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Sunday, March 24, 2024

Wk.12- March Miami Madness

The WTA's non-stop story train is half-way through its March stop in Miami. It has not disappointed.






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*WEEK 12*

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[Miami through 3rd Round]




RISERS: Maria Sakkari/GRE and Anhelina Kalinina/UKR
...in the (almost immortal) words of Andrea Petkovic, "Tennis is a wonderland." And, suddenly, everything seems new again for Sakkari.

After seasons of oft-underachieving results and hanging onto a coaching partnership/friendship with Tom Hill that was clearly past its sell-by date, Sakkari made the long overdue decision to move on last month. Under new coach David Witt, the Greek reached the Indian Wells final in their second event together.

So far, she's carried over her more confident groove to Miami, winning a pair of straight sets matches over Yuan Yue (2 & 2, after the Chinese player had gone 10-1 in the U.S. in recent weeks) and Dayana Yastremska (5 & 4). Sakkari is now 8-2 with Witt in her corner.

While she did reach the Miami semis in '21 (setting the stage for what was a career year that season, though she won no titles and played in just one final), this is just the second Round of 16-or-better result in the event in Sakkari's seven MD appearances. She'd lost in her opening match the last two years.



After a semifinal run in Austin was followed up with an early exit (2r) in Indian Wells, Kalinina has gone about trying to continue to dig her way out of what was a woeful start (2-6) to her '24 season.

Opening up vs. Caroline Wozniacki, the Ukrainian fell behind 7-5/5-2 to the Dane, who held a MP at 5-4. Kalinina rallied to take the 2nd set, then held two MP of her own at 5-3 in the 3rd. Wozniacki threatened to turn the match back in her favor, but Kalinina held firm to get the win a game later, firing a MP ace to finally close the door.

Against world #2 Aryna Sabalenka, who'd gotten a 2nd Round win over Paula Badosa after deciding to play days after the death of her (recently) ex-boyfriend (former Belarusian hockey pro Konstantin Koltsov) in Miami, Kalinina got her fourth Top 10 and biggest career win, rebounding after dropping the 2nd set to remain steady as Sabalenka ever-more-swiftly crashed out in (understandably) a hail of errors, frustration and who knows what else.

This is Kalinina's fourth 4r+ 1000 result, along with another Miami Round of 16 and Madrid QF (both in '22), and Rome runner-up last season.


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SURPRISE: Taylor Townsend/USA
...Townsend appears to be finding her true footing these days. In singles.

Since her return to tennis in 2022, Townsend has had sometimes brilliant doubles results, good ones as a solo act on the ITF circuit (4 titles), as well as some isolated "moments" in tour-level singles ('23 wins over Pegula and Haddad Maia at 1000+ events), though she hasn't yet been able to string enough of them together for a truly big result. Still, she's managed to raise her ranking into the Top 70, eyeing her career high of #61 from 2018.

She qualified in Miami (after also doing so in Indian Wells), then put together back-to-back MD wins over Lucia Bronzetti and Elise Mertens, reaching the 3rd Round in the event for the first time since 2017. It's also the first time she's escaped the 2nd Round in six '24 events, and matches her best tour-level result (w/ '23 Rome, U.S. Open and Guadalajara) since the beginning of her comeback.

A 4th Round appearance would have been her best in a WTA/slam event since the '19 U.S. Open, and her a "live" ranking would have surpassed her career high. But though Townsend pushed #4 Elena Rybakina to the limit in their 3rd Round encounter, it was the Kazakh who cleaned up and raised her game in the final stage to finally put away a three-set win late in the evening on Saturday.
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VETERANS: Yulia Putintseva/KAZ and Danielle Collins/USA
...off her Indian Wells 4th Round run and a pair of Top 20 wins, Putintseva followed up in Miami with additional victories over Cristina Bucsa and Liudmila Samsonva, the latter giving the Kazakh three Top 20 wins in a four-match stretch.

Before her dual Sunshine success, Putintseva's last Top 20 win had been at last year's Roland Garros (Zheng Qinwen), and you'd have to go back to the spring/summer of '22 to collect her last *three* such wins, to upsets of Spaniards Garbine Muguruza (Rome) and Paula Badosa (Toronto) that year.

Putintseva oulasted lucky loser Greet Minnen in three sets on Saturday night to reach a second straight Sunshine 4th Round (just her second in Miami, along with 2019). It leaves her one win away from matching her best career 1000 results (w/ '20 Rome and '22 Toronto QF) in 62 career MD appearances.

