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Sunday, March 23, 2025

Wk.12- Rockin' Hard or Hardly Rockin'?







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*WEEK 12*


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[Miami Qualifying through Middle Saturday]


RISERS: Gabriela Ruse/ROU and Ashlyn Krueger/USA
...for the past year, Ruse has brought some of her best tennis to the biggest events, and it got the 27-year old Romanian into her first career 1000 3rd Round in Miami.

After reaching the 2nd Round in her only previous Miami Open appearance (2022), Ruse qualified in her second '25 1000 event (she also did it at the AO) with three-set wins over Mirjam Bjorklund and Ena Shibahara (from 2-4 in the 3rd), then followed up with MD victories over Polina Kudermetova (another three-setter) and Magdelana Frech.

The Romanian has reached the 3r (at the U.S. Open, her best slam result so far, def. #8-seeded Wimbledon champ Barbora Krejcikova along the way) and 2r at the last two majors after having just two slam MD wins combined from 2018 through the '24 Wimbledon. At this year's AO, Ruse pushed eventual champ Madison Keys to a 7-5 3rd set in their 2nd Round match-up.

Ruse, who nearly reached the Top 50 (#51) three seasons ago before having her progress thwarted by injuries, came into Miami at #102, but is back into the Top 90 in the live rankings even after having to retire soon after the 1st set in her 3rd Round match-up with #1 Aryna Sabalenka due to a thigh injury.



Krueger came into Miami at a career high #40, and has only improved her lot through the opening rounds. After a win over Renata Zarazua, the 20-year old recorded her first career Top 10 victory against Elena Rybakina, who'd reached the Miami final the last two years (losses vs. Kvitova and Collins).



Krueger had already posted four Top 20 wins this season, including one (Kasatkina) on her way to the Abu Dhabi 500 final and two (Kostyuk/Badosa) en route to the Adelaide QF. Last year, she had her best result at a major (U.S. 3r) and had a trio of 3r runs in 1000 events (Madrid, Toronto and Beijing), but went 1-9 vs. the Top 20 (and was 2-11 for her career in such matches heading into '25). Hmmm... Most Improved Player vibes?

The Bannerette is still alive in the second week after a big follow-up win on Saturday over Leylah Fernandez. With Coco Gauff's 21st birthday this month, Krueger is now the highest ranked U.S. woman aged 20-or-under, with the next closest (Robin Montgomery) being outside the Top 100.
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SURPRISE: Hailey Baptiste/USA
...a Miami wild card, Washington D.C.'s Baptiste (#98) continues to rise up the rankings while remaining well under the radar. The 23-year old has recorded 41 and 43 wins, respectively, the last two seasons, reaching a pair of 1000 3rd Rounds ('23 Guadalajara, '24 Wuhan), winning a career best $60K crown (2023) and notching her first Top 10 win (Krejcikova, '24 Wuhan).

Baptiste's Hard Rock journey was a good one, but very nearly was so much more. After being 0-4 in Miami MD matches, she upset both Olga Danilovic and Dasha Kasatkina to reach another 1000 3rd Round, and led Naomi Osaka 4-2 in the 3rd set while trying to post the biggest tournament result of her career.

Osaka managed to recall her past slam-winning credentials, though, and won a 7-5 decider to advance. Still, Baptiste is back inside the Top 90 (live) and back in the hurt to chase down her career high (#80) from last October.


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VETERANS: Taylor Townsend/USA and Magda Linette/POL
...Townsend has been a doubles star in '25, reaching #2 in the rankings while teaming with Katerina Siniakova to open the season 12-0 and win the AO and Dubai crowns. The pair fell out in the Indian Wells SF last week, but she still managed to have one of the shots of the tournament along the way.



Until this week, though, the 28-year old's singles results have been a different story. She opened the season at 0-5, and was 1-6 heading into Miami qualifying after having failed to make it through the Q-rounds at three straight 1000 events in Doha, Dubai and I.W., a streak she finally ended with wins over Carson Branstine and Sonay Kartal.

