Sunday, October 01, 2023

Wk.39- "V" is for Veronika





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*WEEK 39 CHAMPIONS*
TOKYO, JAPAN (WTA 500/Hard Court Outdoor)
S: Veronika Kudermetova/RUS def. Jessie Pegula/USA 7-5/6-1
D: Ulrikke Eikeri/Ingrid Neel (NOR/EST) def. Eri Hozumi/Makoto Ninomiya (JPN/JPN) 3-6/7-5 [10-5]
NINGBO, CHINA (WTA 250/Hard Court Outdoor)
S: Ons Jabeur/TUN def. Diana Shnaider/RUS 6-2/6-1
D: Laura Siegemund/Vera Zvonareva (GER/RUS) def. Guo Hanyu/Jiang Xinyu (CHN/CHN) 4-6/6-3 [10-5]
19th ASIAN GAMES; HANGZHOU, CHINA (Hard Court Outdoor)
WS Gold Match: Zheng Qinwen/CHN def. Zhu Lin/CHN 6-2/6-4
Bronze: Alex Eala/PHI and Haruka Kaji/JPN
WD Gold Match: Chan Hao-ching/Latisha Chan (TPE) def. Lee Ya-hsuan/Liang En-shuo (TPE) 6-4/6-3
Bronze: Aldila Sutjiadi/Janice Tjen (INA) and Back Da-yeon/Jeong Bo-young (KOR)
MX Gold Match: Rutuja Bhosale/Rohan Bopanna (IND) def. Liang En-shuo/Huang Tsung-hao (TPE) 2-6/6-3 [10-4]
Bronze: Chan Hao-ching/Hsu Yu-hsiou (TPE) and Alex Eala/Francis Alcantara (PHI)




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PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Veronika Kudermetova/RUS
...if Maria Sakkari can win a 1000 title while playing against the "junior varsity," of course Kudermetova can win a 500 while playing against a combination of "city all-stars" with a generous sprinkling of "backups" and a former "starter" working her way back from an injury layoff.

It truly says something about the haphazard scheduling of the WTA's 4Q that a week after a high end title was given out without the winner having to face a single Top 10 player (and just two in the Top 100) a somewhat "lesser" crown was won while having to face off with a pair of Top 5 foes and a player who was in a slam final two seasons ago.

In the words of one Elena Rybakina...

For Kudermetova's part, this past week she added her name to the list of players this season who've managed to skip out of a bad stretch (going just 3-6 after her 14-4 run earlier in the summer) and rebound all the way into a tournament's trophy ceremony, taking her second career title (both at 500 events) in Tokyo.

After opening with "warm-up" wins over Harriet Dart and Kayla Day, the Hordette picked up steam against world *#2* Iga Swiatek. After having going 0-4 vs. the Pole, winning just ten total games, Kudermetova raced out to a 4-0 lead in the 1st set and ultimately held on to win in three. She followed up by winning a 3:25 battle with compatriot Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to reach her seventh career tour final.

Kudermetova has proven to be a "confidence" player in big matches in the past -- in semis, she lost four straight, won four straight, lost seven straight and has now won two straight -- and her good run in the earlier rounds surely seemed to give her an edge over Jessie Pegula, who got little back in the form of real competition all week, in the championship match. Kudermetova led 3-0 in both the 1st and 2nd sets, and never really allowed Pegula to feel like she was anything close to being on her way to victory in what turned out to be a 7-5/6-1 win for the Russian.



Kudermetova's wins over Swiatek and Pegula give her a career-best six Top 10 wins (four Top 4) this season, and Tokyo is her first event with multiple Top 5 victories. She recorded her first multiple Top 10-win event this spring in Madrid (def. Kasatkina and Pegula before falling to Iga). After having lost four straight finals -- from January of last year through this June -- maybe Kudermetova has now begun a far *better* streak.

Of course, a footnote to this resurgent title run is that is has come so soon after Kudermetova and her husband/coach brought in super-successful/super-controversial coach Dmitry Tursunov as part of the coaching team. For all the baggage that Tursunov brings with him on his many stops, he truly is the WTA's "script doctor," cleaning up messes and getting immediate results (see his recent stints with Kontaveit, Bencic and Alexandrova) before being shown the door soon afterward. Clearly having Tursunov as the *lead* coach is a clock-is-ticking scenario, so maybe adding him into the mix in which the player's husband is still *the* coach (Veronika singled him out in the post-match) is the way to go? We shall see.


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RISERS: Ons Jabeur/TUN, and Jessie Pegula/USA
...come 2024, Jabeur may not be able to play a 250 event like Ningbo at this time of the season. But she made the most of the opportunity this week while she still has it, keeping one step (actually 465 points, increasing her lead by 159) ahead of Maria Sakkari for the final spot in the WTAF field, arguably doing so vs. a similar collection of players against which Sakkari won a *1000* crown last week.

The top seed in the event as one of two Top 20 players (w/ Kvitova) in the field, #7-ranked Jabeur posted wins over Diane Parry, Tamara Korpatsch, Vera Zvonareva and Nadia Podoroska to reach her 13th career WTA final. She hadn't advanced past the QF in her previous four events since reaching the Wimbledon final this summer.