Meanwhile, in her final season, might Collins be able to say goodbye to Miami in a fashion similar to how she said hello to the event in her 2018 debut? (She reached the SF, and later added a QF two years ago.)

Already with one 1000 QF (Doha) this season, Collins is into the second week of another, putting up wins over Bernarda Pera, Anastasia Potapova (her second Top 30 win of '24) and Elina Avanesyan. With this result she's back into the Top 50 in the "live" rankings
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COMEBACK: Victoria Azarenka/BLR
...in what is as close it gets to a "home tournament" for Azarenka, the Boca Raton resident is at it again in Miami, where she's already a three-time champ (2009, '11 and '16).

Azarenka came into the event on a 1-3 slide after a 9-2 start that saw her post Brisbane SF/AO 4th Rd./Doha QF results. The fight has never been in question with Vika, but over the last few years her ability to *finish* surely has been. So far, so good this time around.

She battled and won out vs. a fiesty (as usual) Peyton Stearns, taking a nearly three-hour battle under the lights in the 2nd Round, holding off a Stearns comeback attempt after Vika had rallied from 0-2 down in the 3rd to lead 4-2. Already with a Top 10 win on her '24 ledger (one of her three season victories over Alona Ostapenko), Azarenka took down #7 Zheng Qinwen in the 3rd Round. After failing to serve out the 1st set at 5-3, Azarenka rebounded to break Zheng to take the set, then just when the 2nd set seemed destined for a TB she broke Zheng again to end the match, winning 6-4/7-5. It's Azarenka's 78th career Top 10 victory.

In fact, Vika has posted at least one Top 10 win in 17 of the last 18 WTA seasons (yep, she's been around that long), missing out only in 2017 when she was absent during the first half of the year while on maternity leave, then ultimately played just six total matches as her travel was restricted during that ugly custody battle for son Leo (she lost her only Top 10 match that year, vs. Simona Halep).

The win over Zheng means that Azarenka has recorded *multiple* Top 10 wins in 14 of those 18 seasons.

While Vika has (so far) found her finishing stroke in Miami, doing so at the end of tournaments has been a more difficult task. Her last tour singles title came in the Cincinnati-in-NYC event during the 2020 Restart (via a walkover from Osaka, who'd then beat her in the U.S. Open final a few weeks later), and that's her *only* title since she won in Miami (the back half of a Sunshine Double) in 2016.
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FRESH FACES: Angella Okutoyi/KEN and Emiliana Arango/COL
...though just 20, Okutoyi has already been a groundbreaker. Two years ago, she was the first Kenyan to win a MD match in junior slam play (AO) and the first to claim a junior slam crown (Wimbledon GD). She's won multiple titles on the ITF circuit, and her success was likely *the* driving force that led to a series of $25K events recently being hosted in Nairobi by Tennis Kenya for the first time (she won both a singles and doubles title in the events last December).

It's 2024, and Okutoyi is at it again.

At the latest version of the African Games -- held in Accra, Ghana -- Okutoyi (a freshman at Auburn) won the singles Gold and doubles Silver medals, recording her first career Top 100 win and becoming the first Kenyan to win tennis Gold in 46 years in the event.

The highlight of Okutoyi's run may very well have come *before* the singles final, with her 4:27 semifinal win over defending Gold medalist (from 2019) Mayar Sherif of Egypt. It was the Kenyan's first win over Top 100 opponent. In the final over another Egyptian, Lamis Abdelaziz, Okutoyi won a more straightforward 6-4/6-2 affair.



Currently #532, if Okutoyi can get her ranking inside the Top 400 before June 10, she'll make her Olympic debut this summer in Paris.

She also reached the doubles Gold Medal Match alongside Cynthia Cheruto, but had to settle for Silver with a loss to Egypt's Merna Mostafa Refaat & Sandra Samir.



Meanwhile, after closing '23 strong with late-season QF in tour level events in Guadalajara (1000) and Cluj (her second and third final eights at tour level, w/ '18 Bogota) and reaching a new career high (#109), 23-year old Arango got off to a slow start in the new year. The Colombian came into Miami qualifying at just 3-8.

She played her way into the MD with wins over Kayla Day and Alex Eala, ending an 0-for-9 career-opening stretch in qualifying attempts in 1000+ events (she'd been in the Guadalajara MD by ranking after so many big-name withdrawals, then knocked off Potapova, Stephens and Townsend), then followed up with a 1st Round win over Tatjana Maria.

Arango lost in the 2nd Round to Leylah Fernandez, but maybe she and her backward hat are finally on the right track after a struggling few months. She's in the "live" Top 120, with her favored clay season (119 of her 190 pro match wins) on deck. In 2023, she was 28-13 on the surface.


