Today’s Women’s News (10/21)

Written by: Staff on 21st October 2012

Today's Women's News (10/21)

epa03440945 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark returns the ball to Samantha Stosur of Australia during their final match at the Kremlin Cup tennis tournament in Moscow, Russia, 21 October 2012. EPA/SERGEI ILNITSKY |

Moscow

Singles – Final: (3/WC) Caroline Wozniacki def. (1) Samantha Stosur 6-2 4-6 7-5

Caroline Wozniacki is probably wishing desperately that this season would not end. At a time when everyone else is running out of steam, she is posting her best results of the year, with titles at Seoul and now Moscow. She isn’t quite Top Ten, but she has a chance to end the year there — because she will be the top seed at Sofia (unless, by some wild chance, she gets into Istanbul as an alternate). So she has a very good chance to end the year ahead of Marion Bartoli. Plus she’ll go into 2013 on an up note.

Samantha Stosur was and remains #9, and is the top Istanbul alternate. But her loss here makes it rather harder for her to reach #8 even if she gets to play a match or two in Istanbul.

(A footnote on the rankings: The WTA’s rankings sheet for last week showed only Moscow 2011 coming off, but they in fact took off points from Istanbul 2011 as well as Moscow 2011. So some of our estimates were off. We have made a quick adjustment to our Estimated Rankings, but we may have missed something…. The biggest single side effect is to finally let Angelique Kerber reach #5, passing Petra Kvitova.)

Doubles – Final: (1) Makarova/Vesnina def. (2) Kirilenko/Petrova 6-3 1-6 10-8 (Match TB)

Did Kirilenko/Petrova let off on the gas a little after clinching for Istanbul? Elena Vesnina has trouble in high-pressure matches, and while an ordinary Premier title generally wouldn’t trouble her, this was Moscow…. It was at least as close as the score; Kirilenko/Petrova actually won two more points. But no title. The flip side being that they’re going to Istanbul and Makarova/Vesnina aren’t. On the other hand, Makarova/Vesnina would almost certainly have qualified had they played together all year. So, no doubt, they’re telling each other, “Wait till next year.”

Luxembourg

Singles – Final: Venus Williams def. Monica Niculescu 6-2 6-3

It wasn’t much of a final, but at least Monica Niculescu defended her points and will stay around #70. Her situation for 2013 looks a lot better than it did a few weeks ago.

And so does Venus Williams’s. Her first title in two and a half years appears to take her to #24.

And it’s an International title. Which means that she is in line for — and qualifies for — a spot in Sofia. We make the qualification list to be

1. Wozniacki

2. Petrova

3. Vinci

4. Kanepi

5. Venus

6. Hsieh

7. Zheng

8. Hantuchova

9. Schiavone

Kirilenko and Pironkova are expected to be given wildcards. Petrova will play doubles at Istanbul and might not want to play Sofia. Ditto Kirilenko. Kanepi is hurting. Venus — we don’t know about. So we don’t really have a good feel for the Sofia field. But if Venus plays and wins, she could end the year in the Top Twenty. It would certainly be a nice way to finish!

Doubles – Final: (1) Hlavackova/Hradecka def. (2) Begu/Niculescu 6-3 6-4

Had this happened any other week, it would have had little rankings effect. But Istanbul 2011 came off. And so Hlavackova and Hradecka are up to #3 and #4. And Hlavackova/Hradecka go to Istanbul looking very strong. They seem very likely to keep the #3/#4 spots at year-end. They’re now 46-10 this year, with four titles and only two opening-round losses. And the really interesting part is, this team, which made their name at Roland Garros last year, has won all four of their titles this year on hardcourts or indoor hard.