Sunday, February 18, 2024

Wk.7- 3-ga






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*WEEK 7 CHAMPIONS*
DOHA, QATAR (WTA 1000/Hard Court Outdoor)
S: Iga Swiatek/POL def. Elena Rybakina/KAZ 7-6(8)/6-2
D: Demi Schuurs/Luisa Stefani (NED/BRA) def. Caroline Dolehide/Desirae Krawczyk (USA/USA) 6-4/6-2




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PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Iga Swiatek/POL
...Doha isn't Paris, but Swiatek is treating it as such, as she picked up her third straight singles title in the event this week while becoming the first woman to lift the falcon trophy three times.

Previously, Anastasia Myskina (2003-04), Maria Sharapova (2005, '08), Victoria Azarenka (2012-13) and Petra Kvitova (2018, '21) won the title twice as the event has evolved from Tier III to 1000 status over the past 22 years.

Once again, Swiatek didn't lose a set in the desert, extending her Doha streak to 23 sets with wins over Sorana Cirstea (1 & 1), Ekaterina Alexandrova (5 games), Victoria Azarenka (4, including the last 10) and Elena Rybakina in a 7-6/6-2 final that ended the Kazakh's recent domination of the series (3-0 in '23). Swiatek had to rally from double-break down in the 1st, saving a SP, before winning a 10-8 TB.



Swiatek is now 18-4 in career tour finals, and has a 1000 crown in hand less than two months into the season. After claiming the first three 1000 titles on the schedule in '22 (and four of the first five), she didn't win her first (and only) title at that level last season until the fall in Beijing. Doha was a 500 event in '23.

Since falling in the U.S. Open 4th Round last summer, briefly losing her #1 ranking to Aryna Sabalenka, Swiatek has gone 23-2. She's 22-1 in her last 22 outings.
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RISER: Elena Rybakina/KAZ
...fresh off her title run in Abu Dhabi, Rybakina became the first woman to follow up a title/final result in that U.A.E. event with another in Doha.

The Kazakh, after a much-needed bye, was dominant vs. Zhu Lin (losing 3 games) before a short bad patch (after being up 4-0 in the 2nd set TB and having a MP) vs. Emma Navarro forced her to win in three sets. Rybakina rallied from 4-2 back in the 1st to take out Leylah Fernandez in straights, then defeated Anastasia Palvyuchenkova in two to reach her second final in two weeks (third of '24).

Carrying a nine-match winning streak into the weekend, the final proved to be a series of missed opportunities for Rybakina to truly pressure Swiatek and see if she'd crack (again) when having to play from behind vs. a power player. In the 1st, she lost a double-break lead, failed to serve out the set at 6-5 and left a SP dangling in the TB. She also whacked her shin with her racket while serving (drawing blood and maybe losing her momentum after a brief MTO), and stepped on her racket in the TB to help set up Swiatek with a double-SP situation. It still took the Pole four to secure the 1st set.



After not converting two BP early in the 2nd, then losing her own serve a game later, too many UE and an unwavering Swiatek sealed Rybakina's fate as she failed to notch her fourth straight victory over the world #1.

Rybakina has her Indian Wells title and Miami finalist points to defend soon, but has shown improved defense and more in-game variety in the season's first two months that would seem to indicate that she's both well-positioned and well-equipped to contend on all surfaces for the remainder of the season, as long as the illness/schedule-induced fatigue that slowed her down last year doesn't recur.
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SURPRISE: Danielle Collins/USA
...a "surprise" only because Collins had not let up a bit even *after* announcing that '24 would be her final season on tour.

Making it through qualifiying for the second straight week in the desert, Collins followed up her Abu Dhabi 2nd Round result (w/ wins over Osaka and L.Fruhvirtova, and a three-set loss to Rybakina) with a QF run in Doha that included straight sets wins over Laura Siegemund, Veronika Kudermetova, Marie Bouzkova and Katerina Siniakova. It's her first QF result since a SF in San Diego last September.

