Thursday, August 13, 2026

Wk.32- Iga with an "Eh"

Summertime Swiatek strikes again...









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*WEEK 32 CHAMPIONS*
TORONTO, (ONTARIO) CANADA (WTA 1000; Hard Outdoor)
S: Iga Swiatek/POL def. Elena Rybakina/KAZ 6-2/6-3
WD: Katerina Siniakova/Zhang Shuai (CZE/CHN) def. Sara Errani/Nicole Melichar-Martinez (ITA/USA) 6-3/6-4




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PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Iga Swiatek/POL
...finally, signs of renewed life. Just in time, too.

Occurring just before her Cincinnati title defense, Swiatek's title run in Toronto -- the first in her career at the event, after having already won 7 of the other 8 1000 events at least once -- either offers the new world #5 (up from #8) an equitable exchange of points, or maybe the chance to get on the sort of roll that might change the perception of her entire season, ala her Wimbledon/Cincinnati stretch *last* summer.

Swiatek came into the event having not reached a final in eleven months, nor won a tournament in nearly a full year, a drought almost as long as the title-less one between her '24 RG and '25 Wimbledon wins. She'd gone 0-4 vs. Top 10 competition on hard court this year, and was 1-5 overall in '26 (1-7 in her last eight dating back to last season, and 2-9 since she won Cincinnati last summer).

It was crazy to think that Swiatek wasn't *capable* of reclaiming, either long-term or temporarily (we'll see which one it turns out to be), her championship form but her recent history made every round one "prove it" exhibition after another, with a few matches even doubling-up on the challenge by forcing Swiatek to clear the very sort of hurdles that have so often in previous events suddenly stopped cold what had been good starts that proved to be all too fleeting.

After quick wins over Sara Bejlek (love & 3) and Viktorija Golubic (2 & 1), Swiatek's most important win of the week may have come when she recovered from winning just *one* point on serve in the 1st set vs. Marta Kostyuk to take out the Ukrainian in three sets. Recent versions of Swiatek might have gone down in flames after such a horrid start.

A 2 & 1 victory over Diana Shnaider sent Swiatek into just her second SF of the season (w/ Rome), where she again had to recover against a Ukrainian foe as Elina Svitolina dominated the 2nd set after dropping the 1st, then finally broke through in the 3rd (on her sixth BP of the set) with a break of serve to lead 3-2.

Swiatek then benefited from an instant collapse on Svitolina's part from that moment forward, as the veteran lost ten straight points and 11 of the final 12 (only scoring on a Swiatek DF) in a loss similar to many of the Ukrainian's late-stage crumbles at the height of her career.

Against a tired Elena Rybakina in the final, Swiatek started well, and never wavered. The Kazakh, after a late night match followed by a (later) afternoon start for the final, could never quite find her footing in the match. But credit still goes to Swiatek for not hitting a bad stretch that might have allowed Rybakina to re-light the flame. As it was, it merely flickered on occasion, while Swiatek won 6-2/6-3 to pick up her 26th career title and notch back-to-back Top 10 wins for the first time in almost a year (in the Cincy SF/F over Rybakina and Paolini).

She's 12-2 in 1000 level finals, and has now won eight of the ten existing 1000 events (she's missing only Dubai, where she was a finalist in '23, and Wuhan).

Swiatek, after gradually falling back into the pack just outside the top players seeking to make the WTAF field, rises back into contention with her Toronto win, climbing to #10 in the Race standings.
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RISERS: Elena Rybakina/KAZ and Diana Shnaider/RUS
...one can be of two minds about Rybakina's week-plus in Toronto. For one, she finally managed to shake free of her summer malaise and put up the sort of result that sparked anew her potential quest to replace Aryna Sabalenka at #1; but that run only occurred after she found her back pressed firmly against the wall on multiple occasions, lighting a competitive fire that brought out the sort of dominant stretches we saw from her over multiple *events* down the stretch of 2025 and into January of '26.

All that extra work to reach the final did her no favors once she got there, as Rybakina was never able to re-ignite her game against Iga Swiatek with the title on the line. In all, the oddly scheduled event made poor use of its calendar, as Rybakina was forced to bear the brunt of a program that saw her play the QF-SF-F on successive days even with the event's week-plus running time, then having to play the final in an albeit late-starting *day session* match that began at 6 p.m. on Thursday after not having finished up her late night match and post-SF obligations on Wednesday evening until 1 a.m. on Final Day.

Whomever it was who'd played the late match on Wednesday was going to be greatly disadvantaged the following day, and that person turned out to be Rybakina, whose 6-2/6-3 loss to Swiatek prevented her from getting tantalizingly close to #1 Sabalenka in the rankings (she'd been just four points behind at #2 w/ the win).

Before the loss in the final, though, Rybakina had shown great fight. She defeated Dasha Kasatkina in three sets, then after a straight sets win over Ann Li the Kazakh staged a comeback from a 3-0, double-break deficit in the 3rd set vs. Liudmila Samsonova. Rybakina caught Naomi Osaka after trailing by a set and 4-2, saving four BP in the 3rd at 3-2, then reached the final after rallying after dropping the 1st set to Coco Gauff in the SF (winning 10 of 12 games from 7-5/2-2 down to get the win, helped along by too many Gauff errors).



