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Monday, February 28, 2022

Wk.8- Incisive with an "I"

Guess who?










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*WEEK 8 CHAMPIONS*
DOHA, QATAR (WTA 1000/Hard Court Outdoor)
S: Iga Swiatek/POL def. Anett Kontaveit/EST 6-2/6-0
D: Coco Gauff/Jessie Pegula (USA/USA) def. Veronika Kudermetova/Elise Mertens (RUS/BEL) 3-6/7-5 (10-5)
GUADALAJARA, MEXICO (WTA 250/Hard Court Outdoor)
S: Sloane Stephens/USA def. Marie Bouzkova/CZE 7-5/1-6/6-2
D: Kaitlyn Christian/Lidziya Marozava (USA/BLR) def. Wang Xinyu/Zhu Lin (CHN/CHN) 7-5/6-3




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PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Iga Swiatek/POL
...unlike many of the spate of recent first-time slam champions, Swiatek hasn't seemed to have to openly deal with the slew of "issues" that have always tended to follow breakout maiden winners. She hasn't hit a prolonged slump, seen her ranking plummet nor her off-court processes turned on their head to the detriment of her on-court progress. She hasn't once, even while having not yet won #2, seemed a shadow of her slam-winning self or had to "search" for the winning formula that she once captured in a bottle, nor has she pulled herself off tour while casting the longstanding inherent pressures that naturally come with such success as a whoa-is-life tale of personal enlightenment that she alone had the courage to acknowledge. Even the Pole's one easily-questioned-at-the-time move, her switching of coaches from Piotr Sierzputowski to Tomasz Witkorowski this past offseason, after having given so much credit for her success to the synergistic integrity of the previous team's structure, seems to be working out just fine.

So far in '22, Swiatek has gotten off to a 14-3 start that has seen her extend her second-week streak at majors to six, reaching a slam SF in Melbourne, won her biggest career hard court title this week in Doha (posting three Top 10 wins in the process), and in the coming week will match her career-high with a climb to #4 in the rankings. Not bad. Not bad at all. Actually, it was even a bit better than that.



For the week, Swiatek dropped just one set (back in the 2nd Round vs. Viktorija Golubic), then proceeded to allow just 3, 5, 7 and 2 games in the rest of her matches against the likes of Dasha Kasatkina, #2 Aryna Sabalenka (her best win since def. #2 Halep in the Round of 16 in Paris two season ago), Maria Sakkari and, in her second career 1000 final (w/ '21 Rome), the (still) streaking (w/ nine straight wins) Anett Kontaveit. Swiatek's 2 & love victory over the Estonian continued her trend of all-out dominance in tour finals. Winning 6-2/6-0 in incisive fashion to win in her fourth straight final appearance starting with the '20 Roland Garros, the 20-year old has allowed (combined) eleven total games in those championship matches, and just six in the last three. Three of the those six sets have seen Swiatek put up love sets against her opponent.


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RISERS: Anett Kontaveit/EST and Marie Bouzkova/CZE
...Kontaveit's six-month crash course in winning continued in Doha, but she's still yet to ace a truly big final exam.

In her early twenties, while the Estonian was seemingly "on the cusp" of something better (or should have been), she essentially spent quite a few seasons not *winning* anything (losing in six of seven finals from 2017 to mid-'21) while many in her tennis generation were learning "how to win" on the sport's biggest stages. Ever since bringing in Dmitry Tursunov as coach last summer, though, the 26-year old's mid-career extensive study in climbing the tour ladder, learning how to win titles on progressively bigger and better stages over higher and higher ranked opponents, has seen her win more matches, reach more finals and claim more titles than anyone else on tour. But she's got a *few* more classes to attend.



In Doha, stepping outside and away from her recent indoor dominance, Kontaveit reached her first career 1000 level final (she reached the Wuhan Premier 5 equivalent back in '18) following wins over Ana Konjuh, Elise Mertens, Ons Jabeur and Alona Ostapenko (ending the Dubai champ's nine-match run in the latter contest), only to notch two games in the final over an incredibly in-form Iga Swiatek, a player who has seemed to have the whole "winning finals on the big stage" trait down pat since her career's near-infancy.

