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Sunday, April 7, 2024

Wk.14- Total Eclipse of Danielle

While the earth has the impending solar eclipse, at the moment, the WTA has Danielle Collins.



(Maybe she'll even distract everyone from Saudi Arabia.)




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*WEEK 14 CHAMPIONS*
CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA USA (WTA 500/Green Clay Outdoor)
S: Danielle Collins/USA def. Dasha Kasatkina/RUS 6-2/6-1
D: Ashlyn Krueger/Sloane Stephens (USA/USA) def. Lyudmyla Kichenok/Nadiia Kichenok (UKR/UKR) 1-6/6-3 [10-7]
BOGOTA, COLOMBIA (WTA 250/Red Clay Outdoor)
S: Camila Osorio/COL def. Marie Bouzkova/CZE 6-3/7-6(5)
D: Cristina Bucsa/Kamilla Rakhimova (ESP/RUS) def. Anna Bondar/Irina Khromacheva (HUN/RUS) 7-6(5)/3-6 [10-8]
LA BISBAL d'EMPORDA, SPAIN (WTA 125 Event/Red Clay Outdoor)
S: Maria Carle/ARG def. Rebeka Masarova/ESP 3-6/6-1/6-2
D: Miriam Kolodziejova/Anna Siskova (CZE/CZE) w/o Timea Babos/Dalma Galfi (HUN/HUN)




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PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Danielle Collins/USA
...of course, Collins should know that now she's just going to get the "Are you sure?" question a *whole lot* more often (even Sloane Stephens promised to press the issue on Sunday). Not that she cares.

Just when you thought that Collins couldn't top her title run in Miami in her farewell WTA season, well, she goes to Charleston and wins there, too. Her Miami/Charleston combo (aka "The Danielle Double") is rare (it's been done just three times... of course, there are some "yeah but" details in the mix, see below), but so is winning hard and clay court tour-level titles in consecutive weeks. It's just the fifth time *that* has happened this century (not counting her own "almost" feat in 2021, when only the Olympics -- which she didn't play, unlike what may be the case *this* year -- prevented it), the last time being in 2013.

This week's run from Collins saw her lose just one set -- to defending champ Ons Jabeur, meaning she's now won 26 of her last 27 -- while extending her career-best winning streak to 13 matches. After opening with a victory over Paula Badosa, Collins collected two wins on Thursday alone over former Charleston champs (Jabeur and Stephens), then knocked off Elise Mertens and Maria Sakkari (her third Top 10 win in this streak) to reach her fifth career WTA final. Dasha Kasatkina, who had to battle in almost every match while Collins was cruising, notched just three games in a 6-2/6-1 match, and might have been fortunate to even get that many.



Having in January announced her upcoming retirement at the conclusion of her '24 season after making her way through a career which has seen her reach a slam final *and* deal with both rheumatoid arthritis and endometriosis diagnoses, Collins is now 26-7 on the year and is back in the Top 20 at #15. She was ranked #71 in early February.

Also, not that Collins is in need of another entry in her career bio after the past few weeks, it's worth noting that her fourth WTA win ties her with Lisa Raymond for the most tour singles titles won by a former NCAA women's singles champion. Raymond (ex-Univ. of Florida) has held that record since 2003, eleven years before Collins won her first of two NCAA crowns while playing at Virginia.


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RISERS: Camila Osorio/COL and Dasha Kasatkina/RUS
...you don't need to wear ruby red slippers to say, "There's no place like home." Just ask Osorio.

Three years ago, the former U.S. Open girls' champ (2019) reached and won her maiden tour final in her home event in Bogota, Colombia. After failing to pick up title #2 in two other WTA finals since, the 22-year old returned -- following a '22 Bogota SF and missing the event in '23 with injury -- to claim her second tournament crown on familiar ground.

After wins over teenagers Marina Stakusic and Anca Todoni, Osorio took out two-time defending champ Tatjana Maria in the QF and Sara Errani in the semis. In her fourth tour final, she defeated Marie Bouzkova in straights, avoiding a 3rd set after failing to serve out the match at 6-5 in the 2nd but winning on her second MP in the tie-breaker.

