Today’s Women’s Feature (12/16)

Written by: Staff on 16th December 2012

Today's Women's Feature (12/16)

epa03502042 Belarusian tennis player Victoria Azarenka returns a ball against US.'s Serena Williams, during their exhibition match of the Gillette Federer Tour in Sao Paulo, Brazil, 08 December 2012. EPA/Sebastião Moreira |

Strong Medicine

So — were the Slams really the biggest events of 2012?

In money, of course, they were. In points, too. Also in length and prestige. But what about field strength?

There is no universally agreed measure of field strength, but we have a couple that we use. One is the “Top Four” strength method, which consists of taking the rankings of the top four players. We take twice the ranking of the #1 and #2 players in the field, plus the rankings of #3 and #4. The lower the number, the stronger the event; the minimum is 13. For this ranking, we decided to look not only at the WTA events but also at every Challenger of $50K or greater. It turns out that there were 116 such in the last year. The list below sorts them in descending order of strength.

1. Australian Open. Strength: 13. Winner: Azarenka

1. Indian Wells. Strength: 13. Winner: Azarenka

1. Miami. Strength: 13. Winner: A. Radwanska

1. Stuttgart. Strength: 13. Winner: Sharapova

1. Madrid. Strength: 13. Winner: S. Williams

1. Rome. Strength: 13. Winner: Sharapova

1. Roland Garros. Strength: 13. Winner: Sharapova

1. Wimbledon. Strength: 13.0. Winner: S. Williams

1. Olympics. Strength: 13. Winner: S. Williams

1. U. S. Open. Strength: 13. Winner: S. Williams

1. Istanbul. Strength: 13. Winner: S. Williams

12. Sydney. Strength: 14. Winner: Azarenka

13. Pan Pacific. Strength: 15. Winner: Petrova

13. Beijing. Strength: 15. Winner: Azarenka

15. Canadian Open. Strength: 19. Winner: Kvitova

16. Doha. Strength: 21. Winner: Azarenka

16. Dubai. Strength: 21. Winner: A. Radwanska

18. Cincinnati. Strength: 25. Winner: Li

19. Eastbourne. Strength: 29. Winner: Paszek

20. New Haven. Strength: 32. Winner: Kvitova

21. Charleston. Strength: 43. Winner: S. Williams

22. Paris. Strength: 50. Winner: Kerber

23. Brisbane. Strength: 55. Winner: Kanepi

24. Brussels. Strength: 59. Winner: A. Radwanska

25. s-Hertogenbosch. Strength: 60. Winner: Petrova

26. Moscow. Strength: 61. Winner: Wozniacki

27. Stanford. Strength: 63. Winner: S. Williams

27. Linz. Strength: 63. Winner: Azarenka

29. Sofia. Strength: 79. Winner: Petrova

30. Seoul. Strength: 84. Winner: Wozniacki

31. San Diego. Strength: 88. Winner: Cibulkova

32. Barcelona. Strength: 91. Winner: Errani

32. Copenhagen. Strength: 91. Winner: Kerber

34. Pattaya City. Strength: 94. Winner: Hantuchova

35. Strasbourg. Strength: 100. Winner: Schiavone

36. Kuala Lumpur. Strength: 102. Winner: Hsieh

37. Auckland. Strength: 103. Winner: Zheng

38. Luxembourg. Strength: 114. Winner: V. Williams

39. Palermo. Strength: 119. Winner: Errani

40. Osaka. Strength: 126. Winner: Watson

41. Guangzhou. Strength: 133. Winner: Hsieh

42. Birmingham. Strength: 135. Winner: Oudin

43. Quebec City. Strength: 158. Winner: Flipkens

44. Bastad. Strength: 161. Winner: Hercog

45. Dallas. Strength: 162. Winner: Vinci

46. Estoril. Strength: 167. Winner: Kanepi

47. Hobart. Strength: 170. Winner: Barthel

48. Fes. Strength: 179. Winner: Bertens

49. Acapulco. Strength: 193. Winner: Errani

50. Bad Gastein. Strength: 203. Winner: Cornet

51. Budapest. Strength: 218. Winner: Errani

52. Monterrey. Strength: 222. Winner: Babos

53. Washington. Strength: 243. Winner: Rybarikova

54. Prague $100K. Strength: 251. Winner: Safarova

55. Memphis. Strength: 258. Winner: Arvidsson

56. Tashkent. Strength: 277. Winner: Begu

57. Nassau $100K+H. Strength: 282. Winner: Wozniak

58. Bogota. Strength: 354. Winner: Arruabarrena-Vecino

59. Taipei $125K. Strength: 357. Winner: Mladenovic