Still, even with the loss, Kontaveit's run to the final edged her ahead of Ash Barty for the most tour singles finals on tour this decade, with *eight* of those those ten finals having come since last June. Kontaveit will crack the Top 5 for the first time this week, and is right on the heels of new #4 Swiatek and breathing down the neck of the slightly-slipping #3 Aryna Sabalenka and (trading spots on Monday with the Belarusian) #2 Barbora Krejcikova, with all of them still well behind the top-ranked Aussie.

With so many more opportunities left this season, it seems only a matter of time before Kontaveit finally gets a "100%" on at least one of these high-level tests. Maybe even as soon as the coming month. Well, maybe as long as she steers clear of a certain Pole on the final weekend of play, I guess.

In Guadalajara, Bouzkova once again edged close to claiming the now long overdue maiden tour singles title that has so far eluded her, only to remain just short of her goal. The 23-year old Czech, having seen her ranking slip to #96 due to recent injury issues after ranking in the Top 50 late in 2020, produced her best tennis in a year, when she reached the semifinals of the same tournament last March before falling to eventual champ Sara Sorribes Tormo.

This week Bouzkova posted wins over Misaki Doi, Lucia Bronzetti and (in a round-earlier rematch) Sorribes Tormo in the QF to return to the Final Four. A victory over Wang Qiang put the Czech into her third career tour final, one each in the last three seasons (including another run in Mexico in Monterrey in '20). Just as in her previous two finals, Bouzkova went three sets with her opponent, but her inability to secure the 1st set vs. Sloane Stephens after leading 4-1 put her into catch-up and hold-on mode the rest of the match. The Czech maintained her 4-1 lead in the 2nd set, knotting the match. But after saving BP to hold in her first two serve games in the final set, Bouzkova couldn't convert a BP on Stephens serve in game #5, then saw Stephens hold and finally convert a BP a game later to grab take the lead. Bouzkova didn't win another game.

Despite showing flashes in the past, including a '19 Toronto SF run as a qualifier during which she recorded wins over Leylah Fernandez, Stephens, Alona Ostapenko and Simona Halep before taking Serena Williams to three sets, Bouzkova is now 0-3 in tour finals (she also lost a WTA 125 final in Guadalajara in '19).


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SURPRISE: Anna Kalinskaya/RUS
...what looked about to be a potentially game-changing week in Guadalajara for the Hordette, but for a back injury that brought things to an unnatural end, turned out to "only" be one of the best of her tour career.

As it is, 23-year old Kalinskaya, a Roland Garros junior finalist (def. by Badosa) seven seasons ago, reached her second tour-level semifinal ('19 Washington) with a string of wins over young oppopents, knocking out Zheng Qinwen, Wang Xinyu and Camila Osorio to set up a match against Sloane Stephens to reach her first career tour final. The '17 U.S. Open champ already represented the Russian's only career Top 10 win, coming in the 1st Round at Flushing Meadows two years after Stephens' title run.



Kalinskaya entered the match with a lingering back injury, and chose to stand during changeovers throughout the match. Still, she led Stephens by a set and double-break at 6-3/3-0 before the former slam champ (who had *zero* winners in the 1st set) finally began to find her game just as Kalinskaya's back became harder and harder for her to play with. Next to serve up 4-3, Kalinskaya went off court for treatment, and seemed even worse for wear when she returned, getting broken at love and soon seeing Stephens surge to a 5-4 on-serve lead.

Kalinskaya held to knot the set, but lost the 2nd 7-5 and then decided to abandon the match following the between-set break, sending Stephens to her first final in four seasons. It was a result that surely leaves a bad immediate aftertaste for the Hordette, but the preservation of her health should at least allow her the chance to carry over her momentum into her next scheduled event after rising to a new career high of #86 (up from #100) on Monday.
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VETERANS: Sloane Stephens/USA and Wang Qiang/CHN
...seeing Stephens come even close to living up to her talent (i.e. winning titles) shouldn't feel like finding a forgotten $10 bill in the pocket of a rarely-worn pair of pants, but we've pretty much gotten used to that sensation by now. Whenever we get even a brief, largely imperfect but still intriguing, glimpse of what Sloane is capable of -- and that's a pretty dead-on description of what happened in Guadalajara -- we should probably just feel fortunate for it, because one never knows when such a phenomenon will flash across the tennis landscape again.

