Monday, August 15, 2022

Wk.32- Si-mo-na, eh?

As it turns out, the Church of Simona has a Canadian branch. Better yet, it's quite successful.




For most of this season, Simona Halep has been floating close to -- but not quite atop -- the tour surface. Since winning a title in Week 1, she's been one of the most consistent players on tour, but that consistency had carried over to her inability to make it over a late-stage hurdle in a big event, a stepping stone instance that would truly allow her to make her mark on '22 and return to the rarified air that she occupied while a Top 10 player for 373 straight weeks from 2014-21. Near the top of the tour's season statistical lists in QF, SF, match wins and win percentage, Halep was just 1-4 (w/ an additional walkover loss) in SF appearances heading into Toronto, including oh-so-close final four runs in Indian Wells and Wimbledon.

Aside from wishing to get over the proverbial hump for this season, Halep has spent the last few months seeking the sort of "signature" result that would provide evidence that her decision to bring aboard Patrick Mouratoglou as coach in the spring had been a correct one. In a women's game where even successful (sometimes exceedingly so) partnerships are often shockingly short in real time, what chance would the new combination have of any sort of sustained success and/or long-term goals if it continually came up short in a season in which Halep has enjoyed good health and a renewed optimism and love for the sport after having questioned her tennis future not that long ago after a disappointing '21 that saw her tumble from her long-time high perch (all the way out of the Top 20) while missing many months (and two majors, giving her three DNP slams and a cancelled Wimbledon title defense in 2020-21) with a serious calf injury?

Already a two-time winner of the Canadian event (in Montreal in 2016 and '18), Halep found her true form in the tournament's latest turn in Toronto, taking out Donna Vekic, Zhang Shuai, Jil Teichmann and Coco Gauff (improving to 4-0 vs. the teenager) in straight sets to reach her seventh '22 semifinal (without dropping a set). Struggling with her serve, Halep had to stage a comeback from a set down against Jessie Pegula to reach her 42nd career final, the 18th in a 1000-level event (but her first since winning Rome two years ago).

Against Beatriz Haddad Maia, Halep again got off to a slow start, and when the Brazilian's power game found its footing she was often reduced to being a spectator. But Halep's career success has been built on grinding out victories with defense, consistent resilience and a stubborn reluctance to ever say die, and all those traits were successfully called upon to wrestle away control of both the 1st set (going from 0-3 down to winning 6-3) and 3rd set (after Haddad had dominated the 2nd) by pushing her opponent back behind the baseline and making her produce shot after shot in a series of long rallies that (usually) eventually went the Romanian's way. Closing like a champion, Halep served out the 6-3/2-6/6-3 win, and a new (and unexpected, and some might have said mismatched -- and maybe short lived -- all those months ago) partnership suddenly has real legs to stand on.



Career title #24 makes Halep the fifth woman to win the Canadian title at least three times, and the sixth to take the crown in versions held in *both* Montreal and Toronto (but she's the first to do it this century). She'll return to the Top 10 for the first time since her long streak ended last August.

With her long-awaited '22 signature moment now in her back pocket, Halep's true standing this season has more sure footing. One of seven multiple-title winners (w/ no one other than #1 Iga Swiatek w/ 3+), her seven SF also stands behind only tour leader Swiatek's eight, as does her .787 (37-10) winning percentage (Swiatek - .887), and she's tied for second (w/ Ons Jabeur, with 37) for match wins behind the world #1's 47.



Finally, Simona is back. This week, back with a vengeance. Back where she belongs.

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*WEEK 32 CHAMPIONS*
TORONTO, ONTARIO CAN (WTA 1000/Hard Court Outdoor)
S: Simona Halep/ROU def. Beatriz Haddad Maia/BRA 6-3/2-6/6-3
D: Coco Gauff/Jessie Pegula (USA/USA) def. Ellen Perez/Nicole Melichar-Martinez (AUS/USA) 6-4/6-7(5) [10-5]
CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE USA (WTA 125 Challenger/Hard Court Outdoor)
S: CoCo Vandeweghe/USA def. Bernarda Pera/USA 6-3/5-7/6-4
D: Varvara Flink/CoCo Vandeweghe (RUS/USA) def. Peangtarn Plipuech/Moyuka Uchijima (THA/JPN) 6-3/7-6(3)
BJK CUP - ASIA/OCEANIA II ZONE, Event A (Kuala Lumpur, MAL; HCO)
PP: Thailand def. Hong Kong 2-0




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PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Simona Halep/ROU
...with one Williams officially heading off to retirement soon, and with another possibly not far behind (and if she should last a while longer, with the memory of the force that she once was having to pull more than its usual weight in the equation), by this time next season Halep may have completed three-quarters of a campaign as arguably the most consequential -- career-wise, historically speaking -- active (and truly relevent) female player in the sport. After nearly two decades in which the continuing careers of the Williams sisters (and, for shorter periods, others) loomed well above the rest of the field, that's about to change. In 2023, it'll be Halep in the role as the player bringing along with her all the big memories, big titles, high rankings, having-proved-it sort of success over a long period of time that makes her a walking and talking Hall of Famer years before it becomes officially so.

It'll be quite a transition.

Sure, at the moment, there will likely be at least one player (Osaka) will more slam titles (though all on one surface), and likely another (Kerber), but neither will have sported the career-long consistency the Romanian has shown for the vast majority of the last decade. There are still others (Kvitova, maybe Azarenka) who may have occupied a bigger footprint in the collective brain of the tennis and sporting public over the course of their careers. But neither of their cumulative careers, as great as they have been (at least in stretches), really come close to matching that of Halep's, either.



After for so long seeing Halep as the "little engine who could," and ultimately did, sometimes after having to fight herself to do it (oh, the scary Cliffs of Simona were treacherous), we're now entering the stage of the career of a now thirtysomething Halep where her legacy is secure and the rest -- however long that may be -- is generally about burnishing a legacy, with the end point coming when she herself is satisfied and no longer feels the need to strive for still more. And when that moment comes, as with Serena this week, there will be no reason to grasp at what she *hasn't* done, for what would be the point?

