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Monday, August 8, 2022

Wk.31- Cool as a Kasatkina

In San Jose, Dasha Kasatkina had nothing to fear.






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*WEEK 31 CHAMPIONS*
SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA USA (WTA 500/Hard Court Outdoor)
S: Dasha Kasatkina/RUS def. Shelby Rogers/USA 6-7(2)/6-1/6-2
D: Xu Yifan/Yang Zhaoxuan (CHN/CHN) def. Shuko Aoyama/Chan Hao-Ching (JPN/TPE) 7-5/6-0
WASHINGTON, DC USA (WTA 250/Hard Court Outdoor)
S: Liudmila Samsonova/RUS def. Kaia Kanepi/EST 4-6/6-3/6-3
D: Jessie Pegula/Erin Routliffe (USA/NZL) def. Anna Kalinskaya/Caty McNally (USA/USA) 6-3/5-7 [12-10]
IASI, ROMANIA (WTA 125/Red Clay Outdoor)
S: Ana Bogdan/ROU def. Panna Udvardy/HUN 6-2/3-6/6-1
D: Darya Astakhova/Andreea Rosca (RUS/ROU) def. Reka Luca Jani/Panna Udvardy (HUN/HUN) 5-7/7-5 [10-7]
ITF 14u WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP (Prostejov, CZE/Red Clay Outdoor)
F: CZE d. GER 3-0




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PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Dasha Kasatkina/RUS
...with her mind clear and game (though not perfect, see her second serve) in more than workable form, Kasatkina finally got back onto the title-winning horse in San Jose, putting together the sort of week's worth of results that originally made one "fear the Kasatkina."

A finalist in the event a year ago, Kasatkina displayed a persistent, never-say-die approach all week in California, three times coming back from a set down while posting wins over a pair of Top 10ers (#4 Paula Badosa and #6 Aryna Sabalenka, her first multiple Top 10 win event since she reached the Indian Wells final in 2018), Wimbledon champ Elena Rybakina and a pair of U.S. women (Taylor Townsend and, in the final, Shelby Rogers) playing on home soil. In her five wins this week, Kasatkina delivered 3rd set bagels three times (vs. Rybakina, Townsend and Sabalenka), and allowed just 3 games in the final two sets in the final vs. Rogers after dropping a 1st set TB.

After going 4-0 in SF last season, reaching her first finals in four seasons (and winning two crowns), Kasatkina had been 0-4 in semis in '22 before finally pushing through the door this time around in her fifth try (only Swiatek and Halep have reached more SF this season). Her fourth and fifth Top 10 wins of the year give her more than in any season since her career high water mark of seven in '18.

After last season climbing from a ranking as low as #75 (February '21) to back inside the Top 25 (finishing at #26), then returning to the Top 20 after her semifinal in Paris, Kasatkina's title run will finally lift her back into the Top 10 for the first time since January 2019, after her Top 10 campaign of the prior year.



Hmmm, with the attention she's gotten of late, I somehow can't help but wonder if later this year the WTA will try to slide Kasatkina into the "Comeback Player" nominee list for her Top 10 return and RG semifinal (and whatever comes next) when she should have *won* the award in 2021 but somehow couldn't garner a nomination. (And, no, I'm not finished gnawing on that issue yet... there are still a few more months left in this season, after all.)
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RISERS: Liudmila Samsonova/RUS and Shelby Rogers/USA
...last year in Berlin and at the BJK Cup finals, Samsonova showed just difficult she is to handle when she gets on a roll. Iga Swiatek was *barely* able to do it in the Stuttgart SF in the spring, getting her 22nd of what would be 37 straight wins but seeing the Russian snap her then 28-set streak.

Since that match, though, Samsonova has been a shadow of herself (though she hadn't really played all that well *before* that week, starting '22 at 6-7). Beginning with the Swiatek loss, the Hordette came into Washington on a 1-7 slide, seeing her May ranking of #25 slip all the way to #60 at the start of the week as she stood at just 10-14 on the year.

After opening with a win over Elise Mertens, Samsonova rallied from a set down to defeat Ajla Tomljanovic and reach her first QF since April, then handled Emma Raducanu in two sets (saving four SP in the 1st) and allowed just two games against Wang Xiyu to reach her first singles final since winning on the grass in Berlin last summer. As she did then against Belinda Bencic, Samsonova came from a set back vs. Kaia Kanepi to claim her second tour title, and will nearly jump back into the Top 40 (at #42) on Monday.