Osorio will jump 22 spots in the rankings on Monday, coming in at #63.



Kasatkina doesn't have any hardware to show for it, but she's having a pretty good season. With her final in Charleston, her first since winning her maiden tour title their in 2017, only Elena Rybakina has played for more titles than the Hordette in '24. Her win over #5 Jessie Pegula in the semis (via a 3rd set TB after having rallied to win the 1st set from 4-2 back, and trailing the deciding TB by 3-1) is her 22nd career Top 10 win (15 of those vs. Top 5 foes).



It was long week for Kasatkina, as before her three-setter vs. Pegula she'd had to go the distance vs. Ashlyn Krueger and Jaqueline Cristian, as well. Only Anhelina Kalinina went down in straights. Such work hours did her no favors in the final vs. Danielle Collins, as she was only able to get three games. But with Collins' current form, Kasatakina at 100% likely wouldn't have gotten too many more.

The Russian is putting herself in good ranking position heading into the heart of the season, stationed at #11 and with a great chance to climb back into the Top 10 (or better) this spring or summer with only one SF+ result to defend from '23 (Eastbourne RU) until the fall Asian swing (though she does have Round of 16 defenses at RG and the U.S. Open).

Kasatkina's one problem at the moment is that she needs to *win* a few (one?) of these finals. Since she claimed two crowns in '22, she's now lost five straight finals since the start of '23.
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SURPRISES: Jaqueline Cristian/ROU and Maria Lourdes Carle/ARG
...Cristian. In the tennis news. And it's not at the Transylvania Open.

In Charleston, the Romanian had one of the best weeks of her career just weeks after installing Javier Marti as her new coach. Her QF run included wins over three Bannerettes, Sachia Vickery and (in two of her biggest wins ever) a pair of Top 20 foes in Madison Keys and Emma Navarro (in her home event). She fell in three sets to Dasha Kasatkina, but the run set up a non-Romanian island for her '24 season.

Coming into Charleston, Cristian's year had seen her start 0-3 and go 6-10 (even w/ a 3-1 stretch en route to the Cluj SF) over the first three months.

This week also gave us an answer to "the question of the cape." Cristian told Tennis Channel that she doesn't have it anymore (or at least doesn't carry it around), and decided to stop wearing it in Transylvania when the schedule moved the event from close to Halloween (it was a vibe) to early in the year.



Meanwhile, in La Bisbal d'Empordà (ESP), Argentina's Carle continued her under-the-radar climb up the rankings, grabbing her biggest title and rising to yet another career high.



24-year old Carle ended the official WTA season at #153 (in November) in 2023, briefly dropping outside the Top 170 before a late year playing stint pushed her to a career high #122 before the flip of the calendar to '24. In the year's closing weeks, she reached a 125 final (a career first) and semifinal. Carle came into the Week 14 WTA 125 event having recently cracked the Top 100, and this season had already won a $75K title, reached a 125 SF and played in QF at $100K and $75K tournaments. She also qualified in Miami to make her 1000 MD debut.

This week she ran off wins over Sara Bejlek, Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva, Oksana Selekmeteva and Dalma Galfi to reach the final, where she outlasted Spain's Rebeka Masarova to win 3-6/6-1/6-2. The win improves the Argentine's record in pro singles finals to 14-3 (1-1 125, 13-2 in ITF).

Now 19-6 on the season, Carle will rise to #84. She's the South American #4 behind Haddad Maria, Osorio and Podoroska.


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VETERAN/COMEBACK: Sara Errani/ITA
...twelve of Errani's nineteen career WTA singles finals have come in clay events, but she'd never reached the title match in Bogota. The Italian didn't this time around, either, but her SF run was her first in a tour event in almost seven years (Tianjin '17).

