Sunday, March 27, 2022

Wk.12- Ash is to Ashes, while Iga Just Dusts

Hmmm. The WTA field without Ash Barty...?




Maybe not as long as this one is around...






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*WEEK 12*

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RISERS: Aliaksandra Sasnovich/BLR and Shelby Rogers/USA
...Sasnovich has quietly been putting together a rather nice opening to the '22 season.

The just-turned 28-year old burst through the doors in Week 1 with a final run in Melbourne as a qualifier, her first tour final in four years. Since then, with her (so far) push into the Round of 16 in Miami, she's kept it up, imprvoing her season record to 15-5 through this weekend. All five of her losses (to Anisimova, Ostapenko, Q.Zheng, Jabeur and Kvitova) have come in three-set matches. This week in Miami, Sasnovich posted wins over Wang Xinyu, Clara Tauson and Irina-Camelia Begu to reach the 4th Round at a 1000 event for the second time in her career, almost five months after a similar result in what has turned out to be a foreshadowing run at the fall version of Indian Wells last October (where she had wins over Osorio, a post-U.S. Open Raducanu and Halep).

After finishing at #30 in 2018, Sasnovich has finished the last two seasons at #90 and #91. At the first weekend stage of this Miami Open, she's pushed her standing up enough to likely see a return to the Top 50 in the next rankings.

via GIPHY



Meanwhile, Alona Ostapenko has put up a great many good results in '22, but Rogers has been her Kryponite this North American swing, eliminating the Latvian in *both* Indian Wells and Miami.

Rogers came into the "Sunshine" duo at 2-4 on the season, having lost four straight. After reaching the 3rd Round in the desert, she's backed up that result with a similar run in Miami, notching impressive wins over a pair of '22 title winners, Amanda Anisimova and Ostapenko, with the latter win seeing her fire off 15 aces vs. zero DF in a 6-3/7-6 victory. Ostapenko had ended Rogers' '21 season in the Indian Wells QF last fall, taking a three-set win after Rogers had upset Leylah Fernandez a round before to reach her first 1000 level QF.

Iga's success may not necessarily be rubbing off on Rogers, but there has been noticeable improvement in her results since bringing aboard former Swiatek coach Piotr Sierzputowski in mid-February. Even with her loss on Sunday to Veronika Kudermetova in the 4th Round, Rogers, has played above-.500 tennis under the new arrangement, putting together a 4-3 mark since the change.


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SURPRISES: Lucia Bronzetti/ITA and Anhelina Kalinina/UKR
...while most of the big names in Italian women's tennis are now gone, and the biggest that remains is a talented but wholely unreliable fashion plate whose career results should maybe make her consider wearing on outfit covered in question marks (think Matthew Lesko, or the old school comic Riddler), the Italia spirit lives on in the likes of Bronzetti.

This week the 23-year old has battled her way into the 4th Round in Miami, becoming the first lucky loser to advance so far in the event since Gisela Dulko eighteen years ago. A year ago, Bronzetti was ranked #345. Since then, she's reached back-to-back tour QF on clay (Lausanne/Palermo) last summer and posted her first slam MD win on hard court in Melbourne. Her Miami run (so far) will allow her to crack the Top 100 for the first time after the tournament.

Against new Aussie #1 Ajla Tomljanovic, Bronzetti saved a MP, rallying from 5-2 down in the 2nd set TB to win in three. She then advanced past fellow lucky loser Stefanie Voegele (who replaced the aforementioned reigning Montreal champ, Italian Camila Giorgi) 2 & 1 before then getting a walkover from qualifier Anna Kalinskaya (arm), as the Hordette once again sees an injury help bring an early end to what might have been a step-up result.



Kalinina isn't exactly the most well-known of the Ukrainian players on tour, but she's the only one of the group heading into the second week in Miami.

The 25-year old has been gradually moving up the tour ladder, last year reaching her first WTA final (Budapest), going 4-0 in ITF finals (3 $60, 1 $100K) and posting MD slam wins in Paris and New York. She made her Top 50 debut in January, and two weeks ago got a 1st Round win in Indian Wells over Clara Burel. She's tripled up on that in Miami, knocking off Ekaterine Gorgodze, Madison Keys and Beatriz Haddad Maia to reach the Round of 16 for the first time in just her third career MD appearance in a 1000 event.

