Saturday, February 15, 2025

Wk.7- Anisimova Ascendant







futuristic-fonts




*WEEK 7 CHAMPIONS*
DOHA, QATAR (WTA 1000; Hard Court Outdoor)
S: Amanda Anisimova/USA def. Alona Ostapenko/LAT 6-4/6-3
D: Sara Errani/Jasmine Paolini (ITA/ITA) def. Jiang Xinyu/Wu Fang-hsien (CHN/TPE) 7-5/7-6(10)
Cancun, Mexico (125; Hard Court Outdoor)
S: Emiliano Arango/COL def. Carson Branstine/CAN 6-2/6-1
D: Maya Joint/Taylah Preston (AUS/AUS) def. Aliona Bolsova/Yvonne Cavalle-Reimers (ESP/ESP) 6-4/6-3




kosova-font



PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Amanda Anisimova/USA
...Alona Ostapenko provided a lot of the headlines all week long in Doha, but in the end the one that mattered the *most* belonged to Anisimova.

Once upon a time, Anisimova was a junior star, the winner of the U.S. Open girls' title in 2017. She notched her first Top 10 win (over Petra Kvitova) in Indian Wells at age 16, and grabbed her first WTA title (Bogota) at 17. In 2019, she climbed another significant rung on the tennis ladder, hitting her way into the Roland Garros semifinals, where she lost a crazy match vs. Ash Barty.

Anisimova had reached that stage in Paris without dropping a set, then after dropping 17 of the first 18 points and falling behind 5-0 she staged a massive comeback, winning 25/35 points, rallying from 4-2 down in the TB to win it 7-4. She led Barty 3-0 in the 2nd set, as well, having won 17 straight points. But Anisimova stumbled down the stretch and Barty prevailed, winning the 2nd/3rd at 3 & 3, then going on to win her maiden major crown.

Anisimova would rise to as high as #21 by the end of the year, but also lost her father (who'd also been her coach) to a sudden and tragic death.

Anisimova continued to play, but the clock was ticking. After suffering through poor seasons in 2020-21, in 2022 she won her second title, posted 4r-4r-QF results in the first three majors, and recorded four Top 10 wins (her most ever in a season). But the grind of a tennis career was burning her out, and combined with the obvious off-court stresses that went back several seasons Anisimova finally reached her tipping point. She announced a break from the sport by mid-2023, citing mental health concerns.

Returning last season, Anisimova posted a series of intriguing results that hinted at her past promise, including reaching the AO 4th Round and the Toronto 1000 final (her first final since January '22) and finishing the season in the Top 40.

Anisimova got off to a slow start in '25, and was just 3-2 (w/ a Week 2 walkover in the Hobart QF) before shining in Doha. After an opening win over Victoria Azarenka, the Bannerette found her first Top 10 victim since 2022 in Paula Badosa, dominated Leylah Fernandez (3 & love) and rallied to defeat Marta Kostyuk from a set down. A straight sets win over Ekaterina Alexandrova put Anisimova into her fifth tour-level final.

Ostapenko had blown opponents off the court all week, but couldn't do the same vs. Anisimova, who won 6-4/6-3 to claim her third and biggest title, her first in three years, completing the full turn from phenom to cautionary tale and back to a champion reborn. And she's still just 23.

And -- boom! -- just like that, on Monday Anisimova will be ranked in the Top 20 (#18) for the first time.


===============================================
RISERS: Iga Swiatek/POL and Alona Ostapenko/LAT
...Swiatek was the only Top 10 player to reach the Doha semifinals (the world #1 and #3 failed to win a single match), and she spent most of the week succeeding with a well-earned sense of assurance. Down went Maria Sakkari 3 & 2 (all right, that one was to be expected), but so did Linda Noskova as Swiatek won out in yet another three-setter against the young Czech. Then, for the second time this season, Swiatek sent Elena Rybakina packing in straights.

At this point, Swiatek had every reason to think of Doha as home. Three straight titles, 15 straight wins, a 16-1 career record in the tournament, and back-to-back wins over big-hitting players who have been thorns in her side over the past few seasons.



But then rock met hard place with Iga trapped in between, and the sense of assurance evaporated in an instant (and turned into existential dread) as Swiatek's two steps forward week turned into one that featured a very big step back. Blame it all on Alona Ostapenko.