There was a time not that long ago when it was easy to see Halep not having even played into *this* season, and her public comments earlier this year made it sound as if that very well almost happened. But most great champions, one of which Halep has become, often have a (sometimes multi-season) final push that challenges the notion that her "prime" really was just that, as grand late-career periods in many cases turn out to be the most rewarding, and even enjoyable, part of a career filled with previous success because, maybe for the first time, the player is able to fully embrace (and share) the experience of the journey with both their inner circle and with the throngs who have watched it play out from afar (see the warm response of the Canadian crowd in Toronto, which had the opportunity to open the week by honoring Serena and end it by perhaps annointing Simona as the next figure whose memorable past -- and all the feelings it stirs -- will play an oversized part in what remains of her playing future, until the final curtain comes down).

Could Halep's 2022 reinvigoration of her love for the game, and even the "refreshing" of her drive for more by bringing aboard Mouratoglou -- no small decision, considering his past -- mean that the Romanian might be set for one more extended stretch of high-rise success in which *she* is the veteran presence fighting it out with the new generation of stars (she's already proven more than adept at filling that role vs. Gauff this season) as they jockey to assume the mantle of the sport, not always coming out on top, but doing it enough times that, due to the ongoing fight, she continues to rise in stature even when on the losing end of a scoreboard. Much of Halep's career has already seen her do just that (see AO '18). Now add in the knowledge that we're continually watching the latter stages of the career of a truly memorable individual in the sport's history.

It'd sure be a fun and fascinating thing to watch, for the doors of the Church of Simona never truly close.
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RISERS: Beatriz Haddad Maia/BRA and Jessie Pegula/USA
...Haddad Maia won back-to-back titles on grass earlier this summer, but she may have had her best week of the '22 campaign in Toronto.

The Brazilian's "Bia-tification" of the event included wins over Martina Trevisan (RG semifinalist), Leylah Fernandez (U.S. Open finalist), world #1 Iga Swiatek (RG champion), Belinda Bencic and Karolina Pliskova, the latter her fourth Top 20 win of the week (Trevisan will rise to #25 on Monday) to send her into her third final of the season (tying the Open era mark for a Brazilian), her first at the 1000 level (and a first for a woman from Brazil).



Haddad's big game gave her a shot in the final against Simona Halep, but she wasn't able to withstand the pressure of Halep's consistency and couldn't keep up (or change-up *enough*) her power game. When she was on, she controlled the action, but when Halep was able to extend rallies (which was often) it was the Romanian who won the most important points.

Her week provided another series of items that make up an ever-lengthening list of '22 season accomplishments for Haddad, whose three tour finals (and two titles) have been joined by a pair of WTA 125 crowns, three Top 10 wins and, on Monday, her first Top 20 ranking as she'll rise from #24 to #16, a huge leap from the #183 ranking with which she opened the season.

Seriously, can *any* player other than Haddad legitimately lay claim to the Most Improved Player honors for this season? I mean, not without a Raducanu-like run in New York or something, I guess. Yeah, yeah... it's the WTA Awards, so *anything* is possible. Pegula would be a good nominee, as would players such as Bouzkova, Trevisan and a few others. (But *not* Kasatkina, not in that category, not this year... but watch her get nominated.)



Like Halep, Pegula has been searching for a while now for the big "get" to serve as the "signature moment" that gives tangible evidence of where the Buffalo native stands in the sport in 2022. Unlike Halep, Pegula is still seeking that moment.

While she's still stuck at one tour singles titles in her career (won three summers ago), and has reached just a single final since her pre-pandemic runner-up in Auckland in January '20 (where she became the future answer to a trivia question as, as of now, the last player to lose to Serena Williams in a singles final), Pegula has maintained an admirable consistency that has put her atop the U.S. rankings and in the Top 10 in both singles and doubles.



In Toronto, Pegula saved MP and knocked off defending champ Camila Giorgi to reach her fifth QF of the season, then topped Yulia Putintseva for her third semifinal, once more doing so on a big stage. She's now recorded SF-or-better results at three of her last four 1000 level events, and QF+ in 10 of 21 1000/slam events since the start of '21, including a pair of QF in Melbourne and Paris this season. Pegula had her second '22 (w/ Madrid) 1000 final berth within her grasp against a struggling Simona Halep in their semifinal match-up this week, only to become the latest opponent to fall victim to the Romanian veteran discovering a way to win with something less than her best game.

Already at #7 in singles, on Monday Pegula (at least until Coco Gauff finally makes her Top 10 singles debut) will become the only woman ranked in the Top 10 in both disciplines when she makes her doubles Top 10 debut following a fourth title run of '22 (second in three finals w/ Gauff) that will also launch Gauff into the top spot.

At the start of the season, Pegula had never reached a tour-level doubles final, let alone won one. She's now 4-1 in finals, winning titles with three different partners.
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SURPRISE: Bernarda Pera/USA
...for most of this week, Pera continued the European clay court mastery that saw her win twelve straight matches and back-to-back tour titles in July, but she did it on hard court in Concord, New Hampshire in a WTA 125 challenger event. Unlike in Budapest and Hamburg, though, the Bannerette didn't lift the winner's trophy in the end.

After a win over Kayla Day, Pera rallied from 6-2/4-2 down against Anna Blinkova at the start of the week, seeing her 26-set winning streak end but maintaining her winning ways. She extended her streak to 16 matches with additional defeats of Katie Volynets and Katrina Scott to reach her third straight final, sporting a 32-1 sets advantage. That's where it all finally ended, though, as CoCo Vandeweghe emerged as a straights sets victor.

Still, Pera's ranking rise continues. A month ago she was at #130, but she'll crack the Top 50 for the first time in the Monday rankings.
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VETERAN: Karolina Pliskova/CZE
...Pliskova's offseason injury caused her to miss the Australian swing, and the Czech didn't start her season until March. She came into Toronto at just 10-12 on the year, going a combined 2-6 in 1000+ or bigger events, including a pair of 2nd Round exits at Roland Garros and Wimbledon this summer.