In the final against first-time WTA finalist Diana Shnaider, Jabeur handled the teenager by at 6-2/6-1 score, picking up her fifth career title and first on hard court.



In all, Jabeur played three Top 100 players in Ningo (Sakkari faced two in Guadalajara last week), but none higher than #85 Shnaider, while #526 Zvonareva *greatly* skewed the average ranking, dragging it from #95 to #181. Sakkari averaged #103, #126 when you exclude #11 Caroline Garcia.

In Tokyo, Pegula seemed to be setting herself up for a third tour title in just over a year, dropping just nine total games over three matches against Cristina Bucsa, Dasha Kasatkina and Sakkari en route to her eighth WTA final. But she was outclassed and frustrated by a more battle-hearty Veronika Kudermetova in the title match, as the Hordette grabbed a 3-0 lead in the first and really never wavered on her way to a 7-5/6-1 victory.

While Pegula still has slam hurdles to clear, '23 has seen her maintain her consistency (7 SF+ in 16 events, and 11 QF+). She's one of eight players to reach at least three WTA singles finals this season, but while seven of those women have won multiple titles it's Pegula who's the only one with a losing record (1-2) in matches with hardware on the line.


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SURPRISE: Linda Fruhvirtova/CZE
...just when Fruhvirtova seemed at her lowest she bounced back with her best result of the year.

In Ningbo, the 18-year old Crusher finally ended her nine-match losing streak -- she hadn't posted a win since the opening round of Birmingham qualifying -- when Rebeka Masarova retired in the 3rd set of their 1st Round match. She took that little bit of fortune and ran with it. With her first momentum in months, the Czech added victories over Anna Blinkova and Lucia Bronzetti to reach her first tour-level SF since she won her maiden WTA title last September in Chennai.

Fruhvirtova lost out in the all-teen SF battle vs. Diana Shnaider, but will jump back into the Top 100 on Monday.



Fruhvirtova is already back on her game, opening in Beijing with a 1st Round win over Arantxa Rus.
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VETERANS: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova/RUS and Vera Zvonareva/RUS (w/ Laura Siegemund/GER)
...still building her way back after a knee injury, Pavlyuchenkova's only two '23 tour-level QF results had came on the clay at Strasbourg and Roland Garros. On hard court in Tokyo, where she's twice played in the final (2017 & '19), the 32-year old Hordette posted her best WTA result since reaching the '21 RG final.

After handling Donna Vekic 1 & 1, Pavlyuchenkova dispatched Linda Noskova via a love 3rd set, then took out compatriot Ekaterina Alexandrova in straight sets to reach the semis. After splitting a pair of TB with Veronika Kudermetova, Pavlychenkova dropped serve twice in the late going of the match, proving to be the difference in a 3:25 affair in which both fired off 53 winners.

A big difference: Kudermetova had 16 aces (vs. 2 DF), while Pavlyuchenkova had 11 DF (vs. 3 aces).

#86 Pavlyuchenkova will climb to #72.

Zvonareva, 39, took her wild card into the Ningbo MD and played into her first WTA quarterfinal since 2021 (Saint Petersburg), winning a deciding TB over Katie Boulter, then seeing Clara Tauson retire in the 3rd set of their 2nd Round match (the Dane's second straight tournament ended w/ a ret.). Against top seed Ons Jabeur, Zvonareva led 5-2 in the 1st set before the Tunisian rallied to win 7-5. Zvonareva forced a 3rd, but quickly fell behind 5-0 and lost at 6-1.



The last of the Original Hordettes still active on tour (since it appears we won't see Svetlana Kuznetsova again, *official* retirement or no) -- playing in her 23rd season over the last 25 years (w/o 2013 when she was out after shoulder surgery, and 2016 while she was pregnant) -- Zvonareva is 8-10 in '23. She'll climb from #526 to nearly back into the Top 400.

But Zvonareva wasn't finished, as she teamed with Siegemund to claim the doubles title, their fifth as a pair in their careers (starting with their U.S. Open win in 2020).

Rallying from a set and a break down, Siegemund/Zvonareva's 10-5 MTB win in the final over last week's Guangzhou champs Guo Hanyu/Jiang Xinyu locked away the trophies, as Siegemund grabs career title #12 (3rd in '23 in 5 finals) and Zvonareva #14 (her previous '23 crown came w/ Siegemund in Washington). Zvonareva has gone 9-1 in tour finals over the last 12 seasons.


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COMEBACK: Nadia Podoroska/ARG
...in Ningbo, 26-year old Argentine Podoroska marched into her second '23 semifinal (w/ Budapest), her third since reaching the final four at Roland Garros three years ago this week in the fall version of the event in 2020.

Ranked #87, Podoroska took out Guangzhou champ Wang Xiyu in the 1st Round, then followed up with wins over Valeria Savinykh and Katerina Siniakova. She forced a 3rd set in the semis against #1-seeded Ons Jabeur, but couldn't record what would have been her first Top 10 victory since upsetting Serena Williams (remember that? I really didn't.) in Rome in 2021. Podoroska climbs to #76 in the new rankings.