She lost out to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, falling short of a second match-up with Rybakina in just over a week, but her 10-5 start to the season has her back inside the Top 50.


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VETERANS: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova/RUS and Victoria Azarenka/BLR
...a year ago, Pavlyuchenkova was ranked #730 (just a week earlier, it was #844) as she slowly made her way back from a 2022 knee injury. Last season saw the veteran Russian reach a tour-level SF (Tokyo) and Roland Garros QF as she finished at #59.

Pavlyuchenkova has been collecting match wins thus far in '24 with a QF in Adelaide and SF in Linz before coming to Doha and reaching her first 1000 SF since 2021 (just her fourth overall). Wins over Dasha Kasatkina, Marta Kostyuk (ret.), Marketa Vondrousova and Danielle Collins (her first in four meetings) put her a win away from her second biggest career final behind her RG runner-up in '21.

It never came, as Pavlyuchenkova fell to the still-chugging Rybakina train in straight sets, but (w/ a 12-5 season mark) she'll climb back into the Top 25 on Monday, her best ranking in nearly two years (May '22).



It was another good week for Azarenka, who improved to 9-3 on the season and continued her mastery of Alona Ostapenko, but it was also another instance of the former #1 hitting a ceiling and crashing out in such a sudden, pessimistic way that one has to strain to not allow *that* moment to outweigh the optimism that came before it.

Azarenka posted wins in Doha over Magdelana Frech, Wang Xiyu and Ostapenko, handing the Latvian her *third* loss of the season (she's 14-0 against everyone else in '24) to remain undefeated in their career series (5-0). After holding a BP for a 5-3 1st set lead vs. Iga Swiatek in the QF (the Pole held for 4-4), Azarenka's level of played dropped after the moment was lost. She seemed to be bothered by some sort of injury, and Swiatek swooped in to take the momentum, winning the 2nd set and not losing another game in a 6-4/6-0 win.

Azarenka's SF-4r(AO)-QF results this season are unquestionably good, with two of her three losses coming against the world's #1 and #2-ranked players. But, then again, Azarenka began *last* year 10-4, only to be nagged by small injuries (she had three walkover/ret. exits in the season's back-half) the rest of the way en route to a 13-15 finish (23-19 overall).


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COMEBACKS: Karolina Pliskova/CZE and Naomi Osaka/JPN
...Iga Swiatek may have won the title in Doha, but a case could be made that no one week's was more impressive than Pliskova's.

Rarely (never?) has the whack-a-doodle (i.e. detrimental if not downright dangerous) WTA scheduling been more apparent than in the week of Pliskova. On Sunday, she won a title (her first in four years) in Romania in a final that began at 7 p.m., and if Ana Bogdan had managed to push things to a 3rd set Pliskova likely would have missed her flight to Doha for Week 7. As it turned out, Pliskova literally had to run to catch her 10 p.m. flight from Cluj to Qatar, a mere eight air-hours away. She arrived at 7 a.m., and was on the court that night at 7:30.

She lost the 1st set to Anna Kalinskaya, and was down love/40 in the first game of the 2nd, but Pliskova rallied to win. She saved 13 of 16 BP in all, and had 19 aces. A day later, she nearly squandered a 6-1/4-1 lead vs. Anastasia Potapova, failed to serve out the match in the 2nd and fell behind 4-2 in the 3rd. Potapova had 3 GP for 5-2, but Pliskova won the last four games to advance.

Finally, with that, she got a well-deserved day off. Ha! I'm kidding. Of course she didn't. This is the WTA -- she was back out on the court a day later, playing for the seventh straight day.

Again, Pliskova fell behind (this time vs. Linda Noskova) by a 6-3/4-2 score. The Czech teen served for the match at 5-4, but Pliskova again turned things around and won in three (her third three-set match in three days in Doha) to reach her first 1000 QF since 2022 (Toronto). She finally got that "break" (well, sort of) when Naomi Osaka came around a day later (match #8 in 8 days). At least Pliskova got off the court in straight sets, coming back from 2-0 down in both and winning a pair of TB to reach her first 1000 SF since 2021 (Montreal).



