Cincy ladies update

Written by: Staff on 15th August 2013

Cincy ladies update |

Cincinnati

Singles – Third Round: (2) Victoria Azarenka def. Magdalena Rybarikova 6-3 6-4

Magdalena Rybarikova won’t be making the Top Thirty, but it does appear that she will be seeded at the U. S. Open.

Singles – Third Round: (4) Agnieszka Radwanska def. Elena Vesnina 6-0 6-2

This is what is so frustrating about Elena Vesnina. All right, maybe she couldn’t beat Agnieszka Radwanska. But she could have made a match of it! She will not rise above her current #23.

Singles – Third Round: (5) Na Li def. (9) Angelique Kerber 6-4 6-4

This was the day’s biggest contest, because it pitted last year’s champion against last year’s finalist — with no change in the outcome. That means that Angelique Kerber will fall to no better than #10. Li Na is still only #6 in safe points, but her job just got a little easier:

Singles – Third Round: (12) Roberta Vinci def. (6) Sara Errani 6-4 6-3

Sara Errani doesn’t add any points, so Li Na can still cling to the #5 ranking — if she wins the title. Otherwise, Errani is #5. Roberta Vinci hasn’t moved yet, but she keeps her Top Ten hopes alive.

Singles – Third Round: (10) Caroline Wozniacki def. (7) Petra Kvitova 3-6 6-2 6-3

We wish we could tell you whether Caroline Wozniacki truly won this or merely avoided losing it. About all we can in fact say with certainty is that she has just clinched a Top Eight U. S. Open seed. She’s #8 in safe points, and Marion Bartoli won’t play, so that translates as #7. Someone, perhaps Roberta Vinci, might yet catch her, but not two someones….

Singles – Third Round: Simona Halep def. (11) Samantha Stosur 6-4 4-6 6-2

A fine chance to hit the Top Ten blown by Samantha Stosur, who will fall to #12. Simona Halep is only at #23, but it really looks as if she’ll be Top Twenty soon.

Singles – Third Round: (14) Jelena Jankovic def. Sloane Stephens 3-6 7-5 7-5

Jelena Jankovic is back to being the #1 Serb, and by a wide margin — she is sure to rise to at least #13. She leaves Sloane Stephens at #17.

Doubles – Quarterfinal: Goerges/Zahlavova Strycova def. (1) Errani/Vinci 4-6 6-2 11-9

Martina Hingis and Daniela Hantuchova are probably kicking themselves for not beating Errani/Vinci. On the other hand, the Italians had had a very tiring day Wednesday, then an emotionally wrenching day Thursday.

Doubles – Quarterfinal: (2) Makarova/Vesnina def. Huber/Llagostera Vives 6-2 7-5

Doubles – Quarterfinal: (3) Hsieh/Peng def. (7) Chan/Srebotnik 6-3 6-2

Doubles – Quarterfinal: (6) Groenefeld/Peschke def. (WC) Kerber/Petkovic 6-1 2-6 12-10

Marion Bartoli farewell

Noah waited forty days before cautiously opening a window to check that the rain was gone. Marion Bartoli waited forty days after her great Wimbledon win to climb out of the tennis window into retirement. In a way, it’s hard to understand: one of the special moments about winning a Wimbledon singles title is coming back the following year to open play on Centre Court on the first Tuesday. Who would give that up voluntarily?

From the sounds of it, Bartoli doesn’t see the decision as voluntary: in a tearful press conference following her loss to Simona Halep at Cincinnati, she said her Achilles tendon, shoulder, hip, and lower back all hurt continually when she plays. And so injuries have taken away another of the game’s most interesting players at only 28.

Some might blame the intensity of her training routine, which has been known as exceptionally tough since her earliest days on the tour with her doctor father applying his knowledge of physiology. (You can see recent samples on YouTube, where video has been uploaded from various tournaments, including this year’s Wimbledon.) These included attaching elastic bands to her ankles while she moved around the court and hit machine-gun rapid-fire volleys; she would practice serves with a giant elastic counterweight pulling on her arm. All these resistance mechanisms were clearly designed with one goal in mind: to increase her strength and make her actual matches feel physically easy by comparison.

