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Sunday, June 23, 2024

Wk.25- Five Uneasy Pieces







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*WEEK 25 CHAMPIONS*
BERLIN, GERMANY (WTA 500/Grass Outdoor)
S: Jessie Pegula/USA def. Anna Kalinskaya 6-7(0)/6-4/7-6(3)
D: Wang Xinyu/Zheng Saisai (CHN/CHN) def. Chan Hao-ching/Veronika Kudermetova (TPE/RUS) 6-2/7-5
BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND (WTA 250/Grass Outdoor)
S: Yulia Putintseva/KAZ def. Ajla Tomljanovic/AUS 6-1/7-6(8)
D: Hsieh Su-wei/Elise Mertens (TPE/BEL) def. Miyu Kato/Zhang Shuai (JPN/CHN) 6-1/6-3
GAIBA, ITALY (WTA 125/Grass Outdoor)
S: Alycia Parks/USA def. Bernarda Pera/USA 6-3/6-1
D: Hailey Baptiste/Alycia Parks (USA/USA) def. Anna Siskova/Miriam Kolodziejova (CZE/CZE) 7-6(4)/6-2




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PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Jessie Pegula/USA
...while the other members of the WTA Top 5 have been winning majors (Iga, Sabalenka), claiming multiple titles (Rybakina) or playing in slam semifinals (Coco), #5 Pegula has spent much of '24 sidelined (an early neck injury, then a rib injury that cost her the clay season) and/or establishing a new coaching relationship (after her split w/ David Witt).

Pegula played her first matches since April last week at Rosmalen, and this week in Berlin had to deal with multiple weather delays that stretched both her QF and SF matches over two days. But the 30-year old Bannerette ultimately prevailed, taking home her first singles title on grass.

After a "normal" opening round win over Donna Vekic (a '23 Berlin finalist, no less), it took Pegula two days and three sets to escape Katerina Siniakova in the QF, then another two days to dispense with doubles partner Coco Gauff in straights (rallying from 5-2 down in the 2nd to do it). After finishing off the final few points of a 2nd set TB vs. Gauff on Sunday, Pegula went to work vs. Anna Kalinskaya in the final.

The toughest part was yet to come.

Pegula led the 1st set 5-3, only to see Kalinskaya stage a comeback to win the opener via a 7-0 TB shutout. After Pegula knotted the match, Kalinskya led 4-1 in the 3rd, and held four MP on Pegula's serve at 5-4. Pegula saved them all, then saved a fifth two games later (also on serve) at 6-5. In the *deciding* TB, Pegula won 7-3 to claim the crown, the fifth of her WTA career.

Meanwhile, this seems like a blatant attempt at Trophy of the Year consideration (and I'm all for it)...



As she has at all the majors, Pegula has reached the QF (but gone no further) at Wimbledon. Her final eight run last year at SW19 is her most recent at a slam, with that attempt ended by eventual champ Marketa Vondrousova in a three-set affair.
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RISERS: Anna Kalinskaya/RUS and Anastasia Potapova/RUS
...Kalinskaya has remained healthy enough this season to finally start to put together some of the *full* weeks that many of her individual results in the past made one think she was capable of attaining.

Earlier this year, Kalinskaya reached her maiden tour final in Dubai while collecting three Top 10 wins over Ostapenko, Gauff and Swiatek. This week in Berlin, the 25-year old Hordette benefitted from the inability of *others* to last the week. After an opening win over Nao Hibino, Kalinskaya saw a pair of Top 10ers -- Marketa Vondrousova and Aryna Sabalenka -- retire before the end of the 1st set of their matches against her. A SF win over Victoria Azarenka sent Kalinskaya to her second final of the season.



Once there, the Russian rallied to take the 1st after falling behind 5-3 (dominating a 7-0 TB), but failed to put away her first tour title when given the chance in the 3rd set vs. Jessie Pegula. Kalinskaya led 4-1 in the decider, and held five total MP on Pegula's serve, four at 5-4, then another at 6-5. She then lost the match-closing TB by a 7-3 score.

Kalinskaya now has seven Top 10 wins (of her 25 total victories this year) on the season, after having three in her career heading into '24.