Rybakina started the year at 11-1 after winning her last eleven matches in 2025, pairing her WTAF title with the AO. Since then, she's gone just 3-2 in majors, and was only 3-3 during the grass season (w/ a 3r exit at SW19). Her only additional title came in the 500 in Stuttgart.

With her AO title in hand, Rybakina could still reach #1 before having to defend her big 4Q points cache from 2025, but it would have been a far easier task -- thanks to Sabalenka's own (lack of) recent results -- had she been able to leave Toronto with the title.



Meanwhile, after reaching her maiden major SF at Roland Garros in the spring, Shnaider lost four of five matches, including a 1-3 stint on the grass. But the return to hard courts has allowed her to pick up steam once again. Her QF run in Toronto, on the heels of her Washington semifinal, gives the Hordette a 5-2 mark on summer hard courts.

After prevailing over Rebecca Sramkova in three sets, Shnaider ousted countrywoman Anna Kalinskaya *and* Jessie Pegula by identical 6-3/6-3 scores, with the latter win notching her third Top 10 win of the season (over #1 Sabalenka, then-#2 Gauff and now #3 Pegula) and putting her into her third career 1000 QF (second in Canada, after a '24 SF).

Shnaider couldn't crack an in-form Iga Swiatek, though, notching just three total games. Still, she'll climb three spots to #14 in the new rankings, her best position since June 2025. She reached a career-best #11 in May of last year.


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SURPRISE: Caty McNally/USA
...McNally didn't reach the second half of action in Toronto, but the Bannerette made her presence felt over the opening three rounds.

In a wildly-swinging affair vs. Tatjana Maria, McNally lost a 4-0 1st set lead vs. the German, who won six straight games to take the opener. But McNally then turned around a 4-2 deficit in the 2nd set, saving a MP at 6-5 before racing to a 6-1 TB lead and, eventually, a three-set victory. She then rallied from 5-1 down in the 1st set to upset Linda Noskova in straight sets in the Czech's first match since her Wimbledon title run. It's McNally's second career Top 10 win, with both victories coming this season (after a win over Mboko in Madrid).



McNally didn't get the win over Alex Eala in the 3rd Round, becoming the Filipina's seventh straight opponent to fall, but she denied her when she served for the match in the 2nd set, breaking Eala in her last two service games to force a deciding set. In the 3rd, McNally dropped her own first service game, though, and then never was able to carve out a BP chance the rest of the way in a 6-4 loss.

Still, 2026 is proving to be a stand-up year for McNally, who in addition to her first two Top 10 victories has also cracked the Top 50 (in June), and reached four tour-level QF. She's posted MD wins in five consecutive majors, in four straight (and 7 of her last 8) 1000 events, and her Round of 16 finish this year in Madrid is her best ever 1000/slam result.

McNally's 3rd Round result in Toronto matches her similar result a year ago in Montreal, her best results in consecutive years in any 1000 event (counting the alternating-year Canadian events as "one" annual tournament) in her career.
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VETERAN: Elina Svitolina/UKR
...despite leading and being near the top of almost every tour stat involving success in '26, Svitolina is currently trying to bounce back from a summer downturn. The Ukrainian won Rome and reached the RG semis this spring, but since then has battled injury, fell in the 1st Round of Wimbledon and was one of Alex Eala's victims en route to the title in Washington.

Svitolina had to stage a rally from a set and 3-1 deficit vs. Jessica Bouzas Maneiro in the 2nd Round in Toronto to avoid another early exit. She did just that, then ran off dominant wins over Anastasia Potapova (1 & 1) and Amanda Anisimova (2 & 4) before coming back from a set down to take out Ekaterina Alexandrova and reach her tour-leading seventh SF of the season.

Looking to tie the tour lead by reaching her fourth '26 final, Svitolina bounced back from dropping the opening set to Iga Swiatek, dominating the Pole in a 6-1 2nd and then fighting to take a break lead in the 3rd, finally getting the edge by converting on her sixth BP chance over Swiatek's first three service games in the set to take a 3-2 led.

But Svitolina's game ran into a ditch from that point forward as she dropped her last two service games (putting up just a single point), dropped ten straight points overall (and 11 of the final 12, only getting a DF gift from Swiatek on her first MP), and the final four games of the match to lose a 6-3 decider.

Svitolina's 41 match wins still lead the tour this season, and in the current #4 spot in the Points Race she's poised to make her first WTAF appearance since 2019 (when she reached the final after taking the title in '18). But the sort of brilliance/breakdown combo that took Svitolina out vs. Swiatek is precisely why she didn't win that elusive major in her "peak" years in the late 2010s, and it's also why she likely can't be "trusted" to be able to hold things together for *seven* matches to claim that missing prize in this latter stage of her career, either.
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COMEBACKS: Liudmila Samsonova/RUS and Ekaterina Alexandrova/RUS
...the Samsonova Flip added more steam in Toronto, but fell short of putting a *huge* gust of win behind the Hordette's annual back-half surge.

