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Sunday, March 10, 2024

Wk.10- Are Desert Destinies Made of Sand?







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*WEEK 10*

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[IW Through 2nd Round]




RISER: Anna Blinkova/RUS
...even with her two wins so far in Indian Wells, Blinkova still stands at just 7-6 on the year, but it sure *feels* as if she's done more.

The Hordette had maybe the best single match moment of the season to date with her 22-20 TB win over Elena Rybakina at the Australian Open, and this week she recorded her *second* Top 5 win of 2024 in Indian Wells.

After opening with a three-set victory over the recently-scorching Karolina Pliskova, Blinkova avenged her San Diego QF loss to Jessie Pegula with a three-set win over the world #5 in the desert.

Now in the 3rd Round, Blinkova's previous 1000 bests were 3r at Doha (2018) and Rome (2020). She's reached the 3rd Round at three of the last four majors, but has never gone deeper in the draw in any other 1000-or-better event. She'll face Diane Parry next with a chance to change that.



She has a shot to climb back into the Top 40 at the end of this tournament, and maybe even catch her career high (#34) from last August.
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SURPRISE: Nadia Podoroska/ARG
...the Argentine has been in the right place at the right time in Indian Wells.

Podoroska arrived on a four match losing streak, with a 1-6 mark in her last seven. She lost in the second qualifying round to Nuria Parrizas Diaz, but entered the draw as a lucky loser due to Paula Badosa's withdrawal. After a win over Ashlyn Krueger, she did not have to face reigning champ Elena Rybakina in the 2nd Round and instead got fellow LL Kayla Day when the Kazakh pulled out with an illness.

Podoroska handled Day in straights to reach her first 1000 3rd Round since 2021 Rome. Her only other 3rd Rd.+ plus result in a 1000-or-better event was her 2020 semifinal at Roland Garros.


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VETERAN: Caroline Wozniacki/DEN
...on North American big-event hard courts, #204 Wozniacki seems to have found her comfort zone once again.

The Dane's best comeback run since her return last summer was at the U.S. Open, where she posted three of her four '23 victories, defeating Kvitova and Brady and taking eventual champ Gauff to three sets. The 2011 I.W. champ opened '24 at 1-3, with her only win coming via a retirement.

She's found a groove early in her first desert appearance in five years, defeating Zhu Lin and Donna Vekic to reach the 3rd Round.


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COMEBACKS: Angelique Kerber/GER and Naomi Osaka/JPN
...back this season after becoming a mother, Kerber came into Indian Wells with her only return win coming in the Week 1 United Cup after having saved a pair of MP vs. Ajla Tomljanovic in a 3rd set TB (the Aussie was 1-3 in that event, while Kerber went 1-4).

The 36-year old (#607) posted her first MD tournament win since Wimbledon '22 with her 1st Round victory over Petra Martic, then climbed several tiers on the comeback pyramid with a three-set victory over #10 Alona Ostapenko. Kerber trailed 7-5/2-0 before rallying to drop just four more games in the final two sets and notch her first Top 10 win (career 43rd) since November '21 (Krejcikova/BJK Cup).



Osaka's first big breakout result came when she won Indian Wells in 2018. By the time she returned a year later, she'd won a pair of slam titles and risen to #1. What will happen to Osaka over the next 12 months?

Osaka has shown good form throughout '24, even if the wins have been slow to come, in her return from maternity leave. While her history says what happens this spring/summer on clay and grass won't mean much, the same can't be said for the four-time slam winner's hard court results. Two tight losses to Karolina Pliskova (Brisbane 2r, Doha QF) have tied a rope around her ankle and kept Osaka from soaring thus far, but it wasn't hard to see that she might be a few wins away from such a thing.

So far in Indian Wells she's put up wins over Sara Errani and Liudmila Samsonova, the latter the first Top 20 win in her comeback. She'll enter the second week above .500 on the season (5-4) and a match with Elise Mertens away from a possible 4th Round meeting with Coco Gauff.

In 2018 in the desert, Osaka clocked her first multiple Top 10 win tournament, getting her maiden career #1 win over Simona Halep in the semis en route to the title. She hasn't had a Top 10 win since 2020, but if she gets one by the end of next week... well, who knows what might be possible.

Next weekend in Indian Wells, a few weeks from now in Miami and, in truth, New York come the summertime, too.


