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Sunday, December 11, 2022

2022 Season in Review: Matches of the Year, Pt.1

The "upset" is something of the Rosetta stone to understanding WTA tennis, where for some players every match (and, let's be honest, sometimes every game, or is it point?) often feels as if it will determine their immediate, eventual and potential future in the game.

And *sometimes* they do.












1. U.S. Open 1st Rd. - Daria Snigur def. Simona Halep
...6-2/0-6/6-4. In a match up of the 2019 Wimbledon junior and women's champs, the 20-year old Ukrainian qualifier (#124) makes headlines in her slam MD debut by rallying from a love 2nd set loss to take out Toronto champ Halep, staving off a late rally (from 5-1 down in the 3rd to 5-4) to make the #7-seeded Romanian the First Seed Out at Flushing Meadows.

With Halep's game careening around the hard court, Snigur took the 1st set 6-2, but the two-time slam winner dominated the 2nd, claiming it at love and being expected to carry out her course correction into the 2nd Round. But that didn't happen. Snigur didn't flinch, but Halep did.

In a slip (slightly) reminiscent of her old "Cliffs of Simona" days, Halep's errors began to get in the way of the narrative of her "victory."

Halep dropped serve to open the 3rd, but held a BP to get back on serve in game #2. She couldn't put it away, then saw Snigur take a love/40 lead in game #5 and go up a double break at 4-1. Halep again had a chance to change the momentum a game later. Snigur held a GP for 5-1, but Halep took a point on which she had to control a volley off a net cord shot. Snigur's double-fault gave Halep a BP chance, but again it went unconverted via a Halep unforced error. Halep's long return ended the two-deuce game as Snigur ultimately did take a 5-1 lead.

But Halep has escaped from such predicaments before, and proceeded to calm her game. A hold was followed by a quick break of the newcomer's serve to close the gap to 5-3. A game later, Halep saved back-to-back MP (from 15/40) and then held with an ace to make it 5-4. It seemed that if Halep could just get back to even the momentum might fully tilt her way against her inexperienced opponent. And she *did* take a love/30 lead on Snigur's serve in game #10.

But Snigur didn't waver, and also didn't suddenly go for too much in a panic move to keep Halep from further breathing down her neck. She got back to 30-all, then passed Halep at the net to get her third MP chance. A long Halep error ended the match, giving the #124-ranked Snigur the win in her slam debut, sending Halep out in the 1st Round in New York for the third time in her last five appearances.



The 20-year old participated in the Tennis Plays for Peace exhibition for her nation that took place at Flushing Meadows the previous week during her qualifying run. Because of that, she got to play on Armstrong before this match, so a case could be made that it helped her "nerves" in her first big stage appearance, though she had no problem saying after the match how nervous she actually was. You'd never have guessed it.



Meanwhile, Halep's no-good-rotten-day only got more no-good-and-rotten, as she tested positive for a banned substance after the match and faces suspension as 2023 begins.
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2. Wimbledon 1st Rd. - Harmony Tan def. Serena Williams
...7-5/1-6/7-6(10-7). Serena Williams returned for her first singles match since retiring with an injury just six games into a 1st Round match at last year's Wimbledon. But rather than a sense of deja vu that brought back memories of her championship years, the harsh reality of a 40-year old who hadn't played in a year resulted in something else.



24-year old Harmony Tan made her Wimbledon MD debut one for the history of the mind, where all the details about Williams' circumstances will only be footnotes down the road. She'll always have taken down possibly the game's greatest champion on arguably its grandest stage. Serena will always be Serena, after all.

The Pastry broke Williams' serve to open the match, but soon found herself down 4-2 to the veteran. She got back on serve at 4-3, then broke for 6-5 and held to take the set.

After the Centre Court roof was closed for the evening, Williams knotted the match with a 6-1 win. The set's high point came all the way back in game #2, a nearly 20-minute, 30-point, 12-deuce game which saw Williams convert on her seventh BP after what was essentially a moonball caused Tan to frame her reply and shoot the ball off the umpire's chair.