Off a season-turning Wimbledon 3rd Round, then a QF in Washington following her wedding day, Samsonova put up three more wins in Canada over Janice Tjen, Barbora Krejcikova and Maya Joint. In the 4th Round, she rallied from a set down vs. Elena Rybakina and led by a double-break at 3-0 in the 3rd before the world #2 averted her own (latest summertime) disaster to get the win.

The upset would have put Samsonova into a third QF in four years in Canada (she reached the final in '23) and a victory over a world #2 would have tied her career-best win (#2 Sabalenka, also in Canada in '23). She's still seeking her first Top 10 win since *last* year's grass court season.



Still, Toronto represents Samsonova's third straight mulit-win event, after previously this season having had five and six-match losing streaks en route to her annual slow start (8-16 this time). Over the first six months of 2026, Samsonova fell from #17 to start the year (she was #19 as recently as late March) to #70 in late July and into the opening days of August.

With her recent run, she's nearly climbed back into the Top 40.

A refresher on Samsonova's annual slow starts since 2022, and her mid-year turnarounds that have allowed her to ultimately post successive successful seasons...

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: 8-16 (until a Wimbledon 3rd Rd.)

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: 7-3 so far (15-19)





Samsonova's countrywoman, Alexandrova, though still ranked inside the Top 20, hasn't exactly had a season to write home about one year after she produced her career season over the course of 2025. She came into Toronto at just 11-18 on the year, fresh from Memphis and a 3rd set, heat-related retirement against 16-year old eventual champ Kristina Liutova in the 1st Round.

After an opening win over Camila Osorio, Alexandrova rallied from a set down to defeat Talia Gibson, then added to Aryna Sabalenka's underwhelming spring/summer with a her third career win over a world #1. She fell in the QF in a three-set contest vs. Elina Svitolina, but her final eight finish marks just Alexandrova's second QF+ result in a 1000 event over the past two years (w/ '25 Doha SF).

It's her sixth QF at the 1000 level in her career, though she's yet to reach that stage in 37 career MD appearances in majors.


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FRESH FACE: Alina Korneeva/RUS
...while her fellow 2023 AO girls' singles finalist Mirra Andreeva has gone on to great career heights while still in her teens, 19-year old Korneeva -- who won *both* the AO and RG junior crowns that season -- has seen her pro career often be sidelined by injury, from wrist surgery to an abductor injury that have forced her to remain in the shadows.

But the Hordette is finally coming out of the darkness in '26, winning her first 125 title, cracking the Top 100 and making her MD debuts at both RG and SW19 (getting her first slam win in Paris).

Off her Wimbledon qualifying run and tour-level Athens QF, Korneeva notched a qualifying win in Toronto to reach the MD, then played into her first 1000 4th Round with wins over Polina Kudermetova (who retired after dropping the first nine games of the match), Emma Navarro (2 & 2) and Iva Jovic (3 & 4, for her first career Top 20 win). Korneeva went out next to Coco Gauff, but is set to rise from #89 to a new career high around (and maybe just inside) the Top 70 in the next rankings.

After Toronto, she'd gone 10-3 over her last three events. Korneeva pulled out of the Cincinnati qualifying on Wednesday after having gotten an opening round win.


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DOWN: Aryna Sabalenka/BLR
...Sabalenka remains #1 in the rankings, is a Time magazine cover subject, and is second in the Points Race (newly behind Rybakina, and a single point ahead of Andreeva). She's also still 38-7 on the season. But why does it seem like she's been on a steady descent for months now? Well, probably because she *has* been.

Think back to the early spring. Though Sabalenka had let the AO title slip through her fingers (she led 3-0 in the 3rd vs. Rybakina), she'd rebounded to complete a Sunshine Double (twice avenging her Melbourne loss to Rybakina). After winning Miami, the Belarusian stood at 26-1 on the season and, even without a slam win through the first quarter of the year, had been *the* dominant player of 2026.

Now, with her 4th Round loss in Toronto to Ekaterina Alexandrova, Sabalenka's run of events without reaching a final has been extended to six since her win in Miami. She's failed to reach the QF in her last two tournaments (exiting the 4r in Wimbledon and Canada), a pair of results which had both come after she'd dropped love 3rd sets in her two previous events at Roland Garros (where she lost a 6-3/5-1 lead vs. Diana Shnaider) and Berlin. Also since her IW/Miami two-fer has been a loss to Hailey Baptiste after Sabalenka held six MP, as well as a defeat at the hands of 36-year old Sorana Cirstea (who became the oldest player to defeat a #1 on clay).

Since her 26-1 start, Sabalenka has gone 12-6, leaving the door ajar (if not wide open) -- again -- for Rybakina to overtake her for #1 before the Kazakh has an Everest-sized mountain of points to defend come the fall. Of course, Sabalenka has her own U.S. Open defense on the docket, as well, while Rybakina only reached the Round of 16 in New York last summer.

