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Sunday, March 24, 2019

Between a Hard Rock and a Miami Place

A few first week headlines from South Florida...

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She is who we thought she was.

Indian Wells champ Bianca Andreescu came to Miami with every right to be exhausted (and likely is, at times). She's been winning almost non-stop since last fall, after all. She had the opportunity presented to her to gracefully bow out early on this week, but the competitor in her simply wouldn't allow it.

Though she *did* get an extra day between events due to the early-week rain in South Florida, the 18-year old found herself down 6-4/5-1, and serving at love/30, in the 1st Round against Irina-Camelia Begu. Admitting during the week that she really needs two or three weeks off to allow her body to recuperate, she'd been given a pass if her time in Miami was short. But rather than accept her seeming fate (down 4-1 in the 2nd), after being calmed by coach Sylvain Bruneau when the shots that had just won her a big title weren't working against the Romanian, she first mentally grabbed onto a match-saving hand hold and avoided slipping off the cliff, an act which then allowed her to physically to do the same soon afterward. Again, Bruneau stressed the positive. What happened next was another example not only of the fight inside Andreescu, but the good work being done by her team (Bruneau, but also Virginie Tremblay, who'd been with her during her Auckland run) when it comes to knowing how to motivate and bring out the best in her when times are stressful, while also not making an unseemly courtside scene.




While Begu held a MP and twice served for the match, Andreescu rallied to win the 2nd in a TB (securing it with a drop shot winner, naturally), then cruised to a 3rd set victory, setting up another shot at Sonya Kenin, who'd outlasted the Canadian in the Acapulco semis before the teenager headed off to the desert for what turned out to be *the* monumental tournament of her career. She won in straight sets.

Things got no easier from there, as the Miami Open's unwillingness to conduct a draw with the Indian Wells results (and new rankings) in mind -- instead it's about where players stood *six* weeks ago -- Andreescu next met up with Angelique Kerber, the German vet she'd taken down in three tough sets in the I.W. final last weekend.

At the end of a very long day in which the Stadium Court saw every match go the distance, Andreescu/Kerber II didn't start until after 11 p.m. But that didn't prevent the contest from being another intriguing clash between the two...(wait for it)...won by the Canadian.



Kerber broke to open the match, but the teenager soon began to find her footing (you knew she was fully "on" when she pulled another drop-and-lob combo reminiscent of several she pulled off vs. Kerber last Sunday). Kerber's DF handed the break back for 2-2, and Andreescu pulled out back-to-back power shots to close out a hold for 4-3 after encountering danger at 30/30. While the 18-year old was raising her game level, Kerber was increasingly bothered by the variety of paces, slices, high bounces and angles coming at her. Andreescu broke to take, dare I say it, a nearly "routine" 6-4 set.

Andreescu nearly ran away with things in the 2nd, taking a 2-0 lead. When a third consecutive game saw the returner take a love/40 lead, Kerber battled back to deuce, but still dropped serve to fall behind 3-1. She trailed 4-1, as Andreescu didn't appear "tired" in the least after all her match play of late and in 2019 (Tennis Channel's Paul Annacone had earlier been following along with the understandable conventional thinking since Auckland that assumes Andreescu will surely begin to tire at some point... though it's maybe only really played out that way in the Acapulco semi vs. Kenin). She served up 6-4/4-2 and appeared on her way to a hold, only to play a few loose points and open the door for the German, who'd begun to wince and flex her wrapped left thigh, as her movement was showing signs of becoming an issue.



Andreescu couldn't get the break back, and instead saw Kerber buckle down and direct a series of relentless rallies, with shot after shot going to the Andreescu backhand, which cracked just enough to get give Kerber a break lead at 5-4. She served out the set a game later and the two were headed to another deciding set.



But Andreescu (did we expect anything different?) didn't wilt or slink away. Instead she changed up the pattern of her own game, working in more angled shots and moving forward toward the net behind her power shots. She got a break to lead 3-1, and again held a 4-1 edge. This time, though, she didn't let up, getting an insurance break for a 5-1 advantage. She served out the set at 6-1 around a quarter past 1 a.m. to record her fourth Top 10 win in four matches vs. Top 10 players since January, adding yet another feather to an already crowded cap (though not the one she'd started the match with, as she'd had to switch to a white one after her original black visor broke in the middle of a point), while a frustrated/ticked-off and maybe sore Kerber was curt with her handshakes with Andreescu and the chair umpire before swiftly exiting the court.



