Venus Williams Win’s Dubai & More Results & Rankings

Written by: Staff on 22nd February 2014

Venus Williams Win's Dubai & More Results & Rankings

epa04096049 Venus Williams of the US holds the trophy after winning the final match against Alize Cornet of France for the Dubai Duty Free Tennis WTA Championships in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 22 February 2014. EPA/ALI HAIDER |

PRO TOUR NEWS -

* Venus finally breaks title drought

* Kudryavtseva/Rodionova take second Premier title of 2014

* Zakopalova to face Nara in Rio final

TODAY’S WOMEN’S NEWS

Dubai

Singles – Final: Venus Williams def. Alize Cornet 6-3 6-0

This clearly wasn’t a case of Alize Cornet not caring. At 2-5 down in the first set, she was sobbing as she talked to her coach. But what could either of them do? Cornet can’t hope to out-hit Venus Williams; all she could do was try to get balls back. And watch her serve get crushed. She won only 28% of second serve points, and was broken five times (while breaking once). It was a rout.

Venus wasn’t as demonstrative on the court as Cornet, but she surely wanted this about as strongly. It is career title #45, but it has been a long, long time since she won a Premier event. Her last title was Luxembourg 2012, but her last big win was here, all the way back in 2010. (It would seem she likes this place!) Unfortunately, she wasn’t at the greatest spot in the rankings. #44 coming in, we show her rising only to #29. But if she can keep up this form, she should go a lot higher.

Alize Cornet — who was going for her fourth career title but who has never won a Premier event — would have been Top Twenty had she won this. As it is, she’ll have to settle for #23. Still, it’s quite an improvement from where she was two or three years ago!

Doubles – Final: Kudryavtseva/Rodionova def. Kops-Jones/Spears 6-2 5-7 10-8

It was quite a week of upsets for Kudryavtseva/Rodionova. They beat #2 seeds Makarova/Vesnina (the top team in the draw), Hlavackova/Safarova (who just missed seeding), and Kops-Jones/Spears (another near-seeded team). This is among the best all-around results of their long careers — but that’s typical of their 2014. They have made at least the final of four of their last six tournaments; this year, they also have a title at Brisbane and made the final at Pattaya City. It’s still early, of course, but they are actually on course to pace for the year-end Championships!

Rio de Janeiro

Singles – Semifinal: (1) Klara Zakopalova def. Teliana Pereira 6-2 6-1

Different year, same result: Teliana Pereira out in the semifinal. And, last year at this time, she was a qualifier, plus the point table has changed. So she will probably lose her Top Hundred ranking. We show Klara Zakopalova up to #32; a title would make her #30.

Singles – Semifinal: (5) Kurumi Nara def. (Q) Nastassja Burnett 6-4 3-6 6-2

This should have them buzzing in Tokyo: A Japanese player in a clay final? She’s certainly moving well ahead of the other Japanese players in the rankings; we show her around #55, and a title would make her Top Fifty.

It will be an interesting final. Zakopalova has two career singles titles, but has lost eleven finals in a row. But at least she won the two; Nara has never been in a WTA singles final before.

Doubles – Final: Begu/Irigoyen def. Larsson/Scheepers 6-2 6-0

This was truly dull. Begu/Irigoyen won two-thirds of the points — and more than three-fourths of the points in the final set, 24 versus seven. Not that Maria Irigoyen is likely to care about anything except the fact that she won; she is 26 years old, had less than a quarter of a million dollars in prize money in her career, came here with less than $5000 in income in 2014, and had never won a title in singles or doubles. So she picks up her first career hardware, and also earns enough cash to at least keep going for a while…. For Irina-Camelia Begu, it’s career doubles title #3 (plus she has three singles titles) — but she hadn’t won a doubles match this year, so it’s surely nice as a slump-buster.

****** TODAY’S FEATURE ******

Women’s Look Forward: Florianopolis, Acapulco

This is definitely the calm before the storm. Two little tournaments leading up to the monsters at Indian Wells and Miami. Not many players will want to use up energy at this time — especially, probably, on the clay at Florianopolis, since playing there will require a fast surface shift.