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DOWN: Sofia Kenin/USA
...after struggling in 2021-22 following her slam-winning career season in '20, falling outside the Top 200, Kenin rebounded with a handful of flourishes last season. Late in the year, she reached a 500 final in San Diego, and her Guadalajara SF was her best in a 1000+ event since she played in the Roland Garros final three seasons earlier. During that stretch, Kenin climbed back into the Top 30.

But the opening months of 2024 have provided a hard trek for the former AO champ, as she came to Miami ranked at #58.

Kenin's 1st Round exit in a three-setter vs. Katie Volynets is her seventh straight loss, dropping her to 1-8 on the year. Her only win came in Hobart in Week 2 over Greet Minnen. With her three losses to end '23, Kenin is in a 1-10 slump with just one victory since she pulled off consecutive defeats of Anhelina Kalinina, Alona Ostapenko and Leylah Fernandez to reach the final four in Guadalajara last September, part of an 8-2 (and 14-4) run last summer that lifted her from #128 before Wimbledon to #31.
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ITF PLAYER: Dominika Salkova/CZE
...altogether now... another week, another Crusher champ.

This week it's 19-year old Salkova, who improved to 6-0 in career pro finals with a 6-2/6-4 win (for her biggest title) over fellow 19-year old Aussie Talia Gibson in the $75K challenger on indoor hard court in Maribor (SLO).

Salkova is the fifth different Czech teen to win a singles title on the ITF pro circuit this season, joining Tereza Valentova (3), Linda Klimovicova, Laura Samson and Amelie Smejkalova (1 each). She'll soon crack the Top 200.


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JUNIOR STARS: Iva Jovic/USA and Sonja Zhiyenbayeva/KAZ
...at just 16, Jovic has already packed a lot into her tennis career. A BJK Junior Cup champion and junior slam doubles winner ('24 AO), she also put together one of the biggest, big-stage comebacks imaginable when two years ago she rallied in the girls' 2nd Round at the U.S. Open to get a win from 5-0, 40/15 down in the 3rd vs. the #5 seed (Solana Sierra, who'd reached the RG girls' final months earlier).

As the #1 seed, Jovic added a third career J300 title to her resume in San Diego, winning the American Regional Championship without dropping a set, defeating Kristina Penickova (who'd previously defeated her twin sister Annika in the QF) in a 3 & 2 final to take the crown. A week earlier, both Jovic and Penickova had lost to Valerie Glozman (Penickova 2r, Jovic SF) in the Indian Wells J300 during her title-winning run.

From January (w/ Tyra Caterina Grant) in Melbourne...



In Villena (ESP), Kazakhstan's Zhiyenbayeva, 17, picked up her biggest career title in her second J300 final appearance of the season, defeating rising Waffle Jeline Vandromme (a previous '24 J300 champion) in a 7-5/6-0 final.


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WHEELCHAIR: Yui Kamiji/JPN
...Kamiji's mastery of the non-Diede wheelchair field continued in Busan, South Korea as the world #2 picked up her 97th career ITF singles title in the Series 2 event.

Kamiji swept the singles and doubles, defeating Manami Tanaka in a 6-2/6-1 singles final, as well as teaming with Lucy Shuker to defeat countrywoman Tanaka and Zhu Zhenzhen 3 & 3 in the doubles title match.

The week stretches Kamiji's non-de Groot winning streak to 30 matches (17-0 this season). She's 109-2 since the start of 2022 (and had a 74-match streak ended at last year's Wimbledon). She's lost 27 straight to de Groot.
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[Miami through 3rd Round]



1. Miami 1st Rd. - Paula Badosa def. Simona Halep
...1-6/6-4/6-3. In Halep's return from suspension, in her first match since the '22 U.S. Open, neither she nor her opponent Paula Badosa, still dealing with the restrictions her back injury imposes upon her, were truly "ready" for the match.

Still, Halep dominated the 1st set as Badosa appeared tentative.



But as Halep's errors/DF and lack of match fitness took hold (she had an MTO to treat her tired shoulder) coupled with the Spaniard's game rounding into form, it was Badosa who flashed and pulled away. Halep got back on serve with a break to pull to within 3-2 in the 3rd, but then didn't win another game.



The result set up Badosa to face her good friend Aryna Sabalenka, just days after the shocking death of the Belarusian's former boyfriend, in the 2nd Round. The thought from here was, well, in such a difficult and awkward situation for all involved that was probably best for both of those two, and it kept Halep from having to try to play the "villain" role or pick up any negative undertones from social media postings in the process.