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FRESH FACES: Katie Volynets/USA and Diane Parry/FRA
...Volynets is off to a 14-5 start in '24, reaching a tour-level QF in Hua Hin and a pair of 125 semifinals. In Indian Wells, the Bannerette opened with a win over Mirra Andreeva and then backed it up with her second career Top 10 win with a victory over Ons Jabeur.



Though she has seven slam MD victories to her name (including at this year's AO, her third 3rd Rd. run at a major), Parry came into the week having never appeared in a 1000 singles MD, losing in qualifying nine times over the years.

Ranked high enough (#61) to be an automatic MD entrant in Indian Wells, the Pastry has run off victories over Martina Trevisan and Leylah Fernandez, taking down the Canadian in three sets in nearly three hours (rallying from 0-2 in the 3rd).

Parry has a pair of QF to her credit in '24, in Auckland and Austin, and will now face Anna Blinkova for a berth in the I.W. Round of 16.


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DOWN: Alona Ostapenko/LAT and Elena Rybakina/KAZ
...Ostapenko is nothing if not a tennis headline waiting to happen, either via a dominant win, momentum-changing comeback or loss after having charged to the match lead in the early-going. In Indian Wells, it was the latter.

Ostapenko led Angelique Kerber 7-5/2-0, only to lose 12 of the final 16 games vs. the veteran German, who picked up her first Top 10 win in nearly two and a half years.

Ostapenko started this season at 16-3 and was the first to collect two titles. Her first three losses came at the hands of. Vika Azarenka. She's now lost back-to-back outings vs. Anna Kalinskaya and Kerber.

Meanwhile, after struggling with her health at times last season, Rybakina has now withdrawn from consecutive events with a gastronomical illness, first in the Dubai QF (would-be opponent Jasmine Paolini went on to win the title) and now in Indian Wells (where she was to be the defending champ).



Hmmm, could it be that maybe the reason that I.W. has never been successfully defended is that the previous year's champion (like Rybakina?) got immediately sick to her stomach after seeing the unveiling of the "rendering" (and I use that term tremendously loosely) of her likeness as the reigning champion in those annually hideous murals? Seriously, how does the tournament allow this travesty to continue *every* *single* *year*? It's embarrassing.



Some have said that it more resembles Camila Osorio. Maybe, but I also see Danka Kovinic.

After seeing *his* mural, Alcaraz might have had to down a whole bottle of Pepto...


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ITF PLAYER: Suzan Lamens/NED
...the 24-year old Dutch player picked up her sixth and by far biggest career challenger title, taking the Trnava (SVK) $75K event with a 2 & 2 win in the final over 18-year old Swiss Celine Naef.

Lamens (NED #3 behind Rus and Hartono) will climb to a new career high just outside the Top 150 (a few spots ahead, incidentally, of Bianca Andreescu, whose status and potential return date remain a mystery).

Naef had previously been 7-1 in ITF singles finals, and less than a year ago made her WTA MD debut a memorable one with a 1st Round win over Venus Williams at Rosmalen.
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JUNIOR STARS: Kaitlyn Rolls/USA and Lea Nilsson/SWE
...for the second week in a row, the biggest stop on the junior circuit was in Brazil, this time the J500 Banana Bowl in Blumenau.

A year ago, Mayu Crossley won the Banana Bowl title, and last week she won the J300 crown in Porto Alegre, Brazil. She entered the final a combined 19-1 in the four Brazilian events over the past two seasons, but in this weekend's final match it was a 17-year old Bannerette (girls' #44) who rolled.

As in the marvelously-named Kaitlyn Rolls, and she did. Her name is literally a headline.

Rolls took a 7-6/6-2 final, and had posted three straight three-set victories to get there, taking out Jeline Vandromme ('24 Barranquilla J300 winner) and Antonia Vergara Rivera (J300 Inka & Asuncion Bowl crowns) -- along with Crossley, they combined to win half of first eight J300/J500 tourmanents this year -- en route to her biggest career title.



There haven't been a great deal of achieving Swedish juniors of late, but 15-year old Nilsson (jr. #96) has been making a move in '24.

In the AO juniors, she qualified and defeated Czech Alena Kovackova. She lost to Brit Mimi Xu in the 3rd Round, but had a MP.

This week in Nonthaburi (THA), Nilsson picked up her biggest career title, taking the J300 prize with a victory over Aussie Alana Subasic in the final.
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WHEELCHAIR: Diede de Groot/NED
...another week, another title for de Groot, as well as a nervy final vs. Yui Kamiji.

