Sunday, May 01, 2022

Wk.17- For Real, Madrid

Look out tennis world, here she comes. Again.






futuristic-fonts




*WEEK 17*




kosova-font



RISERS: Marie Bouzkova/CZE, Jil Teichmann/SUI and Dasha Kasatkina/RUS
...the Madrid qualifying draw was packed with potential contenders early in the week, and Bouzkova is one of two survivors to play into the 3rd Round of the main draw.

After qualifiying wins over Fiona Ferro and Danka Kovinic, the Czech recorded her first career Top 10 win on clay (fifth overall) with a 1st Round victory over countrywoman Karolina Pliskova, then followed that by saving a MP in a three-set victory over Dayana Yastremska. Bouzkova's 3rd Round result is already her best 1000 level event performance outside of her pair of QF runs in Indian Wells the last two years, and she'll next face the only other qualifier left in the draw -- Ekaterina Alexandrova -- for a berth in the QF.

One wonders when, as another in the long line of "Swiss army knife" sort of players who can play all sorts of team roles, when Bouzkova will get her chance to shine for the Czech Republic in BJK Cup play. As it stands, she's been a member of a nominated team on two occasions (in 2019, and again a couple of weeks ago) but has yet to make her playing debut.



Teichmann has often dazzled in recent seasons, including posting four Top 10 wins a season ago as well as reaching the Cincinnati final, but she's had a more difficult time extending those isolated instances into even bigger moments that might lead to something. She's 3-10 in slam MD, and her only tour titles (though she reached four finals between 2019-21) came in lower level clay events in '19.

So far in Madrid, the Barcelona-born Swiss 24-year old is making her moves toward turning this event into her latest chance to turn heads. Arriving with zero wins in the event in her career, Teichmann has posted victories over three-time champ Petra Kvitova and Leylah Fernandez without dropping a set, nudging her '22 record just over .500 (10-9), and finds herself squarely in the middle of what will be a scramble for a berth in the final from the top half of the draw.



Kasatkina arrived in Madrid well under the radar. Despite opening the season at 8-3 and posting back-to-back semis in Melbourne and Sydney, Kasatkina has fallen prey to draws that have seen her runs ended by the likes of Amanda Anisimova (during her title run in Week 1), Paula Badosa (during her title run in Week 2) and Iga Swiatek (3 times! Though only one during a title march.). She'd gone three events without multiple match wins before this week posting victories over Anna Bondar and Maria Sakkari, the latter her second Top 5 victory of the season (Muguruza/Sydney) after previously having not recorded any since having five in 2018.

By this point last season, Kasatakina had already picked up two titles (also her first since '18) in what turned out to be a resurgent season that saw her reach four finals and re-climb the ranking ladder from #71 to a season-ending #26 (but still not get nominated by the tour for Comeback Player of the Year). At #23, she's within striking range of a belated return to the Top 20, where she hasn't been ranked in three years.


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



SURPRISE: Anhelina Kalinina/UKR
...Kalinina continues to quite possibly be *the* most unknown entity in line to be seeded at a slam this spring/summer (even without the Wimbledon ban).

The 25-year old Ukrainian rose from #162 to #52 over the course of last season, and reached her maiden tour final (Budapest). She cracked the Top 50 early this year, and has since reached the Miami 4th Round. In Madrid, Kalinina has posted wins over Sloane Stephens and Garbine Muguruza, allowing just three games in the latter match-up to record her first career Top 10 victory.

The 2014 U.S. Open girls runner-up (to Marie Bouzkova), Kalinina made her Top 40 debut in April and continues to climb.



Don't look now, but Kalinia could soon be the new Ukrainian #1. With a live ranking of #38, she's around 400 points behind #27 (-ish) Elina Svitolina, who is still sitting out and hasn't reached a WTA semifinal since her 250 Chicago win last August (her only deep event run since her Olympic Bronze medal in Tokyo last summer).
===============================================



VETERAN: Simona Halep/ROU
...so far, so good.

