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Friday, August 8, 2025

Wk.32- Mbokomania!







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*WEEK 32 CHAMPIONS*
MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CAN (WTA 1000; Hard Court Outdoor)
S: Victoria Mboko/CAN def. Naomi Osaka/JPN 1-6/6-4/6-1
D: Coco Gauff/McCartney Kessler (USA/USA) def. Taylor Townsend/Zhang Shuai (USA/CHN) 6-4/1-6 [13-11]




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[Montreal 4th Rd.-F]



PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Victoria Mboko/CAN
...the WTA's Canadian Summer continues, as Mboko adds a spectacular chapter to a season that began with lower-level super-success before stepping up to affirming big stage debuts (three combined MD wins at RG/WI) in recent months.

Still, no matter how promising the 18-year old's results had seemed at times this year -- and, remember, her '25 began with a 22-match winning streak -- it was difficult to imagine she was ready to put on the show she did in Montreal, where her relentless power-and-speed game helped her upset four former slam champions, saving a MP vs. one and showing preternatural big match mettle while coming back from a set down in the SF and Final to claim a 1000 title in just her seventh tour-level MD (w/ six coming this year, with a prior cameo appearance back in '22 at age 15).

Canada's group of former slam finalists (and one winner) were all over the headlines from Day 1 in Montreal, as Bianca Andreescu was injured in the 1st Round, Leylah Fernandez arrived off a title in Washington (only to lose her first match) and Genie Bouchard played the final matches of her WTA career. But it was wild card Mboko who had the staying power. After an opening win over Kimberly Birrell, Sofia Kenin (slam champ #1) and Marie Bouzkova (off a title in Prague) soon followed.

Things began to get serious, though, when Mboko took down top seed Coco Gauff (slam champ #2) to collect her first career Top 10 win. A victory over Jessica Bouzas Maneiro in her first WTA QF appearance put the teenager into the semis, where she out-steadied Elena Rybakina (slam champ #3) down the stretch, rallying from a set down, seeing Rybakina twice serve for the match and hold a MP, and reaching her maiden final on a wave of emotion and the support of an equally stunned home crowd.

Naomi Osaka (slam champ #4) seemed set to continue to her resurgent roll through the draw, but when things got tight in the 2nd it was the former #1 who began to buckle while the newcomer played through the tension, overcame some bad moments (including dropping a three-DF game at a key moment in the 2nd set), and ultimately pulled away down the stretch in a 1-6/6-4/6-1 victory that thus christens her the tour's newest teen sensation.



Suddenly, Mboko -- 23-6 in her last 29 matches, over three surfaces since the start of April -- will climb *sixty* spots in the new rankings, rising from #85 to #25. She'll be a seeded player at Flushing Meadows, and has edged ahead of Fernandez as the new CAN #1. She was ranked #333 (CAN #9) in the opening week of the year, just ahead of fellow Canadian Cadence Brace, but behind (mostly doubles specalist) Camilla Rosatello (ITA).

Meanwhile, if there's a will there's always a way to bring Serena into the conversation...


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RISERS: Elena Rybakina/KAZ and Clara Tauson/DEN
...while Rybakina hasn't had a *bad* season by any stretch, in 2025 she's left a potentially great season to die on the vine in a series of squandered leads and lost semifinals. Montreal proved to be the latest example.

Things started off well enough, with wins over Hailey Baptiste and Jaqueline Cristian, then advancement past a pair of Ukrainians (Dayana Yastremska from a set down, and Marta Kostyuk via retirement) to reach her fifth semifinal of the season. Facing off with 18-year old Victoria Mboko and an excited Canadian crowd, Rybakina continually put herself into position to reach the final, twice serving for the match and even holding a MP. But breakdowns in her forehand, and an inability to consistnently string together consecutive good points down the stretch, put artificial restraints on Rybakina's chances for victory, and she ultimately fell in a deciding TB a game short of a final for the second straight event (she also lost to Leylah Fernandez, another Canadian, at the same stage in Washington in a 3rd set breaker).

While her result lifts Rybakina back into the Top 10, her '25 season feels decidedly underwhelming considering how close she's come to so much more. She's yet to reach a slam QF (4r-4r-3r), is 1-4 in SF, has lost a pair of matches from MP up, as well as multiple other matches that were well within her grasp.



It's nothing that one *big* result won't suddenly paper over, make look better and provide a heap of benefit of the doubt (see Iga winning at SW19), and such a result *could* have come in Montreal for Rybakina. And yet, still no.



While Tauson, for various reasons, doesn't *always* bring her best game to the court, Montreal proved to *not* be one of those instances.

The Dane produced her second career SF+ result in a 1000 event (w/ her Dubai RU earlier this year), putting together back-to-back Top 10 wins for the first time with victories over Iga Swiatek and Madison Keys in a pair of straight setters as she reached the final four without dropping a set.

In the same match-up from January's final in Auckland, when Tauson won the title when Naomi Osaka retired after losing the opening set, the Dane fell in straights, but not until she pressured Osaka and forced her to rally to avoid going to a 3rd. Tauson staged a comeback from 4-2 down, getting the set back on serve with a game 7 break on her sixth BP, then forced a tie-break. She led it 6-4, but couldn't put away either of two SP on serve before seeing Osaka surge to a 9-7 win.

Tauson will be up to a career high #15 in the new rankings.


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VETERANS: Madison Keys/USA and Elina Svitolina/UKR
...Montreal provided a nice launching pad for both women, maybe most importantly of the two for Keys, who would seem the most likely to be able to ride whatever momentum she can take into New York to a viably very deep run into the draw.

After opening with a win over Laura Siegemund, avenging her loss to the German at Wimbledon, Keys ended Caty McNally's 12-match winning streak and overcame Karolina Muchova despite the Czech holding a pair of MP (for Keys' third '25 win from MP down). Keys became the second of Clara Tauson's back-to-back Top 10 victims in the QF, but now has something on which to build as she heads toward the final major of the season, where she'll be trying to pull off the same AO/US hard court slam sweep that Aryna Sabalenka completed last summer. Keys, of course, reached her maiden slam final at the U.S. Open seven years ago.