Of course, how naive that was... because there was still the post-match to the *Badosa* match to get through!



There Halep encountered the first (but surely not last) layer of tour-level negativity that she'll encounter in her return. Her response was the correct one, and she needn't answer similar questions again, methinks. She gains nothing from continuing the storyline.

Of course, this situation needs a bit of context. Flashback #1 (Wozniacki's earlier comments)...



A few good points there by those two highlighted commenters in the thread, as the reason that the suspension was reduced was because it was seemingly an isolated instance and ruled to have not been proven to be intentional, something which often gets lost in the dirty swill that these drawn-out things ultimately exist within (something which the Alphabets surely count on as they cling to relevance).

It also touches on the precise reason I *try* to never use the "d"-word (i.e. doping) in these discussions (though I think I may have slipped once over the past year and a half of Halep's story), as in nearly every case of these suspensions it's a one-time, usually accidental instance where something is included in an over-the-counter supplement and an error/negligence occurred (for which they should rightly serve some time, as they *did* test positive) on the player's and/or their team's side. It's why nearly every (overly harsh) suspension is reduced, and sometimes nearly obliterated (as w/ Halep) upon final appeal to a body that *isn't* trying to justify its existence and settle personal scores.

Of course, this (non-)back-and-forth served to not only dredge up Sharapova's old case...

[NOTE TO SQUAWKERS: it isn't "doping" if what's being taken was both known and *legal* for a decade until someone suddenly decided it wouldn't be any longer, though there was no real evidence for *why* that should be the case... and then those same people purposely tried to "hide" the new regulations in the fine print of an email, hoping to play "gotcha" with someone, which was a big part of the Sharapova case.]

...but to also stupidly "pit" Halep vs. Wozniacki (or their opinions) against one another, an act perpetrated not just by Tennis Twitter but even by sources that should know better than to make it an either/or argument.



What's especially inane about this is that, well, Wozniacki and Halep aren't *really* on different sides. Or at least they *weren't*, not when it comes to wild cards, as Halep, too, didn't think Sharapova (*her* CAS ruling said she bore "no fault") should immediately get wild cards upon her return back in 2017.



As I've noted before, though I'd previously forgotten that Halep had so publicly (though not in a full-on Bouchardian way) been one of them, most players either react negatively toward suspended players upon their return (w/o full knowledge of their situation, even well after the fact) and/or pay no attention to the clearly problematic issues with the start-to-finish testing apparatus until, you know, they're the one living through it and fighting to stay on the court.

Caro better hope she doesn't make an honest mistake one day, then have to fend off charges of hyprocrisy another day down the line.

See Simo. Learn from Simo.

And that should apply *to* Halep herself, as well.

Personally, I think that if the Alphabets simply weren't so personally vindictive in their suspensions, targeting and attempting to end the careers of various players (esp. if they challenge the process, as Halep did), and instead of trying to bring down two or four year suspensions on their heads for relatively minor testing violation situations went to a more reasonable model -- say, a multi-step process with rising 3, 6 or 9-month suspensions based on "level of violation" and/or numbers of similar occasions (legitimate mistakes) during the player's career, with each case quickly expedited from judgment through appeal with an assurance that it would wrap up by the end of the suspension length -- then these things wouldn't become the sh**-shows they do.

When was the last time any of these suspensions (and how often do they?) involve legitimately sketchy practices that could be defined as "doping?" Tennis players are tested so often that that's a difficult thing to pull off (and if someone is really good at it, well, they ain't gettin' caught), and it's almost always an odd contamination, misread rule or supplement label, that is the culprit. We're not talking Tour de France levels of craziness here, or even on the level of some *true* Olympic drug scandals. That's why the inordinately punitive suspensions that get handed down are just dumb, and detrimental to the sport and it's reputation.

The Alphabets' practices cause more harm than they prevent, and they usually look foolish in their actions in the end (but only in the eyes of those still paying attention, a number which isn't nearly as high as the number of indidividuals with "opinions" on the matter).

If a get-it-over-and-done-with form of punishment was the norm some players might just accept the suspension to get on with things rather than get into a "life-or-death" battle that sullies everyone involved. After sitting out they could still appeal the ruling simply to "clear the record," or to reset their place on the multi-step process if a similar "mistake" on their part had occurred before. Rack up too many "inadvertent" ingestions and *then* the long suspensions come into play, rather than immediately after a *first* positive test.
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2. Miami 2nd Rd. - Victoria Azarenka def. Peyton Stearns
...7-5/3-6/6-4. And with this, after her similar clash with Sabalenka in the desert two weeks ago, Stearns completes a matching 2nd Round thriller vs. a Belarusian on *both* ends of the Sunshine swing. Just like last time, though, she didn't come out on top.