Halep's pairing with Patrick Mouratoglou is looking A-okay in Madrid. The Romanian's attack has put the two-time Madrid champ (2016-17) and four-time finalist (2014/19) into the second week without dropping a set. After allowing just five games to Zhang Shuai, Halep bounced new world #2 Paula Badosa ('21 Madrid semifinalist) 3 & 1, picking up her sixth career Top 3 win and first since knocking off then-#2 Angelique Kerber in the Montreal semis in 2016 en route to the Rogers Cup title that year.


===============================================
COMEBACK: Bianca Andreescu/CAN
...so far, so good. Part II.

3-1 in her comeback, Andreescu was taken to three sets in her Madrid opener (literally, as she's never played the event before... nor has she Rome) against Alison Riske, but she then decisively put down the Bannerette in a love 3rd set, then followed up with a 1 & 1 tear down of an error-prone Danielle Collins to record her first Top 10 win since defeating Serena Williams in the U.S. Open final in 2019, and first ever on clay. She's assured of a return to the Top 100 after this event.


===============================================
FRESH FACES: Emma Raducanu/GBR and Amanda Anisimova/USA
...19-year old Raducanu continues to switch coaches (Out: Torben Beltz, the fourth to travel through the exit door in less than a year; In: help from LTA coaches), but she also continues to make her way, matter-of-factly and largely drama-free, over uncharted ground. This time around for the reigning U.S. Open champ it's her first clay court event at the 1000 level or higher.

And, right on cue, the Brit's first clay court season as a pro has continued to produce encouraging results. Raducanu has dropped no sets in her first two matches in Madrid, defeating Tereza Martincova (now 0-2 this clay season vs. Raducanu, who came back from 5-2 down in the 1st to win 7-6/6-0) and Marta Kostyuk to improve to 5-2 so far. She's dropped just three games in her last three sets, and Madrid now marks her first consecutive multi-win WTA events since her Chicago RU/U.S. Open W turn last summer.



Ranked #11, Raducanu could very well make her Top 10 jump after this event (and surely will sometime between now and Wimbledon), and when it happens she'll be just the second British woman in almost 39 years (Jo Konta '16) to do so. With Konta being Australia-born and Raducanu having arrived in Canada, Jo Durie (in 1983) remains the last British-*born* woman to crack the Top 10.

Anisimova has experienced a *full* season in just these few months of the '22 campaign. She started 8-0, winning her first title in nearly three years in Melbourne, and upset defending champ Naomi Osaka at the Austrailian Open. A 2-5 skid, which saw her win just one match in the Indian Wells/Miami swing, included a fairly public crumbling of her "almost-coaching relationship" with Darren Cahill. The 20-year old has rebounded well, though, and enters the second week in Madrid with a 6-1 clay court record this season after reaching the Charleston semis and then posting a pair of three set wins in Spain over defending champ Ayrna Sabalenka and Petra Martic.


===============================================
DOWN: Aryna Sabalenka/BLR and Maria Sakkari/GRE
...while Sabalenka's headline-worthy serving issues of the early season have seemingly been set aside, she's still not reestablished the sort of consistency that her ranking (still) conveys that she *should* have.

By this time last year, Sabalenka had won two titles and reached another final. Her Abu Dhabi title event wasn't held in '22, and a week after matching her Stuttgart runner-up result of '21 she fell in the 1st Round of her Madrid title defense this week, going out to Amanda Anisimova in three sets. The loss levels her season record once more, at 10-10, and will mean that Sabalenka will slip to at least #7 in the new rankings, her lowest standing since last May when she began her year-long Top 5 run on the strength of her back-to-back clay final appearances.

Meanwhile, Sakkari's springtime stumble continued in Madrid as she escaped Madison Keys in the 1st Round (after nearly squandering a 3rd set comeback from a break down w/ a handful of untimely UE), only to then fall to Dasha Kasatkina in another three-setter a round later.

