Sunday, July 23, 2023

Wk.29- Curiouser and Curiouser

In the void in the schedule between Wimbledon and the summer-closing North American hard court season, "odd" things tend to happen.

Last year, Bernarda Pera won back-to-back titles and Iga Swiatek lost on clay (in Poland).

This time around, 2023 said, "Here, hold my energy drink, ya little cretins."



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*WEEK 29 CHAMPIONS*
PALERMO, ITALY (WTA 250/Red Clay Outdoor)
S: Zheng Qinwen/CHN def. Jasmine Paolini/ITA 6-4/1-6/6-1
D: Yana Sizikova/Kimberley Zimmermann (RUS/GER) def. Angelica Moratelli/Camilla Rosatello (ITA/ITA) 6-2/6-4
BUDAPEST, HUNGARY (WTA 250/Red Clay Outdoor)
S: Maria Timofeeva/RUS def. Kateryna Baindl/UKR 6-3/3-6/6-0
D: Katarzyna Piter/Fanny Stollar (POL/HUN) def. Jessie Aney/Anna Siskova (USA/CZE) 6-2/4-6 [10-4]
IASI, ROMANIA (WTA 125 Challenger/Red Clay Outdoor)
S: Ana Bogdan/ROU def. Irina-Camelia Begu/ROU 6-2/6-3
D: Veronikia Erjavec/Dalila Jakupovic (SLO/SLO) def. Irina Bara/Monica Niculescu (ROU/ROU) 6-4/6-4
HOPMAN CUP (Red Clay Outdoor; Nice, Italy)
CRO (Vekic/Coric) def. SUI (Naef/Riedi) 2-0




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PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Zheng Qinwen/CHN
...could it be that Zheng is a player in some sort of tennis-related version of the "The Mandela Effect?" As before this week most people likely would have sworn that they could remember the 20-year old from China winning her maiden tour title.

Sometime. Somewhere. Right? As it turned out, umm, noooo.

Well, she took care of that in Palermo.

Having previously reached a tour-level final in Tokyo (last September) and won a 125 (ah, maybe that's it?) last June in Valencia, collected three Top 10 wins, reached a pair 1000 QF and a slam Round of 16 ('22 RG) while ranking in the Top 20, Zheng had already done enough to signal herself a possible future star on tour. Or at least placed herself in the group of players from which said individuals would emerge. But even though she had a nice nickname (QUEENwen), she didn't have a full-fledged WTA title to her name.

While not having played poorly in '23, coming into Week 29 Zheng had had a fairly quiet year. She was just 17-13 on the season, was coming off a winless (0-3) grass campaign and had just one QF result (Abu Dhabi all the way back in February). After stating her intentions at the start of the week with a double-bagel defeat of Sara Errani on Italian clay, Zheng had to fight for her right to party like a champion.

She went three sets with Diane Parry, then after winning in two over Emma Navarro went the distance again against Mayar Sherif and, in the final, another Italian in Jasmine Paolini, ultimately winning 6-4/1-6/6-1 to finally grab her maiden crown.

Zheng will climb in the rankings, though only two spots to #24. But with a tour schedule that will swing back into Asia in the fall, and for the first time since the pandemic and Peng return to her native China, the best moments for Qinwen in 2023 may still be down the road.


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RISERS: Jasmine Paolini/ITA and Ana Bogdan/ROU
...Paolini's run to the final in Palermo maintains her streak of three consecutive seasons with a WTA singles final on her resume, but she wasn't able to collect her second tour title in front of the home crowd.

Th Italian strung together three straight three-set wins over Arantxa Rus, Dayana Yastremska and Dasha Kasatkina (at least the latter did dub her a "rat" afterward), then won in straights over Sara Sorribes Tormo in the semis.

Paolini won a 125 title in May and reached another 125 final last month, and those results combined with this week will be enough to lift the 27-year old back into the Top 50. At #47, she gets within shouting moderate speaking voice distance (just 50 points) of ITA #1 Elisabetta Cocciaretto (#42), too.



Meanwhile, in Iasi, Romania it was Bogdan winning a 6-2/6-3 final over countrywoman Irina-Camelia Begu to defend her WTA 125 challenger win there from last season.

The 30-year old may have failed to take advantage of multiple opportunities in that 20-18 MTB at Wimbledon against Lesia Tsurenko, but Bogdan won three three-setters en route to the title this week, including staging a comeback over Czech teen Barbora Palicova in the 1st Round after being down a set and an early break twice in the 2nd. She added addition wins over Conny Perrin, Simona Waltert (so there *was* a Simona in this Romanian event, at least) and Raluca Serban.

Surely one of the most improved players on tour in '23, Bogdan adds this title defense to a season that has already seen her reach just her third career slam 3rd Round (WI, w/ '18 AO and '21 RG), and post her first career 1000 MD wins (Dubai 3r, Madrid 2r and Rome 2r) while this Monday reaching a new career high of #39. She's the ROU #2 behind only #32 Sorana Cirstea, and has a shot at being her country's #1 for the first time before the end of summer.


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SURPRISE: Maria Timofeeva/RUS
...the 19-year old Hordette just completed what was truly one of the most unexpected and remarkable weeks in tour history.



Not only did Timofeeva win her maiden WTA singles title in Budapest as a lucky loser, she also became the 8th player in tour history to win in her tour MD debut (just the second since 2001, w/ Olga Danilovic in '18) and at #246 is the sixth-lowest ranked (not counting the spare "unranked" champion) singles champion ever.

It's not as if Timofeeva *totally* emerged from the dark, as she did win her previously biggest career title in a $40K challenger in January and narrowly missed qualifying for her first slam MD in Paris (losing to the Taylor Townsend in the final Q-round). But in no way did it seem possible that she would fall to #377 Anna Siskova in the final qualifying round last weekend, *then* reach her first WTA MD as a LL, *then* reel off wins over Dasha Saville, Diana Shnaider (1 & 1...yikes, she might want to burn *that* bandanna to remove the bad mojo), Kaja Juvan (from a set down, firing 40 winners), and Nadia Podoroska (in three) to reach her first final, and *then* still have enough left to go three sets in the final vs. Kateryna Baindl (a Ukrainian, so the match-up already had a long shadow) and win a *love* decider to take the crown.

Timofeeva will jump more than 100 spots in the new rankings to #129, going from the RUS #21 to #13 in one fell swoop.

