Sunday, October 20, 2024

Wk.42- Dot Dot Dot, Dasha Dasha Dasha







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*WEEK 42 CHAMPIONS*
NINGBO, CHINA (WTA 500/Hard Court Outdoor)
S: Dasha Kasatkina/RUS def. Mirra Andreeva/RUS 6-0/4-6/6-4
D: Demi Schuurs/Yuan Yue (NED/CHN) def. Nicole Melichar-Martinez/Ellen Perez (USA/AUS) 6-3/6-3
OSAKA, JAPAN (WTA 250/Hard Court Outdoor)
S: Suzan Lamens/NED def. Kimberly Birrell/AUS 6-0/6-4
D: Ena Shibahara/Laura Siegemund (JPN/GER) def. Cristina Bucsa/Monica Niculescu (ESP/ROU) 3-6/6-2 [10-2]




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PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Dasha Kasatkina/RUS
...finally, Kasatkina was able to finish what she'd started.

Kasatkina has had a fine season, one that will likely turn out to produce the Russian's third Top 10 campaign. Coming into Ningbo, she'd posted a perfect record in '24 semifinals (4-0, w/ an additional walkover "win"), but had only been able to complete the mission and walk away with a title once in five tries in finals this season, winning only on the grass in Eastbourne.

This week, Kasatkina was at it again, following up an opening win over Katerina Siniakova by saving two MP in a 3rd set TB vs. Yulia Putintseva, then seeing Paula Badosa retire one set into their semifinal match-up as Kasatkina advanced to her 19th career tour final, her sixth of the season (one fewer than tour leader Aryna Sabalenka).

Waiting for her in the title match was 17-year old countrywoman Mirra Andreeva. Kasatkina took the 1st set at love, then had to outlast one final opponent en route to a three-set win, picking up career title #8. She's the eighth different singles champion this season to win the title after having faced down MP during the event (there hasn't been more than four such instances in any other season this decade).

The win lifts Kasatkina back into the Top 10 for the first time this season after being stuck between #11-15 since mid-January. It comes at the expense of now #11 (down two spots) Danielle Collins, who we learned this past week WON'T be retiring at the end of '24, after all.


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RISERS: Mirra Andreeva/RUS and Diane Parry/FRA
...arriving in Ningbo just off of her loss to her big sister Erika in the 2nd Round in Wuhan, Andreeva might have felt as if she had something to prove, albeit in a somewhat smaller event. While she didn't end up lifting her second title of the season, the 17-year old advanced to her second career final (w/ her Iasi title run) and took a would-be Top 10 player to three sets once she got there.

Andreeva had opened with wins over Varvara Lepchenko and Tamara Korpatsch before seeing back-to-back Czechs retire from QF and SF matches against her, first Barbora Krejcikova and then Karolina Muchova. The teenager then headed off to her second all-Russian tour-level final of the season.

In Iasi, Andreeva had outlasted Elina Avanesyan (before her switch to ARM), and after dropping a love 1st set to Dasha Kasatkina she managed to rebound and force a 3rd, only to fall 6-4 to her veteran countrywoman.

Andreeva will rise to a new career high of #16 this week.

Parry came up short as the only non-qualifier to reach the Osaka semifinals, but a week that included wins over Erika Andreeva, Greet Minnen and Clara Tauson had put the Pastry into her third tour-level SF of the season.

A loss to eventual champ Suzan Lamens dropped Parry to 0-3 in those semis in '24 (0-5 in her career), but she'll still climb back into the Top 50 on Monday (at #50). Her career high is #49.


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SURPRISES: Suzan Lamens/NED and Kimberly Birrell/AUS
...Lamens started the season in qualifying in a 250 event in Auckland (she didn't make it to the MD), and come mid-October was doing the same thing last week prior to a 250 in Osaka (this time she made it). A lot happened in the interim, and continued to do so through the just concluded weekend.

