Saturday, May 23, 2026

Wk.20- Sense, Sensibility and Emma (in Strasbourg)








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*WEEK 20 CHAMPIONS*
STRASBOURG, FRANCE (WTA 500; Red Clay Outdoor)
S: Emma Navarro/USA def. Victoria Mboko/CAN 6-0/5-7/6-2
WD: Gaby Dabrowski/Luisa Stefani (CAN/BRA) def. Ulrikke Eikeri/Quinn Gleason (NOR/USA) 7-5/6-4
RABAT, MOROCCO (WTA 250; Red Clay Outdoor)
S: Petra Marcinko/CRO def. Anhelina Kalinina/UKR 6-2/3-0 ret.
WD: Eudice Chong/Magali Kempen (HKG/BEL) def. Aldila Sutjiadi/Vera Zvonareva (INA/RUS) 6-2/2-6 [10-6]




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PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Emma Navarro/USA
...yeah, yeah. Navarro once again shined on what might be seen as an "inferior playing ground," i.e. in an "off-schedule" event taking place before the end of a bigger one that she already lost in, or (in this case) in the days leading up to a major when the vast majority of the top players are already on site preparing for their 1st Round slam match.

All true, but Navarro's Strasbourg title run wasn't your garden-variety "points snipe." For one, she needed it after having nearly fallen out of the Top 40 (after being in the Top 10 last July), starting '26 at 5-11 (posting just one QF, in Adelaide, along with ten 1r/2r eliminations) and pulling out of her home Charleston event due to ongoing "health struggles" over the past year and a half. She returned in Rome after a two-month absence, arrived in Strasbourg with just one match victory since since mid-February, and this week garnered (unwanted) attention on social media regarding her physical condition (yes, she *did* look noticeably less lean than we're usually accustomed to seeing her, assuredly an offshoot of her medical issues and inability to train as she normally would).

But all her issues and difficulties aside, Strasbourg showed a more in-form Navarro than we've seen in quite a while, as her success grew over the course of the week, resulting in her first career WTA clay title, first Top 10 win on the dirt, and an immediate pre-RG improvement of *14* spots in the rankings (from #39 to #25) that will surely help in the coming weeks.

After wins over Sara Bejlek and Iva Jovic (her first Top 20 win since def. Swiatek in Beijing last fall), Navarro rallied from a set and 6-5 down to defeat Zhang Shuai, then handled Ann Li in straights to reach her first WTA final on clay. She opened with a love 1st set win over Vicky Mboko in the final, then after failing to put away the match in two (she led 4-2 and had a MP at 5-4) went on to close out the Canadian teen in three, getting career Top 10 win #7.



Navarro's third WTA title puts her just one behind the mark for the most tour-level singles titles won by a former NCAA women's singles champion (trailing only the four won by both Lisa Raymond and Danielle Collins).
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RISERS: Victoria Mboko/CAN and Ann Li/USA
...winless on clay this season and with just one match (Madrid 1r vs. McNally) under her belt, Mboko was the only Top 10 player in action in Week 20, heading the draw in Strasbourg. Though the teenager, as was the case in the week before this year's AO, seemed to be playing through injury (a leg injury in January while reaching the Adelaide final, a pectoral issue this week), she got the necessary match play that (no matter what happens in Paris) at least keeps this spring from being a zero-point vaccuum for the Canadian.

Mboko posted increasingly good wins over Lois Boisson, Leylah Fernandez and Jaqueline Cristian in Strasbourg to reach her first tour-level clay final, her third WTA title match of the season. It's her fifth WTA final since August, and tenth overall (w/ five on the ITF circuit) since the start of 2025.

For the most part, that was where Mboko's encouraging week ended, though she did manage to rebound from dropping a love 1st set to Emma Navarro, holding on after falling down 4-2 in the 2nd, denying a MP at 5-4, and then carving out a fleeting opportunity (2 BP at 4-2 down in the 3rd) to potentially threaten to steal the match/title at the eleventh hour. But Navarro held firm, winning the decider at 6-2.

The loss drops Mboko to 0-3 in finals this season.

Last year, Mboko qualified and reached the RG 3rd Round, then made the Wimbledon MD as a LL, getting a 1st Round win.



Meanwhile, the clay court season arrived just in time for Li.

Though her best career results have come on hard courts (including all six of her tour finals), Li was just 5-8 on the season when the schedule turned to the dirt. Since then, her results have taken off. After reaching the QF in Rouen and the 4th Round in Madrid, getting a win over a retiring Iga Swiatek.