Had Rybakina won the title in Toronto she'd have been just four points out of the #1 spot, but her RU leaves her 354 back. Sabalenka reached the QF (to Rybakina's SF) last year in Cincinnati, though, so if Sabalenka pulls it together in New York once again this week's runner-up result from the Kazakh may play greatly into Sabalenka's favor when it comes to holding onto the top spot unless it might be -- in Pat Rafter (#1 for 6 days only in '99), or Carlos Moya (13 days only, that same season) style -- for just a blink-of-the-eye run at #1 for Rybakina before the season's final stretch run.
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ITF WORLD TENNIS: Hanne Vandewinkel/BEL
...the Waffle had quite the tough week, along with everyone else, in the heat in last week's $100K challenger in Landisville, Pennsylvania, as the weather led to many postponements and match suspensions.

Due to that, the latter stages of the tournament found a backlog of matches to be completed, leading to a stacked schedule for Vandewinkel that raised the ire of coach Kirsten Flipkens.



As it was, last Saturday saw Vandewinkel up early for the completion of her 2nd Round match at 9 a.m. (after her 6 a.m. wake-up call), then she returned to the court around noon for what turned out to be a three-hour QF. Then, rather than pushing the SF to Sunday, the 22-year old was back out again for a SF match that started just before 9 p.m. and didn't conclude until after 10:30. Surely her late night stretched past midnight, so it was just your average (give or take) 18-hour work day.

And then she had to play the final on Sunday, too. All credit to Vandewinkel, for she won that one in three sets to claim her fourth ITF World Tennis title of the season (second $100K) with a win over Anastasia Zakharova.

Also with a 125 final on her resume this season, as well as her RG/WI MD debuts, Vandewinkel will now climb to just outside the Top 80 in the rankings. Late in the week, the Belgian added a pair of qualifying wins in Cincinnati to reach the MD there (improving to 41-18 on the year, 11-1 in her last 12).


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JUNIOR STAR: Felitsata Dorofeeva-Rybas/RUS
...last weekend, the 16-year old Hordette grabbed her second $15K crown of the season, taking the title in Kuršumlijska Banja (SRB) with a win in the final over Bulgarian Denislava Glushkova.

The girls' #16, Dorofeeva-Rybas' best junior level results in '26 have included RU and SF finishes in a pair of J500 events.


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DOUBLES: Katerina Siniakova/Zhang Shuai, CZE/CHN
...in a season in which the slam titles could very well be split amongst four women, and no singles player has been able to maintain a high level of play all year long (well, save for maybe Muchova, but she's missing "a big one" and has so far been absent this summer HC stretch), the overall Player of the Year (aka "Ms. Backspin" in this space) might come from the doubles.

There, Siniakova is currently running laps around the competition.

Closing in on 200 career weeks in the #1 WD spot -- a barrier only Navratilova, at 237, has broken -- Siniakova joined in Toronto with Zhang to claim their second title of the season, not dropping a set all week as Siniakova improved to 40-5 overall with various partners and 6-0 in WD finals in '26. The Czech is the only woman to win mutiple titles with multiple partners -- she's won four w/ Taylor Townsend -- this season.

A 6-3/6-4 victory over Sara Errani & Nicole Melichar-Martinez sealed the deal on Thursday afternoon, as Siniakova won her 38th WTA title (second in Canada, after '19 w/ Krejcikova), and Zhang her 19th. The pair have won three tour titles together in their careers.

The win gives Siniakova victories in seven straight WD finals, with her last loss coming nearly a year ago at the U.S. Open.

Siniakova's W/L with partners in 2026...

28-3 - Taylor Townsend
9-0 - Zhang Shuai
2-1 - Storm Hunter
1-1 - Barbora Krejcikova



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1. Toronto 4th Rd. - Ekaterina Alexandrova def. Aryna Sabalenka
...7-6(3)/4-6/6-4. Not only has Sabalenka's knack for reaching the final stages of events evaporated of late (six straight w/o a final, and pre-QF exits in her last two), but so has her TB dominance.

Alexandrova's 1st set breaker win is the fourth dropped by Sabalenka this season, making her 9-4 in '26 aftre going 22-2 last season.

Alexandrova broke Sabalenka's serve in her first two attempts in the 3rd. Things got back on serve in game 7, but Alexandrova eventually broke Sabalenka again to close out her third career #1 win on her third MP chance.

The Russian vet has won three of her last four meetings on hard court vs. Sabalenka, the tour's *best* hard courter in recent seasons, and has now leveled their career head-to-head at 5-5.


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2. Toronto 4th Rd. - Elena Rybakina def. Liudmila Samsonova
...6-4/4-6/6-4. Looking for a *big* win and result, Samsonova had one on her racket vs. Rybakina but let it get away.

The Hordette held a 3-0, double-break, edge on the Kazak in the decider, only to see Rybakina find her #2-ranked (for now, at least) self and break Samsonova in three straight service games down the stretch on her way to an important win.


