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Sunday, May 26, 2024

RG.1- Naomi's New Day

Naomi Osaka's return to Paris offered *her* another chance to slink away and prepare for an upcoming summer where something big could await her yet again. But just as she has all spring, the four-time slam champion showed a necessary willingess to fight on the dirt. And so *this* chapter of her 2024 season will last (at least) a little bit longer.

At the start of the year, Osaka committed to trying to post some good results during the '24 clay season, the first of her comeback. Since losses to Martina Trevisan and Liudmila Samsonova (the latter in 3 sets) in two of her first three clay matches since 2022, Osaka has shown some resilience in this stage of her Second Act in tennis. In Rome, she posted her first career Top 20 wins on the surface (over Marta Kostyuk and Dasha Kasatkina), and on Day 1 in Paris she got her first RG win in three years.

Though she *did* have to sweat it out a bit, but that only proves the point of Osaka's encouraging spring.



Facing Osaka today on Court Chatrier was Lucia Bronzetti. The Italian was just days removed from squandering a 5-0 3rd set lead (and 3 MP) vs. Peyton Stearns in the QF in Rabat, an event that Stearns would go on to win on Saturday. Wouldn't you know it, after knotting the match and sending things to a 3rd vs. Osaka it was soon *Bronzetti* who was fighting to dig herself out of a deep hole. Down 0-4, Bronzetti reeled off five straight games to force Osaka to rediscover something from her not-that-distant past if she wanted to play another clay match before 2025.

Turned out, she did. Osaka fired things back up and swept the final three games, winning 6-1/4-6/7-5 to notch her first slam MD win since 2022 in Melbourne.



With this win, Osaka is still *just* 5-3 on clay this year, but that's the most surface victories she's had in a season since her personal best of nine in 2019. She's never had another season with more than five.

Osaka still might not top that number after her 2nd Round match, in which she'll likely face Iga Swiatek, as the Pole will soon begin her quest to become the first three-peat women's RG champ since Justine Henin in 2007. But even if Osaka loses there (and if she'd fallen today, for that matter), her clay season would still have to be considered a successful one.

The U.S. Open, which was always Osaka's best chance for *big* success in 2024, is now approximately three months away. So far Osaka is progressing just as she'd likely have wished back in January, and maybe even a little better than expected, if she's going to be a realistic threat for something grand (again) in the big city come late August.

But before that: Iga (probably... well, just about for certain).




=DAY 1 NOTES=
...the first winner of the 2024 Roland Garros main draw was... Donna Vekic! After Lesia Tsurenko "felt something" and retired down 6-5 in the 1st set.

Because of course she did.

When it comes to players who deal with continual injuries that hamper them but don't take them off tour for long stretches, for some (say, an Anna Kalinskaya) you feel some sort of sympathy about them not being able to "catch a break," while with others you simply roll your eyes when the parade of retirements and walkovers pop up in clockwork fashion over the course of a season. Tsurenko, who still manages to cash her 1st Round check in Paris, is definitely in the latter category.

For the record, this is Tsurenko's second straight "pull the ripcord" exit from an event, both coming after knocking off Vekic in the 1st Round in Rome, by the way. It's her third such occasion already this season, during which she's also had love & 1 and love & love defeats. Since the start of 2021, she's personally hit the ejector button *18* times (w/ 3 ret./walkovers in '21, and 6 each in 2022-23... and '24 isn't even half over). That's just a crazy number, especially since she never misses large chunks of time with anything truly "serious."



Meanwhile, on to players who actually finish matches/events...

For the second straight slam, it was a Hordette who was the first seed to be sent packing. It Melbourne it was Liudmila Samsonova, and in Paris it's #29 Veronika Kudermetova, ousted by Marie Bouzkova early on Sunday (but not early enough to beat Lesia out the back door, I guess).

...today saw a series of matches that went into a rain delay with one player winning, only to have that potential result flipped once play was resumed.

