MONTREAL WOMEN’S TENNIS PARTIAL UPDATE & OTHER ODD WTA FACT’S & SCORES

Written by: Staff on 6th August 2014

MONTREAL WOMEN'S TENNIS PARTIAL UPDATE & OTHER ODD WTA FACT'S & SCORES

epa04337326 Venus Williams of the USA celebrates after defeating Victoria Azarenka of Belarus during their tennis match at the Bank of the West Classic in the Taube Family Tennis Stadium at Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA, 31 July 2014. EPA/JOHN G. MABANGLO |

YESTERDAY WE DEALT WITH A POWER OUTAGE. TODAY ITS MORE RAIN DELAYS. ITS A LONG HOT SUMMER ON THE PRO TENNIS TOUR ALSO KNOWN AS THE US OPEN SERIES.

As we write, there is a rain delay in Montreal, and it isn’t the first of the day. It looks as if the showers won’t last long, but the schedule is pretty badly bollixed. We’re going to send this now and possibly send another edition later. As we write, Venus Williams is one game away from beating Yulia Putintseva; Petra Kvitova and Casey Dellacqua are only four games into their contest. Ana Ivanovic has yet to take the court.

* Watson edges Cibulkova in marathon match

* Rybarikova out of Top Fifty after loss to Safarova

* Peschke, Srebotnik in danger of falling out of Top Ten after doubles loss

Canadian Open

Singles – Second Round: (1) Serena Williams def. Samantha Stosur 6-0 6-2

Summer hardcourts really seem to be agreeing with Serena — this gives her five straight wins. It appears Samantha Stosur will remain just below the Top Twenty.

Singles – Second Round: (4) Maria Sharapova def. Garbine Muguruza 4-6 6-3 6-1

Given how many three-set matches Maria Sharapova played in the clay season, this may almost be a good sign for her hardcourt season — she’s getting her feet into the surface. She improves her chances of taking the #5 ranking away from Agnieszka Radwanska. That leaves Garbine Muguruza still below the Top 25 — for the moment.

Singles – Second Round: (6) Angelique Kerber def. Caroline Garcia 6-4 6-1

Angelique Kerber got off to a very slow start here, then came back with a vengeance. The loss means that Caroline Garcia won’t quite make the Top Forty.

Singles – Second Round: (7) Jelena Jankovic def. Sloane Stephens 6-7(7-9) 6-4 7-6(7-4)

This has to have a place in the tournament’s record book for long matches; it took three hours and fifteen minutes, and Jelena Jankovic won only two more points than Sloane Stephens. Hard to believe Jankovic is going to have much gas left after this, particularly since she’s playing singles and doubles (and is the defending doubles champion). She might still lose her position as the #1 Serb to Ana Ivanovic. She leaves Sloane Stephens no better than #20, which is where she came in.

Singles – Second Round: (Q) Heather Watson def. (10) Dominika Cibulkova 6-2 6-7(3-7) 7-6(7-5)

This took three hours (less ninety seconds), and Heather Watson really should have finished it earlier — she had a 5-2 lead in the third set, and sundry match points. But she eventually overcame herself, er, Dominika Cibulkova. For Watson, that clinches a Top Fifty spot — she’s #45 in safe points. But Cibulkova will fall from #12 to no better than #13.

Singles – Second Round: (11) Carolina Wozniacki def. Klara Koukalova 6-1 6-2

This will cost Klara Koukalova at least one ranking spot, dropping her to no better than #36, less because she lost points than because others added. Her chances of a U. S. Open seed now look pretty poor.

Singles – Second Round: (14) Carla Suarez Navarro def. (LL) Karolina Pliskova 6-1 3-6 6-3

As of when this ended, Karolina Pliskova still had a chance for a Top Forty spot, but this cost her the chance to clinch.

Singles – Second Round: (15) Lucie Safarova def. Magdalena Rybarikova 6-4 6-2

Magdalena Rybarikova was defending semifinalist points, so this will drop her from #44 to a bit below #55.

Singles – Second Round: Ekaterina Makarova def. (LL) Elena Vesnina 6-3 6-2

This is ironically fitting. Had Andrea Petkovic withdrawn in a timely way, Ekaterina Makarova would have gotten her seed. Instead, when Petkovic pulled out late, Elena Vesnina got it — and then Vesnina lost to her doubles partner Makarova to give Makarova her “proper” spot in the Round of Sixteen. It looks as if Vesnina will rise above #45 even with the loss.

