Sunday, February 02, 2025

Wk.5- Linz is Sweeter the Third Time Around


Linz + Ekaterina Alexandrova = ❤️ (finally)








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*WEEK 5 CHAMPIONS*
LINZ, AUSTRIA (WTA 500; Hard Court Indoor)
S: Ekaterina Alexandrova/RUS def. Dayana Yastremska/UKR 6-2/3-6/7-5
D: Timea Babos/Luisa Stefani (HUN/BRA) def. Lyudmyla Kichenok/Nadiia Kichenok (UKR/UKR) 3-6/7-5 (10-4)
SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE (WTA 250; Hard Court Indoor)
S: Elise Mertens/BEL def. Ann Li/USA 6-1/6-4
D: Desirae Krawczyk/Giuliana Olmos (USA/MEX) def. Wang Xinyu/Zheng Saisai (CHN/CHN) 7-5/6-0




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PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Ekaterina Alexandrova/RUS
...Alexandrova already had good memories of Linz, and now she has even better ones.

The Hordette reached her maiden tour-level final in the event back in 2018, as well as having played in her most recent WTA title match when she was runner-up there a year ago. In her third final run (one-third of her career finals on tour), Alexandrova finally lifted the trophy, getting her first WTA crown since Rosmalen in 2023.

Alexandrova arrived in Linz at just 1-3 this season, but wins over Aliaksandra Sasnovich, Petra Martic (w/ 47 winners, she saved all 11 BP she faced in the final two sets), Karolina Muchova (love & 4) and Dayana Yastremska (w/ 49 winners, she overcame a 0-3 defict in the 3rd) gave the Russian one of her best career weeks.

The Linz 500 crown, her fifth overall, is the biggest of Alexandrova's career, and while she ended her 0-2 run in the event's final she also closed out a winless (0-3) mark in indoor finals.


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RISERS: Dayana Yastremska/UKR and Ann Li/USA
...Yastremska took a mighty ranking hit after going out in the 3rd Round at the AO a year after a surprise semifinal run in Melbourne. Ranked #72, the Ukrainian needed a "get better" result and she immediately got it in Linz, reaching her sixth career tour singles final.

Wins over Lucia Bronzetti, Antonia Ruzic, Maria Sakkari and Clara Tauson provided the body of a great week of work, as Yastremska posted multiple wins at a third consecutive event this season. Before her Week 2 QF in Hobart, Yastremska hadn't reached a QF anywhere since AO24, and her Linz run gives her her *best* result since her last final appearance in March 2022 (Lyon).

Yastremska led Ekaterina Alexandrova by a break at 3-0 in the 3rd in the final, but couldn't put away what would have ended her five and a half year title drought (May '19 - Strasbourg, when she won her third career WTA crown), falling in a 7-5 decider.

Yastremska is back up to #50 on Monday.



Even with her second tour final appearance in three months, Li remains well under the radar.

A few seasons ago, that was starting to change. In 2021, Li won a title in Tenerife (in one of two finals that year), and soon after reached the Top 50 (CH #44). She slipped down the rankings the next two seasons, finishing 2022-23 at #140 and #174, respectively, before finally turning things back on the upswing last year. Li won a 125 crown in '24, and reached the Merida final, her first at tour-level in more than three years. She finished the season back inside the Top 100 (barely, at #99).

In Singapore, Li strung together wins over Dasha Saville, Maria Timofeeva and Kimberly Birrell, then took the opening set in the SF vs. Anna Kalinskaya before the Russian's retirement. Li went down in two sets in the final vs. Elise Mertens, but will climb 25 spots to #60 on Monday.


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SURPRISE: Kimberly Birrell/AUS
...so far, Birrell has filled her '25 season with unexpected success. Already a first-time tour singles finalist last fall in Osaka, the Aussie reached the Brisbane QF in Week 1, successfully made her way through AO qualifying in Week 2, then stuck around in Melbourne and reached the MX doubles final. Moving away from her home turf, ranked at a career-best #95, would the rise continue? The answer: yes.