But a year after reaching her most recent 1000 level semi (Cincy '21), Pliskova put together her best week of results of the season en route to her second '22 semifinal (w/ Strasburg), posting wins over the likes of Barbora Krejcikova, Amanda Anisimova, Maria Sakkari and Zheng Qinwen before finally going out at the hands of Beatriz Haddad.


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COMEBACK: CoCo Vandeweghe/USA
...Vandeweghe rarely does anything quietly, and her return to form in the WTA 125 challenger this week in Concord only carried on the tradition. The former slam semifinalist won her first singles title since 2016 (Rosmalen), then added a doubles crown to the mix alongside Varvara Flink for good measure.

Since her last singles title six years ago in 2016, Vandeweghe has played in a pair of slam semis ('17 WI/US), reached the Top 10, and helped the U.S. win a (then-) Fed Cup crown, but she's also suffered through an extended series of injuries (freak and otherwise), gone 2-9 in slam MD matches (missing six majors altogether, and falling three times in qualifying), and fallen outside the Top 300.

Vandeweghe entered the week at #192, but ends it at #125 after a title run that saw her defeat a combination of youngsters (Alycia Parks, Eva Lys and Clara Tauson), a veteran (Wang Qiang) and a fellow Bannerette (Bernarda Pera) who came into the final on a 16-match winning streak.

Vandeweghe's doubles win, while ranking well below her four tour-level crowns (which include U.S. Open, Indian Wells and Miami wins) is her biggest since her run with Ash Barty at Flushing Meadows in 2018.
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FRESH FACES: Coco Gauff/USA and Katrina Scott/USA
...Gauff had quite the week (to a point). She knocked off reigning Wimbledon champ Elena Rybakina.



She became a fan of an umpire...



She even outlasted Aryna Sabalenka, rallying from 3-0 down in the deciding set to win her second of back-to-back 3rd set TB (after the win over Rybakina) to reach her sixth QF of the season (including that or better in four of her last five events, starting with the RG final run). But Simona Halep again proved to be a riddle the teenager has yet to figure out, as she fell to 0-4 vs. the Romanian (losing all eight sets, including sweeps in three match-ups this season).

While Gauff (just) missed out on taking her first step into the singles Top 10 last week, she *did* rise to new heights in the doubles standings, winning her second title of the season with Jessie Pegula and rising to #1 in doubles, at 18 becoming the youngest woman to hold the spot since Martina Hingis (17) in 1998.



In Concord, New Hampshire, another 18-year old Bannerette had a nice week of her own.

#241 Scott, even while traveling without her coach, qualified in the WTA 125 challenger with wins over Emma Navarro and Fernanda Contreras, then reached her biggest career SF with MD victories over Moyuka Uchijima, Karolina Muchova (ret.) and Taylor Townsend before becoming Bernarda Pera's 16th victim in her last 16 matches.

Scott has picked up a pair of ITF crowns this summer, improving to 3-0 in finals in '22, and with her run this week improved to 18-3 in this current stretch. A member of the Junior Fed Cup winning Bannerettes in 2019, and having made her U.S. Open MD debut (as a WC) a year later (getting her maiden slam 1st Rd. victory, then taking a set from Amanda Anisimova in the 2r), Scott seems well on her way to finding her way back to a second slam MD as a WC at Flushing Meadows later this month.



She'll crack the Top 200 for the first time on Monday, coming in at around #192.
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DOWN: Camila Giorgi/ITA
...well, it was good while it lasted.

A year after claiming by far her biggest career title in Montreal, Giorgi returned as defending champ as the event took its turn in Toronto. After posting a Top 10 win over Emma Raducanu (improving to 7-2 in her last nine vs. the Top 10, after having previously lost seven straight), and another over Elise Mertens, Giorgi stumbled in the 3rd Round against #7 Jessie Pegula. She led 4-2 in the 3rd, with a point for a 5-2 edge, and later held a MP before falling to the Bannerette.

After a full year of seeing her ranking propped up by that single great run in Canada, Giorgi will fall from #29 to #65. A year ago, she rose from #71 to #33 with her title run, her best ranking in over two years, and climbed as high as #26 earlier this season. She'll now go from being the easy Italian #1 to the new #3, in a virtual tie in the rankings with ITA #4 Lucia Bronzetti.
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ITF PLAYER: Zhu Lin/CHN
...in Landisville, Pennsylvania, 28-year old Zhu matched her biggest career ITF title with a $100K win (she won a WTA 125 last December).

The #1 seed, Zhu defeated Jodie Burrage, Louisa Chirico, Robin Anderson, Han Na-lae and, in the final, wild card Elli Mandlik, denying the 21-year old Bannerette the title by a 6-2/6-3 score.

Mandlik, fresh off her WTA debut in San Jose, had been seeking her biggest pro crown, with her previous seven having been of the $15K/$25K variety.

Zhu will climb to #73, slightly off the career-high she set (#69) just before the tennis shutdown in 2020.


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JUNIOR STARS: Sofia Costoulas/BEL and Brenda Fruhvirtova/CZE
...and Costoulas is back.


The 17-year old Belgian opened the season on a 29-1 tear, losing only in the Australian Open girls' final to Petra Marcinko. But Costoulas came into this week's JA tournament in Pretoria, South Africa on a three-match losing streak. She rebounded in a big way, sweeping the singles and doubles crowns (picking up her fifth JA/J1 title of the season in both disciplines). After a semifinal win over last week's J1 title winner, Brit Ella McDonald, top seeded Costoulas defeated Turkey's Melisa Ercan (who'd upset #2 Yasoslava Bartashevich of France) to win the singles, and teamed with Luca Udvardy to claim in doubles.

Costoulas, 34-4 on the year in junior play, will return to the #2 girls' ranking in the coming week.