The last time we saw Potapova, she was shaking the hand of Iga Swiatek at the net in Paris with a somewhat chagrined expression after losing to her 6-0/6-0 in 40 minutes in the 4th Round. Consider the page turned.

The Hordette, a semifinalist a year ago in Birmingham, repeated her result this year with wins over Elina Avanesyan, Lucia Bronzetti and Barbora Krejcikova. It's Potapova's first semi since her run in the tournament last year, ending her four QF losing streak. In 2023 it ended with a loss to eventual champ Alona Ostapenko, while this time it was Ajla Tomljanovic.


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SURPRISE: Bernarda Pera/USA
...the vast majority of Pera's career success has come on clay, including both of her tour titles (in back-to-back weeks in July '22), her best slam result (RG 4r in '23) and only Top 10 win (of 2 in her career) since 2018 (vs. Kontaveit in '22).

So it was a surprise to see the 29-year old Bannerette play her way into a grass final in the Gaiba 125 this week, posting wins over the likes of Kamilla Rakhimova and Sara Errani. It was Pera's first final on any level since her two WTA wins nearly two full years ago.

Pera fell in straights sets to Alycia Parks, but the result will lift the former world #27 (June '23) back into the Top 100.
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VETERANS: Yulia Putintseva/KAZ and Victoria Azarenka/BLR
...heading into this week Putintseva had flashed some very good results in '24, including QF in Miami and Madrid and a Round of 16 at Indian Wells. But she'd yet to reach a SF, going 0-4 in QF, let alone her first final in eleven months (since winning Budapest in the brief carved-out clay stint on the schedule between Wimbledon and summer hard courts) last July.

The 29-year old Kazakh caught a wave in Birmingham this week, though, dropping just one set while taking down Clara Burel, Anhelina Kalinina, Caroline Dolehide (in 3) and Elisabetta Cocciaretto to reach her sixth career WTA final. Then, with just one season over .500 on grass in her career (4-3 in '19), she handled Ajla Tomljanovic 6-1/7-6 to win her first grass court crown, the third overall of her WTA career.



Putintseva will be at #34 on Monday, now far off her career high of #27 from 2017.



Azarenka continues to push forward with consistent results, heading to Berlin and reaching her third singles SF of the season in Berlin. But, once again, it ended there.

After opening with a Top 10 win over Maria Sakkari, Azarenka eliminated Turk Zeynep Sonmez and then advanced past Elena Rybakina when the Kazakh (ill again) retired after just four games in the 1st set. Against Anna Kalinskaya, Azarenka won the 2nd set to force a TB vs. the Hordette, but fell 6-1 in the decider.

The loss marks Azarenka's fifth straight SF defeat since reaching the final in the (for her that year, season-ending) fall version of Indian Wells in October 2021 (she dropped a 3rd set TB vs. Badosa in the championship match).

Azarenka has racked up 24 match wins already this season, one more than her total last year and equal to her '22 output. She hasn't won more matches in a *full season* since 2016 (w/ 26), and seems well on her way to more victories in any year since winning 43 times in 2013 (the last year in which she won a major and was ranked #1 during the season).


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COMEBACKS: Ajla Tomljanovic/AUS and Alycia Parks/USA
...Tomljanovic's comeback from an injury/illness-plagued '23 season (she played just 10 matches) was sidelined once again for a few weeks early this year for surgery to remove several uterine tumors. This week in Birmingham, the 31-year old Aussie finally posted a result worthy of the player who reached consecutive slam QF in '22 at Wimbledon (w/ another QF in '21) and the U.S. Open (ending the career of Serena Williams in the latter run).

Wins over Anna Blinkova (now 7-14 since the 42-point TB), Zhu Lin, Leylah Fernandez and Anastasia Potapova progressively pushed Tomljanovic into her first WTA QF since the '22 U.S. Open, her first SF since Zhengzhou in '19 and her first final since Hua Hin that same season.

It was then that Yulia Putintseva dropped Tomljanovic to 0-5 in career tour-level finals, the worst career-opening mark in finals amongst active title-less WTA players. She *did* win a 125 crown last November, though.

The Aussie will jump from #190 to #135 on Monday. She was at a career high of #32 just sixteen months ago.