Already in 2024, Kamiji had had de Groot (who was playing w/ some sort of injury throughout January) on the edge, taking a 5-1 3rd set lead and holding a MP vs. the world #1 in the Melbourne Open final. At the Australian Open, they played two close sets in the championship match. De Groot always seems to find a way, though, and she did it again in Baton Rouge (LA) in their first ever meeting in the Cajun Classic.

After de Groot had posted earlier wins over Kgothatso Montjane and Aniek Van Koot, and Kamiji over Lizzy de Greef, Angelica Bernal and Jiske Griffioen, the two met in a singles final for the 48th time.

De Groot won in straights, 7-5/7-6, but only after needing three tries to serve out the 1st, losing a 5-3 2nd set lead, failing to convert a MP on Kamiji's serve, twice failing to serve out the match and then having to recover from an early 2-0 deficit in the eventual tie-breaker, winning on her third MP.

De Groot's winning streak now stands at 142 in a row (27 straight over Kamiji), with 37 consecutive titles. She's won 278 of her last 288 sets, including 18 straight. De Groot is 40-8 in singles finals vs. Kamiji (45-15 overall).

Kamiji's week ran her record vs. non-de Groot opponents to 13-0 this season (26 straight), and 105-2 since the start of 2022.

De Groot & Griffioen were set to face Kamiji & Montjane in the doubles final, but Griffioen retired in her singles SF vs. Kamiji and then the duo withdrew from the doubles, as well. De Groot has still yet to lose either a singles or doubles match on the court in '24, going 25-0 alongside this week's doubles walkover loss.
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[IW Through 2nd Round]



1. IW 2nd Rd. - Aryna Sabalenka def. Peyton Stearns
...6-7(2)/6-2/7-6(6). The world #2 prevails in one of best, most intense battles of the year so far, winning on MP #4 after having previously saved four.

Stearns took the 1st set in a TB, but it was the 3rd where this one lived its truth.

Sabalenka seemed to have missed a huge opportunity at 3-2, when she led 15/40 but saw the fiery Stearns get the hold, then even more miraculously hold again two games later with a series of remarkable winners that turned multiple Sabalenka-controlled rallies in her favor.



Stearns then quickly went up love/30 on Sabalenka in the next game. A Sabalenka DF handed Stearns a BP and she converted with a Sabalenka error. Serving for the match at 5-4, the former NCAA champ took a 40/love lead, but failed to put away four MP in the game as Sabalenka broke to get back on serve. Stearns again grabbed the lead at 15/40 in game 11, but game Sabalenka didn't give up easily in a game in which she slid and nearly turned her ankle, and reached GP twice (on the first going big on both 1st and 2nd serves, but missing both) before Stearns broke on her fifth BP to lead 6-5. But again Stearns couldn't put the match away.

In the deciding TB, Sabalenka (now playing w/ a bloody knee wound) finally edged ahead with a crosscourt second serve return winner to lead 4-2. She went up 6-3, but Stearns again surged back, saving two MP on her own serve and another on Sabalenka's. Finally, on MP #4, Sabalenka put away the nearly three-hour thriller to get her first win since claiming her second AO crown.

It's Stearns' sixth three-set loss in her nine matches this season (she's 2-7 overall).



Meanwhile, if having Kerber, Wozniacki, Osaka and (soon) Halep back in the spotlight isn't enough of a time warp for you, I give you... Redfoo (not w/ Vika, and not in 2013) in the Stearns courtside box.


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2. IW 1st Rd. - Bernarda Pera def. Dasha Saville
...7-5/4-6/7-6(5). As Wednesday's afternoon 1st Round action turned into a mini-version of WTA Finals Cancun, Saville saw multiple leads over Pera swept away as if by a gust of wind.

The Aussie led 5-1 in the 1st, but Pera crushed the final five games. Saville led 5-0 in the 2nd, then saw her lead shrink to 5-4 before she finally got a game 10 break of serve to level the match. She again led by a break at 2-0 in the 3rd. Pera was up 6-5 when Saville saved three MP and broke (on BP #5 of game 12) to force a deciding TB. Things were knotted at 5-5, then Pera swept the final two points to win in 3:08.

This was Saville's tour-leading third three-hour WTA MD match of the season. She's won just one.


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3. Cajun Classic (Baton Rouge) Final - Diede de Groot def. Yui Kamiji
...7-5/7-6(4). De Groot often has trouble putting away Kamiji, and the same held true here.

