Women Tennis Update – Paris And Pattaya City Monday, February 4, 2013

Written by: Staff on 3rd February 2013

Women Tennis Update - Paris And Pattaya City Monday, February 4, 2013

epa03566711 Sara Errani of Italy returns the ball to Mona Barthel of Germany during their final match at the 21st GDF Suez Tennis Open in Paris, France, 03 February 2013. EPA/IAN LANGSDON |

Paris

Singles – Final: Mona Barthel def. (1) Sara Errani 7-5 7-6(7-4)

Sara Errani came here with six career titles. But all of those titles were International tier. And all but one was on clay. Her one Slam final was on clay, too. Mona Barthel may have only one title, and that a small one — but her game is clearly better suited to fast courts. This was a close contest — there were seven breaks in all — but the surface probably proved the difference.

Even Barthel was surprised; she said she wasn’t expecting to win “such a tournament.”

It’s the second career title for Barthel, following Hobart 2012, and she did it with two Top Ten wins (over Bartoli and Errani). These are only the second and third Top Ten wins of her career (she had beaten then-#7 Bartoli at Stuttgart 2012). And, of course, it’s her first Premier title. It should let her exceed her career high; her previous best was #31 for a week last spring, and we show her now at #28. And although last year she made the Paris quarterfinal in the week after this one, she has very little to defend after that for the next several months. She looks set to be seeded at Indian Wells and Miami, which should spell a big opportunity to go even higher.

Sara Errani was going to be #7 win or lose; it’s very hard for her to add points at anything smaller than a Premier Five. Still, this has to hurt. She’s still waiting for that first Premier win….

Doubles – Final: (1) Errani/Vinci def. (2) Hlavackova/Huber 6-1 6-1

Presumably this is at least some consolation for Sara Errani. Not much, perhaps. But, arguably, it should be. It’s the second title of the year for Errani/Vinci, to go with the Australian Open; they also made the final of Sydney. They now have ten titles in the last twelve months, and a record of 60-9. They have a pile to defend this spring — Monterrey, Acapulco, Barcelona, Madrid, Rome, Roland Garros — so they are under some slight rankings pressure. But they are clearly the world’s dominant team right now. Not too shabby.

Pattaya City

Singles – Final: (2) Maria Kirilenko def. (5) Sabine Lisicki 5-7 6-1 7-6(7-1)

This has been a long time coming for Maria Kirilenko. And we’re not talking about the scoreline, although the match took two and a half hours. No, the wait was for Kirilenko to win another title. She came here with five, including three in 2008 (Estoril, Barcelona, and Seoul). Then — nothing. Four and a half years she had been waiting. The wait is finally over.

Too bad it’s a bottom-tier event; Kirilenko is still waiting to win her second career Premier-level title. (Her only big title, oddly enough, was the first title of her career, at Beijing 2005.) Still, it should be enough to take her to #13.

Sabine Lisicki’s injuries have meant that she rarely can play a lot of events in a year. So her ranking tends to bounce around like a yo-yo. This year is no exception. And, happily, this is a week it’s going up. Even with the loss, she should rise from #52 to, it appears, #40. One more good result in the next month and she might even earn a seed at Indian Wells.

Doubles – Final: Date-Krumm/Dellacqua def. Amanmuradova/Panova 6-3 6-2

Kimiko Date-Krumm wasn’t noted as a doubles player in her first career, but she has done surprisingly well this second time around. She now has titles three years in a row — Osaka 2011 with Zhang, Copenhagen 2012 with Fujiwara, and now this. And it’s not as if her partners have been carrying her.

It’s big in another way for Casey Dellacqua. Dellacqua has had some big doubles results in her career, including this year’s Australian Open final as well as a final at Roland Garros 2008. We’ll grant that those Slam finals are bigger — but this is a title. In all that time since the Roland Garros final, she has been trying and failing to win one. Maybe this will lead to bigger things. At minimum, it should lead to a Top 25 ranking.

©Daily tennis news wire

Topics: Maria Kirilenko, Mona Barthel, Paris, Pattaya City, Sabine Lisicki, Sara Errani, Sports, Tennis, Tennis News