The 36-year old posted wins over Yulia Starodubtseva and Sara Sorribes Tormo (naturally, in 3 hours) to reach the QF, her second this year. A three-set win over Irina Maria Bara ended Errani's seven-match QF losing streak, but she dropped a 7-6/6-4 decision to Camila Osorio one victory short of a shot at the title.

Errani's last singles final (and title run) at tour-level was in Dubai in 2016.

She'll still climb 16 spots in the rankings, not quite returning to the Top 100 (#101).


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FRESH FACE: Anca Todoni/ROU
...Romanian tennis could use a young player to watch. Aside from #217-ranked Todoni, 19, the other eleven Romanians ranked in the Top 325 heading into Week 14 averaged 29.6 years of age (w/ 6 being 31+), and that's not counting 32-year old Simona Halep. The youngest Top 325 ranked countrywomen other than Todoni are Jaqueline Cristian and Miriam Bulgharu, both 25. A full "tennis generation" of early twentysomethings are entirely absent from the mix.

In Bogota, Todoni made it through qualifying, her first earned tour-level MD appearance after making her WTA debut earlier this year as a WC in Cluj-Napoca. She recorded her first win with a 1st Round victory over Lucrezia Stefanini before losing a close 7-6/6-4 match in the 2nd Round vs. home favorite (and former/eventual champ) Camila Osorio.

Todoni will make her Top 200 debut on Monday.



The next youngest Romanian in the rankings is 18-year old Maria Sara Popa in the #430 range. Ilinca Amariel, 21, is around #330.

FOOTNOTE: Is Todoni the first "Anca" of note in tennis since Anca Barna (who retired 19 years ago)? I think so.
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DOWN: Ons Jabeur/TUN and Ana Bogdan/ROU
...the success of Jabeur's 2024 season (and any she plays after this year) really comes down to whether or not she completes her slam quest. But if the lead-up means anything when it comes to that goal, things aren't looking good.

The Tunisian, as always, played at something less than 100% through the first part of the season. But it's now time for the spring clay season, so things are starting to "get serious." The good news: in her last two losses, to Elina Avanesyan in Miami and Danielle Collins this week in Charleston, Jabeur managed to get through a pair of three-setters. None of her first six matches of the year, the majority of which she also lost, lasted that long.

The bad news: Jabeur is 2-6 on the season, with five straight losses and six in her last seven matches. A year ago, she *won* the Charleston title, collecting more than twice as many wins on the week than she has through the first thirteen weeks of '24.

Now in the "Sakkari role," Jabeur will continue to hold onto her Top 10 ranking, clinging to the bottom of the list at #9 with some big points set to come off in the next few months.

Meanwhile, Bogdan experienced one of the best moments of her career this season when the Romanian reached the Cluj-Napoca final on home soil. Thing is, she's gone 2-7 outside of that event in '24 and hasn't won a match since Cluj. Bogdan dropped her fourth straight match in Charleston, losing a 5-3 3rd set lead and failing to serve out a win vs. Elisabetta Cocciaretto despite getting as close as 5-4, 30/15.

Clay has traditionally been Bogdan's best surface, though. She's gone 37-15 the last two years on the surface, so she'll likely work it out soon.

Until then...


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ITF PLAYERS: Jana Fett/CRO and Raluca Serban/CYP
...don't look away, because here comes Fett. Hey, where's Caro?

The 27-year old Croat won the Split, Croatia $75K challenger this week, dominating Turkey's Ipek Oz in a 6-0/6-4 final to match her previous biggest career crown from a tournament back in 2015. She lost just one set in five matches on the week, delivering a trio of bagels and only losing as many as four games twice in her ten sets won.

Fett ended '23 in good form, reaching a $60K final (her biggest at the time since '15) and then another in a WTA 125 event (the biggest so far) to close out her season. 12-6 on the year, and 19-8 going back to last season, Fett will return to the Top 150 on Monday.



In Florianopolis (BRA), Romanian-born Cypriot Serban picked up her 14th and biggest challenger crown (and first since October '22) with a 7-5/6-2 win in the $75K final over Pastry Séléna Janicijevic, dropping the French woman to 10-3 in career finals.