It wasn't *quite* at the level of the Match of the Year Nominee in Indian Wells (though it was maybe one more late break from being just that), but it was surely dripping with familiar drama (as well as the odd sight of Vika's long-ago ex Redfoo in Stearns' players box).



As vs. Sabalenka, it all came to a head in the 3rd. Stearns led 2-0. Azarenka battled back to level the score, then built a love/40 lead on Stearns' serve in game 5. Stearns ultimately held three GP, but dropped serve on Azarenka's fourth BP. Holding a 4-2 edge, a commanding lead remained just out of reach of Vika, as she couldn't put away the game despite going up love/40. After the hold, Stearns broke Azarenka to knot the set at 4-4.

As Stearns tried to play through an arm injury (shaking it out between points, dealing with pain on her forehand swings and often grabbing her arm at the conclusion of a rally), she conducted a 7-deuce service game that highlighted her grit and determination. She staved off five BP and held a pair GP, but Azarenka finally got the break on her sixth BP (she had a low conversion rate with just 3-of-16 numbers in the 3rd, but it was enough to claw her way to the edge of victory).

Serving for the win at 5-4, Azarenka fell behind love/30, pushed back to reach MP, but then still had to knock off a Stearns BP before finally putting away MP #2 after the Bannerette fired a forehand long to end the two and three-quarter hour affair.

Stearns is 3-8 on the year, going a balloon-popping 1-7 in three-set matches.

Still, as she also proved last year, Stearns' crowd-raising style is so perfectly suited to a U.S. Open night match that it would be almost criminal for the USTA to *not* schedule her (if her draw gives her a big name opponent) for something under the lights in New York. If not this summer, then *soon*. Somehow she reached the 4th Round last year without playing an evening match on Ashe (her biggest encounter, vs. reigning Wimbledon champ Marketa Vondrousova, *should* have opened the door... but the match was scheduled first-up on Armstrong on a Labor Day Monday).

A few days later in Miami...


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3. Miami 2nd Rd. - Anhelina Kalinina def. Caroline Wozniacki
...5-7/7-5/6-4. Speaking of the aforementioned Dane, in Miami she played in the eighth straight MD event as a result of a WC (at a live #124, she's not that far away from earning her way in somewhere soon). She arrived in Miami off a QF run at Indian Wells (ended by a retirement with a toe injury). After a 1st Round win over Clara Burel, Wozniacki appeared well clear of Kalinina, as well. She led 7-5/5-2, and held a MP at 5-4. Then everything fell apart in slow motion.

Step by step, Kalinina rallied and eventually led 6-5 in the 2nd, but nothing was assured. Right on cue, she fell behind 15/40 as she served for the set and a TB seemed inevitable. But she got the hold to force a 3rd set, then took an early break lead. After a Wozniacki MTO, the Dane got the break back, only to lose it again a game later as the Ukrainian took a 4-3 lead.

Kalinina held two MP on Wozniacki's serve at 5-3, but couldn't put either away. As Kalinina next served for the match, one last momentum turn in the Dane's favor might have tossed Wozniacki an eleventh hour life preserver. But it turned out to be simply a case of delayed gratification for Kalinina. She served out the win a game later, finishing things off with an ace on MP #3.



Wozniacki heads to the spring where she'll play in the first clay events since her return to action (so far, she's exclusively participated on hard court). She hasn't played a tour-level clay match since 2019.
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4. African Games Gold Match - Angella Okutoyi/KEN def. Lamis Abdelaziz/EGY
...6-4/6-2. Okutoyi is Kenya's first African Games tennis Gold medalist in 46 years.



African Games SF - Angella Okutoyi/KEN def. Mayar Sherif/EGY
...5-7/7-5/7-6. Okutoyi's path to the Gold medal in Accra was paved by a miraculous 4:27 marathon victory over defending AG Gold medalist Mayar Sherif, which accounted for the 20-year old Kenyan's first career Top 100 win.


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5. Miami 3rd Rd. - Iga Swiatek def. Linda Noskova
...6-7(7)/6-4/6-4. Noskova is seemingly caught in an Iga Loop, meeting up with her in both Indian Wells and Miami after having upset the world #1 at the Australian Open in January.

On the bright side for the teenager, whenever Swiatek faces off on a faster surface with a power player, the chances that the clouds might suddenly open up for her opponent are *way* more likely than normal.

