TENNIS NEWS AND RESULTS, A LOOK FORWARD TO EVERYTHING IN LADIES RANKINGS THIS WEEK IN ASIA

Results :

 

* Bencic beats Wozniacki, again, to move one win away from Top Ten

* Will face Radwanska, who is also one win from Top Ten

* Jankovic wins first true WTA title in two years; Hingis/Mirza win sixth title of 2015

* #1 Begu to face wildcard in Seoul final

 

Pan Pacific

 

Singles – Semifinal: (8) Belinda Bencic def. (1) Caroline Wozniacki 6-2 6-4

Caroline Wozniacki just can’t seem to solve Belinda Bencic. This is their fourth meeting this year. And Wozniacki has lost them all.

 

That isn’t all she lost. The result of her defeat is that she will also be losing the #6 ranking. She is down to #7, and Flavia Pennetta will hit a career high #6. (It’s too bad Pennetta didn’t decide to play Wuhan. She would have had a real shot at the #5 ranking.) Worse still, Wozniacki’s Race spot is well below her ranking. She still has a shot at Singapore, but she’ll need a lot more than she has. This is a very severe blow.

 

Belinda Bencic is still stuck at #14, only one spot above where she came in. But if she can win the title, she’s Top Ten.

 

Singles – Semifinal: (7) Agnieszka Radwanska def. Dominika Cibulkova 6-4 6-1

Agnieszka Radwanska went down an early break in this match, but from 4-2 down, she took complete charge. Oddly enough, she still hasn’t moved in the rankings; unless she wins the title, she’ll stay #13. But a title would take her all the way to #9. Dominika Cibulkova will have to settle for #40, but at least she seems, finally, to be just about fully back from her injury.

 

Doubles – Final: (3) Muguruza/Suarez Navarro def. (2) Chan/Chan 7-5 6-1

It’s really strange: Garbine Muguruza and Carla Suarez Navarro are really messed up in singles (especially Suarez Navarro), but they seem to be just fine in doubles. They pick up their second title of the year, and third in the last fourteen months — and, with it, they rise to #8 in the WTA Race, so they’re making things fairly interesting in the contest for Singapore.

 

The Chans are also firmly in the hunt. They came in at #10, barely behind the Spaniards, and they’re still at #10, just behind #9 Hlavackova/Hradecka (who were #8 until this week). The Chans will obviously need more. But they’re playing very well, and will be the #4 seeds at Wuhan (ahead of #7 Muguruza/Suarez Navarro and #6 Hlavackova/Hradecka!). They too have a real shot at Singapore, as long as Chan Yung-Jan sticks with doubles and doesn’t worry about trying to play singles qualifying.

 

Guangzhou

 

Singles – Final: (4) Jelena Jankovic def. Denisa Allertova 6-2 6-0

Titles don’t come easily for Jelena Jankovic these days; she hadn’t won a WTA title since Bogota 2013, and she hadn’t won a Premier title since Indian Wells 2010. (She did win a WTA $125K at the beginning of August.) But she has been here before. Denisa Allertova was in her first final. Obviously it showed. Still, she will be hitting a career high probably a little above #60.

 

Jankovic, amazingly, moves not at all; she came in at #25, and there she stays; there was a huge gap between #24 and #25. But she’s now in a position where she might be able to move up next week. And she picks up a title, and if you count that $125K in August, she has two titles in one year for the first time since 2009.

 

Doubles – Final: (1) Hingis/Mirza def. Xu/You 6-3 6-1

There really isn’t much to say about this except to express our surprise that it was as close as it was — based on the rankings gap, 6-1 6-1 would have been more like it. Hingis/Mirza extend their winning streak to nine matches (they had a first round bye here), and of course they increase their lead in the Race. With Mattek-Sands/Safarova not playing Wuhan, it appears Hingis/Mirza have now assured themselves the year-end team top spot, although the individual rankings are a little more complex. And they now have six titles (Indian Wells, Miami, Charleston, Wimbledon, US Open, and Guangzhou) in thirteen events.