The Greek, a semifinalist in Paris a year ago, had started '22 on a 16-4 burst, but has won just once since reaching the Indian Wells final (a straight sets loss to Iga Swiatek).
===============================================
ITF PLAYERS: Taylor Townsend/USA and Jule Niemeier/GER
...welcome back, Taylor. In just her third week back since having a baby (as well as having an encouraging Tennis Channel stint) during a 20-month absence from competitive action, Townsend has already jumped into the winner's circle, picking up a $100K title in Charleston that will see her (live) ranking make a huge leap from #739 to #321 as a result.

Granted a wild card into the MD, the former event champ (2019) matched her biggest career crown with wins over Françoise Abanda, Louisa Chirico (a $60K champ last week), Katie Volynets (a $100K winnner two weeks ago, and who led Townsend 6-1/4-0 in the QF this week), Whitney Osuigwe (who she defeated to win the final three years ago) and Wang Xiyu (who fell vs. Volynets in that $100K final last month) in a 6-3/6-2 final. The title gives Townsend eleven challenger wins in fourteen career finals.

Townsend has gone 9-2 in her return, with her two losses to players -- Volynets and Wang -- she got a bit of revenge against this week.



Niemeier had lost six straight MD matches in ITF/WTA competition prior to this week, but the 22-year old German righted her ship (big time) in the $60K challenger in Zagreb, Croatia. She took the title, the fourth and biggest of her career, without dropping a set while posting wins over Eva Lys, Iryna Shymanovich, Petra Marcinko and Reka-Luca Jani (who was also playing for her biggest win in career ITF final #41) in a 6-2/6-2 final. Niemeier, looking to make her Top 100 breakthrough, has at least done so in the live rankings, but will have to wait a week to see if her leap becomes official.


===============================================
JUNIOR STARS: Sofia Costoulas/BEL and Diana Shnaider/RUS
...Costoulas and Shnaider. This is getting to be a bit of a habit, isn't it? Ah, but for good reason.

Costoulas, 17, improved her season record in junior competition to 27-1, winning her fourth J1/JA singles title of the year by taking the Offenbach (JA), Germany crown to extend her winning streak to 16 matches. The girls' #2, and event #1 seed, the Waffle posted wins over #5-seeded Mirra Andreeva, #4 Celine Naef and #2 Lucie Havlickova in a 6-4/6-2 final.

Costoulas & Havlickova combined to win the doubles title, giving the Belgian 12 straight GD wins and now three JA/J1 doubles crowns (w/ three different partners) in '22.

Even with her loss in the singles final, Havlickova has won 17 of her last 19 junior matches.



Meanwhile, on the challenger circuit, 18-year old Shnaider won her third straight ITF event title at the $60K in Istanbul, knocking off the likes of Viktoriya Tomova, Aliona Bolsova, Maja Chwalinksa and Nikola Bartunkova (the 16-year old Czech was seeking her maiden pro title after playing six Q/MD matches without dropping a set) in a 7-5/7-5 final. Shnaider is riding a 21-1 streak on the lower pro tour, all coming after she'd reached a pair QF on the junior level (Traralgon J1 and Australian Open) and ended '21 with a pair of high level runs at J1 Eddie Herr (SF) and the Orange Bowl JA (RU).


===============================================
WHEELCHAIR: Jiske Griffioen/NED
...at the Vilamour Open Series 2 event in in Portugal, former #1 Griffioen, 37, grabbed her fourth singles titles since her 2019 comeback (after two years of retirement) and second straight this April. Ranked #6, the Dutch veteran made her first appearance in a WC slam draw since 2017 at this year's Australian Open.

Griffioen swept the s/d titles in Portugal, teaming with Dutch teeanger Lizzy de Greef to take the doubles. She'd opened singles play with a 1st Round win over the 18-year old, and finished it off with a 6-2/6-2 win over Momoko Ohtani in the final.