Williams had her chances in the 3rd to get the win and advance. She held an early break edge, and took a 5-4 lead and served for the match after Tan dumped a backhand volley into the net. But Williams wasn't able to serve things out and the match went back on shuffle. Down 6-5, Williams saved a MP at the net and ultimately sent the contest to a deciding 10-point TB. Williams led 4-0, but was clearly tired some three hours into her comeback match. She saw Tan win five straight points. Williams leveled things at 6-6, but the French woman took an extended lead at 8-6 and finally won 10-7.



Tan wasn't a one-match wonder, either, following up with wins over #32 Sara Sorribes Tormo and British wild card Katie Boulter to advance all the way to the Round of 16 for the first time in her slam career.
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3. Wimbledon 3rd Rd. - Alize Cornet def. Iga Swiatek
...6-4/6-2. Wimbledon was always thought to be a tough(er) ask for #1 Swiatek, who despite her long winning streak didn't have much experience on the surface, and was uncomfortable in her movement (sliding into shots is different and sometimes dangerous) and in picking up the low, skidding balls off the surface with her groundstrokes. After dropping a set in the 2nd Round to lucky loser Lesley Pattinama Kerkhove, perhaps the worst sort of opponent was waiting for her in the 3rd in Cornet, a veteran player with a history of success on grass, and one less likely to be able to handle the big stage than others the Pole might face while she struggled with her game but found a way to win anyway.

It was eight years ago that Cornet upset then-#1 Serena Williams in the Wimbledon 3rd Round in a Court 1 match on Day 6, particulars that had an eerie similarity to those of her Day 6 match this year against #1 Swiatek on the same court, in the same round. It turned out, that sense of deja vu would be complete by match's end.

Cornet jumped on the uncomforable Pole early, taking a double-break lead at 3-0 in the 1st. Swiatek got one break back, but couldn't get any closer. The Pastry didn't blink, serving out the set at 6-4 as the world #1 lost a set in consecutive matches for the first time since her trio of three-setters to open her title run at Indian Wells in March, after which she then proceeded to complete the "Sunshine Double" and win 28 straight sets.

That didn't happen this time, though. Swiatek managed a tough hold to open the 2nd, and broke Cornet to lead 2-0. But Cornet then got the break back after falling behind 40/15, with the key moment coming with an "unintentional" drop shot (she stuck her racket out and caught the ball at mid-court) off a nice-looking Iga sliding backhand passing attempt. The fates going against her seemed to begin to turn the Pole's remaining confidence inside out.

A Cornet return on BP caught the baseline to secure the break (afterward the French woman took an MTO to have her inner thigh wrapped, but never seemed hampered). At 2-2, a missed volley and netted forehand put Swiatek down love/40, and Cornet's forehand winner put her a break up. Cornet held for a 4-2 lead. In game #7, Swiatek fired an overhead directly back to Cornet near the back wall of the court. She blocked back her shot, sending the ball high in the air. Swiatek had an easy smash put-away, but flew the shot and nearly hit Cornet, who jumped out of the way and took a 15/30 lead.



BP down moments later, Swiatek's backhand sailed long and Cornet led 5-2. Rather than fight back one more time, Swiatek surprisingly folded as Cornet held at love to record her first #1 win (fourth overall) since defeating Williams in 2014, ending Iga's 37-match winning streak. It was the first loss suffered by *any* WTA #1 (Ash Barty or Swiatek) since the Aussie fell in the U.S. Open 3rd Round to Shelby Rogers in 2021.



Warsaw QF - Caroline Garcia def. Iga Swiatek
...6-1/1-6/6-4. After falling to Alize Cornet at Wimbledon, Swiatek is cut down to size by another French women. But this time it happened on clay, where the world #1 had won 18 straight, *and* in front of a Polish crowd.

In completing her first career #1 win, her first Top 10 win in nearly two years, Garcia became the first Pastry to defeat a top-ranked woman on clay in 17 years.


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4. Strasbourg 1st Rd. - Nefisa Berberovic def. Sloane Stephens
...2-6/6-4/6-1. Stephens prepared for Roland Garros by falling to 1-6 since her Guadalajara title run, dropping a fifth straight match by losing to the #309-ranked Bosnian, a lucky loser who recorded her first career WTA MD win.