 

Seoul

 

Singles – Semifinal: (1) Irina-Camelia Begu def. (8) Alison van Uytvanck 6-0 6-2

Was everyone nervous today? It sort of looks like it! Alison van Uytvanck will remain just below the Top Fifty. Irina-Camelia Begu is up to #26. That’s as high as she can go this week, but she is in her first final since Moscow last year, and will be going for her first title since Tashkent 2012.

 

Singles – Semifinal: (Q) Aliaksandra Sasnovich def. (2) Anna Karolina Schmiedlova 3-6 6-3 6-3

Hard to believe Aliaksandra Sasnovich will have much left for the final after this, but still — we’re talking about someone who had only three previous WTA wins (in six events). So she has more than doubled her wins total. She hasn’t doubled her points, but she has increased them by more than 50%, and will rise from #136 to probably just below the Top Hundred — easily a career high. She leaves Anna Karolina Schmiedlova at #29.

 

Doubles – Semifinal: (1) Arruabarrena/Klepac def. Aoyama/Ninomiya 6-4 6-1

 

WUHAN AND TASHKENT

 

Women’s Look Forward:

 

There is no question that the Big Event of the fall season is Beijing; it’s a Premier Mandatory, and presumably everyone who can be there will be there. But to call Wuhan second fiddle to Beijing would be to give a very wrong impression. It’s more like… first viola. (No viola joke intended!) Wuhan is slightly weaker, and has slightly fewer points, but really, these two are the two jewels in the crown. Their combined value is almost as much as a Slam, and between them, they will largely settle who goes to Singapore. We may not see any clinches this week. But we will see a lot of eliminations.

 

So with that big buildup, we would obviously expect a very strong tournament. And, indeed, we have seven of the Top Ten. What we don’t have is… Serena Williams. She’s presumably resting for Beijing. Also missing are Lucie Safarova, who is not healthy, and Flavia Pennetta, who of course is semi-retired. Of the rest of the Top Twenty, we’re missing Timea Bacsinszky and Ekaterina Makarova. Still, that’s fifteen of twenty.

 

Including Maria Sharapova, who is finally returning to action. She was given a wildcard, and is the #2 seed. Seeded #1 is Simona Halep, who had her troubles in Guangzhou but who has more reason to give it her all at this event. Petra Kvitova is the #3 seed and in Halep’s half; Caroline Wozniacki is #4 and in Sharapova’s. Garbine Muguruza is #5 despite her slump; she is in Wozniacki’s quarter. Angelique Kerber’s ranking just took a hit, but she is #6 and in Sharapova’s quarter. Carla Suarez Navarro, whose slump is even worse than her doubles partner Muguruza’s, is #7 and in Halep’s quarter. The #8 seed and last bye goes to Karolina Pliskova, who is in Kvitova’s quarter.

 

(Funny that just about everyone from #5 to #8 is struggling. You’d think they were all trying not to play Singapore.)

 

In the Round of Sixteen, Halep is drawn against #13 Andrea Petkovic, who lost much too easily in Guangzhou. The first seed Sharapova would face is #16 Sara Errani — a tough assignment for someone with so much rust! Kvitova has drawn #15 seed and US Open finalist Roberta Vinci, while Wozniacki will have to deal with #14 Madison Keys. Muguruza will take on #9 Ana Ivanovic, another player who under-performed in the Pan Pacific. Kerber will have to face #11 Belinda Bencic, who may be a little tired after the Pan Pacific but who is in very solid form. First up for Suarez Navarro is #10 Agnieszka Radwanska, another player who rediscovered her form at the Pan Pacific. And Pliskova will play her third round against Elina Svitolina, who has bounced around in the rankings this year but who has been showing herself a very tough customer.