Until she met up with Dasha Kasatkina in the 2nd and 3rd sets of the final, it looked like Rogers' trip to San Jose was going to produce a maiden tour title at age 29 to round out what has quite likely been the best non-calendar year of the Bannerette's career, even with multiple rocky stretches over the course of '22.

Since last summer, Rogers has posted some quite nice results, including a U.S. Open Round of 16 (and defeat of then #1 Ash Barty in the 3rd Rd., making her the last player to defeat the Aussie) and Indian Wells QF last fall (her best 1000 result). She reached a career high of #36 after this year's Australian Open. With her win over Maria Sakkari this week, giving her three Top 10 wins this season, four of her seven career Top 10 victories have occurred over the past year.

But, still, she came into San Jose sporting an under-.500 (12-15) record in 2022, an overall mark dragged down by losing streaks of 4 (Jan/Feb) and 5 (in the spring) matches. Back on U.S. soil, though, the Charleston native found her best game in California, not dropping a set and averaging just over six games lost a match as she downed Bianca Andreescu, Sakkari, Amanda Anisimova and Veronika Kudermetova in straight sets to reach her first tour singles final since 2016 (and third of her career). Rogers outdueled Kasatakina in a nearly 1:20 1st set in the final, saving a SP and winning a TB to take the match lead, but then was never comfortable the remainder of the match, winning just three games.



Rogers, though still at just .500 (16-16) for '22 after her four-win week, will climb from #45 to a new career high of #30 on Monday.


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SURPRISE: Ana Bogdan/ROU
...two weeks ago, Bogdan was ranked at #108 and had won just four of her last eleven matches. Since then, she's gone 9-1, reached two of the three biggest finals of her career, won her biggest title and how finds herself on the doorself of the Top 60 for the first time in four years.

Bogdan didn't travel to North America for summer hard courts a week after reaching her first tour-level final in Warsaw. Instead, the Romanian went back home to play in the Iasi (ROU) 125 challenger, ending her week with a 6-2/3-6/6-1 win in front of a home crowd in the final over Panna Udvardy, who'd been trying to follow up her $60K crown from last week with something even bigger.

Bogdan, who has now reached singles finals at all three levels of competition this season (1 WTA, 1 WTA 125, 1 ITF $60K, winning the latter two), will jump another 12 spots in the rankings to #63, just outside her career high of #59 from 2018.


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VETERAN: Kaia Kanepi/EST
...Week 32 was one of those instances -- there are usually two or three every year -- where Kanepi suddenly shows up at a tour or slam event and reminds everyone that, yes, she's still around and someone that no one wants to face that particular week.

In Washington, the 37-year old Estonian became the tour's oldest singles finalist for a second straight season (after reaching the '21 Melbourne/Gippsland final at 35), becoming the most senior woman to play for a tour title since Serena Williams won in Auckland at the start of the (ultimately interrupted) 2020 campaign. The world #37, Kanepi knocked off Greet Minnen and Zhu Lin to reach her first tour QF since playing in the AO final eight (there's that other '22 instance... a "Kanepi quake," if you will) in February, reaching that stage in a tour event outside Australia for the first time since April '18 (Stuttgart).

Wins over Anna Kalinskaya and Dasha Saville put her into her first SF/F since Gippsland last year, and her tenth career final overall. Attempting to win her first tour event in over nine years, Kanepi won the 1st set over Liudmila Samsonova but saw the Hordette pull away and win the 2nd and 3rd at 3 & 3.



At #31 next week, Kanepi hasn't been ranked so high since 2014.
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COMEBACKS: Dasha Saville/AUS and Rebecca Marino/CAN
...after sitting out more than a year over 2019-20 (post-2019 U.S. until September the next year) and nearly all of '21 (post-AO until the BJK Finals), Saville's return from Achilles surgery has proven to be an unexpectedly good (and getting better) success story this year.

The 28-year old Aussie opened the year ranked at #419, but came into Washington having already lifted her ranking to #88 after posting some nice results scattered throughout the '22 calendar year, from a Guadalajara QF in February and 4r/QF Indian Wells/Miami combo in March, to a Roland Garros 3rd Round run and, this week, her first tour-level SF since early 2018. Saville rallied from a break down in the 3rd to post a 1st Round win over Mirjam Bjorklund, then took out defending champ Jessie Pegula (her second Top 10 win of the year) and Rebecca Marino before falling to Kaia Kanepi one win short of her first tour final since 2017.

Saville will climb to #73 on Monday, and will be surprisingly right on the heels (no pun intended) of Ajla Tomljanovic (at #72, just a few points ahead) to be the top-ranked Aussie on tour.