In Singapore, Birrell knocked off Brisbane finalist Polina Kudermetova, and then rallied from 5-2 down in the 3rd set vs. Hailey Baptiste to reach another QF. Though she ulitmately fell in a two-TB match vs. Ann Li, in the loss Birrell had still managed to erase 4-1 and 5-3 deficits in the 1st to force the first TB, then stopped the Bannerette when she served for the win at 5-4 in the 2nd and forced another breaker.


Birrell climbs to another new career-high ranking (#86) on Monday, and is off to an 8-2 start this season.
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VETERAN: Elise Mertens/BEL
...Madison Keys, Aryna Sabalenka... Elise Mertens? Yep, that's the list of players who've made multiple appearances in WTA singles finals through the first five weeks of the '25 season. This weekend, the Belgian got her first title of the year in the tour's return to Singapore.

Mertens was in good form all week, opening with a 1 & love takeout of Taylor Townsend, and after that seeing only one player (Tatjana Maria, in a TB 1st) take a set off her as she ran off additional straight sets victories over Camila Osorio, Wang Xinyu and Ann Li en route to her ninth career WTA title.

Still, even at 10-2 on the year, since both of her final runs came in 250 events, Mertens (even with a 23-spot rise) remains at just #12 in the live Points Race, behind #11 Diana Shnaider (who's just 4-3 in '25).

Thirteen of Mertens' fifteen career tour finals has come at the low end (250/International) of the tour event structure.


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COMEBACK: Jil Teichmann/SUI
...while the high-flying results of a few years ago have been hard to come by for Teichmann of late, the Swiss is at least showing that she's still capable of reminding us how good she *can* be at times.

Teichmann ranked as high as #21 in 2021, as over a two season stretch she reached the Dubai 1000 SF and Cincinnati 1000 final (both on 2021 hard courts), then the following season flashed on EuroClay to reach the Madrid SF/Rome QF in consecutive events. Unfortunately, now 27, Teichmann hasn't reached a tour-level final since that RU result in Cincy nearly four years ago. She's 2-2 in career WTA finals.

After falling outside the Top 100 in June 2023 (she's yet to return), and dipping in and out of the Top *200* last spring/summer, Teichmann has started to stir again. Just a bit, at least. She won 39 matches in 2024 (her most since '17), and her 4Q QF run in Merida last October was her first at tour-level since her '22 Madrid/Rome combo. She won a 125 crown in September.

After losing in the final round of this year's AO qualifying, Teichmann came into Singapore ranked #128. After a successful Q-run, the Swiss posted wins over Harriet Dart and Olivia Gadecki, and then battled Wang Xinyu for over three hours in the QF, her second such result in a WTA event in three months. The two combined for just a lone break of serve (Teichmann dropped the opening game of the 3rd) in a 3:19 battle.

Teichmann is off to a 6-3 start in '25.
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FRESH FACES: Wang Xinyu/CHN and Clara Tauson/DEN
...Zheng Qinwen got an avalanche of attention in 2024, but the CHN #2 had a breakout season, as well.

Wang, 23, posted career best results in doubles -- winning RG and reaching the U.S. semis w/ Hsieh Su-wei, and taking Olympic Silver in MX -- and then late in the year reached her maiden 1000 singles SF in Wuhan (w/ wins over Pegula and Alexandrova), where she lost to Zheng.

In Singapore, Wang was once again a double threat, reaching the singles semifinals wih wins over Rebecca Marino, Maya Joint and Jil Teichmann (in 3:19). She failed to get past Elise Mertens, though, even as (after an MTO to treat a hip injury) she seemed on her way to forcing a 3rd set, leading by an early break in the 2nd and having 3 BP on the Belgian's serve to reclaim that lead while up 3-2.

The loss drops Wang to 0-6 in career WTA semifinals (all have been in Asia-based events, save for her first in Prague in 2021). A win would have not only given Wang her first tour final appearance, but also would have finally gotten her closer to overcoming the "#30s hump" (i.e. put her in position to finally break into the #20s in the rankings). Save for a month last September/October during which she briefly fell out of the Top 50, Wang has been stuck in a small ranking neighborhood for a while now, placing between (#32-43) for the past year and a half. She'll be right in the middle again on Monday, coming in at #36.