Kalinina reached the U.S. Open girls singles final in 2014, falling to Marie Bouzkova.
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VETERANS: Heather Watson/GBR and Alison Riske/USA
...in her 11th MD appearance (and 12th overall) in Miami, Watson rallied from a set down twice to produce her best 1000 level performance on tour since reaching the 3rd Round at the same event back in 2016.



The Brit took 3:26 -- in the longest *completed* MD match on tour this season -- to finally dispatch Arantxa Rus, then two days later staged another comeback from a set down, saving a MP against #20 Elina Svitolina to get her first Top 20 win in two years. #104-ranked Watson fell a round later to Belinda Bencic, but (an event after countrywoman Harriet Dart made her debut there) will move within mere points of a return to the Top 100 after dropping out (for the first time since before the pandemic) in late February. She'll edge close to taking the GBR #2 ranking away from Dart, who it seems will likely fall just out of the Top 100, in the next rankings.

Meanwhile, Riske has a tendency to go into such long stretches of seeming futility (or at least a severe lack of consistency) that it's easy to think she might never find her way back. She always does, though.

The 31-year old struggled through most of '21 while coming back from a foot injury, falling outside the Top 50 for the first time since mid-2019. She started 4-11 before almost shockingly pulling a final out of her bag in Portoroz in September, then ending her year with a title in Linz in November. She started her '22 strong, as well, reaching a final in Adelaide in her second event of the season.

Coming into Miami, though, Riske had gone just 3-4 since. Miami has seen her bounce back strong, getting wins over Jil Teichmann, Alize Cornet and Ann Li to reach the Round of 16 in the event for the first time, and for the just second time ('19 Wuhan RU) in 51 career 1000-level MD appearances.
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COMEBACK: Dasha Saville/AUS
...while one Aussie exits, another continues to solidify her place all over again. Back from her long injury layoff, Saville has made good use of her time in North America. After a QF in Guadalajara, she's posted back-to-back 1000-level Round of 16 results (and counting, in Miami), first as a qualifier in the desert and this past week as a wild card.

Thus far, Dasha has made things look routine, not dropping a set through the first three rounds against Greet Minnen, Harmony Tan and Katerina Siniakova (the Czech retired after losing the first seven games).

After being ranked outside the Top 600 last month, Saville has already done enough to climb back inside the Top 170, with nearly a whole season left to play. Up next in Miami will be her second LL opponent (w/ Tan) in the event, Lucia Bronzetti, with a win giving her her first 1000 QF since 2017.
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FRESH FACE: Ann Li/USA
...Li remains behind Coco Gauff and Amanda Anisimova in the U.S. rankings for players 21 and under, but she's clearly someone to keep an extremely sharp eye on.

The 21-year old King of Prussia (Pennsylvania) native, born into an athletic family (w/ a mother who ran college track, father who played college soccer, and grandmother who was a speed skater in China), reached the '17 Wimbledon girls final. She made her Top 100 debut two seasons ago, defeating #13th-seeded Alison Riske at Flushing Meadows to reach the U.S. Open 3rd Round. Last season, she followed up her NYC run with another 3rd Round at the AO and reached a pair of tour finals, winning her maiden crown in Tenerife in October with a straight sets win over Camila Osorio.

In Miami, Li opened with back-to-back wins over Mayer Sherif and #7 Anett Kontaveit, bageling the Estonian in the 1st set and then going on to win in three to record her first career Top 10 victory. The match came more than a year after the two had reached the Grampians final just before the start of the Australian Open, with the match having already been cancelled due to earlier Covid-related delays causing the tournament to be pushed back a day before the start of AO play.



Hmmm, does this qualify as a revenge-is-a-dish-best-served-cold sort of result? Well, if it doesn't then maybe Li's *next* match did, as Pittsburgh native Riske won the all-state battle for a spot in the Round of 16, winning in three sets.
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DOWN: Anett Kontaveit/EST
...with so many seeds falling by the wayside almost immediately in Miami, there were a lot of choices to pick from here.

For her part, Kontaveit's IW/Miami swing may have been the most disappointing of the lot. The Estonian began her late '21 surge on North American hard courts, and arrived in Indian Wells three weeks ago having won nine of ten matches and reaching consecutive finals in Saint Petersburg and Doha before being squashed in the latter final (6-2/6-0) by soon-to-be-#1 Iga Swiatek. What's come since has been a 1-2 "Sunshine" swing that, combined with Kontaveit's equally lackluster 2nd Round AO finish, has maintained her career-long run of mediocre results at the schedule's biggest events.