The Latvian has given the Pole nightmares for years, and she made Swiatek's life a horror show in their semifinal match-up, rolling her by a 6-1/6-3 score, causing Iga to yell (or duck her head) in frustration and even slam her racket after seeing her opponent dig a hole and toss her into it mid-way through the 2nd set.

She's now 0-5 vs. Ostapenko, still looking for her first title of the year (her longest season-opening drought since she won her maiden tour title at RG in 2020), and (though she got by two in consecutive rounds) remains unable to avoid *eventually* finding her fate at the mercy of a big hitter who refuses to implode on the other side of the net.

This is where Wim Fissette *must* each his money over what remains of the season. Otherwise, why did he replace Tomasz Wiktorowski?



Meanwhile, Ostapenko had her day in Doha, but it wasn't on the final day.

The Latvian thundered through the draw on her way to the final, not dropping a set, leading the field in aces (31) and reaching her third career 1000 final, her second in Doha (2016) and first since Miami in 2018, the longest stretch between 1000 finals ever.

Despite early doubles success in '25, Ostapenko had gone just 1-4 in singles before she ran off wins over Aoi Ito, Liudmila Samsonova, Jasmine Paolini (her first Top 10 win since Beijing '23), Ons Jabeur and Swiatek, posting two Top 5 wins in an event for the first time ever (the last time she posted two Top 10 wins was also in Doha, in 2022) as she reached her biggest final since winning Roland Garros in 2017.

But Ostapenko's serve let her down in the final, and it was the big shots coming off the racket of *Amanda Anisimova* that dominated the final day of play. Still, she'll climb back into slam seed range as she'll jump 11 spots from #37 to #26 heading into the second half of the Desert Double in Dubai.
===============================================



SURPRISES: Rebecca Sramkova/SVK and Carson Branstine/CAN
...as Sramkova continues to climb the tour ladder, she adds still more impressive notes to a later-blooming-and-growing-more-significant singles run. In the 2024 4Q, the Slovak won a title in Hua Hin and reached two other tour finals, then helped Slovakia to a surprising BJK Cup final appearance.

After previous 3rd Round-or-better results in 1000 events in Rome (4th) and Beijing (3rd) last year, Sramkova arrived in Doha and added another 3rd Round run in her third straight 1000 event MD, posting wins over Anhelina Kalinina and Mirra Andreeva (winning a 7-5 3rd set over the teenager) before a loss to Elena Rybakina.

Sramkova recorded her first career slam MD win in Melbourne last month, and even though she's off to just a 4-6 start will climb to a new career high of #42 on Monday.



In Cancun, 24-year old Californian Canadian Branstine reached her first 125 final after stringing together wins over Ena Shibahara, Lauren Davis, Katarzyna Kawa and Maya Joint, but in the final vs. Emiliana Arango went down 2 & 1 as she apparently was dealing with some sort of injury/stomach pain.

Branstine's tennis career was beset by numerous injuries, and even led her to be in the tennis programs at three NCAA schools -- USC, Virginia and Texas A&M -- but only ever see action on the court at the latter institution, where she played two seasons and helped lead the Aggies to the NCAA National Championship in 2024.

Branstine will jump 65 spots to #207 on Monday, cracking the Top 250 for the first time. She went 3-2 in ITF finals in '24.

In her junior days, Branstine (in the season in which she changed from representing the U.S. to playing for Canada) teamed with Bianca Andreescu to win the girls' doubles titles at the AO (as USA) and RG (as CAN).


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



VETERANS: Ekaterina Alexandrova/RUS and Ons Jabeur/TUN
...there were quite a few players who played deep into the week in Doha (including both finalists) who are a load to handle when they get on a roll, and Alexandrova took her rightful place beside them.

The 30-year old Hordette carried over her Linz title-winning form into Week 7, knocking off a pair of Top 5 players -- #1 Aryna Sabalenka, from 4-2 down in the 3rd, and #5 Jessie Pegula, from a set down -- as well as Emma Raducanu and Singapore champ Elise Mertens en route to her third career 1000 semifinal.

Alexandrova's eight-match winning streak ended at the hands of Amanda Anisimova, but she'll rise five spots to #21 on Monday. Alexandrova's biggest points defense of the season is just around the corner next month in Miami, where last year she reached the semis after upsetting the likes of Swiatek (4r) and Pegula (QF), the only other time she's knocked off two Top 5 players in the same event.