This week in Strasbourg, she played into her maiden WTA clay semi with wins over Maya Joint, Ekaterina Alexandrova and Marie Bouzkova. Against countrywoman Emma Navarro, she fell in straight sets, but will climb back into the Top 30 in the final pre-RG rankings as she's literally flipped her season numbers on the dirt (so far going 8-5).
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SURPRISE: Yasmine Kabbaj/MAR
...one never knows what will happen in one of the (usually underpopulated by top-ranked players) events that take place the week before the start of a major. Rabat filled that role this week, and Kabbaj proved to be the local star.

A former San Diego State Aztec collegiate player, the 22-year old Moroccan picked up this year where she left off in 2024, when she made her tour-level MD debut as a wild card in the event. This time around, in her fifth career WTA tournament (w/ additional Rabat qualifying appearances in 2022-23, as well as one in San Diego in '23), something finally clicked for Kabbaj, who used her wild card entry to produce the biggest week of her career.

Having upset Diane Parry (a 125 champ last week) in her most recent event (Saint-Malo 125) for her first career Top 100 win, Kabbaj continued her good form with MD victories over Berfu Cengiz (WTA MD win #1, and the first by a Moroccan player in a tour event since Nadia Lalami in Fes in 2011) and Tatjana Maria (nearly a Top 50 victory) to reach her first tour-level QF.

She almost reached the SF, as she had three MP vs. Jil Teichmann in their QF match-up, a three-hour contest that ended with Kabbaj dropping the final three points of a deciding tie-break after having led it 6-5.

Even with the missed (bigger) opportunity, Kabbaj will rise from #334 to her first Top 300 ranking.


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VETERAN: Anhelina Kalinina/UKR
...after missing six months last season, Kalinina has often been the best version of herself between the lines ever since. She quickly won a 125 crown in December, and has carried over her form into the new year, including reaching three straight 125 finals (winning two) then qualifying at both Madrid and Rome, reaching the 3rd Round in Spain.

In Rabat, Kalinina ran off wins over Simona Waltert, Yuliia Starodubtseva, Anna Bondar and Panna Udvardy to reach her third career WTA singles final, where she had a shot to make it *three* straight "weeks" (if you count Madrid and Rome's two-week runs as single stations on the schedule) with a singles champion from Ukraine. If she did, she'd also claim her first tour-level title.

But, with her appearance in the RG main draw coming up, Kalinina retired down 6-2/3-0 in the final vs. Petra Marcinko after having been treated for blisters on her feet/toes at the conclusion of the 1st set.

Even with the loss, she's 30-6 on the dirt this season, nearly raising her ranking back into the Top 60 going into Paris.

Here's Kalinina's post on her 29th birthday (filled w/ some good photos) from earlier this year...


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COMEBACK: Jil Teichmann/SUI
...a former world #21 with a series of nice big-event results (Cincinnati 1000 RU in '21, RG 4th Round in '22, and a pair of 1000 semis, one in Madrid four years ago), Teichmann didn't follow up her run to a tour-level final in Iasi last July, losing three of her next four matches before ending her season early. After a break from the tour that started last September, the Swiss returned in mid-April. Her appearance in Rabat was just her fifth event of the season.

Ranked #207 and in the draw with her protected ranking (just as at RG), Teichmann produced her first multi-win result since her final run in Romania, getting a trio of wins over Julia Grabher, Alycia Parks and Yasmine Kabbaj (saving 3 MP vs. the Moroccan). She finally fell in the semis to Petra Marcinko, a win short of her sixth career WTA final.


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FRESH FACE: Petra Marcinko/CRO
...in Rabat, though she had to escape her teen years before it happened, the now 20-year old Marcinko finally put together all the talent that highlighted the promise of her junior years (when she was the girls' #1 and won the AO singles title in '22), translating it into a tour-level singles title.

The Croatian started to make her move ten months ago, with her then-biggest career title in a 125 event in July. She went on to win three $100K titles in the fall/winter, improving to 11-1 in career ITF finals. After starting 2025 ranked in the #250s, she began 2026 at #84. In January, she made her slam MD debut at the Australian Open, getting there via automatic entry due to her ranking after having nine times lost in major qualifying attempts from 2023-25.

This past week, Marcinko posted wins over Vera Zvonareva (age 41) and Yelyzaveta Kotliar (age 19) to reach her maiden tour QF, then Jessica Bouzas Maneiro and Jil Teichmann to reach her first SF and final.

After winning the opening set in the title match vs. Anhelina Kalinina, Marcinko saw her opponent retire three games into the 2nd set after having been treated for blisters on her feet.

Marcinko's maiden win will lift her ranking 25 spots to a career-best #51. And away she goes?