Meanwhile, the Crush of Czechs have never left, and won't likely be doing so anytime soon.

The younger of the Fruhvirtovas, 15-year old Brenda, continued her fine ITF circuit play in Danderyd, Sweden, improving to 4-0 in pro singles finals this season with a 6-1/6-3 defeat of German veteran Mona Barthel in the final.



Set to crack the Top 300 with this result, Fruhvirtova is the second youngest player ranked in the Top 800, with only #447 Mira Andreeva (just a month) her junior (and w/ 3 pro titles in '22).
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DOUBLES: Coco Gauff/Jessie Pegula, USA/USA
...both Pegula (SF) and Gauff (QF) had good weeks in singles, but they ended their weekend by taking the doubles title as Pegula climbed into the WD Top 10 for the first time and Gauff, 18, will now become the youngest doubles #1 since Martina Hingis 24 years ago.

The duo reached their third '22 final together, winning title #2 (they were RG runners-up) with victories over Krawczyk/Schuurs (10-3 MTB), Keys/Mirza and then Perez/Melichar-Martinez in the final in a 10-5 MTB. The title run gives Gauff five for her career, and her first on North American soil since taking Washington (w/ McNally) in 2019. Pegula has picked up a tour-leading (w/ Siniakova) four wins in '22, doing so with three different partners (also Muhammad and Routliffe), with all coming on hard courts. Pegula had never reached a tour WD final before this season.


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BJK CUP MVP: Patcharin "Eve" Cheapchandej/THA
...the 27-year old proved to be the closer for Thailand's BJK Cup squad, as it completed an undefeated week in Asia/Oceania II zone play in Kuala Lumpur. 14-0 on the week, Thailand defeated Hong Kong 2-0 in the Promotional Playoff, with Cheapchandej providing the tie-clinching singles victory for the fourth time (in five ties) during the week.

After Anchisa Chanta's opening win over Wu Ho Ching in the PP, improving her mark to 4-0 for the week (10 games lost), Cheapchandej defeated Eudice Chong to complete the sweep, also improving to 4-0 (11 games lost). This week was Cheapchandej's first Cup action since 2018, when she'd gone 0-2 in zone play. Incidentally, yer last loss that time around, in February '18, had been to Chong.


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1. Toronto 3rd Rd. - Beatriz Haddad Maia def. Iga Swiatek
...6-4/3-6/7-5. Swiatek held a break lead early in the 3rd, then found herself down MP at 4-5. She fired off an ace, followed by a DF on her own GP before finally holding. But the Brazilian didn't crumble, and instead polished off a quick hold of serve, then took a love/40 lead on Swiatek a game later. Swiatek saved two more MP with a body serve, then an Haddad UE, but the Pole's own error on MP #4 gave her a third loss -- on three different surfaces -- in her last six matches and Haddad her first career victory over a world #1.


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2. Toronto 1st Rd. - Sloane Stephens def. Sofia Kenin
...6-2/6-7(5)/7-5. Even in defeat, in a three-hour contest with multiple rain delays, a good sign for the comeback-minded Kenin, who rallied from 6-2/5-1 down, saving four MP (2 at 5-1, 2 at 5-2) to win five straight games and win the TB to send things to a 3rd. Stephens led there 3-0, and 5-2, holding another MP at 5-4, before Kenin knotted the score at 5-all. Finally, Stephens, broken three times when serving for the match, broke Kenin's serve to get the win, completing the victory on her sixth MP.


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3. Toronto Final - Simona Halep def. Beatriz Haddad Maia
...6-3/2-6/6-3. The Romanians as a group often came up short through the first half of '22, starting the year by seeing just one of the nation's first ten singles semifinalists (Halep in Week 1) reach a final. That's changed over the past month, as this week Halep joined Begu and Bogdan by reaching WTA singles finals since the end of Wimbledon.



Naturally, the greatest Romanian women's player of them all not only won the biggest title of the group with her Toronto run, but the result finally pushes Halep back into the Top 10 after a year's absence precipitated by last year's calf injury.

Haddad often had this match on her racket with her power, but Halep's career-long penchant to battle and force opponents into using up every drop of reserve (hey, she does it, so why not them?) ultimately pushed the veteran into the winner's circle as the Brazilian wasn't able to produce a sufficient combination of power and accuracy consistently *enough* to get the better of the Romanian.

Haddad led 3-0 in the 1st, but Halep dug her heels into the match after a slow start, pushing her physically bigger opponent off the baseline with her driving groundstrokes, winning six straight games to take the set. Haddad bounced back brilliantly, going up a double-break in the 2nd and controlling the set to knot the match.

But Halep produced the final push, taking a 2-0 lead in the 3rd. Haddad held in a tough third game to stay in the flow of the proceedings, but Halep wasn't to be denied. She took back the control, using her defensive skills and forcing Haddad to try and take it back. While the game was willing, the gameplan was not, and the Brazilian couldn't do it. Halep raced to a 4-1 lead, and kept a step ahead the rest of the way, serving out the set at 6-3 to win her third title in the event (one off the record held by Evert and Seles), officially announcing her return to the upper echelon of the sport.

Of course, she's essentially been there all season, going along just behind (if that) the likes of Swiatek and Jabeur in the majority of the most important categories of success. The one thing she was lacking was the big title to "prove" her standing. Now she has it.


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4. Toronto 2nd Rd. - Coco Gauff def. Elena Rybakina
...6-4/6-7(8)/7-6(3). Rybakina saves 4 MP in the 2nd, forcing and winning a TB, then takes an early break lead in the 3rd.



Gauff battled back to take a 4-2 edge, but ultimately had to win a deciding tie-break to advance.


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5. Toronto 3rd Rd. - Jessie Pegula def. Camila Giorgi
...3-6/6-0/7-5. Rallying from 4-2 in the 3rd (a point from 5-2), saving a MP against the defending champ and winning nine of ten points to end the contest, this win was (arguably?) Pegula's biggest moment of a week that included another 1000 SF and a(nother) doubles title that resulted in a(nother) Top 10 ranking (this time in WD).