Overwhelming fan support in Doha -- at her own matches, as well as during those of *others* as celebrations of Ons' wins sometimes were so loud that they interrupted matches on adjoining courts -- weren't enough to carry Jabeur to the final (or semis), but the Tunisian *did* notch her first Top 10 win of the year as well as reach her first 1000/slam QF on hard court court since Cincinnati in 2023.

Jabeur, 30, continued her positive '25 flow with victories over McCartney Kessler and #8 Zheng Qinwen, then another over Sofia Kenin before she fell victim to Alona Ostapenko in the midst of one of *those* (you know the sort) kind of winner-heavy stretches.
===============================================
COMEBACK: Sofia Kenin/USA
...while her 2020 results will forever hang over Kenin's head and make whatever she does seem far "lesser" in comparison, the Bannerette continues to occasionally put together the sort of hard-working string of matches that were the hallmark of her career year.

In Doha as a wild card, Kenin fired off wins over Abu Dhabi finalist Ashlyn Krueger, as well as Alycia Parks to reach her first 1000 3rd Round on hard court since her Guadalajara semi in '23. Her run ended there vs. Ons Jabeur.

Kenin reached just one 3rd Round (in 9 MD) at the 1000 level last year (in Rome). After a disappointing 16-26 mark in '24, Kenin is off to a 7-5 start in '25 and will climb from #75 to back inside the Top 60 on Monday.


===============================================
FRESH FACES: Linda Noskova/CZE and Emiliana Arango/COL
...after leaving Melbourne having followed up her breakout QF run from a year ago with a 1st Round AO exit, her third loss in her first four '25 matches, Noskova has gotten her season back on course.

The 20-year old reached the Abu Dhabi semis in Week 6, then this past week in Doha the Czech got wins over Donna Vekic and Yulia Putintseva before once again getting a shot at Iga Swiatek. Noskova had upset the Pole at last year's AO, but lost in follow-up matches in the spring and at the BJK Cup Finals event.

For the fourth time in their last five meetings, Noskova took Swiatek to three sets in the Doha 3rd Round, taking the opening set in a TB before dropping close sets in the 2nd/3rd despite racking up 16 aces on the day.

Noskova has gone 5-2 since her early exit in Melbourne.



In Cancun, Arango posted the best result of her career.



The 24-year old Colombian has shown flashes since her 2017 U.S. Open junior SF run, including reaching the 2023 Guadalajara 1000 QF and posting wins last year in both Miami and Madrid (she's 5-3 in career 1000 MD) before reaching her first 125 final last October. But, mostly, she's identifiable because she alway plays while wearing her cap backward.

During her run in Mexico, Arango knocked off Whitney Osuigue, Marina Stakusic, Selena Janicijevic, Francesca Jones and Carson Branstine, losing just one set (vs. Jones in the SF) along the way to pick up her biggest title to date, her first singles win since 2021.



Hey, maybe this result might eventually push Arango up high enough in the rankings -- she'll be #133, up 36 spots, on Monday (her CH is #109) -- that we might finally get another All-Headwear match between her and The Bandanna herself, Diana Shnaider. Their only meeting came in a 125 in 2022. Crossing fingers.

I couldn't find any photos from that match, but here's a hint of what such a unique sight *might* look like:


===============================================
DOWN: Emma Raducanu/GBR
...at some point, no matter the excuses and/or reasons, Raducanu is just running in place. Yes, Raducanu deserves patience since her 2021 U.S. Open title run (though it came after a Wimbledon 4th Rd. earlier that summer) was an early and unexpected occurrence. But, remember, the Brit's New York result will soon be coming up on it's four-year anniversary in seven months.

For how long does doing the same thing and expecting different results *really* start to look a bit crazy? If she's seeking to develop match fitness, big events or not, one-and-done weeks won't do it.

Raducanu is still taking wild cards (after previously using her PR) into big tour events, as she did in the Doha 1000, where she lost in the 1st Round to Ekaterina Alexandrova, 6-3/7-5. The loss extends her losing streak to four matches, the longest of her career.

Raducanu seemed to find *some* traction in 2024, reaching the SF in Nottingham (her first since '22, and just the second since the '21 U.S. Open), and recording her first two career Top 10 wins (over Pegula and Sakkari) during the grass season. It helped her get her ranking back up to something respectable. She came into Doha ranked #60.