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DOWN: Liudmila Samsonova/RUS
...whatever Samsonova's training patterns are in the offseason, she should think about a complete overhaul because her series of slow starts to *every* season since 2022 are really holding back a player who has -- somehow -- still managed to put together a string of campaigns since then that have included a slam QF and three Round of 16s, two 1000 finals and three QF, four WTA titles in eight final appearances, ten Top 10 wins, a 13-match winning streak (2022) and three Top 20 seasons (w/ another Top 30 finish).

The Hordette (by way of birth, though she also represented Italy at one point in her career, and has lived and practiced there most of her life, but don't bother telling Oliynykova, not that she'd listen anyway) fell to former countrywoman Dasha Kasatkina 7-5/6-3 in the 1st Round in Strasbourg, dropping to 7-12 on the season. The last two years, Samsonova's early-season slump finally *ended* in Strasbourg, and her results took off after that. That didn't happen this time.

Though it didn't apply in this match, she's also 0-6 in '26 in three-set matches. Meanwhile, she'll drop out of the Top 20 in the final rankings before the start of RG.

Samsonova's poor starts since 2022:

2022: 10-14 (until winning Washington in August)
2023: 8-9 (until a Madrid 4th Round)
2024: 5-11 (until a Strasbourg SF)
2025: 10-11 (until a Strasbourg RU)
2026: 7-12 (so far)

Even with those starts, she's not had a sub-.500 season in the bunch. Here are her season finishes:

2022: 20-3 (for 30-17)
2023: 26-15 (for 34-24)
2024: 21-12 (for 26-23)
2025: 20-12 (for 30-23)
2026: ???

Maybe Samsonova will turn things around yet again and end up with an above-average season on the whole, but she's really making things difficult for herself each and every year.
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ITF PLAYER: Tyra Grant/ITA
...Grant, 18, claimed the title at the biggest clay court challenger of the week at $75K Kosice (SVK), not dropping a set all event and defeating Germany's Caroline Werner 6-3/6-3 in the final to win her third ITF crown of the season (fifth in her career).

Grant got her first career tour-level MD win in Madrid over Elsa Jacquemot last month, the top-level high point of what has been a 15-4 clay court season so far for the rising Italian. She'll crack the Top 200 for the first time in the new rankings.

Three years ago at Roland Garros, Grant won her first of three junior doubles slam titles alongside then-fellow Bannerette Clervie Ngounoue. She'd ultimately win three girls' doubles slams (missing out only at the U.S. Open) in 2023-24, as well as reaching the '24 RG GD final (w/ Iva Jovic).


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DOUBLES: Gaby Dabrowski/Luisa Stefani, CAN/BRA
...the Strasbourg top seeds held their position to take the title, their fourth in seven tour-level finals together and second this year (with Dubai) after the end of Stefani's tremendous '25 partnership with Timea Babos (six finals, four titles and a WTAF runner-up).

The duo won a pair of MTB over Ruzic/Selekhmeteva (in the latter's last "flagless" event) and L.Kichenok/Krawczyk, then Alexandrova/Danilina and (in the final) Eikeri/Gleason (7-5/6-4).

It's Stefani's 14th career tour title, as she successfully defends the Strasbourg crown she won last year with Babos (that run included a SF walkover vs. Dabrowski/Routliffe), while it's Dabrowski's 22nd win at tour level. The Canadian was won in her last *six* WTA doubles finals.


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*TOP RG Q-ROUND PLAYERS*

1. Claire Liu, USA (25, #182)
...a girls' finalist at RG in 2017, Li dropped just six games over her three RG qualifying matches, allowing just two vs. Laura Pigossi in the Q1 before a combined four vs. two Q-round seeds in #26 Katarzyna Kawa (3) and #5 Lulu Sun (1).


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2. Kaitlin Quevedo, ESP (20, #127)
...the 20-year old Spaniard improved to 12-4 this clay season with wins over Nuria Brancaccio (7-5 3rd), Teodora Kostovic (3 sets) and Guiomar Maristany (from a set down). This spring has already seen Quevedo win a $75K crown, go 2-0 in ESP's 3-1 road win over SLO in the BJK Qualifiers and post a win over Venus Williams in Madrid. Now she'll make her slam MD debut.


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3. Sinja Kraus, AUT (24, #101)
...the #2 Q-seed, Kraus had to fight her way into the MD. After winning a three-setter over Celine Naef, the Pole came back from 4-2 down in the 3rd vs. Noma Noha Akugue before (finally) being able to take a breath in a 6-1/6-1 win over Anna-Lena Friedsam.


