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Sunday, March 26, 2023

Wk.12- Your-ami is My-ami, See?






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[Miami through 3rd Round]

RISERS: Anastasia Potapova/RUS and Elise Mertens/BEL
...it's hard to determine which was more impressive by Potapova this week in Miami, the way she put last week's absurdist "not acceptable nor an appropriate action" controversy (courtesy of Iga's report to the Thought Police on a match that she wasn't even involved in) behind her in a flash and handled you-shake-my-hand-I'll-shake-yours Marta Kostyuk in two quick sets in her opening match or how she turned around two days later and rallied to defeat Coco Gauff in three after she's squandered set points in the 1st and saw Gauff serve for the match in the 2nd, notching her third career Top 10 win.

Already a tour singles champion this season (Linz), #26 Potapova has a shot to crack the Top 25 for the first time (and *maybe* even the Top 20 if she were to really turn it up).



Mertens has largely fallen off the radar when it comes to significant singles accomplishments over the past year, but she's sparked once again in Miami. Ranked at #39, the former #12 has rebounded from her 1st Round exit at Indian Wells with wins over Alycia Parks, Dasha Kasatkina (the Waffle's first Top 10 win since knocking off Simona Halep in Madrid in 2021) and Petra Martic, good for Mertens' second trip to the Round of 16 in the last three years.
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SURPRISES: Katherine Sebov/CAN and Martina Trevisan/ITA
...Sebov's '23 improvement checked off a few more milestones in Miami. After having already qualified to reach her maiden slam MD in Melbourne in January, the 24-year old Canadian played her way into the Miami draw this week as a qualifying round wild card, notching wins over Kamilla Rakhimova and Kimberly Birrell (coming back from 7-6/5-2 vs. the Aussie) to reach the main draw.

In the 1st Round, she outlasted Linda Fruhvirtova (Mia. 4r '22) in three sets for her first career 1000 level vicotry, and first win over a Top 50 player. She fell a round later to Jessie Pegula, but rises into the Top 150 in the live rakings after having already entered the week at a career high of #172.

Sebov has yet to finish a season in the Top 200 (w/ #219 five years ago her best), and never ranked higher than #192 (2019) before 2023.



Trevisan's maiden title run (Rabat) and Roland Garros semifinal from last year haven't exactly altered the preception of the 29-year old Italian so that she's seen as a true *contender* on tour.

Though she opened '23 in the United Cup and recorded a nice win over Maria Sakkari (impressive, albeit in a psuedo-event where she was also blasted in straights by the likes of Haddad Maia, Swiatek and Pegula), Trevisan came into Miami at just 3-8 on the year, with just one match win (def. Brengle) since Week 1.

But Trevisan will play into the second week of the Miami Open after defeating Nao Hibino and outlasting Claire Liu in three to reach her first career 1000 Round of 16.
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VETERANS: Sorana Cirstea/ROU and Laura Siegemund/GER
...well, Cirstea is clearly the *Romanian* Sunshine queen for 2023. Fresh off her QF run in Indian Wells, her first final eight result in a 1000 event since 2017, Cirstea has come to Miami and is just one win away from *back-to-back* 1000 QF results.

Cirstea opened with a victory over Caroline Garcia, repeating her win over the Pastry at I.W., to record her second Top 10 victory in two events after previously having recorded just one in six years. She followed up on Sunday with a straight sets win over Karolina Muchova to reach the 4th Round, the deepest she's played into the draw in Miami since 2013.

After jumping into the Top 75 (from #83) after her I.W. result, Cirstea is now into the Top 60 in the live rankings.



Meanwhile, fresh off her trip to the Indian Wells doubles final alonside Beatriz Haddad Maia, Siegemund qualified for the singles MD with early week victories over Diana Shnaider and Eva Lys. The German got a 1st Round win over Mayar Sherif, then fell to Paula Badosa a round later after pushing the Spaniard to three sets.

In January, Siegemund reached the 3rd Round of the Australian Open, matching her best career AO solo run since 2016.