The most striking of these matches involved #18 Marta Kostyuk and qualifier Laura Pigossi. Though, to be fair, the turn began even *before* the short suspension of play. Early on, the 29-year old Brazilian was seemingly in charge and ready to get her first career slam MD win in her third try.



After winning a 2nd set TB to send the match to a 3rd, Pigossi took a 4-0 lead, and had two GP chances to hold for 5-0. But the rain was looming, and so was Kostyuk. The Ukrainian had closed to 4-2 (and taken a medical timeout, which helped push things along to the delay) before the match was finally stopped. Once everyone returned, Pigossi's dreams crumbled into the terre battue.



The Brazilian never won another game, as Kostyuk finished off her run of six straight games with a 4-0 sprint out of the break to avoid a fourth 1st Round exit in Paris in five career MD appearances. Pigossi is now 0-3 in her slam career.



Meanwhile, Jessica Bouzas Maneiro was in the driver's seat to score her first career slam win against Jana Fett, a lucky loser (after a Q3 loss to Turkey's Zenep Sonmez) who knows all about how a career can turn on a missed opportunity in a major.

Bouzas Maneiro led 4-1 in the 3rd when play was suspended, and when the match picked up again (both women were playing with wraps on their thighs: Fett on just one, with the Spaniard covering "both*) she had the chance to serve out the win at 5-3. She couldn't finish off her work, and Fett rallied to win a 7-5 deciding set.



While Bouzas Maneiro didn't get her maiden slam win today, Fett *did* get her first since she made her major debut at the 2018 Australian Open. The event proved to be an even more monumental one for the then 21-year old Croat in the following round, when she led Caroline Wozniacki 5-1 in the 3rd set and had a pair of MP that went unconverted. The Dane, of course, won the match and then went on to win her only slam crown, topping off what will likely be a Hall of Fame career (no matter what ultimately happens in Caro 2.0, if anything really does).

For Fett, though, it was a lost opportunity never (so far, at least) to be matched. Since the '18 AO, before today Fett had played in just two more slam MD matches, both at Wimbledon (in 2018 and '22). She went 0-2. After seeming to be a player on the rise, she never met her early expetections. After climbing inside the Top 100 in late '17 (she was the year-end #98), she finished the next five years outside the Top 200 and didn't crack the Top 140 after September '18.

A November 125 final run (her biggest to date) allowed her make an eleventh hour jump to finish '23 at an official #150, but she immediately slid back down the rankings over the following weeks/months before kicking into something of a "mini-comeback" mode this spring on the clay. Fett won $75K and $100K challenger titles last month, the two biggest of her career since she claimed a $75K back in 2015. A week ago, she was ranked #126, her best since 2018 (she's officially #135 in the final "pre"-RG rankings for Monday).

Fett is 14-3 on clay in April/May, and after getting a break with a LL spot in the draw, and then another one today vs. Bouzas Maneiro, things are finally looking up again for the now 27-year old. It's about time.

...while the turnaround wasn't as dramatic, the rain also arrived with Laura Siegemund leading Sofia Kenin by a set, but the Bannerette ultimately finished off two 6-2 sets to get the win, just her fifth in eighteen matches in 2024. It the 2020 finalist's first RG MD win since 2021.

Siegemund's loss was just part of a very bad day for the German contingent. In all, they went 0-4 on Day 1, with the final indignity of the day being qualifier Jule Niemeier's loss to Wang Xinyu after holding a 4-1 3rd set edge. The German had a shot to turn things back late, saving a pair of MP at 5-4 and soon after holding a BP. But Wang converted on her third MP as the Chinese women posted a 3-1 mark (w/ the only loss coming due to an all-CHN match-up).

Germany's Day 1 stumbles covered up the 0-3 start by the Hordettes, as Kudermetova's early exit was joined by losses from Maria Timofeeva and Diana Shnaider, the latter coming after a fine early '24 season that has seen the 20-year old win her maiden tour title (on Hua Hin hard courts), reach a pair of 125 finals (winning one on clay a week ago) and the Rome 3rd Round. Shnaider had been 9-3 this clay season before her quick exit today.