Don't worry, though, Pliskova didn't have to play a *ninth* match in nine days. Well, she would have had to, but chose not to. With #1 Swiatek waiting for her, Pliskova withdrew with a lower back injury. Of course, if a lower back injury was Pliskova's *only* ailment at that point I suppose she should count herself as lucky.

It'd be a crazy situation if, you know, it wasn't what the tour asked players to do *all the time*. Pliskova just built the rickety tower a bit higher becasue she refused to lose. While her two-week, nine-win run shows that winning can indeed become a sudden habit (Pliskova hadn't won back-to-back matches since last April), it also proves that the WTA tour has little real interest in protecting its players.

Credit to Pliskova for trying to ride the wave, giving her all, and almost pulling it off. Hopefully it won't derail her results for the next month.

In the meantime, she'll be back up to #36 on Monday.

Meanwhile, the more Osaka plays, the more her game and match fitness rounds into shape. After coming to Doha with a 1-3 mark in her post-motherhood comeback, she strung together victoriess over Caroline Garica (her first Top 30 win of the season) and Petra Martic, her first consecutive wins in nearly two years (Miami '22).

A walkover from Lesia Tsurenko put Osaka into her initial QF of the season, where she lost for the second time this year to Karolina Pliskova, dropping a pair of tie-breaks in a two-setter after having held early break leads over the Czech in both sets.

As the winter hard court season hurtles toward the spring, there's still a chance that Osaka might be able to post a deep run in one or both ends of the Sunshine Double events before the long clay/grass stretch that will come immediately after. Once April gets here, if history is any indication, Osaka won't likely be a truly relevant on-court topic of conversation (off-court, who knows?) until the summer HC season and U.S. Open.


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FRESH FACE: Jessica Bouzas Maneiro/ESP
...in Morelia, Mexico, Bouzas Maneiro continued on her hot streak since her unfortunately early exit from AO qualifying (she fell to Ankita Raina in the Q1 after having led 5-3 in the 3rd and holding a MP).

The 21-year old Spaniard posted wins in this week's $50K challenger from a set down over Fernanda Contreras (QF) and Julie Niemeier (SF), then outlasted Hailey Baptiste in the final.

After dropping a 13-11 1st set TB (after trailing 5-1 in the breaker, JMB held a SP at 7-6 before Baptiste won on her 10th SP), Bouzas Maneiro rallied to win the 2nd 6-1. After twice falling down a break in the first half of the 3rd, Bouzas saved 3 MP at 5-4, and a fourth at 6-5 before holding to force a deciding TB. She raced to a 5-0 lead, and won it 7-1.

The win gives Bouzas Maneiro an 11th career ITF crown, six of which have come since May (along with a RU in a career-best $100K final in August). She's already 2-1 in '24 finals, all in her last three events, including a best-so-far $75K crown last month. The Spaniard is 15-3 on the year, 14-1 since the loss to Raina in Melbourne. She'll surge to a new career high of #116 on Monday.

Winning the title on Saturday, Bouzas became the first player this season to win a second challenger title. On Sunday, she was joined by Lucija Ciric Bagaric (CRO) and Cristina Dinu (ROU) as two-time '24 ITF winners.
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DOWN: Ons Jabeur/TUN, Coco Gauff/USA and Caroline Garcia/FRA
...not everyone could live a Pliskovian life in Week 7, as others who arrived in Doha after having been given time to rest (some far more than others) still managed to put in appearances that were only of the cameo variety.

On the heels of her tearful exit at the hands of Beatriz Haddad Maia in Abu Dhabi, Jabeur won just five games in her 2nd Round opener against Lesia Tsurenko (the Ukrainian's first Top 10 win in five years), falling to 2-3 on the season. Jabeur is 5-7 since winning a title in Ningbo last September.

