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Sunday, March 4, 2018

Wk.9- Sombrerenko!

If you're a tennis player and you have a tendency to get a craving for sombreros every March, then you're in luck. Especially if your name is Lesia Tsurenko.



Elina Svitolina may be the highest-ranked Ukrainian, and the one with the most career titles. But does she have a sombrero? Nope. Meanwhile, Lesia has TWO.

=2017=


And that's *something*. I'm just sayin'.

Of course, Lesia could just let Eli borrow one, I suppose. All for one, and one for all, right?



*WEEK 9 CHAMPIONS*
ACAPULCO, MEXICO (Int'l/Hard Outdoor)
S: Lesia Tsurenko/UKR def. Stefanie Voegele/SUI 5-7/7-6(2)/6-2
D: Tatjana Maria/Heather Watson (GER/GBR) d. Kaitlyn Christian/Sabrina Santamaria (USA/USA) 7-5/2-6 [10-2]
INDIAN WELLS, CALIFORNIA USA (WTA 125/Hard Outdoor)
S: Sara Errani/ITA def. Kateyrna Bondarenko/UKR 6-4/6-2
D: Taylor Townsend/Yanina Wickmayer (USA/BEL) d. Jennifer Brady/Vania King (USA/uSA) 6-4/6-4


PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Lesia Tsurenko/UKR
...no one has been better in Acapulco the last two years than Tsurenko. A year ago, she lost just nineteen games en route to the title, the fewest dropped by any singles champion on tour in 2017. One year later, the 28-year old Ukrainian has lost just one set in her ten 2017-18 matches at the event, though her second straight title was a bit more difficult than the first. She'd already lost nineteen total games heading into the final this year, and she was forced to wrap up her most recent run with in come-from-behind fashion vs. Stefanie Voegele, as she recovered from a 7-5/4-2 deficit, getting as close as three points away from defeat before rallying to win in three. Earlier in the week, Tsurenko got wins over Lauren Davis, Arina Rodionova, #2-seeded Kristina Mladenovic and #3 Dasha Gavrilova. Now tied with four other women -- Amanda Coetzer (2001/03), Flavia Pennetta (2001/03), Venus Williams (2008/10) and Sara Errani (2012-13) -- with multiple Acapulco titles, Tsurenko extended her personal season streak with a title to four, having won a single crown every season since claiming her maiden win in Istanbul in 2015.


===============================================
RISERS: Veronica Cepede Royg/PAR and Danielle Collins/USA
...the highest-ranked South American woman not named Haddad Maia (though VCR *did* beat the Brazilian in a dramatic Fed Cup match in February), Cepede Royg became the first player from the continent to reach a WTA singles QF in 2018 with her final eight run in Acapulco. She posted upset wins over Belinda Bencic and Irina-Camelia Begu, then lost in three to Dasha Gavrilova. It's just VCR's second (w/ Seoul in Sept.) tour-level multiple MD win week on tour since her Round of 16 result last year at Roland Garros.



Two-time NCAA champ Collins, 24, once again showed her improving fortunes in the season's second WTA 125 Series event. After winning the first in Newport Beach in January, the former U-Va. star reached the QF in Indian Wells with wins over Vera Zvonareva and #1-seed Magda Linette, the latter victory being Collins' second career Top 100 victory. She lost to Sara Errani in the QF, but earned a MD wild card into the big Indian Wells event that stars in Week 10.


===============================================
SURPRISE: Renata Zarazua/MEX
...it's always nice when a local player can produce a career-best result on home soil, and in Acapulco that player was Zarazua. The 20-year old from Mexico, ranked #253, was granted a wild card into the MD and made the most of the opportunity, upsetting Kristyna Pliskova in the 1st Round to record not only her first career MD tour-level win, but also her maiden Top 100 victory. As it should be, she's up to a new career high of #231.


