10SBALLS LATEST TENNIS NEWS AND GOSSIP FROM THE LADIES TENNIS FINALS – SINGAPORE NOODLING WITH GLOBAL CHICK FROM SINGAPORE

Written by: Global Chick on 24th October 2015

10SBALLS LATEST TENNIS NEWS AND GOSSIP FROM THE LADIES TENNIS FINALS – SINGAPORE NOODLING WITH GLOBAL CHICK FROM SINGAPORE |

After the glitz and glamour of the draw ceremony, and some much needed rainfall to disperse the legendary (and not in a good way) haze, it was down to business at the Media All-Access sessions.

In fact, it was probably a relief after all the comings and goings and permutations of who might make up the field – but enough of that – we have our field, we have a draw and it will be all systems go from Sunday!

With Serena Williams’ withdrawal, last year’s runner up Simona Halep takes the top honours, in a field that includes two former winners (Petra Kvitova and Maria Sharapova) three newbies (Garbiñe Muguruza, Flavia Pennetta and Lucie Safarova), and an all-European field.

Here’s our run-down on the eight ladies duking it out from Sunday.

First up is Halep – top seed, and someone we’ve seen her grow in confidence throughout the year. Compared to last year when she was quite shy with media, she certainly knows what to say. After her 2013 breakthrough with six titles, and then reaching her first Slam final last year (French Open, where she lost to Sharapova), there has been a lot of expectation on her shoulders. She had a solid start to the year, but has been the first to admit that she has struggled with the expectations.

Back home in Romania, she’s quite a big cheese, as she explained: “In our country everyone is telling me that I have to win all the matches. Everyone is speaking about this. But I’m not a robot. I’m a normal girl and normal player. I have ups and downs. I can win a big match. I can lose a smaller match.

“So I try and be focused on what I have to do, not thinking about results, because it’s not good. Actually, I like the pressure, but the positive pressure, not the negative one when I’m thinking I have to win the match. I just want to always play with full power, full of positive thoughts. I don’t like to think about what people are saying about my results or my tennis. I have my team. I have my coach. We are speaking about what I have to do on court, what I have to improve, and I’m just doing what I can everyday.”

Muguruza continues to be quite the charmer. She was adorably down to earth at Wimbledon and won everyone over – and she follows up her debut last year in the doubles with fellow Spaniard Carla Suárez Navarro. With that charm comes a bit of steel – as she collected her biggest title to date in the smog of Beijing, and has been in Singapore ever since.

She said: “I kind of deserve to be playing here. I don’t see me as a favorite. I think I played very good this month, and hopefully I can continue doing it. But I don’t know. Let’s see how it goes.”

Mind you – when quizzed about her group, she said: “I see all lefties (laughter). It’s actually weird, we are eight, and in my group it’s like all lefties. I was like, Wow.”

Escaping the cult of the lefties is the first of our former champions Sharapova. Oh Maria – it has been an up and down year! Injuries have cropped up here and there, and for someone that is usually very meticulous in terms of her scheduling her injuries have at times played havoc with her goals.

There was a chance lost to play the Fed Cup semi-final in her home town of Sochi, leaving her in a desperate battle to get fit enough to attempt a fourth time defence of her Stuttgart title – and let’s not forget the chance to add a nifty new Porsche to her garage. She struggled against the eventual champion Angelique Kerber, and despite a run to the semi-finals of Wimbledon, she was forced to ditch her US hard court summer, including the US Open. Her return to Wuhan was marred with an arm inflammation, so does she think she can catch a break here in Singapore, especially in Williams’ absence?

She reckons: “Considering I haven’t played much, it doesn’t change much for me. I think, as I said before, it’s not so much who I’m playing against or what my record is than it is about me being out there and staying healthy and working my way through the matches.”

“Backstage pic!! @MirzaSania Are you comfy?? @luciesafarova @WTA #Singapore #Championships”- Photo by @BMATTEK via Twitter.

Now… about those lefties. Another one firmly in the ‘if you told me I would be here at the start of the year I’d have had you committed’ camp was Kvitova – another bright spark who clinched the title on her first time out in 2011.

Kvitova’s year is another of those roller-coasters that make us long for solid ground! She took the bold step of pulling out of the spring hard court season because of exhaustion but it was more than that. She revealed that she had actually been diagnosed with mononucleosis, but things have been looking up and she’s been able to put in the practice but hopes that Santa brings her less drama next year.

She said: “To qualify again after what was a tough year for me, I’m really satisfied that I made it again. In the beginning of the year if somebody told me that I’m going to qualify, I’m not really going to believe them. I hope that next year will be a bit boring.”

The roller-coasters don’t stop there as our journey through this year’s runners and riders is now beginning to look like a map of a Disney theme-park. In with a final push at the end of the year, after some turbulence of her own is Radwanska, who really only started to click around the grass court season.

Award for the best live-score watcher of the year went to Kerber who was in, then out, then in again – ok maybe not so much a roller-coaster as a German version of the ‘Hokey-Cokey’.

She admitted: “You know, of course it’s better if you have it in your hands. But at the end, I was waiting and watching a little bit on the live score how the other is playing.

“At the end I did everything I could this year to be here. Of course, I’m proud that I qualified at the end. It was I think the most toughest and closest to qualify at the end.”

And thus we have the US Open champion in our midst, and having established that she really is going to retire, and admitted that her phone had been ringing off the hook so much since winning, she didn’t recognise Serena Williams’ number when she called to congratulate her.

She said: No, I didn’t have her number. She just asked my number to Caroline. But because my phone was ringing so much, I didn’t answer to the number that I don’t recognise. So she sent me a tweet. Flavia, it’s me, it’s my number, call me. I call her. So now I have her number (laughter). “

Our last roller-coaster entry of the day is Lucie Safarova – she has been steadily improving, making her first Grand Slam final at the French Open, before being struck with a bacterial infection that kiboshed her Asian swing and left her a little match short ahead of the challenge of competing in both the singles and the doubles.

“Let the games begin…. Well tomorrow!” – Photo by Rob Steckley via Facebook.

The race is done, the calculators and permutations are done with. Goodness we even had some rain to try and disperse the haze that has plagued the city for the last three months.

Everything kicks off for the WTA Finals on Sunday with top seed and last year’s finalist Halep starting things off in the day session against Pennetta, and Sharapova taking the opening night session honours against Radwanska.

Monday sees Muguruza start her battle with the lefties against Safarova, with Kvitova and Kerber in the second night match.

Topics: 10sballs_com, Agnieszka Radwanska, Angelique Kerber, Flavia Pennetta, Garbine Muguruza, global chick, Lucie Safarova, Maria Sharapova, Petra Kvitova, Simona Halep, Singapore, Tennis News, WTA Finals

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October 24, 2015 at 8:58 am

@10sBalls_com LATEST NEWS AND GOSSIP FROM THE LADIES #TENNIS FINALS – #SINGAPORE NOODLING WITH GLOBAL CHICK…- https://t.co/uefX9KUwOE

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