LADIES TENNIS RESULTS FROM THE WIMBY GRASS WARM-UPS

Written by: Staff on 18th June 2014

LADIES TENNIS RESULTS FROM THE WIMBY GRASS WARM-UPS

epa04264623 Dutch player Michaella Krajicek returns to Yaroslava Shvedova from Kazakhstan during the second round of the tennis tournament Topshelf Open in Rosmalen, Netherlands, 18 June 2014. EPA/KOEN SUYK |

* Pennetta loses another Top Ten chance; falls to Watson in Eastbourne

* Defending champion Vesnina out to Keys

* Bad day for retirements in ‘s-Hertogenbosch; Suarez Navarro, King both unable to finish

* Defending champion Halep quits in second set to Beck

* 2013 finalist Flipkens out to Svitolina; will fall out of Top 25

****** TODAY’S WOMEN’S NEWS ******

Eastbourne

Singles – Second Round: (2) Petra Kvitova def. Varvara Lepchenko 6-1 6-4

Now this looks like the Petra Kvitova who won Wimbledon. And she’s the only seed left in her half. Make the final and she’ll be just below the Top Five; win the title and she’s in.

Singles – Second Round: (5) Angelique Kerber def. Alize Cornet 7-5 1-6 7-6(7-3)

As you will see if you read today’s Feature, grass has been a good surface for Angelique Kerber in recent years; if Wimbledon seeded the women based on surface results, she would be one of the top eight seeds. She won’t be that high in the actual draw, but if she can win her next match, she will rise to #8 in the rankings — and she is the top seed left in the top half. Alize Cornet will probably be #24 or #25.

Singles – Second Round: (WC) Heather Watson def. (6) Flavia Pennetta 6-7(6-8) 6-4 6-2

That makes it five seeds down. Flavia Pennetta didn’t have much hope of reaching the Top Ten this week, but this means there is no chance at all; she will stay at #12. Which means that Dominika Cibulkova will have at least one more week as a Top Ten player.

Singles – Second Round: (8) Caroline Wozniacki def. Sloane Stephens 6-3 6-3

Let’s hope this means Caroline Wozniacki is coming around after all the sad news of the last few weeks. She came in here ranked #16, and her first two opponents were #17 Samantha Stosur and #18 Stephens. Thus she beat both players who were threatening to overtake her. She still has points to defend, but this ought to keep her at #16.

Singles – Second Round: Camila Giorgi def. (WC) Johanna Konta 1-6 7-5 7-5

Camila Giorgi probably couldn’t explain just what happened here, but it guarantees that she will hit the Top Forty. She might go as high as #37.

Singles – Second Round: (Q) Lauren Davis def. Daniela Hantuchova 6-3 6-3

Some small players hate grass. Others love it because it gives them a little more power — and they can adjust faster than the big players to all those funny hops and low bounces. Lauren Davis seems to fall into the latter group. This will probably take her above #55; she leaves Daniela Hantuchova still below the Top Thirty.

Singles – Second Round: Ekaterina Makarova def. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-3 6-3

Ekaterina Makarova is another player whose grass results are better than her ranking — and she won her first and biggest career title here. So no surprise to see her doing well. If she can make the final — which, with the draw as it is, looks possible — she will be Top Twenty.

Singles – Second Round: Madison Keys def. Elena Vesnina 7-5 7-6(11-9)

Elena Vesnina at first seemed to be in luck; Madison Keys had eliminated Jelena Jankovic for her. But Vesnina, the defending champion, couldn’t take advantage. She loses more than a quarter of her points, and will fall from #32 to #49 or #50. (Lucky for her she already has her Wimbledon seed.) That puts her behind Madison Keys, who is up to probably #41; she will be Top Forty if she wins her next match.

Doubles – First Round: (1) Errani/Vinci def. (WC) Jankovic/Schiavone 7-6(8-6) 0-6 10-6

Errani/Vinci are in lousy singles form these days, plus Errani hates grass, but they continue to be almost unbeatable in doubles.

Doubles – First Round: Chan/Chan def. Kops-Jones/Spears .6-1 7-6(7-5)

Kops-Jones/Spears just won Birmingham, so this was a pretty abrupt turnaround….

Doubles – Quarterfinal: (2) Peschke/Srebotnik def. Aoyama/Niculescu 6-2 6-3

Monica Niculescu is a pretty good doubles player, but she pays for choosing a weak partner. She may not have been in the best shape anyway; she didn’t play singles here, either main draw or qualifying.

Doubles – Quarterfinal: Hingis/Pennetta def. Huber/Raymond 6-1 6-3

Talk about a veteran match-up! Huber/Raymond have a combined age of 77; Hingis/Pennetta, 65. Evidently youth was served.

