and Uvardy all won.

Grammatikopoulou has great court coverage, but gave away her match.

Liang, another junior slam winner is held back because of her height. She's 5-1, and looks like she should go the Llagostera Vives route and play doubles.

Victoria Duval has been in Q the last couple of weeks. Time flies, as her match vs Clijsters was 9 years ago. Her match vs Stosur? 8.

Kalinina has a rather dour on court demeanor. Mixed with Zvonareva like crying jags on changeovers, and she makes for an odd watch.

The Weronika's debut in Poland. 2020 AO Jr RU Baszak got MDWC, while Falkowska lost in Q. She gets LL(there are 5, as Putintseva/Kalinina were both in)only to play the person who beat her in Bondarenko.

Bronzetti plays Palermo. SF wouldn't be a shock.

Schmiedlova might be favorite in Poland. Can U.Radwanska win a round?

Mon Jul 19, 12:05:00 AM EDT  
Blogger colt13 said...

Stat of the Week- 4- Number of WTA titles won in the last year by Tipsport Elite Trophy participants.

Last year, when COVID stopped the tour, Czech women banded together and ran a 4 week event called the Tipsport Elite Trophy. Seeing the recent success of Krejcikova, one of the participants, it made me look at how the others have done since the restart.

I looked at those who played the first 2 weeks, before Swiatek, Bencic, Petkovic and Kuzmova were added. Alexandrova(RUS) was included from the start as she is a Czech resident.

Listed first will be ranking as of shutdown, new ranking, and record within the last year. ITF/WTA records combined. Then best result.

3-7 Ka.Pliskova 27-18 Wimbledon RU
12-13 Kvitova 29-15 Doha W
18-41 Vondrousova 19-17 Rome SF(20)
26-24 Muchova 22-12 Australian Open SF
27-34 Alexandrova 27-23 Gippsland SF
31-170 Strycova 2-6 Rome 2ND(20)
54-60 Siniakova 26-22 Bad Homburg RU
69-124 Kr. Pliskova 10-17 Prague SF(20)
115-11 Krejcikova 51-18 French Open W
133-67 Martincova 25-14 Prague RU
809-368 Fruhvirtova 21-10 Charleston 2 QF
X-880 Bartunkova 2-6 Prague Q

Before the notes, there is one player that did not play in Bouzkova. She reached the Monterrey final right before shutdown, but what are her numbers like?

47-56 Bouzkova 19-19 Phillip Island RU

Karolina is scuffling, but has still reached 3 finals, while Kristyna is suffering through a 2-10 stretch.

Strycova has a 4 match losing streak. Retired, so 2022 Wimbledon could end that streak.

Siniakova started off 1-4, has shown improvement since then.

Alexandrova's results aren't great, but much better indoors and on hard. Expecting a better second half.

15 yr old Bartunkova didn't even have a ranking at this point last year. Still playing juniors, has not been in a WTA MD yet.

So only 3 of 12 had a losing record. Bartunkova, who is just starting her career, Strycova, who is ending hers, and Kr.Pliskova.

This was a rousing success!

Quiz Time!

Tamara Zidansek added her name to the short list of Slovenians that have won a title. Which player has won a title on hard? Multiple answers accepted.

A.Katarina Srebotnik
B.Polona Hercog
C.Tina Pisnik
D.Maja Matevzic

Interlude- Up/Down Side on Friday. Olympic tennis starts Saturday, which means Friday night US time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amb7j9CY3bY&t=1s


Answer!

(B)Hercog should be an obvious no. She has won 3 titles, which are all on clay. In fact, all 6 career finals are on that surface.

(D)Matevzic is correct. With a career high of 38, just below Hercog's 35, she won Bratislava in style back in 2002, winning her only singles title the same week she won doubles.

(C)Pisnik has a higher career ranking than both above at 29, but only won 1 title. It was Bol 2000 on clay. A small event, but beat a big name in Mauresmo, then known as 1999 AO RU.

(A)Srebotnik is correct. She got as high as 20. Part of that is because of reaching 10 finals. Split evenly between hard and clay, she split her 4 titles that way also.

Known more as a doubles star, she won 39 titles and reached #1. But the one singles result that stands out(besides that French Open vs Williams)is her 2006 Cinci RU finish. Before the event was upgraded, she reached the final in a 32 player field. Those in the main draw still active? Glatch, Mirza, Lepchenko, Mattek, Serena, and the eventual winner in Zvonareva.

Mon Jul 19, 12:46:00 AM EDT  
Blogger Todd.Spiker said...

Good Hungarian tennis catch. It's also interesting that, since the BJK Cup designation that gave HUN a place in the finals (though I don't know if it'll get that if the finals are held, but not in Hungary), that there have been some Hungarian juniors -- #12 Natalia Szabanin, a J1 winner, and #35 Amarissa Kiara Toth, a RG jr. DB finalist -- making a headway this year, too.

Yeah, I saw Duval in there. Too bad she didn't get into a MD, but I guess we'll see her again during the N.A. hard court summer then (hopefully).

Czech Tipsport: Prague was really a showcase for the two biggest movers of that group

Quiz: went with Srebotnik because you mostly think of doubles with her (but I know she won in singles early on) ;)

Mon Jul 19, 01:29:00 PM EDT  

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