The Harder They Fall, Part II

Written by: Staff on 26th April 2012

The Harder They Fall, Part II

Sabine Lisicki of Germany makes a fist as she wins a point during play against Maria Sharapova of Russia in their fourth round match at the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia, 23 January 2012. Sharapova won the match in three sets. EPA/BARBARA WALTON |

Earlier this week, we looked at the 25 biggest upsets on the men’s side this year. This obviously begged the question of how big the upsets were on the women’s side. So we set out to find out. This is through last week — not counting Fed Cup. We did check qualifying matches involving Top Hundred players; a few of them counted (note the #2 upset on the list):

1. Miami 2R: V. Williams (#134) def. Kvitova (#3). Ratio: 44.7

2. Dubai Q1R: Jabeur (#1169) def. Zheng (#33). Ratio: 35.4

3. Miami 2R: Muguruza Blanco (#208) def. Zvonareva (#9). Ratio: 23.1

4. Australian Open QF: Clijsters (#14) def. Wozniacki (#1). Ratio: 14

5. Australian Open 1R: Cirstea (#59) def. Stosur (#5). Ratio: 11.8

6. Indian Wells 3R: McHale (#35) def. Kvitova (#3). Ratio: 11.7

7. Acapulco Q1R: Zacarias (#1121) def. Rezai (#124). Ratio: 9

8. Paris QF: Kerber (#27) def. Sharapova (#3). Ratio: 9

8. Brisbane 2R: Benesova (#54) def. Stosur (#6). Ratio: 9

10. Barcelona 2R: Beygelzimer (#204) def. Pennetta (#24). Ratio: 8.5

11. Indian Wells 2R: Dominguez Lino (#110) def. Lisicki (#13). Ratio: 8.5

12. Miami R16: V. Williams (#134) def. Ivanovic (#16). Ratio: 8.4

13. Miami 3R: Muguruza Blanco (#208) def. Pennetta (#26). Ratio: 8

13. Sydney QF: A. Radwanska (#8) def. Wozniacki (#1). Ratio: 8

13. Australian Open 3R: Makarova (#56) def. Zvonareva (#7). Ratio: 8

16. Sydney Q1R: Rajicic (#669) def. Tatishvili (#86). Ratio: 7.8

17. Hobart 1R: Chakvetadze (#234) def. Niculescu (#32). Ratio: 7.3

18. Australian Open 2R: Oprandi (#80) def. Schiavone (#11). Ratio: 7.3

19. Indian Wells 2R: Hampton (#99) def. Jankovic (#14). Ratio: 7.1

20. Miami QF: Bartoli (#7) def. Azarenka (#1). Ratio: 7

20. Doha 2R: Safarova (#28) def. Wozniacki (#4). Ratio: 7

22. Barcelona 1R: Govortsova (#83) def. Schiavone (#12). Ratio: 6.9

23. Australian Open 1R: Bratchikova (#136) def. Pennetta (#20). Ratio: 6.8

24. Pattaya City QF: Cirstea (#54) def. Zvonareva (#8). Ratio: 6.8

25. Copenhagen 1R: Konta (#234) def. Pervak (#38). Ratio: 6.2

Some of these probably shouldn’t count for much. Note that Venus Williams produced two of the upsets (#1 and #12), which is obviously a special case. Ditto #4, involving Kim Clijsters. But let’s do a quick analysis: Who was most likely to suffer a big upset?

It turns out that three players suffered three major upsets: Pennetta, Wozniacki, and Zvonareva. Suffering two upsets were Kvitova, Schiavone, and Stosur. One upset each went to Azarenka, Ivanovic, Jankovic, Lisicki, Niculescu, Pervak, Rezai (hard to believe), Sharapova, Tatishvili, and Zheng.

So who is the top player not to have suffered a major upset this year? It turns out to be Agnieszka Radwanska. It will be interesting to see if she can keep that up. If she can, she is likely to go even higher.