Since Week 1, Lamens has consistently climbed the ladder with her results, winning her then-biggest title in a $75K challenger, dominating in BJK Cup zone play for the Netherlands (going 8-0 in singles, including an upset of Alona Ostapenko, while leading NED to next month's Playoffs), picking up her maiden 125 crown (rallying from 4-1 back in the 3rd vs. Clara Tauson after having squandered a 6-4/5-0 lead) and reaching her first tour-level QF in Budapest.

In Osaka, the 25-year old #125 qualified with a win over Eva Lys (who'd then reach the QF as a LL), then posted MD wins over Viktoriya Tomova, Lucia Bronzetti, Ana Bogdan and Diane Parry to reach her maiden WTA final. She burst out of the gates vs. fellow maiden finalist Kimberly Birrell, taking the 1st set at love and pulling away from a 4-4 tie in the 2nd to finish off the Aussie in straight sets to claim her first career title. Lamens is the second qualifier (after Sonay Kartal in Monastir) to win a WTA singles crown this season.

After starting the year at #211, Lamens will have worked her way up to #88 as of the Monday rankings.

The other qualifier to reach the Osaka final, #150 Birrell knocked off tour-level SF and final appearance firsts in the event while becoming the third Aussie (w/ Tomljanovic in Birmingham and Gadecki in Guadalajara) to play for a tour singles title this season.

Victories over Zheng Saisai and Elise Mertens (the Belgian had led 6-3/3-1, but ultimately retired down 4-1 in the 3rd) put Birrell into her second QF (Nottingham) of '24, where she downed Sara Saito in the 18-year old's tour debut event before then taking out Aoi Ito in the semis in another deep run by a Japanese player appearing in her maiden WTA MD.

Birrell never really got into the match in her first tour final vs. Lamens, losing love & 4 to drop tour-level Aussies to 0-3 in WTA singles finals this season.



Birrell will be #111 in the new rankings.
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VETERANS: Ena Shibahara/Laura Siegemund, JPN/GER
...winning a trio of MTB (1r-QF-F) over four rounds, Shibarhara & Siegemund claimed their first title as a team in Osaka.

The title run is the first for Siegemund, 36, this season after she (w/ Vera Zvonareva) went on a late season tear in 2023, reaching the U.S. Open final and winning a pair of tour titles in China to slip into the WTA Finals field, then winning that title in Cancun. She'd reached the Madrid final alongside Barbora Krejcikova this spring, falling to Cristina Bucsa & Sara Sorribes Tormo.

In Osaka, Siegemund and Shibahara defeated Bucsa & Monica Niculescu in a 10-2 MTB in the final to claim the crown.

The result was a bit of a return to Shibahara's longstanding WTA roots, as the 26-year old (a "veteran" at least as far as the doubles game, goes) has focused on singles throughout 2024 after being one of the most successful WD players this decade. This season in singles, Shibahara has cracked the Top 200, played in her first slam MD match (and won it), reached her first pro singles final and won her maiden solo title (both on the ITF circuit). She played her way through qualifying in Osaka, reaching her fifth career WTA MD (she lost in the 1st Rd.) and pushing her match win total in '24 to 49.

Shibahara had just 14 doubles wins this season coming into the week, and hadn't reached a WD final before this past week's title run.
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COMEBACKS: Paula Badosa/ESP and Karolina Muchova/CZE
...things didn't end well for either, but Week 42 saw both Badosa and Muchova complete their latest successful chapters in seasons that surely didn't seem headed in such a positive direction as recently as the spring. With simultaneous SF runs in Ningbo that ended via retirement, Badosa improved to 31-9 since her 1st Round loss in Madrid (when she was 6-9 in her comeback from a back injury) while Muchova improved to 21-7 on the season, 14-3 since the start of the U.S. Open, as she produced her fourth SF+ result in eight '24 events.