Her stunning run should be what the tournament will be remembered for but, well, you know. Most of the tour has never heard of her, so I guess she's lucky to get out of the week without having to committ to turning over all of her wordly possessions to the tennis mob for proper incineration. Always look at the good side of things, right?


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VETERAN: Kateryna Baindl/UKR
...Baindl was the perpetual pooper of the party in Budapest, until she wasn't.

The 29-year old personally saw to the exit of three Hungarians en route to the final, just the second of her WTA career (w/ '18 Taipei, where she lost to Hungarian Timea Babos), including Natalia Szabanin (1r), Amarissa Toth (2r, w/ a cabal of tour players surely sticking pins in the 20-year old's voodoo doll likeness as they watched the scores) and Fanny Stollar. A semifinal win over Claire Liu sent Baindl within a victory of her maiden tour title.

Her run ended there, though, as she couldn't bring an end to the lucky loser/first-time WTA MD participant Maria Timofeeva's amazing story, falling in a love 3rd set.

While many of the Ukrainian players have had very good seasons on '23, before this week Baindl had not been one of them. Other than her AO 3rd Round back in January, Budapest's field provided her with her only other tour-level match wins this season. She dropped six straight matches this spring, and started at 3-8.

She'll get a significant boost from this result, though, climbing from #100 all the way up to #77 even while not collecting the title.
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COMEBACKS: Sara Sorribes Tormo/ESP and Nadia Podoroska/ARG
...both Sorribes Tormo and Podoroska are making significant progress after missing time due to injury, with both reaching SF in different cities during the past week.

In Palermo, Sorribes Tormo, out for six months before returning this spring (dropping to #132, 100 spots below her career high from February '22), played in her first tour-level clay court event since her Round of 16 run at Roland Garros. The Spaniard, back in the Top 90 after Paris and a Wimbledon 2r result, posted wins over Elisabetta Cocciaretto, Nuria Brancaccio and Clara Burel before falling to Jasmine Paolini in her first SF appearance since her return.

She's 16-8 on clay this season. 1-1 on grass, she's yet to play on hard courts.

In Budapest, '20 RG semifinalist Podoroska will climb back into the Top 70 on Monday following a semifinal result that included victories over Storm Hunter, Anna Siskova and Elina Avanesyan. She lost in three sets to LL Maria Timofeeva, but her run was just her second tour-level SF (w/ Chennai '22) since reaching the final four in Paris four seasons ago.

The Argentine sat out ten months after the '21 U.S. Open until the spring of last season. Earlier this year, Podoroska picked up a 125 title (February) and has recorded MD wins at all three of this season's slams.
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FRESH FACES: Claire Liu/USA and Mia Ristic/SRB
...Liu played her way into her first '23 WTA semi, picking up wins in Budapest over Louisa Chirico, Yulia Putintseva and Anna Karolina Schmiedlova. In her first tour-level final four run since reaching the Rabat final last May, and the third of her career, she fell to Kateryna Baindl.

Liu's 3-1 week still leaves her at just 17-20 on the season, but she's gone 5-2 in her last two events.



17-year old Serb (#443) Ristic won the European 16u championship a year ago, and this week played her way into her maiden WTA MD in Palermo, saving MP in back-to-back qualifying matches while accumulating 7:35 of match time.

Ristic saved a MP vs. Cagla Buyukakcay in the opening Q-round before winning in 4:12, then saved three more MP vs Kathinka Von Deichmann in a 3:23 contest in which she'd trailed 6-1/5-2. She then lost to Dayana Yastremska in her maiden WTA match.

Ristic won her first pro title in a $25K challenger last August, and 30 of her 37 pro singles wins, all since 2021, have come on clay.
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DOWN: Bernarda Pera/USA
...a year ago at this time, Pera was winning the second leg of her back-to-back title runs in Budapest and Hamburg. The Bannerette returned to Budapest to defend the first result this past week, but things didn't go nearly as well. She fell in the opening round by a 6-4/7-5 score to Diana Shnaider.

Pera's ranking will be interesting to watch the rest of the season, as there's a decent chance she'll end this year higher than she was at the end of '22 even if she doesn't win *any* title. She reached a career high of #27 last month, was #39 coming into this week after losing last year's Budapest points, and will fall to #56 on Monday as Hamburg (where she's in the Wk.30 MD) drops off.

But Pera's 2023 3rd Round runs in Indian Wells and Madrid, and Round of 16 at Roland Garros, means the loss of her title points won't mean a *huge* ranking hit. A few decent results the rest of the way and she might just top last year's season-ending #44 standing even without any hardware to show for it.

That would surely get her a mention in the year-end Rankings Round-Up.
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ITF PLAYERS: Daria Snigur/UKR and Kayla Day/USA
...slam upset queen Snigur migrated her success to the ITF tour this week, taking home her seventh career challenger title (and second career $100K, after her most recent singles title run in November '21) at the Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain event.

The 21-year old Ukrainian, ranked #155, posted wins over Georgina Garcia Perez, Marina Bassols Ribera and Bai Zhuoxuan to reach the final, where she defeated Jessika Ponchet 3-6/6-4/6-1 for the crown.



She'll jump 27 spots up to #128 in the rankings. Snigur just missed out on the Top 100 last year, climbing as high as #105.

In Granby, Day continued her comeback campaign by picking up her second $100K title of the season, taking out crowd favorite Katherine Sebov (who'd had to win a SF over Rebecca Marino earlier on Sunday) in a 6-4/2-6/7-5 final.

Day's season has already seen her end a six-year slam MD absence and reach the RG 3rd Round with a win over Madison Keys. Now she'll crack the Top 100 for the first time, coming in at #94 on Monday.
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JUNIOR STAR: Ariana Geerlings/ESP
...the 17-year old Spaniard, ranked well down the girls' rankings (in the #500s), was crowned the European Juniors champ in Klosters (SUI), defeating four seeds (including the Top 2) en route to her biggest career title at the J300 regional event.

The unseeded Geerlings knocked off the #6, #10 and #2 (Teodora Kostovic) seeds, as well as Panna Udvardy, to reach the final, where she upset #1 seeded Czech (jr. #17) Nina Vargova 6-1/6-2.