Still, the event is stronger than other Brazilian clay event, at Rio de Janeiro. In fact, it looks like almost the same field — except that it adds two players at the top. Carla Suarez Navarro is the #1 seed and the only Top Thirty Player. Garbine Muguruza is the #2 seed. Klara Zakopalova, the top seed at Rio, is #3 here; Francesca Schiavone, who was #2 in Rio but lost early, is #4. Monica Niculescu, last year’s champion, is #5 but had the bad luck to be drawn in Suarez Navarro’s quarter. Alexandra Cadantu is #6, Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor #7, and Paula Ormaechea #8. There are no really strong unseeded threats; although Zakopalova starts against Donna Vekic and Suarez Navarro opens against Timea Babos, who has turned into a fine doubles player but who is struggling in singles.

We find ourselves wondering if someone didn’t get the memo that Acapulco is on hardcourts this year. Because there seems to have been a sort of mass last-minute sign-up by Americans. Madison Keys and Lauren Davis both ended up in qualifying — they are the top two qualifying seeds, and Keys at least and probably Davis should have gotten direct entry.

The event’s web site is almost funny — it doesn’t even note that Dominika Cibulkova was an Australian Open finalist. The top player on its commitment list is not Cibulkova but Kaia Kanepi. Notably absent from the list is last year’s champion Sara Errani — meaning that, unless there is a last-minute surprise, there will be no Top Ten players. The top player is Cibulkova, followed by Eugenie Bouchard and Kanepi; other relatively big names in the draw are Daniela Hantuchova, Bojana Jovanovski, and Magdalena Rybarikova.

The Rankings

This was a quiet week last year also, but with three events on the calendar rather than two: Acapulco and Florianopolis are back, but this week in 2013 also saw the event at Kuala Lumpur, won by Karolina Pliskova over Bethanie Mattek-Sands, with Ayumi Morita and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova semifinalists. Sara Errani won Acapulco, over Carla Suarez Navarro; Alize Cornet and Silvia Soler-Espinosa were semifinalists. Monica Niculescu took the title at Florianopolis, against Olga Puchkova (who has faded back into nothingness since); Venus Williams and Kristina Mladenovic were the semifinalists.

We’re honestly not sure where Puchkova will land; it will be very low. Pliskova and Niculescu can probably forget the Top Fifty for the time being. Mattek-Sands will likely be out of the Top Forty. Venus might lose her new Top Thirty spot, but should still be seeded at Miami. Suarez Navarro might lose her Top Fifteen spot — but might also gain a spot.

As far as the Top Ten goes — there isn’t going to be any movement. Errani will lose a few points, but her lead over the next few players is too big for her to lose the spot. And the rest of the Top Ten has nothing on the line.

KEYWORDS: Preview Acapulco Florianopolis

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

THIS WEEK ON THE WTA:

Dubai (Premier/Hard). Defending Champion: Petra Kvitova

Rio de Janeiro (International/Clay). Defending Champion: New Event

NEXT WEEK ON THE WTA:

Florianopolis (International/Clay). Defending Champion: Monica Niculescu

Acapulco (International/Hard). Defending Champion: Sara Errani

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

Rankings

Estimated WTA Rankings As of February 22, 2014

Rank &

Prior

Rank Name Points

1 (1) SWILLIAMS 12380

2 (2) Li 6690

3 (3) ARADWANSKA 5705

4 (4) Azarenka 5681

5 (5) Sharapova 5206

6 (8) KERBER 4490

7 (9) HALEP 4435

8 (7) JANKOVIC 4380

9 (6) KVITOVA 4365

10 (10) ERRANI 4195

11 (11) WOZNIACKI 3185

12 (12) IVANOVIC 3155

13 (13) Cibulkova 3056

14 (14) VINCI 2940

15 (16) SUAREZ NAVARRO 2725

16 (15) LISICKI 2650

17 (17) STOSUR 2605

18 (18) STEPHENS 2415

19 (19) BOUCHARD 2366

20 (20) FLIPKENS 2285

21 (22) PENNETTA 2260

22 (21) Pavlyuchenkova 2240

23 (26) CORNET 2220

24 (24) MAKAROVA 2065

25 (23) Kirilenko 2046

26 (25) KANEPI 1991

27 (27) CIRSTEA 1980

28 (28) SAFAROVA 1820

29 (44) VWILLIAMS 1706*

30 (29) Kuznetsova 1598

Draws

Dubai — week of February 17, 2014

WINNER: Venus Williams

…………….QF…………….SF……….F

1 S Williams….(1)S.Williams…..Williams

5 Jankovic……(5)Jankovic

3 Kvitova…….Suarez Navarro

7 Halep………Cornet…………Cornet……Cornet

8 Wozniacki…..(8)Wozniacki……Wozniacki

4 Errani……..Cirstea

6 Kerber……..V.Williams(WC)….V.Williams..V.Williams

2 A Radwanska…Pennetta(Q)

STATUS OF SEEDS

1 S Williams…..lost SF (Cornet)

2 A Radwanska….lost 2R (Pennetta)

3 Kvitova……..lost 2R (Suarez Navarro)

4 Errani………lost 2R (Cirstea)

5 Jankovic…….lost QF (S. Williams)

6 Kerber………lost 1R (Ivanovic)

7 Halep……….lost 1R (Cornet)

8 Wozniacki……lost SF (V. Williams)

Rio de Janeiro — week of February 17, 2014

…………………..QF…………..SF……….F

1 Zakopalova………..(1)Zakopalova…Zakopalova

7 Zahlavova Strycova…Piter

4 Cadantu…………..Pereira………Pereira

8 King……………..Begu(Q)

6 Torro-Flor………..Burnett(Q)……Burnett

3 Ormaechea…………(3)Ormaechea

5 Nara……………..(5)Nara………Nara……..Nara

2 Schiavone…………Dominguez Lino

STATUS OF SEEDS

1 Zakopalova

2 Schiavone…………lost 1R (Dominguez Lino)

3 Ormaechea…………lost QF (Burnett)

4 Cadantu…………..lost 1R (Pereira)

5 Nara

6 Torro-Flor………..lost 1R (Burnett)

7 Zahlavova Strycova…lost 1R (Pfizenmaier)

8 King……………..lost 1R (Begu)

Acapulco — week of February 24, 2014

DRAW NOT YET AVAILABLE

Florianopolis — week of February 24, 2014

1 Suarez Navarro

Babos

Bertens

Qualifier

Goncalves (WC)

Qualifier

Schmiedlova

5 Niculescu

3 Zakopalova

Vekic

Larsson

Qualifier

Pereira (SE)

7 Torro-Flor

6 Cadantu

Ce (WC)

Pfizenmaier

Mayr-Achleitner

Soler-Espinosa

Shvedova

Zahlavova Strycova

4 Schiavone

8 Ormaechea

Haddad Maia (WC)

Qualifier

Hsieh

Glushko

Scheepers

King

2 Muguruza

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

SATURDAY

Dubai

Singles – Final

Venus Williams def. Alize Cornet 6-3 6-0

Doubles – Final

Kudryavtseva/Rodionova def. Kops-Jones/Spears 6-2 5-7 10-8

Rio de Janeiro

Singles – Semifinal

(1) Klara Zakopalova def. Teliana Pereira 6-2 6-1

(5) Kurumi Nara def. (Q) Nastassja Burnett 6-4 3-6 6-2

Doubles – Final

Begu/Irigoyen def. Larsson/Scheepers 6-2 6-0

Topics: 10sballs, Alize Cornet, BETHANIE Mattek-Sands, Dominika Cibulkova, Dubai, Klara Zakopalova, Kurumi Nara, Madison Keys, Sara Errani, Sports, Teliana Pereira, Tennis, Tennis News, Venus Williams, Wta

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10sBalls_com says:

February 22, 2014 at 6:15 pm

Venus Williams Win’s Dubai & More Results & Rankings – http://t.co/OCi2AkKWRY @Venuseswilliams #Dubai #tennis #WTA #results
yvessimonsevy says:

February 23, 2014 at 12:27 am

RT @10sBalls_com: Venus Williams Win’s Dubai & More Results & Rankings – http://t.co/OCi2AkKWRY @Venuseswilliams #Dubai #tennis #WTA #resul…