Women’s Hopman Cup Results

****** EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ******

 

* No WTA Matches Played

 

****** TODAY’S WOMEN’S NEWS ******

 

Hopman Cup

 

Sometimes a live body is enough.

That was what Poland found when it took on Italy. Italy should have been in great shape, because they had two players and Poland, with Grzegorz Panfil playing alongside Agnieszka Radwanska, really had only one. But mark down Andreas Seppi as the first retirement victim of the year; after Radwanska beat Flavia Pennetta 6-2 6-2, Seppi retired due to illness trailing 6-4 2-2 against Panfil, and Poland had the tie. The Poles also won the mixed against Pennetta and Oliver Anderson (a 15-year-old Australian the Italians swept off the street), but it hardly mattered.

Samantha Stosur has been talking about starting 2014 strong, but so far, it hasn’t produced much. After Milos Raonic topped Bernard Tomic 7-6 6-1, Stosur had her chance to pick up her countryman — and couldn’t. Eugenie Bouchard clinched the tie for Canada 4-6 6-2 6-3. The Australians won the Mixed 6-2 6-4, but that’s not likely to matter.

 

****** TODAY’S FEATURE ******

 

Women’s Look Forward: Brisbane, Shenzhen, Auckland

 

This is a very busy week, with three WTA events plus Hopman Cup, but that didn’t hurt Brisbane too badly — the qualifying draw ended up with seven Top Hundred players, and fairly big names like Heather Watson and Mirjana Lucic-Baroni went unseeded in qualifying, and they had to give wildcards to Jarmila Gajdosova and Ashleigh Barty.

It is a slightly odd main draw, though: Six of the Top Ten, and then only one other Top Fifteen player. Guess we know who they were trying to recruit…. Serena Williams will try for another brilliant start to the year as the #1 seed, with Victoria Azarenka #2. That gives us the potential for an interesting rematch, since Azarenka just beat Serena in an exhibition. They have the only byes.

Maria Sharapova finally returns to action as the #3 seed. Jelena Jankovic is #4, Angelique Kerber #5, Caroline Wozniacki #6, and then comes the fall-off: Sabine Lisicki is #7 and Carla Suarez Navarro #8.

Still, there are plenty of tough unseeded players. Serena might open against Andrea Petkovic. Wozniacki starts against Dominika Cibulkova. Suarez Navarro is likely to face Kaia Kanepi in round two. Kerber’s second round opponent will likely be Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Jankovic opens against Francesca Schiavone. And Lisicki could face Madison Keys in round two.

China found a pretty good way to pay off Li Na. Shenzhen is officially an International tournament, but it has twice the prize money of an ordinary International. And they produced a field in which she is the obvious favorite — there is one other Top Ten player, #2 seed Sara Errani, but the #3 seed is Klara Zakopalova, who is ranked #35. Bojana Jovanovski is the #4 seed, Peng Shuai #5, Zhang Shuai #6, Zheng Jie #7 (yes, they really brought out the Chinese contingent!), and Annika Beck #8. In other words, there are only five Top Fifty players in the draw.

There is a twist, though, and a pretty big one. Li has to open against… the only player in the draw who has been ranked higher than Li is now. Vera Zvonareva is finally back, on a wildcard, and she opens against Li! That’s about it for really big names, but Zakopalova, who has big points on the line, starts against promising Donna Vekic, and Zheng has to start against Shahar Peer in a contest of players who aren’t as fast as they used to be.

Auckland, in terms of rankings, is clearly the week’s also-ran, with no Top Ten players and several seeds ranked below #40. And yet, there is a lot of talent and history in the field — including two former #1 players. Roberta Vinci is the top seed, with Ana Ivanovic #2. Kirsten Flipkens is #3 and in Ivanovic’s half; Sorana Cirstea is #4 and in Vinci’s half. The quarterfinals would have Vinci face #5 Jamie Hampton, Ivanovic take on #6 Lucie Safarova, Flipkens oppose #8 Karin Knapp, and Cirstea go against #7 Mona Barthel. But several seeds could be tested. Hampton starts against oft-injured Tamira Paszek, then probably Yanina Wickmayer. Cirstea’s second round opponent might be Christina McHale. Knapp opens against Julia Goerges. And… Barthel might face Venus Williams in round two.

This week also features Hopman Cup, but with no points on the line and a certain number of iffy players, we aren’t going to try to preview that.

 

The Rankings

This week is significant, because it’s the last chance to influence the Australian Open seeds. And, with only 16 points between #4 Maria Sharapova and #5 Agnieszka Radwanska, that could have mattered.

In practice, it won’t. Because Radwanska is playing Hopman Cup, and is the defending Auckland champion, whereas Sharapova pulled out of Brisbane at the last moment last year, Radwanska cannot climb. The week’s other champions were Serena Williams at Brisbane and Li Na at Shenzhen. Finalists were Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova at Brisbane, Klara Zakopalova at Shenzhen, and Yanina Wickmayer at Auckland. Victoria Azarenka and Lucky Loser Lesia Tsurenko were the Brisbane semifinalists, with Peng Shuai and Monica Niculescu having made the Shenzhen semis and Jamie Hampton and Mona Barthel the Auckland semifinalists.