Apparently, Parks is simply a brilliant flower that blooms just one week every year. At least that's how things have gone so far.

Last year, the Bannerette was fabulous in winning her maiden tour title in Lyon, but has mostly put up Gods-awful results for the sixteen months since. She came into the Gaiba 125 grass event this week at 3-16 on the season, having gone 1-15 since her best result of the year, a 3rd Round AO run that included wins over Leylah Fernandez and Daria Snigur.

Ranked #148, after being #40 ten months ago, Parks didn't just win the singles title in Gaiba, she took home the doubles (w/ Hailey Baptiste) crown, too.

She made it out of qualfying with a 3rd set TB win over Anna Siskova, then ran off wins against Elvina Kalieva, Anca Todoni (a 125 winner two weeks ago on clay), Robin Montgomery (from a set down) and fellow qualfier Susan Bandecchi (in three) to reach the final. She took out Bernarda Pera 3 & 1 to get her sixth win of the week, and her third career 125 crown.

Parks will be up to #120 this week, and trying to play her way through Wimbledon qualifying.


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FRESH FACE: Elisabetta Cocciaretto/ITA
...Cocciaretto's improvement continues into the grass season, as the Italian reached her first career grass QF/SF and first tour-level semi of '24 in Birmingham.

After ending her spring clay schedule with a RG Round of 16 result (w/ wins over Haddad Maia and Samsonova), Cocciaretto burst into the next phase of the schedule by upsetting Birmingham defending champ Alona Ostapenko in the 1st Round, then backing it up with additional victories over Sloane Stephens and Diana Shnaider. She finally met her match vs. Yulia Putintseva one round short of the final.


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DOWN: Beatriz Haddad Maia/BRA and Marta Kostyuk/UKR
...in 2022, Haddad Maia won twelve straight grass court matches and was the first to win two grass titles (Nottingham and Birmingham, followed by an Eastbourne SF) between RG and Wimbledon since 1991. The grass hasn't been her friend since.

She exited in the 1st Round of Wimbledon in '22, and last year went just 4-3 on the surface (helped greatly by her SW19 4th Rd., after 1r/2r tuneup exits). With her 1st Round loss in Berlin this week to Ekaterina Alexandrova, the Brazilian is now 4-6 in her ten grass matches since the 12-match winning streak two seasons ago.

Meanwhile, Kostyuk has followed up one of the biggest results of her career -- a runner-up in Stuttgart after three consecutive Top 10 wins over Zheng, Gauff and Vondrousova -- with a 1-6 slide. Her only win during that stretch? The RG victory over Laura Pigossi in which she trailed by a set and 4-0 and was helped along by a suspension of play due to rain.

This week in Berlin, Kostyuk rallied from 3-1 down in the opening set of her 1st Rounder vs. Dasha Kasatkina, and was two points from the win at 6-6 in the 2nd set TB before ultimately losing in three.

Even this stretch hasn't spoiled what might be Kostyuk's best season to date, which has included two 500 finals, an Indian Wells SF and AO quarterfinal. She came into the week at a career-best #16, and all seven of her career Top 10 wins have come over the past twelve months (starting w/ Sakkari at last year's Wimbledon).

Kostyuk has been the UKR #1 since the end of RG once Elina Svitolina's '23 QF points fell off, and has (mostly) been the most consistent Ukrainian over the past year. But over the past fourteen months other countrywomen have posted a better best slam result (Yastremska, AO SF) and reached a bigger final (Kalinina, Rome 1000).
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ITF PLAYER: Rebecca Marino/CAN
...the 33-year old Canadian picks up her first career grass title, and second $100K of 2024 (w/ hard court Guanajuato MEX in February), with her run in the Ilkley challenger. Wins over McCartney Kessler, Daria Snigur and Kimberly Birrell got Marino into the final, where she outlasted Jessika Ponchet 4-6/6-1/6-4.

The two $100K titles this season are the biggest of Marino's career.


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DOUBLES: Hsieh Su-wei/Elise Mertens, TPE/BEL and Wang Xinyu/Zheng Saisai, CHN/CHN
...the world's #1 doubles duo added another entry to their resume in Birmingham, becoming the first team this season to claim three titles. Individually, world #1 Mertens and #2 Hsieh match Cristina Bucsa for the tour lead with three wins in '24. They've now won five times as a pair over the past few seasons.