From the day Bartoli arrived on the tour in 2000 she was noted for her unorthodox style in everything she did. To pick the most obvious first, she played two-handed on both sides, a choice that no one believed could be successful until Monica Seles proved them all wrong — and inspired Walter Bartoli in teaching his daughter. That style of play imposes a particular set of requirements on anyone who attempts it: because your reach is more limited than a one-handed player, you have to have great anticipation and be very fast to get to balls. Seles helped Mary Pierce and Lindsay Davenport usher in the era of power tennis; she didn’t have quite their height or weight of shot, but as Nathalie Tauziat remarked in her book in 2000, Seles’s taking the ball so much earlier, on the rise, hit the accelerator pedal on the game and changed its future. Bartoli played after that future had arrived, making her job that much harder. Hence the need for her exceptionally tough training and her high-energy bounces and swipes between points. Bartoli’s fitness was questioned at various times in her career, but her commitment never was.

And yet: Seles never won Wimbledon, which says as much about the changes in the game as about the role of luck. During her first, most successful years, Seles only played Wimbledon three times, losing twice to Steffi Graf and once to Zina Garrison. No one now plays like either of those players; the pure serve-and-volleyers that Seles faced are gone. Instead, Bartoli contends, as the BBC commentator John Inverdale club-footedly said after her win, with amazons with booming serves who can cover the court in a few steps and power the ball into the corners. Bartoli’s ace in the hole turned out to have two prongs. First, her two-handed style gave her, as it did Seles, a multitude of angles other players can’t find. Second, her very compact, flat strokes were at their best on a surface that demands quick reflexes and fast adjustments. Wimbledon was the only major event at which she persistently shone, making the final in 2007 (beating Henin in the semis before losing to Venus Williams) and the quarter-final in 2011. Grass also favored her at Eastbourne, where she was a steady fixture, winning the title in 2011 (beating that year’s Wimbledon champion, Petra Kvitova, in the final). Her only other Slam showing of significance was the French Open semi in 2011, where she lost to eventual surprise winner Francesca Schiavone.

At Eastbourne in 2012, Bartoli explained why grass was her best surface. “Grass needs lot of qualities of timing,” she said, noting that it was her best quality. “You have to play flat — and play inside the baseline or close to it.” That in itself was Bartoli’s game. “Short backswings help. I feel every year coming back on grass is a new start.”

Like many other players who have had close relationships with a dominating parent, usually a father — Seles, Pierce, Jelena Dokic, Jennifer Capriati, Steffi Graf, Andrea Jaeger, Andre Agassi — the Bartolis’ relationship was often questioned. Bartoli herself could be quite imperious, as at the 2011 Wimbledon, when she abruptly ordered both her parents to leave the court during a frustrating moment against Flavia Pennetta (a match she eventually won, 9-7 in the third). But she refused to play for the French Fed Cup team unless Walter was allowed to attend as her coach; the dispute over this kept her out of Fed Cup play for nine years. As a result, one of France’s best players of her generation was barred from the Olympics, most notably in 2012, when it was played at Wimbledon. This spring, Bartoli finally replaced her father as her coach, hiring a trainer and bringing in former Wimbledon champion Amelie Mauresmo as coach. Apparently, just in time.

Bartoli retires with eight titles overall which run the gamut: clay, grass, hard, carpet, and at a career-high ranking of 7.