Geerlings works out of the Rafael Nadal Academy. Last year's European 18u champ was Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva.
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DOUBLES: Katarzyna Piter/Fanny Stollar (POL/HUN) and Yana Sizikova/Kimberley Zimmermann (RUS/GER)
...two different teams had the chance to become first-time tour doubles champions this weekend, but neither walked off with maiden titles.

The first spoilers were Piter & Stollar (whose teaming sounds like a movie musical composing duo from the 1940s) in Budapest, who put an end to the title hopes of Jessie Aney & Anna Siskova, winning a 10-4 MTB to take the crown.

This is Piter's second WTA title, but her first since 2013 (she'd lost 7 of 8 finals before this week), while Stollar's win before a home crowd gives her three.



In Palermo, Sizikova & Zimmermann defeated Italians Angelica Moratelli & Camilla Rosatello 6-2/6-4, completing their title run without dropping as set. It's the third WTA title for both, and Sizikova's second this season (w/ Rabat alongside Sabrina Santamaria).

This was the first tour final for both Moratelli and Rosatello, but the 28-year olds have long been stalwarts on the ITF circuit, with Moratelli winning 27 titles and Rosatello 34 (including three w/ Moratelli last season). They'd defeated another all-ITA duo, Sara Errani & Jasmine Paolini, in the semis.


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WHEELCHAIR: Momoko Ohtani/JPN
...while most of the top-ranked players were sitting out, and the greatest player in women's WC tennis history was being enshrined in the Hall of Fame, the rest gathered in Geneva, Switzerland for the Swiss Open (Series 1).

World #4 Ohtani took home the honors, picking up her second Series 1 singles title of the season with wins over Angelica Bernal, Monami Tanaka and Pauline Deroulede.

Of course, since she's from Japan and named Ohtani, Momoko pulled *double duty* in Geneva, winning the doubles title, as well, alongside Aniek Van Koot, defeating Tanaka & Dana Mathewson in a 10-6 MTB.
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1. Budapest Final - Maria Timofeeva def. Kateryna Baindl
...6-3/3-6/6-0. After Baindl had been the WTA mob's proxy vs. Toth, she couldn't be the same for the *other* mob in the final in another Russian vs. Ukrainian match-up.

So Timofeeva was able to finish what she started, pulling the rare combo of winning in her tour-level MD debut, as a lucky loser and while becoming the 6th-lowest ranked champion in tour history (but the just the 2nd-lowest ranked in '23, behind Svitolina in Strasbourg).



Exactly how many LL's have actually won tour titles, as usual, remains in dispute, as just like was the case during the most recent such runs (Danilovic '18, Gauff '19), the lists are sketchy because of iffy record-keeping in the early days of the tour, and questions over what sort of events from the many different circuits of the 1970s/'80s now "count" as "tour-level" tournaments in 2023-land. Let's just say that there haven't been all that many.
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2. Palermo Q1 - Mia Ristic def. Cagla Buyukakcay 6-7(4)/7-6(8)/7-5
Palermo Q2 - Mia Ristic def. Kathinka Von Deichmann 1-6/7-6(2)/7-6(3)
...the 17-year old Serb (#443), the European 16u champ last year, had a heck of a time making her maiden WTA MD, but darned if she didn't earn it. It took a combined 7:35, and saw her save 4 MP, over two qualifying matches.

Against Buyukakcay, Ristic had squandered a 5-2 1st set lead, failing to convert 3 SP and losing a 3-1 TB edge, falling 7-4. The Serb turned around a 4-2 deficit in the 2nd to force another TB. She led there 4-1, but faced a MP at 7-6 before winning 10-8. Down an early break in the 3rd, Ristic saved 3 BP at 5-5, then broke the Turk for the win.

A day later, the teenager went another 3:23 vs. Von Deichmann, rallying from 6-1/5-2. After winning a 7-2 2nd set TB, Ristic was down a break at 2-0 in the 3rd, then trailed 5-4 and was triple MP down at 40/love. She got the break for 5-5, then finally won a 7-3 TB to reach the MD.

She lost there to Dayana Yastremska, but after a weekend like *that* who really cares, you know?
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3. Palermo Final - Zheng Qinwen def. Jasmine Paolini
...6-4/1-6/6-1. Zheng becomes the 12th different Chinese woman to win a tour-level title. With Zhu Lin, she's the second first-timer in 2023.


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4. Iasi 125 Final - Ana Bogdan def. Irina-Camelia Begu
...6-2/6-3. A year ago, Begu was winning her first tour title in five years in Palermo, but chose to play a 125 in Romania this year rather than defend her crown.

Instead it was Bogdan who defended *her* title.


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5. Hopman Cup Final - Croatia (Vekic/Coric) def. Switzerland (Naef/Riedi)
...2-0. The Hopman Cup returned for the first time since 2019, in a different month (July, not December/January), a different nation (France, not Australia), and on a different surface (clay, not hard court). But the two finalist nations had won the title before, and Switzerland was going for a *third* straight win and fifth overall.

As it was, Donna Vekic prevailed in her final-tie match vs. Celine Naef (the 18-year old went 0-3 in singles for the week, but teamed with Leandro Riedi to win a pair of MX matches and advance), then Borna Coric sealed Croatia's second title and first since 1996.

The Croats had defeated Spain (Rebeka Masarova/Carlos Alcaraz) in the final RR tie (via a 14-12 MTB in MX) on Saturday to earn a spot in the final.


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6. Budapest Q1 - Anna Siskova def. Lena Papadakis 2-6/7-6(6)/6-1
Budapest Q2 - Anna Siskova def. Maria Timofeeva 6-1/3-6/7-6(5)
...Siskova, a #377-ranked Czech, won from 6-2/3-1 down vs. Papadakis, who served at 6-5 in the 2nd set and led 6-1 (5 MP) in the eventual TB. Siskova swept the final seven points to win 8-6, then ran away with the 3rd set at 6-1.

Against #246 Timofeeva, it was Siskova who prevailed after trailing 4-2 in the 3rd, pulling away in a 5-5 TB to win 7-5.

While Timofeeva went on to take the singles title as a LL, Siskova notched her first WTA MD win, as well, in her debut match (def. Evgeniya Rodina), but also ended up playing for a title in the doubles with Jessie Aney. Unlike Timofeeva, though, Siskova came up short.
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7. Budapest 1st Rd. - Tatjana Maria def. Carole Monnet 3-6/7-6(5)/6-2
Budapest 2nd Rd. - Fanny Stollar def. Tatjana Maria 6-3/2-6/7-6(6)
...Maria rallies to end her four-match losing streak, pulling through in three sets after having led the 2nd set 4-0 but then being forced to a TB (Monnet was as close as 5-5 in the breaker to a straight sets win).