Siegemund was the defending doubles champion in Miami this year, seeking to the title with Vera Zvonareva with the Original Hordette back on tour. Despite their cause seemingly being aided by the withdrawal of top-seeded Krejcikova/Siniakova after the latter's wrist injury this week in singles, just days after the Czechs had defeated Siegemund/Haddad for the I.W. crown, the veteran pair fell on Sunday to Linette/Pera.
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COMEBACKS: Bianca Andreescu/CAN and Marketa Vondrousova/CZE
...Andreescu's run in Indian Wells was shorter than she'd have liked, but her 3rd Round loss to Iga Swiatek was encouraging enough to see her bring hope cross country to Miami, where the Canadian reached the final in '21, her biggest final since she won the U.S. Open in '19.

Through the first week, Andreescu was impressive, winning the all former U.S. Open champions clash with Emma Raducanu in straights, then ending her three-match losing streak vs. Top 10 players by claiming a three-set battle vs. Maria Sakkari, her first Top 10 win since last summer in Toronto (Kasatkina). On Sunday, Andreescu took out another former slam champ in Sofia Kenin (whose 3rd Round run leveled off her '23 mark at 8-8, after winning just just 11 and 10 matches, respectively, in all of '21 and '22).

Even with all the issues that have kept her off the court since her brilliant (but, even then, injury-tinged) '19 campaign, North American courts have always been kind to Andreescu. Through her 3rd Round win in Miami, she's gone a combined 57-13 on the continent since 2018.



Following up her second consecutive 4th Round run at Indian Wells, Vondrousova arrived in Miami again using her protected ranking to gain direct entry into the MD. She spent the first week in Florida stirring up a sense of deja vu.

Vondrousova posted straight sets wins over Tatjana Maria and Veronika Kudermetova, setting up a 3rd Round clash with Karolina Pliskova on Sunday. She handled her veteran countrywoman 1 & 2.

In her last two appearances in Miami, Vondrousova reached the QF (2019) and Round of 16 (2021).
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FRESH FACE: Varvara Gracheva/RUS
...after going through some tough stretches in '22, Gracheva is really starting to heat up in '23.

The 22-year old Hordette, as she did in Indian Wells (where she reached the 4r), played her way through qualifying into the MD, defeating Reka Luca Jani and Peyton Stearns. In the big field, Gracheva has posted wins over Maryna Zanevska and Ons Jabeur, the latter her third career Top 10 win (w/ all coming this year), and lucky loser Magdalena Frech as she improved to 10-1 in her last 11 matches and 14-2 in 16.

In the live rankings, she's climbed into the Top 50 and will crack the barrier for the first time once the Miami event has concluded.


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DOWN: Amanda Anisimova/USA
...try as she might, even though she's posted a handful of good (and hopeful) results over the past couple of seasons, Anisimova's career continues along on its one step forward, two (or three) steps back, pattern.

In Miami, Anisimova exited in the 1st Round vs. Madison Brengle with a hip injury, retiring down 7-6/5-2 to drop her fifth match of the last six (w/ only a win over the returning Vera Zvonareva in Dubai). After ending her season following the U.S. Open last year, Anisimova has posted a 3-7 mark in '23, continuing her downward turn since reaching the Wimbledon QF last summer.

In the season's three biggest events (AO/IW/Mia), she's yet to record a win in '23.
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ITF PLAYERS: Jaqueline Cristian/ROU and Wang Yafan/CHN
...here comes the Countess!

Cristian continued her so far successful comeback from injury, winning her second straight challenger title at the $25K in Palma Nova, Spain, with a 6-4/6-0 victory in the final over Iryna Shymanovich. Now with 10 straight match wins, and with a 15-2 mark going back to '22, Cristian has picked up three singles titles since September and will climb back into the Top 200 in the next official rankings update (a week from now).



In Canberra, Australia, Wang claimed the week's biggest challenger event, downing Aussie Olivia Gadecki 3-6/6-2/6-0 in the $60K tournament finale to pick up her 12th career title.

Gadecki lost in both the singles and doubles finals, falling to 2-8 in do-or-die solo efforts in her career.
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JUNIOR STARS: Clervie Ngounoue/USA and Rebecca Munk Mortensen/DEN
...to paraphrase Ngounoue's Twitter bio: She is Clervie.