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4. Marina Bassols Ribera, ESP (26, #177)
...the Spaniard dropped no sets on her way to the MD, taking out Karolina Pliskova (a former RG semifinalist) and Aliaksandra Sasnovich (RG 4th Rd.) in straight sets.


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5. Wang Xiyu, CHN (25, #148)
...Wang's Q-round wins over Kristina Mladenovic, Storm Hunter and Polina Kudermetova improved her '26 mark to 24-2. In her six events this season, she's won three ITF titles, reached a challenger SF, and now this.


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=RG26 QUALIFIERS (*-slam MD debut)=
Guo Hanyu, CHN (28/#128)*
Sinja Kraus, AUT (24/#101)*
Ashlyn Krueger, USA (22/#107)
Linda Fruhvirtova, CZE (21/#150)
Claire Liu, USA (25/#182)
Elena Pridankina, RUS (20/#220)*
Lucia Bronzetti, ITA (27/#173)
Maja Chwalinska, POL (24/#116)
Mayar Sherif, EGY (30/#130)
Sloane Stephens, USA (33/#361)
Kaitlin Quevedo, ESP (20/#127)*
Susan Bandecchi, SUI (27/#215)*
Rebecca Sramkova, SVK (29/#121)
Marina Bassols Ribera, ESP (26/#177)
Alina Korneeva, RUS (18/#120)
Wang Xiyu, CHN (25/#148)

*RECENT RG "Q-PLAYER OF THE WEEK" WINNERS*
2016 Viktorija Golubic, SUI
2017 Marketa Vondrousova, CZE
2018 Francesca Schiavone, ITA
2019 Elena Rybakina, KAZ
2020 Mayar Sherif, EGY
2021 Varvara Lepchenko, USA
2022 Jule Niemeier, GER
2023 Mirra Andreeva, RUS
2024 Jule Niemeier, GER
2025 Nao Hibino, JPN
2026 Claire Liu, USA

=LOW-RANKED 2026 SLAM QUALIFIERS=
#897 - Sloane Stephens, USA (AO)
#697 - Bai Zhuoxuan, CHN (AO)
#363 - Storm Hunter, AUS (AO)
#361 - Sloane Stephens, USA (RG)
#220 - Elena Pridankina, RUS (RG)
#215 - Susan Bandecchi, SUI (RG)

=MULTI-SLAM QUALIFIERS IN 2026=
2 - Linda Fruhvirtova, CZE (AO/RG)
2 - Sloane Stephens, USA (AO/RG)




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1. Strasbourg 1st Rd. - Zhang Shuai def. Cristina Bucsa
...2-6/7-6(7)/7-5. After getting a pass in the MD as a lucky loser, Zhang's luck proved even, well, "luckier" in the 1st Round.

Bucsa led this one 6-2/5-2, served at 5-3, and held a MP both at 5-4 and 6-5 before being forced into a TB, where she then led 5-1 and held three more MP at 6-3. Zhang won the breaker 9-7.

In the 3rd, the Spaniard served for the win for a third time, at 5-4, but couldn't close things out. In game 11, Zhang saved six BP and held to take a 6-5 lead, then broke Bucsa to end the match a game later.

With this loss, Bucsa drops to 1-5 since her maiden tour title run in Merida. So far, she's got a "Merida sandwich" of a season going on: she started the season at 1-5, went 5-0 in Merida, and has gone 1-5 since.

Zhang's luck didn't last, as she served for the match while leading Emma Navarro 6-2/6-5, and held a 5-3 lead in the 2nd set TB before falling in their QF by a 2-6/7-6(5)/6-2 score.


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The week before a major, at a 250 event, in Morocco. You just knew that the "first time..." marks were going to flow freely.

Some maiden tour-level accomplishments on the week...

2. Rabat 1st Rd. - Yasmine Kabbaj def. Berfu Cengiz
...7-6(4)/6-3. The #334-ranked, 22-year old from Morocco, a former San Diego State Aztec player (in 2024 she was voted the Mountain West Conference Player of the Year) takes down Turkey's Cengiz for her first WTA MD victory.

Kabbaj has won multiple ITF circuit titles, and just last month upset Diane Parry in a 125 event not long before the Pastry won a 125 title in Paris.




Rabat 1st Rd. - Sada Nahimana def. Ajla Tomljanovic
...6-3/7-5. Meanwhile, Nahimana has made Rabat her personal site for career firsts. In the 2023 event, she became the first player from Burundi to play in a tour-level MD match. Last year, she got her maiden WTA 1st Round win there. This year she notched her first career Top 100 win with a victory over Tomljanovic.