 

With a cutoff for seeding just below the Top Twenty, it probably won’t surprise you to learn that many of the seeds are likely to be challenged. Halep will have to open against Svetlana Kuznetsova or Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Petkovic will likely play Victoria Azarenka in the second round — meaning that Halep could face Azarenka in the third… whew! And speaking of “whew!” — Radwanska has to open against Venus Williams, with Alize Cornet likely to follow. Kvitova will probably start against Daria Gavrilova. Svitolina will play a generational battle against Daniela Hantuchova in the first round, then perhaps Varvara Lepchenko. Pliskova will probably start against Samantha Stosur, the top unseeded player. Muguruza might open against Sloane Stephens. Ivanovic’s second round might be against Dominica Cibulkova, who beat her at the Pan Pacific. Keys will likely face Kristina Mladenovic in round two. Wozniacki could open against new Top Thirty player Anna Karolina Schmiedlova. Kerber will probably open against Jelena Jankovic. Bencic starts against Eugenie Bouchard, who will make her post-concussion return to action, then maybe Camila Giorgi. Errani will face Caroline Garcia, then perhaps CoCo Vandeweghe. And Sharapova is likely to face Barbora Strycova in her return to action.

 

This week’s event at Tashkent shows a phenomenon that we can’t recall seeing before: An event that used to stand alone getting rescheduled against a bigger event — and getting stronger as a result.

 

That’s not to say it’s a strong event. It’s not. The only Top Fifty player is #1 seed Annika Beck. The rest of the seeds are #2 Carina Witthoeft, #3 Polona Hercog, #4 Johanna Larsson, #5 Katerina Siniakova, #6 Margarita Gasparyan, #7 Jelena Ostapenko, and #8 Andreea Mitu, meaning that the cutoff for seeding is around #85. But that’s quite an improvement compared to some past years in which there were no Top Fifty players and only about four players in the Top Hundred. We even have some fairly big unseeded names — Jana Cepelova, Bojana Jovanovski, Klara Koukalova, Yaroslava Shvedova, Elena Vesnina, Donna Vekic, and Seoul finalist Aliaksandra Sasnovich among them. It’s clear that a lot of these players knew they should come to Asia, and wanted to play an actual WTA event rather than a Challenger or qualifying, so they gave Tashkent one of the best fields it has ever had.

 

The Rankings

 

If you’re tired of us saying this is a funny week, we can’t blame you; we’re tired of saying it! But this really is an odd rankings week, because we have a mandatory event coming off (Beijing). That means that everyone will take off whatever they earned at Beijing last year, and add in their seventeenth best event or Wuhan, whichever is greater.

 

Last year, Maria Sharapova won Beijing. (No wonder she really wanted to come back this week!) Petra Kvitova was the finalist, with Samantha Stosur and Ana Ivanovic semifinalists. The quarterfinalists were Serena Williams (who gave Stosur a walkover), Roberta Vinci, Svetlana Kuznetsova, and Simona Halep (who gave Ivanovic a walkover. That was a very short quarterfinal day…).

 

It’s funny how that all adds up to — very little at the top of the rankings. Serena is of course safe at #1. Halep is also quite secure at #2; her lead in that contest could almost double. The surprise is that Sharapova is safe. She could lose a lot of points — but Kvitova is losing a lot, too, so Sharapova is sure to stay #3, although perhaps not by much.

 

Kvitova isn’t absolutely safe at #4, but it’s the way to bet — the next two players down, Safarova and Pennetta, aren’t playing, and Wozniacki and Muguruza, who are, are more than 500 points back. Wozniacki needs a title to have any shot at Kvitova, and very possibly a title; Muguruza certainly needs a title.

 

It’s hard to be sure just who will be in and out of the Top Ten, because the Pan Pacific final could affect the list, but it appears safe to say that Serena, Halep, Sharapova, Kvitova, and Safarova are in. Pennetta and Wozniacki and Muguruza look like good bets but aren’t clinched. That leaves two spots. In safe points, they will belong to Karolina Pliskova and either Agnieszka Radwanska or Belinda Bencic, whichever wins the Pan Pacific final. But fromm Pennetta, #6 in safe points, to Kerber, #13, is less than 500 points. So it’s a real scramble for those last few Top Ten spots.