In Miami, in a match-up with the player (Ann Li) that she never got to face in the cancelled pre-AO Grampians final in February of last year, Kontaveit dropped the 1st set at love and ultimately fell to the Bannerette in three. Her 2-3 mark in the season's three biggest events (so far) stands in stark contrast to her 12-2 numbers in others.

It's a trend that has continued since the beginning of Kontaveit's remarkable backstretch run last summer. During that '21 finish, she was a passable 8-4 at the three biggies -- U.S. Open, Indian Wells and WTAF -- but did so while going 21-0 at other tournaments. So, since her career-altering rise up the rankings seven months ago, that's a combined 10-8 in 1000/slam/WTAF events and 33-2 at the "lesser" tournaments.

For a player, with Barty gone, in the group of women "in play" for #1 between now and next fall, those aren't the sort of numbers on which to build much confidence.

Could that swift kick from Swiatek in the Doha final have exposed a few cracks in the Estonian's new stature?
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ITF PLAYERS: Tamara Korpatsch/GER and Lisa Pigato/ITA
...in Le Havre, France, Korpatsch claimed her tenth career challenger title with a three-set win over Anna Blinkova, whose third attempt this season at picking up her first singles title since 2019 (WTA 125) came up short for a third time in the 3-6/6-2/6-2 affair.

In Antalya, one week after her '20 Roland Garros winning girls doubles partner Eleonora Alvisi picked up her maiden pro single crown, Pigato grabbed her third. The 18-year old Italian won her first pro title (the others came in '19) since making the transition from juniors to the pro circuits, outlasting 20-year old Turk Ilay Yoruk, who retired in the 3rd set down 6-2/3-6/3-1.

Some might remember Pigato from her reaction to her opponent in her tour-level debut last year...


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JUNIOR STARS: Linda Fruhvitova/CZE, Nikola Bartunkova/CZE and Liv Hovde/USA
...after a few weeks of a Fruhvirtova Chill which saw Linda drop two straight matches and younger sister Brenda lose four of six, the 16-year old Czech sibling has grabbed some headlines back this week in Miami, just a few weeks short of the one-year anniversary of her Charleston tour-level debut last spring (which opened with a win over #59 Alize Cornet and didn't end until the QF).

A wild card in the Miami Open MD, the #3-ranked girl (#279 WTA) has opened with three of the four biggest wins of her nascent pro career, knocking off #66 Danka Kovinic, #24 Elise Mertens (the #20 seed, in the Czech's first-ever match against a Top 50 opponent) and then #16 Victoria Azarenka (via retirement, leading 6-3/3-0) in consecutive matches to reach the Round of 16.

As things stand, Fruhvirtova is not *yet* the highest-ranked player under age 18, as she's still second with the top honor belonging to fellow 16-year old Andorran Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva. Of note for future reference, five of the Top 8 ranked under-18 players hail from the Czech Republic. In order: Fruhvirtova, Linda Noskova, Sara Bejlek, Brenda Fruhvirtova and Nikola Bartunkova.



Next... here we go again. Another week, another Czech winning a J1 junior title. This time it's Bartunkova, who becomes the fourth different player from a future BJK Cup winning Czech squad (it stands to reason, right?) to claim a top-level, non-slam crown in '22. And that group doesn't even include a Fruhvirtova family member, who combined to win seven J1/JA titles in '21 all by themselves.

Bartunkova, the #19-ranked girl, won her first career J1 title at the Trofeo Juan Carlos Ferrero event in Villena, Spain. The 16-year old didn't lose a set all week, and has now won fourteen straight matches in non-team junior tournaments (and is 19-1 back to July, starting with her run at the JA Milan event, where she lost in the final to Alex Eala). In that stretch, Bartunkova picked up a win at a J2 in September, and reached another J2 final a week ago (the final was ultimately cancelled). This week, as the #1 seed, she defeated #2-seeded Belgian Hanne Vandewinkel in the championship match.



Meanwhile, Bannerette Hovde, an AO girls semifinalist last month (losing to would-be champ Petra Marcinko), won the J1 San Diego event in California, taking a 7-5/6-3 final over unseeded 15-year old Mayu Crossley (jr. #407) of Japan, who was playing in just her second career JA/J1 tournament (she lost to L.Fruhvirtova in the 2nd Rd. at the Orange Bowl last December).