Despite being outhit by the Czech and having issues with her first serve, Swiatek still led 5-2 and served for the set at 5-3. She couldn't put it away, though, and things went to a TB. Swiatek rallied from an early mini-break (2-3) to hold a SP at 6-5, but ultimately saw Noskova refuse to concede and take the set on her own second SP in the breaker, winning 9-7.

Of the seven sets lost by Swiatek (vs. 42 sets won) thus far in '24 at this point, it was the third claimed by Noskova.

In the 2nd, Swiatek again broke out into the lead, this time with a 5-1 edge. After failing to serve out a set yet again, she soon faced a BP in her second attempt to secure the 2nd at 5-4. This time she pulled the set back from the edge and held for a 6-4 win.

The 3rd was a "peat and re-peat" scenario, as again Swiatek grabbed the key break lead. She consolidated the break with a hold for 4-2, and soon was serving for the match at 5-4. She fell behind love/40, but pulled "2022 U.S. Open Iga" out of mothballs and put together a final brilliant stretch to sweep the last five points of the match to get the win.


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6. Miami 2nd Rd. - Aryna Sabalenka def. Paula Badosa
...6-4/6-3. A nice display of focus by Sabalenka in her first match since her former boyfriend's tragic death in Miami at the start of the week. The match had already been pushed back a day to Friday, then they had to wait out a long rain delay, as well, finally hitting the court about six hours later than what had been the scheduled start time.

Sabalenka now leads the head-to-head 3-2, with three straight wins, one each the last three seasons.


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7. Miami 2nd Rd. - Elina Avanesyan def. Ons Jabeur
...6-3/6-2. Avanesyan notches her second Top 10 win (w/ Sakkari/AO) of the season, handing Jabeur her fourth consecutive loss.

On the bright side for the Tunisian, though she's likely not back to 100% health, this is the first of her five '24 losses (2-5 overall) in which she wasn't finished off fairly routinely in straight sets (she averaged under 6 total games in her first four defeats). Small steps.


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8. Miami 3rd Rd. - Elena Rybakina def. Taylor Townsend
...6-3/6-7(3)/6-4. After failing to serve out the 2nd set at 5-3, Townsend surged back to win a TB and force a 3rd, where she threatened to add Rybakina to her list of career Top 10 wins (which to date includes two names).

As Rybakina overcame a bout with frustration, bouncing her racket on multiple occasions (eventually it cracked and she had to get a new one, and she then almost immediately cleaned up her game in the final stretch), Townsend held on late. Serving at 3-4, she saved a BP and got the hold, then two games later remarkably won a point with a defensive backhand lob into the corner that set up a perfectly angled forehand winner to help her avoid a love/30 hole.

But it was just a delaying tactic, as moments later Rybakina reached MP and finally put the match away, winning her second straight three-setter of the week after missing time (again) due to illness. She'd arrived in town having not played a match in nearly a month (February 21 in Dubai).

A year ago, Rybakina left Miami having come up just one win short of pulling off the Sunshine Double (she dropped a 16-14 1st set TB to Kvitova, then lost in two). This year, she was forced to miss Indian Wells entirely, and has had to battle tooth and nail through a pair of three-setters vs. Clara Tauson and Townsend in this event. If she rounds into form, she still *could* pull together the title run that eluded her in '23, but one wonders if these two matches will prove to be too much too soon and lead to her hitting a physical wall well before she can hit anything resembling peak form.


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9. Miami 3rd Rd. - Anhelina Kalinina def. Aryna Sabalenka
...6-4/1-6/6-1. It was always going to be a tough ask, but Sabalenka decided to go ahead and play this week. She got a relatively soft landing vs. best friend Paula Badosa in her opening match, but that was less the case vs. Kalinina a round later.

After losing an early break lead in the 1st, then the set, Sabalenka quickly took the 2nd to send things to a 3rd. But everything quickly got out of hand in the decider, as Sabalenka's UE total went over 50, her nerves frayed and her frustrations finally got the better of her as she went out hard down the stretch. Once the match was over, Sabalenka destroyed her racket (she had time, as there was never going to be a post-match handshake to get to, after all).

The natural break leading out of the hard court season and into the clay campaign comes at an advantageous time, as the reigning AO champ likely could use a bit of down time to process all the incredible highs and emotional lows that the first three months of 2024 have brought into her life.



Meanwhile, in a case of showing that you know nothing about tennis without saying you know nothing about tennis...