A three-set 1st Round win over Ann Li was Townsend's first MD victory of the season, and she followed up with another in a second three-setter vs. Yulia Putintseva, who just fell out of the Top 20 (for the third time in '25 after having made her belated career debut there in January) heading into Miami.



After shining on North American hard courts in '24, reaching a 1000 QF in Toronto along with 1000 3rd Rounds in Miami and Cincinnati while cracking the singles Top 50 -- as well as reaching the U.S. Open MX final and WD semis and winning the Washington doubles title -- Townsend (in singles, at least) bid adieu to her springtime sojourn on familiar soil with a 3rd Round loss to Zheng Qinwen on Saturday night.

To be continued this summer.

Meanwhile, Linette, the oldest player (at 33) ranked in the "live" Top 40 (w/ Vika Azarenka's ranking drop due to her 2nd Rd. exit) is also the oldest player to last into the second week in Miami.



Linette, now getting coaching advice from no less than Aga Radwanska, finished off an impressive no-sets-lost first week in Miami by adding a win over Linda Fruhvirtova to a list of straight sets victories that already included quick outings vs. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Ekaterina Alexandrova. It's a return to the Pole's late '24 1000 form, when she reached the Beijing 4r and Wuhan QF in the fall.

Linette's first three '25 1000 results hadn't seen her escape the 3rd Round in Doha, Dubai or Indian Wells, but she *has* reached the 4th Round in Miami once before (in '22) and now has nine career MD wins (her career 1000 best) in the event.



Translation: "This is exactly the look on my face when I step into a tub of ice." - Magda Linette
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COMEBACKS: Linda Fruhvirtova/CZE and Rebeka Masarova/SUI
...Fruhvirtova was once ranked inside the Top 50 (CH #49 in June '23), as well as being the first of the Czech Crushers to win a tour title (Chennai '22). She's still only 19, but has seen her ranking fall outside the Top 200, coming into Miami at #215 she had the 13th-best ranking just amongst her fellow Czechs.

Fruhvirtova had a mini-stretch of good better results in '25 -- w/ a SF in a $100K in January and a $75K QF earlier this month -- before her successful qualifying run in Miami that included straight sets wins over Rebecca Marino and Laura Siegemund. Her MD spot, in the same Miami event where she made her debut as a 16-year old and got wins over veterans Elise Mertens and Victoria Azarenka in '22, came in her biggest MD event since Rome last year.

Suddenly with momentum, Fruhvirtova posted additional early-round victories over Claire Liu (for her first tour-level MD win since October) and Beatriz Haddad Maia (love & 2), with the latter upset of the Brazilian being both Fruhvirtova's first Top 50 win since last February (Dolehide in Abu Dhabi) and also her first Top 20 win (second ever) since her three-years old Miami run (via a ret. from Victoria Azarenka, who also retired from *this* Miami Open).

Fruhvirtova's week ended in the 3rd Round on Saturday vs. Magda Linette, but she's back in the (live) Top 175 *and* the Czech Top 10 with this result.



Rolling *back* around to representing Switzerland once again in 2025, Masarova rebounded in Miami from a 1-7 stretch this season during which her only win came via a Hailey Baptiste retirement in the opening round of Doha qualifying last month.

Ranked #168, the new/returning Swiss reached the Miami MD with Q-wins over Mananchaya Sawangkaew and Maya Joint, then hit the ground (still) running after that with a three-set win over Greet Minnen and 1 & 3 upset of Donna Vekic to reach a 1000 3rd Round for the second time (w/ Madrid '23) in her career.



As recently as 2023, Masarova reached her maiden tour-level final (Auckland), clocked her first Top 10 win (over Sakkari at the U.S. ...but it still counts) and climbed to a career-high #62 late in the season. With the first sub-.500 season (25-29) of her pro career, Masarova slumped to #149 at the end of '24.

Her ranking chart -- while maybe not filled with the shocking extremes of *some* players -- still resembles what would be a very treacherous and tiring mountain climbing experience...



