The Latest Ladies Tennis News

Written by: on 15th September 2013
The Latest Ladies Tennis News  |

Quebec City

 

Saturday

 

Singles – Semifinal: (3) Lucie Safarova def. (5) Eugenie Bouchard 3-6 6-3 6-2

It really feels as if experience made the difference here. Still, Eugenie Bouchard has put herself in the Top Fifty; this won’t be the last time she earns seeding at a WTA event.

 

Singles – Semifinal: (6) Marina Erakovic def. Christina McHale 6-4 6-3

When Christina McHale cracked, she cracked completely, losing the first five games of the second set before getting back into it. Obviously too late. Still, her big comeback continues to make progress; she has had a very good September.

Marina Erakovic didn’t have a good U. S. Open — she lost her opener — but this is more points than she was likely to earn there anyway.

 

Doubles – Semifinal: (1) Hlavackova/Hradecka def. Falconi/Tatishvili 3-6 6-4 10-7

Hlavackova/Hradecka seemed always to be struggling in this match — including being down 7-6 in the Match Tiebreak. But the top teams find ways to win, and they did. Nine straight wins, in fact. They are still only #7 in the WTA doubles Race, but the Race is getting to be pretty interesting. Expect a feature on this later this week.

 

Sunday

 

Singles – Final: (3) Lucie Safarova def. (6) Marina Erakovic 6-4 6-3

This went pretty quickly. Maybe Lucie Safarova was impatient. Other than the Prague $100K Challenger, she hadn’t won a title since Forest Hills 2008. So this was a nice breakthrough.

It’s her fifth career title — all of low tier, but still, it’s a nice number. And she will be rising significantly. #48 coming in, we show her rising to #36. Maybe there is a chance for an Australian Open seed after all….

Marina Erakovic seems to have just a few special places on the Tour. She has made four career finals — Quebec City 2011, Memphis 2012, Memphis 2013 (the only one of those finals where she came out on top), and now this. It isn’t a second title, but it is quite nice rankings-wise; we show her rising to #55. It’s not quite a career high, but it wouldn’t take much more.

 

Doubles – Final: (2) Kudryavtseva/Rodionova def. (1) Hlavackova/Hradecka 6-4 6-3

We’ve no clue what happened here, unless Hlavackova/Hradecka are just too tired to keep going. Their winning streak ends at nine, with them still only #7 in the WTA Race. They still have a shot at the year-end Championships, but they’ll probably have to win a big event.

For Alla Kudryavtseva, that breaks a more than two year title drought; her last was Birmingham 2011 with Govortsova. She picks up her first title with Anastasia Rodionova since ‘s-Hertogenbosch 2010. For Anastasia Rodionova, it’s her first title since Auckland of this year (with Black).

 

****** TODAY’S FEATURE ******

 

Women’s Look Forward: Seoul, Guangzhou

 

Finally China seems to be convincing people. Guangzhou is no longer tremendously weaker than Seoul. In terms of draw cutoff, they’re about equal.

 

Still, Seoul got the week’s biggest names. Agnieszka Radwanska is the #1 seed in Korea. She is the only Top Ten player; Maria Kirilenko is #2, and from there, things fall off fast. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova is #3, Klara Zakopalova #4, Elina Svitolina #5, Julia Goerges #6, Andrea Petkovic #7, and Annika Beck #8. That means only seven players in the Top Fifty. There are some fairly big unseeded names — Francesca Schiavone opens against Petkovic, and Kirilenko could face Kimiko Date-Krumm in the second round — but unless Alexandra Dulgheru is truly back to life, it doesn’t seem likely they’ll make much of a dent against the top seeds.