Marino's qualifying run in Washington turned out to be so much more, as the 31-year old faced off and defeated back-to-back fellow veterans in Venus Williams (11 years her senior, and who led 4-1 in the 3rd) and Andrea Petkovic (2 years, but a month away from another birthday) to reach her first tour-level QF in four years.

Marino will rise from #111 to #96, returning to the Top 100 after a one-week run there (at #99) in mid-July. Her position on Monday will be her highest since February 2012, the latest highlight of her comeback after a four and a half year absence (2013-17) when she walked away from the sport to deal with depression-related issues that initially began with social media abuse early in her career. Thus far in '22, Marino has played in the MD of the first three majors of the season for the first time since 2011, and won a $60K title (matching her career best, and part of a 16-3 run in challenger events after the AO).



She lost in the QF in Washington to Saville.
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FRESH FACES: Elli Mandlik/USA and Wang Xiyu/CHN
...Mandlik's success on the ITF circuit this season (winning all three finals in which she's appeared, improving to 7-1 in her pro career) set the stage for a memorable tour-level debut in San Jose. The 21-year old daughter of Hall of Famer Hana Mandlikova, the #240-ranked Bannerette qualified with wins over Fernanda Contreras and Jil Teichmann, winning the last 11 games in her match against the Swiss, to reach her first WTA MD. Once there, Mandlik's surprising power got the best of Alison Riske, then pushed #4-ranked Paula Badosa to the edge a round later. Mandlik led the #2-seeded Spaniard 5-3 in the 3rd before Badosa held in a tight game to stay in the match before eventually winning a deciding 7-5 TB.

Mandlik will crack the Top 200 for the first time on Monday, jumping from #240 to #180.

In Washington, a week after multiple lucky losers pushed their way into the QF in a pair of tour events (w/ one reaching a semi), Wang became the latest to ride a second-chance wave to the final four.

After falling to Louisa Chirico in San Jose qualifying, the 21-year old Wang rebounded with wins over Tatjana Maria (in her first match since the Wimbledon SF), Donna Vekic (from 6-4/4-2 back) and then Victoria Azarenka (in straight sets in Vika's second match on the day on Friday) to reach her second career tour semifinal (pre-pandemic Acapulco in 2020). She lost there to Liudmila Samsonova, but will now climb from #95 to well past her previous career best (#92), settling in at #76 as the middle-ranked of the three young Chinese upstarts on tour (#51 Zheng Qinwen, #83 Wang Xinyu).


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DOWN: Jil Teichmann/SUI
...Teichmann's struggle for consistency continued into the summer hard court season, as the Swiss fell in the final round of San Jose qualifying (even while ranked at a career-best #21) to Elli Mandlik (which a few days later wouldn't seem all that shocking) after leading 6-3/3-1 before dropping the final eleven games.

As usual, Teichmann's season has been a varied collection of encouraging high points and frustrating disappointments. She hit her stride in the spring, upsetting the likes of Kvitova, Fernandez and Rybakina en route to her first 1000 SF on clay in Madrid, then finally had her slam breakthrough in Paris by reaching her maiden Round of 16 at a major after a come-from-behind win over Victoria Azarenka (who'd served for the match).

Since then, Teichmann has gone 1-5, with her only win a Q1 victory in San Jose over Emiliana Arango. After a love & 2 loss to Sloane Stephens in Paris, the Swiss went 0-3 on grass (losing two three-setters), and this week in Toronto will attempt to get her first hard court MD win since February in Doha. A 1000 finalist in Cincinnati last summer, Teichmann was 0-2 in Indian Wells/Miami in March. She'll open in Toronto vs. none other than Venus Williams.

Could she get a win over the legend and then ride the momentum to another sudden deep run in a big event? It'd be "oh so Teichmann."
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ITF PLAYER: Katerina Siniakova/CZE
...Siniakova has never had any trouble picking up big wins and titles in doubles, claiming 18 WTA crowns, including 5 slams, one WTAF and Olympic Gold. But after early solo success, including five tour finals from 2016-18 (winning twice), she's reached just one tour-level championship match (Bad Homburg '21) and played in a pair of $100K challengers in the last four years. The second of those challenger title matches came this weekend in Grodzisk Mazowiecki, Poland.

The Czech handled Magda Linette in that match, winning 6-4/6-1 to improve to 8-1 in career ITF finals by grabbing her biggest singles title since her tour-level Bastad crown in 2017.