Despite her bad start, Badosa will ultimately finish '24 with the ability to think about sniffing a Top 10 return come early next season. In Ningbo, the Spaniard got three-set wins over Diana Shnaider and Wang Xiyu, then knocked off Beatriz Haddad Maia to reach her fourth semifinal of the season (all since August). Against Dasha Kasatkina in a rain-delayed and twice-interrupted match, Badosa retired after the 1st set due to dizziness.

She'll be #14 on Monday, less than 300 points out of the Top 10.

Muchova continued the fine form she established almost immediately upon her return in late June after being out since the end of last year's U.S. Open with a wrist injury. The Czech posted victories over Olivia Gadecki, Jaqueline Cristian and Anna Kalinskaya, but ultimately exited the event in the semis just one game into the 2nd set vs. Mirra Andreeva after having taken an MTO for a back injury at the close of the 1st.

Hopefully this won't be the start of another round of injury concerns for Muchova (who'll likely, or at least probably should think about ending her tour season with this event, just to give herself the best chance to avoid starting '25 behind another injury 8-ball). Her run will lift her back into the Top 25 heading into next week.



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FRESH FACES: Aoi Ito/JPN and Sara Saito/JPN
...it was a good week for the next generation of Japanese tennis, as both Ito and Saito's tour-level MD debuts resulted in deep runs in Osaka.



Ito was the surprise of the week. The #188-ranked 20-year old, the champion of a pair of ITF challengers ($15K and $50K) this season, qualified with victories over Emina Bektas and Arianne Hartono to reach her first WTA 1st Round. After outlasting Sofia Kenin in three sets, Ito added additional wins over Elisabetta Cocciaretto and Eva Lys to become the second player this year (Laura Samson in Prague) to reach the SF of a tour-level event in her WTA debut (before this season, it'd previously happened three times this decade, all last season).

Ito lost to Aussie Kimberly Birrell, but will rise 37 spots to #151 in the new rankings.

Meanwhile, 18-year old former junior #2 Saito (she was the #1 singles seed at two junior slams last year, and also reached the GD finals at three majors that season), a winner of a career-best $100K challenger in June, began her maiden WTA MD as a wild card and ended it as a quarterfinalist with a pair of Top 65 upsets of Jessica Bouzas Maneiro and Elina Avanesyan (who'd knocked off defending champ Ashlyn Krueger).

The Japanese teen lost there to Aussie Kimberly Birrell, but is flirting with making her Top 150 debut in the closing weeks of the '24 season (#158 on Monday).


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DOWN: Bianca Andreescu/CAN
...that description is unfortunately apropos when it comes to Andreescu these days, as if often feels as she's become a ceremonial player who is only a peripheral member of the tennis landscape just five years after her dream '19 season.

In her first match since the U.S. Open, the match-deficient Canadian lost 6-3/6-0 to Greet Minnen, her worst lost since May of last year, to drop to just 9-9 on the season. She's lost five straight, with her last win coming in the 1st Round of the Olympics, and is 0-4 on hard courts in '24.

In 2019, she was 45-5 on the surface, winning Indian Wells, Toronto and the U.S. Open in a 48-7 season in which she finished #5. She's gone a combined 61-50 (30-26 on HC) since (it seems odd that she's played *that many* matches, honestly) and came into Osaka ranked #163.


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ITF PLAYERS: Sonay Kartal/GBR and Anna Blinkova/RUS
...Kartal's dream season continues. Already a tour singles champion in Monastir, and having reached the 3rd Round at Wimbledon, the 22-year old picked up her sixth ITF crown of the season in the Shrewsbury (UK) $100K, knocking off a string of fellow Brits (Hannah Klugman, Jodie Burrage, Mimi Xu and Heather Watson) and a Pastry (Oceane Dodin in the SF) en route to the title.

Watson retired down 7-5/4-1 in the final to officially deliver the title to Kartal, who's now up to #92 in the rankings.