A former Canada winner (2017), Svitolina hadn't advanced out of the 2nd Round in Montreal/Toronto since 2019, with 1r/2r exits since her return to the tour in 2023.

So her QF run in Montreal this time around is a big step back in the right direction, accomplished with victories over Kamilla Rakhimova, Anna Kalinskaya and Amanda Anisimova. Faced with an in-form and growing-more-confident Naomi Osaka, though, she was able to record just four total games.

Svitolina's only '25 title came in a smaller event in Rouen this past spring, but she's managed to post QF+ results in a series of 1000-or-higher level tournaments this year, including a SF in Madrid, and additional QF at the AO, RG, Indian Wells and Rome.

Though Svitolina has worked to play a more aggressive style of game since her return from materity leave, she still has yet to win a title above the 250 level since her WTA Finals title back in 2018, nor reached anything bigger than a 250 final since she returned to the WTAF title match in her defense attempt the following season. At the time of her '19 WTAF final appearance, eight of her last nine finals had come in 500+ events between 2017-19.

Meanwhile, did you notice it, and how quickly did you realize why?

From the start, it was clear that Svitolina looked *different* in Montreal, and after a few moments of questioning why I realized that it was because she wasn't wearing her customary visor/headband on court. Though she's always seen *off* court sans headwear -- and she's seen quite often due to her activities since the start of the war -- it's remarkable how different a player can look between the lines with just one alteration from the norm.


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COMEBACK: Naomi Osaka/JPN
...for much of the time in Montreal, Osaka's game had a very familiar, and eye-popping, look to it (though it'd been a while)...



Finding a comfort zone and wave of confidence on hard court, in her first event with Tomasz Wiktorowski (former WTA Coach of the Year) alongside for a coaching trial, Osaka blew through a series of opponents after having escaped a 6-4/5-3 (w/ 3 MP saved) hole vs. Veronika Kudermetova in the 2nd Round, dispatching Alona Ostapenko (6 games allowed), Anastasija Sevastova (1 game), Elina Svitolina (4 games) and Clara Tauson in straight sets to reach the final, her first in a 1000 event since Miami in 2022. Her second tour-level final of '25, it's the first time she's reached multiple WTA finals in a season since 2020.



Prior to Tauson's 2nd set comeback, which fell short of forcing a 3rd but *did* potentially plant a worrisome seed of doubt in the mind of Osaka, the four-time slam winner had looked as if she might romp to the title. But while Osaka's groundstrokes sometimes looked like those of the "player of old," unfortunately, her "bizarro Ostapenko" tendencies since her return from maternity leave returned in the latter stages in Montreal, as well.

Like Ostapenko, a confident Osaka in top form can look positively awesome for an extended period of time, but while the Latvian can quickly forget about a few bad moments in a match (sometimes by the time she returns to the baseline) the current version of Osaka can't seem to let them go, sometimes carrying them with her for several points, or games or, in the case the final vs. Victoria Mboko, from some point in the 2nd set all the way through to a three-set loss.

Osaka had looked like she could sweep through the teenager, quickly taking the 1st set, but once things got sticky in the 2nd she visibly lost the confident streak she'd been playing with throughout the tournament. The seed of doubt only grew as Mboko remained relentless, quickly overcoming any stuttering moments that occasionally came up, as Osaka slipped all the way back down the mountain in a 6-1 final set defeat. She remains without a tour title since she claimed consecutive majors (US/AO) in NYC/Melbourne in 2020-21.

Osaka will rise from #49 to inside the Top 25, and will be seeded at the U.S. Open, but she'll continue to walk a dangerously (too?) fine line if she's going to let her (should be) temporary disappointment in herself due to losing a key point/game or two linger for so long. If she's going to need *unlimited* perfection to remain confident enough to reclaim some of her past glory, well, it just might stay unclaimed.
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ITF PLAYER: Wang Xiyu/CHN
...this past weekend (after Saturday's mid-Montreal post), Xiyu picked up a $75K challenger title in Lexington, Kentucky, preventing ITF '25 title lead Janice Tjen from claiming her seventh title of the season by taking a 3-6/6-2/6-4 final vs. the Indonesian.

The 2018 U.S. Open junior champ, 24-year old Wang cracked the Top 50 in 2023 and has reached a pair of tour-level finals (1-1 in 2023-24), but came into the event ranked at #158. She reached the semis of a $100K in Evansville (losing to eventual champ Caty McNally) in her previous tournament before taking the title this time around.


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DOUBLES: Coco Gauff/McCartney Kessler, USA/USA
...things were a bit rough for Gauff in Montreal before she eventually went out vs. Victoria Mboko in the singles QF, but she rebounded well alongside Kessler, as the two won four consecutive MTB to fight their way to the doubles title.

After taking deciding breakers vs. the likes of L.Kichenok/Perez, Krejcikova/Ostapenko and Danilovic/Hsieh, the Bannerette pair rallied from 6-5 down in the MTB vs. Washington champs Taylor Townsend/Zhang Shuai, never facing a MP but finally winning 13-11 on their own fifth MP in the tie-break.

The title is #11 in Gauff's career (11-3 in finals), while it's the first for Kessler, the '25 Austin WD finalist who has won three tour singles titles over the past year.

Gauff and Kessler are the seventh and eighth women to win both tour-level singles and doubles titles this season.


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[Montreal 4th Rd.-F]

1. Montreal 4th Rd. - Victoria Mboko def. Coco Gauff
...6-1/6-4. Gauff's streak of self-generated "luck" finally runs out in Montreal after going 2-0 despite putting up a slew of DF and seeing back-to-back opponents either serve for the match (Collins) or hold a significant lead (Kudermetova 6-4/3-1).

For Mboko, it's her first career Top 10 win, after she'd taken Gauff to three sets in a loss in Rome this past spring. The 18-year old Canadian is the first player younger than Gauff to defeat her in a tour-level match.


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2. Montreal 4th Rd. - Madison Keys def. Karolina Muchova
...4-6/6-3/7-5. Well, Keys is back to pulling matches out of the fire after starting her '25 campaign doing just that en route to the AO title.