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JUNIOR STARS: CZE 14u ITF World Juniors
...so, they got together in Prostejov, Czech Republic to determine which nation had the best collection of junior tennis players aged 14 and under. Not that they needed the home court advantage, the winners were another branch of the Crush of Czechs who won the 16u BJK Junior Cup crown last year and the 18-and-under set that have won multiple girls' slam titles the last two seasons, have been cleaning up on the ITF pro circuit in '22 and who have now started to make their mark in tour-level events, as well.

No wonder this team's motto was "One team, one dream. Together we're going to win."

Not surprisingly, the home team dominated the festivities, going 15-0 on the week, losing just 3 of 33 sets played (all in group play), and sweeping their SF (vs. SVK) and Final (vs. Germany, captained by Anna-Lena Groenefeld) ties to win a sixth overall title and first since 2019.

Germany, which last won the 14u title in 1994, had defeated the U.S. in the other semifinal. The Bannerettes were led this week by current BJK Cup captain Kathy Rinaldi, filling the junior captain role that saw her lead back-to-back titles in 2009-10 before taking over the main squad (and winning the Cup in '17).

Led from the sidelines by captain Petra Cetkovska (who faced off vs. ALG as juniors in the event in Prostejov in 1999), the Czech girls' efforts were spearheaded by Laura Samsonova on the court. The 14-year old was a combined 9-0 for the week, leading off the SF and F with wins, the latter a 2 & 2 victory over Sonja Zhenikhova. As she had in the semis, Alena Kovackova clinched the victory, picking up her sixth match win of the week with a 2 & 3 defeat of Julia Stusek. Samsonova and Eliska Fortjtkova then combined for a dead rubber doubles win to make it a 3-0 final score.

When it comes the ongoing waves of Czechs hitting the tennis shores both now and (seemingly) into the near future, all one can really say is, "Next...?"


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DOUBLES: Xu Yifan/Yang Zhaoxuan, CHN/CHN
...the all-Chinese duo picked up their second title as a pair (both in '22, w/ Indian Wells), surging through the final rounds in San Jose by taking out top-seeded Veronika Kudermetova & Zhang Shuai in a 10-7 MTB in the semis then outpacing Shuko Aoyama & Chan Hao-ching 7-5/6-0 in the final. The result halted Aoyama'streak of eight consecutive wins in finals (all w/ former partner Ena Shibahara) dating back to October '19.

Xu picks up her twelfth career title, while Yang now has six.


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WHEELCHAIR: Zhu Zhenzhen/CHN
...again, it's Zhu.

The 32-year old Chinese world #5 continues to clean up in the post-European slam portion of the schedule, winning the singles title at the Series 2 Austrian Open in Gross-Sieghartz.

Zhu, who didn't play doubles this week, dropped just eight games in her three matches, defeating Pastry Emmanuelle Morch (who'd upset #2-seed Katharina Kruger) in a 6-2/6-1 final to extend her winning streak to ten matches and three titles. She's on a 15-1 run in singles (her loss was vs. Van Koot in the British Open semis), and has gone 22-3 (w/ 5 titles) since RG (she'd didn't play at SW19) after starting the '22 season by going just 10-9.
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1. San Jose 1st Rd. - Elli Mandlik def. Alison Riske
...6-3/6-3. The daughter of a legend makes her tour debut a memorable one.



Of note, just how rare is it not just for the child of a former player to follow in their footsteps (we've seen a few, from the Sukovas to Maria Sakkari), but for that former player to be of the Hall of Fame status of a Hana Mandlikova? Off hand, though I'm sure there must be someone, I can't think of the child of a former slam champion making a second generation mark in the sport.

Everyone offhandedly talks about the likes of the children of Serena, Vika and others becoming future players, but if they do -- unlike in so many team sports -- it will be an incredibly rare occurrence. After all, we never did get that Agassi/Graf family reunion with the tennis tour (we can't even get them to show up for the Centre Court 100th anniversary ceremony)... of course, that might be because neither of them seemed to really enjoy most of what came with the job during their prime, so it was always difficult envisioning them encouraging their kids to pursue tennis in any sort of professional capacity.
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2. San Jose 2nd Rd. - Paula Badosa def. Elli Mandlik
...6-2/5-7/7-6(5). #240 Mandlik's debut just about got *really* serious, as she led #4 Badosa 5-3 in the 3rd set. Badosa held in a deuce game for 5-4, then broke Mandlik in a two-deuce game on her third BP in game #10. After breaking the Spaniard, Mandlik served at 6-5, but a third straight break of serve in the set led to a deciding TB, won by Badosa as she pulled away from a 4-4 tie to win 7-5.