Apparently playing through knee injury, she withdrew from Dubai.

Garcia lost for the third straight time, falling to 5-5 in '24 with a 1st Round loss to Naomi Osaka in Doha. Garcia defeated Osaka in the 1st Round of the Australian Open last month. Since going 3-0 in United Cup action in Week 1, Garcia has gone 2-5 (2-6 with her Sunday exit in Dubai to Ashlyn Krueger).

Garcia & Kristina Mladenovic also lost their 1st Round doubles match in Doha.

Hitting the court for the first time since the AO semifinals, Gauff lost 6-2/6-4 to Katerina Siniakova in her Doha opener. After a 10-0 start to '24, Gauff has lost two straight. It's her first loss to a player ranked outside the Top 10 since Wimbledon (the "last straw" defeat at the hands of Sofia Kenin).
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ITF PLAYER: Julia Avdeeva/RUS
...21-year old Hordette Avdeeva picked up her biggest career title in the $75K in Altenkirchen (GER), cracking the Top 200 for the first time after posting wins over three seeds -- #6 Polina Kudermetova (1r), #3 Marina Bassols Ribera (QF) and #1 Oceane Dodin (SF) -- and then defeating one of the best indoor hard court performers in the sport, Alison Van Uytvanck, in a 6-4/6-4 final under the roof.

Avdeeva lost to Van Uytvanck in a $25K final last October. This is her third career challenger win.


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JUNIOR STARS: Monika Stankiewicz/POL and Antonia Vergara Rivera/CHI
...in Cairo, another Pole-vs.-Kazakh match-up in a big final saw the former emerge victorious.

Poland's Stankiewicz defeated Kazakh Sofja Zhiyenbayeva in the final to claim her second career J300 crown. The 17-year old champ came in ranked at #27 in the junior rankings.

In Lima, Chilean Vergara Rivera (jr #42) won her first J300 crown. The 17-year old (#3 seed) upset #1 Maya Crossley in the semis, then won a three-setter in the final over unseeded 14-year old Brazilian Victoria Luiza Barros (who'd defeated the #4 and #5 seeds).
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DOUBLES: Demi Schuurs/Luisa Stefani, NED/BRA
...ten events into the 2024 season, twenty different women have taken home shares of the year's ten tour-level doubles titles. In Doha, Schuurs & Stefani joined the growing crowd. If you count the AO mixed event, it's *21* different women's champions. At this point last season, two had lifted multiple titles (including Stefani, who'd won two WD and the AO MX).

The pair picked up their first title as a pair, dropping no sets all week while posting a win over top-seeds Hsieh/Mertens (QF) before handling Dolehide/Krawczyk 6-4/6-2 in the final.

Schuurs gets career title #18, but her first 1000 since 2020. She won in Doha (as a 500) three years ago with Nicole Melichar-Martinez, and was a finalist alongside Anna-Lena Groenefeld in 2019. It's WTA win #9 for Stefani.
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WHEELCHAIR: Diede de Groot/NED
...de Groot continued to roll in Rotterdam, winning a Series 1 crown on home soil with a 7-5/7-5 victory in the final over Jiske Griffioen, handing her doubles partner loss #10 in her now 138-match winning streak.

As of the final, 1101 days clear of her most recent loss, De Groot has won the singles title at her last 36 ITF, slam and Paralympic events.



Of course, with the event in the Netherlands, we got Esther Vergeer in the post-match...



De Groot also maintained her undefeated season record in doubles, combining with Griffioen to win their second title of the year with a 6-0/6-4 victory in the final over fellow Dutch duo Lizzy De Greef & Aniek Van Koot. De Groot is 8-0 in doubles this season (w/ one title with Van Koot), giving her a combined 19-0 mark in '24.


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1. Doha Final - Iga Swiatek def. Elena Rybakina
...7-6(8)/6-2. Rybakina led 3-1 in their head-to-head series (3-0 in '23), but this was her and Swiatek's first meeting in a singles final.