Muchova held two MP at 5-4 on Keys' serve in the 3rd, but after failing to convert either saw the Bannerette sweep the final three games to notch her third win this season after being MP down (tying Anastasia Potapova for the WTA lead).


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3. Montreal 4th Rd. - Clara Tauson def. Iga Swiatek
...7-6(1)/6-3. Stunningly, a player who went over a year without reaching a final isn't suddenly invincible because she managed to win one tournament (no matter how important). Of course, now we cut to the "Iga-ites'" collective short-term amnesia ("she won Wimbledon and you/she didn't") that will soon shift back once again to daily chest-thumping-and-give-her-a-cape mode after a quick early-round win or two.

Sometimes perfectly nice players don't deserve the delulu/insufferable social media backers that they unfortunately collect over time.

As for Tauson, the Dane *finally* managed to put up the clean and clear-headed performance she's capable of vs. the Pole, the one that eluded her at SW19, showing early-slam round mettle in both the 1st and 2nd in her straight sets win.

After taking an early lead in the opener but then not being able to serve out the set, Tauson saw Swiatek get things back on serve and take an on-serve lead. But the Dane didn't back away and let the momemtum get away from her, forcing a TB and winning it going away at 7-1. After (of course), waiting for Swiatek to return from heading off court after dropping the 1st, Tauson put the hammer down and closed things out in two.

With the win, Tauson adds her name to the list of players who've defeated both #3 Swiatek and #1 Aryna Sabalenka this season (w/ M.Andreeva, Gauff, Keys and Ostapenko). So far, no one has also managed to hit the Top 3 trifecta and also defeat current #3 Coco Gauff.
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4. Montreal SF - Victoria Mboko def. Elena Rybakina
...1-6/7-5/7-6(4). As soon as Rybakina wasn't able to close out this one in straights, breaking Mboko to get back on serve at 5-4 in the 2nd only to eventually lose her own serve at 15 to drop the set a few games later, the fact that the Kazakah has steadily in 2025 become a far-less-than-reliable closer down the stretch began to hover in the shadows.

And, sure enough, Rybakina's inability to seize what were potentially the final moments -- of which there were quite a few -- of a winning evening once more came back to haunt her as Mboko proved to be the steadier player down the stretch, when staying even vs. the current version of Rybakina was tantamount to pulling away on the scoreboard.

The lack of *something* in Rybakina's game/psyche showed up as scheduled in the 3rd, when ill-timed forehand errors held the door wide open for the teenager as the Kazakh was often her own worst enemy.



Rybakina held for 4-2 after saving two BP, and seemed on the cusp of the final as she served at 5-4 and held a MP. She dropped serve, but was given a reprieve when Mboko DF'd on BP a game later to give Rybakina another chance to serve for the win. She was broken, at love.

Tied up at 3-3 in the deciding TB, Rybakina ultimately lost her last three serve points, and four of the final five points of the match, to fall short for the fourth time this year in five SF appearances.


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5. Montreal Final - Victoria Mboko def. Naomi Osaka
...1-6/6-4/6-1. Osaka looked dominant early, but after dropping serve to open the 2nd it was all downhill from there.

The two combined for five straight breaks of serve to start the 2nd set, but the more experienced player couldn't capitalize. Osaka was broken four straight times, and even when Mboko seemed to open the door for a comeback (3 DF when serving at 5-2 and dropping serve), the four-time slam champ seemed trapped inside her own head rather than looking to take advantage of a nervous opponent (match-commentating Andrea Petkovic could surely see it, but Osaka never did).

Mboko forced a 3rd set, where she staved off Osaka's one final push, holding for 3-1 after saving three BP. From there, the Canadian rode calm seas en route to becoming the third WC to win a 1000 crown.

Afterward, Mboko showed that one doesn't need to have won big titles to know how to handle the immediate aftermath...



As for the (too?) disappointed Osaka, well, let's just say she kept it "short and sweet," and was (naturally) bashed afterward for not mentioning her opponent.



Again, I'm not going to kick up any non-story story dust regarding post-match emotions, but I will note that Osaka *did* say afterward that she'd forgotten to say anything about Mboko... so hopefully we won't be getting any make-up TikTok videos in Cincinnati. (Crossing fingers.)

Meanwhile, here's a fun little way to show how stupid it is to have been playing both the Montreal/Toronto finals at the same time (the men's started early in the women's 3rd set). There's something poetic -- and maybe emblematic of the many disconnects within the sport -- about Shelton not understanding what was going on...


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HM- Montreal 4th Rd. - Jessica Bouzas Maneiro def. Zhu Lin
...7-5/1-6/6-2. Bouzas Maneiro managed to get past Zhu to earn her first 1000 QF berth, but couldn't get over the QF hump in her third try at tour-level this season when she went out to streaking (again) teenager Victoria Mboko.

Still, the Spaniard exited Montreal having put together a 9-4 run this summer across three surfaces which included a Top 10 win in Paris, Wimbledon Round of 16 and mow maiden 1000 final eight. She's up to a career-high #44.


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1. Cincinnati 1st Rd. - Jessica Bouzas Maneiro def. Venus Williams
...6-4/6-4. An early Cincy look-in because, why not make this confusing week of scheduling all the more convoluted, right?

Venus was back, via a wild card, facing off with Montreal quarterfinalist Bouzas Maneiro. Williams stayed close, but the Spaniard held firm to get the straight sets win.

As Tennis Channel's Pam Shriver noted during the match, while at 22 Bouzas Maneiro is hardly the youngest player in any draw, by the time she was born in late September 2002, Williams had already played in eight major singles finals (winning four), including all four (losses vs. Serena) during that '02 season.


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I know some people have taken issue with the two-week 1000/Masters format all along, but I've never had a problem with it. And then came Canada, and the transition into Cincinnati.

Once again, while the tennis in Montreal (and I guess Toronto?) was often great, the players, fans and the sport were once again victimized by the numbskulls who make decisions for both tours. So, a big thumbs-up -- oh, wait, that's the wrong finger -- for the suits and numbers-crunchers who put together this new summer hard court schedule that insisted on acting as if two events in different cities were actually one, even while scheduling them as if they're separate *and* an ocean apart (and maybe on another planet).