Well, unless you count the likely-lost-lasting meme from her loss against a struggling-but-fighting-to-find-a-way Simona Halep.


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6. Toronto 1st Rd. - Bianca Andreescu def. Dasha Kasatkina
...7-6(5)/6-4. The 2019 champ returns to Toronto, takes an MTO (sound familiar?) after feeling ill in the 1st set TB, but pulled through (sound familiar?) in oft-unpretty fashion (sound familiar?) in a match that had 15 breaks of serve in 22 games.



Afterward, San Jose champ Dasha didn't look particularly happy...



The thought that she was made salty by Andreescu's drama is likely right on. But, really, shouldn't one come into such a match expecting to roll one's eyes at the very publicly played out inner battle within the Canadian between being either injury/illness-prone or possibly something of a hypochondriac?



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7. Concord 125 Final - CoCo Vandeweghe def. Bernarda Pera
...6-3/5-7/6-4. For the second straight week, after Ana Bogdan in Iasi, a WTA 125 is claimed by a player on home soil. It hadn't happened in the season's first nine 125 events.

This week's 125 takes place in Vancouver, with the four Canadians in the MD including a pair named Marino and (in her first event in 17 months) Bouchard.
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8. Concord 125 2nd Rd. - Katie Volynets def. Harmony Tan
...4-6/6-0/7-6(4). Tan clipped Serena at Wimbledon, but saw another Bannerette get the better of her in New Hampshire. The Pasty rallied from 3-1 down in the 3rd to lead 5-3 and serve for the match, holding four MP. But Volynets claimed three of four games and took the deciding tie-break.

Concord 125 1st Rd. - Viktorija Golubic def. Ashlyn Krueger 6-3/6-7(6)/7-6(3)
Toronto 1st Rd. - Sara Sorribes Tormo def. Claire Liu 7-6(4)/2-6/7-6(5)
...the U.S. players were on the short end here.

Krueger led 5-1 in the 3rd and got two chances to serve out the win. After losing the lead, Krueger broke and held a MP at 6-5, only to see Golubic save it and take the breaker.

Liu held a double-break lead at 4-1 in the 3rd vs. Sorribes, and 4-2 in the deciding TB, but lost to the Spaniard in three and a half hours.
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9. Toronto 2nd Rd. - Arnya Sabalenka def. Sara Sorribes Tormo 6-4/6-3
Toronto 3rd Rd. - Coco Gauff def. Arnya Sabalenka 7-5/4-6/7-6(4)
...Sabalenka won in straights over Sorribes Tormo in spite of her 16 DF, but her 18 vs. Gauff (who had 15 of her own) proved to be too many. The three-hour affair saw Gauff taken to three sets despite having led 7-5/4-2, 40/love, then surge back from 3-0 down to the Belarusian in the 3rd.

Gauff/Sabalenka ended with a 131-131 tie in points, with an unlikely matching of both points won on return (54-54) as well as on serve (77-77).


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10. $100K Landisville USA 1st Rd. - Kristina Mladenovic def. Maegan Manasse
...6-7(5)/6-2/7-6(1). Another week, another Kiki tussle.

This one saw the Pastry throw in 13 DF, still out-point Manasse by 19 over the course of the match, but have to win a deciding TB to get the victory. Mladenovic dropped the 1st set despite serving for it at 6-5, and then saw the Bannerette force an ending TB after the French woman had led 4-2 in the 3rd. Mladenovic converted 8 of 25 BP chances overall, while Manasse was successful on 6 of 12.
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11. Toronto 2nd Rd. - Alison Riske-Amritraj def. Alona Ostapenko
...7-6(2)/0-6/7-5. Riske took the 1st after having trailed 4-1 and 5-3, but ultimately prevailed in a match with a scoreline that can almost be described as an "Ostapenko Special."

Once again, though, it was what the Latvian was wearing that opened eyes, not to mention produced greatly differing opinions.


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12. Toronto 2nd Rd. - Jil Teichmann def. Anett Kontaveit
...6-4/6-4. As (sorta) predicted, Teichmann rebounded from her bad stretch of results to shine (brightly, but briefly) on the big stage, following up her 1st Round win over Venus with her seventh career Top 10 win over Kontaveit (tying her career best -- def. Osaka in Cincinnati '21 -- with the upset of the world #2).


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13. Toronto 1st Rd. - Zheng Qinwen def. Rebecca Marino 3-6/7-6(5)/6-4
Toronto 3rd Rd. - Zheng Qinwen def. Bianca Andreescu 7-5/5-7/6-2
...Zheng beat up on the home players in Ontario, rallying from 6-3/3-0 to defeat Marino. Two rounds later, she won the 1st after Andreescu had led 3-1, breaking the Canadian's serve to avoid a TB. Andreescu, who'd won a three-setter vs. Alize Cornet a round earlier, broke and held late in the 2nd, sweeping the final three games to force a 3rd set, where Zheng took control to reach her maiden 1000 QF (she'd also advanced past a retiring Ons Jabeur in the match *between* these two contests).



With the biggest pre-U.S. Open hard court event on tap for this coming week, Andreescu pulled up stakes due a "change in schedule." Whatever that means.


===============================================
14. Toronto 1st Rd. - Asia Muhammad def. Madison Keys
...7-6(5)/6-4. You can take Asia out of Australia, but you can't take the Australia out of Asia in North America. Apparently.


===============================================
15. Concord 125 Q2 - Kateryna Volodko def. Lizette Cabrera
...6-2/6-2. Attention! Attention! The latest change in your program lists the former Kateryna Bondarenko as the new Kateryna Voldko. That is all.
===============================================
16. Concord 125 2nd Rd. - Katrina Scott def. Karolina Muchova
...6-3/4-0 ret. So, the idea for Muchova was to get some matches in in a 125 challenger (maybe against lesser competition?). Well, it *seemed* like a reasonable idea, in theory.
===============================================



17. USTA BJK 16u Nat'l Chsp. Final - Alyssa Ahn def. Christasha McNeil 6-2/6-3
USTA BJK 18u Nat'l Chsp. Final - Eleana Yu def. Valerie Glozman 6-3/7-5
...in San Diego, the USTA crowns its hard court champions.