Should Griffioen return to Wimbledon's WC competition this summer, it'll be for the first time since '17, a year after she won the very first women's WC singles event contested in the tournament's history.
===============================================









kosova-font

[Madrid 1r-2r]

1. Madrid 1st Rd. - Amanda Anisimova def. Aryna Sabalenka
...6-2/3-6/6-4. Anisimova's second '22 win over a defending tournament champ, following her AO upset of Naomi Osaka.


===============================================
2. Madrid 1st Rd. - Jessie Pegula def. Camila Giorgi
...7-5/2-6/7-5. After Giorgi had taken 10 of 13 games from the start of the 2nd set, Pegula rallied from 4-1 down in the 3rd, saving a MP on her way to the win.



Pegula followed up her 1st Round win with another over Kaia Kanepi, adding to her impressive string of results in 1000 events over the past two seasons.


===============================================
3. Madrid 1st Rd. - Bianca Andreescu def. Alison Riske
...6-4/3-6/6-0. True story: when I saw that Andreescu was down 5-0 in the 2nd set I thought, if she's *that* Bianca she might just still find a way to win this match in straights.

Well, that didn't happen... but she did win nine of the next ten games from that point forward, bageling Riske and getting her maiden win in Madrid. That's so Bianca.


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



4. Madrid 2nd Rd. - Simona Halep def. Paula Badosa
...6-3/6-1. Hmmm, could this be the start of something big this spring? Halep's win over the world #2 is her best since 2016, and 43rd Top 10 victory in her career.


===============================================
5. Madrid 1st Rd. - Varvara Gracheva def. Alize Cornet
...1-6/7-5/7-5. Gracheva ultimately fell in three sets to Ons Jabeur a round later, but even though she didn't get the breakout result she was looking for in Madrid she still managed to post an impressive comeback victory over Cornet, rallying from 5-3 down in both the 2nd and 3rd sets to get the win.
===============================================
6. Madrid Q2 - Anastasia Potapova def. Kristina Mladenovic
...6-2/6-0. Kiki has become the "anti-Iga," picking up losses like breadcrumbs as she follows an odd path through the WTA forest.

Mladenovic came to Madrid on a seven-match losing streak. She *finally* notched her very first '22 singles victory in the opening round of qualifying, only to then post just two games against Potapova. She continues to (barely) maintain her Top 100 singles ranking.

Meanwhile, Mladenovic is 7-1 this season in WD/MX competition, having won her eighth career slam title (3rd MX) at the Australian Open. Of course, that hasn't led Mladenovic to return to doubles competition in '22, as her only action has come in Melbourne and in a dead rubber BJK Cup match despite the fact that her most recent stint in the doubles #1 ranking came less than a year ago. We'll soon see if she sees fit to try to defend any of her points from her WD final in Rome from last year, a season in which she only played doubles in four WTA/slam/Olympic events.

Meanwhile, Mladenovic has now dropped 15 of 18 singles sets back to December, when she was playing in various 125 events seemingly hunting for form and points (she *did* go 7-3, reaching one final, but it hasn't carried over at all).

Most agree that doubles doesn't get enough credit, but it doesn't help the cause when a potential WD #1 (w/ the ability to post Hall of Fame-worthy numbers based on her doubles abilities alone) seems to be more content to be a failed and sinking singles player than a potentially dominant doubles star.
===============================================
7. Madrid 1st Rd. - Maria Sakkari def. Madison Keys
...6-7(8)/6-3/6-4. Sakkari took the 3rd set lead after falling behind 2-0, then survived an UE-heavy stretch that nearly gave the lead back late. She survived to emerge from her recent spring stumble, but it was only a temporary reprieve, as she fell a round later to Dasha Kasatkina.


===============================================
8. Madrid Q1 - Anastasia Potapova def. Dasha Saville
...4-6/6-3/7-5. There's only one Dasha Gavrilova Saville.