All the players on both tours who pulled out of Canada in favor of playing Cincinnati were the only people in this mix with any sense, as the two-city Canada swing does not fit in any way into the (nearly) two-week 1000 format (at least not in the "second week"), and then they bent over backwards to make it fit *even worse*, eliminating day sessions down the stretch (making both events a virtual no-news ghost town all day long) and then playing the relatively few matches (all at night) down the stretch simultaneously. It's an insane series of decisions for a sport that should want to get as many eyes on its product as possible. So, in other words, the usual sort of mind-bending mess where the tennis tours are concerned.

And whoever came up with the "let's play the finals on a Thursday!" idea should be banned from ever having a say in the sport again. It actually makes the upcoming *Monday* finals for Cincy (which has *already* started playing 1st Round matches) look perfectly reasonable, even though they're totally uncecessary other than as an excuse to try to squeeze out a few more bucks from paying customers at the expense of anything making much sense, neither athletically-speaking nor when it comes to broadcast coverage, marketing or fan accessibility (99.999% of which is off-grounds).

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More great testimony about the greatness (yeah, right) of the WTA team (remember the touting of that new and improved website at the start of that "brilliant" and "innovative" rebrand?)...




And it's not as if Mboko just appeared out of nowhere. She'd posted MD wins in the last two majors, and was already in the Top 100 before Montreal.

And I've known about this for a long time, but don't think I ever noted it. When a player retires it doesn't take long for the tour site to soon wipe clean their entire match record, as if they never player on the WTA tour at all (and you have to go to the ITF site or elsewhere to see the records of players who were still playing seemingly a few minutes ago)...



Finally, after being (sorta) publicly shamed (haha, as if that's possible)...



Later, they tour finally got up to speed (but don't expect such a thing to be a regular occurrence, at least not without a lot of shouting and embarrassment occurring beforehand)...



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Eva Lys during a changeover is sometimes a whole other show...




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"Calling Ticket 22... number 22."











The Bangles (in 2008), and Susanna Hoffs (from May '25)...












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*2025 FIRST-TIME WTA FINALISTS*
Polina Kudermetova, RUS (#107/21 = Brisbane)
Emiliana Arango, COL (#133/24 = Merida)
Maya Joint, AUS (#78/19 = Rabat)-W
Wang Xinyu, CHN (#49/23 = Berlin)
Alex Eala, PHI (#74/20 = Eastbourne)
Lois Boisson, FRA (#63/22 = Hamburg)-W
Anna Bondar, HUN (#77/28 = Hamburg)
VICTORIA MBOKO, CAN (#85/18 = Montreal)-W

*2025 YOUNGEST WTA SINGLES CHAMPIONS*
17 - Mirra Andreeva, RUS (Dubai)
17 - Mirra Andreeva, RUS (Indian Wells)
18 - VICTORIA MBOKO, CAN (Montreal)
19 - Maya Joint, AUS (Rabat)
19 - Maya Joint, AUS (Eastbourne)

*2025 QUALIFIERS/WILD CARDS/PR IN FINALS*
Brisbane - Polina Kudermetova, RUS (Q)
Abu Dhabi - Belinda Bencic, SUI (WC)-W
Merida - Emiliana Arango, COL (Q)
Bogota - Katarzyna Kawa, POL (Q)
London - Tatjana Maria, GER (Q)-W
Rosmalen - Gabriela Ruse, ROU (Q)
Berlin - Marketa Vondrousova, CZE (PR)-W
Berlin - Wang Xinyu, CHN (Q)
Eastbourne - Alex Eala, PHI (Q)
Hamburg - Lois Boisson, FRA (seeded WC)-W
Montreal - VICTORIA MBOKO, CAN (WC)-W

*2025 TITLES FROM MATCH POINT DOWN*
Auckland - Clara Tauson (1 MP vs. Kenin, 2r)
Australian Open - Madison Keys (1 MP vs Swiatek, SF)
Bogota - Camila Osorio (1 MP vs. Bektas, 2r)
Rosmalen - Elise Mertens (11 MP vs. Alexandrova, SF)
Eastbourne - Maya Joint (4 MP vs. Eala, F)
Montreal - VICTORIA MBOKO (1 MP vs. Rybakina, SF)

*2025 MULT. DIFFERENT WTA CHAMPIONS BY COUNTRY*
6 (USA) Anisimova,Gauff,Kessler,Keys,Navarro,Pegula
3 (RUS) Alexandrova,M.Andreeva,Potapova
2 (CAN) Fernandez,MBOKO
2 (CZE) Bouzkova,Vondrousova

*MOST TOP 10 WINS in 2025; (#)-win over #1*
8 - Sabalenka
7 - Gauff(1)
6 - M.Andreeva(1), Swiatek
5 - Alexandrova(1), Anisimova(1), Keys(1)
4 - Ostapenko(1), Samsonova, Svitolina, Tauson(1)
3 - Bencic, Kessler, Noskova

*MOST WTA SF in 2025*
9 - Aryna Sabalenka (7-2)
7 - Iga Swiatek (2-5)
5 - Jessie Pegula (5-0)
5 - ELENA RYBAKINA (1-4)
5 - Ekaterina Alexandrova (1-4)
4 - Amanda Anisimova (3-1)
4 - Madison Keys (2-2)
4 - CLARA TAUSON (2-2)
4 - Jasmine Paolini (1-3)

*2025 WTA FIRST-TIME DOUBLES CHAMPIONS*
Brisbane - Mirra Andreeva, RUS (17)
Brisbane - Diana Shnaider, RUS (20)
Cluj-Napoca - Magali Kempen, BEL (27)
Cluj-Napoca - Anna Siskova, CZE (23)
Rabat - Maya Joint, AUS (19)
Iasi - Veronika Erjavec, SLO (25)
Iasi - Panna Udvardy, HUN (26)
Montreal - McCARTNEY KESSLER, USA (26)

*2025 WTA DOUBLES FINALS*
5 (2-3) = Alona Ostapenko
5 (1-4) = ZHANG SHUAI
5 (1-4) = Anna Danilina
4 (3-1) = Sara Errani
4 (3-1) = Jasmine Paolini
4 (3-1) = TAYLOR TOWNSEND
4 (0-4) = Hsieh Su-wei






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"I read its tales of trauma, loss and shame. The book my body wrote became my guide, exposing feelings that I couldn’t hide." --from poem no. 4, "Corona of Fragmentation" www.amazon.com/Cant-Recall-... #poetry #poetrycommunity #WritingCommunity #Divorce

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— Diane Elayne Dees (@womenwhoserve.bsky.social) August 3, 2025 at 12:09 PM


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All for now.