60. Poitiers $100K. Strength: 358. Winner: Puig

61. Nottingham $75K. Strength: 369. Winner: U. Radwanska

62. Bucharest $100K+H. Strength: 374. Winner: Torro-Flor

63. Suzhou $100K. Strength: 385. Winner: Hsieh

64. Cali $100K+H. Strength: 389. Winner: Dulgheru

65. Dubai $75K. Strength: 392. Winner: Date-Krumm

66. Ismaning $75K+H. Strength: 396. Winner: Beck

67. Midland $100K. Strength: 397. Winner: Govortsova

68. Cagnes-Sur-Mer $100K. Strength: 412. Winner: Putintseva

69. Biella $100K. Strength: 421. Winner: Larsson

70. Nantes $50K+H. Strength: 429. Winner: Niculescu

71. Olomouc $100K. Strength: 433. Winner: Torro-Flor

72. Biarritz $100K. Strength: 445. Winner: Oprandi

73. Baku. Strength: 456. Winner: Jovanovski

74. Ningbo $100K+H. Strength: 463. Winner: Hsieh

75. Osprey $50K. Strength: 468. Winner: Rus

76. Barnstaple $75K. Strength: 486. Winner: Beck

77. Saint-Gaudens $50K+H. Strength: 525. Winner: Duque Marino

78. Phoenix $75K. Strength: 527. Winner: Keys

79. New Braunfels $50K. Strength: 542. Winner: Oudin

80. Bronx $50K. Strength: 558. Winner: Oprandi

81. Gifu $50K. Strength: 569. Winner: Date-Krumm

82. Limoges $50K. Strength: 570. Winner: Feuerstein

83. Joue-Les-Tours $50K. Strength: 575. Winner: Puig

84. Dothan $50K. Strength: 590. Winner: Giorgi

85. Toyota $75K+H. Strength: 596. Winner: Voegele

86. Pune $125K. Strength: 607. Winner: Svitolina

87. Marseille $100K. Strength: 611. Winner: Dominguez Lino

88. Charlottesville $50K. Strength: 634. Winner: Oudin

89. Beijing $75K+H. Strength: 664. Winner: Wang

90. Vancouver $100K. Strength: 673. Winner: Burdette

91. Las Vegas $50K. Strength: 677. Winner: Davis

92. Indian Harbor Beach $50K. Strength: 692. Winner: Min

93. Astana $100K. Strength: 693. Winner: Koehler

94. Shrewsbury $75K. Strength: 700. Winner: Beck

95. Quanzhou $50K+H. Strength: 703. Winner: Date-Krumm

96. Albuquerque $75K. Strength: 708. Winner: M. Sanchez

97. Donetsk $50K. Strength: 719. Winner: Dolonc

98. Nottingham $50K. Strength: 721. Winner: Barty

99. Mestre $50K. Strength: 729. Winner: Knapp

100. Lexington $50K. Strength: 742. Winner: Glushko

101. Trnava $50K. Strength: 773. Winner: Sevastova

102. Podgorica $50K. Strength: 777. Winner: Voracova

103. Toronto $50K. Strength: 801. Winner: Bouchard

104. Saguenay $50K. Strength: 805. Winner: Keys

105. Versmold $50K. Strength: 834. Winner: Beck

106. Contrexeville $50K. Strength: 868. Winner: Rezai

107. Wenshan $50K. Strength: 870. Winner: Hsieh

108. Telavi $50K. Strength: 887. Winner: Svitolina

109. Fukuoka $50K. Strength: 942. Winner: Dellacqua

110. Denver $50K. Strength: 957. Winner: Gibbs

111. Craiova $50K+H. Strength: 961. Winner: Torro-Flor

112. Yakima $50K. Strength: 976. Winner: Rogers

113. Kazan $50K+H. Strength: 1064. Winner: Kozlova

114. Kurume $50K. Strength: 1327. Winner: S. Zheng

115. Waterloo $50K. Strength: 1416. Winner: Fichman

116. Sacramento $50K. Strength: 1599. Winner: M. Sanchez

The bottom of the list works well. The 19 weakest events are all $50K Challengers, the lowest tier we looked at, plus a few $50K+H events. The weakest WTA event — no big surprise here — was Baku, which comes in at #68; this is weaker than 16 Challengers (of which the Prague $100K was the strongest), but at least the weakest WTA events are all International tier. The weakest Premier event, San Diego, was stronger than all but three International events (‘s_Hertogenbosch, Linz, and Seoul). Only four International events (Memphis, Tashkent, Bogota, and of course Baku) were weaker than the Prague Challenger.

The top isn’t quite so clean; although the Slams are all at the top, and all the events at the top of the list are high Premiers (or the Olympics), we do find Sydney, at the bottom of the Premier scale, ahead of three top-tier events, Pan Pacific, Beijing, Canadian Open, Doha, and Cincinnati. Still, the gap there is small.