– Wendy M. Grossman

THIS WEEK ON THE WTA:

Cincinnati (Premier Five/Hard). Defending Champion: Li Na

NEXT WEEK ON THE WTA:

New Haven (Premier/Hard). Defending Champion: Petra Kvitova

RANKINGS

Estimated WTA Rankings As of August 15, 2013

Rank &

Prior

Rank….Name…………..Points

1..(1) SWILLIAMS ……… 11920*

2..(2) AZARENKA ………..8830*

3..(3) SHARAPOVA ……… 8765

4..(4) ARADWANSKA ………6335*

5..(6) ERRANI ………….5125

6..(5) LI ……………..4655*

7..(7) BARTOLI ……….. 4365

8.(10) WOZNIACKI ……… 3490*

9..(9) KVITOVA ……….. 3440

10..(8) KERBER ………….3420

11.(12) VINCI …………. 3220*

12.(11) STOSUR ………….3210

13.(15) JANKOVIC ………..3095*

14.(13) FLIPKENS ………..2961

15.(14) IVANOVIC ………..2940

16.(16) KIRILENKO ……… 2870

17.(17) STEPHENS ………..2865

18.(18) LISICKI ……….. 2556

19.(19) CIBULKOVA ……… 2400

20.(20) SUAREZ NAVARRO …..2375

21.(21) Cirstea ……….. 2260

22.(22) Petrova ……….. 2212

23.(25) HALEP …………. 2040*

24.(23) VESNINA ……….. 2013

25.(26) HAMPTON ……….. 1881

26.(24) MAKAROVA ………..1816

27.(27) Kanepi ………….1781

28.(28) CORNET ………….1730

29.(29) KUZNETSOVA ………1679

30.(32) BARTHEL ……….. 1580

DRAWS

Cincinnati — Week of August 12

………………3R

1 S. Williams…..(1)S.Williams

16 Kirilenko……Barthel

11 Stosur………(11)Stosur

8 Bartoli………Halep………….Halep

4 A Radwanska…..(4)Radwanska……Radwanska

13 Flipkens…….Vesnina

9 Kerber……….(9)Kerber

5 Li…………..(5)Li………….Li

6 Errani………(6)Errani

12 Vinci………(12)Vinci……….Vinci

14 Jankovic……(14)Jankovic…….Jankovic

3 Sharapova……Stephens

7 Kvitova……..(7)Kvitova

10 Wozniacki…..(10)Wozniacki……Wozniacki

15 Ivanovic……Rybarikova

2 Azarenka…….(2)Azarenka……..Azarenka

STATUS OF SEEDS:

1 S. Williams

2 Azarenka

3 Sharapova….lost 2R (Stephens)

4 A Radwanska

5 Li

6 Errani

7 Kvitova……lost 3R (Wozniacki)

8 Bartoli……lost 2R (Halep)

9 Kerber…….lost 3R (Vinci)

10 Wozniacki

11 Stosur……lost 3R (Halep)

12 Vinci

13 Flipkens….lost 1R (Vesnina)

14 Jankovic

15 Ivanovic….lost 2R (Cornet)

16 Kirilenko…lost 2R (Barthel)

THURSDAY

Cincinnati

Singles – Third Round

(2) Victoria Azarenka def. Magdalena Rybarikova 6-3 6-4

(4) Agnieszka Radwanska def. Elena Vesnina 6-0 6-2

(5) Na Li def. (9) Angelique Kerber 6-4 6-4

Simona Halep def. (11) Samantha Stosur 6-4 4-6 6-2

(12) Roberta Vinci def. (6) Sara Errani 6-4 6-3

(10) Caroline Wozniacki def. (7) Petra Kvitova 3-6 6-2 6-3

(14) Jelena Jankovic def. Sloane Stephens 3-6 7-5 7-5

Doubles – Quarterfinal

Goerges/Zahlavova Strycova def. (1) Errani/Vinci 4-6 6-2 11-9

(2) Makarova/Vesnina def. Huber/Llagostera Vives 6-2 7-5

(3) Hsieh/Peng def. (7) Chan/Srebotnik 6-3 6-2

(6) Groenefeld/Peschke def. (WC) Kerber/Petkovic 6-1 2-6 12-10

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