Next post: soon after the Cincinnati 3rd Round is complete.
Posted by at

Saturday, August 2, 2025

Wk.31- All for One, and One Week for Montreal









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[Montreal Q/1st-3rd Rd.]




RISERS: Marta Kostyuk/UKR and McCartney Kessler/USA
...Kostyuk has managed to turn around her recent bad stretch in Montreal, but it's been anything but easy.

Coming in on a six-match losing streak (dropping 11 of 12 sets) over three different surfaces, Kostyuk put up early-round wins over Marketa Vondrousova and Dasha Kasatkina, but had to rally after dropping the 1st set in both matches, winning a 3rd set TB in the latter contest vs. the Aussie.



Meanwhile, Kessler has somewhat quietly won three tour titles over the past year, a stretch of success that started with her maiden win last summer in Cleveland on the eve of the U.S. Open.

In Montreal, the Bannerette advanced into her first career 1000 Round of 16 with wins over Maya Joint and Mirra Andreeva, picking up a second '25 Top 5 win (w/ Gauff in Dubai) with an upset of the Hordette.



Facing off in the opening Round of 16 match on Saturday, Kostyuk outlasted Kessler, once again getting the win after dropping the opening set.


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SURPRISE: Aoi Ito/JPN
...Ito was a tour-level revelation late in '24, making her WTA MD debut, reaching her maiden SF in Osaka, and getting her first career Top 50 win. In January, she picked up her biggest title in a 125 in Canberra. Previous 1000 qualifying runs in Doha, Dubai and Miami earlier this year were followed up by 1st Round exits, as was her slam MD debut at Wimbledon last month.

Victories had been hard to come by for Ito of late. She made a $50K final at the start of July, but before and after that result had gone one-and-out in all eight of her other tournaments since reaching a $100K SF in Tokyo in April.

Ito qualified to reach another 1000 MD in Montreal, but this time got her first win with a victory over Katie Volynets, which she then backed up with her maiden Top 10 victory with an upset of Jasmine Paolini, during which she rallied from 6-2/4-1 down and saved a MP, all the while drawing comparisons to Hsieh Su-wei for her on-court smiles, style of play and ability to immediately draw in new fans with her mannerisms and likeability.

Even with her 3rd Round loss to Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, Ito has pushed her way up the rankings enough to be ready to achieve a new career-high ranking (live #97) at the end of the tournament.


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VETERANS: Anastasija Sevastova/LAT and Katerina Siniakova/CZE
...Sevastova has tasted success at this time of the year before. The Latvian reached the QF in Montreal in 2018, and posted QF-QF-SF results at the U.S. Open from 2016-18, soon after which she reached a career high of #11.

Sevastova hasn't played much tennis in recent years, though. In early 2022, she took a break from the sport during which she had a baby. After returning to the tour in February '24, she soon suffered a knee injury that put her out another fourteen months. She returned to the WTA in Madrid this past spring, recording upsets of Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and countrywoman Alona Ostapenko.

Sevastova reached a QF in Rabat prior to RG, but arrived in Montreal on a four-match losing streak. Ranked #386 and using a protected ranking, she got a pair of wins over Ajla Tomljanovic and Magda Linette, then ended Jessie Pegula's two-year reign as the tournament champion with her first Top 10 victory since a win over Serena Williams in Fed Cup play in early 2020. It's just her second Top 10 win since 2018.



Siniakova, for her part, seems to have decided to work on her singles game this summer. Not a bad idea, after being relegated to qualifying in back-to-back grass events in June for the first time in two and a half years due to her sinking singles ranking. The doubles #1 until she eschewed a trip to North America to stay in Europe a little bit longer, the last two weeks she's played singles at home in tour-level Prague and this week in a 125 in Warsaw.

The Czech lost her top WD ranking for the first time in almost a year when regular doubles partner Taylor Townsend won a title in Washington and took over the spot at the start of the week.

After a QF result in Prague, Siniakova took the title in Warsaw, dropping just one set (1r vs. Lanlana Tararudee) and finishing off Swiss veteran Viktorija Golubic in a 6-1/6-2 final that will lift her live ranking from #89 to #66. Before this bump, she'd been heading toward her worst year-end ranking in a decade (#108 in 2015) after finishing in the Top 50 the last four years and only ending one season outside the Top 60 (#64 in '20) over the last nine.

It's been almost two years since Siniakova's last WTA solo win (in Jiangxi in Oct.'23), which was the fifth of her career. This is the Czech's second at the 125 level in the last two seasons.



Now the doubles #2, and teamed with the ATP's doubles #1, Siniakova is still waiting for official word that the duo *might* receive one of the few remaining wild cards into the U.S. Open MX "event" later this month. Siniakova & Marcelo Arevalo were *both* ranked #1 when they didn't receive direct entry into the draw and had to wait for a WC berth.

Siniakova just won the MX title at Wimbledon, and is the reigning Olympic Gold medalist in MX.
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COMEBACKS: Naomi Osaka/JPN and Zhu Lin/CHN
...Osaka's early exit in Washington left her cheerful even after her loss. Turned out, she was maybe feeling the spark of change, as with her time with coach Patrick Mouratoglou ending, a new (at least on a trial basis) stint with former Radwanska/Swiatek coach Tomasz Wiktorowski began in Montreal.