 

Guangzhou couldn’t nab anyone bigger than #1 seed Sorana Cirstea, meaning that the event has no Top Twenty players, but it’s well-endowed with mid-level players. Alize Cornet is #2. Last year’s finalist Laura Robson is #3. China’s #2 player Peng Shuai has the #4 seed. It’s interesting to see that the Radwanska sisters decided to play different countries; Urszula Radwanska is the #5 seed. Defending champion Hsieh Su-Wei is #6, Varvara Lepchenko #7, Monica Puig #8 — meaning that, even though the top seeds at Seoul are ranked higher, it’s about even at the bottom of the seed list.

Some of the seeds could be challenged. #1 seed Cirstea opens against Tashkent champion Bojana Jovanovski, and Cornet against Tashkent finalist Olga Govortsova (a funny pattern, that). Lepchenko’s second round opponent will be either Yaroslava Shvedova or Zheng Jie, China’s other leading player. And Peng has to open against Shahar Peer, in on a wildcard and showing some signs of life.

 

The Rankings

These are small events, but they had some fairly big names present last year — Marion Bartoli at Guangzhou, Caroline Wozniacki, Maria Kirilenko, and Kaia Kanepi at Seoul. They may not all have wanted to be there — Bartoli and Kirilenko both retired in their openers — but Wozniacki and Kanepi took their seedings seriously; Wozniacki won Seoul, beating Kanepi in the final. The semifinalists were Ekaterina Makarova and Varvara Lepchenko. At Guangzhou, the title went to Hsieh Su-Wei, over Laura Robson, with Urszula Radwanska and Sorana Cirstea the semifinalists.

It’s hard to imagine why Agnieszka Radwanska decided to play this week; certainly nothing she does will affect her ranking. Indeed, there will be no change in the Top Ten. Caroline Wozniacki will lose some points, but her lead over #9 Angelique Kerber is large enough that she will stay #8. Kirilenko might have a shot at a return to the Top Fifteen, but she would need a title. It doesn’t look as if we’ll have any new Top Twenty players.

Kanepi, whose ranking keeps yo-yoing because she has so few events, will be around #30. Hsieh, who just fell out of the Top Forty, could end up below #60. Robson might land around #50.

 

THIS WEEK ON THE WTA:

Seoul (International/Hard). Defending Champion: Caroline Wozniacki

Guangzhou (International/Hard). Defending Champion: Hsieh Su-Wei

 

NEXT WEEK ON THE WTA:

Pan Pacific (Premier Five/Hard). Defending Champion: Nadia Petrova

 

Estimated WTA Rankings As of September 13, 2013

 

 

Rank &

Prior

Rank….Name…………..Points

1..(1) SWilliams ………12260

2..(2) Azarenka ………..9505

3..(3) Sharapova ……… 7866

4..(4) ARadwanska ………6335

5..(5) Li ……………..5565

6..(6) Errani ………….4325

7..(7) Bartoli ……….. 3746

8..(8) Wozniacki ……… 3645

9..(9) Kerber ………….3420

10.(10) Jankovic ………..3245

11.(11) Kvitova ……….. 3170

12.(12) Vinci …………. 3065

13.(13) Stephens ………..3045

14.(15) Suarez Navarro …..2775

15.(16) Lisicki ……….. 2770

16.(17) Ivanovic ………..2720

17.(18) Stosur ………….2715

18.(19) Halep …………. 2630

19.(20) Kirilenko ……… 2620

20.(14) FLIPKENS ………..2556

21.(21) Makarova ………..2275

22.(22) Cirstea ……….. 2250

23.(23) Cibulkova ……… 2126

24.(24) Vesnina ……….. 2125

25.(25) Hampton ……….. 2036

26.(26) Kanepi ………….1941

27.(27) Petrova ……….. 1937

28.(28) Kuznetsova ………1839

29.(29) Cornet ………….1790

30.(30) Hantuchova ………1680

 

**DRAWS

 

Quebec City — Week of September 8

 

WINNER:

……………….QF…………..SF………F

1 Flipkens………Hercog

8 Garcia………..McHale……….McHale

4 Mattek-Sands…..Tomljanovic

6 Erakovic………(6)Erakovic…..Erakovic…Erakovic

 