Stephens was hardly back in anything close to her best form from the past this week, as she once again bounced around from uninspired to engaged over the course of five matches. But she came into Guadalajara without a match win in '22, no singles final appearances since the '18 WTA Finals, and without having won a singles crown since Miami nearly four full years ago, and she managed to take care of all three by Sunday night. So that counts as a mostly unqualified success.

Stpehens opened with a headline-grabbing encounter in the 1st Round with qualifier Brenda Fruhvirtova, a 14-year old Czech literally *half* the 28-year old's age. The gulf in experience was evident from the start. Sloane followed up with a straight sets win over Chloe Paquet, but then had to rally from 6-3/3-0 to defeat Dasha Saville in the QF, and was fortunate enough to be facing a SF opponent in Anna Kalinskaya who was nursing a bad back. The Russian led by a set and a double-break before her body let her down and ultimately forced her retirement before the start of the 3rd.

In the final against Marie Bouzkova, Stephens fell behind 4-1 in both the 1st and 2nd sets. Her comeback to win the opener proved key, as was her ability to pull out at least a little of her past toughness to win a multi-game early 3rd set battle in which both women had to save multiple BP. After Bouzkova had saved BP in back-to-back service games (including pulling out of a love/40 hole in game #2), Stephens saved one on her own serve in game #5 before breaking the Czech a game later and then blanking Bouzkova in the remaining games of the match, winning 7-5/1-6/6-2.

The title is the seventh of Stephens' career, though her run gave little indication that "The Future" is anywhere but (at least for now) in the past. Of course, Sloane being Sloane, if she were to find a way to string together a successive series of good results, maybe that fire *can* be re-lit. At least for a short period of time that might produce a superior result or two before Stephens' game goes into another of its sudden (and frustrating) periods of hibernation.



Meanwhile, Wang continues to walk toward the light and out of the WTA darkness that she's (mostly) inhabited the past two seasons.



Wang was one of the many Chinese players who never returned to the post-shutdown tour during the '20 season and upon her return last year posted just one positive result, a final run in Parma last May. Outside of that 4-1 week, Wang was just 6-13 the rest of the season.

Wang's two Australian Open victories last month represented her first multi-win event since Parma, and just her second in two full years. This week's semifinal in Guadalajara is her best result since that same event. Ranked at #144 (her lowest standing since July '14) after being at #28 pre-shutdown at this time two years ago, Wang defeated Lauren Davis, Harmony Tan and Anna Karolina Schmiedlova before falling in straight sets to Marie Bouzkova one round short of the final.

The 30-year old will jump 28 spots to #116 in the new week.
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COMEBACKS: Alona Ostapenko/LAT and Dasha Saville/AUS
...while she wasn't able to carry it out to a "Desert Double" reality, Dubai champ Ostapenko immediately (as in starting less than 24 hours after she lifted the trophy) carried over her heart-stoppoing run to Doha, adding four victories to extend her winning streak to nine matches with two *more* wins over former slam champs (making in *six* over the two-week stretch).

After opening with a win over Oceane Dodin, Ostapenko took out Amanda Anismova in three sets before polishing off major winners Barbora Krejcikova and Garbine Muguruza in straights to advance to her third SF of the season.



Against Anett Kontaveit, Ostapenko was outplayed but *still* found herself a BP from knotting the score at 5-5 in the 2nd, a final chance at turning the match around that was lost when a lunging crosscourt forehand from the baseline from the Estonian plunked off the net cord and died with an advancing Ostapenko just a step from putting away a down the line shot that *might* have given her new life. As it turned out, the match instead ended two points later.