Berberovic had fallen to #594 Angelina Gabueva (after recent losses to #701, #388, #1231, #429, #451, #711 and #528) in the *opening* round of qualifying, not the final round... so I guess her later inclusion in the MD was as something of a "super lucky loser."



Naturally, Stephens took this great "anti-momentum" to Paris... and reached the QF.
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5. Roland Garros 2nd Rd. - Leolia Jeanjean def. Karolina Pliskova
...6-2/6-2. Another former college player making headlines on tour, 26-year French wild card Jeanjean (#227), who saw a much-hyped tennis future as a junior corrupted by a knee injury, followed up her tour-level debut of a win over #45 Nuria Parrizas Diaz in the 1st Round by taking out #8 Pliskova, becoming the third-lowest ranked player to defeat a Top 10 opponent in '22.


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6. Adelaide 1 1st Rd. - Priscilla Hon def. Petra Kvitova
...6-7(4)/7-5/6-2. The #263-ranked Aussie wild card, finally back strong after missing over a year (2020-21) with a hip injury, officially kicks off the '22 season with an "oh..." result to get everyone's attention in the opening days.


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7. U.S. Open 1st Rd. - Clara Burel def. Elena Rybakina
...6-4/6-4. Rybakina has admitted her frustration over a ranking far lower than it *should* be since she was awarded no points for her SW19 win, as well as her less-than-complimentary court assignments since then despite being a reigning major champion. Well, this result (on Court 12) didn't help the Kazakh on that front, as her loss to qualifier Burel made Rybakina the first maiden slam champ to fall in the opening round of her next major since Sloane Stephens exited in the 1st Round of the Australian Open in 2018.


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8. U.S. Open 2nd Rd. - Wang Xiyu def. Maria Sakkari
...3-6/7-5/7-5. In 21-year old Wang's first big-stage moment, she defeats #3-ranked Sakkari on Louis Armstrong Stadium court to record her first career Top 10 win, using her forehand to take control of the match and send the '21 U.S. Open semifinalist packing by winning out in a tight battle down the stretch, overcoming having lost a 4-1 2nd set lead to pull ahead after Sakkari had won 4 of 5 games, and then staging a comeback from 3-1 down in the 3rd to the Greek, getting the set back on serve and then pulling off a match-ending break to reach her first career slam 3rd Round.



The loss means that Sakkari, though she improved upon her '21 slam results in Melbourne (1r-->4r) and London (2r-->3r) this season, fell back considerably in trying to defend *both* of her big SF runs from last year in Paris and New York, going out in the 2nd Round on both occasions.
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9. Roland Garros 1st Rd. - Magda Linette def. Ons Jabeur
...3-6/7-6(4)/7-5. Hopes were high in Paris for Jabeur after the Tunisian won in Madrid and reached the final in Rome this spring. The other three women who'd reached both finals -- Safina, S.Williams and Halep -- had at least reached the RG final, as well. But with soaring expectations in a major for the first time, Jabeur was the first seed to be sent packing.

Jabeur found herself down 4-2 in the 3rd, with Linette holding game points for a 5-2 bulge. Jabeur battled back to knot the set at 4-all, but two games later saw the Pole get within a single point of MP three times before the #6 seed again held. Serving at 5-6 to reach a deciding TB, Jabeur took a 40/love lead, only to then see her '22 Roland Garros experience crumble beneath her feet. She never won another point, badly shanking an overhead and dropping five straight points as Linette completed her first career Top 10 win over the same player who'd defeated *her* in the 3rd Round last year in Paris while dropping just one game in the final two sets of a three-set affair.



Jabeur rebounded by reaching the final at *both* Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.
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10. Roland Garros 1st Rd. - Diane Parry def. Barbora Krejcikova
...1-6/6-2/6-3. 19-year old #97-ranked Pastry Parry, a former junior #1, and her one-handed backhand KO'd the defending champ and #2-seeded Krejcikova, just back from an arm injury that had kept her out since February. The win was Parry's first over a Top 10 player, and became a reality despite dropping the 1st set at 6-1, seeing the Czech win fourteen consecutive points in one stretch, and lead 2-0 in the 2nd.