The 90-minute 1st set proved to be an adventure for both, especially Rybakina, who held a two-break lead, served for the set at 6-5 and held a SP in the tie-break, but also bloodied her shin with a follow-through swing *and* stepped on her own racket the middle of a point before Swiatek finally converted on her own fourth BP of the breaker.

Playing in windy conditions, the Kazakh had handled the wind and Swiatek early on, building a double-break lead at 4-1. But she hit her shin on the follow-through swing of a serve, drawing blood and precipitating a medical time out at 30/30. Rybakina dropped the next two points, the lost her break lead two games later. Swiatek saved a BP to hold for 5-4, but Rybakina got back her edge on her third BP of game 11. Up 6-5, she couldn't serve out the set.



In the TB, Swiatak took and lost a 4-2 lead, but held double SP at 6-4 after Rybakina lost a point in which she reached low to retrieve a ball and stepped on the frame of her racket, giving her no chance to stay in the rally. But Swiatek failed to convert either SP, nor did Rybakina when she held her own SP at 7-6. Eventually, the world #1 finally took the set at 10-8 on SP #4. It was Swiatek's 22nd consecutive set won in Doha, and Rybakina's third loss in the four TB she's played this season.



Having failed to force Swiatek to play from behind vs. a big-hitting foe in the 1st (the narrative of an Iga match often changes drastically in those circumstances), Rybakina couldn't regain the lead in the 2nd. She didn't convert either of two BP in game 2, then saw Swiatek convert on her fourth of game 3. Too many UE and less-than-stellar serving (54% 1st serve) from Rybakina didn't provide much competition down the stretch (save for some impressive defensive gets to keep a few rallies alive), as the Pole went into Frontrunner mode.



Swiatek broke for a 5-2 lead, then quickly served out the title and her 23rd consecutive set in the event. No other woman has won the Doha event three times, while Swiatek has now done it three years in a row.


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2. Doha 2nd Rd. - Linda Noskova def. Maria Sakkari
...3-6/7-6(2)/7-5. Just call it "Maria's last straw" match, as Sakkari finally parted ways with coach Tom Hill after nearly six years (albeit about two years late) following what was her third straight loss this season. She held a MP at 5-3 in the 2nd.

Noskova, who recorded her fifth career Top 10 win, is the first player this season to win two tour-level MD matches after being MP down (def. Babos in Brisbane).


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3. Doha 2nd Rd. - Katerina Siniakova def. Coco Gauff
...6-2/6-4. Siniakova's ninth Top 10 win, but first since BJK Cup Finals RR play in '22 when she knocked off... hmmm, Coco.

The Czech rallied from 4-0 down in the 2nd set here.


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4. Doha 3rd Rd. - Elena Rybakina def. Emma Navarro
...6-1/6-7(6)/6-4. Like so many of the recent players to make great college-to-WTA transitions, Navarro fights until the end. This time, it nearly paid off against a choppy Rybakina.

Rybakina, who committed 45 UE on the day, led the 2nd set TB 4-0 and held a MP, but was forced to a 3rd, where a late DF when she was serving for the match at 5-4 nearly put things into reverse again. She saved a pair of BP and secured the win.


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5. Doha 3rd Rd. - Victoria Azarenka def. Alona Ostapenko
...6-0/6-3. Ostapenko is 0-3 vs. Azarenka this season, but 14-0 against everyone else. Vika is 5-0 in their career head-to-head.

Clearly, Ostapenko is getting frustrated with the situation, as she tried to pull a hit-and-run (or tap-and-run) at the net rather than shake hands (a devolution from their previous post-match meetings).



Vika was having none of it, and quickly pivoted from *almost* sticking out her arm to shake hands to getting an "are-you-kidding-me?" look on her face when she saw Ostapenko stick out her racket to looking away entirely (with a "well-I'm-not-tapping-rackets-either then" imaginary thought bubble over her head) and pointing toward the chair umpire. And she did it all, quite literally, in mid-stride.

