Well, here's something of an "unofficial" rundown of the things that were deemed M.I.A. over the past seven days:
Ana Ivanovic's most recent coach, Nigel Sears. Of course, a coaching change is nothing new for the Serb, who is still searching (in vain?) for the right combination to bring forth the results that led AnaIvo to a slam title and #1 ranking five years ago. Give her credit for not being so stubborn that she's willing to waste time if she thinks things aren't progressing as well as she'd hoped. One should never say never, but if it turns out that Ivanovic's brief turn at the top turns out to be her only one, then at least she'll always be able to say that she took advantage of the opportunity when it was presented to her. There are a whole lot of almost-were and missed-it-by-that-much players who wish they were able to say the same.
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Agnieszka Radwanska's clothes, as evidenced by her in-the-buff pose in ESPN Magazine's Body Issue
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Maria Sharapova's coach Thomas Hogstedt, the Swede who worked so well with the Russian as she climbed back to #1 and completed a Career Slam at last year's Roland Garros. Sharapova has since announced a new partnership with Jimmy Connors (they'll surely be able to compare notes on "competitive grit"), which will surely be Topic #1 when when the U.S. Open rolls around next month. As for Hogstedt, former coach of the likes of Tommy Haas and Li Na as Top 10 players, he's now on the open market... and there are surely some current Top 10ers who could use a new set of eyes. One's already a former Wimbledon champ, while the other, ala Hogstedt, has some Scandinavian roots and a dad who has surely been paying attention to the news of the past week.
Will either one strike a deal for a shot at a new beginning? It will be interesting to see.
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Of course, that's just a start. Be sure to check the "lost and found" box on your way out to see if anything else looks familiar.
*WEEK 28 CHAMPIONS*
PALERMO, ITALY (Int'l $235K/RCO)
S: Roberta Vinci/ITA def. Sara Errani/ITA 6-3/3-6/6-3
D: Mladenovic/Piter (FRA/POL) d. Ka.Pliskova/Kr.Pliskova (CZE/CZE)
BUDAPEST, HUNGARY (Int'l $235K/RCO)
S: Simona Halep/ROU def. Yvonne Meusburger/AUT 6-3/6-7/6-1
D: Hlavackova/Hradecka (CZE/CZE) d. Bratchikova/Tatishvili (RUS/GEO)
PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Roberta Vinci/ITA
...Caro, be on notice. You have an Italian breathing down your neck in the rankings. Over the past two seasons, at a point where past players started to go down "the other side" of the tennis mountain, Vinci has fashioned quite a climbing career for herself. She's reached a new career-high ranking in singles, become the doubles #1, won three doubles slam crowns and built up what is becoming a rather remarkable record in singles finals in her career. Last week in Palermo, Vinci gots wins over Polona Hercog, Loudes Dominguez-Lino, Estrella Cabeza-Candela and doubles partner Sara Errani in the final. The successful turn in the championship match gives Vinci a 6-0 mark in her last six attempts over a three-year stretch, and a 9-1 record in the ten finals she's reached during her career, starting with a win in Bogota in 2007. With yet another title to her credit, Vinci edges just a little bit closer to becoming the fourth Italian woman to reach the Top 10. For the record, current #11 Vinci trails current #10 Wozniacki by just 440 points.=============================
RISERS: Simona Halep/ROU & Kristina Mladenovic/FRA
...quite simply, with all apologies to La Trufflette, Halep is the hottest player going on the WTA tour right now. With her title run in Budapest, she's won three of her last four events (two on clay, one on grass), going 16-1 in her last seventeen matches, losing only to Li Na in a three-setter at Wimbledon in which the Romanian was treated for a back injury. Last week, her list of victims included Sesil Karatantcheva, Timea Babos, Alexandra Cadantu and Yvonne Meusburger. Having improved her year-end singles ranking in every season she's been on tour, the 21-year old Halep, up to a new career-high ranking of #23, looks to be more than prepared to continue her ascension. Mladenovic had a disappointing week in singles in Palermo, losing in the 2nd Round as the #3 seed to Estrella Cabeza-Candela. But, as usual, she more than made up for