Today’s Women’s News (10/06) – Beijing

Written by: Staff on 6th October 2012

Today's Women's News (10/06) - Beijing

epa03423305 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus celebrates winning a point against Marion Bartoli of France during their semi-final match at the China Open in Beijing, China, 06 October 2012. EPA/HOW HWEE YOUNG |

Beijing

Singles – Semifinal: (1) Victoria Azarenka def. (9) Marion Bartoli 6-4 6-2

All right, that’s it, we’re done (and face a real problem in producing features for the next two weeks, because we’d planned to talk about the WTA Race!). Marion Bartoli falls, and she is too far behind Li Na to catch up. Li will be the #8 player in Istanbul, and Bartoli and Samantha Stosur are slugging it out to determine who will be the #1 alternate. Bartoli’s ranking remains at #10.

Singles – Semifinal: (2) Maria Sharapova def. (7) Li Na 6-4 6-0

Not a great match for Li, but at least she is going to Istanbul! And the two results do give us quite an interesting final, because Azarenka and Sharapova are of course the world’s Top Two. And although the gap between them in the rankings is large, the gap in the Race is much smaller — only about 500 points. A win for Azarenka would widen that gap dramatically; a win for Sharapova would reduce it by 60%. That result could well be the margin that settles the year-end top spot.

Doubles – Final: (3) Makarova/Vesnina def. (5) Llagostera Vives/Mirza 7-5 7-5

Maybe, in addition to a year-end championships, we need a half-year championships. Makarova/Vesnina would definitely be in fine shape for such an event. They beat three seeded teams on their way to this title, including both teams contending for the last spot at Istanbul. This is their first title together (indeed, it’s the first doubles title for Makarova since she won Fes 2009 with Kleybanova, and by far the biggest of her career), but since hooking up at Madrid, the Russians have gone 22-7 with two finals (Madrid and Rome) and two Slam quarterfinals (Roland Garros and Wimbledon). They have won at least two matches at every event they have played except Eastbourne. Other than Errani/Vinci and maybe Hlavackova/Hradecka, they have been probably the best pair in the sport in the last half year. It really will be interesting to see how they do next year, especially given how much higher Makarova will be ranked in 2013 than she was in 2012. Or if they split, it will be interesting to see how Vesnina performs with her new partner; given her history, and this result, it almost looks as if Vesnina was carrying Sania Mirza last year.