Serban, 26, jumps nearly 40 spots in the rankings to around #180 and within sight of her career high of #152 (now less than 70 points away),
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DOUBLES: Ashlyn Krueger/Sloane Stephens (USA/USA)
...it's not often that a 31-year old former slam singles champion gets to do something on tour that she's never done before, but that's just what Stephens did in Charleston in winning her maiden tour-level doubles crown. Actually, it's her first WD win as a pro, as she never won one on the ITF circuit despite winning three junior doubles slams (all w/ Timea Babos) back in 2010.

A wild card entrant with Krueger, 19, Stephens and the all-Bannerette duo won a pair of MTB en route to the final, then defeated Lyudmyla & Nadiia Kichenok in a another MTB (10-7) in the final. It's also Krueger's first WTA doubles title (in her first final), after winning her maiden singles crown last fall in Osaka.

Stephens, who won the Charleston singles title in 2016, had reached just one tour doubles final before this week, with the pickleballer herself -- Genie Bouchard -- in Washington in 2017.


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WHEELCHAIR: Aniek Van Koot/NED
...the veteran Dutch roller has had a good few weeks. After reaching a singles final a week ago (a loss to Yui Kamiji), Van Koot reached another in the Seoul Korean Open and this time walked away with a Series 1 title, just her second singles win over the past two seasons.

Van Koot, 33, lost no sets and finished off Wang Xiying by a 7-6/6-2 score in the final.

Wang is a new name in these sort of finals, and her biggest career win is a Series 2 crown in 2016. Wang is 25, ranked #15, and this week defeated #1 seed Zhu Zhenzhen and #3 Manami Tanaka en route to the final. She also won the doubles titles with Li Xiaohui (def. Shuker/Zhu).
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1. Charleston QF - Jessie Pegula def. Victoria Azarenka
...6-4/3-6/7-6(7). For Vika, this one had to hurt.

Azarenka had managed to pull this match out of the fire, rallying from 6-4/3-1 back (w/ Pegula having 3 BP for 4-1), and then from love/40 down while serving to stay in the match in the 3rd set. She saved four BP in that game, holding for 5-5.

In the TB, Azarenka held three MP of her own, two on serve at 6-3. Pegula saved all three, then a fourth (again on Vika's serve). Pegula reached MP for a fifth time at 8-7, and Azarenka's long return forehand sealed the deal. As expected would happen (and should have... even if it'd been Rybakina on the losing end in this one), Vika slammed her racket into the clay as the ball sailed long.

Had Azarenka reached the SF it'd been her first on clay since 2013 in Rome. Since then, she's reached four other clay QF, three times in Rome (2015, '19 and '20) and once in Acapulco ('19).


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2. Charleston 1st Rd. - Katie Volynets def. Arantxa Rus
...6-2/6-7(6)/7-6(6). In the longest match of the year so far (of course, we *are* just at the start of the clay season), Volynets both squanders a big lead *and* stages a miraculous comeback in the span of 3:43.

The Bannerette led 6-2/3-1, and served for the match at 5-4. Volynets led the 2nd set TB 5-4, only to see Rus claim it 8-6.

At 4-4 in the 3rd, Volynets held from love/40 down, but broke Rus as the Dutch vet served for the match at 6-5. In the TB, Rus again got close, taking a 5-2 lead and holding double MP at 6-4. Volynets swept the final four points to get the win.



Of course, as has been Volynets' pattern, she wasn't able to follow up the big win, and fell in the 2nd Round to Charleston native Emma Navarro (who then went out in the 3rd Round to Jaqueline Cristian).
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3. Charleston SF - Dasha Kasatkina def. Jessie Pegula
...6-4/4-6/7-6(5). In a week full of three-setters for both, Kasatkina takes the victory over the #1 seed to reach her third '24 final (second only to Rybakina's four).