After a win over Canadian Ariana Arseneault, Osaka cleared some significant obstacles over the next two rounds, rallying from 6-4/5-3 down and saving multiple MP vs. Liudmila Samsonova, then taking out Alona Ostapenko in straight sets (a truly unfamiliar-by-association-with-Iga feeling for Wiktorowski) to reach the Round of 16.

Meanwhile, Zhu -- who finished '23 inside the Top 40 -- arrived in Montreal ranked at #493 after being out for six months over the past year (her '24 season ended after Wimbledon, and after returning in January she missed two more months this spring).

In the draw using her protected ranking, Zhu put together three straight wins in a tour-level event for the first time since reaching the Hua Hin final in February of last year, knocking off Varvara Gracheva, Ekaterina Alexandrova and Suzan Lamens.


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FRESH FACES: Jessica Bouzas Maneiro/ESP and Victoria Mboko/CAN
...after looking to be on the cusp of some signifcant results over the past year, Bouzas Maneiro is now starting to post such results. At RG, she got a Top 10 upset over Emma Navarro, then reached her maiden slam Round of 16 at Wimbledon.

After a three-hour 1st Round victory over Louisa Chirico in Montreal, the Spaniard followed with wins over Ashlyn Krueger and Aoi Ito (from a set down) to reach her first career 1000 Round of 16.



While this year's Montreal event has seen home favorites Bianca Andreecu suffer another injury, D.C. champ Leylah Fernandez upset early and Genie Bouchard end her WTA career after a spirited (though brief) early-week run, 18-year old Mboko has single-handedly kept the Canadian flavor alive in the women's draw.

Already an ITF star in '25, Mboko has gone on to post her first tour-level MD win (Miami), then posted her first major victories at Roland Garros, cracking the Top 100 after a 3rd Round run. She then reached the 2nd Round in her debut appearance at SW19.

A wild card in Montreal, Mboko played into the Round of 16 with wins over Kimberly Birrell, Sofia Kenin and last week's winner in Prague, Marie Bouzkova.


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DOWN: Katie Boulter/GBR
...there were a few candidates here from the opening rounds in Montreal, from Bianca Andreescu (injured again) to two-time defending champ Jessie Pegula, ousted in the 3rd Round (falling to 1-3 since winning Berlin). But I'll go with Boulter for a extended downturn.

During the grass season, the Brit was the two-time defending champ at Nottingham, but fell in the 3rd Round this year, then was upset in the 2nd Round at Wimbledon by a lucky loser. With the shift to hard courts, a 1st Round loss in Washington (vs. Sakkari) was followed this week by a 1st Round upset in Montreal to Renata Zarazua, who notched her first 1000 win in over four years (just her second ever) and her first Top 50 victory of 2025.

1-4 in her last five, Boulter has gone 5-6 since winning a 125 in Paris prior to Roland Garros. She's 4-6 on hard courts so far in '25, after posting 25-15 and 27-14 season records (w/ a 500 title last year) on the surface the last two years.
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@jelinevandromme


JUNIOR STAR: Jeline Vandromme/BEL
...the 17-year old Waffle had already picked up a big junior title (J300 Traralgon, before the AO) and her maiden pro win ($15K Manacor) this season, and this week in Roehampton Vandromme added to her collection with a $35K challenger for her biggest crown yet.

The Belgian qualified, then ran off wins over Arina Rodionova, Carol Young Suh Lee, Harmony Tan and, in the final, Shi Han. Against Han, Vandromme staged a comeback from 5-3 down in the 3rd, saving three MP in games 9 & 10 en route to a 7-6(4)/5-7/7-5 victory.
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[Montreal Q/1st-3rd Rd.]




1. Montreal 2nd Rd. - Coco Gauff def. Danielle Collins
...7-5/4-6/7-6(2). Who needs brilliance to produce fine drama? Not Gauff/Collins, that's for sure.

With neither woman bringing her best game for long, the battle of attrition featured 36 DF (23 from Gauff), and 154 UE (Gauff 74, Collins 80... vs. 30/29 winners). But those are just numbers.

What was *seen* in (surprisingly) the first career meeting between the two was, albeit oft-messy, a compelling clash of personalities and sudden flashes of shotmaking and frustration, as Collins forced a 3rd set after trailing 7-5/3-1, creating the canvas for a back-and-forth deciding set.

Gauff took a 4-2 lead, and after Collins got the set back on serve, holding on for dear life, Gauff saved a BP (w/ a screaming backhand down the line) and held for 5-4.



In the next game, Collins nearly squandered a 40/love lead, saw Gauff twice get a point away from reaching MP, but then held to knot the score. Collins then took a love/40 lead in game 11, breaking Gauff to get the chance to serve for the match.

Then Gauff turned the dial up to "11," taking a 15/40 lead and denying Collins (who twice was withing two points of the win) with a break on her fourth BP of the game, forcing a deciding TB. Having survived the earlier fight, Gauff took the breaker 7-2.

So, when's meeting #2?


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2. Montreal 2nd Rd. - Naomi Osaka def. Liudmila Samsonova
...4-6/7-6(6)/6-3. As was expected (but not with great certainty), Osaka seems to have taken quite well to the arrival of summer hard courts. Of course, she very nearly suffered her second straight early loss in the last two weeks, as well.

Samsonova led 6-4/5-3, and had multiple MP chances at 5-4, but couldn't finish Osaka off. The Russian led 5-2 in the 2nd set TB, as well, before another push from Osaka gave her an 8-6 win. She claimed the 3rd set at 6-3, improving to 6-1 in three-setters on hard court this season (she lost her last four three-setters on clay/grass in '25).


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3. Montreal 1st Rd. - Laura Siegemund def. Tatjana Maria
...7-5/6-7(6)/7-6(2). It just had to happen, right? A match-up of the 37-year old Germans who made waves during the recently-concluded grass season, with Maria winning Queen's Club and Siegemund reaching the Wimbledon QF.

Here the veterans played for 3:26, with Siegemund taking a 7-5/5-3 lead, holding her first MP at 5-3, then having two more at 6-5 as she tried to serve out the victory. She had MP #4 at 6-5 in the 2nd set TB before Maria won it 8-6 to force a deciding set.