===============================================
9. Madrid 1st Rd. - Sara Sorribes Tormo def. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-3/2-6/6-3
Madrid 1st Rd. - Danielle Collins def. Monica Puig 7-5/6-0
...Pavlyuchenkova returns from her ten-week absence after an early-season knee injury, while Puig's absence ended with her first official match since the '20 Roland Garros (Sept.).


===============================================
10. Madrid 1st Rd. - Petra Martic def. Liudmila Samsonova 7-6(6)/6-1
Madrid 1st Rd. - Paula Badosa def. Veronika Kudermetova 6-3/6-0
...with these results and the 1st Round exits by Sabalenka and Potapova, last week's potential all-banned finals saw the group of four (three of whom reached Week 16 championship matches) go 0-4 in the MD in Madrid.
===============================================
11. Madrid Q1 - Clara Burel def. Diane Parry
...6-4/6-7(5)/6-4. The 2018 girls' #1 from France defeats the 2019 girls' #1 from France.
===============================================
12. Madrid 1st Rd. - Nuria Parrizas Diaz def. Sorana Cirstea
...6-4/6-2. A year ago, Parrizas Diaz was ranked #165 and in her first stretch of WTA MD debuts, which had begun with a QF run in Bogota. Now she's pushing the Top 50, and her win over over Cirstea was her first in the MD of a 1000 level event.
===============================================
13. Madrid 1st Rd. - Ekaterina Alexandrova def. Alona Ostapenko
...6-2/4-6/6-4. Alexandrova led by a set and double break at 3-0, then eventually found herself down a double break in the 3rd as Ostapenko won 9 of 11 games to lead 3-1. Alexandrova then won 5 of 6 games to get the win, completing an entire turn in "The Journey of Alona" game and making it to her next adventure.


===============================================
14. $25K Cairo EGY Final - Anastasia Zolotareva def. Selena Janicijevic
...7-6(5)/7-6(4). The 20-year old Hordette picks up her third '22 title.


===============================================
15. $25K Santa Margherita di Pula ITA Final - Arantxa Rus def. Marie Benoît
...6-4/6-4. Since her 0-2 weekend vs. Spain in BJK Cup play, Rus has gone 6-1 and taken defending champ Sorana Cirstea to three sets in the 2nd Round in Istanbul. Rather than go through qualifying in Madrid, she dropped down to the challenger level... it turned out pretty well.

Rus has now won 28 challenger titles in 40 career finals, going 14-2 in championship matches since the spring of '19.
===============================================






kosova-font

[Madrid 1r-2r]

1. Madrid 1st Rd. - Marie Bouzkova def. Karolina Pliskova
...6-4/7-5. Maybe this will get Captain Pala's attention?


===============================================
2. Madrid 2nd Rd. - Marie Bouzkova def. Dayana Yastremska
...3-6/7-6(3)/6-1. Yastremska served for the match at 6-5 in the 2nd, and held a MP, but Bouzkova forced a 3rd set and then ran her game streak to six (4-0 up) en route to the win.


===============================================
3. Madrid 1st Rd. - Naomi Osaka def. Anastasia Potapova
...6-3/6-1. Osaka continues to talk a good game heading into her clay season, but this time she actually backed it up, ending the Istanbul champ's nine-match winning streak. Unfortunately, playing with a calf injury a round later, Osaka wasn't able to offer much of a follow-up effort against Sara Sorribes Tormo, who won 6-3/6-1 to add a regular tour win over Osaka to the one she posted over her in BJK Cup play back in 2020.

Sorribes Tormo is the last remaining Spaniard in the women's draw.


===============================================
4. Madrid 1st Rd. - Kaia Kanepi def. Linda Fruhvirtova
...6-3/6-4. These two played 19 games, one fewer than the number of years in age that separate them.
===============================================
5. Madrid Q2 - Anna Karolina Schmiedlova def. Magda Linette
...6-2/1-6/7-6(4). Schmiedy! Yeah, she lost rather quickly in the 1st Round to Coco Gauff, but AKS rallied from 4-2 down in the 3rd vs. Linette to post a nice victory to win her way into the MD.
===============================================







Actually, this second statement *is* helpful in understanding the decision. So rather than Wimbledon-sanctioned discrimination, it's essentially government-sanctioned discrimination. Good to know.

