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Saturday, August 8, 2026

Wk.31- To "Can" or "Nada," That is the Question








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*WEEK 31 CHAMPIONS*
Warsaw, Poland (WTA 125; Hard Court Outdoor)
S: Carol Young Suh Lee/USA def. Gabriela Knutson/CZE 6-4/7-5
D: Weronika Falkowska/Alana Smith (POL/USA) def. Martyna Kubka/Alicja Rosolska (POL/POL) 6-3/6-1




With the current WTA event in Canada again this year ending with a mid-week final (on Thursday... so stupid) in a few days, I'll push all of that tournament's awards and matches to a post that'll come before next weekend, and confine this week's abbreviated edition to some happenings on the lower pro levels and in junior competition.



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VETERAN: Gabriela Knutson/CZE
...in the week's 125 in Warsaw, the 29-year old Czech lost no sets en route to her second career 125 final, knocking off the likes of Sofia Costoulas and Ella Seidel along the way. She lost in straights in the title match vs Carol Young Suh Lee, a fellow former NCAA player.

Knutson will climb back into the Top 200 in the "live" rankings (from #219), after having reached a previous career high of #155 in 2023.

Knutson is U.S.-born, but moved to the Czech Republic at age 12. She played NCAA tennis at Syracuse, climbing as high as #4 in the college rankings, then played university tennis in Britain at Durham while working on postgraduate degrees there.


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FRESH FACE: Carol Young Suh Lee/USA
...the 24-year old Northern Mariana Islands native, representing the U.S., has been having a fine season below tour level in '26. With this week's 125 title run in Warsaw, her biggest career title in her biggest final to date, she moves closer to creating a presence for herself on the WTA tour.

Already 6-2 in ITF circuit finals since the start of last year (including a $50K in July), Lee made her WTA MD debut last month in Prague, getting a 1st Round win before losing to defending champ Marie Bouzkova. In Warsaw, she upset top-seeded Elsa Jacquemot and later bounced consecutive Czechs in the SF (Vendula Valdmannova) and Final (Gabriela Knutson) in straight sets en route to the title. She'll climb inside the Top 150 for the first time in the "live" rankings, around #137, as she prepares to head to Cincinnati qualifying next week.

Lee is 33-18 on the year, after playing a total of 97 matches (winning 77) in 2025.

Lee is a playing member of the Pacific Oceania team in BJK Cup play, but lists as a U.S. representive on the pro tour, with the Northern Mariana Islands being a U.S. commonwealth. She played college tennis at Georgia Tech.
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JUNIOR STARS: ITA 14u Team
...while the U.S. and Czech Republic have dominated the ITF (now World Tennis) 14-and-under team championships since their debut in the early 2010s, no such match-up occurred in the final round this year in Prostejov, CZE. Both nations *did* reach the semifinals, only to fall victim to dual upsets by Japan (def. USA) and Italy (def. CZE) as both nations reached the final tie for the first time.

Looking to add yet another team title to Italian tennis' packed resume, Giulia Luchetti opened with a win over Ayaka Iwasa, but Shina Okyuyama leveled things with a three-set win over Olivia Serena Conticello. In the deciding doubles, Conticello/Luchetti teamed to defeat Iwasa/Okyuyama and claim the title for Team Italia.


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DOUBLES: Francisca & Matilde Jorge, POR/POR
...the Portuguese siblings added another trophy to the family mantle in Ourense (ESP), winning the $75K challenger when Brits Freya Christie & Alicia Dudeney handed the pair a walkover in the final.

It's the sisters' second $75K title in 2026, giving them 23 as a duo in their career. They've also picked up a pair of 125 crowns.


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1. Warsaw 125 1st Rd. - Katarzyna Kawa def. Linda Fruhvirtova
...4-6/6-4/7-6(5). Fruhvirtova continues to slip down the rankings (she came into the week at #183, after being Top 50 in 2023), dropping her fourth straight match after having led Kawa by a set and 3-1.

The flip side of the current Czech title/results boom, Fruhvirtova is 1-9 in her last ten matches, quite a difference from her encouraging start to the season, when she kicked off 2026 at 7-2 with an AO qualifying run and 1st Round win, then a QF result in Ostrava.
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2. Warsaw 125 1st Rd. - Aliona Falei def. Ula Radwanska 6-3/6-2
Warsaw 125 1st Rd. - Zuzanna Pawlitkowska def. Lia Karatantcheva 6-4/6-2
...yes, it's 2026 and we had a Radwanska and a Karatantcheva (and a Williams, too) in action during Week 31.

Both had played their way through qualifying. It was the first MD match above ITF level played by Radwanska, now 35, since 2021; while 22-year old Karatantcheva, the latest in a long family line of tennis pros, played a MD match at tour-level Bogota in March.
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Eventually, better heads (either Serena's or the tournament's) prevailed.


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Beatreiz Haddad Maia's season (4-19) is finished...

"I made changes, took decisions, tried different paths… but the time has come to take a break."

"I decided to protect my ranking. By the rule, it’s six months since my last match. I won’t play in the second half of the year."

"It’s a decision I’ve been grappling with for a few months now. My relationship with tennis hasn’t been easy."



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Meanwhile, shards of one of the many WTA "marketing"/"re-brands" sometimes just pop up out of nowhere. In this case, the week saw a brief appearance by something called "#ThisIsOurStage"...




The kicker, of course, is that this was posted on the tour's social media the day after Kessler *lost* her singles match in Toronto. She & Pegula then lost their opening doubles match, too.

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Rybakina, Andreeva, Noskova, and......? womenwhoserve.blogspot.com/2026/08/ryba... #USOpen #WTA

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— Diane Elayne Dees (@womenwhoserve.bsky.social) August 6, 2026 at 1:30 PM



Déjà vu Books






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*ITF/WORLD TENNIS GIRLS' 14u TEAM JR. FINALS*
2011 Serbia def. United States
2013 United States def. Russia
2014 Russia def. Ukraine
2015 Russia def. United States
2016 Ukraine def. United States
2017 United States def. Ukraine
2018 Russia def. Czech Republic
2019 Czech Republic def. United States
2021 Russia def. Bulgaria
2022 Czech Republic def. Germany
2023 Czech Republic def. Germany
2024 Czech Republic def. United States
2025 United States def. Canada
2026 Italy def. Japan






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Hi it’s International Cat Day Today

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— ContempraInn 🌹 (@contemprainn.bsky.social) August 8, 2026 at 1:42 PM


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All for now.
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