In the 3rd, Maria turned around a 4-2 deficit to lead and serve for the win at 5-4. After breaking her countrywoman at love in game 10, Siegemund ultimately won on MP #5 in the concluding TB.



After having posted a win at SW19 over Madison Keys, Siegemund couldn't pull the upset when the two faced off once again in the 2nd Round.
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4. Montreal 2nd Rd. - Aoi Ito def. Jasmine Paolini
...2-6/7-5/7-6(5). Paolini led 6-2/4-1, and held a MP at 5-4 in the 2nd, but Ito's traveling road show wasn't quite ready to pack up and leave town. Instead, she ultimately handed the Italian her second loss this season after having held MP.

Paolini came back from 3-1 down in the 3rd, breaking Ito to force a TB, where the score was knotted up at 5-5 before Ito swept the final two points to record her maiden Top 10 victory.

At the net, Ito's customary bow was disarming enough that it managed to get a (semi-) bow back from the disappointed Paolini.


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5. Montreal 1st Rd. - Bianca Andreescu def. Barbora Krejcikova
...6-3/6-4. While Leylah Fernandez won a title in Washington last Sunday, on that same day Andreescu was getting a 1st Round win over Krejickova in Montreal, but only after rolling her ankle (on MP!) in the closing moments of what became a straight sets win after the Czech (likely) bailed with consecutive errors to end the match after the Canadian's medical timeout.

Andreescu handed Mirra Andreeva a walkover in the 2nd Round, and here we go again. Sigh.


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6. Montreal 2nd Rd. - Iga Swiatek def. Guo Hanyu
...6-3/6-1. Mid-way through the 1st set, Swiatek had carried over her game-winning streak to 24 in a row dating back to her SF/F finish at Wimbledon vs. Belinda Bencic and Amanda Anisimova before Guo finally got on the board.

This victory marked the 60th consecutive knock-out event in which Swiatek has posted an opening victory. It's maybe her most impressive career stat. Her last one-and-out came in Cincinnati in 2021, and starting with her breakout run to the RG title in 2020 she's gotten at least one win in 72 of 73 tournaments.

Naturally, it was at this point that the WTA started to *finally* tout this great run but, naturally, also made eye-rolling decisions in that promotion during the process. It was reported that Swiatek's run was at *63* events, making it the longest since Monica Seles from 1990-1996 (a large chunk of that time was during her post-stabbing absence), but also noted that the streak included her wins in the WTA Finals and United Cup events, neither of which are knock-out tournaments, i.e. there is no pressure to win the opening match since it won't eliminate a player from the competition. So, WHY COUNT THOSE in the streak (plus, one is a *team* event, which puts it into an *entirely* different category), as the number is taken out of context?

Everyone promotes the WTA better than the WTA promotes the WTA, and when it *does* try to promote its player it bends over backwards and twists the entire endeavor into a pretzel that's better left uneaten.
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7. Montreal 1st Rd. - Genie Bouchard def. Emiliana Arango
...6-4/2-6/6-2. There have been a lot of "goodbye" moments on court in recent weeks (Kvitova, Garcia, etc.), as well as a huge (extended) "welcome back" one (Venus). Bouchard, who has spent most of the past couple of years playing more pro pickleball than WTA tennis, joined the list in Montreal after announcing that it would be her final tour event.

She extended her stay with a 1st Round win over Arango...


Montreal 2nd Rd. - Belinda Bencic def. Genie Bouchard
...6-2/3-6/6-4. After getting an opening round win, Bouchard pushed Bencic to three sets to wrap up her best two-match stretch in years, forcing a 3rd by giving one final glimpse of the fighter who led the charge in the rise of Canadian tennis over the past decade, during which Bouchard briefly became one of biggest, most heavily-marketed stars in this or any sport, ranking in the Top 10 on Forbes' Highest Paid Female Athletes list in 2017 and '18.



At the height of her career, Bouchard posted SF-SF-RU results at the first three majors in 2014, becoming the first Canadian to reach a slam singles final at Wimbledon that year, during which she also became the first Canadian to earn a Top 5 ranking.

Bouchard never really rose quite so high after being throttled at SW19 by Petra Kvitova in that '14 Wimbledon final, though she did reach the AO QF the following season, then saw the trajectory of her career (seemingly) forever altered by a late night slip, fall and concussion (and resulting lawsuit vs. the USTA) in a dark lockerroom (w/ a wet floor) following a U.S. Open 3rd Round night session match. She ultimately pulled out before her Round of 16 match in NYC (as well as WD and MX), missed tournaments and suffered bouts of dizziness for quite some time afterward.

After going 26-7 in slam competition in 2014-15 (6/8 4r+), Bouchard never reached another second week at a major. She was just 13-16 in slam play after the concussion, and last appeared in the MD of a major at the 2020 RG.

Bouchard never won another tour title after the 2015 season, and finished 1-7 in WTA title matches in her career. Six of her twelve total Top 10 wins came during her 2014 season, with the last coming in 2017.


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8. Montreal 1st Rd. - Jessica Bouzas Maneiro def. Louisa Chirico
...5-7/7-5/6-4. Bouzas Maneiro's fine opening week started out with a three-hour contest in which her fate twisted in the wind.

Chirico led 5-1 in the 1st, but then had to break the comeback-minded Spaniard to close out the set and avoid a TB (on BP #3 of game 12). Bouzas Maniero then needed seven SP over a four-game stretch to get things to a 3rd set.

Once there, she broke Chirico in game 9, then saved three BP in the following game to serve out the win.
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9. Montreal 1st Rd. - Lucia Bronzetti def. Elli Mandlik
...4-6/7-6(5)/6-2. Mandlik led Bronzetti 6-4/4-1, then was up 4-2 in the 2nd set TB before the Italian rallied for the win.

Mandlik's mother, Hana Mandlikova, won a pro title in Montreal in 1979 (not this same event), and was a doubles finalist in a previous version of the current tournament in 1984.
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10. Montreal 1st Rd. - Caty McNally def. Alycia Parks
...6-4/5-7/7-6(7). Fresh from her second straight singles title run (Newport 125, $100K Evansville), McNally saved a pair of MP vs. Parks in a 3rd set TB.