16-year old Hovde, the girls' #8, didn't drop a set all week.
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[Miami Week 1]



1. Miami 2nd Rd. - Iga Swiatek def. Viktorija Golubic
...6-2/6-0. The win that clinched Iga's rise to #1, becoming the 28th different woman (and first from Poland) to do so.

One has to admit, Barty's timing was darn good. If she'd retired in Melbourne, it'd knocked the wind of out the tour for a bit. If she'd have done it over the past month or so, the tour would have seemed somewhat adrift at sea in a "soft" spot in the schedule. But doing so immediately after Swiatek's run in Indian Wells makes if feel as if Iga's new position is well-earned, and not just an inherited honor that has left the top of the rankings in chaos. The Barty Way?

The opposite sort of thing happened in '08 when Justine Henin walked away for the first time, resulting in five different women holding the spot over the next thirteen months (yeah, that could *still* happen this time, too). Of course, that was a situation further complicated by Maria Sharapova, who'd immediately inherited the top spot only to then see her form degrade over the remainder of the year due to a misdiagnosed shoulder injury that ultimately required surgery following the season, leading to a multi-season comeback that eventually saw her reach six more slam finals and claim two RG crowns. (Translation: the WTA will be fine... the new stories are already being written, even some we don't know anything about yet.)


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2. Miami 2nd Rd. - Katerina Siniakova def. Emma Raducanu
...3-6/6-4/7-5. Raducanu led 3-1 in the 2nd, and 5-3 in the 3rd. Last week, she held break leads in the 2nd and 3rd sets before eventually falling to Petra Martic in three. She retired in Monterrey in the middle of the 3rd set of the (still) longest match of the year vs. Dasha Saville.



Raducanu is 2-5 in '22, and 4-8 since her 10-0 run to the U.S. Open title (which had followed an 11-4 sprint from Wimbledon to NYC). The Brit has shown what she *can* do, but tough-match experience and maybe the training necessary to physically compete on a consistent level on tour are still lagging. Thankfully for her, and her *many* sponsors, that slam title has given her the cushion of time to build.
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3. Miami 2nd Rd. - Anhelina Kalinina def. Madison Keys
...3-6/6-3/6-4. Keys' last win in Miami came in... 2017. Yep. This makes five straight losses.
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4. Miami 2nd Rd. - Heather Watson def. Elina Svitolina
...4-6/6-3/7-6(4). Watson's first Top 20 win in two years. She saved a MP against Svitolina, who plays on while still worrying about family trapped in Ukraine (her parents have made their way to European safe ground). Truthfully, she didn't look particularly prepared for the season even before the war, and since then has seemed to only fall more and more behind on tour. She'll be down to at least #27 after Miami, her lowest standing in almost seven years. Where's the bottom?


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5. Miami Q1 - Christina McHale def. Petra Martic 7-6(3)/5-7/6-4
Miami Q1 - Tatjana Maria def. Harriet Dart 6-3/6-3
Miami 2nd Rd. - Beatriz Haddad Maia def. Maria Sakkari 4-6/6-1/6-2
...what a difference an event makes.
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6. Miami Q2 - Rebecca Marino def. Zhu Lin
...6-3/6-2. Two weekends ago, Marino lost to Zhu in a $60K challenger final in Irapuato. Sometimes, revenge is also a dish well served rather warm.
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7. Miami 2nd Rd. - Irina-Camelia Begu def. Aryna Sabalenka
...6-4/6-4. Sabalenka's third straight loss. With her 0-2 "Sunshine" run, she's 3-6 in non-slam events this season. At least she went 3-1 at the Australian Open.

Hmmm, maybe she should play a bit more doubles again? By the way, these tweets are one of a few signs of late that there seems to be some "new blood" operating the WTA's social media...


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8. Madisen's Match Exhibition - Alison Riske def. Genie Bouchard
...7-6. In a pre-Miami exo in Fort Myers, Bouchard took her first steps toward her own comeback (just as Bianca Andreescu -- for now, least -- has set her own return date).