It may have been Vika's most impressive defense-to-offense transition of the entire week.


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6. Doha 2nd Rd. - Lesia Tsurenko def. Ons Jabeur
...6-3/6-2. Tsurenko upsets Jabeur in two quick sets, getting her first Top 10 win (#9) since 2019 (vs. Osaka in the Brisbane SF).



Naturally, Tsurenko being Tsurenko, she failed to post for her *next* match, pulling out with an elbow injury.


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7. Doha 1st Rd. - Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova def. Dasha Kasatkina
...6-2/7-6(2). Well, Dasha didn't "die" making the Abu Dhabi-to-Doha transition, but only lasted two sets in her match the day after she lost a Sunday final. She trailed fellow Hordette Pavlyuchenkova 6-2/4-1 before fighting back to make things interesting, leading 6-5 in the 2nd before dropping the TB.
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8. Dubai Q1 - Eva Lys def. Jaqueline Cristian
...3-6/7-6(3)/6-2. You can take the Romanian out of Cluj, but the can't take the Cluj out of-... umm, well, maybe you can.

Cristian was 3-1 in this year's Transylvania Open, but is 2-6 elsewhere this season.
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9. $15K Monastir TUN Final - Tereza Valentova def. Ren Yufei
...6-3/6-2. Another week, another Crusher champion.

Valentova, 16, picks up her maiden pro singles title. She also won the doubles for career WD title #2.


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10. $15K Manacor ESP Final - Rebecca Munk Mortensen def. Natalia Szabanin
...6-4/4-6/7-6(5). The 18-year old Dane (#674) wins her third pro title, rallying from 4-1 down in the 3rd to do it.
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HM- $35K Antalya TUR Final - Cristina Dinu def. Carson Branstine
...6-0/3-0 ret. Thankfully, it doesn't appear as if this is any sort of re-injury of anything for the oft-sidelined Branstine. It just seems like the Canadian's overloaded match schedule through the first two months of '24 finally caught up with her. She's already gone 23-4 in ITF Q/MD matches, including 17-2 in her last 19.

Dinu picks up her second challenger title of the season.
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1. Doha 1st Rd. - Karolina Pliskova def. Anna Kalinskaya 2-6/7-6(3)/6-4
Doha 2nd Rd. - Karolina Pliskova def. Anastasia Potapova 6-1/5-7/6-4
Doha 3rd Rd. - Karolina Pliskova def. Linda Noskova 3-6/7-5/6-1
...Pliskova's wild-and-woolly week in the desert, which began less than 24 hours after picking up a title in Cluj, included three early escapes.

She trailed Kalinskaya 6-2, and love/40 on serve in the opening game of the 2nd. The Czech rallied to hold, saved 13/16 BP on the day and served up 19 aces.

Pliskova led Potapova 6-1/4-1, and had a GP for 5-1. She served for the match at 6-5. But then Potapova forced a 3rd set, where she led 4-2 and held 3 GP for a 5-2 edge. Pliskova swept the final four games.



Against countrywoman Noskova, Pliskova trailed 6-3/4-2 in her seventh match in seven days. Noskova served at 5-4, but again Pliskova swept the closing games and then ran away with the 3rd.
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2. Doha QF - Karolina Pliskova def. Naomi Osaka
...7-6(6)/7-6(5). In her eighth match in eight days, Pliskova overcame an early break deficit in both the 1st and 2nd sets (2-0 in each) to get her second win over Osaka this season, and her ninth straight overall.


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3. Doha SF - Iga Swiatek walkover Karolina Pliskova
...Pliskova finally calls "uncle!" to avoid playing for a *ninth* straight day, going out with a lower back injury (though it was probably a "take your pick" situation).