Of course, such a result has been par for the course this spring when it's come to Tomljanovic as, in the match before her loss to #231 Nahimana, she fell in Rome to #427 Noemi Basiletti. She's 1-6 on the dirt this year, with triple-digit losses to (though formerly *higher* ranked) world #359 (Sorribes Tormo), #127 (Jeanjean), #117 (Galfi) and #115 (Vekic). Her only win? Over #899 Marta Lombardini in Rome qualifying.

Rabat 1st Rd. - Yelzyaveta Kotliar def. Francesca Jones
...2-6/6-3/6-4. The 19-year old Ukrainian (#528), in her second tour-level MD (two in a row in Rabat), gets WTA win #1 over the Brit.



Kotliar is probably best known for her committing a cardinal sin as a junior a couple of years ago when for a moment she acted as if she were a competitor in an international sporting event rather than a then-16 year old political tool and accidentally shook the hand of her opponent following a match. (Don't worry, she was forced to publicly repent soon afterward to avoid being condemned for all eternity.)
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3. Rabat QF - Jil Teichmann def. Yasmine Kabbaj
...6-1/5-7/7-6(6). Kabbaj's historic run nearly (and probably should've) had still another chapter, as she led Teichmann 4-2 in the 3rd, held two MP on serve at 5-4, 40/15 and then a third when leading 6-5 in the deciding TB.

Teichmann swept the final three points to get the win, reaching her first tour SF since her runner-up in Iasi last July.


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4. Strasbourg Final - Emma Navarro def. Victoria Mboko
...6-0/5-7/6-2. Navarro outplays Mboko in the first USA/CAN tour-level singles final since Bianca Andreescu defeated Serena Williams to take the U.S. Open title in 2019.

In this one, after not getting on the board in the 1st, Mboko turned around a 4-2 2nd set deficit to force a 3rd (saving a MP at 5-4), then had the chance to do the same in the 3rd. Navarro led the decider 4-1, but Mboko had a pair of BP at 4-2, only to see Navarro hold on and find her way to the finish.

This makes it three consecutive years with a title for Navarro. She's the fifth woman (so far) this year to clock in with a '26 win to extend their run to three seasons. She's the only one not currently ranked in the Top 8 (w/ Sabalenka, Rybakina, Pegula and Andreeva).


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5. Roland Garros Q3 - Sloane Stephens def. Leyre Romero Gormaz
...3-6/6-2/6-1. Ranked #361, 33-year old Stephens fights her way back from a set down to reach the MD of the tournament where she made her slam MD debut (2011, also as a qualifier), eventually reaching the final in 2018. She also made her way through qualifying to reach the AO MD (her 9th straight) in January.

Though she's never won the title, RG remains -- by a wide margin -- Stephens' winningest major, with 35 wins (second is the U.S., w/ just 24) to her credit. She lost her maiden slam MD match fifteen years ago in Paris, to the late Elena Baltacha.



Stephens is one of two women to qualify at both the AO and RG this year, along with Linda Fruhvirtova.
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6. Roland Garros Q2 - Susan Bandecchi def. Dominika Salkova 6-3/4-6/7-5
Roland Garros Q3 - Lucia Bronzetti def. Katarina Zavatska 3-6/7-6(4)/3-0 ret.
Roland Garros Q2 - Sinja Kraus def. Noma Noha Akugue 6-7(5)/6-0/7-5
...two of the sixteen RG qualifiers saved MP along the way, while another battled back from a break down in the 3rd.

Bandecchi saved two MP vs. Crusher Salkova en route to her slam MD debut thirteen years into her career (she's been participating in slam qualifying since 2021), while Bronzetti faced down a set and 5-4, 40/love deficit vs. Zavatska, saving triple MP and getting the break, giving it right back, and then breaking the Ukrainian again (on BP #4) as she served for the match at 6-5. After Bronzetti won the breaker 7-4, Zavatska was forced to retire three games into the 3rd.



Meanwhile, Kraus found herself 4-2 down in the 3rd against Noha Akugue before rallying to win, then a round later qualified to reach her maiden MD at a major.
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7. Strasbourg 1st Rd. - Li Na def. Maya Joint
...6-1/6-2. Watch out, Venus. You've got a challenger for the longest active tour-level losing streak. While Williams has lost ten straight back to last season, Joint has now dropped nine in a row just this year.

A year ago at this point, the Aussie was winning her maiden tour title (the first of two she won in '25) in Rabat.
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8. Strasbourg 1st Rd. - Dasha Kasatkina def. Liudmila Samsonova
...7-5/6-3. While Samsonova's season continues to be very slow out of the gate, Kasatkina's is finally starting to heat up.