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3. San Jose 1st Rd. - Dasha Kasatkina def. Elena Rybakina
...1-6/6-2/6-0. In a contest of dueling "first match since..." appearances, Kasatkina gradually took control vs. the Wimbledon champ and then dominated the 3rd set, losing just seven points (4 in the last four games).


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4. Washington DC Final - Jessie Pegula/Erin Routliffe def. Anna Kalinskaya/Caty McNally
...6-3/5-7 [12-10]. A year after winning the singles crown in Washington, Pegula picks up her third WD win of the season as she and Routliffe save a MP vs. Kalinskaya/McNally. All four of Pegula's career WTA doubles finals (3-1) have come in '22, while Routliffe picks up her first win in three finals this season (and her second career title overall).


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5. Washington DC Final - Liudmila Samsonova def. Kaia Kanepi 4-6/6-3/6-3
...had Kanepi won, she'd have simultaneously become the fifth-oldest WTA singles champ of the Open era (behind BJK, Date-Krumm, Serena and Navratilova) and the woman with the sixth-longest wait between titles (shorter than only Lucic-Baroni, Date-Krumm, Cirstea, Parmentier and K.Bondarenko) with her first win since Brussels in 2013.

San Jose Final - Dasha Kasatkina def. Shelby Rogers 6-7(2)/6-1/6-2
...Kasatkina's win later on Sunday made it *two* Hordette singles champions crowned, the third and fourth different women from the nation to win titles this season, the most since 2018 (and tying the U.S. for the tour lead this year).

After failing to secure a 1:18 1st set in which she led 5-3 and held a SP, Kasatkina buckled down and controlled the action the rest of the way to finally pick up her first title of '22.


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6. Iasi 125 1st Rd. - Kristina Mladenovic def. Tena Lukas
...2-6/7-6(5)/6-3. Another week, another crazy Mladenovic match. Here the Pastry kept her DF total fairly low (9), but still had to rally from 6-2/4-2 down to get the win. The final stats make one wonder how Mladenovic managed to do it, though, as Lukas converted 8 of 14 BP chances and won both more points on serve (53-50) *and* on return (53-51).

Mladenovic posted another straight sets win over Alexandra Cadantu-Ignatik before losing to Panna Udvardy with, respectively, 11 and 10 DF in those outings.
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7. San Jose 2nd Rd. - Aryna Sabalenka def. Caroline Dolehide 5-7/6-1/7-5
San Jose QF - Dasha Kastatkina def. Aryna Sabalenka 4-6/7-5/6-0
...not to be outdone in the DF department, Sabalenka broke Mladenovic's tour season mark from a week ago by winning over Dolehide despite *23* DF. Dolehide broke serve to lead 5-3 in the 3rd, but Sabalenka swept the final four games, winning 16 of the last 19 points.

Sabalenka fired off 20 DF vs. Kasatkina (who countered w/ 13 of her own), but wasn't as lucky the second time around.
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8. San Jose 1st Rd. - Shelby Rogers def. Bianca Andreescu
...6-4/6-2. Andreescu left Wimbledon healthy, in good form, and ready for the hard court summer. Between then and her pre-U.S. Open debut, she injured her back. With Andreescu, no injury can be passed off as inconsequential. Sigh. Here we go again?


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9. San Jose 1st Rd. - Taylor Townsend def. Storm Sanders
...6-1/6-4. Townsend gets her first WTA MD win since the 2020 AO, and her first since becoming a mother (as Lindsay Davenport attempted to make the bigger story).


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10. Washington DC 1st Rd. - Andrea Petkovic def. Clara Tauson
...6-2/6-2. Petko's been doing a lot of dancing lately.

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11. Washington DC 2nd Rd. - Anna Kalinskaya def. Simona Halep
...7-5/2-0 ret. The Washington humidity can reach sickening levels in August. Just ask Simona.


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12. Washington DC 1st Rd. - Donna Vekic def. Mayar Sherif 6-4/6-1
Washington DC 1st Rd. - Camila Osorio def. Sofia Kenin 7-6(2)/6-1
...a pair of returns in D.C., as Kenin played her first match since Indian Wells and Sherif her first since Roland Garros. They didn't last long, but at least they're finally back.
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13. San Jose QF - Paula Badosa def. Coco Gauff
...7-6(4)/6-2. Badosa nearly lost to Mandlik, and fell in the SF to Kasatkina. But the Spaniard has been aces on U.S. hard courts the last two years, going 20-6 while winning Indian Wells in '21 (then following up w/ a SF this spring) and reaching the '21 Cincinnati and '22 Miami QF before her SF run in San Jose. Unfortunately, she's still only 1-3 at the Open in her career.