===============================================
VETERANS: Sara Errani/ITA and Kateryna Bondarenko/UKR
...putting the "Tortellini Incident" farther and farther away in her rear-view window, Errani claimed her biggest title since she won the most prestigious of her career two years ago in Dubai, taking the crown at the WTA 125 Series event at Indian Wells. The 30-year old, suspended two months last August for a February drug test that included a prohibited substance (annulling all her results from mid-February to early June of last year), entered the week ranked #125, meaning she had to go through qualifying to reach the MD. She did it with wins over Danielle Lao and Claire Liu, then coasted (never losing more than six games in any of her five MD matches, after having been forced to three sets by Liu in the final Q-round) to the title with wins over four Bannerettes (Jennifer Brady, Kristie Ahn, Danielle Collins and Amanda Anisimova) and a Ukrainian (Kateryna Bondarenko, 6-4/6-2 in the final). It's the best result of an ongoing comeback run for the second highest-ranked (for now, at least, as she'll now be just behind Francesca Schiavone) of the remaining Italian Quartet. She won a $60K challenger in October, reached a $100K semi in December (losing to Belinda Bencic), went 2-0 in leading Team Italia to a Fed Cup WG II win, and qualified in Dubai (def. Aryna Sabalenka to reach the MD, then Lesia Tsurenko in the 1st Rd.) last month. Errani will climb back into the Top 100 on Monday at #93.



Errani's I.W. opponent, 31-year old Bondarenko (#84), rebounded from a slow stretch that ironically kicked off with one of her better career moments -- a tour-level title in Tashkent last September (her first WTA crown in nine years). Before this past week, she'd gone just 2-5 in MD matches since taking that title, but wins over Evgeniya Rodina, Richel Hogenkamp, Yanina Wickmayer and Alja Tomljanovic finally put her back on a straighter path. One of three Ukrainians (Svitolina/Tsurenko) with tour-level singles titles over the past year, Bondarenko will now become the fourth (after Kozlova) currently ranked in the Top 75.
===============================================
COMEBACKS: Stefanie Voegele/SUI and Ajla Tomljanovic/AUS
...27-year old Swiss Voegele produced her best tour-level result in Acapulco since missing time (all of February-July '17) with a wrist injury last season, reaching her first career WTA singles final with wins over Tatjana Maria, Maria Sakkari, #1-seeded Sloane Stephens and Rebecca Peterson. Coming in ranked #183, after having been as high as #42 back in 2013, Voegele is the lowest ranked finalist on tour in '18, and she came within three points of becoming the second-lowest ranked champion (after #233 Marketa Vondrousova in Biel last year) since 2012. She led defending champ Lesia Tsurenko 7-5/4-2 in the final, but lost control of the match late in the 2nd set, losing a TB and then giving the Ukrainian back her break lead after having gotten the final set back on serve with a break for 3-2 one game earlier. Even with the loss, Voegele, who before Acapulco hadn't posted a MD tour-level win this season, will make a huge leap up the rankings on Monday, climbing fifty-seven spots to #126.



Meanwhile, at Indian Wells, Tomljanovic's comeback from February 2016 shoulder surgery continued as she reached her second WTA 125 Series semifinal of the season. After outlasting Andrea Petkovic in three sets, then seeing Varvara Lepchenko retire, the (now officially an) Aussie took out Viktorija Golubic before losing to Kateryna Bondarenko. The 24-year old, finally physically able to string together events (she's retired or lost via walkover five times since returning from her injury a year ago in Acapulco), has gone 19-8 since late October, a stretch which previously included an additional pair of QF in $80K and WTA 125 events, and final appearances in a $100K and another $80K. Tomljanovic was a Top 50 player as recently as 2015, after having reached the Roland Garros Round of 16 in 2014. She'll inch up from #96 to #91 on Monday.


===============================================


FRESH FACES: Rebecca Peterson/SWE and Amanda Anisimova/USA
...22-year old Peterson has been lurking for a while now, looking for an opportunity to take her shot at becoming the highest-ranked Swede on tour (at #139, she entered Week 9 sixty-four spots behind top-ranked Johanna Larsson at #75 -- the next highest Swede is Cornelia Lister, down at #440). She made her slam MD debut at last year's U.S. Open, and has gone 10-3 in ITF challenger finals in her career. After reaching the Acapulco MD as a qualifier, Peterson reached her first career tour-level SF by recording the first two Top 40 wins of her career over Alize Cornet (1st Rd.) and Zhang Shuai (QF), with a win over Olympic Gold Medalist Monica Puig sandwiched in between. She lost to Stefanie Voegele, but will climb to #119 on Monday, matching her previous career high from May 2016.

And just so that everyone knows, it's "R-e-b-e-c-c-a."



