WOMEN’S TENNIS UPDATE FROM AROUND THE GLOBE

Written by: Staff on 30th September 2014

WOMEN'S TENNIS UPDATE FROM AROUND THE GLOBE

epa04371606 Venus Williams of the US hits a return to Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland during the 2014 US Open Tennis Championship at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, USA, 27 August 2014. The US Open runs through 08 September, a 15-day schedule. EPA/PETER FOLEY |

WOMEN’S TENNIS UPDATE FROM AROUND THE GLOBE

TIDBITS

* Bouchard, Radwanska lose in Beijing but should still qualify for Singapore

* Pennetta out to Suarez Navarro, loses even theoretical chance for Championships (in singles; still alive in doubles chase)

* Kerber, only real Singapore contender left, crushes Diyas to keep hopes alive — but Ivanovic raises the bar by topping Oprandi

* Sharapova crushes Svitolina, who again falls short of Top Thirty

* Pironkova’s anti-Venus magic doesn’t work on Serena; Pironkova remains below Top Forty as Serena cruises into third round; Venus also wins

* Keys remains below Top Thirty after loss to Petkovic

* Seeds Halep, Safarova, Makarova also advance; Makarova only player other than Kerber with even a theoretical chance at catching Ivanovic and Wozniacki for last Championships spot

* Peschke/Srebotnik upset again, this time by Gajdosova/Tomljanovic, but early-season results mean they will qualify for Singapore

TODAY’S WOMEN’S NEWS

Beijing

Seeds had it sweet with run of victories for favored players with No. 1 Serena Williams leading off with a defeat of Tsvetana Pironkova 6-2, 6-3, It was a similar outcome for second seed Simona Halep, whose game has gone off the boil since her surprise French Open final. The Romanian won her second-round contest over Zhu Lin of China 7-5 6-4.

Fourth seed Maria Sharapova dispatched Elina Svitolina 6-2, 6-2. “Happy with the way I’ve started the tournament. Hopefully I’ll continue that in the next match,” said the Russian winner.

Russia’s Maria Sharapova in action against Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina during the Tennis China Open in Beijing, China, 30 September 2014. EPA/DIEGO AZUBEL

Russia’s Maria Sharapova in action against Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina during the China Open Tennis tournament in Beijing, China, 30 September 2014. EPA/DIEGO AZUBEL

German seventh seed Angelique Kerber defeated Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-1. Serb ninth seed Ana Ivanovic put out Swiss Romina Oprandi 6-4, 6-2. Other seeded winners included No. 13 Lucie Safarova, 15th seed Andrea Petkovic and No. 16 Venus Williams, who took 6-4, 6-3 revenge after last week’s loss to France’s Caroline Garcia.

Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro stopped 14th seed Flavia Pennetta 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 while No. 8 Eugenie Bouchard’s hopes of reaching the year-end finals are on shaky ground after losing 6-2, 6-4 to fellow former Wimbledon finalist Sabine Lisicki.

Singapore finals candidate Agnieszka Radwanska is in a similar fraught position after losing to Roberta Vinci, 6-4, 6-4. Under the points calculations, if Kerber fails to reach the final, Bouchard goes to Singapore; Radwanska also has a similar kind of scenario which she also hopes falls into place by the end of the week in China.

THE RACE FOR FINAL 8 HEATS UP

Women’s Race Update

Let’s be honest: We waited too long.

We should have been giving regular updates on the WTA Race last week. But it wasn’t until Li Na retired that the Race suddenly shook itself out. Had Li been active, we would have had a hot contest for the #8 spot. But Li’s retirement opened another spot, and that eliminated much of the drama.

Recall that we have only three weeks left. This week features a thousand point event (Beijing). Next week, we have three events worth 280 points. Last is Moscow, worth 470 points. (There is also another 280 point event, but it’s hardly likely to be relevant.) That means, theoretically, that players could earn another 1750 points (although most would in fact earn less because of Best 16 rules.) Entering the week, Ana Ivanovic was at #8 with 4060 points. Which meant that anyone with more than 2310 points was still in the hunt, at least theoretically. That was seventeen players: Serena Williams, Sharapova, Halep, Kvitova, Bouchard, Agnieszka Radwanska, Wozniacki, Ivanovic, Kerber, Cibulkova, Makarova, Errani, Jankovic, Pennetta, Petkovic, Suarez Navarro, and Safarova.

Four of those players — Serena, Sharapova, Halep, and Kvitova — had already been formally qualified by the WTA. In practice, Bouchard and Radwanska are in, too (interesting that both lost Tuesday at Beijing, rather tamely). That leaves Wozniacki, with 4090 points coming in, and Ivanovic, with 4060, as the laggards. Ivanovic has already added over a hundred points; Wozniacki has yet to play.

But the next player down, Angelique Kerber, came in at 3460. That’s a long, long way back. #10 Dominika Cibulkova was unable to play Beijing. She’s out. Sara Errani and Jelena Jankovic and Flavia Pennetta have lost at Beijing. They’re out. Petkovic, Suarez Navarro, and Safarova are too far back for it to be possible in practice. So it’s Kerber and Makarova chasing Wozniacki and Ivanovic. With Kerber 600 points back and Makarova 550 behind that.

To put it bluntly, between Wozniacki and Ivanovic, whoever lasts longer is in, ties to Wozniacki. Kerber needs at least a semifinal in Beijing to have a shot, and she’ll have to add something at Linz or Moscow. Makarova can forget it.

