Today’s Women’s News (10/29) – Sofia Preview & Taipei
Today's Women's News (10/29) - Sofia Preview & Taipei
> Taipei Challenger
>
> The WTA is listing scores from this event on their web site,
> even though it is below the International tier, so perhaps
> we’d better talk about it. It certainly started well for
> Asians; #6 Kimiko Date-Krumm — who just took a big rankings
> fall — started to rebuild by beating qualifier Alexandra
> Stevenson in a third set tiebreak, while Tamarine Tanasugarn
> upset #8 seed Greta Arn 7-5 in the third. The other two
> winners were Kurumi Nara and Zhang Ling.
> Women’s Look Forward: Sofia
>
> Here’s a wild idea: Forget putting Sofia after Istanbul. Put
> it before, and give the winner a spot in the Istanbul draw.
> It would give players a reason to play International events
> — but not much of a reason, because the Premier events
> offer so many more points.
>
> And, potentially, the Premier events require less work. The
> format of the “other” championships has already changed
> substantially once in its short existence — and this year
> marks Big Change #2. And we’re not talking about the fact
> that it has moved from Bali to Sofia. The big change is
> that, this year, it’s a Round Robin. So there is no
> possibility of playing one match, collecting your fee, and
> getting out.
>
> So it was a real question as to who would want to show up.
> Would Nadia Petrova and Maria Kirilenko, who just won the
> Istanbul doubles? The answer: Yes. Would Venus Williams, who
> hasn’t been too busy lately but who is… Venus? The answer:
> No. With Kaia Kanepi also out, that means our field consists
> of Caroline Wozniacki, Petrova, Roberta Vinci, Hsieh Su-Wei,
> Zheng Jie, and Daniela Hantuchova, plus wildcards Kirilenko
> and Tsvetana Pironkova. (Half the stories on the event’s web
> site seem to be about Pironkova, who is by far the
> lowest-ranked player in the draw. Let’s hope the attention
> doesn’t mess her up too much.) The alternates are Sofia
> Arvidsson and Alize Cornet.
>
> The groups are called “Group Serdika” and “Group Sredets”
> (with, interestingly, no indications what those mean).
> Serdika includes Wozniacki, Vinci, Hsieh, and Hantuchova.
> Sredets got Petrova, Zheng, and both wildcards. It will be
> interesting to see how Kirilenko and Petrova deal with each
> other.
>
> There is another event this week, the extra-specially-big
> Challenger in Taipei — in effect, a revival of the WTA’s
> old Tier V format. Certainly the field is strong for a
> Challenger, with Peng Shuai and Olga Govortsova the top
> seeds. But since it won’t affect the Top Thirty, that’s
> about all we have to say about it.
>
> The Rankings
>
> Because it’s a round robin, the rules here are funny. What
> is safe to say is that it won’t affect the Top Eight; none
> of them are playing, and they’re too far ahead of everyone
> else to be affected by the outcome. But we could see an
> effect at #10. If Caroline Wozniacki can win here, she will
> pass Marion Bartoli to end the year at #10. She’ll probably
> need a title, though. Nadia Petrova appears to need a title
> to reach #12.
>
> Our most interesting contest is at #15, since Kirilenko is
> #15 and Vinci is #16, and the gap between them is small.
> Vinci, however, has a bigger sixteenth event score. So
> she’ll likely have to earn two more wins than Kirilenko to
> move up.
>
> Hsieh won’t need much to end the year in the Top 25. Zheng
> needs more, but it’s possible. It looks as if a final would
> put Hantuchova in the Top Thirty.
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