Once again, Ngounoue was all the Clervie she could be, too, following up her sweep of the s/d doubles at the inaugural Indian Wells J300 by doing the same at J300 San Diego. A week after defeating fellow Bannerette Iva Jovic in the semis, the 16-year old defeated her in the final this time around by a 7-6/3-6/6-0 score to run her winning streak to 11 (and 27-1 back to November).

Ngounoue & Qavia Lopez repeated their girls' doubles title run, as well.



Along with her 11-0 junior singles mark on the sesaon, Ngounoue is 9-0 in doubles (she's gone 19-1 in GD in 2022-23). She also reached a pair of ITF challenger singles finals last year (she's still seeking her maiden title) and has won two pro doubles titles since the start of last season.

In Villena (ESP), Dane RMM grabbed her first career J300 crown (former J1). The #9 seed (girls' #82), Munk Mortensen defeated Spanish qualifier Martina Genis Salas 6-2/6-2 in the final.

Earlier this year, the 17-year old qualified to reach the AO junior MD, where she knocked off Mayu Crossley (the only played to defeat Ngounoue in her last 28 girls' singles matches, in last year's Orange Bowl final) in the 1st Round.
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[Miami through 3rd Round]



1. Miami 2nd Rd. - Bianca Andreescu def. Maria Sakkari
...5-7/6-3/6-4. The 2019 I.W. winner (BA) vs. the '22 I.W. finalist (MS) vs. the '21 Miami finalist (BA) vs. the '22 I.W. semifinalist (MS).

Andreescu's three-set triumph, a follow-up to her 3rd set TB win over Sakkari in the Miami semis two years ago, ends the Canadian's three-match Top 10 losing streak as she notches her first since defeating Dasha Kasatkina last summer in Toronto.


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2. Miami 1st Rd. - Camila Giorgi def. Kaia Kanepi
...7-6(4)/6-7(4)/7-6(4). Giorgi survives Kanepi's furious comeback attempt in 3:32, tying for the longest match of the WTA season (Austin 1r: E.Andreeva/Dart).

The Italian led the 1st 5-2, served at 5-3 and held two SP before being forced to a TB, where she rallied from 3-0 down to win 7-4. Giorgi took a 3-1 edge in the 2nd, but was forced to save a Kanepi SP at 6-5 before the Estonian won another 7-4 TB to force a deciding set. In the 3rd, Giorgi squandered a 5-0 lead, twice serving for the match and holding two MP in back-to-back games before taking *another* 7-4 TB to finally secure the victory.



Giorgi lost a round later to Victoria Azarenka.
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3. Miami 3rd Rd. - Elena Rybakina def. Paula Badosa
...3-6/7-5/6-3. Rybakina's first week in Miami hasn't been easy. First she had to stuggle past Anna Kalinskaya in three sets in a match that ended near midnight after she'd made the cross country trip following her Indian Wells title run.

Come the weekend, the Kazakh continued to show that she can just as well win in "fight back mode" as "roll through mode," overcoming a 6-2/4-2 deficit vs. Badosa, saving a MP at 5-4 on her own serve en route to her 10th straight win in a match in which she produced 60 winners (w/ 12 aces).


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4. Miami 2nd Rd. - Anastasia Potapova def. Marta Kostyuk
...6-1/6-3. Move along, nothing to see here. No jerseys. No hand-shake. Just a bump in the road.


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5. Miami 3rd Rd. - Anastasia Potapova def. Coco Gauff
...6-7(8)/7-5/6-2. Potapova squandered a 5-2 1st set lead, failing to put away 2 SP in the TB. In the 2nd, it was Gauff who couldn't close things out, serving for the match at 5-3 before dropping four consecutive games heading into the 3rd. There, the U.S. teen once again went out with surprisingly little scoreboard pushback in the decider.


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6. Miami 1st Rd. - Robin Montgomery def. Ana Bogdan
...3-6/6-3/6-3. The 18-year old Bannerette records her first career WTA MD win.

In her third straight Miami MD as a wild card, Montgomery had lost in the 1st Round the past two years in three-set matches vs. Magda Linette and Anna Kalinskaya (in a TB).


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7. Miami 1st Rd. - Irina-Camelia Begu def. Alex Eala
...6-3/6-2. The 17-year old Filipina ('22 U.S. Open jr. champ) makes her 1000 debut. Eala lost in straights, but led 2-0 in the 1st and 5-1 in the 2nd (w/ 5 SP). Her 48% first serve percentage wasn't helpful.