Maria led Stollar 3-1 in the 3rd, but was broken at love as she served for the win at 6-5. The German held two MP at 6-4 in the deciding TB, but lost 8-6.
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8. Palermo 1st Rd. - Cristina Bucsa def. Francesca Curmi
...3-6/6-3/7-5. Curmi nearly earned her way into being the first Maltese player in a WTA MD, having been up a break in the 3rd set in the final qualifying round vs. Tessah Andrianjafitrimo, and serving for the match at 5-4.

She lost to the Pastry, but reached the MD as a LL. She gave Bucsa a run, too. She led 3-0 out of the gate, and took the 1st set, and was knotted at 3-3 in both the 2nd and 3rd sets. She led 5-3 in the 3rd, served at 5-4 and was two points from her maiden win at deuce on Bucsa's serve.

Curmi had a GP to reach a deciding TB, but was broken in a two-deuce game and the Spaniard prevailed. Hopefully she'll get another chance in a qualifying draw soon.



Malta's population? 519,000 in 2021.
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9. Palermo 1st Rd. - Mayar Sherif def. Jessica Bouzas Maneiro
...3-6/7-6(6)/7-5. Another interesting result, on another surface, for the 20-year old Spaniard.

A Wimbledon qualifier on grass last month, Bouzas Maneiro has won nine ITF titles (6 clay, 3 hard) since the start of 2021.

She led Sherif 6-3/3-0 on the clay in Budapest, only to fall behind 5-3, then break the Egyptian for 5-5 in a four-deuce game on her fourth BP chance and then forced a TB. After leading 4-2, Bouzas Maneiro trailed 5-4, but again rebounded to win 8-6.

In the 3rd, predictably, Sherif took a 5-3 lead. But again the Spaniard fought back and got the score to 5-5 before experience won out. Still, all that is a bit impressive.

I'd say the Bouzas Maneiro is a leading "Player Whose Name You'll Know..." contender for next season, but I wonder if she might outrun the prediction before the '23 season is out.
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10. Budapest QF - Nadia Podoroska def. Elina Avanesyan
...6-1/6-3. Seems like a routine win, right? Yep.

But if Avanesyan had won the "LL Queen" would have faced "LL Princess" Timofeeva in the semis for a berth in their maiden tour title.

Needless to say, I'm very disappointed in the Tennis Gods when it comes to this one.
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11. Palermo SF - Zheng Qinwen def. Mayar Sherif
...6-4/4-6/6-1. Zheng's win ends Sherif's 13-match clay court winning streak.

The Egyptian is 22-7 overall in 2023, but just 4-8 on hard court and 1-2 on grass. She still moves up to a career-best tying #31 this week.
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12. Iasi 125 Final - Veronika Erjavec/Dalila Jakupovic def. Irina Bara/Monica Niculescu
...6-4/6-4. Erjavec & Jakupovic ended the week with a doubles title, but the former's *start* of the week was pretty good, too.

Erjavec, 23, made it through qualifying and posted a MD win over Panna Udvardy. The Slovenian won her first ITF singles title in April, adding to what are 16 career circuit titles in doubles (her two $40K wins this season *had* been her biggest WD crowns).

Erjavec rises to new career highs in singles (#241) and doubles (#127) on Monday.
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13. Iasi 125 1st Rd. - Darya Astakhova def. Elvina Kalieva
...4-6/7-6(6)/6-3. A big league comeback in a second level event, as the 21-year old Hordette rallied from a set and a break down, then saved 4 MP at 6-5 before winning in three over the 19-year old Bannerette.
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14. $100K Granby CAN 1st Rd. - Jennifer Brady def. Kyoka Nakamura
...6-2/6-3. After nearly two full years away while dealing with foot and knee injuries, Brady returns and posts a 1st Round win. In her words, it's "about damn time."

She lost 6-4/7-6 a round later to Himeno Sakatsume, but the comeback of the former AO finalist (2021) and U.S. Open semifinalist (2020) is officially "on."



Brady has been ranked as high as #13, is a two-time WTA finalist (2020-21, w/ a win in Lexington during the pandemic summer of '20) and posted a pre-Covid #1 win over Ash Barty in Brisbane in '20.
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15. $40K Porto POR Final - Isabella Shinikova def. Kristina Mladenovic
...6-4/7-5. Mladenovic loses, but reaches her first singles final on any level since last October ($60K).

The Pastry hasn't recorded a slam singles MD win since the '21 RG, and hasn't been in a 1000 MD since Rome '21.
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16. $25K Parnu EST Final - Sara Bejlek def. Lucija Ciric Bagaric
...7-5/6-4. The 17-year old Crusher wins her first ITF title in a year.
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17. $25K Roehampton ENG Final - Asia Muhammad def. Pak So-hyun
...6-2/1-0 ret. Muhammad wins her tenth consecutive ITF singles final back to 2018. It's the 32-year old Bannerette's first singles title run outside of Australia since that same season (ending an AUS string of six from 2019-22).
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1. Palermo 1st Rd. - Erika Andreeva def. Lucia Bronzetti
...4-6/6-0/6-2. At the moment still just "Mirra's older sister," Erika posted her biggest career win over #53 Bronzetti in Italy.



She lost in the 2nd Round in three sets to Camila Osorio.
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Budapest 1st Rd. - Amarissa Toth def. Zhang Shuai
...6-5 ret. Sometimes, maybe *everyone* has something to atone for.

So, here we are, with the big (mostly overwritten) controversy of last week, a tale which proved that a version of HawkEye for clay courts is desperately needed by next year, that the tour collectively loves Zhang Shuai, and that the WTA players almost en masse (and some media members, aka "journalists") are a disingenuous bunch who have spent years bemoaning the abuse that players receive on social media and during press conferences, but when the tables are turned have no problem taking a context-free video clip and using it as the basis to bully, belittle and diminish a fellow player that 99.999% of them have never met (and likely never will) or even heard of before essentially calling for her (in one case) to be banned from the sport (for breaking not one actual rule) and then tried at The Hague for something akin to crimes against humanity. Or so it seemed this week.