Pegula led 4-2 in the 1st, only to see Kasatkina win four straight games to take the match lead. Up 4-2 again in the 2nd, a set with six breaks of serve, Pegula ultimately needed 6 SP to knot the match.

In the 3rd set TB, Pegula once again took the lead, up 3-1. But the Russian rallied to lead 5-3, reached MP at 6-4 and put away her second MP to win 7-5.

Kasatkina also advanced past Pegula in another SF in '24, though it was a draw-only "meeting" in Adelaide, where the Hordette received a walkover into the final.


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4. Charleston Final - Danielle Collins def. Dasha Kasatkina
...6-2/6-1. A Collins victory seem destined here after her continued roll into the final and Kasatkina's physical struggle to get through a series of long matches. Reality didn't change a thing.

Collins' Miami/Charleston season combo is the third in tour history. The others were in 2008 and '13 by, well, you can probably guess...



Although, using the phrase "back-to-back" makes this tweet a bit misleading.

If we're just going to forget that the (now) Charleston-hosted event was once played in Hilton Head, this is just the second time a woman has won in both cities in consecutive weeks (Collins and Serena's '13 win). Serena's 2008 combo came with the Amelia Island event sandwiched between the two on the schedule (though Williams didn't play A.I.).

Meanwhile, Martina Hingis won the pair in *consecutive* weeks in 1997 when Hilton Head played host to the tournament. In 1987, Steffi Graf won Miami/Hilton Head in non-consecutive weeks.
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5. Bogota Final - Camila Osorio def. Marie Bouzkova
...6-3/7-6(5). Osorio picks up her second event title in her native Colombia (w/ Bogota '21), overcoming being broken while serving for the match at 6-5 in the 2nd. Up 5-4 with two serves coming in the TB, Osorio reached double MP at 6-4 but had to get the mini-break on MP #2 on the Czech's serve to win 7-5.



Bouzkova falls to 1-5 in tour singles final (she's reached one every season since 2020).

Osorio's win upholds the tradition of Colombian champions in Bogota, as she's the seventh local champ (thus COL puts some distance between itself and Spain, from which five winners have hailed). Osorio's two titles are half-way to record holder Fabiola Zuluaga's 20-year old mark of four.



Other multiple title winners hav been Paola Suarez (2), Lourdes Dominguez Lino (2) and Tatjana Maria (2, in 2022-23).
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6. Charleston 1st Rd. - Elisabetta Cocciaretto def. Ana Bogdan
...2-6/6-1/7-6(6). Cocciaretto has dropped quite a few matches that were within her grasp in '24 (two in WTA MD matches in which she had MP, and another last week when she served for the match in a 125 SF). She almost did it here, too.

Bogdan led 5-3 in the 3rd, and the Romanian served at 5-4, 30/15. She couldn't put the match away, and soon was forced to save a Cocciaretto MP down 5-6. In the deciding breaker, the Italian led 3-0, but Bogdan took a 5-4 lead before Cocciaretto's final surge handed the Cluj finalist her fourth straight defeat.


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7. Bogota 2nd Rd. - Irina Bara def. Laura Pigossi
...3-6/7-6(3)/6-4. Bara trailed 6-3/5-3, and saw a rain delay postpone Pigossi's opportunity to serve for the match a game prior to the Brazilian attempting to do so at 5-4. Pigossi held a MP, couldn't convert, and dropped serve. She broke back and got another chance at 6-5, but couldn't do it then, either.

The Romanian took things to a TB, which she won and then claimed the 3rd to oust the '22 Bogota finalist in 3:22.


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8. Charleston 2nd Rd. - Jessie Pegula def. Amanda Anisimova
...3-6/6-4/7-6(3). After seeing things immediately run into a ditch (down 0-5 in the 1st), Pegula gradually righted the proverbial ship. She led Anisimova 4-2 in the 3rd, holding a MP at 5-4 on return, before being forced to win a TB to advance.


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9. Charleston 2nd Rd. - Anhelina Kalinina def. Caroline Wozniacki
...6-2/6-3. A week after losing in three sets on hard court in Miami to Kalinina, the Dane goes far more quietly on green clay in Charleston.