Or, you know, you *do* know something about tennis and are just an outright a**hole. Jury's out on which one is the case.
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10. Miami 1st Rd. - Yuan Yue def. Anna Blinkova
...6-4/6-2. While Yuan continued to shine in the States (for one more match, anyway, as she lost to Sakkari in the 2nd Rd.), Blinkova's lacking follow-up to some of her greatest wins continued, as well.

In Melbourne, she fell in the match following the 42-point TB win over Rybakina, while she's now 0-2 since her *second* '24 Top 5 win (over Pegula in Indian Wells). While she's been in some big headlines this season, Blinkova is nonetheless 7-8 on the year.
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11. Miami 1st Rd. - Dasha Saville def. Zhang Shuai
...6-4/2-6/6-4. Zhang's losing streak hits 19 in a row.
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12. Miami 2nd Rd. - Yulia Putintseva def. Liudmila Samsonova
...6-1/4-6/6-3. Samsonova falls to 4-8 on the year, with three of her match wins coming in a single event (her SF run in Abu Dhabi).

Meanwhile, Putintseva picks up her third Top 20 win in a four-match stretch.
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13. African Games WD Final - Merna Mostafa Refaat/Sandra Samir (EGY) def. Angella Okutoyi/Cynthia Cheruto Wanjala (KEN)
...4-6,7-6(9) [10-3]. Samir picks up her third individual African Games Gold, adding this event's win in WD to her S/D Gold sweep in 2015.


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14. Miami 1st Rd. - Sloane Stephens def. Angelique Kerber
...6-2/6-3. On her birthday, Stephens improves to 6-2 in her head-to-head vs. Kerber, winning in just their second meeting since 2018 (Kerber won their last meeting at the '21 U.S. Open).


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15. Miami 1st Rd. - Ashlyn Krueger/Sloane Stephens def. Coco Gauff/Jessie Pegula
...6-3/1-6 [10-8]. The defending WD champs, Gauff/Pegula fall in the opening round in just their second event together (w/ IW QF) this season, as Gauff has mostly pulled back from doubles to avoid overplaying.

Both will further drop in the doubles rankings after successfully pulling double duty in recent seasons (both reached doubles #1), with Gauff (live #17) seeing her Top 20 standing in jeopardy (depending on the results of other teams next week), and with Pegula (#15) not far behind.
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15. $35K Swan Hill AUS Final - Gabriella Da Silva-Fick def. Emerson Jones
...3-6/6-3/6-1. Grass court tennis Down Under!

23-year old Da Silva-Fick comes from a set down to pick up her maiden pro title, defeating fellow Aussie Jones. 15-year old Jones was playing in her second ITF final (both in '24), but is still looking for her first win. She reached the AO girls singles final after winning the lead-up event in Traralgon in January.


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16. $15K Le Havre FRA Final - Alice Tubello def. Tiantsoa Sarah Rakotomanga Rajaonah
...6-3/1-6/6-3. Tubello wins the all-Pastry face off.

Rakotomanga Rajaonah won the doubles crown. And that's 32 total letters in her name, in case you were wondering.... thank goodness for copy-and-paste.
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HM- $15K Sabadell ESP Final - Kaitlin Quevedo def. Caijsa Hennemann
...6-0/6-4. 18-year old Quevedo wins her second straight ITF crown (career #5), the former Bannerette's maiden wins since starting to represent Spain this season.
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[Miami through 3rd Round]

1. Miami 2nd Rd. - Naomi Osaka def. Elina Svitolina
...6-2/7-6(5). Osaka doesn't serve out the match at 5-3 in the 2nd, but takes the TB to down Svitolina in straights.

It's the second Top 20 win in her comeback, both in the last two events (w/ Samsonova at I.W.), and third vs. a Top 25 player (Garcia, in the Doha 1000).



What comes after this last big hard court event, though? Preparing for the North American swing this summer?

She's a combined 11-8 at RG/WI, but 48-11 in the two hard court majors. Of her eleven tour singles finals, none have come on clay or grass.
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2. Miami 1st Rd. - Diana Shnaider def. Venus Williams
...6-3/6-3. In a match-up between players with an age difference big enough to stuff a whole Iga into, Venus falls to 3-13 since the start of '22 (7-30 since 2020).



While many "debate" the awarding of wild cards to players coming back from suspension, others do the same (and get called out for it by those who try to speak "louder") for returning players such as Williams, whose appearances often seem almost "ceremonial." Fact is, the tournaments control the wild cards and its their prerogative who receives them (they're in the business of selling tickets, after all, and having a Williams in action doesn't hurt there). And, anyway, no wild card legitimacy could ever wholeheartedly be questioned again after the Miami Open gave a MD WC to Mari Osaka (world #338, but sister of you-know-who) back in 2019.