Meanwhile, Andreescu plays on and (at some point) will seek out a spot in her schedule for a break. She's still committed (for now) to play in Charleston, and two weekends after that it's hard to imagine she'll pass up leading the Canadian Fed Cup team against the Czechs on the road in Prostejov in the World Group Playoffs. That doesn't leave much time for rest. She may end up being forced to make a very tough decision (or maybe a few of them) if things fall a certain way between now and then.
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La Divine has a Parisian sister. Stadium court, that is...



For the record, Mathieu (if she sounds familiar, it's because the Roland Garros women's doubles trophy -- spelled differently, as the "Coupe Simone-Mathieu" -- is named for her) inherited the role as France's top female player in the 1930's from Suzanne Lenglen. She was a 13-time slam champ (behind only Lenglen's 31 on the all-time list of French women's titlists), winning two RG singles titles, nine slam WD and two mixed championships in her career. In 1939, she swept all three titles in Paris.

After reaching the RG singles final in '29, from 1930-39 Mathieu would never do worse than the QF in twenty combined RG/Wimbledon events (and at 21 of 22 majors, as she also reached a U.S. Open QF in '38 in her first of two appearances in the tournament). She played in eight RG women's finals (winning twice), and was a 6-time Wimbledon semifinalist (all between 1930-37).


Mathieu was head of the Corps Féminin Français, the women's branch of the Free French Forces, during World War II. She received the title of Officier de la Légion d'honneur. After the resumption of the tennis slam schedule in Europe after the war, she made her final appearance in a major at age 38 at Wimbledon in 1946, seven years after she'd last played in a slam event at the '39 U.S. Open. She lost in the 1st Round.

Mathieu was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2006.
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And the course correction has begun...


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How are things going for the defending Miami Open champ? Well, Sloane Stephens began the week...



Heading into the weekend, after posting a 2nd Round win over Ons Jabeur (just her second since the AO), things were still going well...



Sloane also turned 26 on Wednesday.



As for last year's runner-up, Alona Ostapenko? Well, she's already out, dropping a second straight match to her Indian Wells conqueror, Marketa Vondrousova in her opening 2nd Rounder. One event after falling to the Czech in three, Ostapenko lost 7-5/6-1 this time after having served for the 1st set and then barely winning another game. She's 3-8 in tour matches (+ 1-0 FC) in '19, after ending '18 having gone 4-7 after her Wimbledon semi while dealing with a wrist injury in the closing months.
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Speaking of course corrections. While this week offered up more coach/player break-ups (including those involving Potapova and Pavlyuchenkova), Simona Halep went the other way and finally brought aboard a full-timer...


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April is Poetry Month, so take a moment to take a look at a sample of the work of Women Who Serve's Diane Dees, a longtime FOB ("Friend of Backspin," of course)...



More information on her chapbook soon!
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Chakvetadze Sighting! Well, maybe it should be a Chakvetadze sighting?


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While recent retiree Aga Radwanska is absent from the courts, she's been burning up the dance floor in Poland's version of "Dancing with the Stars." Here are her four outings so far...



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In the ITF, junior and wheelchair world...

Aussie Destanee Aiava, having drifted a bit out of the spotlight after being seen as one of tour's teens to watch a couple of seasons ago, won her first challenger title since April of last year. The 18-year took the Canberra $25K with a straight sets win over Risa Ozaka. Aiava came into the week at #202 after having finished '18 at #249. She was ranked a high as #147 in September '17.

Meanwhile, AO girls champ Clara Tauson has won another challenger title, this time a $15K in Xiamen, China vs. teenager Guo Meiqi. With her three-set win, the 16-year old Dane has won back-to-back-to-back ITF events and is now 15-0 in pro events in '19 (with her only two singles losses -- at any level, from the juniors to the pros -- since September coming in Fed Cup play in February).

