From Seoul, South Korea, March 2018

The 2017 year-end Top 8, in Singapore: (from left) Garcia, V. Williams, Svitolina, Pliskova, 

Ostapenko, Muguruza, Wozniacki, and Halep (front)

The tournament at Indian Wells enters its second week and some of the well-known names of women's tennis are already out of the game,after they were defeated by lower classed players. Let's take a look at them!

First Round: Naomi Osaka - Maria Sharapova 6-4 6-4

Sharapova does not seem to improve her game and reach a better shape  after returning from the 15 month meldonium suspension. She was eliminated by Japanese Naomi Osaka, no.44 in the rankings. Sharapova is currently no.41.

<Naomi Osaka, Japan, No 44>

<Maria Sharapova, Russia, No 41>

Second Round: Garbine Muguruza - Sachia Vickery 6-2 5-7 1-6

World No 3 and the last year Wimbledon Champion, Garbine Muguruza started the match strong, and was leading the second set with 3-0. Vickery's sudden improvement of the game let Muguruza with no answer, and here she is leaving the competition too early. This may cost her a lot of points in the general rankings. 

<Sachia Vickery, USA, No 100>

<Garbine Muguruza, Spain, No 3>

Third Round: Petra Martic - Jelena Ostapenko 6-3 6-3 

Last year's French Open champion and the winner of Seoul Open is not able to  confirm what she showed last year, losing matches in the early stages of this season's competitions. Fans are still waiting her to return to the shape that brought  her the Roland Garros trophy.

<Jelena Ostapenko, Latvia, No 6>

<Petra Martic, Croatia, No 58>

Third Round: Petra Kvitova - Amanda Anisimova 2-6 4-6

Former Wimbledon champion (2011, 2014), Petra Kvitova started this year winning two important trophies, St Petersburg and Doha Open, thus reaching the 9th position in the WTA rankings. She looked like the most successfull player of 2018 so far, but world No 149 Anisimova was better.

<Amanda Anisimova, USA, No 149>

<Petra Kvitova, Czech Republic, No 9>

Third Round: Venus Williams - Serena Williams 6-3 6-4

It was Serena's first WTA tournament after more than one year of a break. Everybody was expecting her comeback, but she had to play with Venus, who knows her game better than anyone. It was not Serena's day.

<Serena defeated by world no 8, Venus>

Third Round: Carla Suarez Navarro - Elina Svitolina 7-5 6-3

World No 4 Elina Svitolina was coming after winning the Dubai Open, but this time Suarez Navarro played better and stopped Svitolina from earning points in her race to WTA Top 3.

<Carla Suarez Navarro, Spain, No 32>

<Elina Svitolina, Ukraine, No 4>

Top 10 Rankings

Simona Halep and Caroline Wozniacki are in contention for the WTA No. 1 singles ranking at the completion of the third round. In order for Wozniacki to regain the top ranking, she must win the title by defeating  a player other than Halep in the final.

The world rankings before we know the winner at Indian Wells: 

From Seoul, South Korea, March 2018

Indian Wells Masters (BNP Paribas Open), California

The tournament at Indian Wells is the first Premier Mandatory tournament of the WTA year.The other 4 Premier Mandatory tournaments are Miami Open, Madrid Open and Beijing Open. The facilities in this at Indian Wells are considered to be at least as good as those from the four Grand Slam tournaments, if not better. For long time, the BNP Paribas tour insisted for this tournament to be transformed in a fifth Grand Slam.

The huge central court can host 16,100 spectators, and the second biggest court has 8,000 seats. 29 courts are to be used, and the entire complex has almost 220,000 m².

128 players will enter competition, with 32 favorites entering from the second round.

The 32 favorites are as follows:

(in paranthesis - when a certain player left the competion;

no paranthesis - player still in competition at the date this article was published)

Point system:

Winner - 1000

Runner up - 650

Semifinalists - 390

Quarterfinalists - 215

Round of 16 - 120

Round of 32 - 65

Round of 64 - 35

Round of 128 - 10

History:  Williams Sisters' Controversy

<Serena Williams after winning at Indian Wells in 2001>

Venus and Serena Williams, two very successful American players, refused to play the Indian Wells tournament from 2001 to 2014 despite threats of financial sanctions and rating point penalties. 

The two were scheduled to play in the 2001 semi-final but Venus withdrew  due to an injury. Amid speculation of match fixing, the crowd for the final loudly booed Serena Williams when she came out to play the final and continued to booher intermittently through the entire match, even to the point of cheering unforced errors 

and double faults.

Williams won the tournament and was subsequently booed during the awards ceremony. The following month at the Ericsson Open, Richard Williams, Serena and Venus's father, claimed racial slurswere directed at him while in the stands. Neither Venus nor Serena played the tournament until 2015, when Serena Williams played in the tournament, ending her 14-year boycott of the event. Venus Williams ended her boycott by competing in 2016.

(wikipedia.org)

GALLERY OF THE CHAMPIONS:

2017 winner: Elena Vesnina, Russia

2016 winner: Victoria Azarenka, Belarus

2015 winner: Simona Halep, Romania

2014 winner: Flavia Penetta, Italy

2013 winner: Maria Sharapova, Russia 

wtatennis.com

wikipedia.org