Blinkova's season has mostly gone haywire since she won a 42-point 3rd set MTB vs. Elena Rybakina in Melbourne back in January, but the Hordette is at least finishing '24 on a more positive note. On a 10-match losing streak when play began, she posted a SF result at the Hong Kong 125 three weekends ago, then after a week off won a $100K title in Macon, Georgia (USA) this weekend with a 3rd set TB win in the final over Ann Li, a former two-time tour finalist (and '21 Tenerife champ). She's won eight of her last nine matches.

It's Blinkova's first singles title on any level since winning a tour title in Cluj in 2022.
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JUNIOR STAR: Emerson Jones/AUS
...16-year old Jones came into the Junior Finals (aka the "Junior Masters," the junior circuit's version of the WTAF) in Chengdu as the #1-ranked girl in the world, but she didn't won a girls' slam this season, falling in the AO/US finals to Renata Jamrichova, as well as losing in the 1r/3r at RG/US, respectively. She *did* win J500 and J300 crowns in '24, though.

The Aussie made up for that overcite this past week, going a combined 5-0 in round robin and knock-out play, including winning a 3rd set TB over Mika Stojsavljevic (the U.S. Open girls' champ, who'd defeated Jones at Flushing Meadows en route to the title) in the SF and then handling Laura Samson 4 & 4 in the final.

Jones was the first Aussie girl to reach the final of the event, first held in 2015 (but which took a pandemic-related break from 2020-22).


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DOUBLES: Demi Schuurs/Yuan Yue, NED/CHN
...with Suzan Lamens winning the singles title, Ningbo turned out to be a rare tour-level event in which the Dutch proved to be a dominant force, as Lamens' countrywoman Schuurs teamed up with first-time tour finalist Yuan to take home the doubles crown.

The pair advanced past both the event's top two seeds over the course of the week, getting a walkover in the 2nd Round from Chan Hao-ching/Barbora Krejcikova after the Czech had retired from her singles match, then defeating #2 Nicole Melichar-Martinez & Ellen Perez 6-3/6-3 in the final.

While Yuan picks up her first WTA title (she's the fifth maiden WD champ of '24) on home soil, Schuurs gets career win #19 (her second this year).

It was Melichar-Martinez/Perez's fifth WTA WD final of the season (2-3), pulling the duo into a four-way tie for the most finals in '24 with Danilina/Khromacheva, Errani/Paolini and Dabrowski/Routliffe.
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WHEELCHAIR: Yui Kamiji/JPN
...finally back in action for the first time since sweeping the Paralympic Golds in Paris in the first week of September, Kamiji maintained her fabulous form. Over three matches in the Series 2 event in Osaka, she dropped just a single game, finishing off her singles title run with a love & love victory in the final over Manami Tanaka.

Kamiji is 14-1 since losing to Diede de Groot in the French Riviera final in June, a stretch that includes a 2-0 mark vs. the Dutch #1.

Kamiji & Tanaka combined to win the doubles title, as well.
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1. Ningbo QF - Dasha Kasatkina def. Yulia Putintseva
...6-4/1-6/7-6(6). In the closing weeks of the season, Putintseva finally managed to complete her traditional season act of losing multiple matches on the year after having held MP, dropping her second such WTA match (she also squandered a MP in a BJK Cup outing earlier in '24) in a three-setter vs. Kasatkina.

The Russian had rallied from 4-1 down to win the 1st 6-4, then staged another comeback from 4-2 in the 3rd. After forcing a deciding TB, Kasatkina saved a pair of MP and won an 8-6 breaker.


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2. Ningbo 1st Rd. - Paula Badosa def. Diana Shnaider
...4-6/6-3/6-3. The season eventually gets long for everyone, even breakout star Shnaider, the only player to win titles on three different surfaces this year. Understandably, the Russian's first full season is starting to weave outside the lines in the final turns. This was her third straight loss, and fourth in five matches.

Of course, this is also a "horrible draw" situation that pitted a pair of Top 20 players in the 1st Round of a "small-ish," underpopulated 500 event. Meanwhile, in another part of the draw, a pair of lucky losers faced off in a 1st Round match that went three and a half hours.