The strongest non-Premier event is ‘s-Hertogenbosch, which is all the way down at #25, so the distinction between Premier and non-Premier also works pretty well. (Interestingly, the top International event last year was also at #25, although Linz took the top spot in 2011.)

We do have one other system which allows slightly finer gradations than the preceding. However, it is based on Top 25 players, so it can’t do much with most Challengers. But we’ll rank the WTA events based on this “modified TSI,” which is expressed as a percentage of the maximum possible strength (which is defined as an event with all of the Top Five and eight of the Top Ten). That’s this list:

1. Australian Open. TSI: 100%. Winner: Azarenka

1. Indian Wells. TSI: 100%. Winner: Azarenka

1. Miami. TSI: 100%. Winner: A. Radwanska

1. Stuttgart. TSI: 100%. Winner: Sharapova

1. Madrid. TSI: 100%. Winner: S. Williams

1. Rome. TSI: 100%. Winner: Sharapova

1. Roland Garros. TSI: 100%. Winner: Sharapova

1. Wimbledon. TSI: 100%. Winner: S. Williams

1. Olympics. TSI: 100%. Winner: S. Williams

1. U. S. Open. TSI: 100%. Winner: S. Williams

1. Istanbul. TSI: 100%. Winner: S. Williams

12. Sydney. TSI: 97%. Winner: Azarenka

12. Pan Pacific. TSI: 97%. Winner: Petrova

12. Beijing. TSI: 97%. Winner: Azarenka

15. Canadian Open. TSI: 91%. Winner: Kvitova

16. Cincinnati. TSI: 81%. Winner: Li

17. Doha. TSI: 77%. Winner: Azarenka

17. Dubai. TSI: 77%. Winner: A. Radwanska

19. Eastbourne. TSI: 59%. Winner: Paszek

20. New Haven. TSI: 56%. Winner: Kvitova

21. Charleston. TSI: 45%. Winner: S. Williams

22. Paris. TSI: 38%. Winner: Kerber

23. Brisbane. TSI: 36%. Winner: Kanepi

23. Moscow. TSI: 36%. Winner: Wozniacki

25. Brussels. TSI: 32%. Winner: A. Radwanska

26. Linz. TSI: 31%. Winner: Azarenka

27. s-Hertogenbosch. TSI: 27%. Winner: Petrova

28. Stanford. TSI: 26%. Winner: S. Williams

29. San Diego. TSI: 16%. Winner: Cibulkova

30. Kuala Lumpur. TSI: 16%. Winner: Hsieh

30. Seoul. TSI: 16%. Winner: Wozniacki

32. Pattaya City. TSI: 14%. Winner: Hantuchova

32. Copenhagen. TSI: 14%. Winner: Kerber

34. Auckland. TSI: 14%. Winner: Zheng

35. Barcelona. TSI: 13%. Winner: Errani

35. Sofia. TSI: 13%. Winner: Petrova

37. Palermo. TSI: 11%. Winner: Errani

37. Guangzhou. TSI: 11%. Winner: Hsieh

37. Osaka. TSI: 11%. Winner: Watson

40. Birmingham. TSI: 9%. Winner: Oudin

40. Luxembourg. TSI: 9%. Winner: V. Williams

42. Strasbourg. TSI: 8%. Winner: Schiavone

43. Quebec City. TSI: 3%. Winner: Flipkens

44. Monterrey. TSI: 2%. Winner: Babos

44. Acapulco. TSI: 2%. Winner: Errani

44. Estoril. TSI: 2%. Winner: Kanepi

44. Bad Gastein. TSI: 2%. Winner: Cornet

44. Bastad. TSI: 2%. Winner: Hercog

44. Dallas. TSI: 2%. Winner: Vinci

50. Washington. TSI: 2%. Winner: Rybarikova

51. Hobart. TSI: 0%. Winner: Barthel

51. Bogota. TSI: 0%. Winner: Arruabarrena-Vecino

51. Memphis. TSI: 0%. Winner: Arvidsson

51. Fes. TSI: 0%. Winner: Bertens

51. Budapest. TSI: 0%. Winner: Errani

51. Baku. TSI: 0%. Winner: Jovanovski

51. Tashkent. TSI: 0%. Winner: Begu

This is fairly similar to the preceding list, but in this case, Stuttgart, not Sydney, becomes the top Premier 700. It’s still pretty much the same list at the bottom, and San Diego is still the weakest Premier event. Linz edges ahead of ‘s-Hertogenbosch to become the #1 International; it is ahead of two Premier events, Stanford and San Diego.

It’s interesting and impressive to see that Serena Williams not only won lots of titles, she won lots of big ones — five of the twelve top events, to just two for Azarenka and three for Sharapova. Agnieszka Radwanska, the WTA #4, won the other one, so being Top Four and winning big titles has at least some correlation.