‘s-Hertogenbosch

Singles – Second Round: Annika Beck def. (1) Simona Halep 5-7 3-2, retired

This should have been a big chance for Simona Halep to defend her first grass title — she was the last seed standing in the top half. Instead, she became the headliner on a day that saw half the matches end in retirements. It’s lucky for her that Agnieszka Radwanska lost at Eastbourne, or her #3 ranking might be in danger. Annika Beck is now only about eighty points from the Top Fifty.

Singles – Second Round: Zheng Jie def. (4) Carla Suarez Navarro 7-5 0-1, retired

The pre-Wimbledon injury jinx continues, it appears. For Carla Suarez Navarro, that means she loses a few points and will not rise above #15.

Singles – Second Round: Elina Svitolina def. (6) Kirsten Flipkens 7-6(7-4) 6-4

Elina Svitolina just barely missed seeding, so this isn’t a really big upset — but Kirsten Flipkens was last year’s finalist. She will fall from #24 to no better than #26 — and, next week, she has a Wimbledon semifinal to defend. If she loses early there, she could lose her Top Fifty spot.

Singles – Second Round: (8) Klara Koukalova def. (Q) Mona Barthel 6-2 7-6(8-6)

No points yet for Klara Koukalova, but she keeps alive her hopes for a return to the Top Thirty.

Singles – Second Round: (Q) Coco Vandeweghe def. Vania King 6-7(6-8) 6-0 2-1, retired

Vania King has been around enough that you’d think she’d know how to deal with grass — but she probably has to run three times as much during a match as Coco Vandeweghe, so maybe the mileage simply caught up with her. She should still rise a spot or two.

Michaella Krajicek.

Singles – Second Round: Yaroslava Shvedova def. (WC) Michaella Krajicek 7-6(8-6) 7-6(7-4)

A very close match. Sorry to see Misha lose in 2 heart breakers ( tie breakers ) certain the new engagement will bring players on the rise.

Doubles – Quarterfinal: (1) Hlavackova/Zheng def. Daniilidou/Hrdinova 6-2 6-3

Doubles – Quarterfinal: (2) Medina Garrigues/Shvedova def. Jurak/Moulton-Levy 6-3 6-4

****** TODAY’S FEATURE ******

You Seed It Your Way….

Each year at about this time, Wimbledon announces adjustments to its men’s seeds based on a formula. For the women, it… doesn’t. Either it leaves the women’s seeds alone or, once in a great while, it adjusts them arbitrarily. (This year, they left them alone while using the formula, e.g., to promote Andy Murray to #3.) And so, every year, we’ve adjusted the women’s seeds for them, using the men’s formula to seed the women.

This year, there is a complication, because the women have changed the ranking table. More points were awarded for results in 2012 and 2013 than for equivalent results in 2014. This is especially complicated because some, but not all, of the points from 2013 are still on the rankings, too. We spend some time scratching our heads about that — should we adjust points to match the 2014 points table? The 2013 points table? Something else?

Finally we decided to just do something that, we guessed, would produce an effect about equivalent to the actual effect of the men’s system. Wimbledon’s system for the men consists of taking the player’s current rankings points, adding all his grass points from the previous twelve months, and then adding a fraction of his grass points from the twelve months before that.

What we did is take each woman’s total points, add her actual grass points from the last twelve months (i.e. Eastbourne 2013, ‘s-Hertogenbosch 2013, Wimbledon 2013, and Birmingham 2014), and then add 60% of her actual grass points from the twelve months before that (i.e. Eastbourne 2012, ‘s-Hertogenbosch 2012, Wimbledon 2012, and Birmingham 2013). We did this for the top 34 players on the WTA on the assumption that we might yet get a withdrawal or two. Rounding off to the nearest point (and leaving out Marion Bartoli, who would have led the grass points list had she played, but who isn’t playing), here are the total grass points for the seedable players:

1. Lisicki (WTA Rank: #19): 1742

2. Radwanska, A (WTA Rank: #4): 1742

3. Williams, S (WTA Rank: #1): 1480

4. Flipkens (WTA Rank: #24): 1306

5. Kerber (WTA Rank: #9): 892

6. Kvitova (WTA Rank: #6): 861

7. Ivanovic (WTA Rank: #11): 739

8. Stephens (WTA Rank: #18): 696

9. Li (WTA Rank: #2): 680

10. Vesnina (WTA Rank: #32): 642

11. Azarenka (WTA Rank: #8): 640

12. Vinci (WTA Rank: #21): 520

13. Koukalova (WTA Rank: #31): 477

14. Suarez Navarro (WTA Rank: #15): 414

15. Makarova (WTA Rank: #22): 413

16. Halep (WTA Rank: #3): 384

17. Stosur (WTA Rank: #17): 336

18. Wozniacki (WTA Rank: #16): 304

19. Pennetta (WTA Rank: #12): 302

20. Safarova (WTA Rank: #23): 296

21. Cibulkova (WTA Rank: #10): 275

22. Sharapova (WTA Rank: #5): 268

23. Muguruza (WTA Rank: #27): 264

24. Cirstea (WTA Rank: #29): 240

25. Cornet (WTA Rank: #25): 221

26. Zhang (WTA Rank: #33): 185

27. Bouchard (WTA Rank: #13): 169

28. Pavlyuchenkova (WTA Rank: #26): 137

29. Jankovic (WTA Rank: #7): 104

30. Errani (WTA Rank: #14): 102

31. Petkovic (WTA Rank: #20): 100

32. Svitolina (WTA Rank: #34): 7

33. Kuznetsova (WTA Rank: #28): 3

33. Williams, V (WTA Rank: #30): 3

Notice that we actually have a tie for most nominal grass points! In fact Lisicki is #1, by four-tenths of a point. Still, it was amazing how close it was. Funny, too, to see Venus Williams, a repeat champion, dead last, but of course she has been having real physical problems.

But that’s just grass points. What we want is the adjusted seeds. That’s this list:

1. Williams, S (WTA Rank: #1): 11140

2. Li (WTA Rank: #2): 8130

3. Radwanska, A (WTA Rank: #4): 7732

4. Halep (WTA Rank: #3): 6664

5. Kvitova (WTA Rank: #6): 5431

6. Sharapova (WTA Rank: #5): 5009

7. Kerber (WTA Rank: #9): 4722

8. Azarenka (WTA Rank: #8): 4481

9. Ivanovic (WTA Rank: #11): 4369

10. Lisicki (WTA Rank: #19): 4139

11. Jankovic (WTA Rank: #7): 4094

12. Cibulkova (WTA Rank: #10): 4010

13. Pennetta (WTA Rank: #12): 3626

14. Bouchard (WTA Rank: #13): 3489

15. Suarez Navarro (WTA Rank: #15): 3349

16. Flipkens (WTA Rank: #24): 3331

17. Stephens (WTA Rank: #18): 3236

18. Errani (WTA Rank: #14): 3222

19. Wozniacki (WTA Rank: #16): 3004

20. Stosur (WTA Rank: #17): 2901

21. Vinci (WTA Rank: #21): 2670

22. Makarova (WTA Rank: #22): 2543

23. Safarova (WTA Rank: #23): 2381

24. Petkovic (WTA Rank: #20): 2305

25. Cornet (WTA Rank: #25): 2216

26. Vesnina (WTA Rank: #32): 2162

27. Pavlyuchenkova (WTA Rank: #26): 2022

28. Koukalova (WTA Rank: #31): 2002

29. Muguruza (WTA Rank: #27): 1969

30. Cirstea (WTA Rank: #29): 1851

31. Zhang (WTA Rank: #33): 1681

32. Kuznetsova (WTA Rank: #28): 1639

33. Williams, V (WTA Rank: #30): 1599

34. Svitolina (WTA Rank: #34): 1392

No surprise, obviously, to see Serena at the top; she is the overwhelming #1 and she has a lot of grass points. Radwanska’s big grass points move her ahead of Halep into the #3 seed, but that’s a difference that makes no difference. The first difference that counts is that Angelique Kerber rises from #9 to #7, knocking Jelena Jankovic out of the top eight seeds. The next big move is Sabine Lisicki’s; her rise from #19 to #10 actually gains her two seeding tiers. Kirsten Flipkens, last year’s shock semifinalist, rises eight places. Elena Vesnina gains six spots, but that isn’t enough to do her any good; she remains in the bottom seeding tier. And so forth. If we sum up the changes that actually mean something, they are as follows:

Promoted two seeding tiers:

Sabine Lisicki, from #19 to #10

Promoted 1 seeding tier:

Angelique Kerber, from #9 to #7

Kirsten Flipkens, from #24 to #16

Demoted 1 seeding tier:

Jelena Jankovic, from #7 to #11

Flavia Pennetta, from #12 to #13

Sara Errani, from #14 to #18

Carolina Wozniacki, from #16 to #19

KEYWORDS: Wimbledon Seed Adjustment Women

Eastbourne

The way this event is supposed to work is that the first day or two are a chance for Plucky Brits to show off their skills; then the latter stages are taken over by established stars with grass court records who set themselves up nicely for Wimbledon. Martina Navratilova certainly believed that succeeding at Eastbourne was a good omen for Wimbledon: she won here eleven times.