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3. Ningbo 1st Rd. - Tamara Korpatsch def. Anna Bondar
...6-7(4)/7-6(6)/6-4. The aforementioned all-LL face-off, as Bondar loses a 7-6/5-3 lead, failing to convert on three MP on return at 5-4 in the 2nd and ultimately going down in the sixth-longest WTA MD match of the year vs. an injured Korpatsch.

Korpatsch had lost eight straight tour-level MD matches, a slump that dated back to Roland Garros.
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4. Osaka 1st Rd. - Aoi Ito def. Sofia Kenin
...6-2/3-6/7-5. 20-year old qualifier Ito (#188) makes her tour-level debut and bounces the former slam champ, who falls to 10-24 on the season (4-15 on hard court).

Kenin has had just two tournaments in '24 in which she's recorded multiple wins. They were big ones, at least, in Rome (over Bronzetti and Jabeur) and at Roland Garros (def. Garcia and Siegemund).
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5. Osaka SF - Suzan Lamens def. Diane Parry 6-2/6-4
Osaka SF - Kimberly Birrell def. Aoi Ito 6-4/6-3
...the most heavily-populated-by-qualifiers semifinals of any event this season featured three first-time WTA semifinalists (#7 Parry was the only seed, and had been 0-4 in previous semis) and no player who'd ever lifted a tour-level singles final.

Lamens and Birrell won the right to face off for their maiden WTA title in the final, where the Dutch woman officially added a nice late-year flourish to a breakout season that surely no one saw coming at the start of 2024.

Osaka Final - Suzan Lamens def. Kimberly Birrell 6-0/6-4
...the third '24 title match (w/ Iasi and Monastir) pitting a pair of finalists seeking their maiden WTA title saw Lamens become the second Dutch woman to win a tour crown (w/ Arantxa Rus last year in Hamburg) since Kiki Bertens' final title early in the 2020 season.


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6. Osaka 1st Rd. - Elisabetta Cocciaretto def. Jessika Ponchet
...6-4/5-7/7-6(3). Seeking her first Top 50 season, #50-ranked Cocciaretto got a potentially important win to open play in Osaka.

Ponchet needed seven SP (including five when she was broken for 5-5) to take the 2nd set and force a final set, then held a pair of BP for a 5-1 lead in the 3rd *and* a MP at 5-4 before the Italian rallied to win in a deciding TB.
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7. Osaka QF - Eva Lys def. McCartney Kessler
...7-6(7)/3-6/7-5. Lys had found her way into the MD as a lucky loser (she'd fallen to eventual champ Suzan Lamens in the final round of qualifying), and the German made something of the opportunity, following up a win over Camila Osorio with another vs. McCartney Kessler after finding herself down a break twice in the 3rd vs. the Bannerette. She ultimately fell short in the QF to Aoi Ito in the Japanese surprise's tour-level MD debut event.

With Lys, though, the bigger headlines came *after* her exit.


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8. $50K Cherbourg-en-Cotentin FRA Final - Anastasia Zakharova def. Barbora Palicova
...3-6/6-1/6-4. Reaching her third $100K challenger final of the season, Zakharova picks up a second title with a three-set win over the Crusher teen.

Zakharova burst into '24 back in January with a 3rd Round run at the Australian Open in (so far) her only slam MD appearance.
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9. $50K Kaysen TUR Final - Zarina Diyas def. Aliona Falei
...0-6/6-4/6-3. After sitting out two years, Diyas resurfaced earlier this spring, and soon after played in Wimbledon and U.S. Open qualifiying. She reached (as a qualifier) her first tour-level MD of the season (and since the '22 AO) earlier this month in Beijing.