it with her doubles prowess. Over the past year, the 20-year old Pastry has won eight doubles and mixed doubles titles, and has done so while partnering eight different players (seven women, one man) during her championship runs, a truly crazy stat for a player so early in her career. This past week the "lucky duck" was Poland's Katarzyna Piter who got to team with the '09 junior #1. After the duo took out defending champs Voracova/Zahlavova-Strycova in the quarterfinals, and the Pliskova sisters in the final, Piter, like most of Mladenovic's playing partners, left with a smile on her face and a bigger-than-normal check in her pocket. Hmmm, maybe they should conduct the selection of Mladenovic's weekly doubles partners like they do the tournament draws... at least it'd give everyone an equally fair chance.=============================
SURPRISES: Estrella Cabeza-Candela/ESP & Danka Kovinic/MNE
...ECC, 26, is yet another player who qualifies as something of a "late bloomer" on tour, having reached the Top 100 for the first time earlier this season. Heading into Palermo as the #108-ranked player in the world, she put up wins over Kristina Mladenovic and Renata Voracova and reached her first career WTA singles semifinal. Kovinic, an 18-year old from Montenegro, has won a pair of ITF singles crowns this season, and made her WTA main draw debut last week in Budapest. She made it all the way to the QF with wins over Johanna Konta and Valeria Solovyeva. A week after seeing her ranking jump from #242 to #183, she'll make the leap to #172 this week.
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VETERANS: Yvonne Meusburger/AUT & Andrea Hlavackova/Lucie Hradecka (CZE/CZE)
...Meusburger, a recent qualifier at Wimbledon (and 1st Round victim of a certain alter ego's human host), reached the second WTA final of her career in Budapest, but her first since losing to Francesca Schiavone in the Bad Gastein decider back in 2007. The world #112 took out Alison Van Uytvanck, Johanna Larsson, Annika Beck and Chanelle Scheepers to get to the final, where she lost to Halep in three sets. Still, Meusburger's run makes Austria the twenty-ninth different nation to produce a tour semifinalist in 2013, and the twenty-first with a finalist. Also in Budapest, Hlavackova and Hradecka won their tenth tour doubles title as a duo, but their first since they claimed their fourth of four '12 titles late last season in Luxembourg. In singles, Hlavackova also got a win over #2 seed Alize Cornet.
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COMEBACKS: Shahar Peer/ISR & Zhang Shuai/CHN
...it's hard to believe now that Peer was one win from entering the Top 10 two and a half years ago, and as her ranking has slipped outside the Top 100 over the past year it was easy to believe that she was on a fast track to "remember her?" status. Well, she might not have totally turned that notion around, but at least there's a little movement in the right direction. A successful qualifying try earlier this season in Miami was followed by a QF in Katowice. Last week, in the main draw without being forced to go the qualifying route in Budapest, Peer got a win over Anna Tatishvili and reached another QF. She's up to #143. Meanwhile, in a $75K in Beijing, 24-year old Zhang claimed her first ITF crown since 2010, the only season in which the Chinese woman has finished in the Top 100 at year's end. She defeated the likes of Misaki Doi, Michaella Krajicek and Zhou Yi-Miao in the final on her way to the title.
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FRESH FACES: Karolina Pliskova/Kristyna Pliskova (CZE/CZE) & Nicole Gibbs/USA
...the Pliskova sisters have reached twelve ITF finals as a doubles duo, winning six titles from 2010-12. While Karolina became the first of the two Czech siblings to win a tour singles title earlier this year in Kuala Lumpur, they've yet to win a WTA doubles crown. They did reach their first final this weekend in Palermo, though, losing to Mladenovic and her current Random Number Generator partner. In a $50K challenger in Yakima, Washington, two-time NCAA singles champ Gibbs, 20, claimed the third ITF crown of her career (but her first since turning pro) after reaching her second circuit final of 2013. She got wins over Alexandra Stevenson, Asia Muhammad, Sachia Vickery, Julia Glushko and Ivana Lisjak in the final. Gibbs won previous titles in 2007 (as a teenybopper in Mexico City) and 2012 (Denver).