Meanwhile, 16-year old Anisimova put up another big pro result at the WTA 125 Series event in Indian Wells. The '17 U.S. Open girls champ (and '16 RG finalist) won her maiden pro title at a $60K challenger in Sacramento last summer. Last week, she made her way through qualifying, then knocked off Naomi Broady and countrywoman Nicole Gibbs and Caroline Dolehide in the MD to reach the semis. She failed to reach the biggest final of her career, falling in the semis to 30-year old Sara Errani, but will jump twenty-seven spots in the new rankings, cracking the Top 150 for the first time at #148.

The teenager's week has other fringe benefits, too...


===============================================
DOWN: Belinda Bencic/SUI and Krystyna Pliskova/CZE
...remember when Bencic was on a tear, on her way back to the Top 20 (or better), everyone's dark horse for a second week run at the Australian Open and the Comeback Player of the Year frontrunner? Yeah, that's no longer the case. After returning from injury last fall, the fresh Swiss was one of the big stories of the closing weeks of '17 and the early stages of this season, going 29-3 from September forward, winning her sixteenth straight match (not including her 3-1 stint in Perth at the Hopman Cup, which she won with that Roger Federling guy) in Melbourne with a victory in that big 1st Rounder vs. Venus Williams. Thing is, she hasn't won since. In Acapulco, she fell to Veronica Cepede Royg in three sets in the 1st Round, her fourth straight defeat (after losses in straights to Luksika Kumkhum, Barbora Strycova and Petra Kvitova). She'll enter next week just inside the Top 70, barely ahead of the likes of Laura Siegemund, who hasn't even played a match since last May.

Meanwhile, Pliskova now has very her own crazy tale that can begin with, "One time, I went down to Mexico..."



After spending a little time with local favorite Renata Zarazua during the Acapulco draw ceremony, the Czech proceeded to have a series of on-court nightmares involving the top-ranked (#253) Mexican player. First, she lost to her in the 1st Round of singles, as Zarazua notched her first career WTA MD win and first victory over a Top 100 player. Then, after entering the doubles MD (w/ Stefanie Voegele) as an alternate team, she lost in the 1st Round yet again to Zarazua (w/ countrywoman Ana Sofia Sanchez) in a 10-8 3rd set TB. After opening '18 with wins over Alona Ostapenko and Ana Bogdan, Pliskova has now gone 1-5 in her last six singles outings. She ended '17, after climbing as high as #35 last summer, on a 2-6 skid. She's now down to #76.
===============================================
ITF PLAYER: Andreea Amalia Rosca/ROU
...in the $15K at Hammamet, Tunisia, 18-year old Swarmette Rosca tied Rebecca Marino for the 2018 circuit lead by picking up her third challenger title of the season. The #4 seed defeated Anastasia Grymalska 6-2/6-2 to take the crown, improving her 2018 record to 21-2. She's reached the final in four of her five events this season on the ITF level, after winning two of her final three tournaments in '17. The Romanian has gone 34-3 in her last eight events, and is 40-5 since mid-November. After being ranked #919 at the official end of last season (November 6), she'll be at a career high of #445 on Monday.


===============================================


JUNIOR STARS: Leylah Annie Fernandez/CAN and Simona Waltert/SUI
...seven years after countrywoman Genie Bouchard claimed the same title in 2011, 15-year old Fernandez became the most recent Canadian girl to win the Grade A Campeonato Internacional Juvenil de Tenis de Porto Alegre crown in Brazil. The junior #84 had never before advanced deeper than the semis of a Grade A or I event, but came into the week having posted a series of good results in recent months. Fernandez won back-to-back Grade 2 titles in November, and reached the QF of the G1 Asuncion Bowl just last month. Last week, she notched wins over Alexa Noel (in the 2nd Round, def. the Bannerette for the second time in three weeks) and Gabriella Price (QF), then followed up by taking down Georgia's Ana Makatsaria, who'd claimed the event's biggest scalp by upsetting Maria Camila Osorio Serrano, and Clara Tauson in a 6-3/7-6(4) final, finishing off the Dane in a 2nd set TB after having twice failed to serve out the match.