Against Miami defending champ Danielle Collins on Saturday night, Masarova won the 2nd set to send things to a deciding 3rd, then battled all the way through the final points of the match before Collins finally served out the win.
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FRESH FACES: Alex Eala/PHI and Anca Todoni/ROU
...Eala was one of the nicely-chosen MD wild cards for this Miami Open, along w/ the likes of Victoria Mboko, Tyra Caterina Grant, Hailey Baptiste and *Erika* Andreeva. Kudos to whomever it's appropriate, as it's clearly an improvement on past moves such as the embarrassing WC gift to *Mari* Osaka back in 2019 because she's, well, we know why she was given an undeserved free pass.

This week turned out to be the breakout moment the 19-year old Filipina has been searching for after Eala had previously lost twice in Miami qualifying and once in the 1st Round. She's still trying to get over that hump at a major, where she's been stuck in qualifying round purgatory (0-for-5) the last few seasons, including losing in the final round in three straight slams (RG-WI-US) last year in her still-ongoing attempt to reach her maiden major MD.

In the Miami 1st Round, Eala was nearly forced to a 3rd set when she fumbled away a 6-3/5-3 lead over Katie Volynets, but pulled her moment back from the edge by winning a 2nd set TB to advance at a 1000 (w/ Madrid '24) for the second time in her career. But she wasn't finished, and in her next match recorded her biggest career victory with a 7-6/7-5 win over Alona Ostapenko, rallying from 0-4 down in the 1st and then sweeping the final three games of the match in the 2nd.



Eala faces Madison Keys in the 3rd Round on Sunday.

Meanwhile... here she comes. It's Anca!

After a nice 6-2 start to '25 with Brisbane and AO qualifying runs, Todoni had slipped into a 1-5 funk heading into Week 12's 125 in Antalya. There *was* one bright spot on Monday, though...



The 20-year old Romanian has thrived at the 125 level in the past, winning two previous titles in 2024. And she did so again in Antalya, becoming the youngest woman to win *three* of the events in her career as she strung together a pair of comeback victories from a set down (vs. Panna Udvardy and Arantxa Rus) with easier straight sets wins (vs. Jana Fett, Clara Burel and Leyre Romero Gormaz in a 6-1/6-2 final) to improve to 22-3 overall in 125 play.



With another week before the next official ranking release, as well as another 125 in Antalya (Todoni is signed up), Anca! is up to a new live career high of #82.
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DOWN: Beatriz Haddad Maia/BRA
...while there were additional candidates for this spot in the first week of play in Miami, we whip back around to Haddad Maia occupying the space for the first time since her 0-2 start at the United Cup in Week 1.

With her love & 2 opening loss to Linda Fruhvirtova in Miami (she won just 9 *points* in the 1st set), the Brazilian falls to 2-9 on the season with a sixth straight defeat, having lost 12 of her last 13 sets.

Haddad Maia's last win came in the 2nd Round vs. Andreeva (Erika, not Mirra) at the Australian Open, where she recorded her *only* two match wins so far in 2025. Though winless in her other seven event appearances, Haddad Maia continues to "pull a Sakkari" so far in '25 and looks to be set to remain in the Top 20 following Miami.
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ITF PLAYER: Antonia Ruzic/CRO
...last season, Ruzic claimed three ITF titles in a year that saw her lift her ranking from #244 to as high as #132. We're not even through three full months of '25, and the Croatian has already picked up a pair of challenger wins this season with her title this week at the $75K Maribor (SLO) tournament.

An early win over Kaja Juvan was eventually punctuated with a 6-1/4-6/6-3 defeat in the final of ex-Czech Crusher-turned-Pole (since October) Linda Klimovicova. It's the 22-year old's second $75K win of the year, and improves her season mark to 16-5 (even w/ a slow 0-3 start).

Ruzic climbs to a new live career high of #115.


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JUNIOR STAR: Kristina Penickova/USA
...already a 2025 Australian Open girls' singles finalist and doubles champion (w/ twin sister Annika), 15-year old junior #3 Penickova swept the s/d crowns at the North American Regional Championships (J300) in San Diego.

After taking the doubles on Friday alongside Annika, top seeded Kristina returned the next day and defeated unseeded Bannerette Raya Kotseva (jr. #194) 6-1/6-1 to claim the singles honors, as well.