The world #1 was consistently in front, but was unable to cleanly secure either the 1st or 2nd sets in the final. She led 5-2 in the 1st, but twice failed to serve it out. Finally, the third time was the charm, despite having 10 DF in the set.

De Groot cleaned things up in the 2nd, and held a MP on Kamiji's serve at 5-3 but didn't convert it, then was broken a game later as she served for the match even after holding a 5-4, 30/love lead. She got another chance to serve out the title at 6-5. Nope.

In the 2nd set TB, Kamiji led 2-0 when de Groot finally rediscoverd her groove, taking a 4-2 edge. She reached MP again at 6-3, though it took two more tries before her overall third MP (on a wide return from Kamiji) proved to be the closer.

The streak is at 142 matches, 27 in a row over Kamiji.


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4. IW 2nd Rd. - Angelique Kerber def. Alona Ostapenko 5-7/6-3/6-3
IW 2nd Rd. - Caroline Wozniacki def. Donna Vekic 7-6(5)/6-3
...suddenly, it's 2018 again as Kerber, Wozniacki and Osaka are winning matches in a 1000 event, while Halep is set to return in less than two weeks.



Kerber's comeback from 7-5/2-0 down vs. Ostapenko was just the third victory in her '24 return after becoming a mom, but it's also her first Top 10 win since November 2021.

The win over Vekic was Wozniacki's third Top 50 win since her un-retirement last summer.



The last time both Kerber and Wozniacki were in the 3rd Round in Indian Wells was six years ago in 2018.
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5. IW 2nd Rd. - Coco Gauff def. Clara Burel
...2-6/6-3/7-6(4). Gauff avoids falling to 2-4 in her last six since reaching the AO semis (after a 10-0 start to '24).

Of course, she had to rally from 4-0 and 5-2 down in the 3rd vs. Burel, who served for the match at 5-3 (a love break). Gauff won on her third MP in the TB.

Burel was seeking her first 1000 3rd Round (she's had back-to-back slam 3r at the US/AO) and biggest career win (her other Top 10 win came over Pegula in Melbourne).


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6. IW 1st Rd. - Camila Giorgi def. Katie Boulter
...6-3/6-2. Okay, this wasn't a shocking development just days after San Diego, but let's take this moment to try and quell the odd notion that grew wings last weekend that Boulter had had this "great '24" season before Week 9, when in fact she had a great *week* after what had been a less-than-lackluster start (1r-1r-2r results pre-Week 9) and past eight months. She's now failed to reach the QF in 14 of her last 15 events.

But, "She has seven Top 40 wins this season!" She had five of them in San Diego, and one of the other two came vs. Pegula in a fake team event (which meant nothing) in Week 1. "She's all the way into the Top 30!" Before last week she was barely inside the Top 50 (#49).

I like her, too, but I'm not willing to acknowleged some sort of fantasy world that says she's been this unmistakable "rising force" since she won in Nottingham (highest ranked win there: #131) last summer.
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7. IW 1st Rd. - Mai Hontama def. Zhang Shuai
...5-7/6-2/6-0. Zhang's 18th consecutive loss. Her last win was on January 31... in 2023.

Amarissa Kiara Toth has gone 16-4 this season on the challenger circuit (35-12 since the incident).
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8. IW 2nd Rd. - Madison Keys def. Hailey Baptiste
...6-4/4-6/7-6(4). Keys finally makes her '24 debut, and it *almost* didn't last long. Baptiste had two MP chances on Keys' serve at 5-4 (Keys had 3 DF in the game), but the (still) world #20 held and then won a deciding TB.

Baptiste -- already with 20 wins in '24 -- is currently sporting a "live" Top 100 ranking, which if she holds it to the end of this tournament would mark a career breakthrough.
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9. IW 1st Rd. - Angelique Kerber def. Petra Martic
...6-3/6-4. Kerber came in with just one more win that Simona Halep since the 2022 U.S. Open (okay, Angie missed a year and a half while on maternity leave). With this she doubled that total.

Kerber's only other win in her first seven matches in '24 came via a 3rd set TB in the United Cup over Ajla Tomljanovic after saving two MP.



Kerber upped the stakes considerably a round later with a win over Ostapenko.
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10. IW 1st Rd. - Caroline Wozniacki def. Zhu Lin
...7-6(6)/6-1. The Dane -- the 2022 I.W. champ -- wins in her first appearance in the desert in five years. (It was in 2019, not 2018 as the tweet says.)