Singles – Second Round: Sabine Lisicki def. Madison Keys 4-6 6-1 6-4

These two came in ranked #28 and #29, so little wonder it was close. For the moment, Sabine Lisicki is still #29 and Madison Keys #28, but that will reverse if Lisicki wins her next match.

Doubles – First Round: Krajicek/Zahlavova Strycova def. (7) Babos/Mladenovic 6-4 3-6 10-6

Kristina Mladenovic has been in good form in singles lately. Is it affecting her doubles?

Doubles – First Round: Muguruza/Suarez Navarro def. (WC) F Abanda/Dubois 6-3 6-4

Doubles – Second Round: Chan/Chan def. (3) Peschke/Srebotnik 2-6 6-2 10-7

A terrible loss for both Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik; Srebotnik was last year’s champion (with Jankovic) and Peschke the finalist (with Groenefeld). Srebotnik will probably fall to around #10; Peschke will be a little below that.

Doubles – Second Round: (4) Black/Mirza def. Pliskova/Pliskova 6-4 7-6(7-1)

Doubles – Second Round: (6) Kops-Jones/Spears def. Garcia/Rosolska 7-6(7-4) 7-5

Narrow Focus

When Venus Williams won Wimbledon in 2008, it was her seventh career Slam. And her fifth Wimbledon.

Justine Henin earned seven Slams, and four of them in Paris. Martina Hingis won five singles Slams, and three of them at the Australian Open. Three of the four that Kim Clijsters has won have been the U. S. Open. Petra Kvitova and Victoria Azarenka may well win many more Slams, but so far, they each have just two, and in both cases it’s the same Slam.

Compare that to Steffi Graf, who hardly had a Best Slam, or Monica Seles, who obviously didn’t like grass much but had titles relatively evenly distributed across the other three. Or compare Venus to sister Serena, who also has five Wimbledons — but that’s out of seventeen Slams!

Does this mean that players are getting more specialized?

We can’t give a definitive answer; there just isn’t enough data. But let’s examine as best we can.

We’re going to break Slam winners down into four categories:

One-Slam Wonders

Two or Three Slam Winners

Generalists (four or more Slams, with no Slam representing in excess of half her total)

Specialists (four or more Slams, with one particular Slam representing over half her total)

For example, Francesca Schiavone four years ago won Roland Garros; she is (so far) a One Slam Wonder. Justine Henin had four of her seven Slams at Roland Garros (57%), so she is a specialist. Venus has seven Slams, five of them (71%) at Wimbledon, so she is a Specialist too.

What we’re going to do is take the Slam winners for the last quarter century, divide them into pre- and post-1996 (choosing the end of 1996 as the divider, even though it isn’t the midpoint, because that was Steffi Graf’s last dominant year), classify them, and then take the simple expedient of breaking them up into earlier and later decades.

Obviously our classifications of any of the active players might change (it’s interesting to note that Serena could not have changed her classification at this past Wimbledon. But that’s unusual — usually we would have at least the possibility of some sort of change at a Slam). This is how things stood through Wimbledon. Our Slam winners in this period were:

Azarenka: 2 total Slams/2-3 Winner

Bartoli: 1 Slam Wonder

Capriati: 3 total Slams/2-3 Winner

Clijsters: 4 total slams/Specialist (at the U. S. Open)

Davenport: 3 total Slams/2-3 Winner

Graf: 22 total Slams/Generalist

Henin: 7 total Slams/Specialist (at Roland Garros)

Hingis: 5 total Slams/Specialist (at the Australian Open)

Ivanovic: One Slam Wonder

Kuznetsova: 2 total slams/2-3 Winner

Kvitova: 2 total slams/2-3 Winner

Li: 2 total slams/2-3 Winner

Majoli: One Slam Wonder

Mandlikova: 4 total Slams/Generalist

Martinez: One Slam Wonder

Mauresmo: 2 total slams/2-3 Winner

Myskina: One Slam Wonder

Navratilova: 18 total Slams/Generalist (though a special case because most of her wins predated the four-surface era. You could argue that she was a specialist in “not clay”)

Novotna: One Slam Wonder

Pierce: 2 total Slams/2-3 Winner

Sabatini: One Slam Wonder

Sanchez-Vicario: 4 total Slams/Specialist (at Roland Garros)

Schiavone: One Slam Wonder

Seles: 9 total Slams/Generalist

Sharapova: 5 total Slams/Generalist

Stosur: One Slam Wonder

S. Williams: 17 total Slams/Generalist

V. Williams: 7 total Slams/Specialist (at Wimbledon)

If we break this down by categories, we get:

One-Slam Wonders: Bartoli, Ivanovic, Majoli, Martinez, Myskina, Novotna, Sabatini, Schiavone, Stosur (total of 9)

2-3 Slam Winners: Azarenka, Capriati, Davenport, Kuznetsova, Kvitova, Li, Mauresmo, Pierce (total of 8)

Specialists: Clijsters, Henin, Hingis, Sanchez-Vicario, V. Williams (total of 5)

Generalists: Graf, Mandlikova, Navratilova, Seles, Sharapova, S. Williams (total of 6)

But now let’s break this out by epoch. Our first decade is from Wimbledon 1986 to Roland Garros 1996 (a date we picked partly due to convenience and partly because it’s about when the Steffi Graf/Monica Seles era ended). Slam winners in that decade were:

Graf: 19 Slams in this period (Generalist)

Mandlikova: 1 Slams in this period (Generalist)

Martinez: 1 Slam Wonder

Navratilova: 5 Slams in this period (Generalist)

Pierce: 1 Slam in this period (2-3 Slam Winner)

Sabatini: 1 Slam Wonder

Sanchez-Vicario 3 Slams in this period (Specialist)

Seles: 9 Slams in this period (Generalist)

That’s eight different Slam winners (yes, only eight, even though there were forty Slams played). Four of our six Generalists are represented, and they won 34 of the 40 Slams, with a single Specialist winning three of the remainder, a 2-3 Slam winner winning one, and One Slam Wonders winning two.

Now let’s look at the 17 most recent years. Slam winners in that period included:

Azarenka: 2 Slams in this period (2-3 Slam Winner)

Bartoli: One Slam Wonder

Capriati: 3 Slams in this period (2-3 Slam Winner)

Clijsters: 4 Slams in this period (Specialist: U. S. Open)

Davenport: 3 Slams in this period (2-3 Slam winner)

Graf: 3 Slams in this period (Generalist)

Henin: 7 Slams in this period (Specialist: Roland Garros)

Hingis: 5 Slams in this period (Specialist: Australian Open)

Ivanovic: One Slam Wonder

Kuznetsova: 2 Slams in this period (2-3 Slam Winner)

Kvitova: 2 total slams (2-3 Slam Winner)

Li: 2 total slams (2-3 Slam Winner)

Majoli: One Slam Wonder

Mauresmo: 2 Slams in this period (2-3 Slam Winner)

Myskina: One Slam Wonder

Novotna: One Slam Wonder

Pierce: One Slam in this period (2-3 Slam winner)

Sanchez-Vicario: One Slam in this period (Specialist: Roland Garros)

Schiavone One Slam Wonder

Sharapova: 5 Slams in this period (Generalist)

Stosur: One Slam Wonder

S. Williams: 17 Slams in this period (Generalist)

V. Williams: 7 Slams in this period (Specialist: Wimbledon)

In the more recent period, we have 23 different Slam winners — almost three times as many as in the decade before even though we have only half again as many years (it’s hardly a surprise, then, that Serena, with 17 Slams, leads the period; 17 Slams would have put her second in the 1986-1996 decade, trailing Graf, and her average number of Slams per year would have put her behind not only Graf but Seles). The only generalists still around were Graf, Sharapova, and Serena, who together won 25 Slams — that’s 37% of the total, whereas in 1986-1996 generalists won 85% of the Slams.

In this most recent period, we had five different Specialists, compared to only one in the earlier decade.

Two to Three Slam winners took home 17 of the titles in the latter period, compared to only one in 1986-1996, and One Slam Wonders have seven of the titles in the 1996-2014 era, compared to only two in the decade before.

We must repeat that this situation will change over time; Kvitova and Li, for instance, both promoted themselves from One Slam Wonder to 2-3 Slam winner this year. But the overall trend appears to clearly lean toward specialization. Certainly it leans against dominant players!