Both have a history of success on grass, as Hsieh improves to 7-0 in grass finals (w/ 4 Wimbledons, including winning three of the last four titles, and now 3 wins in Birmingham) as she claims career WTA title #35. Mertens, who retired from her singles run last week, has played in the last three Wimbledon finals (winning in '21 w/ Hsieh) and has now won three different tour-level grass crowns (w/ a previous Rosmalen win). It's career title #21 for the Belgian.



In Berlin, Wang & Zheng won their second title as a pair, knocking off the #3 (the Kichenoks) and #2 (Schuurs/Stefani) seeds en route to the final, where they defeated Chan Hao-ching & Veronika Kuderemtova in straights.

Zheng sat out the 2022 and '23 seasons, and this was just her fifth WD event back. Her last final had been her title run in 2021 at Courmayeur with Wang. It's Zheng's sixth career title, and Wang's fourth, the first since taking Roland Garros with Hsieh last year.


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1. Berlin Final - Jessie Pegula def. Anna Kalinskaya
...6-7(0)/6-4/7-6(3). In Steffi Graf Stadium, Pegula squandered a 5-3 1st set lead, with Kalinskaya sweeping all seven points in the eventual TB. Come the 3rd, though, Pegula got her revenge.

Kalinskaya led 4-1, and the Russian saved four BP from love/40 down to hold for 5-4. She then took a 40/15 lead on Pegula's serve a game later, but couldn't convert any of four MP. She got a fifth shot (also on Pegula's serve) at 6-5, but again came up empty.

It was Pegula who stormed through the deciding TB, finally getting on the board with a title in '24, the first of her career on grass. The five MP saved tie for the most saved on tour en route to a singles title this decade.


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2. Berlin 1st Rd. - Zheng Qinwen def. Naomi Osaka
...6-4/3-6/6-3. Zheng bangs her way past Osaka in three, firing off a '24 WTA-leading 23 aces on the day.

This marks Osaka's third straight three-set defeat, making her 1-5 on the season.

She's 14-7 in matches that haven't gone the distance, but even in that batch of losses she's often come up short in close contests, including a two-TB loss to Pliskova, and a pair of tight straight setters vs. Garcia (4 & 6, 6 & 5).

Afterward, for a moment, there was a thought that maybe Zheng would get through an on-court interview while resisting the urge to grab the microphone. Then, at the last second...


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3. Birmingham 1st Rd. - Elisabetta Cocciaretto def. Alona Ostapenko
...6-3/6-3. Having picked up wins over Haddad Maia and Samsonova en route to her maiden slam Round of 16 in Paris, the Italian carries over her momentum to the grass with a quick victory over Birmingham defending champ Ostapenko.


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4. Berlin 1st Rd. - Victoria Azarenka def. Maria Sakkari 6-4/6-2
Berlin QF - Victoria Azarenka def. Elena Rybakina 3-1 ret.
...Azarenka's 80th and 81st career Top 10 wins (including her second over Sakkari in '24, w/ Rome 4r).

She came into the week having had just two Top 10 wins on grass since picking up a pair in Eastbourne (Radwanska and Clijsters) back in 2010: at the 2012 Olympics vs. Kerber, and over Kasatkina at Wimbledon last year. So these were Vika's first on grass outside of the AELTC in fourteen years.

Of course, the bigger story out of these mathches is that '22 Wimbledon winner Rybakina -- again -- is out due to illness. She looked dizzy here. She needs to get this thing better diagnosed so can treat it can be treated accordingly, not just for her tennis career but her quality of life in general. This has been going on for far too long now for it to just be passed off with an "it'll pass" wave.


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5. Berlin 2nd Rd. - Anna Kalinskaya def. Marketa Vondrousova 5-5 ret.
...and another.

Hopefully, this is just a precautionary move by the reigning Wimbledon champ and she'll be fine for London.

A repeat probably was never likely, but one doesn't want to see one Czech go down again (Vondrousova) just as one (Muchova) is finally ready to make her latest comeback.



Meanwhile...