It's the second walkover she's handed Swiatek since losing that 6-0/6-0 final in Rome to the Pole back in 2021. Pliskova has yet to beat her in three actual matches, though she did force a 3rd set last year in Stuttgart (on indoor clay) and they played a 1st set TB set last summer in Montreal.
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HM- Doha 3rd Rd. - Leylah Fernandez def. Zheng Qinwen
...7-5/6-3. Fernandez went out in the QF to Rybakina in straights (after leading the 1st 4-2), but had a good week with victories over Liudmila Samsonova, Paula Badosa and Zheng.

The Zheng win is the Canadian's sixth career Top 10 victory. *Half* came during her surprise run to the U.S. Open final in 2021, and this was actually Fernandez's *first* career win over a Top 10 player in a *regular* tour event (the previous five included the 3 in NYC, and 2 more in BJK Cup).
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Not really a surprise. Hmm, or is it? Sakkari has seemed to put loyalty and familiarity over on-court results for a while, as this is a long overdue move. So maybe it *is* a surprise.

By the way, the "six great years" that included 125 straight weeks in the Top 10 (another Sakkari run which mercifully, for everyone involved, finally ends on Monday) would seem to mean quite a bit more *should* have been expected when it comes to tangible results.

The pair combined to win just two singles titles separated by more than four years (Sakkari's career high-point came with a Guadalajara 1000 win that saw her defeat #11 Caroline Garcia in the SF, but with her other four wins coming vs. players with an average rank of #126), and along with a career slam year in 2021 (2 SF, but also 1r/2r exits) there were just five total second week runs in 19 slam MD appearances together (going 10-9 as a Top 8 seed since the start of '22, with 3rd Rd.-or-earlier exits in the last eight). With Hill as her coach, Sakkari was 8-21 in SF and 2-6 in finals, including a 1-12 SF/F stretch after winning the '19 Rabat crown.

The bar doesn't seem to be set *too* dauntingly high for whomever comes in next, with a fit, ultra-competitive Top 20 talent (though she'll surely dip back into the Top 10 as soon as others' points fall off and/or injuries crop up... see below) on hand to work with.

And (get this), it's a Greek tennis tragedy for February...



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*RECENT WTA THREE-PEATS*
[singles]
2012-14 U.S. Open - Serena Williams
2012-14 WTA Finals - Serena Williams
2012-14 Stuttgart - Maria Sharapova
2013-15 Miami - Serena Williams
2022-24 Doha - IGA SWIATEK (active)
[doubles]
2012-14 Washington - Shuko Aoyama
2016-18 Linz - Johanna Larsson
2017-19 WTA Finals - Timea Babos
2021-23 Palermo - Kimberley Zimmermann (active)
[mixed]
2019-21 Australian Open - Barbora Krejcikova

*2020-24 WTA SINGLES TITLES*
18 - 1/2/8/6/1 = IGA SWIATEK
9 - 3/2/0/3/1 = Aryna Sabalenka
8 - 1/5/2 = Ash Barty (ret.)
7 - 0/3/2/2/0 = Barbora Krejcikova
6 - 0/1/0/4/1 = Coco Gauff
6 - 1/0/1/2/2 = Elena Rybakina
[2020-24 - hard court]
10 - IGA SWIATEK (0/1/5/3/1)
7 - Aryna Sabalenka (3/1/0/2/1)
6 - Ash Barty (1/3/2 ret)
5 - Anett Kontaveit (0/4/1/0 ret)
5 - Barbora Krejcikova (0/1/2/2/0)
4 - Coco Gauff (0/0/0/3/1)
4 - Dasha Kasatkina (0/2/2/0/0)
4 - Elena Rybakina (1/0/0/1/2)


*MOST WTA FINALS - 2020-24*
21 - 1/2/9/8/1 = SWIATEK (18-3)
17 - 3/3/3/6/2 = Sabalenka (9-8)
15 - 5/0/3/4/3 = RYBAKINA (6-9)
12 - 1/7/4/0 ret...Kontaveit (5-6-1)
12 - 0/3/6/3/0 = Jabeur (5-7)
11 - 0/4/3/4/0 = Krejcikova (7-4)
10 - 0/4/2/2/2 = KASATKINA (4-6)