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10. Bogota 2nd Rd. - Laura Siegemund def. Francesca Jones
...6-7(4)/6-4/6-2. Siegemund stages a comeback from 7-6/4-2 down, winning 10 of the last 12 games.

Though the 36-year old German lost in the next round to Marie Bouzkova, the QF was her best result on clay since 2022, and completes a nice 5-2 Miami/Bogota combo the last few weeks.

Siegemund has reached a pair of QF in '24 (w/ Adelaide), after last year playing in her first tour-level singles final (Warsaw) in six years and reaching a pair of late season QF in Chinese events.
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11. Bogota Final - Cristina Bucsa/Kamilla Rakhimova def. Anna Bondar/Irina Khromacheva
...7-6(5)/3-6 [10-8]. The #4 seeds defeat two other Top 4 seeds to take the title, ousting #1 Bouzkova/Sorribes Tormo in the SF, then taking down #3 Bondar/Khromacheva in the final.

Rakhimova, who missed out on her maiden singles final with a SF loss, wins WTA title #3. It's #2 for Bucsa.


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12. Charleston SF - Danielle Collins def. Maria Sakkari
...6-3/6-3. Collins reaches her second final, on a secord surface, in two weeks.

For Sakkari, who runs into another hard out in her recent string of otherwise good results (I.W. RU vs. Swiatek, Miami QF vs. Rybakina), drops to 10-24 in career SF, but can be heartened by her 11-4 mark since teaming up with coach David Witt (whose previous charge, Jessie Pegula, also fell in the Charleston semis).
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13. Charleston 1st Rd. - Taylor Townsend def. Sofia Kenin
...6-3/6-3. While the Miami champion's doubles success is thriving, Kenin has now dropped eight straight in singles. She's 1-9 on the year, and has gone 2-13 since finally seemingly "returning to her prior level" by reaching the Guadalajara 1000 SF last September.
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14. Bogota QF - Camila Osorio def. Tatjana Maria
...1-6/6-3/6-3. Osorio wins the battle of the last three Bogota champs (Osorio 2021, Maria 2022-23), as Osorio improves to 31-11 in career three-setters in WTA Q/MD play.

Check that... make that the last *four* Bogota champs now.
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15. Bogota SF - Marie Bouzkova def. Kamilla Rakhimova
...6-4/7-6(2). Rakhimova reaches her third career tour-level SF, all in Bogota over the past three years. She's yet to reach her maiden tour final, though.
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16. $35K Hammamet TUN Final - Sara Cakarevic def. Carson Branstine
...6-3/6-1. Branstine fails to sweep the titles in Hammamet (she won the WD), but reaches the singles final. The Canadian is 27-5 this season, and 38-6 since returning last October after hip surgery.
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HM- $35K Jackson (MS) USA Final - Katrina Scott def. Jamie Loeb
...7-6(9)/7-6(6). Not *all* former NCAA singles champions took full advantage of title opportunities this weekend. While Collins was winning in Charleston, 2015 college champ Loeb was playing a few states to the west in Mississippi, and falling to 19-year old countrywoman Scott, who picked up career challenger win #3.
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1. Charleston Final - Ashlyn Krueger/Sloane Stephens def. Lyudmyla Kichenok/Nadiia Kichenok
...1-6/6-3 [10-7]. The Bannerettes both win maiden WTA WD crowns, while the Kichenok sisters -- who'd beaten top seeds Melichar-Martinez/Perez in a 13-11 MTB in the semis, one of what would be *four* MTB for the duo this week -- fall to 4-4 in WTA finals together.


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2. Charleston 1st Rd. - Astra Sharma def. Arina Rodionova
...6-4/6-1. In an all-Aussie battle, lucky loser Sharma hands Rodionova her ninth loss in thirteen matches since becoming the oldest woman (34) to make her Top 100 singles debut back in February.