 

Ana Ivanovic is down to #14 in safe points. Roberta Vinci is out of the Top Twenty. Samantha Stosur is at #25. Svetlana Kuznetsova could easily fall below #35. And Alize Cornet, who made the third round last year and is slumping, could easily lose her Top Forty spot.

 

 

THIS WEEK IN TENNIS

 

THIS WEEK ON THE WTA:

Pan Pacific (Premier/Hard). Defending Champion: Ana Ivanovic

Seoul (International/Hard). Defending Champion: Karolina Pliskova

Guangzhou (International/Hard). Defending Champion: Monica Niculescu

 

NEXT WEEK ON THE WTA:

Wuhan (Premier Five/Hard). Defending Champion: Petra Kvitova

Tashkent (International/Hard). Defending Champion: Karin Knapp

 

STATS AND FACTS

 

Rankings

Estimated WTA Rankings As of September 26, 2015

 

Rank &

Prior

Rank …Name …………. Points

1..(1) SWilliams ……… 11500

2..(2) HALEP …………. 6780

3..(3) Sharapova ……… 5691

4..(4) Kvitova ……….. 4396

5..(5) Safarova ………..3525

6..(7) Pennetta ………..3317

7..(6) WOZNIACKI ……… 3220

8..(8) MUGURUZA ………..3116

9.(10) SUAREZ NAVARRO …..3070

10.(12) IVANOVIC ………..3070

11.(11) KAPLISKOVA ………3040

12.(13) ARADWANSKA ………3025*

13..(9) KERBER ………….2990

14.(15) BENCIC ………….2985*

15.(14) Bacsinszky ………2508

16.(17) PETKOVIC ………..2445

17.(18) Keys ……………2440

18.(19) Vinci …………. 2430

19.(20) Makarova ………..2370

20.(16) SVITOLINA ……… 2360

21.(22) STOSUR ………….2330

22.(21) ERRANI ………….2320

23.(23) Azarenka ………..2216

24.(24) VWilliams ……… 2192

25.(25) JANKOVIC ………..2125*

26.(29) BEGU ……………1766*

27.(28) MLADENOVIC ………1755

28.(27) Lisicki ……….. 1717

29.(31) SCHMIEDLOVA ……. 1651

30.(32) STEPHENS ………..1620

 

Draws

 

Pan Pacific — Week of September 28

 

……………….QF……………QF………..SF

1 Wozniacki……..(1)Wozniacki…..Wozniacki

5 Kerber………..(5)Kerber

3 Muguruza………(3)Muguruza

8 Bencic………..(8)Bencic……..Bencic…….Bencic

 

7 A Radwanska……(7)ARadwanska….Radwanska….Radwanska

4 Ka Pliskova……(4)Pliskova

6 Suarez Navarro…Cibulkova……..Cibulkova

2 Ivanovic………(2)Ivanovic

 

STATUS OF SEEDS:

1 Wozniacki………lost SF (Bencic)

2 Ivanovic……….lost QF (Cibulkova)

3 Muguruza……….lost QF (Bencic)

4 Ka Pliskova…….lost QF (Radwanska)

5 Kerber…………lost QF (Wozniacki)

6 Suarez Navarro….lost 2R (Cibulkova)

7 A Radwanska

8 Bencic

 

Seoul — Week of September 28

 

……………..QF…………….SF………….F

1 Begu………..(1)Begu………..Begu………..Begu

7 Goerges……..Larsson

4 Lepchenko……Kulichkova

8 van Uytvanck…(8)van Uytvanck…van Uytvanck

 

6 Dulgheru…….Sasnovich(Q)……Sasnovich……Sasnovich

3 Stephens…….(3)Stephens

5 Barthel……..(5)Barthel

2 Schmiedlova….(2)Schmiedlova….Schmiedlova

 

STATUS OF SEEDS:

1 Begu

2 Schmiedlova….lost SF (Sasnovich)

3 Stephens…….lost QF (Schmiedlova)

4 Lepchenko……lost 2R (Kulichkova)

5 Barthel……..lost QF (Schmiedlova

6 Dulgheru…….lost 1R (Sasnovich)

7 Goerges……..lost 2R (Larsson)

8 van Uytvanck…lost SF (Begu)