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DOWN: Sara Errani/ITA & Lucie Safarova/CZE
...with the WTA's reconfigured schedule this season, Errani found herself in the position of being the defending champion at BOTH of the tournaments -- Palermo and Budapest -- held in Week 28. As the #1 seed in Palermo, Errani reached her fourth final of the season, but failed to defend when she lost to her best friend and doubles partner Vinci (who she'd beaten in the Dubai SF earlier this season). Meanwhile, in Budapest, #1 seed Safarova didn't come anywhere close to adequately "filling in" for the Italian at the top of the draw, winning just one game in a one-and-love 1st Round loss to Valeria Solovyeva.
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ITF PLAYER: Stephanie Vogt/LIE
...the 23-year old from Liechtenstein grabbed her eighth career ITF title at the $100K in Biarritz, France. It's her biggest crown to date. Ranked #198, Vogt notched wins over Alize Lim, Pauline Parmentier and youngster Anna Schmiedlova, the '12 Roland Garros Girls runner-up, in the final.
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JUNIOR STAR: Ivana Jorovic/SRB
...in the Grade 1 German Juniors championship on red clay, 16-year old Serb Jorovic, the #14 seed, defeated #9-seeded Croatian Jana Fett in the final to run her winning streak to twenty-one matches (she's 25-4 this season). Fett, another 16-year old (but with, seriously, one my favorite names out there right now, as it lends itself SO well to all sorts of "Star Wars" references... just in the time for another movie trilogy, too), was coming off successful girls qualifying runs at Roland Garros and Wimbledon and a combined three junior main draw wins at those slams. Fett had also won the doubles at this event. See, I was preparing in the event the Croat won this tournament. Want further proof? Well, I was ready to bring up that Fett's ITF bio lists under her Personal Interests, "chilling with friends and reading books." Yep, too good to pass up, winner or no winner.
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1. Palermo Final - Vinci d. Errani
...6-3/3-6/6-3. After so many all-Russian finals in seasons past, this was the first WTA singles final of any kind to pit players from the same nation since Serena Williams and Coco Vandeweghe met in the Stanford final almost exactly one year ago. As it turned out, Vinci became the first player this season to defeat a top seed/defending champion in a tournament and take the title for herself. The only other time the #1/DC sweep has taken place in '13 was when Sabine Lisicki knocked off Serena, but came up short in the final last weekend against Marion Bartoli.
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2. Budapest Final - Halep d. Meusburger
...6-3/6-7/6-1. The Swarmettes are now 4-0 in 2013 WTA singles finals. Halep, for her part, now finds herself just one career title from tying Irina Spirlea and Ruxandra Dragomir (both w/ 4) for 2nd place on the all-time Romanian tour title list, behind only Virginia Ruzici (12).
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3. Palermo 2nd Rd. - Errani d. Zahlavova-Strycova
...6-3/6-2. A year ago, this match-up was the Palermo final. Errani won it, too, only by a slightly more dominant 6-1/6-3 score.
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HM- Budapest 1st Rd. - Solovyeva d. Safarova
...6-1/6-0. You take on the "Pocket Hordette," you get the horns.
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1. Palermo Doub F - Mladenovic/Piter d. Pliskova/Pliskova
...6-1/5-7/10-8. A "4K Special," as Kristina & Katarzyna defeat Karolina & Kristyna. No word yet on the rumor that such "alphabet soup" is how Mladenovic picks her many doubles partners.
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2. Palermo 1st Rd. - Zahlavova-Strycova d. Kr.Pliskova 6-4/6-4
Palermo 1st Rd. - Pfizenmaier d. Ka.Pliskova 7-5/7-5
...yep, the Pliskovas had remarkably similar experiences in Palermo. Of note, Pfizenmaier, who'd previously recorded her only career main draw tour wins at Roland Garros the last two years, got her first one elsewhere here. She soon got another in the 2nd Round against Anabel Medina-Garrigues.