17-year old Maria Camila Osorio Serrano (COL/Jr. #9), a week after retiring (down 5-1 in the 3rd) from a $15K final in Cancun, will play for another (career title #2) in the same city, this time against Kiwi Mary Paige Hourigan

...the Cajun Classic Super Series wheelchair event in Baton Rouge, Louisiana will be decided between #1 Diede de Groot and countrywoman Aniek Van Koot (#3), meeting in a final for the second straight week. The pair have already combined to take the doubles title, defeating Angelisa Bernal and Dana Mathewson (who had quite the week in singles, too, upsetting Sabine Ellerbrock to reach her first Super Series semi).

De Groot is seeking her eleventh straight singles match win. She enters the final with a 13-1 record this season, having held five MP in her one loss vs. Yui Kamiji just before the AO. She's 21-1 since the start of last year's U.S. Open, and holds a 12-5 career edge over Van Koot, going 11-2 in matches from 2017-19.

UPDATE: Van Koot upset de Groot 6-1/6-4, while Hourigan defeated Osorio Serrano


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Meanwhile, why is this woman so happy? Well...

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[Miami Monday to Saturday]
1. Miami 1st Rd. - Bianca Andreescu def. Irina-Camelia Begu
...4-6/7-6(2)/6-2. As if Andreescu didn't already have a handful of signature matches and moments in 2019, she added a few more vs. Begu, coming back from 6-4/5-1 down and saving a MP after another memorable changeover session with Sylvain Bruneau.


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2. Miami 3rd Rd. - Bianca Andreescu def. Angelique Kerber
...6-4/4-6/6-1. Two wins over Kerber in a week's time. 6-2 vs. the Top 20 in '19. 4-0 vs. the Top 10. 2-0 vs. the Top 5. Andreescu has a Round of 16 vs. Kontaveit, with the winner vs. Hsieh/Wozniacki, to have a shot to follow up her I.W. win with (at least) a semifinal.

Who knows, maybe the "novel" concept of a player with power who doesn't almost exclusively rely on it, but rather employs it as part of larger arsenal will catch on. Maybe.


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3. Miami 1st Rd. - Wang Yafan def. Kristina Mladenovic
...6-3/6-3. The Acapulco champ hands Mladenovic her fourth loss in five matches since the Pastry got a win over #1 Osaka. She and Timea Babos also lost their 1st Round match in doubles, while Babos fell in singles qualifying to Kaia Kanepi.

Meanwhile, Caroline Garcia coasted into the Round of 16 on Saturday after having posted wins over Victoria Azarenka and Julia Goerges.
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3. Miami 1st Rd. - Magdalena Rybarikova def. Natalia Vikhlyantseva
...1-6/7-5/7-6(4). It wasn't easy, but Rybarikova snapped her nine-match losing streak, recording her first win since CoCo Vandeweghe retired in the 3rd set of their 1st Round in New Haven last summer.
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4. Miami Q1 - Misaki Doi def. Anastasia Potapova
...3-6/7-6(10)/7-6(12). Doi has been surging of late, and posted a series of nice wins before falling in the 2nd Round to Polona Hercog. She saved three MP in the 2nd set TB (and a fourth in the 3rd) vs. Potapova, who dismissed her coach soon afterward, then defeated Mandy Minella from a set down to reach the MD, where she outlasted Wang Xiyu in three.
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5. Miami Q1 - Nao Hibino def. Genie Bouchard
...4-6/6-0/6-4. Meanwhile, the Canadian #2 wasn't jolted into action in her first match after Andreescu's I.W. title run. Bouchard has slipped (no pun intended) again of late. After ending '18 with a qualifier-to-semifinalist run in Luxembourg (6-1), then opening '19 with a WD title in Auckland and a singles QF result while starting 5-3, she's now lost four of five.
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6. Miami Q1 - Taylor Townsend def. Zheng Qinwen
...4-6/7-5/6-4. Townsend trailed Zheng 6-4/5-1 before rallying to win, then downed Beatriz Haddad to reach the MD. She lost in the 2nd Round to Simona Halep.
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7. Miami 2nd Rd. - Samantha Stosur def. Madison Keys
...6-4/4-6/6-4. Keys loses her third straight. She's 7-7 since her U.S. Open semifinal (with three of those wins coming at the AO). Miami just isn't a big enough event, I guess.
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8. Miami 2nd Rd. - Wang Yafan def. Elina Svitolina
...6-2/6-4. Wang's first career Top 10 win gives Svitolina a chance to rest her knee. The Ukrainian has now gone six events without a final appearance. She went nine (after winning Rome) before her Singapore title run to end '18.
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9. Miami 1st Rd. - Coco Gauff def. Caty McNally 3-6/6-3/6-4
Miami 2nd Rd. - Dasha Kasatkina def. Coco Gauff 6-3/6-2
...getting your first win...