@kristinapenickova

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[Miami Qualifying through Middle Saturday]


1. Miami 2nd Rd. - Ashlyn Krueger def. Elena Rybakina
...6-4/2-6/6-4. Krueger missed out on a shot to play Rybakina in the Abu Dhabi final last month, as while the Bannerette reached her biggest career title match the Kazak fell in the semis to Belinda Bencic (who then defeated Krueger for the crown). Given her belated shot against the 2023-24 Miami runner-up, the 20-year old collected her first career Top 10 victory after having narrowly missed out on the feat on three occasions (def. then #11 Kasatkina, #12 Badosa and #14 Kalinskaya) earlier this season.



Of course, four of Rybakina's five losses in singles events this season have gone on to win the title. It'd be quite the breakout run if Krueger followed suit.

Rybakina is in danger of soon falling out of the Top 10, which would be her first time since January 2023.
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2. Miami 2nd Rd. - Emma Raducanu def. Emma Navarro
...7-6(6)/2-6/7-6(3). Raducanu picks up her third career Top 10 win (first on hard court) as Navarro squanders multiple leads, sending herself out of the Top 10 just weeks after winning her biggest career title in Merida.

Navarro led 4-2 in the 1st set TB, and held a pair of SP at 6-4 before the Brit swept the final four points. In the 3rd, Navarro led 3-1 and held two BP for a 4-1 edge. But Raducanu got the hold, and took the lead, but then couldn't serve out the win at 5-3. At 6-5, neither could Navarro, sending things to a deciding TB where Raducanu took control and finished off the victory at 7-3.


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3. Miami 2nd Rd. - McCartney Kessler def. Linda Noskova
...2-6/7-5/7-6(4). After taking the opening set, Noskova rallied from 5-2 down to get the 1st back on serve, only to be broken when serving to force a TB. The Czech grabbed a mid-set lead in the decider, and served for the win at 6-5, before Kessler forced and won the match-ending breaker.


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4. Miami 1st Rd. - Victoria Mboko def. Camila Osorio
...7-5/5-7/6-3. 2025 ITF Queen Mboko makes good on her MD wild card to notch her first career WTA win, nearly three years after her maiden MD (a Granby '22 1r loss to Rebecca Marino at age 15).

The now 18-year old Canadian nearly lost a 5-2 1st set lead vs. Osario, failing in two attempts (and 4 SP) to serve it out before finally making good on try #3 and going on to win in three over the world #54.


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5. Miami 2nd Rd. - Paula Badosa def. Victoria Mboko
...7-5/1-6/7-6(3). Mboko couldn't top her maiden WTA MD win over Osorio, but battled #11 Badosa for three sets in a tight loss.

The Canadian came back from 5-2 down to force a deciding TB, but Badosa had enough to get the win in her first match back after retiring with a back injury (never a good thing with her history) in Merida.


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6. Miami 1st Rd. - Alycia Parks def. Varvara Gracheva
...3-6/7-6(0)/6-3. Parks trails 5-2 in the 2nd, and saves a MP (at 5-4) en route to recording her first career MD win in Miami.

Parks has gotten 1st Round wins in four straight 1000 events in '25. Last season, she had just one *combined*, a 2nd Round result last fall in Beijing (as a qualifier) that was the only bright spot on her 1000 level ledger. She fell in the opening qualifying round in her eight other 1000 events in '24.


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7. Miami 1st Rd. - Sofia Kenin def. Petra Kvitova
...6-4/7-5. Facing off for the first time since Kenin defeated Kvitova in the RG semifinals in October 2020, the Czech drops her second in a row to the Bannerette.

#1126-ranked Kvitova falls to 0-3 in her comeback but, again, while she didn't claim the 1st set here as she did in her first two outings, she remained close on the scoreboard. It'll be interesting to see where her game is in a few more months, say about the time that the grass season rolls around. That said, she might want to follow the Bencic pattern and enter some smaller events to get some additional match play.