A two-time AO second week performer and four-time tour singles finalist (winning New Haven) in 2016-17, Saville (nee Gavrilova) has largely existed most of the last two+ seasons as a fun internet celebrity hoping "to go viral," a proud doggo mommy to Tofu, and a soon-to-be bride and (now) newlywed. After reaching the Top 25 in 2018, lingering Achilles issues saw her end the last three seasons at #237-#446-#419. Saville played just seven matches in '20, and five in '21, finally returning for BJK Cup play last November after undergoing surgery early in the year.

A #610-ranked wild card in Guadalajara, Saville earned back her tennis player stripes this week, opening with a (tour season-long) 3:36 win over Emma Raducanu that ended just seven games into the 3rd set when the U.S. Open winning Brit retired with a hip injury to give the Aussie her first Top 20 win since upsetting Petra Kvitova in Beijing in September '18. She followed up with an additional victory over Caroline Dolehide to reach her first WTA QF since Strasburg '19.

Saville was finally ousted in a three-set contest by Sloane Stephens even after the Aussie had led 6-3/3-0, but will now see her ranking jump over 200 spots to just outside the Top 400.


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FRESH FACES: Coco Gauff/USA and Hailey Baptiste/USA
...she's been around for so long now, even at just age 17, it's become easy for some to scoff that Gauff's progress on tour isn't happening fast *enough*, even as she's now a fairly regular Top 20 presence (she'll return on Monday after a one-week absence), a multiple tour title winner (in singles and doubles) with four Top 4 victories since the start of '20 and is less a year past her maiden slam QF (RG) run last spring, all while still not yet old enough to vote.

In Doha, Gauff posted her fourth 1000 level QF+ since the start of last season, knocking off Shelby Rogers, Caroline Garcia and #4-ranked Paula Badosa in one of her most complete matches yet. She fell in straight sets to Maria Sakkari in the Final Eight, but then added her fourth career doubles title with a run alongside Jessie Pegula, grabbing her biggest WD crown so far.

Gauff, who'll turn 18 in two weeks, is *still* the only under-18 player ranked in the Top 175 (recent girls #1 VJK is the only other in the Top 200).



Meanwhile, 20-year old Baptiste's Guadalajara qualifying run included victories over Marcela Zacarius and Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva, as well as a MD victory over Viktoria Kuzmova and a three-set loss to Camila Osorio. The Washington, D.C. native will climb eight spots to a new career high of #123 on Monday. The only other under-21 Bannerettes ranked higher are Gauff and Amanda Anisimova.



This weekend, Baptiste lost in the final qualifying round in Monterry to top-seeded Pastry Diane Parry.
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DOWN: Elena Rybakina/KAZ
...the Kazakh got off to a good start this season, reaching the final in Adelaide, her first final appearance since September '20 in Strasbourg. Since then, though, Rybakina has struggled to rebound from injury. After pulling out mid-tournament at three consecutive events -- Sydney 2r w/o, AO 2r ret, St.P 2r ret -- she returned to action in Doha, only to fall in her opening match in a 4 & 3 loss to lucky loser Jaqueline Cristian, who picked up her first career Top 20 victory.

Rybakina entered the week at #20, and (for now) will retain her Top 20 status, which she's held consecutively since last June. She climbed as high as career-best #12 just last month.
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ITF PLAYER: Katie Swan/GBR
...after dealing with injuries and a loss of confidence in recent seasons, Swan took another step forward with a $25K title run in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. The Brit ended her week with back-to-back straight sets wins over Bannerettes Danielle Lao and Sachia Vickery, with the latter proving that "fortune favors the brave" by rebounding from last week's worst-tournament-she's-ever-played-in experience in Cancun (though she didn't get her first singles title since '17).

With this win, Swan improves to 10-0 in career singles finals on the ITF circuit.


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JUNIOR STAR: Lucie Havlickova/CZE
...the Czech junior barrage continued in the Banana Bowl (JA) in Criciuma, Brazil with Havlickova making it *twelve* J1/JA/slam events claimed by Maidens (along with the BJK Cup 16s team event) since the start of 2021.