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FRESH FACES: Diana Shnaider/RUS and Zheng Qinwen/CHN
...though Shnaider has had a notable season, which saw her crack the Top 100 after her AO 2nd Round result (she pushed Maria Sakkari to three sets) and then become the first woman ranked in the Top 100 to play college tennis (N.C. State) since 1993. She followed up her first NCAA stint with a 2nd Round run at RG (another three-set loss, this time to Beatriz Haddad Maia), and reached a SF in Hamburg, but she's had a tough spring/summer stretch.

Under .500 (12-14) since leaving Melbourne (where she'd qualified), Shnaider put together her best tour-level run in Ningbo, posting her first WTA hard court QF+ result and reaching her second tour SF and maiden singles final, getting wins over Bai Zhuoxuan, Kamilla Rakhimova and back-to-back Czechs (vet Petra Kvitova and Crusher Linda Fruhvirtova) to set up a match for the title against top seed Ons Jabeur.

The 19th first-time WTA finalist this season (fifth teenager), Shnaider fell 6-2/6-1 but will still climb to another career ranking high, going from #85 to #63.



Much like the Paralympics preventing the wheelchair tennis stars from playing in the U.S. Open, the Asian Games (rescheduled from last year) taking place this September managed to prevent some of its headline tennis athletes from taking part in some of the final big events on the WTA calendar (namely the Guadalajara 1000, and the start of the Asian swing of the season schedule), but the "gold" at the end of the rainbow was not only a Gold medal for Zheng but also an assured berth on the '24 Olympic team.

Zheng's run in Hangzhou (CHN) as the top seed included wins over Alex Eala (who shared the Bronze with Haruka Kaji of Japan) in the semis and Chinese countrywoman Zhu Lin in a 6-2/6-4 Gold Medal final. China has now claimed the Gold and Silver medals at the last two Asian Games (the last were held in 2018).



The medal adds another feat to what, while it was a bit slow-starting, *has* turned out to be a career year for Zheng. 2023 has seen the 20-year old, who reached the Tokyo final a year ago, crack the Top 20, reach her first slam QF and claim her maiden tour singles title. Adding her Asian Games final win to her pro finals at the tour, 125 and ITF level, and Zheng now sports an 11-1 mark in singles final since leaving her junior days behind.

Of course, all that didn't prevent Naomi Osaka from sniping Zheng's coach, nor Wim Fissette from breaking his contract in order to facilitate the move.


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DOWN: Marta Kostyuk/UKR
...since defeating then-Hordette Varvara Gracheva in the Austin final in March, Kostyuk has had as many wins vs. RUS/BLR opponents (0-5) as she has handshakes in those matches. She fell in the 1st Round in Tokyo to Dasha Kasatkina, falling in three sets after taking the 1st following her totally unnecessary pre-match dramatics.

I guess the tour is now in the throw-up-its-collective-hands-and-hope-no-one-notices stage in this story, as the cameras have already been trained to "avert their eyes" with the aid of odd camera angles in the immediate *aftermath* of UKR-RUS/BLR matches.

But it's not just Kostyuk's results vs. politically tricky opponents. After a 15-6 start in '23, Kostyuk has gone 9-15 since winning her maiden tour title in Texas. With her loss to Kasatkina, she fell to 2-7 in her last nine since defeating Caroline Garcia in the 2nd Round in Washington this summer (her second straight Top 10 win, following Sakkari at SW19, after having started 0-14 vs. such opponents in her career).

She ranked as high as #32 in August, but currently hovers in the mid-#40's and may now need a strong finish to wrap up her second career Top 50 season (#50 in '21).


Kostyuk has opened in Beijing with a win over Elisabetta Cocciaretto.
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ITF PLAYER: Taylor Townsend/USA
...in Sunday's late challenger final in California, Townsend added another nice result to her combination comeback/breakout '23 campaign. She'd already pocketed three tour doubles titles (including Cincinnati) and reached the Miami/RG finals, reached a WTA 125 singles final and posted her biggest career win over #3 Pegula in Rome.

With her win in the $60K challenger in Templeton, California, Townsend improved to 13-3 in career ITF finals with a 6-3/6-1 win over Renata Zarazua. After having started the year at #131, and last week cracking the Top 100 for the first time since becoming a mother, she'll move up 12 more spots to #77.
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JUNIOR STAR: Nikola Bartunkova/CZE
...another week, another Crushing victory.

This week's Czech triumph came in Santa Margherita di Pula, Italy, where 17-year old Bartunkova claimed her third '23 challenger crown in the $25K ITF event. Improving to 20-6 in pro events this season, she secured this week's title when Katharina Hobgarski retired after losing the first seven games of the final.

On the junior circuit this year, Bartunkova has also claimed a pair of J200 crowns and was the only player to defeat Alina Korneeva in slam play, ending the Hordette's slam winning streak in the Wimbledon SF this summer. She lost to Clervie Ngounoue in the junior final.