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11. IW 2nd Rd. - Emma Navarro def. Lesia Tsurenko
...4-6/7-5/7-5. Taking place during all the Sabalenka/Stearns drama, Navarro's comeback was overshadowed, but the Hobart champ is back on the proverbial horse after falling to Katie Boulter in the San Diego semis, rallying from 6-4/5-3 down to take out Tsurenko.

At least Tsurenko made it through the match without retiring. Of course, if she'd won she surely wouldn't have played the 3rd Round, though, right?
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12. IW 2nd Rd. - Katie Volynets def. Ons Jabeur
...6-4/6-4. Jabeur's nightmarish start to 2024 continues as she falls to 2-4 with her third straight loss.
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13. IW 2nd Rd. - Caroline Dolehide def. Victoria Azarenka
...7-5/2-6/6-3. A 9-2 start for Vika in '24, but a retirement and 1-3 mark since. We saw this show in 2023 (10-4 start, 13-15 finish).
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14. IW 2nd Rd. - Yuan Yue def. Zheng Qinwen
...6-4/6-3. This year's AO champ narrowly avoided an early exit, but Sabalenka's Melbourne final opponent wasn't so lucky as Zheng provides countrywoman Yuan with her first career Top 10 win.


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15. Cajun Classic (WC) 2nd Rd. - Yui Kamiji def. Lizzy de Greef
...6-0/3-0 ret. Just days after winning a Series 1 title in Georgia (US) and getting wins over Aniek Van Koot and Dana Mathewson, de Greef retires after nine games in Louisiana vs. Kamiji (she also pulled out of the doubles). The Dutch teen is now 0-2 vs. Kamiji, having lost 21 of 22 games.
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16. $35K Solarino ITA Final - Linda Klimovicova def. Jessica Pieri 6-3/6-0
$15K Sharm El Sheikh EGY Final - Anna Siskova def. Katarina Kuzmova 6-4/4-6/6-2
...another week, another Crusher title (or two, depending on if 22-year old Siskova counts along with the group of raging Czech teens).

19-year old Klimovicova picked up career title #4, defeating Pieri in the final after having gotten a win over a 36-year old Aravane Rezai in the semis. That result was the French woman's best singles result since 2012, her last full season on tour.

It's also title #4 for Siskova, her first since 2021 after collecting far more notable results in doubles in recent years, including her first tour final and three more in 125 events (winning 1) in '23, and 12 (w/ 9 wins) on the challenger level since the start of last year.
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HM- $15K Antalya TUR Final - Tyra Caterina Grant def. Anja Stakovic
...6-0/6-4. The 15-year old Bannerette reaches and wins in her first pro final appearance. She also claimed the WD crown with Aurora Zantedeschi.

Grant won the '23 RG and '24 AO girls doubles titles.
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[IW Through 2nd Round]



1. IW 1st Rd. - Nao Hibino def. Venus Williams
...2-6/6-3/6-0. The recent tactic of "just get her into a 3rd set" continues to work for Williams' opponents, as Hibino drops Venus to 3-12 since the start of '22 (7-29 since 2020). This was Williams' first apperance in the desert since 2019, and she played her first match there 28 years ago.

Still, Williams' 31st season on tour has now officially begun, and wins -- as nice as they'd be -- don't "matter" quite as much as small in-match victories (like that good 1st set) and the fact that Venus continues to desire to pick up a racket, hit the court and see what happens.
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2. IW 1st Rd. - Katie Volynets def. Mirra Andreeva 7-5/7-5
IW 1st Rd. - Danielle Collins def. Erika Andreeva 7-6(3)/7-6(6)
...both sisters ultimately lost those matches, as well. Though it took an extra day for Erika, who saw her Wednesday match finish pushed to Thursday with Collins up 7-6/6-5.
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In certain corners of the tennis world, every day is Groundhog Day...



So, from four *years* to nine *months*. Talk about an indictment of the system. Is there no "judicial oversight" regarding the Alphabets that would put on official public display the overzealous and often blatantly predjudicial sentences handed down by the collective testing apparatus? There should be.

Halep's original positive test came in August 2022 (at the U.S. Open), and was reported that October. That was *seventeen* months ago.