In her ninth event back, a $50K challenger in Turkey, the 31-year old Kazakh picked up her first singles crown on any level since January 2020.
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10. $75K Calgary CAN Final - Rebecca Marino def. Arina Rogers
...7-5/6-4. Marino wins her third challenger title of the season (2nd $100K) with a straight sets win over Rogers (ex-N.C. State), who was seeking her first pro title since 2021.
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1. Ningbo Final - Dasha Kasatkina def. Mirra Andreeva
...6-0/4-6/6-4. This was the 34th all-Russian tour singles final in WTA history, and now both Kasatkina and Andreeva have played in two of them. Kasatkina's last was in 2021, a win over Margarita Gasparyan in Saint Petersburg; while Andreeva defeated then-Russian Elina Avanesyan in Iasi this past summer.

After seeing no all-Hordette finals in 2019-20, and just three between 2012-20 (a far cry from the season high of six in '09 alone during the Horde's original heyday, or the whopping 26 between 2003-11), there have been five since the start of '21, with at least one in four straight seasons.


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2. Ningbo QF - Mirra Andreeva def. Barbora Krejcikova
...7-6(5)/3-2 ret. All right, I'd say we *shouldn't* see Barbora again until the WTA Finals. No sense in doing something to risk that appearance, right?


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Hmm, not a shocking move, but also a very "safe" one for Iga. Ultimately it might be a better move (i.e. a good business decision) for Fissette than Swiatek, considering he could use a little reputation polishing considering the conclusions of his recent stints, as he left Zheng Qinwen in late '23 with apparently little notice to return to the Naomi Osaka camp, where he lasted less than a year after her comeback semi-stalled and she ditched him for Patrick M. Zheng's post-Fissette season was far more accomplished than those she had *with* him.

Iga won't fall off the table, and she'll win big titles with or without him, but he'll be able to bask in some of her reflected glory nonetheless. That's nothing new for Fissette, as all the slam titles won by his players (from Clijsters, Kerber and Osaka) with him by their side came after they'd already won previous major titles *before* he showed up. It'll happen again this time, too.

Whether *he* is successful in this role should be gauged by Swiatek's record/approach against "those players" (you know the ones), and whether he manages to convince her to try to be an *all*-surface contender rather than one who willingly "fades away" for a couple of months in the middle of the summer schedule.

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For the first time in a while, an *official* Chakvetadze Sighting...









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For the record, it's Hon (which you could at least figure out if you recognize her face) vs. Kalinskaya (never a close-up, and only her back), but this is another example of the nonsensical WTA tweets that zoom in on the action (meaning there are sometimes-dizzying camera swings when the action moves to the edge of the frame), crop out the names of the competitors and don't mention either's name in the tweet.

Dumb. But in the spirit of equal time...



I wasn't expecting a "New Girl" theme song reference when announcing Pegula's qualification for the WTAF. Good job.









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*2024 TITLES FROM MATCH POINT DOWN*
Linz - Alona Ostapenko, LAT (1 MP vs. Tauson, 2r)
Madrid - Iga Swiatek, POL (3 MP vs. Sabalenka, F)
Rabat - Peyton Stearns, USA (2 MP vs. Bronzetti, QF)
Roland Garros - Iga Swiatek, POL (1 MP vs. Osaka, 2r)
Berlin - Jessie Pegula, USA (5 MP vs. Kalinskaya, F)
Iasi - Mirra Andreeva, RUS (2 MP vs. Danilovic, SF)
Olympics - Zheng Qinwen, CHN (MP vs. Navarro, 3r)
Ningbo - DASHA KASATKINA, RUS (2 MP vs. Putintseva, QF)

*MOST WTA FINALS in 2024*
7 - Aryna Sabalenka (4-3)
6 - DASHA KASATKINA (2-4)
5 - Iga Swiatek (5-0)
5 - Elena Rybakina (3-2)
4 - Jessie Pegula (2-2)