KEYWORDS: Slam Specialization

STATS AND FACTS

Rankings

Estimated WTA Rankings As of August 6, 2014

Rank &

Prior

Rank …Name …………. Points

1..(1) SWILLIAMS ……… 8810*

2..(3) Halep …………. 6785

3..(2) Li ……………..6565

4..(4) KVITOVA ……….. 5835*

5..(6) SHARAPOVA ……… 4891*

6..(5) ARADWANSKA ………4825*

7..(7) KERBER ………….4570*

8..(8) BOUCHARD ………..4450

9..(9) JANKOVIC ………..3900*

10.(11) AZARENKA ………..3613*

11.(10) IVANOVIC ………..3605*

12.(13) WOZNIACKI ……… 3050*

13.(12) CIBULKOVA ……… 3007*

14.(14) PENNETTA ………..2979

15.(15) ERRANI ………….2910

16.(17) SAFAROVA ………..2710*

17.(16) SUAREZ NAVARRO …..2695*

18.(18) Petkovic ………..2445

19.(19) MAKAROVA ………..2355*

20.(20) STEPHENS ………..1990*

21.(21) STOSUR ………….1990*

22.(22) CORNET ………….1945

23.(23) KUZNETSOVA ………1915

24.(24) PAVLYUCHENKOVA …..1880

25.(26) VWILLIAMS ……… 1835*

26.(25) VINCI …………. 1725

27.(27) MUGURUZA ………..1699*

28.(28) KEYS ……………1580*

29.(29) LISICKI ……….. 1491*

30.(31) DELLACQUA ……… 1445*

Draws

Canadian Open/Montreal — Week of August 4, 2014

………………..3R

1 S Williams……..(1)S.Williams

15 Safarova………(15)Safarova

11 Wozniacki……..(11)Wozniacki

5 Bouchard……….Rogers(Q)

4 Sharapova………(4)Sharapova

14 Suarez Navarro…(14)Suarez Navarro

12 Pennetta………

6 Kerber…………(6)Kerber

8 Azarenka……….(8)Azarenka

10 Cibulkova……..Watson(Q)

13 Errani………..Lisicki

3 A Radwanska…….(3)A.Radwanska

7 Jankovic……….(7)Jankovic

9 Ivanovic……….

[Vesnina(LL)]…….Makarova

2 Kvitova………..

STATUS OF SEEDS:

1 S Williams

2 Kvitova

3 A Radwanska

4 Sharapova

5 Bouchard………lost 2R (Rogers)

6 Kerber

7 Jankovic

8 Azarenka

9 Ivanovic

10 Cibulkova…….lost 2R (Watson)

11 Wozniacki

12 Pennetta……..lost 1R (Putintseva)

13 Errani……….lost 1R (Lisicki)

14 Suarez Navarro

15 Safarova

16 Petkovic………WITHDREW (replaced by Vesnina)

SCORES

WEDNESDAY

Canadian Open

Singles – Second Round

(1) Serena Williams def. Samantha Stosur 6-0 6-2

(4) Maria Sharapova def. Garbine Muguruza 4-6 6-3 6-1

(6) Angelique Kerber def. Caroline Garcia 6-4 6-1

(7) Jelena Jankovic def. Sloane Stephens 6-7(7-9) 6-4 7-6(7-4)

(Q) Heather Watson def. (10) Dominika Cibulkova 6-2 6-7(3-7) 7-6(7-5)

(11) Carolina Wozniacki def. Klara Koukalova 6-1 6-2

(14) Carla Suarez Navarro def. (LL) Karolina Pliskova 6-1 3-6 6-3

(15) Lucie Safarova def. Magdalena Rybarikova 6-4 6-2

Ekaterina Makarova def. (LL) Elena Vesnina 6-3 6-2

Sabine Lisicki def. Madison Keys 4-6 6-1 6-4

Doubles – First Round

Krajicek/Zahlavova Strycova def. (7) Babos/Mladenovic 6-4 3-6 10-6

Muguruza/Suarez Navarro def. (WC) F Abanda/Dubois 6-3 6-4

Doubles – Second Round

Chan/Chan def. (3) Peschke/Srebotnik 2-6 6-2 10-7

(4) Black/Mirza def. Pliskova/Pliskova 6-4 7-6(7-1)

(6) Kops-Jones/Spears def. Garcia/Rosolska 7-6(7-4) 7-5

Topics: Angelique Kerber, Dominika Cibulkova, Maria Sharapova, Montreal, Petra Kvitova, Rogers Cup, Samantha Stosur, Serena Williams, Sloane Stephens, Tennis, Tennis News, Venus Williams, Wta

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10sBalls_com says:

August 6, 2014 at 7:17 pm

MONTREAL WOMEN’S TENNIS PARTIAL UPDATE & OTHER ODD WTA FACT’S & SCORES- http://t.co/gR32Mv5PUA #WtaMontreal #tennis @Venuseswilliams #Venus