The Aussie was just 4-7 in February and dealing with a hip injury, but the clay has offered her a lifeline. She followed up a 125 title run in Week 19 by qualifying in Strasbourg and reaching the QF. After a three-set loss to Jaqueline Cristian, Kasatkina is still a much-improved 9-2 on the dirt this spring.


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9. Rabat Final - Eudice Chong/Magali Kempen def. Aldila Sutjiadi/Vera Zvonareva
...6-3/2-6 [10-6]. While Waffle Kempen claims career title #2, Chong's maiden WTA win makes her the first Hong Kong player to win a tour-level title since Patricia Hy in 1986.

Hy was Cambodian-born, and by 1988 was playing for Canada, becoming a Canadian citizen in '91, and later playing as Patricia Hy-Boulais after getting married.

Had 41-year old Zvonareva shared the title, she'd have been the oldest WTA champion since 45-year old Kveta Peschke's Cincinnati/NYC doubles title in 2020. Hsieh Su-wei has already been crowned a fortysomething title-winner in 2026, taking the Brisbane doubles in January.


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10. Roland Garros Q1 - Oceane Dodin def. Kayla Day
...6-4/2-6/7-6(15-13). Dodin missed nine months in '25 with an inner-ear condition that caused vertigo, finally returning late in the year. She only played eleven matches in the season.

After starting '26 with a qualifier-to-semifinalist run in a $50K challenger, Dodin has had a difficult time generating results, but finally got her highlight here by outlasting Day in a 28-point MTB during which she saved a pair of MP before winning on her own fifth MP (unfortunately, via an ugly second serve from Day).



Dodin's run ended a round later, though, as she got just one game vs. Aliaksandra Sasnovich, sealing her fate as one of the thirteen French women who took part in RG qualifying without *any* of them playing their way into the MD.
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1. Roland Garros Q2 - Marina Bassols Ribera def. Karolina Pliskova
...6-3/6-2. Pliskova has been one of the most intriguing stories of the clay season, but she won't continue her story in the RG main draw.

The 34-year old Czech's spring resurgence saw her reach the QF in Linz and Madrid, and the Rome Round of 16, but her Q2 loss to Bassols Ribera put an early end to her run in Paris.

Pliskova made her slam MD debut at Roland Garros in 2012 as a 20-year old, having made it through qualifying in her seventh attempt to reach a major MD. She lost in the 1st Round to Marion Bartoli. Five years later, she was playing in the semifinals.
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2. Roland Garros Q1 - Matilde Jorge def. Elvina Kalieva 7-6(4)/7-5
Roland Garros Q1 - Francisca Jorge def. You Xiaodi 6-2/6-3
...neither of the Jorge sisters played their way into the Roland Garros MD (they lost in the Q2), but both notched their maiden slam qualifing wins with Q1 victories in Paris.

It was 26-year old Francisca's fifth opening round qualifying match at a major, but only the first in 22-year old Matilde's career.


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RG26 "PROP PICK" PREDICTIONS
1. The RG26 champion will be a first-time winner in Paris. So that would mean anyone but Coco Gauff, Iga Swiatek, Barbora Krejcikova or Alona Ostapenko.
2. After Lois Boisson alone won five matches during her SF run at RG25, *collectively* the Pastries will fall short of that number at RG26
3. A #20+ seed will reach the QF for the first time since 2022 In 2022, #20 Kasatkina was a semifinalist.
4. A potential Swiatek/Ostapenko 3rd Round encounter is on deck (Ostapenko leads the h2h 6-0) ...it won't happen
5. A Ukrainian will reach at least the SF It'd be hard for more than one to do it, but a potential Svitolina/Kostyuk QF match-up would assure that *one* would get there.
HM- Dark Horses (4r/QF??): #15 Marta Kostyuk (Madrid champ) is an obvious choice, and could get the chance for something big by facing Swiatek in the Round of 16; #28 Anastasia Potapova has had a great clay season (Linz RU, Madrid SF, Rome 4r), and could get Coco Gauff in the 3rd Round; but how about #12 Linda Noskova? The Czech is in Ansimova's section, and the #6 seed hasn't played since Miami. Noskova could face the possible Zheng/Mertens winner in the 3rd Round.











Sure, Iga Swiatek has traditionally been very, very good on clay. But... I don't know, it seems an indictment of any clay court "Power Ranking" list (especially one posted heading into a major) when the person in the *#1* position hasn't reached a clay court final in *two years* and is 2-5 in her last seven meetings vs. Top 10 players on the surface. I mean, don't "Power Rankings" exist simply to take the *curent* temperature of the players/teams in a particular sport (and is the *only* reason for them to exist at all, really)?