But Wang wasn't finished, hours after dropping her singles SF she and Zheng Saisai won to reach the doubles final, though they lost in straights a day later vs. Desirae Krawczyk & Giuliana Olmos.

Meanwhile, in Linz...



Tauson spent much of the week looking like she was going to blast her way to her second title of 2025. Then she ran across Dayana Yastremska in the semifinals.

The Dane's big game has always played well indoors, so Linz seemed a perfect place to try out her great early season form, which had already won her a title in Auckland and seen her push Aryna Sabalenka at the AO. She came out blazing, setting up and taking down Anhelina Kalinina, Sorana Cirstea and Anna Blinkova (ending the latter match with an ace, naturally) to reach the semis. But that's where it ended, as Yastremska gave Tauson a taste of her own medicine.

Still, Tauson is off to a 10-2 start, and is ever closer to her career-high ranking. She'll be at #34 on Monday, just one off her best standing.


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ITF PLAYERS: Tatiana Prozorova/RUS and Victoria Mboko/CAN
...while almost everyone else has had to learn how to rebound from a loss in 2025, Prozorova remains undefeated.

The 21-year old Hordette won her second straight challenger event in Week 5, taking the Pune (IND) $75K with a 4-6/7-5/6-3 win over Leolia Jeanjean after the Pastry had served for the match in the 2nd set. Prozorova won a $50K crown (New Delhi) in January, and is 10-0 on the season. She claimed a $100K title last September, as well.

Prozorova will rise almost 50 spots on Monday, climbing into the Top 180 for the first time. She was in the #420s in early August.



Meanwhile, Mboko "laughs" at Prozorova's run. The Canadian has started 2025 by going 17-0, winning all 32 completed sets she's played this season.

After winning back-to-back $35K crowns, the 18-year old made career title #6 her biggest ever, taking the $75K challenger in Rome, Georgia (US) with a pair of qualifying wins, then defeats of teens Iva Jovic, Akasha Urhobo, Kayla Cross, Cadence Brace and in the final, 25-year old Dutch player Eva Vedder.

Mboko *did* see her six-match undefeated, two-title streak start to '25 end the QF, though.

No matter, as she'll jump 53 spots to within grasp of her Top 200 breakthrough (at #215).


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JUNIOR STARS: Kali Supova/SVK and Wakana Sonobe/JPN
...the 15-year old Slovak claimed the biggest title of her junior career, taking the J300 final in Salinas, Ecuador by a 7-5/6-4 score over Romania's Giulia Safina Popa.

@kali.supova


Just a week after she won the Australian Open girls' title, Sonobe will be making her WTA MD debut in Abu Dhabi in Week 6.



The 17-year old took her qualifying wild card and handily knocked off a pair of Top 100 players in Hailey Baptiste (6-3/6-1) and Cristina Bucsa (6-3/6-3) to reach her maiden WTA MD with a gust of wind behind her back.

The world #834, Sonobe's only other appearance in a tour-level event had been a Q1 loss in Abu Dhabi a year ago vs. Bernarda Pera.


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DOUBLES: Timea Babos/Luisa Stefani, HUN/BRA
...Babos & Stefani took the title in Linz, pulling off the SF/F combo of wins over Katerina Siniakova/Zhang Shuai and Lyudmyla & Nadiia Kichenok, both via a pair of MTB.

It's Stefani's 10th tour title (she also has a '21 Olympic Bronze in WD, and '23 AO MX crown to her credit), while it's #26 for Babos, who won her maiden title back in 2012 alongside Hsieh Su-wei. Of course, Babos' best results include four doubles majors with Kristina Mladenovic, with the last coming at Roland Garros in 2020. Babos has reached just one slam doubles QF, at last year's Wimbledon, since. She hadn't won a tour-level crown since that run in Paris, either, until taking the honors in Rouen last year. So now she has two titles in just ten months.

While the Linz *singles* trophy has been recently upgraded from its previously pedestrian appearance, the doubles awards remain trapped in its eye-rolling, we-bought-these-at-the-Trophies-in-a-Jiffy-store (can you tell?) era...


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1. Singapore QF - Wang Xinyu def. Jil Teichmann
...6-7(5)/7-6(5)/6-4. The third-longest (so far) match of '25 and one of the few three-set affairs in which breaks of serve were scarce.