Essentially, in the fairy tale version of what happened in the Zhang/Toth match, Zhang was outrageously robbed of an ultra-important point by a linesperson, chair umpire and tournament that worked in perfectly planned unison to ignore and refuse to acknowledge her pleas of unfair treatment in an act of favoritism in support of a local Hungarian player. While Zhang was arguing the call, the player (Toth) rubbed out the mark in question while the judgment was still in dispute -- an affront to sports(wo)manship that should be dealt with in the harshest way possible -- and then gloated about her actions and stood by with a wicked smile on her face, twirling an invisible villain's moustache while Zhang fretted and ultimately retired after being ignored while nasty fans jeered and atrocious match commentators showed hatred for the well-loved Chinese veteran. Upon hearing of the retirement, Toth taunted Zhang over the win and proceeded to make a scene worthy of a playground scourge.

Of course, hardly any of what actually happened was remotely like that, but the social media world -- led by WTA players themselves -- sure acted as if the fanciful tale was incontrovertibly true.



After the initial "video evidence" went out over Twitter (or whatever it's called now), tour players took to their phones en masse and led a worldwide witchhunt against Toth, effectively creating a social media mob of bullies which one after another piled on, declaring her not fit for the WTA tour and the most unsporting athlete ever, with at least one (Maria Sakkari) saying that she should be "banned" from the sport, and others promising that she'd be shunned by all players, etc., thereby encouraging the usual trolls of the environment to double and triple down with that and worse. After Toth's initial comments about the incident were released, Dasha Kasatkina tweeted out the icon of a rat (and didn't back down when challenged in the comment section about such an unwise action). Sports Illustrated/Tennis Channel/"60 Minutes" journalist Jon Wertheim called Toth's actions "repugnant," and labeled her a "cheater." And so on.



Since most everyone was too busy bullying and trying to cancel Toth while either misrepresenting or not even bothering to know the actual chronological events, here's a quick recap of the match by trusted WTAB commenter/commentator/researcher/quizmaster Colt:

"Zhang came into this on a 12 match losing streak, and did not play anywhere close to her best. Got up 2-0, with little drama, but was unhappy over a minor line call.

The drama starts at 3-3, when Zhang played a point off the baseline that looked in. She lost the point, then argued the call.

Toth, now leading at 4-3, stopped play when Zhang hit a ball out that was not called. Toth correctly got point. Zhang was angry, and played her best 2 games of the match to go up 5-4.

At 5-5 15-15, all hell broke loose. Zhang hit a ball that looked in, but was called out. To this point, Zhang was wrong on the other 3 calls, so she thought she was wronged on a fourth and started screaming at the umpire, the crowd, then asked for a supervisor. A random from the crowd yelled "time violation", which she should have gotten, but did not. After the supervisor comes out, they talk, and eventually play resumes.

[TS - I'll add here that the chair umpire did "inspect" the mark, as is seen in the video, but did not overrule -- right or wrong -- the initial line call that went against Zhang.]

Zhang then plays a point. After that point is when Toth erases the mark, which causes Zhang to complain loudly again and gesture to the crowd. She hits the net with her racket. She gets broken to go down 5-6, calls out the trainer, and retires within 2 minutes. She then shakes the umpire's hand, then Toth's, which is when both arms are victoriously raised.

Zhang then yells some more toward the crowd before walking off."

All right...

1) it looked like a bad call, and the umpire didn't have the guts to overturn it (which is just a confirmation of the desperate need for some version of HawkEye on clay to end this staring-at-smudges-in-the-dirt ridiculousness).

2) getting robbed on a call isn't anything new, and it's happened to many players, often in situations which seemed just as clear-cut -- and maybe even more so -- than the one in question that went against Zhang. The match wasn't called, the game went on, and the world didn't end. All three -- well, two and a half -- went the other way this time around.

3) the tournament didn't help things with some of its post-incident comments, including one that seemed to accuse China (?) of interfering in the snafu,. Additionally, no one can really control the fans' reactions (see RG/WI).



4) a whole lot of people, from players (Sakkari, who embarrassed herself and should be offering up an apology, as well) to some big name media members (Wertheim, who should know not to throw around words like "cheating," especially when there was nothing of the kind that went on) have a lot to answer for, but surely won't.



It was ironic that Victoria Azarenka declared Toth's actions to be "another level of unsportsmanlike" (huh?), considering the considerable (overblown) hell that she's often received at times for her in-match actions over the course of her career. And wasn't Kasatkina upset about being booed by spectators in Paris because they didn't fully understand -- or didn't care about -- the intricacies of the situation that had played out before them?

I guess their mirrors were broken this week, for how else would the total lack of reflection be so publicly obvious, right? Hmmm.

Truthfully, it's difficult to not lose a great deal of respect for the likes of those players and some media members who chose this moment to, as they say, "show their ass." We'll see what comes out when some of those same players are faced with overly vociferous online or press conference critics, or bristle at the actions of an opponent that they think is making a scene about a line call (cough-cough... does Alona get a pass now?), or when an opponent accuses their own celebrations of being too "in-their-face" or believes them to be attempts at intimidation.

Did half the tour just have their Mladenovic-esque "LOL" moment, or a Bouchard-like "something about..." incident that colors every potentially hypocritical word that comes out of their mouth from here forward? We'll see.



5) clearly everyone loves to jump in with opinions while not even bothering to know what they're really commenting on. The original video that everyone reacted to was a bit misleading, as it left out that a full point was played between the two distinct parts of the incident, WHICH CHANGES THE CONTEXT OF EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED. The issue of the mark had been decided, but Zhang still wanted to have the call changed? We (and she) know that's not how it works. The different scores were there on the screen, but no one wanted to notice. They were too busy firing off their poison pen tweets. The "horrendous" wiping of the mark by Toth was, while needlessly brash, not wrong, per se, as far as the rules are concerned. It *was* time to move on, and clearly Zhang (even after playing a point) was not going to.