She didn't even get a hearing before her accusers until the following June 2022, ten months after the test. It took until September 2023, eleven months after her provisional suspension began, for her appeal to be (as expected) denied and a "final" four-year ban issued (they actually doubled-down and added a totally separate second charge... but only after she'd publicly spoken out about the multiple postponements and long delay before she was even able to present her case). It took five more months -- in February 2024 -- for her long-awaited hearing before an independent tribunal to occur.

That result was rendered fairly quickly (for once), and now history will say her suspension ended in *July 2023*.

What a (corrupt) mess.

Meanwhile, in words spoken by someone (Tara Moore) who has had the displeasure of being taken through the ringer by the Alphabets without any acknowledgement of any sort of "gray area" or the realities of player/coach/team/world-at-large relationships:



Also, I love (i.e. roll eyes at) this Alphabet response, which makes a point to say that CAS "partially upheld" Halep's appeal (rather than decimated the original sentence)... and then turned off the replies on the post, too. (Hmmm, it'd be nice if the accused athletes could do the same over the year-and-a-half that they have to wait for a judgement, huh?) Bastards until the end.



And as for those who impulsively, selfishly, haughtily and/or vindictively (see a certain pickleballer) pile atop any player who ever gets caught up in these situations, with no heeding to their incomplete knowledge in the moment nor later acknowledging how the process ultimately resolves itself, those of us who *see* you know the truth.

One highlighted example...



For the record, Serena won seven Wimbledon titles, and that tweet suddenly appeared when Halep's four-year suspension was announced last September... though some tried to act as if it was in reference to something else. Sure, Jan.

To truly "read the footnotes" of that tweet, one has to remember that it's become popular over the years with the Serena cultists to try seize upon any stumble of anyone who ever defeated Williams in a slam final, in some sort of absurd way to "unofficially" award her slam #24 after the fact, never mind that Halep defeated her in the Wimbledon title match more than three years before the '22 test (just as Sharapova had 12 years before her suspension... not that that stopped the same sort of retroactive ridiculousness then or in the years since).

BTW, this was what Halep had posted at the time of Williams' final match (during that same '22 U.S. Open, incidentally)...



The funny thing is that even those individuals would likely note that Halep (who breezed through her years w/ Darren Cahill) never experienced such a moment of doubt/accusation until just a few months into her coaching relationship with Patrick Mouratoglou, whose team many have blamed for the whole incident.

Mouratoglou, incidentally, was the coach of *Williams* at the time of that '19 Wimbledon final and when (after having turned 30) she won 10 of her 23 major titles. In the entire Open era, only 14 other major titles were won by women 30+ (w/ no other individual winning more than three). It was a glorious stretch that gilded Williams' HoF career, taking her from "great" to likely "greatest." But we know what the cultists would say if someone else had done it, don't we?

Of course, Mouratoglou was also the coach who, failing to back up Williams' assertion that he was giving her "a thumbs-up," admitted that he was (then illegally) coaching her from the stands during the 2018 U.S. Open, setting off a running incident with the chair umpire. Don't think that Serena has ever forgotten that, either.

Anyway, back in the real world...



I'm sure Halep is happy and relieved, and just wants to embrace this hard-earned chance at on-court "redemption," put this all behind her and try to make something of whatever remains of her career after legitimately wondering over the past year whether her career was essentially over. She's already received a wild card to play in Miami.

It would be hard to condemn (but not lament) her actions if she does that, as she's surely emotionally exhausted. But I hope she doesn't let this go so easily.

I hope Halep follows through, as she has with the company that produced the supplement (roxadustat) that produced the positive test, and sues some portion of the Alphabet apparatus, if only to put the whole thing under an appropriately revealing microscope. Someone *has* to -- needs to -- go at this monster head-first at some point if any sort of fairness and/or efficiency is going to be part of the system. Why not her? It would benefit every player thereafter, even those whose actions/words would lead one to believe they don't deserve such consideration since they never showed an ounce of it for anyone else. ("You're welcome, you ingrates.")

Simona surely has a few "people" of the lawyerly persuasion after this, and she could do worse than to put them on this case.



Fact is, nothing is going to change in this equation until and unless the Alphabets are publically shamed (i.e. by essentially employing the same sort of tactics against the testing system that the Alphabets attempt to use against the players) and *forced* to (ironically) clean up their own system.


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Yeah, it probably *would* figure that they'd eventually do *those* sort of things which, for me, would just irritate me more.