That's all fine and good for Bartunkova, but she still needs to remind herself to stash some fresh garlic in her tennis bag when she gets to Transylvania.


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DOUBLES: Ulrikke Eikeri/Ingrid Neel, NOR/EST
...one of the more unexpected "power duos" in doubles in '23, Eikeri/Neel picked up their biggest career WTA titles at the Tokyo 500 event, adding the crown to previous title runs this season at the tour (Nottingham) and 125 (Chicago) level.

The pair took out two Top 4 seeds in Tokyo, defeating #2 Aoyama/Shibahara and #4 Melichar-Martinez/Perez (11-9 MTB), as well as recent doubles #1 Jessie Pegula (w/ Krueger) in another MTB in the 1st Round. In the final, Eikeri/Neel won a third MTB to claim the title, defeating Eri Hozumi & Makota Ninomiya 10-5. Their second tour title together, it's the third in the career of both women.

This season has also seen Eikeri win a $100K challenger (w/ Tokyo RU Hozumi), while Neel claimed two other 125 crowns and an additional $60K win. Neel, who switched her representation from the U.S. to Estona earlier this season, is now 18-4 in pro doubles finals (3-0 WTA, 3-0 125, 12-4 ITF). She's won a pair of WTA titles and three 125 crowns since the switch became official in April.


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WHEELCHAIR: Aniek Van Koot/NED
...after missing several months earlier this season due to injury, Van Koot belatedly wheeled herself into the singles winner's circle at the Sardinia Open in Italy by claiming the Series 1 crown for her first title of the year. After defeating young Dutch countrywoman Lizzy de Greef in the semis, Van Koot took out Colombia's Angelica Bernal 6-3/6-2 in the final. Bernal had been seeking her first career S1 title.

Van Koot claimed the doubles title, as well, teaming with Brit Lucy Shuker to take the honors.
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1. Ningbo 1st Rd. - Kamilla Rakhimova def. Arantxa Rus
...3-6/7-6(5)/6-3. Rakhimova's Houdini moment, as she trails Rus 6-3/4-0 and faces down 2 BP for a 5-0 deficit. Even so, Rus led 5-2, with a double MP at 40/15. From that point, Rus was broken and lost 14 consecutive points until Rakhimova led 30/love at 5-all. The Hordette took the 2nd in a TB, then won in three.


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2. Asian Games WS Final - Zheng Qinwen def. Zhu Lin
...6-2/6-4. The second straight all-CHN Asian Games singles final, as Zheng become the fifth straight woman from China to take the Gold medal and assure herself a berth in the '24 Olympics in Paris.


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3. Tokyo 2nd Rd. - Iga Swiatek def. Mai Hontama 6-4/7-5
Tokyo QF - Veronika Kudermetova def. Iga Swiatek 6-2/2-6/6-4
...not exactly the start to the Asian swing that was expected from now #2-ranked Swiatek, who fell behind a double break in the opening set of both her matches in Tokyo. She rallied to defeat Mai Hontama in straights (but after leading 5-1 in the 2nd and twice failing to serve out the victory), but never fully recovered vs. Kudermetova.

With two many UE creeping into her game, Swiatek lost in three sets to Kudermetova, who'd previously been 0-4 in their head-to-head and won a *total* of 10 games against the Pole in those four previous match-ups (with the three most recent losses being 1/0, 0/1 and 1/1 scores).


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4. Ningbo Final - Ons Jabeur def. Diana Shnaider
...6-2/6-1. Jabeur is the 16th active player with WTA titles on hard court, clay and grass courts, and just the fourth of that group (w/ Kerber, Wozniacki & Venus) with both red and green clay crowns.


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5. Tokyo 1st Rd. - Misaki Doi def. Petra Martic
...7-5/6-2. 32-year old Doi, a tour-level champion in Luxembourg in 2015, extends her career a bit longer after making it through qualifying in her farewell tournament back home in Japan.



Tokyo 2nd Rd. - Maria Sakkari def. Misaki Doi
...6-3/6-1. As Sakkari watched (literally), Doi's final tennis journey ended a round later.



Doi's most famous match may be be the one she lost to Angelique Kerber at the 2016 Australian Open, where she held a MP in the 1st Round encounter before the German wiggled out of the situation and then went on to win her maiden slam crown.

That same season (in October), Doi reached her career high ranking of #30 *and* posted her best career slam result (WI 4r).


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6. Tokyo 1st Rd. - Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova def. Donna Vekic
...6-1/6-1. For the fourth time in 2023, Vekic rises to #20 (as she did last Monday), but can't string together consecutive ranking updates in the Top 20. She *has* managed to spend *five* weeks there this season, though, as one of her #20 weeks came at the start of Miami so she got a *two*-week run out of that one.

Vekic's already out of this coming week's Beijing event, losing to Blinkova to fall for a fourth straight match and in the 1st Round for the fifth time in her last six events.
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7. Tokyo QF - Maria Sakkari def. Caroline Garcia
...6-2/6-2. Garcia started 2023 at 20-8, only to struggle her way through a 16-15 stretch since. But she'll still be at #10 on Monday, with about 400 points to spare.

