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
Topics: Christina Mchale, Eugenie Bouchard, Lucie Safarova, Marina Erakovic, Tennis News, Wta
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