Krejcikova's loss adds her name to the short list of defending RG champs to exit in the 1st round, joining the recent likes of Anastasia Myskina (2005) and Alona Ostapenko (2018).
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11. Indian Wells 2nd Rd. - Harriet Dart def. Elina Svitolina
...2-6/6-3/6-3. After a spirited start after committing to donating her prize money to the Ukrainian war effort, Svitolina's performances receded to the mean. It was understandable under the circumstances, but it was still noteworthy that her defeat here handed Dart her first career Top 30 victory. The Brit had been 0-8 vs. the Top 20 prior to her win over #18 Svitolina.



After another early exit in Miami, Svitolina announced that she was taking a short break to deal with a lingering back injury. She was 5-8 on the season.

Svitolina didn't return, becoming a mother in October.
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12. Ostrava!!! 1st Rd. - Alycia Parks def. Karolina Pliskova
...6-0/7-6(3). Parks' initial salvo in a career week, as the world #144 picked up her first career Top 20 win on Czech soil over a veteran Maiden.



Ostrava!!! 1st Rd. - Alycia Parks def. Maria Sakkari
...5-7/7-5/7-5. In the closing weeks of the '22 season, Parks gets the "signature" win that will make her one of *the* new faces to watch in 2023. Her first career Top 10 victory over Sakkari, which sent the Bannerette into her first WTA QF, included 59 winners (vs. 9 from the Greek) and 15 aces. Her UE total? A very managable 26 in a three-set match.



In the "in-between" period of the 2022-23 schedule, Parks has already reached new heights, winning backto-back WTA 125 challengers in Andorra and Angers.
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13. Bad Homburg 1st Rd. - Katie Swan def. Sloane Stephens
...2-6/6-4/6-2. The Brits often bring their best during the grass season, and several sparked this summer. Swan notched her first MD tour win this year with an upset of Stephens.



Eastbourne 2nd Rd. - Katie Boulter def. Karolina Pliskova
...1-6/6-4/6-4. The Brit did anything but back into SW19, recording her first career Top 10 win against the '21 Wimbledon finalist.



Wimbledon 2nd Rd. - Katie Boulter def. Karolina Pliskova
...3–6, 7–6(4), 6–4. Boulter then backed up her previous win with another over the Czech a week later, perhaps hastening the (temporary) end of Pliskova's mostly-successful (despite a pair of slow starts in 2021-22) teaming with coach Sascha Bajin days after the end of Wimbledon. Pliskova and Bajin recently announced they were reuniting as a team for 2023.



Eastbourne 1st Rd. - Jodie Burrage def. Petra Martic 3-6/7-5/6-3
Eastbourne 2nd Rd. - Jodie Burrage def. Paula Badosa 6-4/6-3
...Burrage had success in pairs, as well, opening her week in Eastbourne with a comeback win over Martic after trailing 6-3/5-3, then the world #169 followed up with a career-best win over #4 Badosa.

Nottingham 1st Rd. - Harriet Dart def. Donna Vekic 6-4/6-3
Nottingham 2nd Rd. - Harriet Dart def. Camila Giorgi 5-7/6-4/7-6(3)
...before reaching the 2nd Round at Wimbledon, Dart was burning up the pre-SW19 courts. After her win over Vekic, in a match vs. Giorgi that had been suspended after two sets due to rain the day before, Dart saved three MP from 4-5, love/40 down in the 3rd -- via three UE from the Italian -- to reach her maiden WTA QF.



Eastbourne 2nd Rd. - Harriet Dart def. Jil Teichmann 7-6(7)/4-6/6-3
Eastbourne 3rd Rd. - Harriet Dart def. Marta Kostyuk 6-4/2-6/6-4
...Harriet's big day.

After her 2nd Round match was pushed back a day, Dart used the opportunity to post *two* of the biggest wins of her career in a matter of a few hours. In the opener, Dart took the 1st after trailing 5-3, followed by Teichmann rallying from 4-2 down in the 2nd to knot the match. Going one better, Dart then climbed back from 3-1 back in the 3rd to get the win.