Getting what surely *feels* like your first win...



Venus is next for Dasha.
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10. Miami 2nd Rd. - Ajla Tomljanovic def. Aryna Sabalenka
...6-3/6-4. Has Sabalenka been getting something of a "pass" for her slow start because of the fact that she "slid" into a title in Week 1 and that the seasons of many other top players (Kastakina, Ostapenko, etc.) have had an even more difficult time kicking into gear?

She's 14-6 on the year in all matches, but just 7-6 in tour matches since winning in Shenzhen.
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HM- Miami 1st Rd. - Victoria Azarenka/Ash Barty def. Barbora Krejcikova/Katerina Siniakova 6-3/6-7(1) [10-7]
Miami 1st Rd. - Julia Goerges/Simona Halep def. Timea Babos/Kristina Mladenovic 4-6/6-1 [10-6]
...the top two women's doubles seeds fell on Saturday in 3rd set TB's against some very intriguing duos.



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[Miami Monday to Saturday]
1. Miami 3rd Rd. - HSIEH SU-WEI def. NAOMI OSAKA
...4-6/7-6(4)/6-3. While Hsieh is pretty much always an opponent who'll threaten to twist a match into a pretzel that might leave a "favored" player tied up in the corner, especially one like Osaka who enjoys pace *and* is susceptible to high UE totals, one simply *has* to wonder if she'd have found a way to out-hit the veteran before the coaching change. Her decision there has invited such questions, and will for a while still.



As it is, Osaka led 2-0 in the 3rd and then Hsieh took over to record her second career #1 win (Halep - '18 Wimbledon). The result leaves Halep, Petra Kvitova and Angelique Kerber (thanks to Bibi) with a shot at #1 at the end of this tournament.
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2. Miami 2nd Rd. - SERENA WILLIAMS def. Rebecca Peterson
...6-3/1-6/6-1. After struggling to get by Peterson, Serena let everyone in on the story a day later.



Out with a knee, will Serena even bother to play before Roland Garros? And if she thinks she's no true threat to win on clay without a tune-up period, might it be the grass season before she's seen between the lines again? It'd hardly be a *shocking* chain of events.
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3. Miami 1st Rd. - Whitney Osuigwe def. MARI OSAKA
...6-2/6-4. A match-up of wild cards, one deserving and the other, well, not exactly that. Whatever the reason the match-up took place, the "right" player won.


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HM- $15K Le Havre Final - TAYISIYA & YANA MORDERGER def. Eleonara Molinaro/Svenja Ochsner
...6-4/6-3. The German twin sisters win their seventh career challenger title together. Tayisiya had defeated Yana in the 2nd Round of singles.


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*2019 WINS OVER #1*
Sydney 2nd Rd. - #15 Ash Barty def. #1 Halep
Australian 4th Rd. - #16 Serena Williams def. #1 Halep
Dubai 2nd Rd. - #67 Kristina Mladenovic def. #1 Osaka
Indian Wells 4th Rd. - #23 Belinda Bencic def. #1 Osaka
Miami 3rd Rd. - #27 HSIEH SU-WEI def. #1 Osaka

*ANDREESCU vs. TOP 20*
=2017 (1-0)=
W: #13 Mladenovic
=2019 (6-2)=
W: #3 Wozniacki, #4 Kerber, #6 Svitolina, #8 Kerber, #18 Q.Wang, #20 Muguruza
L: #12 Sevastova, #14 Goerges
--
vs. Top 10 (4-0)









































While there may be no Russians in the WTA Top 20...




All for now.
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