7 Davis…………(7)Davis

3 Safarova (WC)….(3)Safarova…..Safarova…Safarova

5 Bouchard………(5)Bouchard…..Bouchard

2 Mladenovic…….(2)Mladenovic

 

Status of Seeds:

1 Flipkens……..lost 1R (Hercog)

2 Mladenovic……lost QF (Bouchard)

3 Safarova (WC)…

4 Mattek-Sands….lost 2R (Tomljanovic)

5 Bouchard……..lost SF (Safarova)

6 Erakovic……..

7 Davis………..lost QF (Safarova)

8 Garcia……….lost 2R (McHale)

 

Tashkent — Week of September 8

 

WINNER: Bojana Jovanovski

………………QF…………….SF……….F

1 Jovanovski (Q)..(1)Jovanovski(Q)..Jovanovski..Jovanovski

7 Voskoboeva……(7)Voskoboeva

3 Meusburger……(3)Meusburger

6 Begu…………Torro-Flor……..Torro-Flor

 

5 Cadantu………(5)Cadantu

4 Vekic………..Govortsova……..Govortsova..Govortsova

8 Shvedova……..Minella………..Minella

2 Tsurenko……..Burnett

 

Status of seeds:

1 Jovanovski (Q)…WON TOURNAMENT

2 Tsurenko………lost 1R (Burnett)

3 Meusburger…….lost QF (Torro-Flor)

4 Vekic…………lost 2R (Govortsova)

5 Cadantu……….lost QF (Govortsova)

6 Begu………….lost 2R (Torro-Flor)

7 Voskoboeva…….lost QF (Jovanovski)

8 Shvedova………lost 1R (Dolonc)

 

Seoul — Week of September 15

 

 

1 A Radwanska

Cadantu

Minella

Cabeza Candela

Dushevina

Soler-Espinosa

Qualifier

8 Beck

 

4 Zakopalova

Jang (WC)

Burnett

Qualifier

S Han (WC)

Dulgheru

Arruabarrena

5 Svitolina

 

6 Goerges

Doi

Begu

Qualifier

Y Lee (WC)

Gavrilova

Medina Garrigues

3 Pavlyuchenkova

 

7 Petkovic

Schiavone

Razzano

Dominguez Lino

Watson

Date-Krumm

Qualifier

2 Kirilenko

 

Guangzhou — Week of September 15

 

 

1 Cirstea

Jovanovski

King (Q)

Scheepers

Voskoboeva

Cetkovska

N Kichenok (Q)

8 Puig

 

3 Robson

Jaksic (Q)

S Zheng (WC)

Kumkhum (Q)

Shvedova

J Zheng

Babos

7 Lepchenko

 

6 Hsieh

Ormaechea

Zhang (QC)

Puchkova

Konta (Q)

Hogenkamp (Q)

Peer (WC)

4 Peng

 

5 U Radwanska

Dolonc

Meusburger

Tsurenko

Ka. Pliskova

Larsson

Govortsova

2 Cornet

 

******** SCORES ********

 

SATURDAY

 

Tashkent

Singles – Final

(1/Q) Bojana Jovanovski def. Olga Govortsova 4-6 7-5 7-6(7-3)

Doubles – Final

(1) Babos/Shvedova def. (2) Govortsova/Minella 6-3 6-3

 

Quebec City

Singles – Semifinal

(3) Lucie Safarova def. (5) Eugenie Bouchard 3-6 6-3 6-2

(6) Marina Erakovic def. Christina McHale 6-4 6-3

Doubles – Semifinal

(1) Hlavackova/Hradecka def. Falconi/Tatishvili 3-6 6-4 10-7

 

SUNDAY

 

Quebec City

Singles – Final

(3) Lucie Safarova def. (6) Marina Erakovic 6-4 6-3

Doubles – Final

(2) Kudryavtseva/Rodionova def. (1) Hlavackova/Hradecka 6-4 6-3

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