6) after Zhang retired, after reading how much "gloating" and "repugnant sportsmanship" (sic) Toth had shown, when I first saw the video I was expecting to see Toth yelling and running around at the moment of the handshake... but all she did was quickly raise her arms (it looks worse in the still freeze-frame than in real time video, as Zhang likely didn't even see it) then look into the crowd to her people (in the world #548's home event). She might not want to raise her hands so quickly after a retirement in the future, but this was hardly your "usual" retirement in which a player is *physcially injured* and can't go on. While one might deem her raised arms as "immature," I've seen far worse... and probably from some of the veteran players who thought it was the worst thing they'd ever seen, too. And here is where we note that Toth is quite literally a tour neophyte, having spent her brief career to this point in the juniors (she was in the junior RG doubles final just two years ago) and in challengers. This was her maiden WTA MD match... and just the third *ever* in a tour event, with the other two being Q1 losses in Budapest in 2021-22.



7) much was said the next day about the players' reactions being "a great thing" or a "great day" for the WTA. Hmmm, it *does* show how much everyone adores Zhang, yes (and that's nice)... but it also showed players using the support of one player as a means to try to cancel, bury and publicly intimidate another player that they DON'T EVEN KNOW AT ALL (while operating w/ half the facts). I guess if you're "proud" of that, the bar is set very low... but, then again, only a handful of players (Cornet and a few others) have bothered to show even an inkling of concern about Peng Shuai, and don't dare ask them about any friends/favorites on the ATP tour who express misogynistic views or are accused of assault.

As with so many things, the actual situation is complicated and not as cut-and-dry as we'd like, and if professional athletes are going to personally disparage one of their own, at the very least they should respect their sport and those in it enough to have at least a closer-to-complete grasp of the inciting incident if they're going to lend their name to the pitchfork-and-torch carrying mob that they essentially gave the greenlight to with their own comments.

8) lastly, but maybe most importantly, one has to wonder about Zhang. It's clear she needs to take at least a short break from tennis to get her head right. What's going on with her off-court surely seems to not only be impacting her on-court results but now her mental state *during* matches. This was a panic attack of her own making, after all. Arguing a call for reportedly 7-10 minutes, playing on, then arguing it again (after she just won a point to even the game score, so any dispute over the call was now moot) and than quitting the match (the smartest move she made) is, if not a cry for help then a sign that she's handling things progressively worse and not better. All these so-called great friends need to first see that she's okay rather than point accusing fingers. But maybe everyone was too busy having "fun" -- and inadvertently providing cover to the non-playing trolls on social media who don't need much of a push to begin with to attack young female athletes who can't fight back -- to make that the #1 priority.

Kateryna Baindl, after defeating Toth, probably best walked that line.



Later, after being villified by her would-be peers (and the mob they'd inspired) for more than 24 hours, Toth issued a video apology. That shouldn't have been necessary in the first place, but then the mob questioned the "tone" of the Hungarian's words.



Ah, sometimes you *want* Nick Kyrgios as the focus of such an incident. You know, the old saying about a broken clock being correct twice a day. In this case, Kyrgios-like comments/actions both during and after the match would have somehow felt "right."

Perhaps the most eye-rolling reaction to it all came from Wertheim, who "accepted" the apology and declared it was "time to move on." I guess that's what you do when you're a "journalist" but wrongly declare a professional athlete a "cheater" without any real knowledge of any "cheating" that took place (because it never did). Move along everyone... nothing to see here. Yeah, okaaaay.



In the end, the whole thing said a great deal about the women's tennis tour. Hardly any of it good, and most of it quite disgusting.
===============================================








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Then...




In other words, no matter the ruling, they'll probably try to slow-walk and delay it long enough to ensure that she either misses the Open or gets a ruling too late to be in the draw somehow.

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Meanwhile...




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In the (sometimes) weekly Casey Kasem American Top 40 flashback, it's July 25, 1987.

#30 - "La Bamba" (Los Lobos)
#26 - "Who's That Girl?" (Madonna) - the movie wasn't much, but the soundtrack (w/ "Causing a Commotion") produced two Top 2 songs. You also get two versions of Madonna -- well, actually three -- in the video.




#24 - "Back in the High Life" (Steve Winwood)
#22 - "Don't Mean Nothin'" (Richard Marx) - his first hit, he had seven Top 5 songs from 1987-89. We've heard from him a lot in recent years as he's taken some wonderful political pot shots at people on the bird site. I'm using the old video version just because he has "the hair" in it.




#21 - "Only in My Dreams" (Debbie Gibson) - the 16-year old's first of four Top 5 songs from her debut album.




#17 - "The Pleasure Principle" (Janet Jackson) - she was just 21 years old at the time
#15 - "Luka" (Suzanne Vega) - her only hit single (and probably the only one ever that's about an abused child)




#6 - "The Rhythm is Gonna Get You" (Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine)
#5 - "I Want Your Sex" (George Michael) - his first hit from the "Faith" album, with the likes of the title song and "Father Figure" to follow
#4 - "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" (Whitney Houston)
#3 - "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" (U2)
#2 - "Shakedown" (Bob Seger) - from the "Beverly Hills Cop 2" soundtrack, it'd hit #1 the next week
#1 - "Alone" (Heart) - third straight week at #1





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*WON TITLE IN DEBUT WTA MD*
1977 Portland - Tracy Austin, USA
1988 Paris - Petra Langrova, CZE
1997 Bol - Mirjana Lucic, CRO
1999 Estoril - Katarina Srebotnik, SLO
1999 Antwerp - Justine Henin, BEL
2001 Bali - Angelique Widjaja, INA
2018 Moscow River Cup - Olga Danilovic, SRB
2023 Budapest - MARIA TIMOFEEVA, RUS

*LUCKY LOSERS IN WTA FINALS*
2005 Canberra - Melinda Czink, HUN
2012 Stanford - CoCo Vandeweghe, USA
2018 Moscow River Cup - Olga Danilovic, SRB (W)
2018 Elite Trophy [elim.in RR] - Wang Qiang, CHN
2019 Linz - Coco Gauff, USA (W)
2021 Linz - Jaqueline Cristian, ROU
2023 Budapest - MARIA TIMOFEEVA, RUS (W)
--
NOTE #1: Kay McDaniel won Avon Futures event at LL in 1980
NOTE #2: sources differ over whether Andrea Jaeger was LL when won Las Vegas title (1980)