Meanwhile...




But what does Luxembourg (or, hmmm, maybe Liechtenstein) think?


kosova-font





kosova-font





kosova-font





kosova-font









This clip might just be the greatest/weirdest thing ever.

First, it's a nice song, and not one you hear much. But with that you've got a dancing, baby-faced (at age 29/30 in 1981, though he's dressed like it could be 1951) John Mellencamp (still going the "John Cougar" road at this point) and his distinctively gritty singing voice not seeming to exist in the same universe. Then there's the strange full, mid-lyric squats. And the backup dancers wearing pink, ruffled tuxedos; plus an audience that doesn't seem to know what to make of it all. And we wrap things up with an imitation of an old James Brown performance bit.

Glorious. ;)






futuristic-fonts


kosova-font
























kosova-font

*WHEELCHAIR WORLD TEAM CUP WINNERS, w/ host nation*
2022 [POR]...
2021 [ITA] - Netherlands
2020 DNP
2019 [ISR] - Netherlands
2018 [NED] - Netherlands
2017 [ITA] - China
2016 [JPN] - Netherlands
2015 [TUR] - Netherlands
2014 [NED] - Netherlands
2013 [TUR] - Netherlands
2012 [KOR] - Netherlands
2011 [RSA] - Netherlands
2010 [TUR] - Netherlands
2009 [GBR] - Netherlands
2008 [ITA] - Netherlands
2007 [SWE] - Netherlands
2006 [BRA] - Netherlands
2005 [NED] - Netherlands
2004 [NZL] - Netherlands
2003 [POL] - Netherlands
2002 [ITA] - Netherlands
2001 [SUI] - Netherlands
2000 [FRA] - Netherlands
1999 [USA] - Australia
1998 [ESP] - Netherlands
1997 [GBR] - Netherlands
1996 [AUS] - Netherlands
1995 [NED] - Netherlands
1994 [GBR] - United States
1993 [AUT] - Netherlands
1992 [BEL] - Netherlands
1991 [USA] - Netherlands
1990 [USA] - Netherlands
1989 [USA] - Netherlands
1988 [USA] - Netherlands
1987 [USA] - Netherlands
1986 [USA] - Netherlands

*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
INDIAN WELLS USA (EASTER BOWL) JB1: Alexis Blokhina/USA
VRSAR CRO (PERIN MEMORIAL) J1: Sofia Costoulas/BEL
LIMA PER JB1: Lucciana Perez Alarcon/PER
LTA 18u NAT'L CHSP. GBR: Mimi Xu/GBR
PLOVDIV BUL J1: Sofia Costoulas/BEL
BEAULIEU-SUR-MER FRA J1: Anastasiya Lopata/UKR
OFFENBACH GER JA: Sofia Costoulas/BEL





futuristic-fonts


kosova-font


kosova-font



kosova-font



kosova-font



kosova-font



kosova-font




kosova-font








All for now.

posted by Todd.Spiker @ 10:39 PM 

3 Comments:

Blogger Todd.Spiker said...

Oh... and I really liked the bright yellow outfit that Fernandez wore in Madrid. That's usually the sort of color you see during the Australian swing (think Vika a few years ago), but I think it actually works well with the red clay, too.

Sun May 01, 10:50:00 PM EDT  
Blogger colt13 said...

Bouzkova should be on that Cup team sooner than later. With Vondrousova and Muchova injury prone, there is an opportunity. Also note that Siniakova retired from her match this week, so her nor Krejcikova might make it to November.

They actually could have a B team that would be competitive. Speaking of that, French open Q list is out and as expected Fruhvirtova made it. Ranked higher? Noskova.