While Raducanu has put up few results of *real" note in regular events, she's proven to be a big event player. Her results in majors have been her best. She's won at least one AO MD match from 2022-25, reaching the 3rd Round this year after taking out Alexandrova and Amanda Anisimova, and she's had wins in seven of the nine major MD in which she's appeared since her title in New York. She had a *second* Wimbledon Round of 16 result just last year, and is 6-4 at Indian Wells, with a 3r-4r-3r streak the last three years.

Clearly, injuries (and resulting surgeries) have held Raducanu back, but so has her constant coaching/consulant carousel. She had another new sets of eyes overseeing things in Qatar after Nick Cavaday (Raducanu's sixth "full-time" coach in four years) announced a coaching break due to health issues that prevent constant travel.

Was Cavaday, Raducanu's coach as a junior, going to stick, and might still eventually return? Maybe. But history also says probably not.

Raducanu's summer of '21 run remains one of the more remarkable of recent note. She went 21-4 from Wimbledon through the U.S. Open, including a 10-0 jaunt without dropping a set as she went from qualifier to champion at Flushing Meadows. Since that Open final win, with her Doha loss, the Brit has gone 49-44. That includes a 10-9 mark in slam play, where's got a 20-10 career MD record.

In 2025, since her 3rd Round in Melbourne, Raducanu has played in the two biggest events on the WTA schedule, the Adu Dhabi 500 and Doha 1000, going 0-2. She *was* in the 250 Singapore draw, but lost a three-set 1st Round match vs. Cristina Bucsa.

That MD was her first at an "off-schedule" 250 or lower tournament in almost three years outside of the small windows of the season where there are few options, i.e. the short grass season (Eastbourne '24/Nottingham 2022 & '24) and Week 1 (Auckland 2023-24), save for what was a quick dip onto the 125 level right after her 1st Round exit in New York in her '22 title defense (probably to just get the taste out of her mouth) and 250 Guadalajara in February of that same year (a 1r ret. as the #1 seed).

Raducanu's schedule often plays out like she's Iga Swiatek (she's not), filled with slams, 1000s and 500s no matter where she's ranked. How long can this pattern persist? A short-term detour would seem to be something that would do her good in the long (and even short) term. See how Belinda Bencic built herself back in a few smaller events after her return last fall, leading to a second week run at the AO and 500 title in Week 6.

Will Raducanu take such a chance, maybe even playing qualifying a few times rather than automatically jump into a big event MD via a WC (and then immediately lose), or continue the rinse-and-repeat cycle she's been trapped in for what has become years. She *could* go on hoping for wild cards and that one *huge* result (again) that will immediately put her back on the level to which she desires to compeat.

And it *might* work. But for how long is she going to keep trying to find that through-the-eye-of-a-needle result rather than giving the step-by-step approach a legitimate shot, at least once?

Of course, as we head into Week 8 in Dubai...


===============================================
ITF PLAYERS: Francisca and Matilde Jorge, POR/POR
...the Jorge sisters -- Francisca, 24, and Matilde, 20 -- were at it again, this time in a $50K challenger in Birmingham, England.

The Portuguese siblings claimed their 18th career (17 ITF, w/ a 125 last April) pro title as a duo, their second this season along with another $50K in Porto last month. It's Francisa's 29th career ITF title, and Matilde's 22nd.

Matilde has been burning up the doubles court of late no matter what partner is alongside her. This is her 15th straight WD victory (6 w/ Francesca), and she's gone 25-3 (15-2) overall since August, with an additional $75K crown and $100K final while playing with her sister.

Matilde has also won recent titles with Justina Mikulskyte ($50K) and Sarah Beth Grey ($35K), and reached a final with Anna Rogers ($50K) in the stretch.


===============================================
JUNIOR STARS: Nellie Taraba Wallberg/SWE and Laima Vladson/LTU
...a pair of first-time big title winners, as 17-year old Swede Taraba Wallberg (girls' #68) won the J500 in Cairo with a three-set victory over 16-year old Hordette Rada Zolotareva in the final.


@nellietaraba



In Ascunsion (PAR), 17-year old Lithuanian Vladson got the best of Brit Allegra Korpanec Davies in a pair of tie-breaks to win her maiden J300 crown. The junior #70, Vladson had knocked off the #1 seed (Luna Maria Cinalli/ARG) in the QF.


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



DOUBLES: Sara Errani/Jasmine Paolini, ITA/ITA
...yes, that was indeed an underhand serve from Errani on MP.

