Today’s Women’s News (12/30)

Written by: Staff on 30th December 2012

Today's Women's News (12/30)

epa03280886 Ksenia Pervak of Kazakhstan returns to Na Li of China during their first round match for the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 25 June 2012. EPA/FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA |

Brisbane

It was not a good qualifying draw for seeds. Only two made the main draw, and they were low seeds: #5 Ksenia Pervak beat #1 Vania King 7-6 3-6 6-3; #7 Olga Puchkova continued her return to the top ranks with a 6-3 6-3 win over Lesia Tsurenko. Our other qualifiers are Monica Puig and Bojana Bobusic.

Singles-First Round: (3) Serena Williams def. Varvara Lepchenko 6-2 6-1

Every win here is a boost to Serena’s chances of taking #1 at the Australian Open. And this was pretty convincing. It looks as if Varvara Lepchenko will again fall short of the Top Twenty.

Singles-First Round: (6) Petra Kvitova def. Carla Suarez Navarro 6-3 6-4

Petra Kvitova could still rise in the rankings, but it turns out that she needs a final. So the main effect of this is to deal a severe blow to Carla Suarez Navarro’s Melbourne seeding hopes.

Singles-First Round: Jarmila Gajdosova def. Roberta Vinci 4-6 6-1 6-3

One of the better wins for Jarmila Gajdosova lately. It means no Top Fifteen spot for Roberta Vinci.

Singles-First Round: Urszula Radwanska def. Tamira Paszek 2-6 6-0 6-2

Only one of these two will be Top Thirty next week. Radwanska hasn’t earned the spot yet, but she keeps Paszek from clinching.

Singles-First Round: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova def. Lucie Hradecka 6-3 3-6 6-3

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova keeps alive her outside shot at an Australian Open seed.

Singles-First Round: Daniela Hantuchova def. Lourdes Dominguez Lino 7-5 6-2

Daniela Hantuchova is defending substantial points, so this is a boost to her Melbourne seeding hopes. But she will probably need more.

Shenzhen

Kimiko Date-Krumm is the oldest player in the Top Hundred, but she manages somehow to have incredible stamina. She survived two matches in one day to qualify for Shenzhen, beating first Yuxuan Zhang 6-4 6-1, then Zhou Yi-Miao 6-2 6-3. Nor was she the only player to finish two matches in one day; Anne Keothavong beat Shilin Xu then Nastassja Burnett. They join Stefanie Voegele and Jessica Pegula in reaching the main draw.

Singles-First Round: (4) Su-Wei Hsieh def. Melinda Czink 6-3 6-2

One more win just might earn Hsieh Su-Wei a Top 24 Melbourne seed.

Singles-First Round: (7) Laura Robson def. Edina Gallovits-Hall 6-2 6-1

It doesn’t appear this will be quite enough to put Laura Robson in the Top Fifty, but one more win probably would.

Singles-First Round: Monica Niculescu def. Saisai Zheng 6-4 7-5

Monica Niculescu still has a lot to do to rebuild her ranking; at least she seems to be keeping up the good form she showed at the end of last year.

Singles-First Round: Annika Beck def. Garbine Muguruza 6-2 6-7(9-11) 6-4

Annika Beck just keeps climbing in the rankings, and this looks as if it will take her a little higher.

Doubles-First Round: Camerin/Niculescu def. (3) Kudryavtseva/Zakopalova 6-2 6-0

Doubles-First Round: Aoyama/Pegula def. Kichenok/Kichenok 1-6 6-4 10-7

Doubles-First Round: Buryachok/Solovieva def. Wang/Wongteanchai 6-4 6-0

Hopman Cup

Kevin Anderson seems to be on an upset kick. Too bad it isn’t doing him the least bit of good. He beat John Isner in two tiebreaks. Unfortunately for South Africa, Venus Williams had already beaten Chanelle Scheepers 4-6 6-2 6-3, and the Americans then teamed up to beat Scheepers and Anderson 6-3 6-2. So Anderson is 2-0 in singles but finds his team already out of it.

Fernando Verdasco is lucky to have Anabel Medina Garrigues around. Having lost to Anderson the day before, on Sunday he suffered a more understandable 7-5 6-3 loss to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. But Medina Garrigues beat France’s Mathilde Johansson 6-3 6-2, and the Spanish won the mixed 6-3 6-3. So even with Verdasco reduced to the status of mixed doubles specialist, Spain has a 2-0 record and looks good for the final.

In off-court news, Tatjana Malek takes the place of injured Andrea Petkovic for Germany.