...but nothing can quite match the no good bad days in Paris of Barbora Krejcikova in recent years. The #24 seed's loss today to Viktorija Golubic drops the Czech to 0-3 at RG since her title run in the event in 2021. She's gone 0-1 in WD in Paris since '21, too, and has yet to play a MX match in the event since winning in singles.



Krejcikova is teamed Siegemund in doubles at this event (we'll see about MX, I guess).

...to wrap up the rest of the Week 21 results...

The week's biggest challenger, a $75K in Grado (ITA), went to Francesca Jones, who defeated Kathinka von Deichmann 6-1/7-5. It's the biggest career title for the Brit, who previously reached her biggest final earlier this year in a 125 clay event in San Luis Potosi (MEX). With the win, she'll move back into the Top 250.

20-year old Dutch player Anouk Koevermans picked up her maiden pro title in the $50K challenger in Otocec (SLO), winning six matches (and not as a qualifier, as this one had a big MD) on the week and taking out Andorran Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva ('20 AO girls' champ) in a 1-6/6-4/7-5 final.

In Kuršumlijska Banja (SRB), Lola Radivojevic got a chance at a title for a second straight week. After losing in a $75K final a week ago (to Tara Wurth), the 19-year old Serb claimed the $35K crown with a 6-3/6-4 defeat of Sara Cakarevic. Radivojevic lost no sets on her way to the winner's circle, picking up career title #5.

In Bol (CRO), it was a case of another week, another Czech Crusher champion. In this case, for a second straight week. 16-year old Laura Samson, who'll probably be trying to qualify for her first RG about 51 weeks from now, claimed a second ITF title in as many weeks with a 6-1/6-2 victory over Sara Svetac in the final.

Samson (the current #2 junior) saved the week for the Crusher collective, as on the heels of Czech teens Linda & Brenda Fruhvirtova and Dominika Salkova falling in RG qualifying, Tereza Valentova also lost in the Annenheim $35K final this weekend to Waffle Marie Benoit.

...in Milan, top seeded Emerson Jones, 15, added a J500 crown to her growing collection of hardware, which now includes three previous J300 wins and another J500 last fall in Osaka.

Jones defeated recent J300 champs Yelyzaveta Kotliar (SF) and #2-seed Tyra Caterina Grant in a 7-6(3)/6-2 final. The Aussie reached this year's AO girls' final (a loss to #1 junior Renata Jamrichova) after having just before Melbourne won the J300 Traralgon event. Jones defeated Grant in both of those events in Australia in addition to her win in this weekend's final.



...in Barcelona, Yui Kamiji returned to the wheelchair tour after missing the World Team Cup and picked up where she left off by sweeping the singles and doubles titles in the Series 1 event. After losing just seven games in her first three matches (def. Manami Tanaka 1 & 2, and Angelica Bernal 2 & 2), the WC #2 was forced to three sets in the final by Wang Ziying, the #13-ranked player in the rankings who'd knocked off Zhu Zhenzhen and recent de Groot conqueror Li Xiaohui (SF).

Kamiji prevailed 6-1/6-7(6)/6-4, improving to 32-0 this season vs. non-Diede opponents (she's won 45 straight).

Kamiji teamed with Kgothatso Montjane to win the doubles, defeating Lucy Shuker/Aniek Van Koot for the crown.





...DASHA IN THE NEWS... ON DAY 1:




...WOW (I mean, the hair)... ON DAY 1:




...WIN ROLAND GARROS ONE DAY AND SHE'LL CLIMB THE EIFFEL TOWER... ON DAY 1:




...SERIOUSLY, THE WTA AT ITS FINEST...... ON DAY 1:


As the final women's matches of Day 1 came to a close at the second *major* of the tennis season, the WTA's Twitter account hadn't gifted the world with a single tweet in *five* hours (Kostyuk's win was the most recent). The most recent tweet before *that* had come *two* hours earlier (Ostapenko's win).