With a slew of big non-slam events coming soon -- including the Sunshine swing, and Madrid/Rome this spring -- here come the Italians.

Errani & Paolini followed up an 11-9 MTB win in the semis over M.Andreeva/Shnaider with a straight sets victory in the final over Jiang Xinyu & Wu Fang-hsien, 7-5/7-6(10). It's their sixth title together, and third at the 1000 level (w/ Rome/Beijing) to go along with an Olympic Gold medal.

Errani won Doha in 2013 alongside Roberta Vinci, and this is the veteran's eighth 1000 crown and 33rd career tour title, tying her for second (w/ Latisha Chan) on the active player list behind Hsieh Su-wei (w/ 35). It's Paolini's seventh WTA win.

Though they lost here, let's not forget that the final run in this 1000 event in many ways legitimizes Jiang & Wu's two title run in small events in Auckland and Hobart last month. They're now a team to keep an eye on in *all* events.


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









kosova-font



1. Doha 3rd Rd. - Iga Swiatek def. Linda Noskova
...6-7(1)/6-4/6-4. These Swiatek/Noskova match-ups are becoming Must-See WTA occasions. The Pole won for a fourth straight time in six meetings, but four of the last five of those matches have gone three sets (w/ the Czech getting the upset at the AO last year), as Noskova is proving to be the most consistently nagging nuisance (so far) for Swiatek of all of the tour's new young contenders.

In this one, the two combined for zero breaks of serve in the 1st, with Noskova dominating a 7-1 TB. In the 2nd, they exchanged breaks over games 5-7 as Iga grabbed the lead. The Czech had a BP at 4-5 that would have tied the set for a fourth time, but Swiatek got the hold to knot the match.

In the 3rd, Swiatek broke to open the set, but Noskova didn't let her run away, getting things back on serve three games later. It seemed as if another TB was looming, but Swiatek's Doha winning streak was extended when she broke to lead 5-4 and served out the hard-fought win.


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



2. Doha 2nd Rd. - Ekaterina Alexandrova def. Aryna Sabalenka 3-6/6-3/7-6(5)
Doha 2nd Rd. - Marta Kostyuk def. Coco Gauff 3-6/6-3/7-6(5)
...if Swiatek ends up finishing the year at #1 again, it may be simply because the current world #2's results hardly ever include a one-and-out result in any event. In Doha, both #1 Sabalenka *and* #3 Gauff failed to win a match (going out on the same day), and have gone a combined 0-3 in the event the last two years.

Swiatek has had just one winless event since the start of 2021 ('21 Cincinnati), with none over the last three seasons + 2025's seven weeks of play. Over that same stretch, Sabalenka has 14 one-and-done events, while Gauff has 10.

Sabalenka twice held breaks leads in the 3rd, and led 4-2, 30/love before Alexandrova surged back to win a deciding TB to get her second career #1 win.

Gauff's loss to Kostyuk gives her back-to-back losses after her 9-0 start this year. Hmmm, should Matt Daly already be starting to peek back over his shoulder?


===============================================
3. Doha QF - Iga Swiatek def. Elena Rybakina
...6-2/7-5. If Noskova has been a nuisance for Swiatek, Rybakina has been a legitimate nemesis. The Kazakh defeated then world #1 Iga in four of five meetings in 2022-23. Swiatek has now won consecutive straight sets matches vs. Rybakina in '25, and done so in three of their last four match-ups beginning with last year's victory in the Doha final.

Meeting two rounds earlier in Qatar this time around, Swiatek grabbed the 1st set and staged a comeback in the 2nd to avoid a 3rd. Rybakina opened the 2nd with a break, led 4-2 and had two BP at 4-4 to get a chance to serve out the set. Instead, Swiatek got the game 9 hold, then broke Rybakina to end things at 7-5 after the Kazakh had held a GP to reach a TB. Rybakina DF'd on MP.



Rybakina's three tournament losses this season have come vs. Madison Keys (AO, who won the title), Belinda Bencic (Abu Dhabi, who won the title) and Swiatek (who'd won it three years running).
===============================================
4. Doha SF - Alona Ostapenko def. Iga Swiatek
...6-3/6-1. Swiatek handled her nuisance (Noskova), then her nemesis (Rybakina). As for her bully. Well...



In a phrase, Ostapenko kicked her a**. Again. And she relished it, too, as the smirk/smile rarely ever left her face, and certainly not after being renewed by Swiatek's growing frustration.