Reese Brantmeier & Clervie Ngounoue took the 18u doubles crown.
===============================================
18. J1 Bytom POL Final - Yelyzaveta Kotliar def. Francesca Pace
...6-1, ret. The 15-year old Ukrainian, the #8-seed, defeats the #4, #6, #9 and (in Pace) #11 seeds in Bytom to claim her biggest career title. The girls' #119's biggest crown had been a J2 earlier this year.


===============================================
19. Cincinnati Q1 - Peyton Stearns def. Varvara Gracheva
...6-2/6-2. The NCAA singles champ -- a Mason, Ohio native -- notches her first career Top 100 win, handing the Hordette her seventh straight defeat. Since reaching the Roland Garros 3rd Round -- Gracheva's fifth such result in eight career slam appearances -- the Russian has gone 2-8.

cin Q2: for md and wta md debut (if not here, us open wc)

Stearns lost a round later to Taylor Townsend.
===============================================
20. $15K Monastir TUN Final - Priska Madelyn Nugroho def. Saki Imamura
...6-0/6-3. The 19-year old Indonesian sweeps the s/d titles again (winning the WD w/ singles final opponent Imamura) in Monastir, winning her third singles and sixth doubles challenger crowns this season.
===============================================
HM- $60K San Bartolomé de Tirajana ESP Final - Julia Grabher def. Nadia Podoroska
...6-4/6-3. More progress in the comeback of Podoroska, who failed to pick up her first title in two years but reached her first singles final since September '20. A RG semifinalist two years ago, the Argentine sat out from the end of last year's U.S. Open until June of this year while nursing a series of injuries. She came into the week ranked #184, reaching her 17th career ITF final (she's now 14-3) after knocking off top-seeded Arantxa Rus (QF).
===============================================






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1. Toronto 1st Rd. - Serena Williams def. Nuria Parrizas Diaz
...6-3/6-4. In the week of the announcement of her (upcoming/eventual) retirement, Williams posted her first match win since Roland Garros in 2021, and first on hard court since the '21 AO. With it, she becomes the fourth 40+ year old woman in the 2000s to post a tour-level MD win.


===============================================
2. Toronto 1st Rd. - Kaia Kanepi def. Naomi Osaka
...7-6(3)/3-0. After an encouraging (but short) run in San Jose, Osaka couldn't get through her first match in Toronto, maintaining her one step forward, two steps back '22 campaign by pulling out of quite possibly her final pre-U.S. Open event with a back injury. She's *scheduled* to play this week in Cincinnati.



Though it doesn't seem like it, Osaka *has* played 20 matches in 2022. She's 13-7, but just 2-4 over the past four months since her Miami final appearance.
===============================================
3. Toronto 1st Rd. - Jil Teichmann def. Venus Williams 6-2/6-3
Toronto 2nd Rd. - Belinda Bencic def. Serena Williams 6-2/6-4
...the Swiss had their way with the Williams sisters in Toronto, dropping them to a combined 1-3 on their (final?) year.


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



4. Toronto 1st Rd. - Bianca Fernandez/Leylah Fernandez def. Kirsten Flipkens/Sara Sorribes Tormo
...6-4/6-1. Another all-sister combo, as 19-year old Leylah teamed up with Bianca, her 18-year old sibling in the latter sister's second tour-level doubles event (they lost in the 1st Rd. in Monterrey five months ago), notching the younger sister's first career win.

The duo fell a round later, while Leylah (back from a stress fracture in her foot) also went out in her second return singles match, falling to Beatriz Haddad Maia.

Meanwhile, since bowing out of her singles career at Wimbledon, this was Flipkens' first post-SW19 outing in doubles. She'd originally been scheduled to play in Prague with Alison Van Uytvanck, but the #1-seeded Belgians withdrew after AVU was injured in her 1st Round singles match.
===============================================
5. Toronto 1st Rd. - Xu Yifan/Yang Zhaoxuan def. Shuko Aoyama/Chan Hao-ching
...6-2/2-6 [10-7]. Just days after facing off in the San Jose final, the teams meet again with a similar result.
===============================================







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Hmmm, is this a collective comment about the unfairness of biology and the stereotypes heaped upon mothers, or a more personal complaint?

If it's the latter, I'm not sure I understand since, well, for one, she's a 40-year old tennis player who -- male or female -- likely wouldn't be playing much longer at this stage in a career. She might have a case if she were talking about a player earlier in her career... well, except for the fact that there are many mothers playing on tour at the moment, and Tatjana Maria has had *two* kids, come back twice and has had the best season of her career in 2022 (also, see Allyson Felix, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and others).

And when it comes to "expanding" a family, there is such a thing as adoption if pregnancy (which for Serena, for multiple medical reasons, might be considered somewhat "high risk") isn't an option. I'm just sayin'.



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Yeah, of course, not even one of those things on that list is true.

Such delusional thinking by Djokovic fans/cultists, though? Well, that probably occupies at least a few of the six spots. And if one questions that, they should just read one particular thread comment there that seems to compare his treatment to that of the victims of the Holocaust.














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Looks like the BSA Bookstore is going to be carrying yet another Vika-a-Day Deep Thoughts desk calendar for 2023.