The doubles is more interesting. Six teams are qualified in practice: Errani/Vinci, Hsieh/Peng, Makarova/Vesnina (making Makarova the last player to have even a slight chance to qualify in both singles and doubles), Black/Mirza, Kops-Jones/Spears (more on quantity than quality), and Peschke/Srebotnik. Rounding out the Top Eight were Muguruza/Suarez Navarro and Kudryavtseva/Rodionova. Hingis/Pennetta were #9, Medina Garrigues/Shvedova #10, Babos/Mladenovic #11, Barty/Dellacqua #12. Barty/Dellacqua are out of it because Barty is taking a break from her career. Babos/Mladenovic didn’t play Beijing (Mladenovic is playing with Pavlyuchenkova) and are out. Medina Garrigues/Shvedova lost their opener to Hlavackova/Peng. So it’s Hingis/Pennetta chasing Muguruza/Suarez Navarro and Kudryavtseva/Rodionova. Two of those three teams will qualify.

STATS AND FACTS

Rankings

Estimated WTA Rankings As of September 30, 2014

Rank &

Prior

Rank Name Points

1 (1) SWILLIAMS 8550*

2 (2) HALEP 6151*

3 (4) SHARAPOVA 5800*

4 (3) KVITOVA 5486*

5 (5) Li 5020

6 (7) BOUCHARD 4693

7 (6) ARADWANSKA 4650

8 (9) IVANOVIC 4220*

9 (8) WOZNIACKI 4215*

10 (10) KERBER 3920*

11 (12) ERRANI 3085

12 (13) Cibulkova 2977

13 (14) MAKAROVA 2970*

14 (11) JANKOVIC 2945

15 (16) PENNETTA 2642

16 (17) PETKOVIC 2495*

17 (15) SAFAROVA 2460*

18 (18) SUAREZ NAVARRO 2400*

19 (19) VWILLIAMS 2270*

20 (20) CORNET 2200*

21 (21) STOSUR 2105*

22 (22) MUGURUZA 1983

23 (24) PENG 1925*

24 (23) Azarenka 1862

25 (25) LISICKI 1835*

26 (27) KUZNETSOVA 1735*

27 (26) DELLACQUA 1705

28 (28) ZAHLAVOVA STRYCOVA 1656

29 (29) PLISKOVA 1650

30 (30) PAVLYUCHENKOVA 1640

Draws

Beijing — Week of September 29, 2014

………………3R

1 S Williams……(1)S.Williams

13 Safarova…….(13)Safarova

10 Jankovic

6 Wozniacki

3 Kvitova

16 V Williams…..(16)V.Williams

12 Makarova…….(12)Makarova

5 A Radwanska…..Vinci

7 Kerber……….(7)Kerber

11 Errani………Kuznetsova

14 Pennetta…….Suarez Navarro

4 Sharapova…….(4)Sharapova

8 Bouchard……..Lisicki

9 Ivanovic……..(9)Ivanovic

15 Petkovic…….(15)Petkovic

2 Halep………..(2)Halep

STATUS OF SEEDS:

1 S Williams

2 Halep

3 Kvitova

4 Sharapova

5 A Radwanska……lost 2R (Vinci)

6 Wozniacki

7 Kerber

8 Bouchard………lost 2R (Lisicki)

9 Ivanovic

10 Jankovic……..lost 1R (Cornet)

11 Errani……….lost 1R (Nara)

12 Makarova

13 Safarova

14 Pennetta……..lost 2R (Suarez Navarro)

15 Petkovic

16 V Williams

SCORES

Beijing

Singles – First Round

[1] S Williams (USA) d [Q] S Soler-Espinosa (ESP) 75 62

[9] A Ivanovic (SRB) d [Q] B Bencic (SUI) 62 61

A Cornet (FRA) d [10] J Jankovic (SRB) 75 36 64

[13] L Safarova (CZE) d C Giorgi (ITA) 76(3) 64

[14] F Pennetta (ITA) d C McHale (USA) 76(3) 64

[Q] T Pironkova (BUL) d [WC] M Kirilenko (RUS) 64 61

[Q] M Barthel (GER) d [Q] B Mattek-Sands (USA) 46 61 64

L Davis (USA) d [Q] Y Xu (CHN) 63 63

S Peng (CHN) d [WC] K Zhang (CHN) 64 61

C Garcia (FRA) d S Zhang (CHN) 61 64

Doubles – Second Round

[2] C Black (ZIM) / S Mirza (IND) d C Dellacqua (AUS) / L Raymond (USA) w/o (Dellacqua: lower leg injury)

Doubles – First Round

[7] G Muguruza (ESP) / C Suárez Navarro (ESP) d C McHale (USA) / C Scheepers (RSA) 62 62

[Alt] M Barthel (GER) / M Minella (LUX) d [WC] B Mattek-Sands (USA) / S Zheng (CHN) 76(7) 63

[WC] S Halep (ROU) / I Olaru (ROU) d O Kalashnikova (GEO) / K Koukalova (CZE) 64 76(4)

Topics: Beijing, China Open, Tennis Results, Women's tennis, Wta

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September 30, 2014 at 11:05 am

WOMEN’S TENNIS UPDATE FROM AROUND THE GLOBE- http://t.co/EoNQHYDT2t @WTA #tennis #WTA #ladiestennis #Beijing #ChinaOpen2014