Ostapenko's easy win ended Swiatek's three-year title run and 15-match winning streak in Doha, improving her career mark in the series to an astounding 5-0. Over the years, the Lavtian has posted wins over Iga when the Pole was ranked #65, #4, #9, #1 and now #2.



Perhaps the worst take on the match came on Tennis Channel *before* it began, as all in the assembled studio group who chose a side picked Swiatek to win, saying "she'll figure it out" and "she'll make it (h2h) 4-1," as the odd, collective amnesia regarding how Iga approaches (or doesn't approach) fireballing opponents such as Ostapenko and her general inability to handle adversity in such situations once again persisted.

None in attendance mentioned that it wasn't likely to even be about Iga "figuring it out," but rather about Ostapenko -- who you *knew* would be supremely confident coming into the match, which was not a good thing for Swiatek -- keeping the ball inside the lines. If she did, it wouldn't likely be close. And it wasn't.


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



5. Doha QF - Amanda Anisimova def. Marta Kostyuk
...4-6/7-5/6-4. Anisimova prevails in a back-and-forth struggle to reach her second 1000 SF (w/ Toronto RU) since last summer.

Kostyuk rallied to win the 1st after trailing by a double-break at 4-1, only to see Anisimova (after not putting away a SP at 5-3) take the 2nd with a break for 6-5 and follow-up hold. She finally put Kostyuk away on her third MP over the final two games in the 3rd, preventing the Ukrainian from reaching her second 1000 semi ('24 I.W.).


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



6. Doha Final - Amanda Anisimova def. Alona Ostapenko
...6-4/6-3. Though she led the week in aces (31), Ostapenko's serve (w/ 10 DF) let her down in the final, played in breezy, cold and wet conditions in the desert. Meanwhile, Anisimova's groundstrokes carried the way to a straights sets victory, her biggest career title and Top 20 debut.

Anisimova is the third different U.S. woman to win a title in the season's first seven weeks (Bannerettes have won 4 singles crowns in 10 events), and the sixth different to reach a singles final. Counting the United Cup in Week 1 (won by Team USA), no week of the 2025 season has gone by without a U.S. women's singles player playing for a title.


===============================================
7. Doha 1st Rd. - Alycia Parks def. Diana Shnaider
...6-4/7-6(2). This was one of Parks' biggest wins, her fifth vs. a Top 20 foe but the first since Madrid in 2023 (Azarenka). She saved 2 SP in the 2nd.

Earlier this season, her SF run in Auckland was Parks' first in a WTA event since her title run in Lyon in 2023.


===============================================
8. Doha 2nd Rd. - Leylah Fernandez def. Emma Navarro
...6-2/6-2. Not surprisingly, all eight of Fernandez's career Top 10 victories have come on hard court. This was the Canadian's first since Cincinnati last summer.
===============================================






kosova-font

1. Doha 1st Rd. - Dasha Kasatkina def. Polina Kudermetova
...6-0/6-0. A week after Veronika was double-bageled by Belinda Bencic in Abu Dhabi, Polina suffers the same fate vs. Kasatkina in Doha.

After getting off to a 10-2 start in '25 while reaching the Brisbane final and qualifying for the AO, the younger Kudermetova has now lost four of her last five (all in straights). Check that, make it five of the last six, as Polina fell in the opening round of Dubai qualifying (Veronika made it through, though).


===============================================
2. Doha 2nd Rd. - Rebecca Sramkova def. Mirra Andreeva
...3-6/6-3/7-5. Hmmm, how volatile is the coaching relationship between Mirra and Conchita Martinez anyway?

I mean, Andreeva doesn't seem to be the sort who'll accept too many losses, and her short partnership with the Hall of Fame Spaniard has seen her need three sets to get past Moyuka Uchijima and Magdalena Frech, then a 1 & 2 loss to Aryna Sabalenka, in Melbourne; then this past week in Doha she was taken to three vs. Katie Volynets and lost the decider here to Rebecca Sramkova.

Andreeva surely expects less struggle for wins, closer losses (even to the world #1), and not to be upset by a player ranked 31 spots below her. I'm just sayin'.

Although, Andreeva went through the Doha/Dubai/Indian Wells/Miami stretch with a combined 0-2 record in '24, though, so maybe she won't overeact. I mean, as long as she rebounds quickly.
===============================================







So another chance for top singles players to pick up an extra paycheck (and slam title). TPTB really hate doubles specialists trying to make a living on an increasingly small island, don't they?