Meanwhile, this is what the WTA posted for this match, with a weird cropping/zooming of the video that often doesn't even show the player hitting the ball and then cuts off the top of their heads in close-up, not to mention a gigantic score superimposed on the bottom half of the video that covers up one side of the court that includes the player who won the match.



At this point, they're not even trying. #RallyTheWorld as a marketing strategy seems to have already disappeared, while the "height" of the "new WTA brand" is to show shots of players in their warm-up gear and present that act as if it's evidence that they've cracked the code for creating world peace.
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8. Miami 2nd Rd. - Maria Sakkari def. Lucia Bronzetti
...6-3/5-7/6-4. After failing to back up her I.W. RU result from a year ago, Sakkari fell from #29 to #51 coming into Miami, dropping outside the Top 50 for the first time since April 2019. This past week was just her second week at #51+ since March 2018.

Looking to avoid slipping even further while defending her QF points from Miami a year ago, Sakkari needed all her Spartan blood just to begin to scale the tour ladder all over again.

With a seed (and 1r bye) in Miami perhaps for the last time in a big event for a while, the Greek had to battle to just get one win. Up a set and trying to force a 2nd set TB, Sakkari couldn't put away a hold from 40/15 up and Bronzetti leveled the match. At the end of nearly three hours of play, Sakkari won in three, but still has a a lot of steps to reclimb.



After falling in straights to Coco Gauff in the 3rd Round despite leading 4-2 in the 2nd, Sakkari is assured to fall outside the *Top 60* heading into the clay season.
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9. Miami 2nd Rd. - Alex Eala def. Alona Ostapenko
...7-6(2)/7-5. *Shockingly* this was an Ostapenko match which featured multiple big swings of momentum, as Ostapenko led 4-0 in the 1st but saw Eala rally to win a TB, then in the 2nd it was Eala who lost a 4-0 lead, saving an Ostapenko SP, before the Filipina swept the final three games to notch her biggest win.

Alona is now 6-8 on the season, having lost four straight (8/8 sets lost) since she throttled Iga Swiatak to reach the Doha final.


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10. Miami 2nd Rd. - Karolina Muchova def. Victoria Azarenka
...6-0 ret. Azarenka, one (in 2016, along w/ Iga in '22) of only two "Sunshine Double" winners over the past two decades, plays through a shoulder injury and maybe manages to make it even worse.



Vika reached the SF last year in Miami, her best result since '18, and will head into the clay season (assuming she'll be back relatively soon) barely holding onto a Top 50 ranking.
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11. Miami 3rd Rd. - Jasmine Paolini def. Ons Jabeur
...4-3 ret. After getting off to an 11-4 start in '25, with QF in Brisbane, Abu Dhabi and Doha, Jabeur has now lost four of five after retiring with a calf injury in her second match in Miami.


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12. Miami 1st Rd. - Kimberly Birrell def. Anastasia Potapova
...3-6/6-3/7-6(5). Potapova leads 5-3 in the 3rd and has a MP at 5-4, but the Aussie's surprise '25 campaign adds another highlight as Birrell wins a 7-5 deciding TB.


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13. Antalya 125 Final - Maja Chwalinska/Anstasia Detiuc def. Jesika Maleckova/Miriam Skoch
...4-6/6-3 [10-2]. Chwalinska, who also reached the singles SF, joins with Detiuc to claim the doubles in the first of back-to-back 125 events held in Antalya during the Miami Open's run.

It's Chwalinska's third 125 doubles crown since November, while it's also the third in the career for Detiuc, who three years ago teamed with this week's final opponent Skoch to win a tour-level crown in Parma.


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14. $15K Monastir TUN Final - Carol Young Suh Lee def. Isis Louise van den Broek
...6–3/4–6/6–2. The Northern Mariana Islands native, playing under the U.S. flag, reached her first pro singles final in January. This week she picked up her first title.
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15. $15K Heraklion GRE Final - Rositsa Dencheva def. Alba Rey Garcia
...2-6/6-1/6-1. The 18-year old Bulgarian, a girls' quarterfinalist last year at Wimbledon (and J500 and J300 winner during the '24 season), stages a comeback from a set down to dominate sets two and three and pick up her maiden pro title.
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HM- Miami 2nd Rd. - Coco Gauff def. Sofia Kenin
...6-0/6-0. Is Kenin now playing the "Sharapova" part in her post-SW19 head-to-head vs. Coco, who is currently starring as "Serena?"