Sakkari picked up 120 points in her quest to qualify for the WTA Finals. She remains at #9, but lost ground vs. #8 Ons Jabeur, who picked up 279 for winning Ningbo.


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8. Tokyo SF - Jessie Pegula def. Maria Sakkari
...6-2/6-3. Sakkari's seven-match run (after 4 wins vs. players ranked #100+, one in the #50's and two over Garcia, a .500 player for most of the season) comes to and, as the Greek falls to 2-6 in '23 semis (9-23 career).
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9. Ningbo 1st Rd. - Valeria Savinkyh def. Varvara Gracheva
...7-5/7-5. Two weeks off her 2nd Round result as a qualifier in Osaka, where she posted her first tour-level MD since her 3rd Round AO run a decade ago (she'd upset #15-seeded Dominika Cibulkova), 32-year old Savinykh was at it again in Ningbo, qualifying and posting another 1st Round victory. Prior to her recent success, Savinykh had lost eight straight 1st Round matches since 2013.


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10. Beijing Q1 - Laura Pigossi def. Aliaksandra Sasnovich
...0-6/7-6(4)/6-4. When is 4 games more than 7 games? Well, when Sasnovich wins the first seven games of the match, then after leading 4-2 in the 3rd sees Pigossi sweep the final four.
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11. Asian Games MX Final - Rutuja Bhosale/Rohan Bopanna (IND) def. Liang En-shuo/Huang Tsung-hao (TPE)
...2-6/6-3 [10-4]. India takes the MX Gold for the third time in the last five Asian Games (but the first time w/o Sania Mirza being half of the winning duo).

It's a first AG medal for 27-year old Bhoale, while 43-year old Bopanna gets his second. Silver medalist Liang, the 2018 AO junior s/d champ, wins her second Silver of these AG (w/ WD), adding it to her Bronze in singles from '18.


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12. Tokyo QF - Jessie Pegula def. Dasha Kasatkina
...6-1/6-0.

Charlie Brown Christmas Mad GIFfrom Charlie Brown Christmas GIFs

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1. Asian Games WD Final - Chan Hao-ching & Latisha Chan (TPE) Lee Ya-hsuan & Liang En-shuo (TPE)
...6-4/6-3. The Chan sisters win the all-TPE Asian Games doubles final, claiming their first Gold at the event as a duo (they won '14 Bronze and '18 Silver).

Both have a trophy case full of Asian Games medals, with Latisha now with nine (5-3-1, w/ a previous WD Gold in '10) and Hao-ching with 6 (2-2-2, including an additional MX Bronze this time around).


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2. Tokyo SF - Veronika Kudermetova def. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
...7-6(6)/6-7(2)/6-3. Showing great fight throughout, Kudermetova wins a tough 3:25 battle vs. her fellow Hordette to reach her biggest final in more than a year and a half ('22 Dubai).

Kudermetova edged out a comeback-minded Pavlyuchenkova in the 1st, losing a 4-2 lead in the set but then saving five BP in game 10 to hold for 5-5. After Pavlyuchenkova denied a pair of SP at 6-4 in the TB, knotting the score at 6-all, Kudermetova took the last two points to finally secure the set. Kudermetova forced a 2nd set TB from 3-1 down, but Pavlyuchenkova won it to take things to a 3rd.

Kudermetova pulled away with two late breaks of serve in the decider, finishing off the win while putting up 53 winners and 16 aces on the day to win the first meeting between the two since March '21.


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3. Tokyo Final - Veronika Kudermetova def. Jessie Pegula
...7-5/6-1. Kudermetova is the 35th different WTA singles champion through the first 39 weeks of the season, one more than the 34 different winners in 2022. The total is still four behind the 39 different title winners in '21, though.


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HM- Beijing Q2 - Mirra Andreeva def. Anna Kalinskaya
...6-0/3-1 ret. Andreeva qualifies to make her MD debut at a fifth different 1000/slam event this season (going 9-4 in the previous events, with at least one win in every tournament) as (wait for it) Kalinskaya retires. This is her third retirement from a match this season, which is actually quite *good* by her standards when you consider that she had *seven* walkover/retirements exits in 2022. Of course, I guess there's still time...

Kalinskaya has 13 total walkover/retirements the last three seasons, which I've got to think leads the tour.



Andreeva has continued her big event MD debut winning streak, opening her Beijing experience with a dominating 6-2/6-2 victory over Barbora Krejcikova.


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Hmmm... (two loose ends meet?)