*MOST TITLES WON W/O DROPPING A SET - 2020s*
8 - IGA SWIATEK, POL (2024:1)
3 - Coco Gauff, USA (2024:1)
2 - Ash Barty, AUS
2 - Anett Kontaveit, EST
2 - Bernarda Pera, USA
2 - Aryna Sabalenka, BLR (2024:1)
2 - Liudmila Samsonova, RUS

*SWIATEK vs. RYBAKINA*
2021 Ostrava!!! QF (hci) - Swiatek 7-6(5)/6-2
2023 Australian Open 4r (hc) - Rybakina 6-4/6-4
2023 Indian Wells SF (hc) - Rybakina 6-2/6-2
2023 Rome QF (rc) - Rybakina 2-6/7-6(3)/2-2 ret.
2024 Doha F (hc) - Swiatek 7-6(8)/6-2

*2020s REPEAT WTA WS CHAMPS*
[2020]
Karolina Pliskova - Brisbane
Kiki Bertens - Saint Petersburg
[2021]
Ash Barty - Miami
[2022]
Leylah Fernandez - Monterrey
Iga Swiatek - Rome
[2023]
Iga Swiatek - Doha
Tatjana Maria - Bogota
Iga Swiatek - Stuttgart
Iga Swiatek - Roland Garros
Ekaterina Alexandrova - Nottingham
Elise Mertens - Monastir
[2024]
Coco Gauff - Auckland
Aryna Sabalenka - Australian Open
Iga Swiatek - Doha

*CAREER WTA TITLES - active*
49 - Venus Williams
31 - Petra Kvitova
30 - Caroline Wozniacki
24 - Simona Halep
21 - Victoria Azarenka
18 - IGA SWIATEK
17 - Karolina Pliskova
17 - Elina Svitolina
14 - Aryna Sabaleka
14 - Angelique Kerber

*STATUS OF WTA (OFFICIAL) COACH OF THE YEAR WINNERS*
2018 Sascha Bajin (Osaka)...fired in 2019
2019 Craig Tyzzer (Barty)...Barty retired early 2022
2020 Piotr Sierzputowski (Swiatek)...replaced to start 2022
2021 Conchita Martinez (Muguruza)...ended partnershp in late 2023
2022 David Witt (Pegula)...fired early 2024
2023 Tomasz Wiktorowski (Swiatek)...active partnership

*2020-24 WTA DOUBLES TITLES*
16 - Katerina Siniakova (1/6/6/3/0)
13 - Barbora Krejcikova (1/5/3/4/0)
10 - Elise Mertens (1/4/2/2/1)
9 - Hsieh Su-wei (4/2/0/2/1)
9 - Laura Siegemund (1/0/3/5/0)
8 - Shuko Aoyama (1/5/0/2/0)
8 - Desirae Krawczyk (2/2/1/3/0)
8 - DEMI SCHUURS (2/2/1/2/1)
8 - Ena Shibahara (1/5/0/2/0)
8 - LUISA STEFANI (1/1/2/3/1)
7 - Jessie Pegula (0/0/5/2/0)
7 - Vera Zvonareva (1/0/2/4/0)

*2024 TOP JUNIOR EVENT CHAMPIONS*
TRARALGON AUS J300: Emerson Jones/AUS
AUSTRALIAN OPEN: Renata Jamrichova/SVK
SAN JOSE CRC (COFFEE BOWL) J300: Shannon Lam/USA
BARRANQUILLA COL J300: Jeline Vandromme/BEL
CAIRO, EGY J300: Monika Stankiewicz/POL
LIMA, PER J300 (INKA BOWL): Antonia Vergara Rivera/CHI





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This was *way cool* when I posted it last year, and it still is.




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All for now.

posted by Todd.Spiker @ 6:44 PM 

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