Women Tennis Update – Istanbul and Rankings

Written by: Staff on 28th October 2012

Women Tennis Update - Istanbul and Rankings

epa03450617 Serena Williams of the US poses with the trophy after winning the final match against Maria Sharapova of Russia at the WTA Championships tennis tournament in Istanbul, Turkey, 28 October 2012. EPA/TOLGA BOZOGLU |

Istanbul

Singles – Final: (3) Serena Williams def. (2) Maria Sharapova 6-4 6-3

This was one of those really-no-doubt-about-it matches. Serena Williams never faced a break point, and she broke three times, and that was that.

The WTA says that Serena ends the year #3, with Maria Sharapova #2 and Victoria Azarenka #1. There isn’t much we can say except the numbers:

* Serena’s won/lost: 54-4 (plus two withdrawals), 93.1% (90.0% if the withdrawals are treated as losses), leading the Tour

* Seven titles in 13 events (53.8% of events leading to a title), leading the Tour.

* Two Slams, Wimbledon and U. S. Open, plus the YEC

* All seven titles were at Premier events: Two Slams, one YEC, one Premier Mandatory, one Olympics, two Premier 700

* Surface Sweep: Charleston and Madrid on clay, Wimbledon and Olympics on grass, Stanford and U. S. Open on hard, Istanbul on Indoor Hard

* 18 wins this year over Top Ten players, including five here (where she beat #1, #2, #4, and #5; since she is herself #3, she beat every other Top Five player). She had four wins in 2012 over #1 Azarenka.

She would have earned 2074 quality points this year. That compares to 2011 for Azarenka (in four more events than Serena), 1771 for Sharapova (in one more event), 1129 for Radwanska (in nine more events — that number isn’t even funny), 1116 for Kerber (in eight more events), 792 for Kvitova (in five more events)

* She had only one loss after Roland Garros (to Kerber, at Cincinnati; her other losses were to Makarova, Wozniacki, and Razzano)

It’s pretty clear which player you don’t want to face this year!

Doubles – Final: Kirilenko/Petrova def. (2) Hlavackova/Hradecka 6-1 6-4

You really have to wonder what might have been had this happened to Nadia Petrova five years ago.

To be sure, Petrova won the year-end championships once before — all the way back in 2004, with Meghann Shaughnessy. But she still hadn’t won a singles title at that time. Now, knowing what she can do in singles and knowing she can win big doubles titles, could it change things for her? Perhaps help her to that oh-so-elusive Slam title? The problem is, it’s getting awfully late in her career. But at least she has those two Championships doubles titles. And, of course, her year-end Top Ten spot.

Maria Kirilenko at last picks up her first big title — she had several high premier events, including Miami this year with Petrova, but none of the Big Five tournaments.

We will be genuinely curious to see how this affects things next year. Hlavackova/Hradecka end this year with a record of 47-11 (compared to 36-12 for Kirilenko/Petrova and 52-9 for Errani/Vinci). A title here would not have made them #1 — they were going to be #3 and #4 no matter what the outcome — but would definitely have improved their chances for next year. As things stand, they have a lot of catching up to do if they are to overtake Errani/Vinci.

Rank &

Prior

Rank …Name …………. Points

1..(1) AZARENKA ………..10595

2..(2) SHARAPOVA ……… 10045

3..(3) SWILLIAMS ……… 9400*

4..(4) ARADWANSKA ………7425

5..(5) KERBER ………….5480

6..(6) KVITOVA ……….. 5215

7..(7) ERRANI ………….4960

8..(8) LI ……………..4955

9..(9) STOSUR ………….4135