 

Guangzhou — Week of September 28

 

WINNER: Jelena Jankovic

…………….QF…………….SF………..F

1 Halep………(1)Halep

7 Kovninic……Allertova………Allertova….Allertova

3 Errani……..(3)Errani………Errani

8 S Zheng…….(8)Zheng

 

5 Kuznetsova….(5)Kuznetsova

4 Jankovic……(4)Jankovic…….Jankovic…..Jankovic

6 Niculescu…..(6)Niculescu

2 Petkovic……Wickmayer………Wickmayer

 

STATUS OF SEEDS:

1 Halep………lost QF (Allertova)

2 Petkovic……lost 1R (Puig)

3 Errani……..lost SF (Allertova)

4 Jankovic……WON TOURNAMENT

5 Kuznetsova….lost QF (Jankovic)

6 Niculescu…..lost QF (Wickmayer)

7 Kovninic……lost 1R (Jovanovski)

8 S Zheng…….lost QF (Errani)

 

Wuhan — Week of September 28

 

1 Halep

–bye

Pavlyuchenkova

Kuznetsova

Qualifier

Azarenka

Qualifier

13 Petkovic

 

10 A Radwanska

V Williams

Cornet

Qualifier

Niculescu

F Liu (WC)

–bye

7 Suarez Navarro

 

3 Kvitova

–bye

Gavrilova

Pereira

Diyas

Begu

Qualifier

15 Vinci

 

12 Svitolina

Hantuchova (WC)

Lepchenko

S Zheng (WC)

Stosur

Lucic-Baroni

–bye

8 Ka Pliskova

 

5 Muguruza

–bye

Riske

Stephens

Brengle

Cibulkova

Dulgheru

9 Ivanovic

 

14 Keys

Rybarikova

Qualifier

Mladenovic

Qualifier

Schmiedlova

–bye

4 Wozniacki

 

6 Kerber

–bye

Jankovic

Qualifier

Pironkova

Giorgi

Bouchard

11 Bencic

 

16 Errani

Garcia

Tsurenko

Vandeweghe

Strycova

Qualifier

–bye

2 Sharapova (WC)

 

Tashkent — Week of September 28

 

1 Beck

Kulichkova

Sharipova (WC)

Cepelova

Qualifier

Krunic

Jovanovski

7 Ostapenko

 

3 Hercog

Sasnovich

Kalinina (WC)

Hibino

Koukalova

Qualifier

Qualifier

5 Siniakova

 

8 Mitu

Shvedova

Rodina

U Radwanska

Qualifier

Abduraimova (WC)

Qualifier

4 Larsson

 

6 Gasparyan

Panova

Vesnina

Friedsam

Bertens

Vekic

Kr. Pliskova

2 Witthoeft

 

 

SCORES

 

SATURDAY

 

Pan Pacific

Singles – Semifinal

(8) Belinda Bencic def. (1) Caroline Wozniacki 6-2 6-4

(7) Agnieszka Radwanska def. Dominika Cibulkova 6-4 6-1

Doubles – Final

(3) Muguruza/Suarez Navarro def. (2) Chan/Chan 7-5 6-1

 

Seoul

Singles – Semifinal

(1) Irina-Camelia Begu def. (8) Alison Van Uytvanck 6-0 6-2

(Q) Aliaksandra Sasnovich def. (2) Anna Karolina Schmiedlova 3-6 6-3 6-3

Doubles – Semifinal

(1) Arruabarrena/Klepac def. Aoyama/Ninomiya 6-4 6-1

 

Guangzhou

Singles – Final

(4) Jelena Jankovic def. Denisa Allertova 6-2 6-0

Doubles – Final

(1) Hingis/Mirza def. Xu/You 6-3 6-1

 

Content Via Bob Larson Tennis News

Topics: Guangzhou, Pan Pacific Open, Seoul, Sports, Tennis News, Wta, Wuhan Open

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