Berlin QF - Anna Kalinskaya def. Aryna Sabalenka 5-1 ret.
Berlin QF - Coco Gauff def. Ons Jabeur 7-6(9)
...Sabalenka (2021 & '23 Wimbledon semifinalist) exits with shoulder pain, and Jabeur (2022-23 Wimbledon finalist) due to illness.

Who'll be left standing to be healthy enough to actually play in London? I guess Iga was right to not play any tune-up events.
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6. Berlin 1st Rd. - Dasha Kasatkian def. Marta Kostyuk
...4-6/7-6(6)/6-3. Kasatkina let slip a 3-1 1st set lead, and came within two points of defeat at 6-6 in the 2nd set TB before rallying for the win and further increasing Kostyuk's post-Stuttgart final appearance slide.

When told her *next* opponent, Kasatkina didn't break stride and remained *totally* in character...



Dasha was onto something. She lost 6-1/6-4 to Sabalenka, who improved to 7-2 in the series... then Sabalenka retired before the end of the 1st set in her next match. (Again) as Dasha said...


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7. Berlin SF - Jessie Pegula def. Coco Gauff
...7-5/7-6(2). Gauff had led the 2nd at 5-2, served for the set and had a SP (at 6-5) before play was stopped on Saturday with Pegula up 3-1 in the TB. When play resumed Sunday morning, Pegula began the final day of her title-winning week by taking four of five points to advance to the championship match.

The loss drops world #2 Gauff to 0-4 vs. her felow Top 5 woman in 2024 -- 0-2 vs. Iga, 0-1 vs. Sabalenka and 0-1 vs. Pegula (0-0 vs. Rybakina) -- and 7-18 in her combined career series vs. the other four. Four of the seven wins have come vs. Sabalenka.
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8. Birmingham Final - Yulia Putintseva def. Ajla Tomljanovic
...6-1/7-6(8). Putintseva saves a SP in the 2nd (at 5-4) and goes on to take out the Aussie in straights with a 10-8 TB win.

A win from Tomljanovic and she would have tied with Dasha Saville and Astra Sharma (both with 1) as the only active Aussie women with tour singles titles. Meanwhile, is Ash Barty lurking in the weeds? (See below.)

Meanwhile, Putintseva is 3-1 in finals since the start of the 2019 season. Over the same stretch, countrywoman Elena Rybakina is 8-11.
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9. Birmingham Q1 - Ameliia Rajecki def. Katie Volynets 6-3/6-7(5)/6-4
...former college athletes are popping up *everywhere* now on tour. Here, Britain's Rajecki (#794), an N.C. State Wolfpack team member, qualifies for her maiden tour-level MD on home grass, with the 22-year old getting her second of back-to-back Top 75 wins (w/ Wang Yafan) to do it.



Birmingham 1st Rd. - Diana Shnaider def. Amelia Rajecki 7-5/6-3
...Rajecki saw a familiar face across the net in her tour debut: former N.C. State teammate Shnaider.


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10. Gaiba 125 QF - Alycia Parks def. Robin Montgomery
...6-7(7)/6-3/6-4. The match-up of young Bannerettes accounted for 90 combined winners (50 from Montgomery, 40 from Parks). Parks emerged the victor behind her 17 aces, enough to make up for her corresponding 16 double-faults.
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11. Birmingham QF - Yulia Putintseva def. Caroline Dolehide
...6-3/6-7(2)/6-1. One pulled back from the ledge by Putintseva, who squandered a 6-3/5-3 lead in which she served for the win. The Kazakh came back strong after dropping a 2nd set TB.

Dolehide's QF run as a lucky loser (after a Q-round loss to Elina Avanesyan), tied for the best LL result in a tour-level event this season, included a win over Karolina Pliskova in which she saved two MP. She also advanced past Elise Mertens when the Belgian retired in the 2nd set, posting her best tour-level result since reaching the Guadalajara 1000 final last September.


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12. Gaiba 125 Final - Alycia Parks def. Bernarda Pera
...6-3/6-1. Parks joins McCartney Kessler, Katie Volynets and Ann Li as Bannerettes with WTA 125 titles in '24. She did then all one better, though, becoming the first 125 singles champ this year to also win the doubles (the first since Cristina Bucsa did it in the final 125 event last season).
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13. $100K Ilkley ENG Final - Kristina Mladenovic/Gabriela Ruse def. Quinn Gleason/Tang Qianhui
...6-2/6-2. Mladenovic -- shockingly, ranked #55 in doubles heading into the week -- wins her second doubles title at the 125 level in 2024. The Pastry played in the tour-level Adelaide final (w/ Garcia) back in Week 2.