Kenin's 1st Round win over Gauff at Wimbledon in 2023 proved to be the "last straw" that spurred Gauff to make coaching changes and go on a summer rip that included a U.S. Open title. They met again for the first time in Melbourne...



And now this...



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[Miami Qualifying through Middle Saturday]


1. J300 San Diego (Jr.) Final - Annika Penickova/Kristina Penickova def. Isabelle Thi DeLuccia/Anita Tu
...6-7(5)/6-2 [10-7]. The AO girls' doubles winning Penickova twins add another big title to their stack, taking the North American Regional Championships in a 10-7 MTB.

@kristinapenickova

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2. Miami 3rd Rd. - Naomi Osaka def. Hailey Baptiste
...7-6(6)/3-6/6-4. Osaka trails 4-2 in the 3rd, but sweeps the final four games to reach the Round of 16 in Miami for the first time since reaching the final in 2022.



Hmm, I'm not sure which phrase common in tennis posts gnaws at the edges of my nerves more: "What It Means" or "All the Feels."

Of course, in the grand scheme of things...
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3. $75K Maribor SLO Final - Julie Belgraver/Urszula Radwanska def. Lily Miyazaki/Jessika Ponchet
...6-1/6-4. We got some Aga (via Magda Linette) this week, and we also got some Ula.

Aga's little sister Urszula is now 34, and 18 years after the Radwanskas combined for Ula's lone tour-level WD crown (in Istanbul) the younger of the two tennis sisters picks up just her second pro doubles title (she won one last year w/ Valentina Ryser) since 2012.


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4. $75K Lu'an CHN Final - Arina Rodionova def. Lanlana Tararudee
...6-3/1-6/6-3. Last year, a 34-year old Rodionova became the oldest player to make her WTA singles Top 100 debut. A year later, now 35, the Aussie grabs her biggest career singles title at a $75K in China. It's her first title since late 2023.


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5. $15K Alaminos CYP Final - Luca Udvardy def. Jessica Bertoldo
...6-1/7-5. A week ago, Luca reached a $75K doubles final with her sister Panna. This week, she drops down a few levels and picks up a $15K singles title, the third ITF win of the 19-year old Hungarian's career.

Udvardy reached the Wimbledon girls' singles final in 2022, falling to Liv Hovde.
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HM- $50K Santo Domingo DOM Final - Whitney Osuigwe def. Ana Sofia Sanchez
...6-2/7-5. The 2017 RG girls' champ, the 22-year old Osuigwe won a $50K in November, reached a pair of earlier challenger finals this season and qualified at Indian Wells to reach her first WTA MD since Charleston 2021.

In her third ITF final of '25, Osuigwe discovered a charm that led to a first singles title of the season.
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#WTARallyTheWorld




So, as expected, it seems that the WTA's latest "new" branding strategy has essentially scriveled up and blown away -- again -- in far less time that it took for some professional marketing agency to devise the campaign in the first place (although, in truth, it could have been come up with in about two minutes). In other words, supposedly six figures were spent wasted on a poorly executed advertising campaign that lasted about a week and a half, the obliteration of a perfectly fine logo for a new, bland one that takes the "tennis" out of the WTA (or is it the World Transit Authority?), and the changing of a few colors on the tour website and in TV graphics.

Good job, everyone!



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Sometimes you wonder whether people covering tennis actually enjoy and/or care about the sport and its players. That has never been a worry in the case of Courtney.



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Remember this? (Horrible update...)




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Seems like a bit of a downgrade from a "classier" look to a "plainer" one, but it's still far, far better than that of the WTA.

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A longstanding Backspin complaint, and one that likely has very little chance of ever being officially addressed, but still...




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The WTA fans have much more creativity than the WTA itself...



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It's become a tradition to link to this really interesting worldwide radio site (Radio Garden) at least once every year, and so I do it once again!







All for now.
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