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3. Toronto QF - Elena Rybakina def. Naomi Osaka
...4-6/7-6(5)/6-4. Rybakina's second "save" in a matter of days, as she overcomes a 6-4/4-2 deficit vs. Osaka, forcing a 2nd set TB and rising to the occasion to win the breaker after the two were tied at 5-5.

In the 3rd, Rybakina continued to raise her game at all the most important moments, especially so when she fell behind love/40 while serving down 3-2. After saving four BP in the game to get the hold, she broke Osaka in the following game to edge ahead on the scoreboard. Serving for the match at 5-4, Rybakina completed a sterling final set stat on serve, winning 19 of 19 of her first serve points and ending the match with her 15th ace of the night.



For Osaka, Toronto was another case in 2026 of her playing well but often being unable to *finish* what she started.

Even while this season has seen her re-enter the Top 20, produce her best career RG (4r) and Wimbledon (QF) results, and reach her first grass court final (Bad Homburg), Osaka has left quite a few matches (and possibly a title or two) to die while they remained perched tantalizingly just out of reach. She still remains title-less at tour level since her last AO win in 2021.
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4. Toronto 4th Rd. - Iga Swiatek def. Marta Kostyuk
...3-6/6-1/6-2. In one of her best matches of the entire season, Swiatek finds her way out of the weeds against a top (though sometimes ultra-streaky) opponent in Kostyuk.

Swiatek claimed just one point on serve in the 1st set, then went on to lose just three games in the 2nd/3rd sets.

A perfect visual illustration of two distinct personalities, simultaneously in real time...


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5. Toronto SF - Iga Swiatek def. Elina Svitolina
...6-3/1-6/6-3. Swiatek survives her biggest mid-week stumbling block in Svitolina, a player already with a pair of three-set wins over her in '26 and one who turned around the match with a dominant 2nd set (she led 5-0) and carved out a break lead in the 3rd.

Swiatek saved a pair of BP in the opening game of the decider, but four games later Svitolina took the break advantage with a conversion of BP #4 in Swiatek's third service game of the set, taking a 3-2 lead. But right when one might have expected Svitolina to race to the finish line, she wasn't able to match Swiatek's immediate bounce back, and -- as someone said in recent weeks in the news in a far less truthful description -- "she folded like an umbrella."

Svitolina, for all the brilliance she'd shown for nearly a set and a half, ended things by not winning another game in the match, and after Swiatek broke back to even the score at 3-3 the Ukrainian could barely even get on the scoreboard at all. She fell apart in a love break of serve to hand Swiatek a 5-3 lead, ending the game with a DF, and saw her losing streak extend to ten points. Svitolina won just one of the final twelve points on the night, and that single point came via a Swiatek DF on her first MP.

Rather than Svitolina getting her 52nd career Top 10 win, Swiatek got *her* 55th.


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6. Toronto Final - Iga Swiatek def. Elena Rybakina
...6-2/6-3. Wednesday night's late finish didn't exactly provide the optimal conditions on late Thursday afternoon for a full-throated, two-way competition in the final. And that's precisely what we didn't get, too.

One wonders how an event can stretch itself out over nearly two weeks on the calendar and *still* manage to bunch up the schedule late in the game to make it more difficult to have a great match-up to close out the week (well, to close out *the final Thursday*). But, hey, no time to ponder that... WE'VE ALREADY MOVED ON THE CINCINNATI. NOW HURRAY UP!

Ultimately, Rybakina came into the match *needing* to tap into her late-stage level of play from her earlier comebacks in order to compete with a Swiatek playing her best tennis since *last* August when she won in Cincinnati.

She never really fully got *there* as Iga's first title of the season comes during the summer for the second straight year, this time with just a few weeks to spare.


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7. Toronto 2nd Rd. - Maya Joint def. Sorana Cirstea
...6-4/6-4. Joint continues her mini-resurgence, improving to 6-4 beginning with her win over Serena Williams at Wimbledon. Even with that, she's still just 9-19 overall coming out of Toronto.

The Aussie notched her first Top 20 win of the season with an upset of Cirstea, with her combination of Q/MD wins in Toronto her most in any event since her Hong Kong SF result last November.

Joint put up a fight vs. Samsonova, as well, battling back from 5-1 down in the 1st, holding a pair of BP in game 12 that could have forced a TB. She then rallied from 4-2 down in the 2nd, forcing and winning another TB, only to come up short in the deciding set.
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8. Toronto 2nd Rd. - Elina Svitolina def. Jessica Bouzas Maneiro
...6-7(5)/7-6(4)/6-4. All together now: there is no lead that Bouzas Maneiro can't lose.

This time, the Spaniard twice served for the opening set vs. Svitolina, holding two SP, then leading 6-2 in the ensuing TB. Bouzas Maneiro finally claimed the match lead on SP #6. She then took a 3-1 lead in the 2nd.

Once again, it didn't matter in the end.
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9. Toronto 1st Rd. - Nikola Bartunkova def. Bianca Andreescu
...7-5/6-4. On the day of this match, I noticed a headline that called it an "upset." Sorry, it is not. Not in 2026.