*ALL-TIME LOW-RANKED WTA CHAMPION (w/o unranked)*
#579 - Angelique Widjaja - 2001 Bali (WC)
#508 - Elina Svitolina - 2023 Strasbourg (WC)
#299 - Margarita Gasparyan - 2018 Tashkent (PR)
#285 - Fabiola Zuluaga - 2002 Bogota (WC)
#259 - Tamira Paszek - 2006 Portoroz (Q)
#246 - MARIA TIMOFEEVA - 2023 Budapest (LL)
#237 - Tatjana Maria - 2022 Bogota (Q)
#234 - Lindsay Davenport - 2007 Bali (PR)
#233 - Marketa Vondrousova - 2017 Biel (Q)

*RECENT EARLY-CAREER BREAKOUTS*
2019: Bianca Andreescu to Auckland F (4th WTA MD, age 18)
2019: Iga Swiatek to Lugano F (3rd WTA MD, age 17)
2019: Astra Sharma to Bogota F (3rd WTA MD, age 23)
2019: Martina Di Giuseppe to Bucharest SF (1st WTA MD, age 28)
2019: Katarzyna Kawa to Jurmala Final (1st WTA MD, age 26)
2019: Liudmila Samsonova to Palermo SF (4th WTA MD, age 20)
2019: Caty McNally to Washington SF (4th WTA MD, age 18)
2019: Coco Gauff wins Linz (5th WTA MD, age 15)
2020: Leonie Kung to Hua Hin F (2nd WTA MD, age 19)
2021: Clara Tauson wins Lyon (3rd WTA MD, age 18)
2021: Jule Niemeier to Strasbourg SF (2nd WTA MD, age 21)
2021: Emma Raducanu wins U.S. Open (4th WTA MD; age 18)
2022: Zheng Qinwen to Melbourne 1 SF (4th WTA MD, age 19)
2022: Linda Noskova to Prague SF (2nd WTA MD, age 17)
2023: Peyton Stearns to Bogota F (3rd WTA MD, age 21)
2023: Julia Riera to Rabat SF (1st WTA MD, age 20)
2023: Maria Timofeeva wins Budapest (1st WTA MD, age 19)

*2023 FIRST-TIME WTA CHAMPIONS*
Zhu Lin, CHN - Hua Hin (29/#54)
Alycia Parks, USA - Lyon (22/#79)
Marta Kostyuk, UKR - Austin (20/#52)
Lucia Bronzetti, ITA - Rabat (24/#102)
Katie Boulter, GBR - Nottingham (26/#126)
MARIA TIMOFEEVA, RUS - Budapest (19/#246)
ZHENG QINWEN, CHN - Palermo (20/#26)

*2023 FIRST-TIME WTA FINALISTS*
Linda Noskova, CZE (#102/18 = Adelaide 1)
Rebeka Masarova, ESP (#130/23 = Auckland)
Elisabetta Cocciaretto, ITA (#67/21 = Hobart)
Alycia Parks, USA (#79/22 = Lyon)-W
Zhu Lin, CHN (#54/29 - Hua Hin)-W
Varvara Gracheva, RUS (#88/22 - Austin)
Marta Kostyuk, UKR (#52/20 - Austin)-W
Peyton Stearns, USA (#116/21 - Bogota)
Lucia Bronzetti, ITA (#102/24 - Rabat)-W
Julia Grabher, AUT (#74/26 - Rabat)
Jodie Burrage, GBR (#131/24 - Nottingham)
Katie Boulter, GBR (#126/26 - Nottingham)
MARIA TIMOFEEVA, RUS (#246/19 - Budapest)-W
[doubles]
Leylah Fernandez, CAN (Auckland)
Wu Fang-hsien, TPE (Hua Hin)-W
Liudmila Samsonova, RUS (Dubai)-W
Diane Parry, FRA (Merida)-W
Maria Paulina Perez, COL (Monterrey)-W
Yuliana Lizarazo, COL (Monterrey)-W
Fernanda Contreras, MEX (Monterrey)
Danielle Collins, USA (Charleston)-W
Aryna Shymanovich, BLR (Bogota)-W
Ingrid Gamarra Martins, BRA (Rabat)
ANGELICA MORATELLI, ITA (Palermo)
CAMILLA ROSATELLO, ITA (Palermo)
JESSIE ANEY, USA (Budapest)
ANNA SISKOVA, CZE (Budapest)
[mixed]
Luisa Stefani, BRA (Australian)-W
Bianca Andreescu, CAN (Roland Garros)
Miyu Kato, JPN (Roland Garros)-W
Lyudmyla Kichenok, UKR (Wimbledon)-W
Xu Yifan, CHN (Wimbledon)

*2023 YOUNGEST WTA FINALISTS*
18 - Linda Noskova, CZE (Adelaide 1 - L)
18 - Coco Gauff, USA (Auckland - W)
19 - MARIA TIMOFEEVA, RUS (Budapest -W)
20 - ZHENG QINWEN, CHN (Palermo - W)
20 - Marta Kostyuk, UKR (Austin - W)

*WTA TITLES - CHN*
9 - Li Na (2004,08,10-14)
4 - Zheng Jie (2005-06,12)
3 - Zhang Shuai (2013,17,22)
2 - Wang Qiang (2018)
2 - Peng Shuai (2016-17)
1 - Duan Yingying (2016)
1 - Sun Tiantian (2006)
1 - Wang Yafan (2019)
1 - Yan Zi (2005)
1 - ZHENG QINWEN (2023)
1 - Zheng Saisai (2019)
1 - Zhu Lin (2023)