In Macon, France, 17-year old Waltert (Jr. #12) claimed the all-Swiss $15K challenger title with a 6-1/3-6/6-3 win over Tess Sugnaux to win her first pro singles title. A '17 Wimbledon girls semifinalist, Waltert's clay title run came after two previous ITF finals (on clay and hard courts) last season. The Swiss defeated #4-seeded Manon Arcangioli, as well as Latvian junior Daniela Vismane (SF), en route to the crown.
===============================================
DOUBLES: Tatjana Maria/Heather Watson (GER/GBR)
...teaming for the first time, Maria & Watson won the title in Acapulco, winning three of four matches via 3rd set TB, including in the final vs. first-time WTA finalists Kaitlyn Christian & Sabrina Santamaria. Their only "easy" match came against the only seeded duo they faced, a 4 & 1 win over #4-seeded Arruabarrena/Parra Santonja. It''s Maria's third tour WD title, and Watson's fourth.



The championship match featured the WTA final debut of former NCAA doubles champions (at USC) Christian & Santamaria, who'd previously combined to win three ITF challenger titles. For her part, it's not the first time Christian has garnered attention of late. She was the subject of an October New York Times profile, as well as appearing in the "Battle of the Sexes" movie as the body double for Emma Stone (as Billie Jean King), and is also credited as portraying '77 Australian Open champ Kerry Melville in the film.

Emma Stone (l) and Kaitlyn Christian (r) as Billie Jean King
===============================================


Sure, it's a decade (or two, or three) late, but...



...it's the USTA. You take good things wherever you can find them.


1. Acapulco Final - Lesia Tsurenko def. Stefanie Voegele
...5-7/7-6(2)/6-2. Having won sixteen straight sets (and led 5-0 when her opponent retired in another) over a two-year span in Acapulco, Tsurenko dropped the opening set in the '18 final vs. first-time tour finalist Voegele, hitting nine DF in the set (and four in a row to close it out, handing the set to the Swiss). She eventually trailed 7-5/4-2, but broke Voegele and soon served for the 2nd set at 5-4, only to see her opponent get back on serve and eventually get within three points of the title. But the Ukrainian took a 7-2 2nd set TB, then took a 3-1 lead in the 3rd. Again, Voegele broke to get back on serve in game #5, but Tsurenko turned it on late to successfully defend her title.


===============================================
2. Acapulco 1st Rd. - Sloane Stephens def. Pauline Parmentier
...6-4/6-0. Hey, it only took almost six months, but Sloane finally notched her first match win since claiming the U.S. Open, ending her eight match losing streak with an impressive closing out of the Pastry. In fact, she liked it so much she came back later in the day in doubles with Monica Puig and beat Parmentier again, starting with another bagel set and winning a 6-0/2-6 [11-9] 1st Round decision.

Acapulco 2nd Rd. - Sloane Stephens def. Arantxa Rus
...5-7/7-6(6)/6-0. One round after polishing off her winning touch, Stephens had to prove that she still wanted it enough to fight for it. She did, overcoming Rus serving for the match at 5-4 in the 2nd, then saving a MP down 6-5 in the TB before ending a second straight match with a love set win.



Acapulco QF - Stefanie Voegele def. Sloane Stephens
6-4/5-7/6-2. Unfortunately for Stephens, whether it be the fatigue from her first build-up of matches for her in quite a while, or simply the career-long mastery the Swiss has maintained over her, Sloane fell a round later to Stefanie Voegele. Voegele is now 4-1 vs. Stephens, and three of her four career Top 15 wins have come against her. It was her first Top 20 win since a 2013 match in which, naturally, she also defeated Stephens.
===============================================
3. Acapulco QF - Dasha Gavrilova def. Veronica Cepede Royg
...4-6/6-4/6-2. The Aussie ultimately went out to Tsurenko in the semis, but on her way there she perfected the art of "winning ugly." She racked up twelve DF while defeating Renata Zarazua in the 2nd Round, then had nine more against VCR here.
===============================================
4. Acapulco 1st Rd. - Monica Puig def. Dayana Yastremska
...2-6/6-4/5-0 ret. Timing is everything, and sometimes it feels like the only thing. Like when Yastremska retired here with an ankle injury, down MP and really only needing to let Puig fire an uncontested ace to end things, rather than crossing past the net post to shake hands. But what can ya do?