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HM- $60K Canberra AUS Final - Moyuka Uchijima def. Olivia Gadecki
...6-2/6-2. The anti-vax Australian teen continues to ply her wares Down Under. She's gone 16-5 in challenger events, enough to secure her Top 200 breakthrough in the next rankings. She's yet to taste *total* victory, though, posting a QF-QF-RU-RU-RU string of finishes.
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[Miami Week 1]
1. Miami 2nd Rd. - Linda Fruhvirtova def. Elise Mertens
...7-5/2-6/6-2. In her first match against a Top 50 foe, the 16-year old gets her biggest win (#24 Mertens), making the Czech the youngest to advance so far in the event since 2015.

Fruhvirtova's rise, along with that of so many others, is just one of the reasons that while Ash Barty will be missed, the Aussie also *won't* really be missed. The tour just keeps evolving, and the new blossoms just keep popping out all over the place.



Following what will likely be a pattern for a while, Fruhvirtova's "biggest" accomplishment didn't last long.

Miami 3rd Rd. - Linda Fruhvirtova def. Victoria Azarenka 6-2/3-0 ret.
...getting handled by the teenager, #16 Azarenka upped and stopped playing mid-way through the 2nd, not even waiting for the chair umpire's call for a physio before grabbing her things and walking off the court without even acknowledging Fruhvirtova. Coming one event after her troubling meltdown in Indian Wells, this is Azarenka's seventh exit from an event via retirement/walkover in the past fourteen months. Afterward, the Czech talked about how Vika was one of the players she admired and respected as she was growing up. Hopefully, she'll remember that and not think that how Azarenka left the court today is the way a professional should act on a regular basis.


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2. Miami 2nd Rd. - Naomi Osaka def. Angelique Kerber
...6-2/6-3. Sure, Osaka's reaction to Wozniacki's prediction was a bit of an eye-roller, but... well, MORE of this will be fine. It's a little petty, but I like it. This is how she *should* react at what is her *real* home event, where this win accounted for her first Top 20 victory since she defeated Elise Mertens at this same event a year ago.


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3. Miami 2nd Rd. - Karolina Muchova def. Leylah Fernandez
...6-4/7-6(3). Fernandez joins fellow U.S. Open finalist Emma Raducanu as a one-and-done visitor in Miami, as Muchova posts an impressive win in her first event since that same slam at Flushing Meadows. Before the Czech's 1st Round win over Tereza Martincova she hadn't won a match since knocking off another Canadian, Bianca Andreescu, in the Cincinnati 2nd Round last summer.

Of course, #74-ranked Muchova (who was in the Top 20 as recently as June) didn't make her *next* match, pulling out of her would-be face-off with Osaka due to an abdominal injury.


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HM- Miami 2nd Rd. - Anna Kalinskaya def. Karolina Pliskova
...6-3/6-3. The Hordette gets her second career Top 10 win, and biggest so far, as Pliskova continues another slow start to a season after returning from injury.

Before this win, Kalinskaya had qualified to reach the MD and rallied from 6-4/4-1 down to defeat Robin Montgomery in the 1st Round. But, once again, a potential big run was ended to due injury, as she pulled out of her 3rd Round match (vs. LL Bronzetti) due to an arm injury.
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On the first day of play at the same Miami Open tournament that she'd won the last two times it'd been played (2019/21), world #1 Ash Barty suddenly announced her retirement this past Tuesday (Wednesday in Australia), just seven weeks after becoming the first Aussie woman to win the Australian Open in 44 years, eight months after winning her first Wimbledon, while riding an eleven-match winning streak, having gone 22-1 in her last 23 matches vs. Top 30 competition, and after having held the #1 ranking for 114 consecutive weeks (the fourth longest streak in WTA history) and 121 weeks overall (7th best).

But was her decision really all that much of a "surprise?"



Yes, the announcement was jarring. At least for a few seconds. But then one remembered that Barty has never been like "the rest," and has tended to be the sort of person who gets a feeling and acts on it almost immediately, trusting her "gut" and not particularly questioning the what-if notions that would stun most humans into inaction, and back into following their already established path. Most individuals aren't like that, and instead "sleep on it" and change their mind, or simply realize that they can't accept such a big change in how they live, think and look into the future and instead decide to keep putting one foot in front of the other, never deviating until outside forces and reality say they must. While others are frozen by the fear or the possibility of potential regret, Barty doesn't seem to have that particular characteristic.

Meanwhile, the pandemic, and Barty's long stretch at home with friends and family during the shutdown and then long time away last year due to Australia's Covid protocols, likely only solidified her thinking, which has apparently been brewing a short career for some time, anyway.