As unorthodox as she is on clay, Riske is improving. That 2 handed backhand moonball is a sight.

Putintseva gamed the system. She got pissed off and broke her racket, but played a point with it(that she won) not to get fined.

Teichmann has been a pleasant surprise.

Halep may be back in the Top 10 sooner than expected. Ranked low enough to have a potential 4th rd clash with Swiatek at RG, the fact that she skipped RG and the grass season means she could jump. If you take the points earned from her last 3 RG and grass seasons(17-19) and hit the average, she would be 8 after Wimbledon. Being that she won RG in 2018 and Wimbledon in 2019, that may not be realistic. If you split it in half, it would still get her to 10.


Stat of the Week- 0- Number of active women that have reached all 4 slam finals.

Serena and Venus have not played this season, and they were the only 2 to have done so. Barty made it 3 earlier this year but retired. So who is close?

3- Halep, Muguruza, Kerber

Best Result at 4th Slam:

SF- 2015 Halep- US
QF- 2018 Kerber- F
4th-17/21 Muguruza- US

None seem to be a favorite to pick up the fourth.

We do have 7 women with 2, but none seem to fit the criteria. Even so, all 7 have been ranked 5 or higher in their career.

Zvonareva, Kvitova, Azarenka, Pliskova, Stephens, Osaka, Kenin.

With only 12 other active women that have reached a slam final, the rest of this season might have as many as 5 first time slam finalists.

Quiz Time!

In the Open Era, how many times has Russia had a woman reach the QF at Wimbledon?

A.24
B.11
C.13
D.6


Interlude- The most impactful sports pitchwoman of the 70's

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAZ-1Z-xJ6A


Answer!

As much as I hate the ban, Russia isn't making it easy.

(D)6 is wrong, but the number of times USSR did so. Morozova did 4 times consecutively in 1973-76, while Zvereva did so in 1990 and 1992.

If you are curious about Belarus, especially since Zvereva has the best performance for them- 1998 SF, tied with 2011 Azarenka and 2021 Sabalenka, it is 7.

(B)11 is wrong, but that is the number of consecutive years in which Russia had a QF participant. 2002-2012 was the peak, ended by what Todd refers to as "The Radwanskian Massacre."

With that time frame alone, (C)13 is wrong, but is the number of different women that makes (A)24 correct. The first was Likhovtseva, who with a career high of 15, has the lowest on the list.

Some fun facts, Dementieva only did this 3 times, but in the last 2, lost to the eventual winner- Venus 08, Serena 09, in what was her final appearance as she missed 2010 due to injury.

The last 7, dating back to 2012, have been by 7 different women- Kirilenko, Makarova, Sharapova, Pavlyuchenkova, Vesnina, Kuznetsova, Kasatkina.

Sharapova did so 5 times, and is still the only one to have walked away with the title.

Mon May 02, 09:09:00 AM EDT  
Blogger Todd.Spiker said...

Ha! Good point about the Czechs. How great would it have been, with the RUS/BLR suspensions, to solve the vacancy problem by giving them a second team in the finals rather than pushing *both* AUS and SVK in there, with a WC slot *still* open in the group of 12?

Quiz: I was trying to count out how many, say, Sharapova, Dementieva, Vesnina and Kournikova (with that one big run) had -- w/ a couple more extras, but I clearly forgot about a few of them -- and I went with 11.

(The way things are going, if things keep following this path a U.S. Open ban might get pressured into reality... and the NHL is going to have a decision to make come the fall, too... and Ovechkin isn't making things any easier, either.)

Nominee for best use of an athlete's name (or altered version of it) to sell a product: can you guess it before seeing it? (I guess the modern equivalent is Sharapova to "Sugarpova.")

By the way, I saw the Lil' Sweet ads this weekend and it's different seeing them now and realizing it's Guarini. ;)

Tue May 03, 12:55:00 PM EDT  

Post a Comment

<< Home