So, to recap, TWO tweets over a more than seven-hour stretch on the FIRST DAY OF A GRAND SLAM EVENT, when 20 women's matches were played.

Yep, the WTA really knows how to market its product. Oh, well... at least the Saudis threw a bunch of blood money at them. So I guess they're good, and/or just don't really care about promoting the game at even the most simple ground level of such things.


...NOT SURE ABOUT THE OUTFIT, THOUGH (but she's already out, so...)... ON DAY 1:









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*RECENT RG "FIRST VICTORY" HONORS*
2016 A.Pavlyuchenkova/RUS (d. Sorribes Tormo/ESP)
2017 Petra Kvitova/CZE (d. Boserup/USA)
2018 Ekaterina Makarova/RUS (d. Sai.Zheng/CHN)
2019 Petra Martic/CRO (d. Jabeur/TUN)
2020 Kamilla Rakhimova/RUS (d. Rogers/USA)
2021 Ana Bogdan/ROU (d. Cocciaretto/ITA)
2022 Sorana Cirstea/ROU (d. Maria/GER)
2023 Magdalena Frech/POL (d. Zhang/CHN)
2024 Donna Vekic/CRO (d. Tsurenko/UKR)

*RECENT RG "FIRST SEED OUT"*
2015 #31 Caroline Garcia/FRA (Vekic/CRO)
2016 #32 Alona Ostapenko/LAT (Osaka/JPN)
2017 #31 Roberta Vinci/ITA (Puig/PUR)
2018 #9 Venus Williams/USA (Q.Wang/CHN)
2019 #5 Angelique Kerber/GER (Potapova/RUS)
2020 #17 Anett Kontaveit/EST (Garcia/FRA)
2021 #26 Angelique Kerber/GER (Kalinina/UKR)
2022 #6 Ons Jabeur/TUN (Linette/POL)
2023 #29 Zhang Shuai/CHN (Frech/POL)
2024 #29 Veronika Kudermetova/RUS (Bouzkova/CZE)

*RECENT MILAN (J500) JR. CHAMPIONS*
2008 Simona Halep, ROU
2009 Sloane Stephens, USA
2010 Beatrice Capra, USA
2011 Irina Khromacheva, RUS
2012 Katerina Siniakova, CZE
2013 Belinda Bencic, SUI
2014 CiCi Bellis, USA
2015 Marketa Vondrousova, CZE
2016 Oleysa Pervushina, RUS
2017 Elena Rybakina, RUS (now KAZ)
2018 Eleonora Molinaro, LUX
2019 Alexa Noel, USA
2020-21 DNP
2022 Celine Naef, SUI
2023 Kaitlin Quevedo, USA (now ESP)
2024 Emerson Jones, AUS