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14. $35K Tauste ESP Final - Melisa Ercan def. Victoria Rodriguez
...6-3/6-0. Tomljanovic didn't win in Birmingham, but at least one Aussie was victorious this weekend, as 18-year old Ercan picked up her fifth and biggest challenger title in Spain.


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15. $35K Wichita USA Final - Cadence Brace def. Victoria Hu
...7-5/4-6/6-3. Love the name, and now love the results.

19-year old Canadian Brace claims her first pro title with a three-set win over Bannerette Hu.


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HM- $15K Rancho Santa Fe USA Final - Julieta Pareja def. Kimmi Hance
...5-7/6-1/6-4. 15-year old Pareja, who just completed her freshman year of high school, completes a week to include in her "What I Did Over Summer Vacation" essay come the fall.

On the USTA's Southern California circuit, the teenager reached her first pro SF and final, and grabbed her maiden pro crown after posting wins over Sara Daavettila (former NCAA All-American at UNC), and current college players Lily Fairclough (USC) and Hance (UCLA).

In the 1st Round, Pareja had knocked off 36-year old Toni Kinard.
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1. Birmingham 1st Rd. - Caroline Dolehide def. Karolina Pliskova
...2-6/6-3/7-6(5). Off her final run in Nottingham, Pliskova puts up a good fight vs. lucky loser Dolehide, but can't close her out. The Czech served at 5-3 in the 3rd, and held two MP on the Bannerette's serve at 5-4.
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2. Berlin 1st Rd. - Veronika Kudermetova def. Liudmila Samsonova
...3-6/6-4/6-4. Kudermetova has had perhaps *the* most disappointing season of any Top 30-ish player in '24. This was a good win for her, though.

Samsonova -- one known to run off a string of victories when she gets hot -- arrived after a title run at Rosmalen, but Kudermetova took out her countrywoman in three sets. With her two qualifying wins, it marks Kudermetova's first three-match win streak of the season. Still, she fell a round later to Elena Rybakina and is 11-15 on the year.

Kudermetova followed up with some doubles success, reaching the final (her second of '24) with Chan Hao-ching.
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3. Birmingham Final - Hsieh Su-wei/Elise Mertens def. Miyu Kato/Zhang Shuai
...6-3/6-1. Finally sticking to doubles after losing her last 20 singles matches (she's fallen outside the Top 700), Zhang reaches her first doubles final since the week after the start of her solo losing streak.

The Chinese veteran's last singles win came on January 31, 2023. A week later, she won her most recent title in Abu Dhabi, which was her last appearance in a final until this week.
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Hmmm, this is what Hingis, Clijsters and Wozniacki did before they came back full-time to the tour...




Of course, it's Barty, so such precedent means virtually nothing.


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I think I've always sort of slept on the production that McCartney had, post-Beatles, during the Wings era. He never really stopped churning out hits.



I wish there was a current tennis player named JoJo.




This weekend...







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I wonder if the artist can make an annual trip to Indian Wells every February/March? Their talents are desperpately needed there.













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*2024 TITLES FROM MATCH POINT DOWN*
Linz - Alona Ostapenko, LAT (1 MP vs. Tauson, 2r)
Madrid - Iga Swiatek, POL (3 MP vs. Sabalenka, F)
Rabat - Peyton Stearns, USA (2 MP vs. Bronzetti, QF)
Roland Garros - Iga Swiatek, POL (1 MP vs. Osaka, 2r)
Berlin - JESSIE PEGULA, USA (5 MP vs. Kalinskaya, F)
[total titles from MP down in 2020s]
2 - Barbora Krejcikova (2021 Roland Garros, 2023 Dubai)
2 - Alona Ostapenko (2022 Dubai, 2024 Linz)
2 - JESSIE PEGULA (2022 Guadalajara, 2024 Berlin)
2 - Iga Swiatek (2021 Rome, 2024 Madrid)