As you may remember, this very same Toronto event was the middle jewel -- after Indian Wells, and before the U.S. Open -- in Andreescu's star-making trio of tour title runs back in 2019. Of course, due to far too many injuries to note, she hasn't won a WTA title since (going 0-3 in finals, the last coming more than two years ago at Rosmalen).

The Canadian has rebounded to have a 26-14 season so far in '26, 26-15 after her opening round of qualifying loss in Cincinnati, but the best she's done at tour-level has been 2nd Round finishes in Charleston and Rome. While she's won a pair of challenger crowns ($60K and $35K), in WTA events Andreescu has five 1st Round exits, as well as falling (now) three times in qualifying.
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10. Toronto 1st Rd. - Katherine Sebov def. Aoi Ito 6-3/6-4
Toronto 1st Rd. - Kayla Cross def. Katie Boulter 7-6(3)/7-5
Toronto 3rd Rd. - Leylah Fernandez def. Mirra Andreeva 6-1/6-4
...a year ago on home soil, Vicky Mboko was busy becoming a suddenly instant star en route to the title in Montreal. This time around in Toronto, with Mboko out injured (and Andreescu maybe never to come close to a return to her early-career heights), the achievements of the Canadian women were a bit more modest.

Sebov picked up her first tour-level MD victory since 2023 (Charleston), while Cross recorded the first WTA MD win of her career.



Fernandez upset Andreeva, getting her tenth career Top 10 victory (all have come on hard court), though her 3rd Round loss to Naomi Osaka leaves her at a surprising 15-21 on the season despite having put up a trio of WTA QF runs, as well as a previous win over Alex Eala.

Even with the upset of Andreeva, Fernandez is just 3-6 vs. Top 20 opponents this season, and is 3-10 since she posted wins over both Pegula and Rybakina on her way to the Washington title last summer.


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11. Toronto 1st Rd. - Caty McNally def. Tatjana Maria 4-6/7-6(4)/6-1
Toronto 2nd Rd. - Caty McNally def. Linda Noskova 7-6(5)/6-1
...McNally's two wild momentum-swinging outings in Toronto, both of which she won.

After squandering a 4-0 1st set lead vs. Maria (who won six straight game to take the set), McNally overcame a 4-2 deficit and MP (at 6-5) to take a TB (she led 6-1) to force a 3rd set in which she dominated the German vet.

In Noskova's first post-SW19 match, McNally fell behind 5-1 in the 1st set, but then won 12 of the last 14 games to record her second Top 10 win of the season.


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12. Toronto 1st Rd. - Panna Udvardy def. Eva Lys
...2-6/7-6(3)/2-0 ret. Lys has gotten a lot of attention on social media in '26, but not so much *between the lines*.

She led Udvardy here by a 6-2/5-2 score, and served for the match at 5-3 before eventually losing a 2nd set TB and then retiring two games into the 3rd to fall to 5-13 on the season (she's now 6-14 after losing in the Cincinnati Q2). She's ranked outside the Top 90.

The German's last multi-win event was in Tokyo (Q+MD) last October, which had followed a SF run in the Beijing 1000.


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13. Toronto 1st Rd. - Dasha Kasatkina def. Wang Xinyu
...1-6/7-6(5)/7-5. Kasatkina stages a comeback from 6-2/4-1 down, with Wang twice serving for the match (at 6-5 in the 2nd, then 5-3 in the 3rd).

Kasatkina pushed #2 Elena Rybakina to three sets in the 2nd Round, but fell short of what would have been her biggest win since 2018 (when she posted three victories over Caroline Wozniacki, twice as a world #2 and once as #1). Kasatkina's most recent Top 10 victory was at last year's RG.

At #65 in the current "live" rankings, Kasatkina will need a late-season push to avoid her worst finish since at least 2020 (#71), if not in more than a decade (her #72 season in 2015 is the worst of her career since she first cracked the Top 100 that year). She ended 2014 at #370.
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14. Toronto 4th Rd. - Belinda Bencic def. Alex Eala
...6-4/6-0. After winning seven straight matches, and 10 of 11, Eala's run finally comes to an end as Bencic continues her mastery of left-handed opponents.

Bencic was crowned singles champion in her Toronto debut in 2015. She didn't return to the event until 2019, and this year was just her fifth return appearance (now w/ 3 additional QF) due to reasons that run the gamut from wrist surgery to maternity leave.

Bencic's win over Eala didn't power a great final result, though, as her tournament ended without her hitting the court again as she handed Coco Gauff a walkover in the QF due to a hip injury, continuing her path in what has been a potentially good season (she's 27-10 overall) that has steadfastly refused to produce an "over the hump" moment on her part. She's yet to even reach the singles SF stage in any tournament this year.

Since her good '26 start during Switzerland's title run at the United Cup, Bencic's would-be deep runs have expired in the 4th Round in Indian Wells/Madrid/RG/Wimbledon, and QF in Miami/Toronto. After putting up a pair of Top 10 wins in UC play in January, Bencic has yet to post another in the seven months that have followed (going 0-3).