Meanwhile, the U.S. Open organizers were patting themselves on the back...



Others in the know weren't quite so quick to join in...



kosova-font





kosova-font





kosova-font





Since his original postive test(s) last March, Sinner was able to play on and win two majors, the Davis Cup, the ATP Finals and two Masters 1000 events. Must be nice. I'm sure a lot of players who've gotten tripped up due to accidental exposure to banned substances would have liked to essentially get no tangible punishment, play on while the positive test remained secret, get a "no fault" ruling in short order, keep on winning big titles, then ultimately pick-and-choose the most convenient time to serve a short suspension, allowing participation in all the majors that season.

I mean... that's a pretty hot deal!



Thing is, WADA's 1-2 year ban attempt is just as ridiculous for this infraction as all the rest of the issues in this case and others (as was the four-year ban for Halep that turned into nine months after she'd already been out a year and a half).

Of course, the Sinner case isn't some revelatory moment, or at least it shouldn't be. The embarrassing state of the "drug testing apparatus," with the Alphabets' vindictive attacks on some and wink-wink pats on the back for others, has been pretty clear for most of the last decade. If anyone didn't realize it starting with the Sharapova case, they really just weren't paying attention or didn't want to admit it.

The Alphabets pick and choose what they consider to be "worthy" of a ban if it's in a player's system, sometimes on an unscientific whim (see Sharapova), and sometimes never (if we're talking about something being "performance-enhancing," then aren't *all* supplements essentially that, as is something like caffeine in large amounts, and almost anything an athlete might ingest to "help them train and/or recover?").

I mean, do we *ever* see anything close to the level of PED situations in tennis that have occurred in, say, the Tour de France, where legit *shananigans* (to use a word) have taken place in the past as far as *actual* doping, not the sort of "oops, something was in an over-the-counter product" issue that occurs in cases involving WTA/ATP athletes. They're not in any way the same, yet the Alphabets try to act as if they are in order to justify their own existence as a policing agent, which some believe might have been threatened had WADA *not* "reached a settlement" (???) with Sinner to avoid the case going to CAS and the organization's argument being completely obliterated.

Meanwhile, this (because it's nice to see someone else employing the "alphabet strategy")...



In the end...



kosova-font











I thought Green Day was appropriate for this week (and likely for the foreseeable future, for that matter).

And then there's this, a great thread of performances from Live Aid, most of which you rarely ever see. Truthfully, I didn't even realize that U2, Black Sabbath, the Beach Boys, Madonna and a few others were acts that were featured at the concert, which was now forty years ago. And this isn't a complete list of acts, either. Truly an amazing collection of musicians, some of which are already long gone by now, and some of which are winding down careers, but also a lot who are still out there performing today.








futuristic-fonts


kosova-font

















kosova-font

*2025 - MOST TOP 10 WINS*
5 - Madison Keys
3 - IGA SWIATEK
2 - ALONA OSTAPENKO
2 - Liudmila Samsonova

*2025 MOST DIFFERENT WTA FINALISTS BY COUNTRY*
6 - USA (Anisimova,Kessler,Keys,Krueger,Li,Pegula)
3 - RUS (Alexandrova,P.Kudermetova,Potapova)
1 - BEL,BLR,DEN,ITA,JPN,LAT,SUI,UKR

*UNITED STATES - WTA TITLES (active)*
10 - Madison Keys (2014-25)
8 - Coco Gauff (2019-24)
8 - Sloane Stephens (2015-24)
6 - Jessie Pegula (2019-24)
5 - Sofia Kenin (2019-20)
4 - Danielle Collins (2021-24)
3 - AMANDA ANISIMOVA (2019-25)
3 - Alison Riske-Amritraj (2014-21)
2 - Lauren Davis (2017-23)
2 - McCartney Kessler (2024-25)
2 - Bernarda Pera (2022)
--
ALSO: V.Williams (49)