I will *never* pay for something additional (i.e. subscribe to Netflix solely for that purpose) to watch a "promotional" production, I positively *abhor* exos (and will *never* watch one), and I think team competitions that masquerade as "events" are the most worthless thing that the sport offers (IMHO: BJK/Davis Cup are *actual* events and worthy of attention, while anything else is not... the old Hopman Cup was the rare perfect blend of the two to kick off the season, but then they ruined that, too).

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A new WTA doggo enters the storyline...




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Wow, so the Transylvania Open *does* have a social media team, after all?




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The flag was raised this week at Backspin Academy in a special non-Winterfest ceremony...




And, as expected, the celebrations were hearty and went deep into the night.

















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(Exhale.) Finally... somewhere to be.















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*DE GROOT vs. KAMIJI IN 2024*
Melbourne WC Open Final - DE GROOT 6-1/3-6/7-6(0) - Kamiji led 5-1 in 3rd (1 MP)
Australian Open Final - DE GROOT 7-5/6-4
Cajun Classic Final - DE GROOT 7-5/7-6(4)
--
de Groot: leads 45-15 (+1 walkover W) overall
43-4 in last 47 (+W)
27 consecutive wins (+W)
40-8 (+W) in singles finals
40-3 (+W) in last 43 singles finals
25 consecutive wins (+W) in finals (2 in team finals)

*DIEDE DE GROOT vs. IN STREAK*
[142-0, + 1 w/o W]
27 - Yui Kamiji, JPN (+1 w/o)
17 - Kgothatso Montjane, RSA
15 - Aniek Van Koot, NED
10 - Jiske Griffioen, NED
10 - Momoko Ohtani, JPN
7 - Angelica Bernal, COL
7 - Dana Mathewson, USA
7 - Lucy Shuker, GBR
4 - Macarena Cabrillana, CHI
4 - Katharina Kruger, GER
4 - Jordanne Whiley, GBR
3 - Pauline Deroulede, FRA
3 - Emmanuelle Morch, FRA
3 - Zhu Zhenzhen, CHN
2 - Li Xiaohui, CHN
2 - Viktoriia Lvova, RUS
2 - Cornelia Oosthuizan, GBR
2 - Saki Takamuro, JPN
2 - Manami Tanaka, JPN
2 - Maayan Zikri, ISR
1 - Shelby Baron, USA
1 - Nalani Buob, SUI
1 - Charlotte Fairbank, FRA
1 - Guo Luoyao, CHN
1 - Huang Jinlian, CHN
1 - Busra Un, TUR
1 - Britta Wend, GER
1 - Louie Charlotte Willerslev-Olsen, DEN
1 - Wang Ziying, CHN

*2024 TOP JUNIOR EVENT CHAMPIONS*
TRARALGON AUS J300: Emerson Jones/AUS
AUSTRALIAN OPEN: Renata Jamrichova/SVK
SAN JOSE CRC (COFFEE BOWL) J300: Shannon Lam/USA
BARRANQUILLA COL J300: Jeline Vandromme/BEL
CAIRO, EGY J300: Monika Stankiewicz/POL
LIMA, PER J300 (INKA BOWL): Antonia Vergara Rivera/CHI
CAIRO, EGY J500: Rositsa Dencheva/BUL
ASUNCION PAR J300 (ASUNCION BOWL): Antonia Vergara Rivera/CHI
PORTO ALEGRE BRA J300: Mayu Crossley/JPN
NONTHABURI THA J300: Lea Nilsson/SWE
BLUMENAU BRA J500 (BANANA BOWL): Kaitlyn Rolls/USA

*2024 TOP JUNIOR GIRLS' TITLES*
[Grand Slam]
Renara Jamrichova, SVK - AO
[Junior Finals]
--
[J500]
1 - Rositsa Dencheva, BUL
1 - Kaitlyn Rolls, USA
[J300]
2 - Antonia Vergara Rivera, CHI
1 - Mayu Crossley, JPN
1 - Emerson Jones, AUS
1 - Shannon Lam, USA
1 - Lea Nilsson, SWE
1 - Monika Stankiewicz, POL
1 - Jeline Vandromme, BEL






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Yep. Other candidates (such as "The Wire," made by the same group, BTW) are of the same level, but in the 1990s there was nothing better.

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The women's singles draw at slam time... only with puppies. (Guess which one is Pegula.)




"Can't stop watching" might be a good new WTA fake marketing campaign slogan. Hmmm.


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All for now.
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