Overall, Badosa is 51-18 on hard courts in 2021-22.
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14. Washington DC 2nd Rd. - Dasha Saville def. Jessie Pegula
...7-5/6-4. Dasha downs the defending champ, but Pegula solidified her position as the U.S. #1 as Danielle Collins dropped out of the Top 10 after being unable to defend her San Jose crown, while Coco Gauff was knocked out in the QF.


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15. Iasi 125 2nd Rd. - Maja Chwalinska def. Olga Danilovic
...7-6(4)/6-4. A good week for the young Pole, who reached her biggest singles SF in the 125 challenger. She's 39-13 on the year.
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16. Durban RSA (J1) Final - Ella McDonald def. Darja Suvirdjonkova
...6-3/6-2. The 17-year old Brit wins the week's J1 girls event in South Africa, sweeping the s/d crowns.


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17. Toronto Q2 - Marie Bouzkova def. Tatjana Maria
...7-5/6-3. The Prague champ qualifies in Toronto and extends her winning streak to seven matches. She's gone 11-1 (so far) at Wimbledon, Prague and Toronto.
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18. Toronto Q1 - Nuria Parrizas Dias def. Kayla Cross 7-6(2)/6-0
Toronto Q1 - Claire Liu def. Victoria Mboko 3-6/6-3/6-4
Toronto Q1 - Marina Stakusic def. Wang Xinyu 6-1 ret.
Toronto Q2 - Tereza Martincova def. Marina Stakusic 6-4/4-6/6-1
...the Canadian Kids Corps -- 15-year old Mboko, and 17-year olds Cross and Stakusic -- appeared en masse in the Toronto qualies, to varying (but always intriguing) results.


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19. $60K Lexington USA Final - Katie Swan def. Jodie Burrage
...6-0/3-6/6-3. Swan wins the all-Brit face off in Kentucky, improving to 12-0 in career ITF finals and rising 62 spots in the rankings to #172, not far off her career high of #163.
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20. $15K Kottingbrunn AUT Final - Amarissa Kiara Toth def. Carolina Kuhl
...6-3/7-5. The 19-year old Hungarian adds to the list of accomplishments of her nation's growing (and underrated) talent pool, picking up her first career pro singles crown. Toth reached the RG girls doubles final last year.
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1. San Jose 2nd Rd. - Coco Gauff def. Naomi Osaka
...6-4/6-4. A fairly straightforward match turned into something more interesting late, as Gauff's 5-1 2nd set lead turned into an adventure that nearly saw Osaka recover and send the contest in a totally different direction. Osaka trailed love/40 on serve at 5-1 (saving 4 MP) and 5-3 (saving 3 more) before Coco finally put away the match on serve on her 8th MP.



With her straight sets QF loss to Paula Badosa (after she'd failed to serve out the 1st set), this turned out to be Gauff's last win of a week during which she'd seemed fully capable of possibly winning the title, allowing just one game to Anhelina Kalinina in the 1st Round, showing tremendous wheels all week and riding the high of the debut her own signature shoe from New Balance. Until Dasha Kasatkina won the San Jose crown on Sunday evening, while reigning tournament champ Danielle Collins' absence meant she'd fall from #9 to about #17, Gauff was set to crack the Top 10 in the new rankings for the first time... but the Hordette returns there instead, keeping Coco cooling her newly-clad heels at #11 just a handful of points behind Emma Raducanu.



Meanwhile, Osaka (who'd returned from her Achilles injury with a good three-set win over Zheng Qinwen in the 1st Round) seemed to get more energy from her come-from-behind (still a) loss in her first event without Wim Fissette as coach, with her father apparently stepping in to assist and fill the role.



Of course, coaching (or "coaching") Osaka is an often thankless job, as a quickly deleted tweet from the four-time slam champ this weekend showed just a few days later.


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2. Washington 1st Rd. - Rebecca Marino def. Venus Williams
...4-6/6-1/6-4. In her first solo match since Chicago last summer, Venus had a bead on her first singles win of '22, leading Marino 3-0 and 4-1 in the 3rd, and holding BP at 4-3 once the Canadian had tightened the score. As it was, Marino broke for 5-4 and served out the win at love, giving Venus another loss to a #100+ opponent (her eighth such loss since the summer of '19) as she lost for the ninth time in her last ten outings and fell to 4-21 since the 2019 U.S. Open.