Serena’s points don’t matter. She will remain #1 by 5000 points or so. Victoria Azarenka will keep the #2 spot. #3 is interesting, because Li Na is defending and Maria Sharapova isn’t and Sharapova is only about 150 points back. The new points table makes it a little harder for Sharapova to reach #3, but a semifinal would do it no matter what, and she might back in if Li does badly at Shenzhen. Li should be at least #4, with Radwanska #5. Petra Kvitova ought to stay at #6. Our next contest is at #7; Jelena Jankovic could pass Sara Errani with a Brisbane title. But there is also a chance that Angelique Kerber could take the #8 spot from Jankovic. So that’s the first real contest to watch, since it’s the first one that affects the seeding tiers. Caroline Wozniacki will stay #10. So the top Australian seeding tiers are as follows:

1. Serena

2. Azarenka

3-4. Sharapova, Li

5-8. Radwanska, Kvitova, Errani, Jankovic/Kerber

Jankovic or Kerber, Wozniacki, and Halep will be in the #9-#12 block. Vinci will probably also be in that block, although Lisicki has an outside shot.

Seeded #13-#16 will be Stephens, Lisicki (or Vinci), Ivanovic, and almost certainly Suarez Navarro.

#17-#24 will include Stosur, (Kirilenko will not play according to the reports we’ve heard), Flipkens, Kuznetsova, Cirstea, Cibulkova, Makarova, almost certainly Vesnina, and probably Cornet, although Safarova or Kanepi could move up.

#25-#32 will be Safarova and Kanepi (or the players they displace), Pennetta, Pavlyuchenkova, Hampton, Bouchard, and two others, currently Hantuchova and Rybarikova, but Barthel, Jovanovski, Keys, and Zakopalova are contenders. The latter four are our leading candidates for alternate spots.

Note that the WTA starts to use its revised rankings table this week, so it will be just a little harder for players to climb if they can’t win titles.

KEYWORDS: Preview Brisbane Shenzhen Auckland

 

******** THIS WEEK IN TENNIS ********

 

THIS WEEK ON THE WTA:

No WTA Events

NEXT WEEK ON THE WTA:

Brisbane (Premier 700/Hard). Defending Champion: Serena Williams

Shenzhen (International/Hard). Defending Champion: Li Na

Auckland (International/Hard). Defending Champion: Agnieszka Radwanska

 

************ STATS AND FACTS ************

 

Rankings

Estimated WTA Rankings As of December 30, 2013

 

Rank &

Prior

Rank …Name …………. Points

1..(1) SWILLIAMS ……… 13070*

2..(2) AZARENKA ………..7847*

3..(4) SHARAPOVA ……… 5892*

4..(3) LI ……………..5890*

5..(5) ARadwanska ………5820

6..(6) Kvitova ……….. 4775

7..(7) ERRANI ………….4435*

8..(8) JANKOVIC ………..4170*

9..(9) KERBER ………….3965*

10.(10) WOZNIACKI ……… 3520*

11.(11) Halep …………. 3335

12.(14) VINCI …………. 3170*

13.(12) Stephens ………..3135

14.(13) Bartoli ……….. 3103

15.(15) LISICKI ……….. 2920*

16.(16) IVANOVIC ………..2850*

17.(17) SUAREZ NAVARRO …..2735*

18.(18) Stosur ………….2675

19.(19) Kirilenko ……… 2640

20.(20) FLIPKENS ………..2455*

21.(21) Kuznetsova ………2341

22.(22) CIRSTEA ……….. 2170*

23.(23) CIBULKOVA ……… 2076*

24.(24) Makarova ………..2066

25.(25) Vesnina ……….. 1995

26.(27) Cornet ………….1840

27.(29) SAFAROVA ………..1775*

28.(30) KANEPI ………….1769*

29.(31) Pennetta ………..1735

30.(26) PAVLYUCHENKOVA …..1715*

 

Draws

Brisbane (Premier)

 

1 S Williams

–bye

Petkovic

Mattek-Sands

Date-Krumm

Rogowska (WC)

Cibulkova

6 Wozniacki

 

3 Sharapova

Garcia

Qualifier

Hantuchova

Qualifier

Kanepi

Qualifier

8 Suarez Navarro

 

5 Kerber

Mladenovic

Qualifier

Pavlyuchenkova

Lepchenko

Svitolina

Schiavone

4 Jankovic

 

7 Lisicki

Rybarikova

Voegele

Keys

Voskoboeva

Dellacqua (WC)

–bye

2 Azarenka

Shenzhen (International)

 

1 Li

Zvonareva (WC)

Babos

N Kichenok

Niculescu

Schmiedlova

Y Chan

6 Zhang

 

3 Zakopalova

Vekic

Mayr-Achleitner

Qualifier

Qualifier

Wozniak

Tomljanovic

8 Beck

 

5 Peng

F Liu (WC)

Soler-Espinosa

Tsurenko

Qualifier

Cepelova

Qualifier

4 Jovanovski

 

7 J Zheng

Peer

Govortsova

Zahlavova Strycova

Martic

King

S Zheng

2 Errani

Auckland (International)

 

1 Vinci

Konjuh (WC)

Davis

Erakovic

Qualifier

Wickmayer

Paszek (WC)

5 Hampton

 

4 Cirstea

Qualifier

McHale

Muguruza

Hlavackova (WC)

V Williams

Meusburger

7 Barthel

 

8 Knapp

Goerges

Qualifier

Qualifier

Ka. Pliskova

Ormaechea

Puig

3 Flipkens

 

6 Safarova

Morita

Cadantu

Nara

Larsson

Dominguez Lino

Riske

2 Ivanovic

 

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

 

No WTA Events This Week

Topics: 10sballs.com, Agnieszka Radwanska, Ana Ivanovic, Australian Open, Eugenie Bouchard, Hopman Cup, Li Na, Maria Sharapova, Petra Kvitova, Sabine Lisicki, Serena Williams, Sloane Stephens, Tennis, Tennis News, Victoria Azarenka

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