Neither Wang nor Teichmann dropped serve in the first two sets. In the 2nd, Teichmann saved five BP in game 12 alone to force the match's second breaker. Wang finally knotted the match (on SP #8) by claiming the second TB.

Wang opened the 3rd set with what turned out to be the contest's only break, and never gave up her edge. Wang saved five BP over the course of the final set to secure the victory.


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2. Singapore 2nd Rd. - Kimberly Birrell def. Hailey Baptiste
...6-7(3)/6-3/7-5. One that got away.

Baptiste had her second QF of the year (and career) on her racket in Singapore, leading 5-2 in the 3rd. She served for the match once, but dropped the final five games as Birrell added another good week to a season that has already seen her post a Brisbane QF, successful AO qualifying run and Mixed Doubles final in Melbourne.
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3. Linz Final - Ekaterina Alexandrova def. Dayana Yastremska
...6-2/3-6/7-5. This time Alexandrova wasn't leaving Linz without the trophy.

The Hordette's title run, in which she staged a comeback from 3-0 down (one break) in the 3rd vs. Yastremska, came a year after Alexandrova had reached the tournament final in 2024. Her maiden WTA singles final had come in the same event back in 2018. This was her first win in the three title match appearances.


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4. Linz 1st Rd. - Sara Sorribes Tormo def. Lulu Sun
...6-3/6-3. 2025 is still waiting for the Sun to rise. As in Lulu Sun.

Last season's breakout Kiwi's results have been floundering for a while now. Her straight sets loss to Sorribes Tormo drops her to 0-4 this season, with seven straight losses back to the final stretch of last year.

Hmmm, look out Shuai Z-... err, I mean Madeleine Pe-, well, or whomever is "discovered" to actually have that losing streak record a few months from now?
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5. Linz 1st Rd. - Petra Martic def. Eva Lys
...6-4/7-5/6-3. Not so fast, Eva.

After reaching the Round of 16 as a lucky loser in Melbourne, Lys was entered in the Linz MD via a wild card, so when she got her early loss out of the way this time around she didn't get that second chance to make good.

Ironically, who beat the German here but Martic, who was *also* a LL at this year's Australian Open.

Singapore 2nd Rd. - Ann Li def. Maria Timofeeva
...6-3/6-2. Speaking of LL success. Timofeeva knows a little about that. After all, she won her maiden tour title (in her tour MD debut) in Budapest two seasons ago. The Hordette posted a 1st Round win in Singapore this week as a LL over Wang Xiyu, but Li closed down her run a round later.


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6. Linz 2nd Rd. - Petra Martic def. Elina Avanesyan
...6-4/4-6/7-5. Martic lost more than she won (18-24) in '24, finishing outside the Top 100 (#123) for the first time since 2016.

The 34-year old Croatian is off to a 6-3 start this season, and in Linz she qualified and got MD wins over Eva Lys and Elina Avanesyan to reach her first WTA QF since Auckland last year.

Martic came up short in her attempt for a first SF since this same Linz event two years ago, losing in another three-setter vs. Ekaterina Alexandrova in which the Russian had nearly 50 winners.
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7. Singapore Final - Desirae Krawczyk/Giuliana Olmos def. Wang Xinyu/Zhang Saisai
...7-5/6-0. While Krawczyk picks up tour title #12, Olmos adds a seventh to her career total, as she remains the only Mexican woman in the Open era to win a tour-level WD crown.

The win gives Krawczyk/Olmos their third title together, but the first since Acapulco in February 2020 in an event which wrapped up just over a week before the tour's pandemic shutdown.


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8. Singapore Final - Elise Mertens def. Ann Li
...6-1/6-4. Mertens made her WTAF debut (in WD) in 2018, the last time Singapore hosted a tour-level event, but her singles title run comes in the first "regular season" tournament hosted by the nation since 1994 (w/ a draw that included such blast-from-the-past names as Linda Harvey Wild, Patty Fendick and Rachel McQuillan).

Mertens' success comes in the rare WTA event at which the Waffle doesn't have *multiple* final runs. The Belgian's 15-final career resume is littered with specific events in which she's shined, including Hobart (4 finals), Monastir (2) and Istanbul (2).