*MOST MP SAVED EN ROUTE TO TITLE - 2020s*
5 - Leylah Fernandez, CAN (2022 Monterrey)
5 - JESSIE PEGULA, USA (2024 Berlin)
4 - Barbora Krejcikova, CZE (2023 Dubai)
3 - Jessie Pegula, USA (2022 Guadalajara)
3 - Belinda Bencic, SUI (2023 Abu Dhabi)
3 - Katerina Siniakova, CZE (2023 Nanchang)
3 - Iga Swiatek, POL (2024 Madrid)

*MOST WTA FINALS in 2024*
5 - Iga Swiatek (5-0)
5 - Elena Rybakina (3-2)
4 - Aryna Sabalenka (1-3)
3 - Danielle Collins (2-1)
3 - Dasha Kasatkina (0-3)
2 - Katie Boulter (2-0)
2 - Alona Ostapenko (2-0)
2 - Jasmine Paolini (1-1)
2 - Karolina Pliskova (1-1)
2 - ANNA KALINSKAYA (0-2)
2 - Marta Kostyuk (0-2)

*2024 LOW-RANKED WTA FINALISTS (#100+)*
#228 - Bianca Andreescu (Rosmalen, lost to Samsonova)
#190 - AJLA TOMLJANOVIC (Birmingham, lost to Putintseva)
#108 - Diana Shnaider (Hua Hin, def. Zhu)

*2024 OLDEST WTA FINALISTS*
32 - Magda Linette, POL (Rouen -L)
32 - Karolina Pliskova, CZE (Nottingham -L)
31 - Karolina Pliskova, CZE (Cluj-Napoca -W)
31 - Ana Bogdan, ROU (Cluj-Napoca -L)
31 - Sloane Stephens, USA (Rouen -W)
31 - AJLA TOMLJANOVIC, AUS (Birmingham -L)
30 - Danielle Collins, USA (Strasbourg -L)
30 - Danielle Collins, USA (Charleston -W)
30 - Danielle Collins, USA (Miami -W)
30 - JESSIE PEGULA, USA (Berlin -W)

*2024 OLDEST WTA WD/MX CHAMPIOS*
38 - Bethanie Mattek-Sands, USA (Miami)
38 - Bethanie Mattek-Sands, USA (Abu Dhabi)
38 - HSIEH SU-WEI, TPE (Birmingham)
38 - Hsieh Su-wei, TPE (Indian Wells)
38 - Hsieh Su-wei, TPE (Australian Open)
38 - Hsieh Su-wei, TPE (AO Mixed)
37 - Sara Errani, ITA (Rome)
36 - Sara Errani, ITA (Linz)
36 - Laura Siegemund, GER (RG MX)
36 - Bibiane Schoofs, NED (Rosmalen)

*WORST RECORDS IN WTA FINALS - active (1 or fewer wins)*
0-5 - AJLA TOMLJANOVIC
0-4 - Bethanie Mattek-Sands
0-4 - Aliaksandra Sasnovich
0-3 - Shelby Rogers
1-7 - Genie Bouchard
1-7 - Kristina Mladenovic
1-5 - Marie Bouzkova
1-3 - Karolina Muchova
--
ALSO: Olga Govortsova (0-4)

*2024 FINALS WITH TITLE-LESS PLAYERS*
Hobart - Emma Navarro (0-0) + W = 1-0
Hua Hin - Diana Shnaider (0-0) + W = 1-0
Cluj-Napoca - Ana Bogdan (0-1) + L = 0-2
Dubai - Anna Kalinskaya (0-0) + L = 0-1
Austin - Yuan Yue (0-1) + W = 1-1
Rabat - Peyton Stearns (0-1) + W = 1-1
Birmingham - ALJA TOMLJANOVIC (0-4) + L = 0-5
Berlin - ANNA KALINSKAYA (0-1) + L = 0-2

*2024 OLDEST WTA SEMIFINALISTS*
36 - Sara Errani, ITA (Bogota)
34 - VICTORIA AZARENKA, BLR (Berlin)
34 - Victoria Azarenka, BLR (Miami)
34 - Victoria Azarenka, BLR (Brisbane)
33 - Sorana Cirstea, ROU (Dubai)
[WTA 125]
37 - SARA ERRANI, ITA (Gaiba)
34 - Alize Cornet, FRA (Saint-Malo)
33 - Petra Martic, CRO (Makarska)
32 - Nuria Parrizas Diaz, ESP (Canberra - W)