The #43-ranked girl, 16-year old Havlickova strung together eight wins (all in straight sets), making her way through qualifying to claim her first high level junior title. The #7 seed, Havlickova posted wins over last week's J1 Porto Alegre finalist Mia Kupres (CAN), #3-seed Luca Udvardy (HUN), #5 Qavia Lopez (the Bannerette def. the Czech in the 1r of the AO juniors) and #8 Annabelle Xu (CAN) in the final en route to the crown.
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DOUBLES: Coco Gauff/Jessie Pegula, USA/USA
...hmmm, are they "Pegoco?," or maybe "PeGauff?" Either way, they're the new Doha doubles champions.

After going just 1-3 in their previous partnerships (including a 1st Rd. exit last week in Dubai), Gauff & Pegula won the biggest career title for both in 2022's first 1000 level event. After a win over Dubai finalists L.Kichenok/Ostapenko to open the week, the Bannerette pair won a 10-7 match TB over #3-seeds Shibahara/Sh.Zhang, a straight sets SF over Aoyama/Krunic and then another match TB (10-5) in the final over Dubai champs V.Kudermetova/Mertens, who were attempting to become the third WD duo (w/ Huber/Raymond '12 and Hsieh/Strycova '20) to pull off a "Desert Double."



The win gives Gauff four tour-level WD wins (this was her first F/W without Caty McNally by her side), while for Pegula it's her second win title season (w/ her maiden WTA crown coming Week 1 in Melbourne), tying world #1 Katerina Siniakova for the tour's early season lead.
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1. Doha Final - Iga Swiatek def. Anett Kontaveit
...6-2/6-0. Swiatek has allowed a total of eleven games in her last four finals... and she avoided being injured in the post-match by Kontaveit's swinging ponytail, too.


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2. Guadalajara 1st Rd. - Dasha Saville def. Emma Raducanu
...5-7/7-6(4)/4-3 ret. Raducanu failed to put the #610-ranked, comeback-minded Aussie away in the 2nd set after serving at 5-3. The Brit held an early break lead in the 3rd, but Saville, herself having to consult a physio mid-match, continued to apply the pressure and ultimately saw Raducanu retire with a hip injury seven games into the final set. Even with the abbreviated final stanza, the 3:36 match length is the longest on tour this season.



The win is Saville's first Top 20 victory since 2018.
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3. Doha 1st Rd. - Tereza Martincova def. Elina Svitolina
...6-7(2)/7-5/7-6(5). Before all hell broke loose back home, Svitolina lost a 5-3 3rd set lead and fell in 2:59 to the Czech. She's 3-5 on the season, but now has other more important concerns.



Still, Svitolina is the top seed in Monterrey this week. She plays Russian Anastasia Potapova in the 1st Round. Of course she does.
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4. Guadalajara Final - Sloane Stephens def. Marie Bouzkova
...7-5/1-6/6-2. Bouzkova led 4-1 in both the 1st and 2nd sets, but could only put away the 2nd. In the decider, the Czech saved BP in both of her first two service games, holding from love/40 down in game #2, but couldn't seize the lead as she failed to convert BP on Stephens' serve in game #5. Worse for the Czech, she then dropped serve a game later and saw Stephens carry the momentum to the end, winning the final four games of the match to take home her first tour title in nearly four years (and ending her three-final losing streak over that stretch).

Stephens is the third different Bannerette to lift a singles title through the season's first two months.

And, enter the sombrero...


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5. Doha 3rd Rd. - Alona Ostapenko def. Barbora Krejcikova 6-3/6-2
Doha QF - Alona Ostapenko def. Garbine Muguruza 6-2/6-2
...the Latvian, in "easier" than expected fashion, defeats her fifth and sixth former grand slam champions over a nine-match stretch.