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*2023 WTA SINGLES TITLES*
4 - Coco Gauff = GS,1000,500,250
4 - Iga Swiatek = GS,500(3),250
3 - Aryna Sabalenka = = GS,1000,500
2 - Belinda Bencic = 500(2)
2 - ONS JABEUR = 500,250
2 - Barbora Krejcikova = 1000,500
2 - Petra Kvitova = 1000,500
2 - Elena Rybakina = 1000(2)

*2020-23 WTA SINGLES TITLES*
15 - 1/2/8/4 - Iga Swiatek
8 - 3/2/0/3 - Aryna Sabalenka
7 - 1/5/1/- - Ash Barty (ret.)
7 - 0/3/2/2 - Barbora Krejcikova
5 - 0/1/0/4 - Coco Gauff
5 - 3/0/2/0 - Simona Halep
5 - 0/1/2/2 - ONS JABEUR
5 - 0/4/1/0 - Anett Kontaveit (ret.)
[doubles]
16 - Katerina Siniakova (1/6/6/3)
13 - Barbora Krejcikova (1/5/3/4)
9 - Elise Mertens (1/4/2/2)
8 - Shuko Aoyama (1/5/0/2)
8 - Hsieh Su-wei (4/2/0/2)
8 - Desirae Krawczyk (2/2/1/3)
8 - Ena Shibahara (1/5/0/2)
7 - Jessie Pegula (0/0/5/2)
7 - Demi Schuurs (2/2/1/2)
7 - LAURA SIEGEMUND (1/0/3/3)
7 - Luisa Stefani (1/1/2/3)
[WD duos]
12..Krejcikova/Siniakova (1/5/3/3)
8...Aoyama/Shibahara (1/5/0/2)
5...Gauff/Pegula (0/0/3/2)
5...Hsieh/Strycova (4/0/-/1)
5...SIEGEMUND/ZVONAREVA (1/0/2/2)

*MOST WTA FINALS in 2023*
6 - Iga Swiatek, POL (4-2)
6 - Aryna Sabalenka, BLR (3-3)
4 - Coco Gauff, USA (4-0)
4 - Elena Rybakina, KAZ (2-2)
3 - Belinda Bencic, SUI (2-1)
3 - ONS JABEUR, TUN (2-1)
3 - Barbora Krejcikova, CZE (2-1)
3 - JESSIE PEGULA, USA (1-2)
[doubles]
5 (3-2) = Desirae Krawczyk, USA
5 (3-2) = LAURA SIEGEMUND, GER
5 (3-2) = Katerina Siniakova, CZE
5 (3-2) = Taylor Townsend, USA
5 (2-3) = Storm Hunter, AUS
5 (0-5) = Nicole Melichar-Martinez, USA
4 (4-0) = Barbora Krejcikova, CZE
4 (2-2) = Shuko Aoyama, JPN
4 (2-2) = Coco Gauff, USA
4 (2-2) = Jessie Pegula, USA
4 (2-2) = Ena Shibahara, JPN
4 (0-4) = Ellen Perez, AUS
[WD duos]
4...Gauff/Pegula, USA/USA (2-2)
4...Melichar-Martinez/Perez, USA/AUS (0-4)
3...Aoyama/Shibahara, JPN/JPN (2-1)
3...Hunter/Mertens, AUS/BEL (2-1)
3...Krawczyk/Schuurs, USA/NED (2-1)
3...SIEGEMUND/ZVONAREVA, GER/RUS (2-1)

*2023 WTA TITLES, MOST SURFACES*
2 - Iga Swiatek = Hard,Red Clay
2 - Aryna Sabalenka = Hard,Red Clay
2 - Elena Rybakina = Hard,Red Clay
2 - Petra Kvitova = Hard,Grass
2 - ONS JABEUR = Green Clay,Hard

*WTA TITLES ON HARD/CLAY/GRASS (active)*
[w/ diff. clay wins: red/green]
Belinda Bencic, SUI (gc)
Caroline Garcia, FRA (rc)
Simona Halep, ROU (rc)
ONS JABEUR, TUN (rc/gc)
Angelique Kerber, GER (rc/gc)
Madison Keys, USA (gc)
Petra Kvitova, CZE (rc)
Sabine Lisicki, GER (gc)
Garbine Muguruza, ESP (rc)
Alona Ostapenko, LAT (rc)
Karolina Pliskova, CZE (rc)
Elena Rybakina, KAZ (rc)
Katerina Siniakova, CZE (rc)
Venus Williams, USA (rc/gc)
Caroline Wozniacki, DEN (rc/gc)
Vera Zvonareva, RUS (rc)
--
ALSO: Svetlana Kuznetsova, RUS (gc)

*CAREER WTA TITLES - RUS (active)*
12 - Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
12 - Vera Zvonareva
6 - Dasha Kasatkina
4 - Ekaterina Alexandrova
4 - Liudmila Samsonova
2 - VERONIKA KUDERMETOVA
2 - Anastasia Potapova
2 - Margarita Betova (nee Gasparyan)
1 - Anna Blinkova
1 - Maria Timofeeva
--
ALSO: Kuznetsova(18)