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9. Linz 1st Rd. - Sorana Cirstea def. Arantxa Rus
...5-7/6-2/6-3. Cirstea, out since Wimbledon until her return earlier in January, notches her first win since last May. She'd lost six straight, and was just 3-9 since reaching the 4th Round in Miami last March.

Now, maybe it's *another* Romanian veteran's turn to get on the board for the first time in a while?


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10. Singapore 1st Rd. - Anna Kalinskaya def. Caroline Dolehide
...6-4/4-6/6-2. Though she reached a doubles final in the opening week of the season (Brisbane), Kalinskaya came into Singapore without a singles win (0-2) on the year (she was the player whose last minute withdrawal got Eva Lys into the AO draw as a LL).

The Hordette updated that on her '25 ledger with this three-set win over Dolehide, as well as two more over Simona Waltert and Mananchaya Sawangkaew, but still ended her week on a down note with a 2nd set retirement (hip) in the semis vs. Ann Li.


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HM- $15K Sharm El Sheikh EGY Final - Anna Siskova def. Carol Young Suh Lee
...6-2/7-5. Another week, another Crusher champion, as Siskova, 23, picks up career win #5.

First-time pro finalist Lee has recently been listed as representing the U.S. after, in the past, the Northern Mariana born 23-year old (ex-Georgia Tech) has played under that nation's flag (and on the "Pacific Oceania" combo-nation team in Cup play). #588 Lee made her way through qualifying to get to this final.
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1. Linz Final - Timea Babos/Luisa Stefani def. Lyudmyla Kichenok/Nadiia Kichenok
...3-6/7-5 (10-4). The Kichenoks were looking to add a fifth title together on the WTA level.

Even without their first since 2022, the Ukrainians rank third all-time behind the Williams (22) and Chan (14) sisters for the most titles won by an all-sister duo.


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2. $50K Porto POR Final - Francisca Jorge/Matilde Jorge def. Lucija Ciric Bagaric/Kristina Novak
...6-3/6-2. The Portuguese Porto sisters claim their 17th career pro title (16 ITF, 1 125) as a duo.


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Everyone promoteds the WTA better than the WTA promotes the WTA.




Haha, leave it the WTA to say to an event's organizers, nope, you're just not good enough to have *two* Top 10 players.

If Keys truly wanted to play this 250 event (she doesn't really need to now), this rule should really be amended so that multiple Top 10 players are allowed if the entry was made when the player *wasn't* in the Top 10 (as was the case here). Why should the tournament (and fans) essentially be penalized because the event was lucky enough to snag *two* top players (in this case, a second top *U.S.* player for an event in the States in what would be her first home nation appearance since claiming her first major)?

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And, the WTA continues to get in its own way (as in "Kasatkina/ESP")...



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*MOST WTA FINALS in 2025*
2 - Madison Keys (2-0)
2 - ELISE MERTENS (1-1)
2 - Aryna Sabalenka (1-1)
[2025 - by nation, F/W]
5 (3) - USA*
2 (1) - BEL*,BLR,RUS*
1 (1) - DEN
1 (0) - JPN,UKR*
[2020-25]
25 - 1/2/9/8/5/0 - Swiatek (22-3)
24 - 3/3/3/6/7/2 - Sabalenka (13-11)
17 - 5/0/3/4/5/0 - Rybakina (7-10)
14 - 0/4/2/2/6/0 - Kasatkina (6-8)
13 - 1/0/2/5/4/1 - Pegula (5-8)
12 - 0/4/3/4/1/0 - Krejcikova (8-4)
12 - 1/7/4/0 ret...Kontaveit (5-6-1)
12 - 0/3/6/3/0/0 - Jabeur (5-7)
10 - 0/0/1/3/6/0 - Zheng Q. (5-5)
9 - 1/6/2/ret...Barty (8-1)
9 - 0/1/1/4/3/0 - Gauff (8-1)
9 - 2/2/1/1/1/2 - MERTENS (4-5)