Usually, athletes or those in other fields will wring every last moment out of their careers, even risking becoming a shadow of what they once were, sometimes because they simply love what they do. Which is fine, and often great. But some, like Barty, are such uncluttered thinkers that such a thing, at least not without a break (or many of them), is just not a way that they can live. Barty has always been about the "inside forces," and she always listens to them.

Remember, Barty had already taken one sabbatical, as a teenager. She took some time to assess what she wanted, played a little cricket (and some golf) and eventually came back. She scratched her tennis itch by winning three majors, including living her dream of winning Wimbledon, then taking her home slam, too. It satisfied her, and filled her up. And now she's gone again. Maybe forever. maybe not. Barty is only 25. She could live quite a bit for three years and still only be 28, right in what for some players would be their "prime." Maybe she'll get a yen down the line for a challenge -- say a U.S. Open to "complete the set," or an Olympic Gold for Australia in '24 -- and author a brief return to try to complete a Career Grand (or Golden) Slam.

Justine Henin also retired at #1 at age 25 in 2008, as did Bjorn Borg at 26 twenty-five years earlier. Both eventually made comebacks, the former's (two seasons later, though short and ended by injury) far more successful than the latter's (and years quicker in coming, as Borg's failed attempt didn't come for almost a decade). Kim Clijsters, a player whose mindset about living life may closely resemble Barty's, retired at age 23 in '07, only to return two years later and win three additional slams. After retiring again, the Belgian has flirted with a return in her late thirties the last couple of seasons to prove something more to herself, though injuries have mostly kept her off the court.

Will Barty ultimately do the same? As with anything with Ash, she'll walk her own path. In her announcement, Barty said, "There's no right way, there's no wrong way, it's just my way." The Barty Way (off-court version).

She'll surely reserve the right to alter her course if it feels right. One day. In a year or two, or even three or four. Or maybe never. Or maybe we'll see her in a *different* sport? Golf (call her Babe Barty, as in Didrikson Zaharias), or maybe her beloved footy (aka the women's Australian Rules Football league)?

Nothing that comes next, or never does, should *really* surprise anyone.



Such a thing may not apply to very many players in professional tennis, maybe *the* most consuming of all the individual sports on earth, but it sure does seem to fit Barty to a T (hmmm, or maybe it'll be tee)...



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*REACHED WTA SINGLES #1; w/ year reached*
1975 Chris Evert, USA
1976 Evonne Goolagong, AUS
1978 Martina Navratilova, USA
1980 Tracy Austin, USA
1987 Steffi Graf, FRG
1991 Monica Seles, YUG
1995 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, ESP
1997 Martina Hingis, SUI
1998 Lindsay Davenport, USA
2001 Jennifer Capriati, USA
2002 Venus Williams, USA
2002 Serena Williams, USA
2003 Kim Clijsters, BEL
2003 Justine Henin, BEL
2004 Amelie Mauresmo, FRA
2005 Maria Sharapova, RUS
2008 Ana Ivanovic, SRB
2008 Jelena Jankovic, SRB
2009 Dinara Safina, RUS
2010 Caroline Wozniacki, DEN
2012 Victoria Azarenka, BLR
2016 Angelique Kerber, GER
2017 Karolina Pliskova, CZE
2017 Garbine Muguruza, ESP
2017 Simona Halep, ROU
2019 Naomi Osaka, JPN
2019 Ash Barty, AUS
2022 Iga Swiatek, POL

*WOMEN'S #1'S - AGE WHEN MAIDEN WTA SINGLES TITLE*
14 - Tracy Austin = Portland '77 (14y.28d - youngest champion)

14 - Jennifer Capriati = Puerto Rico '90 (14.6m.29d)

15 - Monica Seles = Houston '89 (1st YUG #1; born SRB)

15 - Martina Hingis = Filderstadt '96 (1st SUI #1)

16 - Chris Evert = St.Pete '71

16 - Steffi Graf = Hilton Head '86 (1st GER #1)

16 - Lindsay Davenport = Lucerne '93

16 - Arantxa Sanchez = Brussels '88 (1st ESP #1)

16 - Kim Clijsters = Luxembourg '99 (1st BEL #1; first to #1 w/o slam)

16 - Justine Henin = Antwerp '99 (in WTA debut)