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8. Miami 1st Rd. - Claire Liu def. Katerina Siniakova
...3-6/3-3 ret. The Tennis Gods giveth, and the Tennis Gods taketh away.

Days after winning her first I.W. doubles title with Barbora Krejcikova, Siniakova was cruising vs. Liu until a wrist injury in game 5 of the 2nd set. It didn't take long for her to retire from the match, withdraw from WD (goodbye "Sunshine Double") and put a scare into the collective Czech fandom that have already witness countrywoman Muchova and Vondrousova struggle through lingering injuries in recent seasons.

Thankfully, it doesn't look if it was a catastrophic injury. Siniakova has since announced that she'll likely only have to skip a few tournaments.
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9. Miami 3rd Rd. - Zheng Qinwen def. Liudmila Samsonova
...5-7/7-6(5)/6-3. Zheng led 5-2 in the 1st before Samsonova grabbed the set, then the new Chinese star won a TB to level the match after a no-break 2nd.

Samsonova led 3-0 in the decider before Zheng ran off six straight games to end the 3:08 contest, posting her first win over the Hordette since last July in Palermo (Samonova had won matches in Tokyo and Abu Dhabi, and gotten a walkover from Zheng in Dubai).

Samsonova has lost three of her last four three-set matches.


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10. Miami 3rd Rd. - Magda Linette def. Victoria Azarenka
...7-6(3)/2-6/6-4. Azarenka's semifinal run at the Australian Open seemed to forecast a quick start to her '23 season. She exited Melbourne with a 7-3 mark in her first 10 matches (and was 11-4 stretching back into '22). Azarenka stuttered in her post-AO schedule, though, blowing a lead vs. Belinda Bencic in Doha and going just 3-2 before heading back to the U.S. for the Sunshine swing.

Her favored North American hard courts seemed as if they'd be a good stretch to right the ship again, with her having won five career titles (2 I.W., 3 Miami) at the two events. But it turned out to be nothing of the sort.

After losing to Karolina Muchova in her Indian Wells opener, Azarenka fell in the 3rd Round in Miami to Linette, giving her just one win in the IW/Miami two-fer, her lowest total ever when playing in both events since making her debut in 2006.

The win secured Linette's first career 1000 Round of 16 result.
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11. Miami 1st Rd. - Elise Mertens def. Alycia Parks
...6-1/6-4. Parks has gone from one of the best performances of the entire season (in Lyon) to one of the season's most disappointing flameouts (1-5 since) in less than two months.
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12. Miami 2nd Rd. - Elise Mertens def. Dasha Kasatkina
...4-6/6-2/6-2. Kasatkina has gone six events without back-to-back wins since reaching the Adelaide 2 final in Week 2, all the while dispensing Top 10 wins like tips at the local diner.

Since winning the Granby 250 title in August, she's gone 9-14.
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13. Miami 2nd Rd. - Petra Kvitova def. Linda Noskova
...6-3/6-0. Petra improves to 33-5 vs. fellow Czechs since 2012, ending her two-match losing streak vs. her countrywomen.
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14. Miami 2nd Rd. - Varvara Gracheva def. Ons Jabeur
...6-2/6-2. All of Gracheva's three career Top 10 have come in 2023, with two occurring during the Sunshine swing. The other two came vs. Kasatkina.



The Hordette has already won more than 20 matches this season. She didn't notch her 20th "W" last year until June.
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15. Miami Q1 - Eva Lys def. Vera Zvonareva
...6-4/6-1. Zvonereva is 0-3 thus far in her singles return after seeing her '22 season end following Miami.

Zvonareva played her first pro match in 1999, some 27 months before Lys was born.
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16. $40K Maribor SLO Final - Mai Hontama def. Clara Tauson
...6-4/3-6/6-4. Hontama takes down Tauson. Indoors. No easy feat.
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17. $15 Monastir TUN Final - Liu Fangzhou def. Martina Spigarelli
...6-2/6-3. Listed here not so much because of this result, but because of the SF wins of the two finalists that deprived us of a Radovanovic vs. Radanovic final, as in France's Nina and Serbia's Dejana, respectively.
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18. Miami 3rd Rd. - Ekaterina Alexandrova def. Belinda Bencic
...7-6(8)/6-3. Bencic still stands at 16-5 on the season, but she was once 14-2.
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[Miami through 3rd Rd.]