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3. San Jose 1st Rd. - Karolina Pliskova def. Katie Boulter 1-6/7-6(5)/6-3
San Jose 2nd Rd. - Amanda Anisimova def. Karolina Pliskova 3-6/7-5/6-1
...after losing to Boulter in both Eastbourne and Wimbledon, Pliskova struggled to finally put down the Brit this time around. Up 4-0 in the 2nd, the Czech saw Boulter battle back to 5-5. Pliskova broke for 6-5, but couldn't serve out the set. She won a TB to send things to a 3rd, which she finally secured 6-3.

A round later, Pliskova led Anisimova 6-3 and with a break at 3-2 in the 2nd. But the Bannerette rallied to force a decider, which she then dominated to end the Czech's first tournament effort of her post-Bajin era.

Anisimova's run ended a round later (vs. Shelby Rogers), as she's still searching for her "crescendo" moment of "ultimate" triumph in a season seeming overstuffed with foreshadowing "prologue" that points in the direction of an affirming *big* title run (something more than that Week 1 win in Melbourne) or truly deep slam run (she topped out in the QF at Wimbledon, after 4r at AO/RG) that will *cement* her return to form. So far, it hasn't quite happened, though.
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4. San Jose QF - Veronika Kudermetova def. Ons Jabeur
...7-6(5)/6-2. Along with Dasha Kasatkina's 1st Round win over Elena Rybakina, Kudermetova's victory over Jabeur (her third in three tries vs. the Tunisian, giving her six career Top 5 wins) means that Russians defeated *both* Wimbledon women's finalists in their first post-SW19 events.

Those Tennis Gods are little imps, aren't they

Meanwhile, Kudermetova ultimately fell in the semis to Shelby Rogers. It continued a season of almost-but-not-quite for the Hordette. She's now 1-2 in SF played this season, with two of her three appearances in finals coming via walkovers from her opponent. Once in a singles final in '22, she's gone 0-3.
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5. Iasi 125 Final - Ana Bogdan def. Panna Udvardy 6-2/3-6/6-1
Iasi 125 Final - Darya Astakhova/Andreea Rosca def. Reka Luca Jani/Panna Udvardy 7-5/5-7 [10-7]
...Udvardy, a week after winning a $60K singles title, reached *two* finals in Iasi, but came up short in both.

Meanwhile, #256-ranked Hordette Astakhova, 20, qualified and reached the singles semis, then claimed her biggest career doubles title.


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HM- $60K San Bartolomé de Tirajana ESP Final - Arantxa Rus def. Polina Kudermetova
...6-3/3-6/6-1. Like her big sister, Polina came up just a bit short this weekend, falling to Rus in three. Rus picks up her 29th career ITF crown, and improves to 15-2 in her last 17 matches.

Kudermetova, 19, still cracks the Top 300 for the first time, coming in at #287.
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Predictably, right wing political figures in the U.S. are now busily trying to make the reigning Wimbledon men's champion their new poster boy for, well, you know, whatever their dumbass cause might be this month. I'm not going to waste time and space putting any of that drivel here, but you're welcome to do a quick Twitter search for a good laugh at either how little they know about pro tennis players, or at how hard they're trying to make a marytr out of a player who'd surely drag a ten-foot cross on his back out onto the court if he wasn't afraid one of the splinters might prick him with a vaccine or something.

One said that U.S. players should bow out of the Open until he can play (you know, like The Player in Question did at Wimbledon when the RUS/BLR players were banned... oh, wait) because "tyranny against one person is a threat to all people." LOL


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The Deep-Thought-a-Day desk calendar has (at least) 365 days on it. Sigh.




Great. Since she can't play in Toronto, that means she'll even *more* time for Deep Thoughts tweets.












Yeah, all the blowback that tweet got was legitimately earned.






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*2022 MULT.DIFFERENT WTA CHAMPIONS BY COUNTRY*
4...RUS - Alexandrova,KASATKINA,Potapova,SAMSONOVA
4...USA - Anisimova,Keys,Pera,Stephens
2...CZE - Bouzkova,Kvitova
2...GER - Kerber,Maria
2...ROU - Begu,Halep

*MOST WTA FINALS - 1920-22*
11- 1/7/3 - Anett Kontaveit (5-5-1)
9 - 1/2/4 - Iga Swiatek (9-0)
9 - 1/6/2 - Ash Barty (8-1)
8 - 0/3/5 - Ons Jabeur (3-5)
8 - 3/3/2 - Aryna Sabalenka (5-3)
7 - 5/0/2 - Elena Rybakina (2-5)
6 - 1/5/0 - Garbine Muguruza (3-3)
5 - 3/1/1 - Simona Halep (4-1)
5 - 0/4/1 - DASHA KASATKINA (3-2)
5 - 0/4/1 - Barbora Krejcikova (3-2)
5 - 0/3/2 - Belinda Bencic (2-3)
5 - 0/2/3 - Veronika Kudermetova (1-4)
5 - 2/3/0 - Karolina Pliskova (1-4)