*BEST 2024 WTA LL RESULTS*
QF - Viktoriya Tomova (Hobart)
QF - Cristina Bucsa (Abu Dhabi)
QF - CAROLINE DOLEHIDE (Birmingham)
3rd - Nadia Podoroska (Indian Wells)
3rd - Oceane Dodin (Miami)
3rd - Greet Minnen (Miami)
3rd - Astra Sharma (Charleston)
3rd - Jaqueline Cristian (Rome)
[best result using PR]
RU - AJLA TOMLJANOVIC (Birmingham)
QF - Anastasija Sevastova (Cluj-Napoca)
QF - Naomi Osaka (Doha)
QF - Anastasija Sevastova (Austin)
QF - Aleksandra Krunic (Rosmalen)

*2024 WTA TITLES - USA*
2 - Danielle Collins (Miami,Charleston)
1 - Coco Gauff (Auckland)
1 - Madison Keys (Strasbourg)
1 - Emma Navarro (Hobart)
1 - JESSIE PEGULA (Berlin)
1 - Peyton Stearns (Rabat)
1 - Sloane Stephens (Rouen)
[WTA 125]
1 - McCartney Kessler
1 - Ann Li
1 - ALYCIA PARKS
1 - Katie Volynets

*WTA TITLE LEADERS - KAZAKHSTAN*
8 - Elena Rybakina (2019-24)
3 - YULIA PUTINTSEVA (2019-24)
1 - Zarina Diyas (2017)
1 - Elena Likhovtseva (1994) (2 later as RUS)
-
NOTE: Yaroslava Shvedova 1 as RUS; 0-1 in finals as KAZ
NOTE: Ksenia Pervak 1 as RUS; never in final as KAZ

*2024 WTA DOUBLES TITLES*
3 - Cristina Bucsa
3 - HSIEH SU-WEI
3 - ELISE MERTENS
2 - Chan Hao-ching
2 - Sara Errani
2 - Sofia Kenin
2 - Irina Khromacheva
2 - Bethanie Mattek-Sands
2 - Jasmine Paolini
2 - Katerina Siniakova
[duos]
3...HSIEH/MERTENS
2...Errani/Paolini
2...Kenin/Mattek-Sands
[2020-24 - individuals]
18 - Katerina Siniakova (1/6/6/3/2)
13 - Barbora Krejcikova (1/5/3/4/0)
12 - ELISE MERTENS (1/4/2/2/3)
11 - HSIEH SU-WEI (4/2/0/2/3)
9 - Laura Siegemund (1/0/3/5/0)
[2020-24 - duos]
12..Krejcikova/Siniakova (1/5/3/3/0)
8...Aoyama/Shibahara (1/5/0/2/0)
7...Siegemund/Zvonareva (1/0/2/4/0)
5...Gauff/Pegula (0/0/3/2/0)
5...HSIEH/MERTENS (0/2/0/0/3)
5...Hsieh/Strycova (4/0/-/1/-)

*2024 WTA DOUBLES FINALS - DUOS*
3...HSIEH/MERTENS (3-0)
3...Errani/Paolini (2-1)
3...Melichar-Martinez/Perez (1-2)
2...Kenin/Mattek-Sands (2-0)
2...CHAN HC./V.KUDERMETOVA (1-1)
2...Dabrowski/Routliffe (1-1)
2...Hunter/Siniakova (1-1)
2...L.Kichenok/Ostapenko (1-1)
2...Guo/Jiang (0-2)

*CAREER WTA DOUBLES TITLES - active*
35 - HSIEH SU-WEI
33 - Latisha Chan
30 - Bethanie Mattek-Sands
30 - Sara Errani
28 - Kristina Mladenovic
25 - Timea Babos
25 - Katerina Siniakova
22 - Venus Williams
21 - Chan Hao-ching
21 - ELISE MERTENS






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Ah, great. I look forward to a whole new group of people (finally) experiencing a television revelation in the near future.


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All for now.
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