*WTA HARD COURT TITLES IN 2020s*
11 - Aryna Sabalenka (3/1/0/2/4/1)
11 - Iga Swiatek (0/1/5/3/2/0)
7 - Coco Gauff (0/0/0/4/3/0)
6 - Ash Barty (1/3/2 ret)
5 - Dasha Kasatkina (0/2/2/0/1/0)
5 - Annet Kontaveit (0/4/1/0 ret)
5 - Barbora Krejcikova (0/1/2/2/0/0)
4 - ELISE MERTENS (0/1/1/1/0/1)
4 - Jessie Pegula (0/0/1/2/1/0)
4 - Elena Rybakina (1/0/0/1/2/0)

*CAREER WTA TITLES - RUS (active)*
12 - Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
12 - Vera Zvonareva
8 - Dasha Kasatkina
5 - EKATERINA ALEXANDROVA
5 - Liudmila Samsonova
4 - Diana Shnaider

*MOST WTA SF in 2025*
2 - Madison Keys (2-0)
2 - ELISE MERTENS (2-0)
2 - Aryna Sabalenka (2-0)
2 - CLARA TAUSON (1-1)
[2025 - by nation, F/W]
7 - USA (5-2)*
5 - RUS (2-3)**
2 - BEL (2-0)*
2 - BLR (2-0)
2 - DEN (1-1)*
2 - UKR (1-1)*
1 - ARM (0-1)
1 - AUS (0-1)
1 - CHN (0-1)*
1 - CZE (0-1)*
1 - ESP (0-1)
1 - JPN (1-0)
1 - KAZ (0-1)
1 - POL (0-1)

*2020-25 WTA DOUBLES TITLES*
22 - Katerina Siniakova (1/6/6/3/5/1)
14 - Barbora Krejcikova (1/5/3/4/1/0)
12 - Elise Mertens (1/4/2/2/3/0)
11 - Hsieh Su-wei (4/2/0/2/3/0)
10 - DESIRAE KRAWCZYK (2/2/1/3/1/1)
10 - Laura Siegemund (1/0/3/5/1/0)
9 - Shuko Aoyama (1/5/0/2/1/0)
9 - Anna Danilina (0/1/2/1/5/0)
9 - Nicole Melichar-Martinez (2/2/2/0/3/0)
9 - Demi Schuurs (2/2/1/2/2/0)
9 - Ena Shibahara (1/5/0/2/1/0)
9 - LUISA STEFANI (1/1/2/3/1/1)

*CAREER WTA DOUBLES TITLES - active*
35 - Hsieh Su-Wei
33 - Latisha Chan
32 - Sara Errani
30 - Bethanie Mattek-Sands
29 - Katerina Siniakova
28 - Kristina Mladenovic
26 - TIMEA BABOS

*2025 WTA CHAMPIONS BY RANKING*
#1 - Aryna Sabalenka (Brisbane)
#14 - Madison Keys (Australian Open)
#20 - Madison Keys (Adelaide)
#30 - EKATERINA ALEXANDROVA (LINZ)
#32 - ELISE MERTENS (SINGAPORE)
#50 - Clara Tauson (Auckland)
#67 - McCartney Kessler (Hobart)

*2025 WTA CHAMPIONS BY AGE*
30 - EKATERINA ALEXANDROVA (LINZ)
29 - Madison Keys (Australian Open)
29 - Madison Keys (Adelaide)
29 - ELISE MERTENS (SINGAPORE)
26 - Aryna Sabalenka (Brisbane)
25 - McCartney Kessler (Hobart)
22 - Clara Tauson (Auckland)






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I think Americans, blessed with relatively stable government for a long time, assume there is someone, some adult, who will step in and make things right before the President does anything REALLY bad. There’s not.

— Domestic Enemy Hat (@kenwhite.bsky.social) February 2, 2025 at 9:55 AM

That boldly assumes Americans even know what’s happened in the last week

— Next door in Silicon Valley (@nextdoorsv.bsky.social) February 2, 2025 at 1:10 PM

The sad fact is, most don't. They won't even realize anything's up until a week or two from now, "Hey, why'd my groceries get so expensive?" and then they'll go home and watch Fox news (not that any other broadcast media is much better right now) and say it was Biden's fault for ruining the economy.

— IzzyBoris ?? (@izzyboris.com) February 2, 2025 at 2:18 PM


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All for now.

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