16 - Dinara Safina = Sopot '02 (first brother/sister #1's; 4th w/o slam)

16 - Maria Sharapova = Tokyo AIG '03 (swept s/d; 1st RUS female #1)

17 - Caroline Wozniacki = Stockholm '08 (1st DEN, #1 w/o slam; 5th w/o slam)

17 - Ana Ivanovic = Canberra '05 (1st SRB #1)

17 - Serena Williams = Paris Indoors '99 (1st time sisters #1)

17 - Venus Williams = Oklahoma City '98 (1st Black #1)

17 - Martina Navratilova = Orlando '74 (first Czech-born #1)

18 - Evonne Goolagong = Southport '70

19 - Jelena Jankovic = Budapest '04 (first to #1 w/o slam final)

19 - Victoria Azarenka = Brisbane '09 (1st BLR #1)

19 - Iga Swiatek = Roland Garros '20 (1st POL #1; #1 w/ Barty ret.)

20 - Amelie Mauresmo = Bratislava '99 (1st FRA #1; 2nd #1 w/o slam)

20 - Garbine Muguruza = Hobart '14 (first simult. ESP w/m #1's, w/ Nadal)

20 - Naomi Osaka = Indian Wells '18 (1st Asian/JPN #1)

20 - Ash Barty = Kuala Lumpur '17 (1st AUS #1 since '76)

21 - Karolina Pliskova = Kuala Lumpur '13 (1st CZE rep. #1; 6th #1 w/o slam)

21 - Simona Halep = Nuremberg '13 (1st ROU #1; 7th #1 w/o slam; first w/ maiden slam while #1)

24 - Angelique Kerber = Paris Indoors '12 (oldest to debut #1 at 28)

*MIAMI FACTS 1985-present*
[6 Finalists Never Reached Slam Final]
1990 Judith Weisner
1995 Kimiko Date
1996 Chanda Rubin
1998 Anna Kournikova
2015 Carla Suarez Navarro
2017 Johanna Konta (W)
[9 Finalists Never Won Slam]
1990 Judith Weisner
1994 Natasha Zvereva
1995 Kimiko Date
1996 Chanda Rubin
1998 Anna Kournikova
2008 Jelena Jankovic
2012 Aga Radwanska (W)
2015 Carla Suarez Navarro
2017 Johanna Konta (W)
[1 Unseeded Champion]
2005 Kim Clijsters

*DIFF. #1's IN A SEASON SINCE 2010 (CAPS: 1st-time #1)*
2010: 2 = S.Williams-WOZNIACKI
2011: 2 = Wozniacki-Clijsters
2012: 3 = Wozniacki-AZARENKA-Sharapova
2013: 2 = Azarenka-S.Williams
2014: 1 = S.Williams
2015: 1 = S.Williams
2016: 2 = S.Williams-KERBER
2017: 5 = Kerber-S.Williams-KA.PLISKOVA-MUGURUZA-HALEP
2018: 1 = Halep-Wozniacki
2019: 3 = Halep-OSAKA-BARTY
2020: 1 = Barty
2021: 2 = Barty-SWIATEK

*2022 TOP JUNIOR EVENT CHAMPIONS*
SAN JOSE CRC (COFFEE BOWL) J1: Sonya Macavei/USA
TRARALGON AUS J1: Sofia Costoulas/BEL
SVYATOPETRIVSKE VILLAGE UKR (VICCOURT CUP) J1: Linda Klimovicova/CZE
BARRANQUILLA COL J1: Sayaka Ishii/JPN
AUSTRALIAN OPEN: Petra Marcinko/CRO
SALINAS ECU J1: Luca Udvardy/HUN
LIMA PER (INKA BOWL) J1: Nikola Daubnerova/SVK
LAMBARE PAR (ASUNCION BOWL) J1: Luciana Moyano/ARG
PORTO ALEGRE BRA J1: Victoria Mboko/CAN
CRICIUMA BRA (BANANA BOWL) JA: Lucie Havlickova/CZE
KAZAN RUS (YELTSIN CUP) J1: CANCELLED
NONTHABURI THA JI: Taylah Preston/AUS
CASABLANCA MAR J1: Tereza Valentova/CZE
SAN DIEGO USA J1: Liv Hovde/USA
VILLENA ESP (TROFEO JCF) J1: Nikola Bartunkova/CZE





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All for now.

posted by Todd.Spiker @ 8:16 PM 

5 Comments:

Blogger colt13 said...