*NCAA WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONS*
[recent singles winners]
2014 Danielle Collins, Virginia (USA)
2015 Jamie Loeb, North Carolina (USA)
2016 Danielle Collins, Virginia (USA)
2017 Brienne Minor, Michigan (USA)
2018 Arianne Hartono, Mississippi (NED)
2019 Estela Perez-Somarriba, Miami (ESP)
2021 Emma Navarro, Virginia (USA)
2022 Peyton Stearns, Texas (USA)
2023 Tian Fangran, UCLA (CHN)
2024 Alexa Noel, Miami (USA)
[recent doubles winners]
2013 Kaitlyn Christian / Sabrina Santamaria (USC)
2014 Maya Jansen / Erin Routcliffe (Alabama)
2015 Maya Jansen / Erin Routcliffe (Alabama)
2016 Brooke Austin / Kourtney Keegan (Florida)
2017 Francesca Di Lorenzo / Miho Kowase (Ohio State)
2018 Jessica Golovin / Eden Richardson (LSU)
2019 Gabby Andrews / Ayan Broomfield (UCLA)
2021 Makenna Jones / Elizabeth Scotty (UNC)
2022 Jaeda Daniel / Nell Miller (NC State)
2023 Fiona Crawley / Carson Tanguilig (UNC)
2024 Dasha Vidmanova / Aysegul Mert (Georgia)
[overall singles champions by school]
14 - Stanford
4 - Florida
3 - Georgia, Miami, Virginia
2 - California, Duke, UCLA
1 - Baylor, Georgia Tech, Michigan, Mississippi, San Diego, Texas, USC, Wake Forest
[most singles titles]
2 - Sandra Birch, Stanford
2 - Danielle Collins, Virginia
2 - Patty Fendick, Stanford
2 - Nicole Gibbs, Stanford
2 - Laura Granville, Stanford
2 - Amber Liu, Stanford
2 - Lisa Raymond, Florida
[recent team champions]
2010 Stanford
2011 Florida
2012 Florida
2013 Stanford
2014 UCLA
2015 Vanderbilt
2016 Stanford
2017 Florida
2018 Stanford
2019 Stanford
2021 Texas
2022 Texas
2023 North Carolina
2024 Texas A&M
[most team titles]
20...Stanford
7...Florida
4...Texas
2...Georgia
2...UCLA
2...USC
[recent season singles #1]
2017 Francesca Di Lorenzo, Ohio State
2018 Astra Sharma, Vanderbilt
2019 Katrina Jokic, Georgia
2020 [Ashley Lahey, Pepperdine - #1 when season suspended]
2021 Estela Perez-Somarriba, Miami
2022 Peyton Stearns, Texas
2023 Fiona Crawley, North Carolina
2024 Mary Stoiana, Texas A&M



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TOP QUALIFIER: Jule Niemeier/GER
TOP EARLY-ROUND (1r-2r): xx
TOP MIDDLE-ROUND (3r-QF): xx
TOP LATE-ROUND (SF-F): xx
TOP QUALIFYING MATCH: Q2: Raluca Serban/CYP def. Dominika Salkova/CZE 3-6/6-4/7-6(13-11) - both served for win in 3rd, w/ Salkova 2 MP, then third in TB; Serban wins 24-point MTB
TOP EARLY-RD. MATCH (1r-2r): xx
TOP MIDDLE-RD. MATCH (3r-QF): xx
TOP LATE-RD. MATCH (SF-F/Jr.-WC): xx
=============================
FIRST VICTORY: Donna Vekic/CRO (def. Tsurenko/UKR ret.)
FIRST SEED OUT: #29 Veronika Kudermetova/RUS (1r: Bouzkova/CZE)
FIRST SLAM MD WINS: Day 1: x
UPSET QUEENS: x
REVELATION LADIES: x
NATION OF POOR SOULS: x
LAST QUALIFIER STANDING: 1r wins: Danilovic/SRB, Volynets/USA, Zidansek/SLO
LUCKY LOSER WINS: 1r wins: Fett/CRO
LAST WILD CARD STANDING: 1r wins: Paquet/FRA
PROTECTED RANKING WINS: 1r wins: Anisimova/USA, Osaka/JPN
LAST PASTRY STANDING: 1r wins: Garcia, Paquet
Ms./Mademoiselle OPPORTUNITY: x
IT "TBD": x
COMEBACK PLAYER: x
CRASH & BURN: Nominee: #24 Krejickova (1st Rd.- 0-3 since '21 title)
ZOMBIE QUEEN OF PARIS: Nominees: Fett (LL) down 4-1 3rd vs. Bouzas Maneiro and rain, Bouzas Maneiro served at 5-3, Fett wins 7-5; Kostyuk down 4-0 and 2 GP for 5-0 in 3rd vs. Pigossi, 4-2 and rain suspenionsion, wins 6-4
DOUBLES STAR: x
VETERAN PLAYER (KIMIKO CUP): x
Mademoiselle/Madame OF THE EVENING: x
JUNIOR BREAKOUT: x
Légion de Lenglen: x
Coupe LA PETIT TAUREAU: Nominee: Iga attempt at first three-peat since Henin in 2007






All for Day 1. More tomorrow.
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