*2024 FINALISTS BY COUNTRY (F/W)*
16 (8) - RUS (Kasatkina/M.Andreeva)
15 (11) - USA
9 (7) - POL
8 (4) - BLR
8 (2) - CZE
7 (3) - CHN
6 (4) - KAZ
3 (3) - GBR
3 (1) - ITA
3 (0) - AUS (Birrell), UKR
2 (2) - LAT
2 (1) - BRA,SVK
2 (0) - CAN,CRO
1 (1) - COL,ESP,NED (Lamens)
1 (0) - BEL,EGY,GER,GRE,NZL,ROU

*MOST WTA FINALS - 2020-24*
25 - 1/2/9/8/5 = Swiatek (22-3)
22 - 3/3/3/6/7 = Sabalenka (12-10)
17 - 5/0/3/4/5 = Rybakina (7-10)
14 - 0/4/2/2/6 = KASATKINA (6-8)

*2024 YOUNGEST WTA FINALISTS*
17 - Mirra Andreeva, RUS (Iasi - W)
17 - MIRRA ANDREEVA, RUS (Ningo - L)
19 - Diana Shnaider, RUS (Hua Hin - W)
19 - Coco Gauff, USA (Auckland - W)
19 - Linda Noskova, CZE (Monterrey - W)
[WTA 125]
18 - Maya Joint (Warsaw)
18 - Taylah Preston (Canberra)
18 - Petra Marcinko (Montreux)
19 - Diana Shnaider (Charleston)
19 - Anca Todoni (Bari)-W

*2024 FIRST-TIME WTA CHAMPIONS*
Hobart - Emma Navarro, USA (22/#31)
Hua Hin 1 - Diana Shnaider, RUS (19/#108)
Austin - Yuan Yue, CHN (25/#68)
Rabat - Peyton Stearns, USA (22/#81)
Iasi - Mirra Andreeva, RUS (17/#32)
Cleveland - McCartney Kessler, USA (25/#98)
Monterrey - Linda Noskova, CZE (19/#35)
Monastir - Sonay Kartal, GBR (22/#151)
Guadalajara - Magdelena Frech, POL (26/#43)
Hua Hin 2 - Rebecca Sramkova, SVK (27/#102)
Osaka - SUZAN LAMENS, NED (24/#125)
[doubles]
Austin - Olivia Gadecki, AUS (21)
Charleston - Ashlyn Krueger, USA (19)
Charleston - Sloane Stephens, USA (31)
Monastir - Mayar Sherif, EGY (28)
Ningbo - YUAN YUE, CHN (26)

*2024 FIRST-TIME WTA FINALISTS*
Emma Navarro, USA (#31/22 = Hobart)-W
Diana Shnaider, RUS (#108/19 = Hua Hin 1)-W
Anna Kalinskaya, RUS (#40/25 = Dubai)
Mirra Andreeva, RUS (#32/17 = Iasi)-W
Elina Avanesyan, RUS (#76/21 = Iasi)
Magdalena Frech, POL (#57/26 = Prague)
McCartney Kessler, USA (#98/25 = Cleveland)-W
Lulu Sun, NZL (#57/23 = Monterrey)
Sonay Kartal, GBR (#151/22 = Monastir)-W
Rebecca Sramkova, SVK (#136/27 = Monastir)
Olivia Gadecki, AUS (#152/22 = Guadalajara)
KIMBERLY BIRRELL, AUS (26/#150 = Osaka)
SUZAN LAMENS, NED (25/#125 = Osaka)-W

*2024 LOW-RANKED WTA FINALISTS*
#228 - Bianca Andreescu (Rosmalen, lost to Samsonova)
#190 - Ajla Tomljanovic (Birmingham, lost to Putintseva)
#152 - Olivia Gadecki (Guadalajara, lost to Frech)
#151 - Sonay Kartal (Monastir, def. Sramkova)
#150 - KIMBERLY BIRRELL (Osaka, lost to Lamens)
#136 - Rebecca Sramkova (Monastir, lost to Kartal)
#134 - Aliaksandra Sasnovich (Budapest, lost to Shnaider)
#132 - Amanda Anisimova (Toronto, lost to Pegula)
#125 - SUZAN LAMENS (Osaka, def. Birrell)