In recent years, of course there are fewer established grass court stars entering the event: s-‘Hertogenbosch tends to attract many continental European players (this year, Simona Halep and Dominika Cibulkova are the top seeds), and a number of players with excellent grass court credentials, such as Venus and Serena Williams, and Maria Sharapova, prefer to practice privately this week. So the top seeds this week at Eastbourne are, or rather were, Agnieszka Radwanska (1), Petra Kvitova (2), Jelena Jankovic (3), and Victoria Azarenka (wild-carded in as 4). Other well-known players with grass cred in the draw include Caroline Wozniacki (won junior Wimbledon, was the 2008 Eastbourne champion); Ekaterina Makarova (the surprise 2010 Eastbourne champion); Tsvetana Pironkova, whose best wins have all been on grass; and Daniela Hantuchova, who isn’t at her best on grass but has still managed runner-up showings both here (2004) and at Birmingham (2011), plus a title at Birmingham last year. Plus there were a couple of interesting relatively new teens: Sloane Stephens, Lauren Davis, Madison Keys, and Belinda Bencic.

You can see the trouble brewing right there. Azarenka has been out with a foot injury since Indian Wells. Kvitova won Wimbledon in 2011 but has struggled with health problems and inconsistency ever since. Grass is Jankovic’s worst surface although, as she said the first day, “I’m trying to enjoy it.” And Radwanska, the 2012 finalist and 2013 semi-finalist at Wimbledon, a former winner here (2009), and possessed of great hands… has lost first round the last two years.

Make that three years. On Monday, Radwanska lost to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, while Wozniacki barely scraped through against an admittedly tough opponent in Sam Stosur. On Tuesday, Jankovic got hammered off the court by Madison Keys, who afterwards seemed jazzed by the win in the clear-eyed uncomplicatedly happy way of the relative newcomer to the tour. Azarenka, had drawn a particularly tough opponent, the intermittently brilliant Camila Giorgi, who, after losing the first set but taking the second, seemed to see no reason why she shouldn’t go ahead and win. It took her two tries at serving it out — but she made it.

That left Kvitova, who promptly went up a set and 5-1 against fellow Czech left-hander Lucie Safarova, only to go ahead and lose the second set and barely scrape through in a third-set tiebreaker.

So, by the end of Tuesday three of the top four seeds and most of the other big names were already gone. Late Wednesday things were settling down: Kvitova, Wozniacki, and Makarova had all made the quarters, along with Keys, Davis, Giorgi, and Angelique Kerber. The big surprise of the quarter-finalists is Britain’s Heather Watson, who followed up beating Pironkova by beating Flavia Pennetta, which she described as her biggest-ever win. Bencic, picked by Hingis to mentor, lost despite saving six match points to the little-known British player Johanna Konta, whose home town is Eastbourne and who, at 109, just made the cut-off for the Wimbledon main draw, an event she described as “a milestone.”

The big question: what does this say about what’s going to happen at Wimbledon? .Both Wozniacki and Jankovic – polar opposite in terms of their success on grass and both former number-one players — ruefully pointed out their failure ever to pass the fourth round at Wimbledon. Radwanska is a model of inverted predictions, like Mauresmo before her: Mauresmo lost first round here in 2006 but won Wimbledon; the next year she won her but lost early at Wimbledon. It’s .not very satisfactory to say this, but: no one knows.