===============================================
5. Acapulco 2nd Rd. - Kristina Mladenovic def. Beatriz Haddad Maia 3-6/6-3/7-5
Acapulco QF - Lesia Tsurenko def. Kristina Mladenovic 6-2/6-2
...Mladenovic managed to win a tough one against the Brazilian, despite failing to close out the match serving up 5-4, 40/love and holding triple MP. She won the final two games to get the victory, then got just four total off Tsurenko a round later. Even with her ultra-slow start to '18, the Pastry's two wins in Mexico allow her to head to the California desert sporting a winning record for the season at 8-7.
===============================================
6. Acapulco Q1 - Amandine Hesse def. Dalina Jakupovic
...6-2/2-6/7-6(2). Down 4-1 in the 3rd, then 6-5, 40/love, Hesse scrambled to win her opening qualifying match. She'd go on to reach the MD, where she'd fall in straights to Kiki Mladenovic, her Fed Cup teammate and partner in the deciding doubles match victory that defeated Belgium a couple of weekends ago.
===============================================
7. Indian Wells 125 1st Rd. - Andrea Petkovic/Francesca Schiavone def. Ajla Tomljanovic/Vera Zvonareva 6-4/3-6 [10-5]
Indian Wells 125 1st Rd. - Ajla Tomljanovic def. Andrea Petkovic 4-6/7-5/6-4
...Petko and Tomljanovic were likely tired of each other pretty early this past week, as they combined to experience fifty-one games (+15 TB points) and 3:34 of court time as opponents in a pair of 1st Rounders.
===============================================
8. $25K Sao Paulo Final - Tara Moore/Conny Perrin def. Hsu Chieh-yu/Marcela Zacarias
...6-4/3-6 [13-11]. After losing five straight ITF doubles finals as a duo, as well as a tour-level one in Rio, engaged couple Moore & Perrin picked up their second challenger crown (w/ an $80K challenger in Albuquerque last September) with a title run in Brazil.


===============================================
9. Indian Wells 125 Final - Taylor Townsend/Yanina Wickmayer def. Jennifer Brady/Vania King
...6-4/6-4. Townsend & Wickmayer knocked off three of the top four seeded duos (#2 Krejcikova/Lapko, #3 Brady/King & #4 Duan/Wang) en route to the I.W. 125 title. It's Townsend's biggest title, and a nice follow-up for Wickmayer to her singles/doubles sweep at the $25K challenger in Surprise, Arizona last month. That previous run came precisely nine years after the former U.S. Open semifinalist, who slipped out of the Top 100 at the end of '17, last won the event back in 2009 as a teenager.


===============================================
10. Campeonato Internacional Juvenil de Tenis de Porto Alegre QF - Ana Makatsaria def. Maria Camila Osrio Serrano
...7-6(5)/6-4. Down goes Osorio Serrano! Down goes Osorio Serrano! The 17-year old from Georgia (the jr. #70, and #12 seed) ended the top-seeded Colombian's perfect 24-0 '18 junior mark (and 26-match jr. winning streak), denying her the chance to follow up her 4-for-4 Grade 1 title run this season with another in a Grade A event. Makatsaria lost a round later to 15-year old Canadian Leylah Annie Fernandez.
===============================================
HM- $15K Sharm El Sheikh Final - Berfu Cengiz def. Yuliya Hatouka
...6-3/4-6/6-3. Perhaps jockeying for position to be the next in line when it comes to a series of "the next player from Turkey to..." accomplishments, 18-year old Cengiz picked up her third career ITF title with a victory in the final Belarus' Hatouka. She defeated Iga Swiatek in three sets in the semis. Cengiz is currently sixth-ranked Turk, just outside the Top 500, and the youngest from her nation with a tour singles ranking.

15k???????? #chuckyisback ??

A post shared by Berfu Cengiz (@berfu_cengiz) on


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Name Game... hmmm, no "Petra?" Boo-hiss!



The Tweener Game... not Naomi's forte.




1. Acapulco 1st Rd. - Renata Zarazua def. KRISTYNA PLISKOVA 6-3/6-4
Acapulco 1st Rd. - Ana Sofia Sanchez/Renata Zarazua def. Kristyna Pliskova/Stefanie Voegele 4-6/6-4 [10-8]
...and Renata had been so nice to Kristyna at the draw ceremony, too.
===============================================
2. Indian Wells WTA 125 Final - Sara Errani/ITA def. KATERYNA BONDARENKO/UKR
...6-4/6-2. Errani is the 18th player to have won both a WTA tour-level *and* WTA 125 Series singles title in her career.
===============================================

























Sigh... and she was supposed to be by Bethanie Mattek-Sands' side when she made her return in the desert, too.