*2023 FIRST-TIME WTA FINALISTS*
Linda Noskova, CZE (#102/18 = Adelaide 1)
Rebeka Masarova, ESP (#130/23 = Auckland)
Elisabetta Cocciaretto, ITA (#67/21 = Hobart)
Alycia Parks, USA (#79/22 = Lyon)-W
Zhu Lin, CHN (#54/29 - Hua Hin)-W
Varvara Gracheva, RUS (#88/22 - Austin)
Marta Kostyuk, UKR (#52/20 - Austin)-W
Peyton Stearns, USA (#116/21 - Bogota)
Lucia Bronzetti, ITA (#102/24 - Rabat)-W
Julia Grabher, AUT (#74/26 - Rabat)
Jodie Burrage, GBR (#131/24 - Nottingham)
Katie Boulter, GBR (#126/26 - Nottingham)
Maria Timofeeva, RUS (#246/19 - Budapest)
Noma Noha Akugue, GER (#207/19 - Hamburg)
Arantxa Rus, NED (#60/32 - Hamburg)
Ashlyn Krueger, USA (#123/19 - Osaka)-W
Wang Xiyu, CHN (#88/22 - Guangzhou)-W
Caroline Dolehide, USA (#111/25 - Guadalajara)
DIANA SHNAIDER, RUS (#85/19 - Ningbo)

*2023 OLDEST WTA WD FINALISTS*
39 - VERA ZVONAREVA, RUS (Ningbo - W)
38 - Vera Zvonareva, RUS (US Open - L)
38 - Vera Zvonareva, RUS (Washington - W)
37 - Bethanie Mattek-Sands, USA (Auckland - L)
37 - Kirsten Flipkens, BEL (Hobart - W)
37 - Barbora Strycova, CZE (Wimbledon - W)
37 - Hsieh Su-wei, TPE (Wimbledon - W)
37 - Hsieh Su-wei, TPE (Roland Garros - W)
[duos]
74 - Ningbo: ZVONAREVA/SIEGEMUND (39/35) - W
74 - Wimbledon: Strycova/Hsieh (37/37) - W
73 - US Open: Zvonareva/Siegemund (38/35)
73 - Washington: Zvonareva/Siegemund (38/35) - W

*2023 YOUNGEST WTA WS FINALISTS*
[18]
Linda Noskova, CZE (Adelaide 1 - L)
Coco Gauff, USA (Auckland - W)
Linda Noskova, CZE (Prague - L)
[19]
Maria Timofeeva, RUS (Budapest - W)
Noma Noha Akugue, GER (Hamburg - L)
Coco Gauff, USA (Washington - W)
Coco Gauff, USA (Cincinnati - W)
Coco Gauff, USA (US Open - W)
Ashlyn Krueger, USA (San Diego - W)
DIANA SHNAIDER, RUS (Ningbo - L)

*2023 BIGGEST AGE DIFF. IN FINAL*
14 yrs - Bogota: Maria (35) def. Stearns (21)
13 yrs - Hamburg: Rus (32) def. Noha Akugue (19)
13 yrs - Warsaw: Swiatek (22) def. Siegemund (35)
11 yrs - Linz: Potapova (21) def. Martic (32)
10 yrs - Miami: Kvitova (33) def. Rybakina (23)
10 yrs - Ningbo: JABEUR (29) def. SHNAIDER (19)
[2020-23]
14 yrs - 2022 Washington: Samsonova (23) def. Kanepi (37)
14 yrs - 2023 Bogota: Maria (35) def. Stearns (21)
13 yrs - 2020 Auckland: S.Williams(38) def. Pegula(25)
13 yrs - 2022 Chennai: L.Fruhvirtova (17) def. Linette (30)
13 yrs - 2023 Hamburg: Rus (32) def. Noha Akugue (19)
13 yrs - 2023 Warsaw: Swiatek (22) def. Siegemund (35)

*ASIAN GAMES SINGLES MEDALISTS (since 1994)*
[Gold]
1994 Kimiko Date, JPN
1998 Yayuk Basuki, JPN
2002 Iroda Tulyaganova, UZB
2006 Zheng Jie, CHN
2010 Peng Shuai, CHN
2014 Wang Qiang, CHN
2018 Wang Qiang, CHN
2023 Zheng Qinwen, CHN
[Silver]
1994 Naoko Sawamatsu, JPN
1998 Tamarine Tanasugarn, THA
2002 Tamarine Tanasugarn, THA
2006 Sania Mirza, IND
2010 Akgul Amanmuradova, UZB
2014 Luksika Kumkhum, THA
2018 Zhang Shuai, CHN
2023 Zhu Lin, CHN
[Bronze(tie)]
1994 Yayuk Basuki/INA and Chen Li/CHN
1998 Li Fang/CHN and Yi Jingqian/CHN
2002 Shinobu Asagoe/JPN and Choo Yoon-jeon/KOR
2006 Li Na/CHN and Aiko Nakamura/JPN
2010 Kimiko Date-Krumm/JPN and Sania Mirza/IND
2014 Misa Eguchi/JPN and Eri Hozumi/JPN
2018 Ankita Raina/IND and Liang En-shou/TPE
2023 Alex Eala/PHI and Haruka Kaji/JPN