WTA highlights should be sponsored by Monsanto. Seeds dropped all over the place.

Re:Barty- Joan Joyce passed away yesterday. Former LPGA player, legendary softball player and Florida Atlantic softball coach up until last week, she also had that Babe like spirit.

Bouchard playing Riske is like looking in a mirror. Both have that same lunging style.

Muchova, Vondrousova and Azarenka all can beat anybody in the draw, then offer a walkover in the next round.

3 Top 10 players have losing records this year- Sabalenka, Pliskova, Muguruza. Expand to 20 and add Raducanu, Kerber, Svitolina. Surprisingly, Pavlyuchenkova has a winning record.

Raducanu keeps blowing long matches. Being that the legend was built on 10 2 set matches, counting Q at WTA level, 14-6 in 2 sets, 3-5 in 3. The last 6 matches have been 3 setters.

The irony of Bronzetti reaching the 4th rd as LL is that she was the only 1 of 5 LL to play the first round.

Had players pulled out before the draw was made, Stephens would have been seeded at both IW and Miami.

Jurak Schreiber losing streak now at 7.

Zidansek is 5-4 on the season. She may be excited to see clay,where she was 20-5 last year.

Tomljanovic is now #1 Aussie.

Bronzetti/Tomljanovic played an 81 min set. Rogers/Anisimova played 3 sets in 85 min.

Mon Mar 28, 02:41:00 AM EDT  
Blogger colt13 said...

Stat of the Week- 1709- Points lead Justin Henin had upon retirement.

Would you be surprised that Barty's lead was 2204?

Barty becomes the only #1 besides Henin to retire from the top spot. Both did so at 25, in fact both did one month short of turning 26.

Other fun facts?

Last 52 Weeks before retirement:

58-5 Henin- 9 titles, 2 current slams, WTAF.

45-6 Barty- 6 titles, 2 current slams

Barty's best ranks right up with one of the greats.

Quiz Time!

Daria Saville has 8 wins in 2022, more than a number of Comeback Player of the Year winners. Which player had the fewest?

A.Liz Smylie
B.Corina Moriaru
C.Alisa Kleybanova
D.Carla Suarez Navarro
E.Stephanie Rehe

Interlude- Not Iga.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIkTmDgg-SE


Answer!

This is one award that stats don't always measure. So instead of who had the most wins, which was 67-2005 Clijsters, why not focus on the least?

If Saville wins it, she would not be the first Aussie. (A)Smylie actually won it twice, being one of 4(S.Williams, Seles, Clijsters) players to have done so. Smylie won 16 matches in 1990, but won it going 7-16 in 1993.

(C)Kleybanova is wrong, as the 2013 winner recovered from Hodgkin Lymphoma. She won 4 matches.

1991 winner (E)Rehe is wrong as she went 7-13 after missing most of 2 years after a car accident.

(B)Morariu only won 2 singles matches in 2002, after winning 25, 22 and 21 respectively from 1998-2000. She won after recovering from Leukemia.

(D)Suarez Navarro is correct. Like Kleybanova, she had Hodgkin Lymphoma, and got her award in 2021 with 1 win.

Sometimes, winning a match isn't the most important thing.

Mon Mar 28, 03:03:00 AM EDT  
Blogger Todd.Spiker said...

And if Barty had played a little more (say, post-US last year), she'd probably have matched Henin's 9 titles, too.

Regarding Saville (you know, my great grandparents were named Saville. I wonder if...?), assuming she doesn't fall off (or not play much) again after Miami, watch Osaka win the tour's Comeback Player award, a season after she won a major. I've just never liked the tour's method of nominations/picking that particular year-end award.

Example (and Quiz): I picked CSN as the answer. While her brief return last year was wonderful, I think CPoY should still be an actual performance-based honor. Create another award (maybe in CSN or someone else's name) for perseverance and courage to highlight such inspirational stories and/or returns. This year, say, the players from Ukraine might qualify.

Wed Mar 30, 05:51:00 PM EDT  
Blogger Diane said...

Todd, please don't give the WTA any ideas. 8-)

Thu Mar 31, 10:50:00 AM EDT  
Blogger Todd.Spiker said...

I know, I hesitate having given even a breath of life to the notion and sent it out into the universe. ;)

Thu Mar 31, 03:45:00 PM EDT  

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