Based on this list's logic, would Rafa still be atop the men's list?

Meanwhile, Madrid champ Kostyuk (12-0 this clay season) isn't on the ten-player list, but Madison Keys (one win at our level on red clay in '26) is at #9.

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The exodus continues, as Oksana Selekhmeteva is now represeting Spain. She plays Kostyuk in the 1st Round of RG. So, still no handshake there.



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— Emily Jane Rothwell 🖤🌸🖋️ (@emjanerothwell.bsky.social) May 12, 2026 at 3:31 PM







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*RG26 MAIN DRAW*
=most by nation (of 37 in original MD)=
19 - USA
9 - CZE,FRA,RUS
7 - UKR
6 - AUS,ESP
5 - CHN,GER,SUI
4 - AUT,POL
3 - CRO,GBR,HUN,ITA,ROU
2 - BEL,CAN,COL,JPN,KAZ
1 - ARG,BLR,BRA,DEN,EGY,GRE,INA,LAT
1 - MEX,MNE,PHI,SLO,SVK,TUR,UZB
[age groups]
9 - age 19 and under
96 - age 20-29
19 - age 30-34
4 - age 35+

*RG26 MD...*
=youngest=
17 - Ksenia Efremova, FRA (WC) - DOB: April 28, 2009
17 - Emerson Jones, AUS (WC) - DOB: July 7, 2008
18 - Lilli Tagger, AUT - DOB: February 17, 2008
18 - Iva Jovic, USA - DOB: December 6, 2007
18 - Alina Korneeva, RUS (Q) - DOB: June 23, 2007
19 - Mirra Andreeva, RUS - DOB: April 29, 2007
19 - Tereza Valentova, CZE - DOB: February 20, 2007
19 - Akasha Urhobo, USA (WC) - DOB: January 19, 2007
19 - Victoria Mboko, CAN - DOB: August 26, 2006
=oldest=
38 - Tatjana Maria, GER - DOB: August 8, 1987
37 - Laura Siegemund, GER - DOB: March 4, 1988
37 - Zhang Shuai, CHN - DOB: January 21, 1989
36 - Sorana Cirstea, ROU - DOB: April 7, 1990
34 - Magda Linette, POL - DOB: February 12, 1992

=MAKING SLAM MD DEBUTS=
=AUTOMATIC ENTRY MD=
AO - Petra Marcinko, CRO
AO - Oleksandra Oliynykova, UKR
RG - Lilli Tagger, AUT
RG - Hanne Vandewinkel, BEL

=WC=
AO - none
RG - Ksenia Efremova, FRA
RG - Alice Tubello, FRA
RG - Akasha Urhobo, USA

=Q=
AO - Nikola Bartunkova, CZE
AO - Linda Klimovicova, POL
AO - Guiomar Maristany, ESP
AO - Himeno Sakatsume, JPN
AO - Lanlana Tararudee, THA
RG - Susan Bandecchi, SUI
RG - Guo Hanyu, CHN
RG - Sinja Kraus, AUT
RG - Elina Pridankina, RUS
RG - Kaitlin Quevedo, ESP

=PR=
AO - Mananchaya Sawangkaew, THA
RG - none

**CAREER SLAM #1 SEEDS - active**
11 - Iga Swiatek
6 - ARYNA SABALENKA
3 - Victoria Azarenka
2 - Naomi Osaka
2 - Karolina Pliskova
1 - Venus Williams
--
ALSO: Wozniacki-6




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*2026 FIRST-TIME WTA CHAMPIONS*
Abu Dhabi - Sara Bejlek, CZE (20/#101)
Merida - Cristina Bucsa, ESP (28/#63)
Rabat - PETRA MARCINKO, CRO (20/#76)
[doubles]
Rouen - Jesika Maleckova, CZE (31)
Rabat - EUDICE CHONG, HKG (30)

*2026 FIRST-TIME WTA FINALISTS*
Sara Bejlek, CZE (#101/20 = Abu Dhabi)=W
Taylor Townsend, USA (#119/29 = Austin)
Yuliia Starodubtseva, UKR (#89/26 = Charleston)
Panna Udvardy, HUN (#92/27 = Bogota)
Veronika Podrez, UKR (#209/19 = Rouen)
PETRA MARCINKO, CRO (#76/20 = Rabat)=W
[doubles]
Dominika Salkova, CZE (Ostrava)
Isabelle Haverlag, NED (Merida)
Magdalena Frech, POL (Charleston)
Anastasia Tikhonova, RUS (Bogota)
Jesika Maleckova, CZE (Linz)