And Alona says, "And I'd be trolled by a few thousand social media miscreants, and Kiki."


















**2018 DEFENDED SINGLES TITLES**
Hobart - Elise Mertens, BEL (F def. Buzarnescu)
Dubai - Elina Svitolina, UKR (F def. Kasatkina)
ACAPULCO - LESIA TSURENKO, UKR (F def. Voegele)

**CURRENT LONG SEASONS-WITH-A-TITLE STREAKS*
11 years - Caroline Wozniacki (2008-18)
8 years - Petra Kvitova (2011-18)
6 years - Elina Svitolina (2013-18)
6 years - Simona Halep (2013-18)
4 years - LESIA TSURENKO (2015-18)
[w/o 2018 title]
11 years - Serena Williams (2007-17)
5 years - Karolina Pliskova (2013-17)
4 years - Garbine Muguruza (2014-17)
3 years - Irina-Camelia Begu (2015-17)
3 years - Sloane Stephens (2015-17)

**2018 FIRST-TIME WTA FINALISTS**
Hobart - Mihaela Buzarnescu, ROU (#57, 29)
Taipei City - Kateryna Kozlova, UKR (#85, 23)
Acapulco - STEFANIE VOEGELE, SUI (#183, 27)

**2018 LOW-RANKED WTA SEMIFINALISTS**
#246 Sabine Lisicki/GER (Taipei City)
#183 STEFANIE VOEGELE/SUI (ACAPULCO) [RU]
#152 Wang Yafan/CHN (Taipei City)
#139 REBECCA PETERSON/SWE (ACAPULCO)
#122 Sachia Vickery/USA (Auckland)
#121 Viktoria Kuzmova/SVK (Budapest)
#103 Hsieh Su-Wei/TPE (Auckland)
#100 Camila Giorgi/ITA (Sydney)
[WTA 125]
#232 Mayo Hibi/JPN (Newport Beach)
#180 Sofya Zhuk/RUS (Newport Beach) [RU]
#175 AMANDA ANISIMOVA/USA (INDIAN WELLS)
#162 Danielle Collins/USA (Newport Beach) [W]
#125 SARA ERRANI/ITA (INDIAN WELLS) [W]
#107 Ajla Tomljanovic/CRO-AUS (Newport Beach)

**2018 WEEKS AT #1**
[1Q]
1/1: Simona Halep
1/8: Simona Halep
1/15: Simona Halep
1/22: Simona Halep
1/29: Caroline Wozniacki
2/5: Caroline Wozniacki
2/12: Caroline Wozniacki
2/19: Caroline Wozniacki
2/26: Simona Halep
3/5: Simona Halep
3/12: Simona Halep
3/19: -
3/26: -
4/2: -

**2018 ITF TITLES**
3...Rebecca Marino, CAN
3...ANDREEA AMALIA ROSCA, ROU
2...Anhelina Kalinina, UKR
2...Gabriella Taylor, GBR

**INDIAN WELLS & MIAMI...**
[reached IW-Miami Finals]
1991 Monica Seles (L-W)
1994 Steffi Graf (W-W)
1996 Steffi Graf (W-W)
1999 Serena Williams (W-L)
2000 Lindsay Davenport (W-L)
2000 Martina Hingis (L-W)
2005 Kim Clijsters (W-W)
2006 Maria Sharapova (W-L)
2012 Maria Sharapova (L-L)
2013 Maria Sharapova (W-L)
2016 Victoria Azarenka (W-W)
[reached AO-IW-Miami Finals]
1991 Monica Seles (W-L-W)
1994 Steffi Graf (W-W-W)
2000 Lindsay Davenport (W-W-L)
2000 Martina Hingis (L-L-W)
2012 Maria Sharapova (L-L-L)