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15. $15 Hämeenlinna FIN Final - Amelie Justine Hejtmanek def. Laura Hietaranta
... 6–4/2–6/6–4. Another week (well, *last* week), another Crusher champion.

18-year old Czech Hejtmanek picks up her second $15K of the season in Finland, getting the win on her opponent's home clay.

Hejtmanek also reached the doubles final, hence the second piece of hardware...


============================================
HM- Cincinnati Q2 - Mananchaya Sawangkaew def. Lanlana Tararudee
...6-4/6-3. The THA #2 defeats the THA #1, as Sawangkaew reaches her first 1000 MD since Beijing 2024 (also as a qualifier). She fell in the Q-rounds at both Indian Wells and Miami the last two years in her past four 1000 qualifying attempts.
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1. Toronto 1st Rd. - Kamilla Rakhimova def. Venus Williams
...6-4/6-1. Playing in the MD of an event for the 27th consecutive time via a wild card, Williams falls to 0-10 on the season with her 13th straight singles loss. She's gone a combined 5-27 in those events, and is now 8-43 this decade.

The last event in which Williams played a 1st Round match without the aid of a wild card berth came at Wimbledon in 2021.

Wild card #28 will allow her Cincinnati 1st Round match this week.
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Meanwhile, tennis is funny sometimes. One big moment seems to immediately erase a year's worth of underwhelming ones, not just with fans but with some players, too. Such situations lead to a gust of wind behind the back that spark legitimate pronouncements about hateful online speech, but also situational ones regarding right and wrong judgments about career decisions, motivations, approaches and the like. After the final, feeling a moment of justification, Swiatek said this...



In many ways, it's something that Swiatek might have said *last* summer after winning Wimbledon and Cincinnati after a previous long drought of top-level success. Then, flashforward about eight or nine months and she was firing her coach and entrenched in another extended downturn and final/title drought that re-started the whole cycle all over again.

So, "reality" is surely yet to be determined, or at the very least will continue to exist along a constantly sliding scale.

But, that's tennis, eh?

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You know, if they workshopped this idea in-house a little they might come up with a better marketing campaign than the ones they pay someone to come up with every other year...

NOTE: Since the embedding cuts off half the pics, you have to click on the photos/posts to read the "chic" comment for each one...



P.S. - if you go into the thread and read any comments, ignore the people posting photos of dead people and trying to shame the tour for promoting any Russian, Belarusian, etc. players because, as you know, *they're exactly the same* as the soldiers killing people on and off the battlefield.

I hesitate to guess what these same people have said/done about Sabalenka's Time magazine cover.





















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— Little Free Library (@littlefreelibrary.bsky.social) June 13, 2026 at 4:00 PM







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*2020-26 WTA SINGLES TITLES*
26 - 1/2/8/6/5/3/1 = IGA SWIATEK
19 - 3/2/0/3/4/4/3 = Aryna Sabalenka
12 - 1/0/1/2/3/3/2 = Elena Rybakina
10 - 0/1/0/4/3/2/0 = Coco Gauff
10 - 0/0/1/2/2/3/2 = Jessie Pegula
9 - 0/3/2/2/1/0/1 = Barbora Krejcikova

*MOST WTA FINALS in 2026*
4 - Aryna Sabalenka (3-1)
4 - Mirra Andreeva (3-1)
4 - Karolina Muchova (2-2)
4 - Jessie Pegula (2-2)
4 - ELENA RYBAKINA (2-2)
3 - Marta Kostyuk (2-1)
3 - Elina Svitolina (2-1)
3 - Victoria Mboko (0-3)

*MOST WTA SF in 2026*
7 - ELINA SVITOLINA (3-4)
6 - Karolina Muchova (4-2)
6 - Jessie Pegula (4-2)
5 - Mirra Andreeva (4-1)
5 - ELENA RYBAKINA (4-1)
5 - Aryna Sabalenka (4-1)
5 - Marta Kostyuk (3-2)
5 - COCO GAUFF (2-3)

*#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)
2025: #11 M.Andreeva d. Sabalenka (Indian Wells F)
2026: #23 Shnaider d. Sabalenka (Roland Garros QF)
2026: #19 Alexandrova d. Sabalenka (Toronto 4r)

*MOST WTA #1 WINS - 2020-26*
9 - Elena Rybakina, KAZ
6 - Jessie Pegula, USA
4 - Coco Gauff, USA
4 - Aryna Sabalenka, BLR
3 - EKATERINA ALEXANDROVA, RUS
2 - Madison Keys, USA
2 - Barbora Krejcikova, CZE
2 - Alona Ostapenko, LAT
2 - Zheng Qinwen, CHN
[active career]
17 - Serena Williams, USA
15 - Venus Williams, USA
9 - Elena Rybakina, KAZ
7 - Elina Svitolina, UKR
6 - Jessie Pegula, USA
5 - Aryna Sabalenka, BLR
4 - Belinda Bencic, SUI
4 - Coco Gauff, USA
3 - EKATERINA ALEXANDROVA, RUS
3 - Sofia Kenin, USA
3 - Alona Ostapenko, LAT
--
ALSO: 3-Azarenka