*2026 WTA DOUBLES TITLES*
4 - Katerina Siniakova
4 - Taylor Townsend
2 - GABY DABROWSKI
2 - Zhang Shuai
2 - LUISA STEFANI
[duos]
3...Siniakova/Townsend
2...DABROWSKI/STEFANI
[2020-26 - individuals]
29 - Katerina Siniakova (1/6/6/3/5/4/4)
15 - Barbora Krejcikova (1/5/3/4/1/1/0)
15 - Elise Mertens (1/4/2/2/3/2/1)
15 - Taylor Townsend (1/0/0/3/3/4/4)
14 - LUISA STEFANI (1/1/2/3/1/4/2)
13 - GABY DABROWSKI (0/1/3/2/2/3/2)
13 - Nicole Melichar-Martinez (2/2/2/0/3/3/1)
[2020-26 - duos]
14..Krejcikova/Siniakova (1/5/3/3/1/1/0)
9...Errani/Paolini (0/0/0/1/4/4/0)
8...Aoyama/Shibahara (1/5/0/2/0/0/0)
7...Dabrowski/Routliffe (0/0/0/2/2/3/0)
7...Siegemund/Zvonareva (1/0/2/4/0/0/0)
6...Siniakova/Townsend (0/0/0/0/2/1/3)
5...Gauff/Pegula (0/0/3/2/0/0/0)
5...Hsieh/Mertens (0/2/0/0/3/0/0)
5...Hsieh/Strycova (4/0/-/1 ret.)
5...L.Kichenok/Ostapenko (0/0/2/0/3/0/0)
5...V.Kudermetova/Mertens (0/1/2/0/0/2/0)
4...Babos/Stefani (0/0/0/0/0/4/0)
4...DABROWSKI/STEFANI (0/1/1/0/0/0/2)
4...Danilina/Khromacheva (0/0/0/0/4/0/0)

*2026 OLDEST WTA WD FINALISTS*
41 - VERA ZVONAREVA (Rabat)
41 - Vera Zvonareva (Dubai)
40 - Hsieh Su-wei (Doha)
40 - Hsieh Su-wei (Brisbane)-W
38 - Sara Errani (Miami)
37 - Laura Siegemund (Dubai)
37 - Zhang Shuai (Stuttgart)
37 - Zhang Shuai (Linz)-W
36 - Zhang Shuai (AO)-W)
36 - Zhang Shuai (Adelaide)-W
36 - Sorana Cirstea (Linz)-W
[duos]
73 - Linz: Cirstea/Zhang (36/37)-W
72 - Rabat: SUTJIADI/ZVONAREVA (31/41)
68 - Dubai: Siegemund/Zvonareva (41/37)

*NCAA CHAMPIONS IN 2020s*
[women's team]
2020 - DNP [North Carolina #1 when season suspended]
2021 Texas
2022 Texas
2023 North Carolina
2024 Texas A&M
2025 Georgia
2026 Texas A&M
[women's season #1]
2020 [Ashley Lahey, Pepperdine #1 when season suspended]
2021 Estela Perez-Somarriba, Miami
2022 Peyton Stearns, Texas
2023 Fiona Crawley, North Carolina
2024 Mary Stoiana, Texas A&M
2025 Dasha Vidmanova, Georgia
2026 Lucciana Perez, Texas A&M
[NCAA Tournament singles champion]
2020 - DNP
2021 Emma Navarro, Virginia
2022 Peyton Stearns, Texas
2023 Tian Fangran, UCLA
2024 Alexa Noel, Miami-F
2024/25 Dasha Vidmanova, Georgia
2025/26 Reese Brantmeier, North Carolina
[NCAA Tournament doubles champion]
2020 - DNP
2021 Makenna Jones / Elizabeth Scotty, North Carolina
2022 Jaeda Daniel / Nell Miller, N.C. State
2023 Fiona Crawley / Carson Tanguilig, North Carolina
2024 Dasha Vidmanova / Aysegul Mert, Georgia
2024-25 Melodie Collard / Elaine Chervinsky, Virginia
2025-26 Gabbi Broadfoot / Tori Osuigwe , N.C. State

*NCAA WOMEN'S Div.I SINGLES CHAMPIONS - WTA TITLES*
[w/ NCAA title year]
4 - Lisa Raymond (1992-93)
4 - Danielle Collins (2014,2016)
3 - Patty Fendick (1986-87)
3 - Kathy Jordan (1979)
3 - EMMA NAVARRO (2021)
2 - Alycia Moulton (1982)
2 - Peyton Stearns (2022)






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All for now.

posted by Todd.Spiker @ 6:22 PM 

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