She ultimately ran her winning streak to twelve matches (since she faced Swiatek in the 2nd Rd. at Wimbledon, they've combined to win three singles titles across three different levels and lose just *one* match -- a combined 19-1 through the Montreal 3rd Rd.), also defeating Rebecca Sramkova before a three-set loss to Madison Keys.
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HM- Warsaw 125 Final - Weronika Falkowska/Dominika Salkova def. Isabelle Haverlag/Martyna Kubka
...6-2/6-1. 21-year old Crusher Salkova reached a 125 WD final in Grado last month, and here joins with Falkowska to claim her biggest career title.

Salkova reached the semifinals in singles, defeating Falkowska in the 1st Round before an upset of #2-seeded Zeynep Sonmez in the 2nd.


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[Montreal Q/1st-3rd Rd.]


1. Montreal 3rd Rd. - Coco Gauff def. Veronika Kudermetova
...4-6/7-5/6-2. After winning vs. Collins despite 23 double-faults, Gauff battles to cross the finish line against vs. Kudermetova while not having her "A"-game ready at hand.

Kudermetova had rallied from 4-1 down in the 1st to take the opener and lead 6-4/3-1 before Gauff extended and then won the match.


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I don't get to say this all too often when it comes to enacted ideas in tennis, but that's different here. This is a really good move that seems like it could only benefit wheelchair tennis.




Imagine that, a plan to take advantage of an existing structure already in place, adding value to it (especially, say, the WTP/ATP 1000 events that have some extra time/courts to fill over two weeks -- so why not add some WC to the mix?) while also helping with the exposure of an event and athletes that could use it. It's such an obvious thing to do that I'm surprised they *actually did it.*

Once again, it's another move that only further cements wheelchair tennis as the most fan-accessible para-sports event, as well as the only one that can/does take place simultaneously and in cooperation with some of the biggest able-bodied competitions in the sport.

Now, if only the Paralympic movement would acknowledge this clear fact, and that it benefits *all* para-sports, and stop scheduling the Parlympic tennis event so that it takes place during the second week of the U.S. Open, thereby denying the WC tennis athletes 25% of the schedule of major events (as well as the prize money availabe there) every four years, not to mention harm the sport by routinely denying it one of its most obvious points of exposure.

Since they're determined to make U.S. Open qualifying week *something more* (i.e. adding the MX to it) to make it a profitable *three*-week event, why not find a way for the USTA to hold the U.S. Open WC competition in Paralympic years then, as well, so that it's completed early enough for *both* to be held that summer (the Open's competition has always been cancelled, except when the Covid-delayed Paralympics in '21 were re-scheduled differently... only to be put in conflict again in '24, leading to no event in New York again last year).

There is no excuse for it not to happen in the next cycle, since the Olympic/Paralympic events will also be held in the U.S. (in Los Angeles '28).

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Well, at least clear progress was made *and* she made it through without a positive test... sounds like a win-win.




Hmmm, I guess Wimbledon sort of forced Wiktorowski to move on from any thought that Iga would ask him to come back.


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Adding another instance(s) atop an ever-growing pile (you can almost see the top of it from he-... ah, nope, it just disappeared above the clouds)...


i'm sorry but i can no longer remain silent b/c i'm starting to go crazy: WHY ARE THE 6s DIFFERENT COLORS. WHEN SOMEONE LOOKS AT A SCORELINE ONE ASSUMES THE WINNING SETS ARE BOLDED/SAME COLOR, NOT THIS. OSAKA AND THE 6S SHOULD BE GREEN. THIS IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE.

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— Courtney Nguyen (@fortydeucetwits.bsky.social) August 1, 2025 at 2:08 PM


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So, 80% of the "direct entry" teams in a doubles "event" consist of players with no interest in doubles, while the "wild card" grovelers include the current WD #1, a former #1 (Venus), the defending champs and (until Townsend claimed the top spot at the start of the week) a team consisting of both the women's *and* men's doubles #1. Oops, nope, the all-#1 (until after Washington) duo of Siniakova/Arevalo *still* hasn't officially been given a WC. Joke event... which would be fine if they just called it the exhibition that it is, rather than trying to claim it as an official major title competition.


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A little truth to clear the senses...


Totally get OP's sentiment. I just want to take the moment to emphasize that Anna Kournikova had a way better career than people give her credit for and many many many players would kill to have the on-court career she had. CH No.8, 1 GS semifinal, finished YE Top 10, Dubs No.1

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— Courtney Nguyen (@fortydeucetwits.bsky.social) July 30, 2025 at 6:14 PM


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A federal court in North Carolina has granted the plaintiffs' motion to certify an injunctive and damages class of Division I tennis players in Brantmeier v. NCAA. The lawsuit challenges the NCAA's ban on tennis players receiving prize money from outside competitions.

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— Sam C. Ehrlich (@samcehrlich.com) July 28, 2025 at 4:31 PM

Here are the now-certified class definitions for the case. Reese Brantmeier and Maya Joint are the class representatives.

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— Sam C. Ehrlich (@samcehrlich.com) July 28, 2025 at 4:31 PM

This is a fascinating case -- and one that threatens to take another brick out of the NCAA's amateurism definitions and eligibility systems. One to watch as it moves towards a potential trial.

— Sam C. Ehrlich (@samcehrlich.com) July 28, 2025 at 4:31 PM














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Say "Don't touch Iga," without saying "Don't touch Iga"...


















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I'm pleased to have my new chapbook, I Can't Recall Exactly When I Died (Kelsay Books), included in The Lake's One Poem Review. Please scroll down a bit to read "Playing Tennis with My Ex" (originally published in Sparks of Calliope). thelakepoetry.co.uk/reviews/opra... #poetry #poetrycommunity

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— Diane Elayne Dees (@womenwhoserve.bsky.social) July 31, 2025 at 10:04 AM


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#caturday Try not to laugh

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— Dcmfox (@dcmfox.bsky.social) August 2, 2025 at 1:49 PM


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All for now.
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