The final set with Kostyuk proved to be a push-and-full affair, with Dart taking a 2-0 lead, Kostyuk tying the score at 2-2, then the pattern repeating itself to get to 4-4. Dart then started the cycle over again with back-to-back games, but Kostyuk ran out of time to keep the whole thing going.



Meanwhile, though her upsets may not have risen to the level of inclusion here, new Brit Lily Miyazaki posted grass wins over the likes of Astra Sharma, Magdalena Frech (who'd reach WI 3r), Kristina Mladenovic and Dasha Saville this summer. Also, Eden Silva got a 1st Round win in Birmingham over Katarzyna Kawa, who'd go on to qualify at Wimbledon and record her first career slam MD win.
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14. Wimbledon 1st Rd. - Kaja Juvan def. Beatriz Haddad Maia
...6-4/4-6/6-2. One of few "big trees" to fall early at SW19 was #23-seeded Haddad Maia, who'd been *the* form player coming into Wimbledon, having won 12 straight grass court matches (the longest grass winning streak on the surface since Serena won 20 over a multi-season stretch from 2015-18) and two titles (the first to do that since 1991). Of course, Juvan has been known to post such results, especially in majors. She upset #9-seeded Belinda Bencic in the 1st Round at SW19 last year en route to the 3rd Round (where she lost to Coco Gauff). This time around, Juvan fell short of the second week again, falling to Heather Watson in the 3rd Round.
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15. Roland Garros 2nd Rd. - Zheng Qinwen def. Simona Halep 2-6/6-2/6-1
...come Roland Garros, #19 Halep led Zheng 6-2/2-1, after having defeated the teenager 3 & 2 back in January in the middle of her super-hot start. Halep held three GP for a 3-1 lead in what turned out to be a five-deuce game that ended with the #74-ranked Zheng converting on her third BP. As the Romanian suffered what she later called a "panic attack," Zheng ran the streak to eight games into the 3rd and pulled away for the win.



Later reaching her first slam Round of 16, Zheng was the only player to take a set off eventual champ Iga Swiatek in Paris.
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16. Cincinnati 1st Rd. - Caty McNally def. Aliaksandra Sasnovich
...6-3/3-6/7-6(2). Cincinnati native McNally lives out a dream with her 1st Round win in her home event, preventing Sasnovich from serving out the match at 5-4 in the 3rd and taking a deciding TB.

A round later, McNally held 3 MP for an upset of soon-to-be U.S. Open finalist Ons Jabeur, as well, before falling in a deciding TB.
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17. Australian Open 1st Rd. - Maddison Inglis def. Leylah Fernandez
...6-4/6-2. The Canadian in no way resembled the player who set the U.S. Open aflame last summer, and was instead an error-prone entity who ultimately fell by the wayside against Australian wild card Inglis (#133), who recorded her first career slam MD win with a 6-4/6-2 victory en route to surprise 3rd Round run. Fernandez had 30 unforced errors in the 18-game match, compared to just eight winners.


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18. Toronto 3rd Rd. - Beatriz Haddad Maia def. Iga Swiatek
...6-4/3-6/7-5. Swiatek held a break lead early in the 3rd, then found herself down MP at 4-5. She fired off an ace, followed by a DF on her own GP before finally holding. But the Brazilian didn't crumble, and instead polished off a quick hold of serve, then took a love/40 lead on Swiatek a game later. Swiatek saved two more MP with a body serve, then an Haddad UE, but the Pole's own error on MP #4 gave her a third loss -- on three different surfaces -- in six matches and Haddad her first career victory over a world #1.


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19. Guadalajara 250 1st Rd. - Dasha Saville def. Emma Raducanu
...5-7/7-6(4)/4-3 ret. Raducanu failed to put the #610-ranked, comeback-minded Aussie away in the 2nd set after serving at 5-3. The Brit held an early break lead in the 3rd, but Saville, herself having to consult a physio mid-match, continued to apply the pressure and ultimately saw Raducanu retire with a hip injury seven games into the final set. Even with the abbreviated final stanza, the 3:36 match length was the third-longest on tour this season.