It still didn't provide enough momentum to knock off Anett Kontaveit.
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6. Doha 3rd Rd. - Coco Gauff def. Paula Badosa
...6-2/6-3. Quite possibly Gauff's best match yet? At any rate, it's career Top 10 win #5, and her third over a world #4. Her win last spring in Rome over #1 Barty came via a retirement.
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7. Doha QF - Lucie Hradecka/Sania Mirza def. Barbora Krejcikova/Katerina Siniakova
...7-6(5)/4-3 ret. The veteran duo ends doubles #1 Siniakova's 20-match WTA/slam (non-BJK) winning streak (12 w/ Krejcikova) that dated back to last season, a stretch that saw the Czech win four titles (including the WTAF and AO) with three different partners (also w/ Ostapenko and Pera) and claim sole possession of the top ranking.

Hradecka/Mirza also knocked off the *other* half of this year's AO final, Danilina/Haddad Maia, but ultimately saw their run end in the SF against V.Kudermetova/Mertens.

Meanwhile, Krejcikova rises to singles #2 and this week accomplishes the rare feat of simultaneously ranking in the Top 2 of *both* disciplines.
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8. Guadalajara SF - Sloane Stephens def. Anna Kalinskaya
...3-6/7-5 ret. What could have been for Kalinskaya, who led by a set and double-break before her linging back injury finally became too much to win with, then too much to bear.

In Kalinskaya's only previous tour SF (Washington '19) she was also forced to deal with a bad back.


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9. Doha SF - Anett Kontaveit def. Alona Ostapenko
...6-1/6-4. In a match-up of a player on a nine-match winning streak (Ostapenko) vs. another who'd won eight straight (Kontaveit), the Estonian wins in two. After playing from behind all match, though, Ostapenko *did* have an opening late in the 2nd with Kontaveit serving for the match. She held a BP, and was prepared to send Kontaveit's lunging crosscourt forehand down the line for a momentum-changing (?) winner, only to see the ball catch the net cord and die on the court one step out of reach. The match came to a close two points later.


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10. Doha 1st Rd. - Caroline Garcia def. Simona Halep
...6-4/6-3. Fighting to latch onto something while riding a three-match losing streak, the Pastry grabbed hold in the 1st Round in Doha with an upset of Halep days after the Romanian had been blitzed in a love 3rd set in Dubai by Alona Ostapenko. The resulting defeat gives Halep her first back-to-back losses in consecutive events since her return from her calf injury last summer.



Garcia lost a round later to Coco Gauff.
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11. Doha 1st Rd. - Elise Mertens def. Jasmine Paolini 6-3/2-6/7-5
Doha 2nd Rd. - Elise Mertens def. Petra Kvitova 7-5/1-2 ret.
...Mertens rallied from a 4-1 3rd set deficit vs. the Italian, with Paolini failing to serve out the match at 5-3.

A round later, Doha DC Kvitova retired with a left wrist injury. The Czech will fall outside the Top 30 for the first time since January 2011, six months before she won her maiden slam crown at Wimbledon.


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12. Doha 2nd Rd. - Madison Brengle walkover Victoria Azarenka
...Vika's hip injury, after her dramatic 1st Round comeback vs. Yulia Putintseva, counts as her sixth walkover exit from a tour event since the start of last season.
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13. Guadalajara Final - Kaitlyn Christian/Lidziya Marozava def. Wang Xinyu/Zhu Lin
...7-5/6-3. Christian becomes the third different Bannerette -- after Pera and Pegula -- to win maiden tour-level doubles titles in '22. She's previously been 0-5 in tour finals. For Marozava, it's career title #3.


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14. Doha 3rd Rd. - Ons Jabeur def. Tereza Martincova
...6-1/3-6/6-3. Jabeur in an event in the Middle East = simply irresistible.


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15. Doha 3rd Rd. - Aryna Sabalenka def. Jil Teichmann
...6-2/6-1. Sabalenka's first DF-less match since Doha in 2020. She still lost a round later to Iga, though.
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16. Doha SF - Iga Swiatek def. Maria Sakkari
...6-4/6-3. Since winning her only tour title in Rabat in May '19, the Greek has gone 2-14 in SF/F matches.
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17. $60K Nur-Sultan KAZ Final - Anzhelika Isaeva def. Greet Minnen
...6-4 ret. Minnen's retirement stops her attempt at back-to-back $60K challenger wins, as 21-year old Russian qualifier Isaeva picks up her first career title.