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**2013 WTA SINGLES TITLES**
6...Serena Williams, USA
3...SIMONA HALEP, ROU
2...Victoria Azarenka, BLR
2...Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, RUS
2...Agnieszka Radwanska, POL
2...Maria Sharapova, RUS
2...Elena Vesnina, RUS
2...ROBERTA VINCI, ITA
**2013 WTA FINALS**
7...Serena Williams (6-1)
5...Maria Sharapova (2-3)
4...SARA ERRANI (1-3)
3...SIMONA HALEP (3-0)
3...Victoria Azarenka (2-1)
3...Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (2-1)
3...Li Na (1-2)
3...Sabine Lisicki (0-3)
**2013 CLAY TITLES**
3...Serena Williams, USA
2...SIMONA HALEP, ROU
2...ROBERTA VINCI, ITA
**MLADENOVIC CAREER DOUBLES TITLES**
=2012=
Montreal w/ Klaudia Jans-Ignacik
Quebec City w/ Tatjana Maria (nee Malek)
Taipei 125 w/ Chan Hao-Ching
=2013=
Memphis w/ Galina Voskoboeva
Charleston w/ Lucie Safarova
Oeiras w/ Chang Yung-Jan
Wimbledon Mixed w/ Daniel Nestor
Palermo w/ Katarzyna Piter
**2013 DOUBLES TITLES**
5...KRISTINA MLADENOVIC, FRA (4 + Mixed)
3...Timea Babos, HUN
3...Kimiko Date-Krumm, JPN
3...Sara Errani, ITA
3...Nadia Petrova, RUS
3...Katarina Srebotnik, SLO
3...Roberta Vinci, ITA
**2013 TITLES DEFENSES - REACHED SINGLES FINAL**
Hobart - Mona Barthel, GER (lost to Vesnina)
Australian Open - Victoria Azarenka, BLR (def. Li)
Doha - Victoria Azarenka, BLR (def. S.Williams)
Acapulco - Sara Errani, ITA (def. Suarez-Navarro)
Charleston - Serena Williams, USA (def. Jankovic)
Stuttgart - Maria Sharapova, RUS (def. Li)
Madrid - Serena Williams, USA (def. Sharapova)
Roland Garros - Maria Sharapova, RUS (lost to S.Williams)
Palermo - Sara Errani, ITA (lost to Vinci)
**LOW-RANKED 2013 FINALISTS**
#228 Catalina Castano, COL - Cali (lost to Arruab.-V.)
#198 Paula Ormaechea, ARG - Bogota (lost to Jankovic)
#197 Bethanie Mattek-Sands, USA - K.Lumpur (lost to Ka.Pliskova)
#127 Karolina Pliskova, CZE - K.Lumpur (def. Mattek-Sands)
#112 Lucie Hradecka, CZE - Strasbourg (lost to Cornet)
#112 YVONNE MEUSBURGER, AUT - Budapest (lost to Halep)
#109 Olga Puchkova, RUS - Florianopolis (lost to Niculescu)
#103 Andrea Petkovic, GER - Nuremberg (lost to Halep)
**2013 ITF $100K FINALS**
Midland, USA - Lauren Davis/USA def. Alja Tomljanovic/CRO
Cagnes-Sur-Mer, FRA - Caroline Garcia/FRA def. Maryna Zanveska/UKR
Prague, CZE - Lucie Safarova/CZE def. Alexandra Cadantu/ROU
Marseille, FRA - Andrea Petkovic/GER def. A.Medina-Garrigues/ESP
Biarritz, FRA - Stephanie Vogt/LIE def. Anna Schmiedlova/SVK
BASTAD, SWEDEN (Int'l $235K/red clay outdoor)
12 Final: Hercog d. Johansson
12 Doubles Final: Castano/Duque-Marino d. Hrdinova/Jugic-Salkic
13 Top Seeds: S.Williams/Halep
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=SF=
#1 S.Williams d. #3 Zakopalova
#2 Halep d. Johansson
=FINAL=
#1 S.Williams d. #2 Halep
...hmm, Serena takes on another clay event prior to the North American hard court circuit. Perhaps to work a bit on the fundamentals before the surfaces get faster?
BAD GASTEIN, AUSTRIA (Int'l $235K/red clay outdoor)
12 Final: Cornet d. Wickmayer
12 Doubles Final: Craybas/Goerges d. Groenefeld/Martic
13 Top Seeds: Barthel/Beck
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=SF=
#4 Petkovic d. #5 Bertens
#2 Beck d. Meusburger
=FINAL=
#4 Petkovic d. #2 Beck
...Petko won her first career tour title at this event in 2009. Beck would be looking to follow in her countrywoman's footsteps.
All for now.