*2026 WTA TOP 10 WINS; ()-#1 wins*
8 - Svitolina, Rybakina(1)
7 - Eala, Kostyuk
6 - Muchova
5 - Mboko, Pegula(1), Sabalenka
[hard court]
7 - Rybakina(1)
5 - Mboko, Sabalenka, Svitolina
4 - Eala, Pegula
3 - Bencic, Kostyuk, Muchova
2 - Ostapenko, Sakkari, Swiatek

*2026 WTA DOUBLES TITLES*
6 - KATERINA SINIAKOVA
5 - Taylor Townsend
4 - ZHANG SHUAI
3 - Gaby Dabrowski
3 - Maia Lumsden
3 - Luisa Stefani
[duos]
4...Siniakova/Townsend
3...Dabrowski/Stefani
2...Dart/Lumsden
2...Guo/Mladneovic
2...SINIAKOVA/ZHANG
[2020-26 - individuals]
31 - KATERINA SINIAKOVA (1/6/6/3/5/4/6)
16 - Taylor Townsend (1/0/0/3/3/4/5)
15 - Barbora Krejcikova (1/5/3/4/1/1/0)
15 - Elise Mertens (1/4/2/2/3/2/1)
15 - Luisa Stefani (1/1/2/3/1/4/3)
14 - Gaby Dabrowski (0/1/3/2/2/3/3)
13 - Nicole Melichar-Martinez (2/2/2/0/3/3/1)
13 - Erin Routliffe (0/1/1/3/3/4/1)
12 - Anna Danilina (0/1/2/1/5/2/1)
12 - Hsieh Su-wei (4/2/0/2/3/0/1)
11 - Irina Khromacheva (0/0/0/1/6/2/2)
11 - Desirae Krawczyk (2/2/1/3/1/1/1)
11 - Demi Schuurs (2/2/1/2/2/2/0)
11 - Laura Siegemund (1/0/3/5/1/1/0)
11 - ZHANG SHUAI (0/3/1/1/1/1/4)

*2026 WTA DOUBLES FINALS*
6 (6-0) = KATERINA SINIAKOVA
5 (5-0) = Taylor Townsend
5 (4-1) = ZHANG SHUAI
5 (3-2) = Maia Lumsden
4 (3-1) = Gaby Dabrowski
4 (3-1) = Luisa Stefani
4 (1-3) = Anna Danilina
4 (1-3) = Aleksandra Krunic
4 (1-3) = NICOLE MELICHAR-MARTINEZ
[2026 WD+MX finals]
4 (3-1) = Gaby Dabrowski (3-0 / 0-1)
4 (2-2) = Alona Ostapenio (1-2 / 1-0)
4 (1-3) = SARA ERRANI (0-3 / 1-0)
3 (2-1) = Kristina Mladenovic (2-0 / 0-1)
2 (1-1) = Storm Hunter (1-0 / 0-1)
[2026 finals - duos]
4...Siniakova/Townsend (4-0)
4...Dabrowski/Stefani (3-1)
4...Danilina/Krunic (1-3)
3...Maleckova/Skoch (1-2)
2...Dart/Lumsden (2-0)
2...Guo/Mladenovic (2-0)
2...SINIAKOVA/ZHANG (2-0)
2...M.Andreeva/Shnaider (1-1)
2...Hsieh/Ostapenko (1-1)
2...Mihalikova/Nicholls (1-1)
2...Sutjiadi/Zvonareva (1-1)
2...ERRANI/MELICHAR-MARTINEZ (0-2)

*2026 OLDEST WTA WD FINALIST DUOS*
73 - Linz: Cirstea/Zhang (36/37)-W
72 - Bad Homburg: Sutjiadi/Zvonareva (31/41)-W
72 - Rabat: Sutjiadi/Zvonareva (31/41)
72 - Washington: Klepac/Ninomiya (40/32)
72 - Toronto: ERRANI/MELICHAR-MARTINEZ (39/33)
71 - Berlin: Errani/Melichar-Martinez (39/32)
70 - Nottingham: Aoyama/Chan (38/32)






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BREAKING: Kennedy Center Board voted today to -change the venue's name by -etching a new phrase directly below the main signage “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump” -also declaring the physical grounds to "The President Donald J. Trump Plaza" @anntelnaes.bsky.social

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— paulpro (@mariopro.bsky.social) August 13, 2026 at 3:12 PM


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— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) August 11, 2026 at 12:39 PM


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Has the U.S. military ever been more grievously mismanaged than by Hegseth? Munitions depletion. Lost illegal wars. War crimes. Institutional racism and sexism. Shattered relations with allies. Strengthened rivals. Low transparency. Religious extremism. Junk science.

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— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf.bsky.social) August 12, 2026 at 11:45 AM


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All for now.

posted by Todd.Spiker @ 11:50 PM 

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