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18. $25K Macon FRA Final - Reka-Luca Jani def. Wang Yafan
...6-4/6-3. Wang comes up a match short of back-to-back title runs, as 30-year old Hungarian Jani grabs her 24th career singles crown.


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19. $15K Monastir TUN Final - Clervie Ngounoue/Hanne Vandewinkel def. Mara Guth/Mia Mack
...6-2/6-2. AO girls doubles champ Ngounoue, 15, picks up her first pro title (in the same week she reached her second of back-to-back ITF singles QF in her 7th pro event) while playing alongside 17-year old Belgian Vandewinkel (who also wins her maiden crown) against the all-German team of Guth, 18, and Mack, 17.


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20. $60K Nur-Sultan Final - Linda Noskova/Ekaterina Makarova def. Anna Siskova/Maria Timofeeva
...6-2/6-3. 17-year old Czech Noskova, last year's RG girls singles champ, picks up her first pro WD title to go along with the four wins in singles challenger events since the start of '21.
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HM- Doha 2nd Rd. - Dasha Kasatkina def. Jaqueline Cristian
...2-6/2-2 ret. Shades of countrywoman Buzarnescu. One match after she'd entered the Doha MD as a LL and posted her first career Top 20 win (def. Rybakina) with her maiden MD victory in a WTA 1000 event, Cristian leads Kasatkina before suffering a knee injury that will now require surgery.


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1. Guadalajara 1st Rd. - Sloane Stephens def. Brenda Fruhvirtova
...6-2/6-2. The big opening night debut in Guadalajara turned out to *just* be a simple hello to Brenda Fruhvirtova and not the eye-popping moment that her sister Linda's introduction was last spring in Charleston. Still, it's not every day that one sees a 14-year old on the WTA tour. It's only the ninth time it's happened since the turn of the century.




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2. $15K Sharm El Sheikh EGY Final - Cody Wong Hong-yi def. Mirra Andreeva
...6-4/6-1. Then again, maybe there's *another* in the tour's near future.

14-year old Hordette Andreeva, like Brenda F. the younger sister of another (17-year old #252 Erika, a title-winner in Sharm El Sheikh last season), reached her maiden pro singles final this weekend in Egypt mere weeks after the younger Fruhvirtova became the youngest ITF title-winner in six years. The girls' #17, Andreeva didn't get her maiden title, falling to Hong Kong 19-year old Cody (who won her second career crown), but one suspects this won't be the last we're hear of her.

This was just Andreeva's *second* pro event appearance, after all.
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3. Monterrey Q1 - Jule Niemeier def. Bianca Fernandez
...6-3/6-2. 18-year old Fernandez, the younger sister of tournament defending champ Leylah, makes her debut in a tour event via a qualifying wild card.

They're scheduled to play doubles together this week, as well.
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Hmmm... Stan still alive for the craziest, and maybe most admirable, considering the era, Career Slam ever?




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Based on the tour's track record, I suspect the ATP will announce that TPTB will soon begin to consider whether to suspend Zverev for a period to take place around 2025, or some other time in the future. They promise.




(Clears Throat...)




That'll teach him...




So... then *nevermind*, right?


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*WTA SINGLES TITLES - 2020-22*
7 - 1/5/1 - Ash Barty, AUS
5 - 0/4/1 - Anett Kontaveit, EST
5 - 3/2/0 - Aryna Sabalenka, BLR
4 - 3/0/1 - Simona Halep, ROU
4 - 1/2/1 - IGA SWIATEK, POL

*MOST WTA FINALS in 2020s*
10 (1/7/2) ANETT KONTAVEIT (5-4-1)
9 (1/6/2) Ash Barty (8-1)
6 (1/5/0) Garbine Muguruza (3-3)
6 (5/0/1) Elena Rybakina (1-5)
6 (3/3/0) Aryna Sabalenka (5-1)
5 (3/1/1) Simona Halep (4-1)
5 (0/4/1) Barbora Krejcikova (3-2)
5 (2/3/0) Karolina Pliskova (1-4)