INDIAN WELLS, CALIFORNIA USA (Premier Mandatory/Hard)
=WS FINALS=
1989 Manuela Maleeva d. Jenny Byrne
1990 Martina Navratilova d. Helena Sukova
1991 Martina Navratilova d. Monica Seles
1992 Monica Seles d. Conchita Martinez
1993 Mary Joe Fernandez d. Amanda Coetzer
1994 Steffi Graf d. Amanda Coetzer
1995 Mary Joe Fernandez d Natasha Zvereva
1996 Steffi Graf d Conchita Martinez
1997 Lindsay Davenport d. Irina Spirlea
1998 Martina Hingis d. Lindsay Davenport
1999 Serena Williams d. Steffi Graf
2000 Lindsay Davenport d. Martina Hingis
2001 Serena Williams d. Kim Clijsters
2002 Daniela Hantuchova d. Martina Hingis
2003 Kim Clijsters d. Lindsay Davenport
2004 Justine Henin d. Lindsay Davenport
2005 Kim Clijsters d. Lindsay Davenport
2006 Maria Sharapova d. Elena Dementieva
2007 Daniela Hantuchova d. Svetlana Kuznetsova
2008 Ana Ivanovic d. Svetlana Kuznetsova
2009 Vera Zvonareva d. Ana Ivanovic
2010 Jelena Jankovic d. Caroline Wozniacki
2011 Caroline Wozniacki d. Marion Bartoli
2012 Victoria Azarenka d. Maria Sharapova
2013 Maria Sharapova d. Caroline Wozniacki
2014 Flavia Pennetta d. Aga Radwanska
2015 Simona Halep d. Jelena Jankovic
2016 Victoria Azarenka d. Serena Williams
2017 Elena Vesnina d. Svetlana Kuznetsova
=WD FINALS=
1989 Mandlikova/Pam Shriver d. Fairbank/Rush-Magers
1990 Novotna/Sukova d. G.Fernandez/Navratilova
1991 FINAL RAINED OUT
1992 Kohde-Kilsch/Rehe d. Hetherington/Rinaldi
1993 Stubbs/Sukova d. Grossman/Hy
1994 Davenport/Raymond d. Bollegraf/Sukova
1995 Davenport/Raymond d. Savchenko Neiland/A.Sanchez
1996 Rubin/Schultz-McCarthy d. Halard/Tauziat
1997 Davenport/Zvereva d. Raymond/Tauziat
1998 Davenport/Zvereva d. Fusai/Tauziat
1999 Hingis/Kournikova d. MJ.Fernandez/Novotna
2000 Davenport/Morariu d. Kournikova/Zvereva
2001 Arendt/Sugiyama d. Ruano Pascual/Suarez
2002 Raymond/Stubbs d. Dementieva/Husarova
2003 Davenport/Raymond d. Clijsters/Sugiyama
2004 Ruano Pascual/Suarez d. Kuznetsova/Likhovtseva
2005 Ruano Pascual/Suarez d. Petrova/Shaughnessy
2006 Raymond/Stosur d. Ruano Pascual/Shaughnessy
2007 Raymond/Stosur d. Chan/Chan
2008 Safina/Vesnina d. Yan/Zheng
2009 Azarenka/Zvonareva d. Dulko/Peer
2010 Peschke/Srebotnik d. Petrova/Stosur
2011 Mirza/Vesnina d. Mattek-Sands/Shaughnessy
2012 Huber/Raymond d. Mirza/Vesnina
2013 Makarova/Vesnina d. Petrova/Srebotnik
2014 Hsieh/Peng d. C.Black/Mirza
2015 Hingis/Mirza d. Makarova/Vesnina
2016 Mattek-Sands/Vandeweghe d. Goerges/Ka.Pliskova
2017 L.Chan/Hingis d. Hradecka/Siniakova
=======================================
'18 TOP SEEDS
WS: #1 Halep, #2 Wozniacki
WD: #1 Makarova/Vesnina, #2 Chan/Chan

...the draw for the desert will be coming shortly, as MD play won't begin until mid-week. Not only will Serena and Vika make *their* returns...



But so will another...




And, finally, a heartfelt goodbye to the little goldfinch who lost his life outside Backspin HQ this week. Poor thing was blown head-first into a tree by a sudden gust of wind and, well, that was all he/she wrote. RIP. (Of course, he was buried under some loose dirt and leaves and given a 21-ace salute.)


Back later with Indian Wells picks. Also, here are the Backspin Awards for the past month.

All for now.
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