*HOPMAN CUP CHAMPIONS; (1989-19 AUS; 2023 FRA)*
1989 CZE (Helena Sukova/Miloslav Mecir)
1990 ESP (Arantxa Sanchez Vicario/Emilio Sanchez)
1991 YUG (Monica Seles/Goran Prpic)
1992 SUI (Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere/Jakob Hlasek)
1993 GER (Steffi Graf/Michael Stich)
1994 CZE (Jana Novotna/Petr Korda)
1995 GER (Anke Huber/Boris Becker)
1996 CRO (Iva Majoli/Goran Ivanisevic)
1997 USA (Chanda Rubin/Justin Gimelstob)
1998 SVK (Karina Habsudova/Karol Kucera)
1999 AUS (Jelena Dokic/Mark Philippoussis)
2000 RSA (Amanda Coetzer/Wayne Ferreira)
2001 SUI (Martina Hingis/Roger Federer)
2002 ESP (Arantxa Sanchez Vicario/Tommy Robredo)
2003 USA (Serena Williams/James Blake)
2004 USA (Lindsay Davenport/James Blake)
2005 SVK (Daniela Hantuchova/Dominik Hrbaty)
2006 USA (Lisa Raymond/Taylor Dent)
2007 RUS (Nadia Petrova/Dmitry Tursunov)
2008 USA (Serena Williams/Mardy Fish/M.Shaughnessy)
2009 SVK (Dominika Cibulkova/Dominik Hrbaty)
2010 ESP (Marie Jose Martinez-Sanchez/Tommy Robredo)
2011 USA (Bethanie Mattek-Sands/John Isner)
2012 CZE (Petra Kvitova/Tomas Berdych)
2013 ESP (Anabel Medina-Garrigues/Fernando Verdasco)
2014 FRA (Alize Cornet/Jo-Wilfried Tsonga)
2015 POL (Aga Radwanska/Jerzy Janowicz)
2016 AUS/green (Dasha Gavrilova/Nick Kyrgios)
2017 FRA (Kristina Mladenovic/Richard Gasquet)
2018 SUI (Belinda Bencic/Roger Federer)
2019 SUI (Belinda Bencic/Roger Federer)
2023 CRO (Donna Vekic/Borna Coric)
--
[by nation]
6 - United States
4 - Spain
4 - Switzerland
3 - Czechoslovakia(1989)/Czech Republic
3 - Slovaka
2 - Australia
2 - Croatia
2 - France
2 - Germany
1 - Poland
1 - Russia
1 - South Africa
1 - Yugoslavia





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Almost writes itself.


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The next time Toth shows up at a WTA event?




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Easy: "Dirty Diana."


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All for now.

posted by Todd.Spiker @ 11:58 PM 

6 Comments:

Blogger khan35 said...

why would Zvonareva try to enter Poland on a french visa? Anyway, she is openly against war. I've seen a picture of her where her visor includes "No war".

Potapova was denied entry in Germany where other russians (Shnaider, Rakhimova & Timofeeva) has been allowed in. Do they think that Potapova is a member of KGB? (kidding)

Finally, Qinwen played in a WTA 250 and it immediately paid her off in a singles title. She should play some more 250s while she can.

Mon Jul 24, 04:51:00 AM EDT  
Blogger colt13 said...

I agree, Zhang seems burned out. But is in one of this week's draws.

Szabanin is fun to watch. 2 handed backhand is a weapon; one handed backhand is a liability.

Timofeeva reminds me of Fett.

Hopman Cup got very little coverage; may have to move back to January.

E.Andreeva hits a loopier ball than Mirra, but has the same temper. Got a warning for almost hitting Osorio with a ball. Andreeva/Osorio played an 89 minute set.

Sherif and Osorio are favorites in Hamburg.

M.Andreeva and E.Andreeva are Lausanne favorites in a very good field.

Swiatek and Tauson are Warsaw favorites, but the twist is that this event is on hard.

Zheng finally got her first title. Match vs Sherif was really good.

Mon Jul 24, 08:22:00 AM EDT  
Blogger Diane said...

Thank you. :)

Mon Jul 24, 10:29:00 AM EDT  
Blogger Diane said...

Wertheim's comment was outrageous, but what do we expect from a self-described "gender expert" (back when we even knew what that was) whose equal pay argument conclusion was that "the market should rule"? As for Maria, she should not only apologize--it should be a public apology (and she isn't alone, of course).

Ignorance and viciousness, as we've seen for the past several years in this country, are a potent and dangerous combination. The number of people who have accused Toth of "cheating," and who don't have a clue about either a. how clay court tennis is played, and b. what actually happened, is stunning.

The WTA's blathering about racism doesn't help (several years ago, I was a witness to actual racism directed toward Zhang), though isn't it interesting that when it comes to sexism and misogyny, we can't get even a blather out of them?

Mon Jul 24, 03:35:00 PM EDT  
Blogger colt13 said...

Stat of the Week- 6- Career finals for Coco Vandeweghe.

Big serve; big personality. When healthy, she was one of the best in the world. She burst on the scene in 2012, reaching the Stanford final as a lucky loser, only to lose to Serena Williams.

She would reach that final 5 years later, going down to a streaking and peaking Madison Keys, who would beat her in the US Open SF one month later.

Vandeweghe's 2 wins were on grass, both at Rosmalen.

Quiz Time!

Which lucky loser lost the most games in the week they reached the final?

A.Coco Vandeweghe
B.Maria Timofeeva
C.Melinda Czink
D.Jacqueline Cristian

Interlude- Tennis player undercover.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_eBRG_0kNI

Answer!

(C)Czink is wrong. She only lost 57 games in Canberra(2005), which is really good as she was the only one to play 3 rounds of qualifying.

Her claim to fame was losing the final to Ana Ivanovic, the same person who beat her in Q. Czink got 4 games in Q, 7 in the final.

It was not (A)Vandeweghe. As fate would have it, her main draw run in Stanford(2012) started by beating Czink in the first round. She lost 61, 42 in MD and 19 in Q.

It was not (D)Cristian. She lost 57 games, 34 MD, 23 Q, but had Rebecca Peterson retire 7 games into the second round, and was given a walkover by Simona Halep in the SF to reach the Linz final in 2021. You know who else came through qualifying? Katerina Kozlova, now Baindl, who lost to...(B)Timofeeva, who is the correct answer.

There is something to be said for grinding through matches. Timofeeva lost 71 games, 50 in the main draw, but won 4 3 set matches, closing out the last one with a bagel.

Mon Jul 24, 09:02:00 PM EDT  
Blogger Todd.Spiker said...

K-

I feel like a lot of good players are going to miss out on a LOT of titles with the new 250 rules. Sakkari might *never* win another title now.


C-

Now Zhang has *14* straight losses. :/

Fett had some results this week. She'll get a rare Matches mention for Week 30. Maybe she's just revving up for another shot at Wozniacki? :)

HC should just *be* in Australia. But that United Cup -- bigger, but not better -- thing just up and replaced it. :(

I wonder what the story was in switching Warsaw from clay to hard? Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's almost August, it *should* be on hard court.


D-

I wonder if the tour would ever consider fines for such things? It'd never happen but, you know, *float the notion* as a "conduct detrimental to the game/unprofessional actions" sort of thing.


C-

Quiz: went with Czink. Just because. :(

"The only tennis players I know are Serena and... Vanessa." :D

Tue Jul 25, 08:28:00 PM EDT  

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