When Rodionova made history, she'd been coming off a QF run in Hua Hin, was 4-3 in 2024, and 29-10 going back to October.. Since then she's had four and three-match losing streaks and stands at just 8-12 on the season. She came into Charleston having dropped out of the Top 100 at #101, and will continue to head in the wrong direction in the next rankings release.
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3. $35K Santa Margherita di Pula ITA SF - Diletta Cherubini def. Jessica Pieri 6-4/5-7/6-3
$35K Santa Margherita di Pula ITA SF - Anastasiya Soboleva def. Tatiana Pieri 6-3/5-7/6-2
...the Italian Pieri sisters nearly saw a huge upgrade when it comes to their professional meetings in singles, but it didn't ultimately happen.

The scorelines of their losses were remarkably similar.

Ths sisters (Jessica is 26, Tatiana 25) have never faced off in a pro singles final, and the most recent of their three solo meetings came last July. Tatiana won when Jessica retired after losing a love 1st set, moving to 2-1 in their head-in-head. Actually, *all three* of their meetings have ended via retirement, in 1st Round matches in 2019 and '22, and last year's Q1 match-up.

Would the retirement trend have continued with so much more on the line? Who knows. Maybe next time?
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And there it is. It's not really a surprise, of course. Blood money -- whether it be from the Saudis or gambling -- seems to make the sports world so 'round these days, doesn't it?

As noted here earlier that it would be the case, this move officially ends (if it doesn't, the tour should just write "hypocrite" on its collective forehead with a black marker) the era of the WTA attempting to stand for anything other than attempting to be a money-making sports organization. We already know that it doesn't have any idea about how to market itself, anyway, so this shouldn't be too hard for anyone involved who has "WTA" in their job description.

It terms of remaining economically viable and getting to a desired place that might not be possible without such financial input, it's a legitimate business decision, one can suppose. But it's also one that *should* remove the WTA from *ever* making official or unofficial statements about any sort of discrimination, advocating for women's or gay rights, support of similar causes or anything of the sort (i.e. no plastering different colored flags on things, be it belonging to a country, cause or community, such as using rainbow themes during Pride Month). Those things won't likely stop, but they won't really *mean* anything. The support will be clearly hollow, blatantly unserious, and remarkably performative.

When it comes to the people who run the WTA, though, at this point do we *really* expect anything different?

One shouldn't really anticipate any (or much) pushback from the players, either. I'm sure they've been briefed, as we already saw a bit of the "talking points" being pulled out late last year on the subject of the possbility of the WTA and Saudi money linking up. Expect a lot of, "We're trying to foster change," "We're trying to inspire young women," and "You can't make a difference by staying out of the fray." You know, that sort of thing.

It'll mean nothing, of course.

Except for a handful of individuals, aside from the usual grandstanding and "outreach," it's become clear in recent years that most players don't *really* care about the plight of others as long as they get their share, anyway. They're not that different from the majority of walking humans on that front, but after the tour designed that beautiful little soapbox on which to pontificate while taking various public "stands" (Peng Shuai, celebrating the Original 9 and basking in what they stood for, supporting Ukraine, etc.) and choosing to wear a "We Have Principles" label like a virtual Hello-My-Name-Is tag on its chest in recent years it's amazing how quickly such things were tossed away once the immediate "look-at-me" time period of such issues passed.

The WTA has always liked to bathe itself in the proverbial glow of supporting various issues, and then often breaking its arm patting itself on the back for taking a stand against oppression without also having the will to see things through (take the Peng situation, which never *really* resolved itself before the tour returned to China despite strong statements from the tour that such a thing would be required).

It'll be interesting to see how it handles such things going forward. Actions (and money, we see) speak louder than platitudes, and the tour (and many of its players) long ago revealed itself/themselves to be a selective hypocrites (like most all of us, honestly) over the course of the last year or two, especially (ironically) during the 50th anniversary season of the tour's founding on the principles of equality and fairness.



Fact is, what the WTA "stood for" pretty much died a very public, lamentable death *during* that anniversary season in '23, from the top of the tour pyramid on down to the ground (i.e. player) level.