*2022 OLDEST WTA SINGLES FINALISTS*
37 - KAIA KANEPI, EST (WASHINGTON -L)
34 - Tatjana Maria, GER (Bogota -W)
34 - Angelique Kerber, GER (Strasbourg -W)
33 - Zhang Shuai, CHN (Birmingham -L)
33 - Zhang Shuai, CHN (Lyon -W)
32 - Petra Kvitova, CZE (Eastbourne -W)

*2022 WTA FINALS*
[RUS]
3 - Veronika Kudermetova (0-3)
2 - Anastasia Potapova (1-1)
1 - Ekaterina Alexandrova (1-0)
1 - DASHA KASATKINA (1-0)
1 - LIUDMILA SAMSONOVA (1-0)
[USA]
2 - Bernarda Pera (2-0)
1 - Amanda Anisimova (1-0)
1 - Madison Keys (1-0)
1 - Sloane Stephens (1-0)
1 - Danielle Collins (0-1)
1 - Coco Gauff (0-1)
1 - Jessie Pegula (0-1)
1 - Claire Liu (0-1)
1 - Alison Riske (0-1)
1 - SHELBY ROGERS (0-1)

*CAREER WTA TITLES - RUS; active*
18 - Svetlana Kuznetsova
12 - Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
12 - Vera Zvonareva
5 - DASHA KASATKINA
2 - Ekaterina Alexandrova
2 - Margarita Gasparyan
2 - LIUDMILA SAMSONOVA
1 - Veronika Kudermetova
1 - Anastasia Potapova

*KASATKINA TOP 10 WINS*
2016 (2)
#7 V.Williams, #8 Vinci
2017 (3)
#1 Kerber, #2 Kerber, #2 Halep
2018 (7)
#1 Wozniacki, #2 Wozniacki, #2 Wozniacki, #3 Muguruza, #3 Muguruza, #8 V.Williams, #10 Kerber
2019-20 (0)
-
2021 (1)
#9 Swiatek
2022 (5)
#3 Muguruza, #3 Badosa, #4 Badosa, #5 Sakkari, #6 Sabalenka

*WTA SF in 2022*
8 - Iga Swiatek, POL (6-2)
6 - Simona Halep, ROU (1-4 +L)
5 - Ons Jabeur, TUN (5-0)
5 - VERONIKA KUDERMETOVA, RUS (1-2 +WW)
5 - DASHA KASATKINA, RUS (1-4)
4 - Anett Kontaveit, EST (3-1)
4 - Anastasia Potapova, RUS (2-2)
4 - Maria Sakkari, GRE (2-2)
4 - Caroline Garcia, FRA (2-2)
4 - Beatriz Haddad Maia, BRA (2-2)
4 - Alona Ostapenko, LAT (2-2)
4 - PAULA BADOSA, ESP (1-3)

*2022 LOW-RANKED WTA 125 SF*
#256 DARYA ASTAKHOVA, RUS - IASI
#249 Anna-Lena Friedsam, GER - Karlsruhe
#213 Sara Errani, ITA - Gaiba (RU)
#184 Linda Noskova, CZE - Makarska
#161 Sara Errani, ITA - Contrexeville (W)
#160 MAJA CHWALINSKA, POL - IASI
#157 Elisabetta Cocciaretto, ITA - Makarska (RU)
#155 Jang Su-jeong, KOR - Bastad (W)

*2022 WTA DOUBLES TITLES*
4 - Katerina Siniakova, CZE
3 - Eri Hozumi, JPN
3 - Makoto Ninimoya, JPN
3 - JESSIE PEGULA, USA
[duos]
3...Hozumi/Ninomiya, JPN/JPN
2...Krejcikova/Siniakova, CZE/CZE
2...Siegemund/Zvonareva, GER/RUS
2...XU YIFAN/YANG ZHAOXUAN, CHN/CHN

*RECENT ITF WORLD JUNIOR FINALS [14u]*
2010 USA d. UKR
2011 SRB d. USA
2012 SVK d. GBR
2013 USA d. RUS
2014 RUS d. UKR
2015 RUS d. USA
2016 UKR d. USA
2017 USA d. UKR
2018 RUS d. CZE
2019 CZE d. USA
2020 DNP
2021 RUS d. BUL
2022 CZE d. GER





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All for now.
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