*2024 FIRST-TIME WTA SEMIFINALISTS*
Cluj-Napoca: Harriet Dart, GBR (27/#103)
Roland Garros: Mirra Andreeva, RUS (17/#38)
Iasi: Elina Avanesyan, RUS (21/#76)-RU
Prague: Magdalena Frech, POL (26/#57)-RU
Prague: Laura Samson, CZE (16/#634)
Monterrey: Lulu Sun, NZL (23/#57)-RU
Cleveland: McCartney Kessler, USA (25/#98)-W
Guadalajara: Olivia Gadecki, AUS (22/#152)
Monastir: Sonay Kartal, GBR (22/#151)-W
Monastir: Rebecca Sramkova, SVK (27/#136)-RU
Hua Hin 2: Arianne Hartono, NED (28/#180)
Osaka: AOI ITO, JPN (20/#188)
Osaka: KIMBERLY BIRRELL, AUS (26/#150)
Osaka: SUZAN LAMENS, NED (25/#125)-W

*ALL-RUSSIAN WTA FINALS, since 2020*
2021 Saint Petersburg - Kasatkina d. Gasparyan
2022 Istanbul - Potapova d. V.Kudermetova
2023 Rosmalen - Alexandrova d. V.Kudermetova
2024 Iasi - M.Andreeva d. Avanesyan
2024 Ningbo - KASATKINA d. M.ANDREEVA

*RECENT WTA BREAKOUT RESULTS (4 MD or less)*
2020 Leonie Kung to Hua Hin F (2nd MD, 19)
2021 Clara Tauson wins Lyon (3rd MD, 18)
2021 Jule Niemeier to Strasbourg SF (2nd MD, 21)
2021 Emma Raducanu wins U.S. Open (4th MD; 18)
2022 Zheng Qinwen to Melbourne 1 SF (4th MD, 19)
2022 Angela Kulikov wins Hamburg WD (1st MD, 24)
2022 Linda Noskova to Prague SF (2nd MD, 17)
2023 Peyton Stearns to Bogota F (3rd MD, 21)
2023 Julia Riera to Rabat SF (1st MD, 20)
2023 Maria Timofeeva wins Budapest (1st MD, 19)
2023 Noma Noha Akugue to Hamburg F (1st MD, 19)
2024 Laura Samson to Prague SF (1st MD, 16)
2024 AOI ITO to Osaka SF (1st MD, 20)

*2020-24 WTA DOUBLES TITLES*
20 - Katerina Siniakova (1/6/6/3/4)
14 - Barbora Krejcikova (1/5/3/4/1)
12 - Elise Mertens (1/4/2/2/3)
11 - Hsieh Su-wei (4/2/0/2/3)
10 - LAURA SIEGEMUND (1/0/3/5/1)
9 - Anna Danilina (0/1/2/1/5)
9 - Desirae Krawczyk (2/2/1/3/1)
9 - Nicole Melichar-Martinez (2/2/2/0/3)
9 - DEMI SCHUURS (2/2/1/2/2)
9 - ENA SHIBAHARA (1/5/0/2/1)

*JUNIOR MASTERS/FINALS TITLE MATCHES*
2015 Xu Shilin/CHN d. Kristina Schmiedlova/SVK
2016 Anna Blinkova/RUS d. Katie Swan/GBR
2017 Marta Kostyuk/UKR d. Kaja Juvan/SLO
2018 Clara Burel/FRA d. Camila Osorio/COL
2019 Diane Parry/FRA d. Diana Snigur/UKR
2020-22 - DNP
2023 Alina Korneeva/RUS d. Sara Saito/JPN
2024 Emerson Jones/AUS d. Laura Samson/CZE






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All for now.

posted by Todd.Spiker @ 11:58 PM 

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