The win was Saville's first Top 20 victory since 2018. She went on to reach the Indian Wells 4th Round and Miami QF, posting wins over #10 Ons Jabeur, #23 Elise Mertens and #41 Zhang Shuai.
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20. San Jose Q2 - Elli Mandlik def. Jil Teichmann
...3-6/6-3/6-0. Top Q-seed Teichmann led 6-3/3-1, then the Bannerette reeled off the final eleven games to reach the MD.

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.



After Mandlik's surprising power got the best of Riske, she 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 cracked the Top 200 for the first time following the event.
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HM- Bogota QF - Laura Pigossi def. Dayana Yastremska 6-2/4-6/7-6(3)
Bogota SF - Laura Pigossi def. Camila Osorio 7-5/7-6(2)
...Pigossi's week included several "biggest" moment celebrations, for reaching her first tour semifinal...



as well as for earning her way into her first tour final, made extra special by getting there via a takedown of the top-seeded, defending champ in her home event.

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*SCRAPBOOKING IN CINCINNATI*

Cincinnati 1st Rd. - Emma Raducanu def. Serena Williams 6-4/6-0
Cincinnati 2nd Rd. - Emma Raducanu def. Victoria Azarenka 6-0/6-2
...a day (well, 24-hour period) that will live in the scrapbook of Emma Raducanu's mind.

After her stunning U.S. Open triumph last year, Raducanu spent the next twelve months signing endorsement deals, changing coaches and recovering from a series of minor injuries while her on-court successes had been few and far between (though, when they'd come, they'd been promising ones).

Through it all, the Brit has taken everything in stride, brushed off a stream of social media criticism and generally approached her situation -- that of a teenager with little pro experience suddenly being thrust into the spotlight with newly outlandish expectations based on a few weeks of work spread out over two majors -- from the sort of mature, grounded perspective that should be an example for others when it comes to dealing with the sort of instant pressure that sometimes comes with big-time success in the sport.

In Cincinnati, a healthy Raducanu brought to mind the player who'd triumphed at Flushing Meadows. Granted, while her big, historic wins in the event came against all-time greats who are either (somewhat) shadows of their former selves or severly match play-deficient at the moment, it's hard to not raise one's eyebrows when *anyone* -- let alone a recent Open champ -- strings together consecutive dominating wins over the likes of future Hall of Famers Williams and Azarenka.



Raducanu allowed just six total games, handing the two back-to-back bagel sets in less than 24 hours, defeating Williams 4 & love, then Azarenka love & 2, winning 17 straight games in a stretch (final 7 vs. Serena, first 10 vs. Vika).



The Brit was out-hit by Jessie Pegula a round later, but played well and stayed close in a 7-5/6-4 loss, then fell in the 1st Round of her U.S. Open title defense to Alize Cornet.


*DEAR DIARY...*



Hamburg Final - Sophie Chang/Angela Kulikov def. Miyu Kato/Aldila Sutjiadi 6-3/4-6 [10-6]
...recent USC graduate Kulikov enjoyed a *full* WTA experience in Hamburg. She made her tour-level debut in the doubles, teaming with Chang, with whom she'd already won five ITF crowns since October. In the QF, she put her body on the line...



It paid off with her (and Chang's) maiden tour final appearance after a pair of MTB wins in the 1st Round (over Barnett/Nichols) and SF (Potapova/Sizikova), and the pair were further rewarded with their maiden title after another MTB win in the championship match over Miyu Kato & Aldila Sutjiadi.




=THE FINAL VICTORY???=

U.S. Open 2nd Rd. - Serena Williams def. Anett Kontaveit 7-6(4)/2-6/6-2
...at the close of a second night of lights, pomp and circumstance during Williams' final slam run, Serena picked up the "upset" (in number only, as Kontaveit was the #2 seed but "expected" in most corners to fall to the 40-year old) her 48th and final career win over a world #1/#2. Hmmm, or was it?












All for now.
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