The latest WTAF announcement only serves as the official last rites. It was a good run. Pity it's over.



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*MIAMI & CHARLESTON/H.HEAD TITLE DOUBLE*
1987 Steffi Graf
1997 Martina Hingis
2008 Serena Williams
2013 Serena Williams
2024 Danielle Collins

*HARD/CLAY WTA TITLES IN BACK-TO-BACK WEEKS (since 2000)*
2009 Venus Williams - Dubai/HC, Acapulco/RC (2 continents)
2010 Venus Williams - Dubai/HC, Acapulco/RC (2 continents)
2011 Victoria Azarenka - Miami/HC, Marbella/RC (2 continents)
2013 Serena Williams - Miami/HC, Charleston/GC
2024 Danielle Collins - Miami/HC, Charleston/GC
--
NOTE: 2021 - Collins won Palermo/RC + San Jose/HC (2 diff. continents), DNP Olympics between

*MOST WTA FINALS in 2024*
4 - Elena Rybakina (2-2)
3 - DASHA KASATKINA (0-3)
2 - DANIELLE COLLINS (2-0)
2 - Alona Ostapenko (2-0)
2 - Iga Swiatek (2-0)
2 - Aryna Sabalenka (1-1)

*NCAA WS CHAMPIONS - CAREER WTA TITLES*
=[w/ NCAA title year]=
4 - DANIELLE COLLINS (2014,2016)
4 - Lisa Raymond (1992,1993)
3 - Patty Fendick (1986-87)
3 - Kathy Jordan (1979)
2 - Alycia Moulton (1982)
1 - Emma Navarro (2021)
1 - Jill Craybas (1996)
1 - Shaun Stafford (1988)
1 - Beth Herr (1983)
1 - Wendy White (1980)
1 - Stacy Margolin (1978)
1 - Barbara Hallquist (1976-77)
1 - Janice Metcalf (1972-73)

*MOST WTA CLAY TITLES IN 2020s*
7 - Iga Swiatek (1/1/3/2/0)
2 - DANIELLE COLLINS (0/1/0/0/1)
2 - Simona Halep (2/0/0/-/0)
2 - Ons Jabeur (0/0/1/1/0)
2 - Barbora Krejcikova (0/2/0/0/0)
2 - Bernarda Pera (0/0/2/0/0)
2 - Tatjana Maria (0/0/1/1/0)
2 - CAMILA OSORIO (0/1/0/0/1)
2 - Aryna Sabalenka (0/1/0/1/0)
2 - Elina Svitolina (1/0/0/1/0)

*CAREER WTA TITLES - USA (active)*
49 - Venus Williams
7 - Coco Gauff
7 - Madison Keys
7 - Sloane Stephens
5 - Sofia Kenin
4 - DANIELLE COLLINS
4 - Jessica Pegula

*2024 FIRST-TIME WTA CHAMPIONS*
Hobart - Emma Navarro, USA (22/#31)
Hua Hin - Diana Shnaider, RUS (19/#108)
Austin - Yuan Yue, CHN (25/#68)
[doubles]
Austin - Olivia Gadecki, AUS (21)
Charleston - ASHLYN KRUEGER, USA (19)
Charleston - SLOANE STEPHENS, USA (31)
[mixed]
Australian Open - Hsieh Su-wei, TPE (38)

*2024 YOUNGEST WTA FINALISTS*
[singles]
19 - Diana Shnaider, RUS (Hua Hin - W)
19 - Coco Gauff, USA (Auckland - W)
[doubles]
19 - Linda Noskova, CZE (Abu Dhabi - L)
19 - ASHLYN KRUEGER, USA (Charleston - W)

*2024 WTA DOUBLES FINALS*
3 (2-1) = Bethanie Mattek-Sands
3 (1-2) = LYUDMYA KICHENOK
3 (1-2) = Nicole Melichar-Martinez
3 (1-2) = Ellen Perez






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