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*MOST TORONTO/MONTREAL WS TITLES*
4 - Chris Evert
4 - Monica Seles
3 - SIMONA HALEP
3 - Martina Navratilova
3 - Serena Williams
[won in Toronto & Montreal]
Martina Navratilova
Chris Evert
Steffi Graf
Monica Seles
Martina Hingis
SIMONA HALEP

*2022 WTA SINGLES FINALS*
6 - Iga Swiatek, POL (6-0)
5 - Ons Jabeur, TUN (2-3)
3 - BEATRIZ HADDAD MAIA, BRA (2-1)
3 - Anett Kontaveit, EST (1-2)
3 - Veronika Kudermetova, RUS (0-3)
[SF]
8 - Iga Swiatek, POL (6-2)
7 - SIMONA HALEP, ROU (2-4 +L)
5 - Ons Jabeur, TUN (5-0)
5 - BEATRIZ HADDAD MAIA, BRA (3-2)
5 - Veronika Kudermetova, RUS (1-2 +WW)
5 - Dasha Kasatkina, RUS (1-4)

*2022 WTA - SOUTH AMERICANS*
[FINALSF]
3 - BEATRIZ HADDAD MAIA, BRA (2-1)
1 - Camila Osorio, COL (0-1)
1 - Laura Pigossi, BRA (0-1)
[SF]
5 - BEATRIZ HADDAD MAIA, BRA (3-2)
1 - Camila Osorio, COL (1-0)
1 - Laura Pigossi, BRA (1-0)

*2022 OLDEST WTA WS CHAMPIONS*
34 - Tatjana Maria, GER (Bogota)
34 - Angelique Kerber, GER (Strasbourg)
33 - Zhang Shuai, CHN (Lyon)
32 - Petra Kvitova, CZE (Eastbourne)
31 - Petra Martic, CRO (Lausanne)
31 - Irina-Camelia Begu, ROU (Palermo)
30 - SIMONA HALEP, ROU (TORONTO)
30 - Simona Halep, ROU (Melbourne 1)
[WTA 125]
35 - Sara Errani, ITA (Contrexeville)
30 - COCO VANDEWEGHE, USA (CONCORD)

*2022 WTA DOUBLES TITLES*
4 - JESSIE PEGULA, USA
4 - Katerina Siniakova, CZE
3 - Eri Hozumi, JPN
3 - Makoto Ninomiya, JPN
[duos]
3 - Hozumi/Ninomiya, JPN/JPN
2 - GAUFF/PEGULA, USA/USA
2 - Krejcikova/Siniakova, CZE/CZE
2 - Siegemund/Zvonareva, GER/RUS
2 - Xu/Yang, CHN/CHN

*CAREER WTA TITLES - active*
73 - Serena Williams
49 - Venus Williams
29 - Petra Kvitova
24 - SIMONA HALEP
21 - Victoria Azarenka
18 - Svetlana Kuznetsova
16 - Karolina Pliskova
16 - Elina Svitolina
[finals]
98 - Serena Williams
83 - Venus Williams
42 - SIMONA HALEP
42 - Svetlana Kuznetsova
41 - Victoria Azarenka
39 - Petra Kvitova
32 - Karolina Pliskova
31 - Angelique Kerber

*PLAYERS RANKED WTA DOUBLES #1 - by year of first ranking*
1984 Martina Navratilova, USA (former TCH)
1985 Pam Shriver, USA
1990 Helena Sukova, TCH
1990 Jana Novotna, TCH/CZE
1991 Gigi Fernandez, USA
1991 Natalia Zvereva, USSR/BLR
1992 Larisa Neiland, LAT (former USSR)
1995 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, ESP
1997 Lindsay Davenport, USA
1998 Martina Hingis, SUI
1999 Anna Kournikova, RUS
2000 Corina Morariu, USA
2000 Lisa Raymond, USA
2000 Rennae Stubbs, AUS
2000 Julie Halard-Decugis, FRA
2000 Ai Sugiyama, JPN
2002 Paola Suarez, ARG
2003 Kim Clijsters, BEL
2003 Virginia Ruano Pascual, ESP
2005 Cara Black, ZIM
2006 Samantha Stosur, AUS
2007 Liezel Huber, RSA/USA
2010 Serena Williams, USA
2010 Venus Williams, USA
2010 Gisela Dulko, ARG
2011 Flavia Pennetta, ITA
2011 Kveta Peschke, CZE
2011 Katarina Srebotnik, SLO
2012 Sara Errani, ITA
2012 Roberta Vinci, ITA
2014 Peng Shuai, CHN
2014 Hsieh Su-Wei, TPE
2015 Sania Mirza, IND
2017 Bethanie Mattek-Sands, USA
2017 Lucie Safarova, CZE
2017 Chan Yung-Jan, TPE
2018 Ekaterina Makarova, RUS
2018 Elena Vesnina, RUS
2018 Timea Babos, HUN
2018 Barbora Krejcikova, CZE
2018 Katerina Siniakova, CZE
2019 Kristina Mladenovic, FRA
2019 Barbora Strycova, CZE
2021 Aryna Sabalenka, BLR
2021 Elise Mertens, BEL
2022 Coco Gauff, USA

*RECENT USTA 18u CHAMPIONS*
2009 Christina McHale
2010 Shelby Rogers
2011 Lauren Davis
2012 Vicky Duval
2013 Sachia Vickery
2014 CiCi Bellis
2015 Sofia Kenin
2016 Kayla Day
2017 Ashley Kratzer
2018 Whitney Osuigwe
2019 Katie Volynets
2020 DNP
2021 Ashlyn Krueger
2022 Eleana Yu









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The version of Kim Clijsters where she lives in the U.S. and tweets/re-tweets about U.S. politics is my favorite version of Kim Clijsters.



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All for now.

posted by Todd.Spiker @ 2:24 AM 

6 Comments:

Blogger colt13 said...

*Disclaimer-posts have been disappearing the last month-it will stay up until it doesn't*

Volodko's name change snuck under the radar because she did it the first week of the war.

Sloane got roasted by hubby.

Serena's Sporting News stats are video game numbers.

Cue Nelly- "I am number 1" for Gauff.

USO WC will be announced Tue or Wed.

No seeding drama at the top with Swiatek #1. Last 4 seeds- Kanepi, Riske, Rogers, Begu. Begu lost in Q, so next 4 are Sasnovich, Martens, Cornet, Garcia.

