PRO TOUR NEWS — WOMEN (12/29)

Written by: Staff on 28th December 2011

PRO TOUR NEWS -- WOMEN (12/29)

Heather Watson of Great Britain hits a return to Maria Sharapova of Russia during their first round match on the first day of the 2011 US Open Tennis Championship at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, USA 29 August 2011. The US Open runs through 11 September 2011. EPA/ANDREW GOMBERT |

©”DAILY TENNIS NEWS WIRE”©

Thursday, December 29, 2011

PRO TOUR NEWS — WOMEN

****** EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ******

* No WTA Matches Played

****** TODAY’S WOMEN’S NEWS ******

Women’s Player News

This was the Year With No Off Season. Usually the ITF takes off at least a little while. Not this year. The Ankara Challenger was played during Christmas week. This week, we have a $50K Challenger at Tyumen, Russia. It’s pretty weak, though; the top seed is Olga Savchuk and the #2 Aleksandra Krunic — and Krunic is already out, having lost her opening round match 7-5 6-1 to Margarita Gasparyan. The second round was quiet; the only seed to lose was #7 Valentyna Ivakhnenko, who fell 6-3 2-6 6-3 to countrywoman Lyudmyla Kichenok. In fact, the #1, #3, and #4 seeds are all in the semifinal. But we do have an unseeded semifinalist; Polina Pekhova beat #5 Irina Buryachok to earn a semifinal meeting with #4 Elina Svitolina. The other semifinal pits #1 Savchuk against #3 Yulia Putintseva.

As you may have seen in World News, Heather Watson is out of the Australian Open warmups with an ankle injury. She still hopes to compete in the Australian Open itself; it would be her first time.

If you want a chance to relive 2011, we will mention that an unofficial WTA Statistical Abstract for 2011 is available for those who have a Google account at https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B71baGp_fE09MTRiYjk3MzUtNDRiMy00OGYxLWI3OTgtZTE3YjA3MmMwYzEz

****** TODAY’S FEATURE ******

KEYWORDS: Today’s Feature is in Men’s News

******** THIS WEEK IN TENNIS ********

THIS WEEK ON THE WTA:

No WTA Events

NEXT WEEK ON THE WTA:

Brisbane (Premier 700/Hard). Defending Champion: Petra Kvitova (as an International event)

Auckland (International/Hard). Defending Champion: Greta Arn

************ STATS AND FACTS ************

**RANKINGS

No WTA Events This Week

**DRAWS