*ASIAN GAMES DOUBLES GOLD MEDALISTS (since 1994)*
[WD]
1994 Kyoko Nagatsuka/Ai Sugiyama, JPN
1998 Li Fang/Chen Li, CHN
2002 Kim Mi-ok/Choi Young-ja, KOR
2006 Zheng Jie/Yan Zi, CHN
2010 Latisha Chan/Chuang Chia-jung, TPE
2014 Luksika Kumkhum/Tamarine Tanasugarn, THA
2018 Xu Yifan/Yang Zhaoxuan, CHN
2023 Chan Hao-ching/Latisha Chan, TPE
[MX]
1994 Li Fang/Xia Jiaping, CHN
1998 Nana Miyagi/Satoshi Iwabuchi, JPN
2002 Janet Lee/Lu Yen-hsun, TPE
2006 Sania Mirza/Leander Paes, IND
2010 Latisha Chan/Yang Tsung-hua, TPE
2014 Sania Mirza/Sakath Myneni, IND
2018 Aldila Sutjiadi/Christopher Rungkat, INA
2023 Rutuja Bhosale/Rohan Bopanna, IND






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All for now.

posted by Todd.Spiker @ 1:57 PM 

6 Comments:

Blogger Diane said...

Thanks for the double shout-out!

I don't think that Tursunov should be coaching any females. (I seem to be the only one with a good enough memory to recall some truly dark things he said/did--*before* he did the horrible punishing father routine with Aryna.) But yes, at least Veronika's husband will be around (I don't have a feel for Veronika's ability to cut someone off at the legs).

Sun Oct 01, 02:56:00 PM EDT  
Blogger Todd.Spiker said...

Thumbs up!) :)

Seems like she's already gotten a boost, perhaps correcting whatever had put her in a bad way, so maybe he'll move on to his next port of call?

* - I added Townsend as ITF Player (I wasn't going to do an ITF winner this week, and just listed the top event in Matches... but then I used the info for the wrong semifinalist-turned-finalist -- Shymanovich, not Zarazua -- so then I just decided to do the award, afterall). :/

Sun Oct 01, 07:42:00 PM EDT  
Blogger Diane said...

We are still left with the question: Should Veronika’s husband be her coach? She has too good a serve, too fluid a game, and too many doubles skills to be losing this much.

Sun Oct 01, 08:07:00 PM EDT  
Blogger khan35 said...

Wim fissette should have honored his contract with Qinwen. As Osaka's coach, he wil have his vacation during clay & grass season.

After having one of the greatest season in recent history, Swiatek has come down to earth this year.

Mon Oct 02, 04:10:00 AM EDT  
Blogger colt13 said...

All of the Asian Games singles winners(gold) have been WTA Top 20.

Pliskova has ended her season due to a wrist injury.

Brady is injured again.

How tall is Shnaider? Kvitova towered over her. Listed in some places as 5-9, she seems to be the same size as 5-6 Jabeur.

Stat of the Week- 11- Number of years Lindsay Davenport played Fed Cup.

Now BJK Cup, that is a US record, with Venus Williams next with 10.

*Note-Liezel Huber is also listed with 10, but in 4 of those years, she represented South Africa.*

The new captain made her name on the regular tour, being one of few women to hold #1 in singles and doubles at the same time(2000).

A 3 time slam winner, Davenport is an inspired choice for BJK Cup's next chapter.

Quiz Time!

At which slam did Kathy Rinaldi go farthest?

A.Australian Open
B.Roland Garros
C.Wimbledon
D.US Open

Interlude- Early female team owner.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eSvukTGpto

Answer!

Outgoing captain Rinaldi did best at one slam,but it wasn't the one she went the farthest.

(A)AO is wrong, mainly because she only played the event 6 times. Her best was the 3rd rd in 1984.

(D)US Open was not a good slam for Rinaldi. Though it is the one she played most, 14 years, she never passed the 4th round, which she did in her second try. After that, she never reached the 3rd.

(B)RG is wrong, but a good guess. She reached the QF in her very first slam back in 1981, then did so again in 1986. Her 24 wins here are 11 more than she picked up at any other slam.

(C)Wimbledon is correct. Unlikely, as she crashed out in the 1st rd the year before and the year after her SF run in 1985. In fact, she never reached so much as the 3rd rd there after that SF run.

Mon Oct 02, 07:04:00 AM EDT  
Blogger Todd.Spiker said...

D-

There still needs to be more female coaches in the WTA. (I see that Zaniewski is working w/ Kostyuk now.)


K-

It's not really *shocking* that Fissette left like he did, but it's still a bad look.


C-

Hopefully, Brady's injury isn't going to lead to another long rehab or worse. :/

Quiz: went w/ AO because of the spotty attendance there of the top players during her career. Bad miss.

BTW, with the Asian Games over, the Pan-American Games come up later this month (last time's medalists: Podoroska, Dolehide and Cepede Royg). Next year: the African Games (March; last year's winner was Sherif), along with the Olympics, of course.

Davenport seems like a good choice, albeit maybe a bit safe. Not sure is there were any other good "new blood" options, though. At least not like when Rinaldi seemed like the perfect choice even *before* she was chosen. Vandeweghe seemed like it'd be a bit *too* risky.

Tue Oct 03, 09:47:00 PM EDT  

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