Rankings

Estimated WTA Rankings As of June 18, 2014

Rank &

Prior

Rank …Name …………. Points

1..(1) SWilliams ……… 9660

2..(2) Li ……………..7330

3..(3) HALEP …………. 6105

4..(4) ARADWANSKA ………5990

5..(5) Sharapova ……… 4741

6..(6) KVITOVA ……….. 4570*

7..(7) JANKOVIC ………..3990

8..(8) AZARENKA ………..3842

9..(9) KERBER ………….3830*

10.(10) CIBULKOVA ……… 3666

11.(11) Ivanovic ………..3630

12.(12) PENNETTA ………..3378

13.(13) BOUCHARD ………..3320

14.(14) ERRANI ………….3120

15.(15) SUAREZ NAVARRO …..2905

16.(16) WOZNIACKI ……… 2600*

17.(17) STOSUR ………….2565

18.(18) STEPHENS ………..2540

19.(19) Lisicki ……….. 2397

20.(20) PETKOVIC ………..2205

21.(21) VINCI …………. 2150

22.(22) MAKAROVA ………..2110*

23.(23) SAFAROVA ………..1995

24.(25) CORNET ………….1995

25.(26) PAVLYUCHENKOVA …..1885

26.(24) FLIPKENS ………..1880

27.(28) Kuznetsova ………1636

28.(27) MUGURUZA ………..1625*

29.(29) Cirstea ……….. 1611

30.(30) VWilliams ……… 1596

Draws

Eastbourne — Week of June 14, 2014

……………..QF

1 A Radwanska….Makarova

5 Kerber………(5)Kerber

4 Azarenka (WC)..Giorgi

8 Wozniacki……(8)Wozniacki

7 Errani………Davis

3 Jankovic…….Keys

6 Pennetta…….Watson(WC)

2 Kvitova……..(2)Kvitova

STATUS OF SEEDS:

1 A Radwanska……lost 1R (Pavlyuchenkova)

2 Kvitova

3 Jankovic………lost 1R (Keys)

4 Azarenka (WC)….lost 1R (Giorgi)

5 Kerber

6 Pennetta………lost 2R (Watson)

7 Errani………..lost 1R (Davis)

8 Wozniacki

‘s-Hertogenbosch — Week of June 14, 2014

………………..QF

1 Halep………….Beck

5 Petkovic……….Rybarikova

4 Suarez Navarro….Zheng

6 Flipkens……….Svitolina

7 Muguruza……….(7)Muguruza

3 Bouchard……….Vandeweghe(Q)

8 Koukalova………(8)Koukalova

2 Cibulkova………Shvedova

STATUS OF SEEDS:

1 Halep………..lost 2R (Beck)

2 Cibulkova…….lost 1R (Shvedova)

3 Bouchard……..lost 1R (King)

4 Suarez Navarro..lost 2R (Zheng)

5 Petkovic……..lost 2R (Rybarikova)

6 Flipkens……..lost 2R (Svitolina)

7 Muguruza

8 Koukalova

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

WEDNESDAY

Eastbourne

Singles – Second Round

(2) Petra Kvitova def. Varvara Lepchenko 6-1 6-4

(5) Angelique Kerber def. Alize Cornet 7-5 1-6 7-6(7-3)

(WC) Heather Watson def. (6) Flavia Pennetta 6-7(6-8) 6-4 6-2

(8) Caroline Wozniacki def. Sloane Stephens 6-3 6-3

Camila Giorgi def. (WC) Johanna Konta 1-6 7-5 7-5

(Q) Lauren Davis def. Daniela Hantuchova 6-3 6-3

Ekaterina Makarova def. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-3 6-3

Madison Keys def. Elena Vesnina 7-5 7-6(11-9)

Doubles – First Round

(1) Errani/Vinci def. (WC) Jankovic/Schiavone 7-6(8-6) 0-6 10-6

Chan/Chan def. Kops-Jones/Spears .6-1 7-6(7-5)

Doubles – Quarterfinal

(2) Peschke/Srebotnik def. Aoyama/Niculescu 6-2 6-3

Hingis/Pennetta def. Huber/Raymond 6-1 6-3

‘s-Hertogenbosch

Singles – Second Round

Annika Beck def. (1) Simona Halep 5-7 3-2, retired

Zheng Jie def. (4) Carla Suarez Navarro 7-5 0-1, retired

Elina Svitolina def. (6) Kirsten Flipkens 7-6(7-4) 6-4

(8) Klara Koukalova def. (Q) Mona Barthel 6-2 7-6(8-6)

(Q) Coco Vandeweghe def. Vania King 6-7(6-8) 6-0 2-1, retired

Yaroslava Shvedova def. (WC) Michaella Krajicek 7-6(8-6) 7-6(7-4)

Doubles – Quarterfinal

(1) Hlavackova/Zheng def. Daniilidou/Hrdinova 6-2 6-3

(2) Medina Garrigues/Shvedova def. Jurak/Moulton-Levy 6-3 6-4

Topics: Alize Cornet, Angelique Kerber, Caroline Wozniacki, Eastbourne, Flavia Pennetta, Heather Watson, Kirsten Flipkens, Michaella Krajicek, Petra Kvitova, S Hertogenbosch, Simona Halep, Sloane Stephens, Tennis, Tennis News, Wimbledon, Wta

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10sBalls_com says:

June 18, 2014 at 5:00 pm

LADIES TENNIS RESULTS FROM THE WIMBY GRASS WARM-UPS- http://t.co/M7MXmLWN3B @Wimbledon #tennis #Eastbourne #shertogenbosch #WTA #grasscourt

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