1. Miami 1st Rd. - Katherine Sebov def. Linda Fruhvirtova
...6-2/4-6/6-4. A year after reaching the 4th Round in her 1000 MD debut, the senior Fruhvirtova sister goes out in the 1st Round in qualifier Sebov's maiden 1000 MD win.


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2. Miami 1st Rd. - Wang Xinyu def. Brenda Fruhvirtova
...6-0/7-5. Linda's 15-year old sister exited on the same day, dropping the first nine games in her 1000 debut before finally finding her footing and making the 2nd set a competitive one.
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3. Miami 1st Rd. - Coco Gauff/Jessie Pegula def. Brenda Fruhvirtova/Linda Fruhvirtova
...3-6/6-4 [10-4]. The sisters didn't last long in the doubles draw, but they left their mark.


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So, with two more matches possible, *no* matches vs. Rybakina in Miami or BJK vs. Kazakhstan.


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I'm surprised someone didn't say that Sabalenka should have been defaulted, or worse. See Randy Johnson and Dave Winfield (and some unlucky birds).














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*HIGHEST-RANKED PLAYERS (3/19 rank) WHO HAVE NEVER CRACKED TOP 10*
#14 Beatriz Haddad Maia
#15 Liudmila Samsonova
#18 Ekaterina Alexandrova
#19 Magda Linette
#20 Donna Vekic
[current high-ranked never Top 20]
#23 Zheng Qinwen
#24 Martina Trevisan
#26 Anastasia Potapova
#27 Zhang Shuai
#28 Anhelina Kalinina
#32 Jil Teichmann

*MOST WEEKS AT DOUBLES #1 (through wk. of 3/27)*
237 - Martina Navratilova
199 - Liezel Huber
163 - Cara Black
137 - Lisa Raymond
124 - Natasha Zvereva
111 - Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario
110 - Roberta Vinci
91 - KATERINA SINIAKOVA
91 - Sania Mirza
87 - Paola Suarez
87 - Sara Errani

*CURRENT TOP 10 WEEK STREAKS (through wk. of 3/27)*
123 - Aryna Sabalenka
89 - Maria Sakkari
74 - Iga Swiatek
60 - Ons Jabeur
43 - Jessie Pegula
[current Top 20 streaks]
219 - Aryna Sabalenka
128 - Iga Swiatek
103 - Maria Sakkari
80 - Ons Jabeur
51 - Jessie Pegula
50 - Belinda Bencic

*MULTIPLE #1 WINS IN A SEASON - since 2010*
2010 (2) Samantaha Stosur
2011 (2) Dominika Cibulkova, Julia Goerges, Vera Zvonareva
2012 (4) Serena Williams
2012 (2) Maria Sharapova
2013 - none w/ 2
2014 (3) - Alize Cornet
2015 - none w/ 2
2016 (2) - Elina Svitolina
2017 (3) - Elina Svitolina, Caroline Wozniacki
2017 (2) - Garbine Muguruza, CoCo Vandeweghe
2018 - none w/ 2
2019 (3) - Belinda Bencic; (2) Sonya Kenin
2020 - none w/ 2
2021 - none w/ 2
2022 - none w/ 2
2023 (2) - Elena Rybakina





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I wonder if Alona Ostapenko was watching? If so, this might give her some wild ideas.


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I totally agree with this. The intensity, seen here in real life, gives him a naturally suspenseful "what is he going to do?" aura. He could play "evil" really well... or at least a character along the lines of Nicholson's Jack Torrance in "The Shining" who slowly goes dangerously insane.

And, yes, being part of a whacked-out, destructive pseudo-religious cult lends something to this, too.

(And I say that even while always having liked him as an actor... I honestly believe he may be the greatest "movie star" in the history of the industry.)

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I suppose I have nostalgia for the likes of Blockbuster, but I have fonder memories of the local video rental stores (in my case, they had names like "On Track Video" and "Video Invasion") that Blockbuster put out of business.

Now, I really miss places like Waldenbooks.



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All for now.
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