*#1 WINS BY RUSSIANS - since 2012*
2012 #2 Sharapova d. Azarenka (Stuttgart F)
2012 #2 Sharapova d. Azarenka (WTA SF)
2016 #19 Kuznetsova d. S.Williams (Miami 4r)
2017 #26 Kasatkina d. Kerber (Sydney 2r)
2017 #16 Pavlyuchenkova d. Kerber (Monterrey F)
2017 #40 Makarova d. Kerber (Roland Garros 1r)
2018 #23 Kasatkina d. Wozniacki (St.Petersburg SF)
2024 #40 Kalinskaya d. Swiatek (Dubai SF)
2024 #16 Alexandrova d. Swiatek (Miami 4r)
2025 #26 Alexandrova d. Sabalenka (Doha 2r)
[active - #1 wins]
2 - Kasatkina
2 - ALEXANDROVA
1 - Kalinskaya
1 - Pavlyuchenkova

*WTA #1 WINS (42) - 2020-25*
6 - Elena Rybakina, KAZ
4 - Jessie Pegula, USA
4 - Aryna Sabalenka, BLR
3 - Coco Gauff, USA
2 - EKATERINA ALEXANDROVA, RUS
2 - Madison Keys, USA
2 - Barbora Krejcikova, CZE
[wins-by-nation, 2020-25]
13 - USA
7 - KAZ
5 - CZE
4 - BLR
3 - RUS
2 - ESP,FRA,POL
1 - BRA,CHN,LAT,UKR
--
LOSSES: 24-Swiatek, 11-Barty, 7-Sabalenka

*CAREER WTA DOUBLES TITLES - active*
35 - Hsieh Su-Wei
33 - Latisha Chan
33 - SARA ERRANI
30 - Bethanie Mattek-Sands
29 - Katerina Siniakova
28 - Kristina Mladenovic
26 - Timea Babos

*2025 OLDEST WTA FINALISTS*
30 - Jessie Pegula (Adelaide)
30 - Ekaterina Alexandrova (Linz - W)
[doubles/MX]
39 - Hsieh Su-wei (Australian Open)
37 - SARA ERRANI (Doha - W)
37 - Monica Niculescu (Hobart)
36 - Laura Siegemund (Adelaide)
36 - Zhang Shuai (Abu Dhabi)
35 - Alexandra Panova (Adelaide - W)

*2025 FIRST-TIME WTA 125 CHAMPS - no WTA titles*
Canberra - Aoi Ito, JPN (20, #126)
Cancun - EMILIANA ARANGO, COL (24, #169)

*2020-25 LOW-RANKED WTA 125 FINALISTS*
#543 Ajla Tomljanovic, AUS (2023 Florianopolis - W)
#433 Nuria Brancaccio, ITA (2022 Bari)
#432 Nina Stojanovic, SRB (2024 Colina - W)
#296 Katarzyna Kawa, POL (2024 Buenos Aires)
#292 Petra Marcinko, CRO (2024 Montreux)
#272 CARSON BRANSTINE, CAN (2025 Cancun)
#270 Francesca Jones, GBR (2024 San Luis Potosi)
#252 Fiona Ferro, FRA (2023 Barranquilla)

*2025 YOUNGEST WTA/125 SEMIFINALISTS*
17 - Mirra Andreeva (Brisbane)
18 - Maya Joint (Hobart)
[125]
19 - Alex Eala (Canberra)
18 - MAYA JOINT (Cancun)

*RECENT WTA WS THREE-PEATS*
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
2022-24 Roland Garros - Iga Swiatek (active)
2018-19/24 Wuhan - Aryna Sabalenka (active)







futuristic-fonts


kosova-font

When real world headlines read like The Onion…

[image or embed]

— Dan Rather (@thedanrather.bsky.social) February 15, 2025 at 1:06 PM


kosova-font

What a petty, little man

[image or embed]

— Ann Telnaes (@anntelnaes.bsky.social) February 10, 2025 at 12:29 PM


kosova-font



kosova-font



kosova-font



kosova-font



kosova-font






All for now.

posted by Todd.Spiker @ 11:58 PM 

2 Comments:

Blogger Todd.Spiker said...

Well, Raducanu finally got a win in Dubai, but it *was* against Sakkari, the current Patron Saint of Ending Losing Streaks. Still counts, though... sorta. ;)

Sun Feb 16, 05:49:00 PM EST  
Blogger Diane said...

The whole Raducanu thing is so puzzling, and I sometimes wonder if there's an unseen piece of the puzzle none of us knows about; I suspect there may be, and of course, there's the inevitable fallout from the "Michelle Wie effect."

At any rate, playing ALL those events and having all those coaches obviously is not working. I wish that someone with some vision (and common sense?) would step in and fix this.

Mon Feb 17, 09:37:00 AM EST  

Post a Comment

<< Home