Stat of the Week- 2- Times Yola Ramirez was French Open runner up.

And you thought I was going to do a Serena stat. Actually, Serena adjacent.

Before Venus and Serena, there was Melita and Yola Ramirez from Mexico. Melita, 5 years older than Yola, broke through first, with the bulk of her career between 1949-54. Highlights were winning Toronto in 1952 and 53, then becoming the first Mexican woman to play Wimbledon in 1954.

Yola was the star, making her slam debut in 1955, winning Cincinnati in 1956, and winning French Open doubles with fellow Mexican Rosie Reyes in 1958.

Being French Open runner up in 1960 and 1961 does not diminish her shine.

Quiz Time!

Which one of these players did not win the girls 18u Orange Bowl?

A.Beatriz Haddad Maia
B.Cori Gauff
C.Bianca Andreescu
D.Melita Ramirez

Interlude- Olivia Newton John.
https://twitter.com/RexChapman/status/1556733157831057408


Answer!

Well, I had to work relevant people into the quiz, so let's see how this shakes out.

(C)Andreescu is wrong, as she walked away with the title in 2016, joining Dabrowski and Bassett as the only other Canadians to win in singles.

(B)Gauff is now 18, but won this in 2018, joining a whole host of Americans like Karol Fageros(2x), Chris Evert(2x), and Peaches Bartkowicz(4x). The most on brand thing is Mattek winning in doubles.

(D)Ramirez is wrong. You may have thought that she played before the event existed, but she won the 2nd edition back in 1948. Patricia Montaro is the only other Mexican to win singles.

That makes (A)Haddad Maia the seemingly obvious choice. You will not be surprised to find out that the only Brazilian woman to have won was Maria Bueno in 1957.

Mon Aug 15, 11:19:00 AM EDT  
Blogger colt13 said...

5 On the Up Side-WKRP Edition.

1.Rogers- Picking a 29 yr old that has never been in a final over 500? Playing well, plus she is a wild card. In 4 of the last 5 years, 1 WC has been SF or better, with one losing in the final the last 3 years.
2.Sasnovich- Another longshot who has been better than her stats show. In a year in which Kontaveit, Sakkari, Pegula, Jabeur and Haddad Maia have all reached their first 1000, why not another newbie?
3.Pegula- It's a 1000, so do I just pencil in QF or better now? Becoming one of the more consistent players on tour.
4.Gauff- Has reached a slam final, but not 1000, which makes her the highest ranked woman not to. Season kind of similar to Halep in singles in that she could have 3-4 titles already.
5.Swiatek- I don't have her as a favorite, but this is the chalk tournament. Even with Keys winning seeded 16, and Azarenka winning unseeded the next year, every winner of this event since it's return in 2004 has been Top 10 at one point.

Mon Aug 15, 11:28:00 AM EDT  
Blogger colt13 said...

5 On the Down Side.

1.Kerber- Name the only woman seeded at the US Open that hasn't played since Wimbledon. Collins did play one match. Actually, this is incorrect. Seeded 32 now, she will be around 50, so a somewhat dangerous floater.
2.Bouzkova- Prague winner got made it through Q only to face Wimbledon winner Rybakina. Does the same this week to get RG RU Gauff. If only she had those Wimbledon points, which would have moved her from 46 to 29.
3.Raducanu- I don't have official stats, but I think she leads the tour in 1 hour sets this year. After having 6 of her first 7 matches go 3 sets, her last 7 have gone 2. Can we get a full match vs Serena on Tuesday?
4.Kostyuk- Obviously, playing isn't the first thing on her mind, but is listed as the last mathematical chance to play their way into a USO seed. No real belief that she can string enough matches together to do so.
5.US Open WC- I can't remember a year where it seems that so many deserving candidates will be on the outside looking in. Vandeweghe just won an event, and you can justify both sides. In a normal year, Hovde would be a lock for QWC, and that seems tenuous. The list goes on.

Mon Aug 15, 11:39:00 AM EDT  
Blogger Diane said...

Agree entirely about Haddad Maia's status as Most Improved (and that it's likely she won't get the award).

Thanks for the last-hour plug!

And thank you for those wonderful Grease videos (which made me cry). I don't think that Oivia Newton-John ever got her due for having that amazing voice and vocal style. Reminds me a bit of how getting roles in stupid movies kept Julia Roberts locked in, and people couldn't see what a good actor she was. (At least she was able to go on and get the roles she deserved.)

Some celebrity deaths are harder than others; this one hit me really hard.

Mon Aug 15, 12:39:00 PM EDT  
Blogger Todd.Spiker said...

C-

Guessing Venus will get one, naturally. I hope Scott and Mandlik do. Looks like Harmony Tan is the FFT pick (imagine if she drew Serena again, or even Venus.)

Quiz: I knew it wasn't Coco, but I tried to play the riddle (badly) and went with Andreescu. :(

Was there ever anyone who *didn't* like ONJ? (I know, there's always *someone*.)

Cincinnati picks: Pegula (W), Haddad (RU), Halep/Anisimova (SF, and I *had* picked AA before she beat Dasha K)


D-

Kudermetova is another possible Most Improved contender. The Comeback Player list (as always) will surely be problematic, too. Personally, I might say Saville... but I doubt she'll be nominated (I'd be good with Anisimova or Garcia, too).

Of course. ;)

Oddly, I hadn't used any "Grease" videos during the grass season when I did songs from movies (I had posted one from "Xanadu," though).

Mon Aug 15, 06:19:00 PM EDT  
Blogger Diane said...

Kudermetova would be a good choice, though--IMO--not as good as Haddad Maia. It was sad that Veronika couldn't come to Charleston to do a title defense, especially since it was such a huge year for the event. Her 2021 win was smooth and understated--she was very thoughtful and low-key in press. One to keep an eye on.

Tue Aug 16, 10:35:00 AM EDT  

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