*MOST 2022 WTA SF*
3 - ANETT KONTAVEIT, EST (2-1)
3 - ALONA OSTAPENKO, LAT (1-2)
3 - IGA SWIATEK, POL (1-2)
2 - Ash Barty, AUS (2-0)
2 - Simona Halep, ROU (1-1)
2 - Madison Keys, USA (1-1)
2 - Veronika Kudermetova, RUS (0-0 +WW)
2 - Dasha Kasatkina, RUS (0-2)
2 - MARIA SAKKARI, GRE (0-2)

*2022 YOUNGEST WTA FINALISTS*
20 - Amanda Anisimova, USA (Melbourne 2 - W)
20 - IGA SWIATEK, POL (DOHA - W)
[doubles]
17 - COCO GAUFF, USA (DOHA - W)
20 - Caty McNally, USA (Saint Petersburg - W)
20 - WANG XINYU, CHN (GUADALAJARA - L)

*2022 WTA DOUBLES FINALS*
2 (2-0) = JESSIE PEGULA, USA
2 (2-0) = Katerina Siniakova, CZE
2 (1-1) = Anna Danilina, KAZ
2 (1-1) = Beatriz Haddad Maia, BRA
2 (1-1) = VERONIKA KUDERMETOVA, RUS
2 (1-1) = ELISE MERTENS, BEL
2 (0-2) = Tereza Martincova, CZE

*U.S. - CAREER TITLES (active)*
73 - Serena Williams
49 - Venus Williams
7 - SLOANE STEPHENS
6 - Madison Keys
5 - Sofia Kenin
3 - Alison Riske
2 - Amanda Anisimova
2 - Danielle Collins
2 - Coco Gauff
2 - CoCo Vandeweghe
1 - Jennifer Brady
1 - Lauren Davis
1 - Irina Falconi
1 - Ann Li
1 - Christina McHale
1 - Jessica Pegula

*RECENT BANANA BOWL CHAMPIONS*
2016 Panna Udvardy, HUN
2017 Whitney Osuigwe, USA
2018 Camila Osorio, COL
2019 Diane Parry, FRA
2020 Elvina Kalieva, USA
2021 Oceane Babel, FRA
2022 Lucie Havlickova, CZE

*"QUEEN OF MEXICO" PODIUM - Acapulco/Guadalajara/Monterrey*
[1st place]
2015 Timea Bacsinszky, SUI (won Acap/Mont singles)
2016 A.Medina-Garrigues/A.Parra-Santonja, ESP (won Acap/Mont WD)
2017 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, RUS (4-time Mont.WS)
2018 Lesia Tsurenko, UKR (2 con. Acapulco WS)
2019 Garbine Muguruza, ESP (2 con. Monterrey WS)
2020 Heather Watson, GBR (Acapulco W; second to win Acap+Mont WS)
2021 Sara Sorribes Tormo, ESP (Guad. W & Mont. SF)
2022 ?
[2nd place]
2015 Caroline Garcia, FRA (RU Acap/Mont singles)
2016 Sloane Stephens, USA (Acap) & Heather Watson, GBR (Mont)
2017 Lesia Tsurenko, UKR (Acapulco WS)
2018 Giuliana Olmos, MEX (first MEX player in MONT.WD final)
2019 Maria Sanchez, USA (Guad/Mont WD W)
2020 Renata Zarazua, MEX (Acapulco SF, first MEX WTA SF since '93)
2021 Leylah Fernandez, CAN (Mont.W - 1st WTA title; '20 Acap RU)
[3rd place]
2021 D.Krawczyk/G.Olmos (Guad RU: in F of all 3 WTA MEX 2018-21)
2022 ?









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*THREAD*




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Shouldn't have been necessary... and it wasn't a *choice* but a correction of an *error*. But, fine. The bar is verrry low.




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All for now.
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