I do wonder, as I have for a while, if Williams might get more out of jumping into doubles (w/ occasional singles forays in certain events, say, in the U.S. and on grass) rather than continuing down the singles route. With a good partner, she could still *win* things (maybe even big things) rather than just have one-hour, one-match appearances more often than not. Remember, Martina Navratilova won her final slam crown in the U.S. Open MX in 2006 just a few weeks shy of her 50th birthday.

Martina also won two other MX crowns at age 46, reached two more MX (and one slam WD) finals between 2003-06, and won 12 tour-level doubles titles at 45+. Venus is still *only* 43.
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3. Miami 1st Rd. - Shelby Rogers def. Linda Fruhvirtova
...4-6/6-4/6-2. After more than a year away from the court, Rogers returned for the AO in Melbourne. This week, she picked up her first '24 MD win in her third event of the season.
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4. Miami Q1 - Greet Minnen def. Hsieh Su-wei
...6-1/6-4. Ummm, I guess that singles "retirement" from January was a dream. Hsieh also played in the qualifying rounds in Indian Wells earlier this month.
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5. Miami 3rd Rd. - Caroline Garcia def. Naomi Osaka
...7-6(4)/7-5. In the rubber match of their '24 head-to-head series (Garcia won in Melbourne, Osaka in Doha), the French woman stops the Osaka train before it can truly get rolling in the last hard court event until this summer.

Garcia arrived in Miami having lost five of six matches since defeating Osaka in the AO 1st Round. After a 1st Round win over Viktoriya Tomova and this, she ticks above .500 (8-7) on the year.


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Sabalenka eventually put out a statement, though she really shouldn't have had to and/or didn't need to. Same goes for the questioning and/or commenting about whether she was going to or even should play in Miami... it's really no one else's business, and what she decided to do was always up to her, without there being a need to have to explain a single thing one way or the other.



Like Coco said...



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*RECENT AFRICAN GAMES GOLD WINNERS*
[singles]
2011 Ons Jabeur, TUN
2015 Sandra Samir, EGY
2019 Mayar Sherif, EGY
2024 Angella Okutoyi, KEN
[doubles]
2011 Magy Aziz/Mayar Sherif, EGY
2015 Ola Abou Zekry/Sandra Samir, EGY
2019 Rana Sherif Ahmed/Mayar Sherif, EGY
2024 Merna Mostafa Refaat/Sandra Samir, EGY
[team]
2011 Tunisia
2015 Egypt
2019 Egypt
2024 Egypt

*REACHED IW/MIA FINALS IN SEASON*
1991 Monica Seles (L-W)
1994 Steffi Graf (W-W) #
1996 Steffi Graf (W-W) #
1999 Serena Williams (W-L)
2000 Lindsay Davenport (W-L)
2000 Martina Hingis (L-W)
2005 Kim Clijsters (W-W) #
2006 Maria Sharapova (W-L)
2012 Maria Sharapova (L-L)
2013 Maria Sharapova (W-L)
2016 Victoria Azarenka (W-W) #
2022 Iga Swiatek (W-W) #
2023 Elena Rybakina (W-L)
-
# - "Sunshine Double"

*CONSECUTIVE MIAMI FINALS*
=4=
1993-96 Steffi Graf (L-W-W-W)
=3=
1986-88 Steffi Graf (L-W-W)
1987-89 Chris Evert (L-L-L)
2001-03 Jennifer Capriati (L-L-L)
2002-04 Serena Williams (W-W-W)
2007-09 Serena Williams (W-W-L)
2011-13 Maria Sharapova (L-L-L)
2013-15 Serena Williams (W-W-W)
=2=
1985-86 Chris Evert (L-W)
1990-91 Monica Seles (W-W)
1991-92 Gabriela Sabatini (L-L)
1992-93 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario (W-W)
1998-99 Venus Williams (W-W)
2005-06 Maria Sharapova (L-L)
2019/21 Ash Barty (W-W)

*MOST WTA TITLES w/o SLAM TITLE*
21 - Pam Shriver
20 - Aga Radwanska
19 - Nancy Richey
19 - Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere
17 - Elina Svitolina *
17 - Karolina Pliskova *
16 - Elena Dementieva
15 - Jelena Jankovic
15 - Dianne Fromholtz Balestrat
14 - Zina Garrison
13 - Nadia Petrova
--
* - active
--
MOST OTHER ACTIVE: Pavlyuchenkova (12), Zvonareva (12), Garcia (11)






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All for now.
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