From Seoul, South Korea, April 2018

1. Volvo Car Open, Charleston, USA

FINALISTS:

Kiki Bertens from the Netherlands and Julia Georges from Germany

Score: 6-2 6-1

WINNER:

Kiki Bertens, Netherlands 

2017 winner:

Daria Kasatkina, Russia

2. Monterrey Open, Mexico

FINALISTS: 

Garbine Muguruza (right) from Spain and Timea Babos from Hungary

Score: 3-6 6-4 6-3

WINNER:

Garbine Muguruza, Spain

2017 winner:

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Russia

wtatennis.com

From Seoul, South Korea, March 2018

Miami Open, Key Biscayne, Florida

 The WTA tour at Miami is the second Premier Mandatory event of the competitional year. 128 players will enter competition, and 32 of them will enter directly into the second round. 

The 32 seeds who enter from the second round are:

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

GALLERY OF THE CHAMPIONS:

2017 winner: Johanna Konta, UK

2016 winner: Victoria Azarenka, Belarus

2015 winner: Serena Williams, USA

wtatennis.com

wikipedia.org

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

From Seoul, South Korea, March 2018

1. Acapulco Open, Mexico

FINALISTS:

Stefanie Voegele amazingly defeated the en-titre US Open champion Sloane Stehens in three sets in the quarterfinals, and gave 2017 Mexican Open winner a hard time in this year's final. Voegele won the first set, 7-5, lost the second set in tiebreak, 6(2)-7(7),  and lost the third set to Tsurenko, 2-6.

WINNER:

Lesia Tsurenko, Ukraine

2017 winner:

Lesia Tsurenko, Ukraine

2. Indian Wells Oracle Challenger Series, California

 The Oracle Challenger Series was created to offer American tennis players more opportunities and builds on Oracle’s commitment to help support U.S. tennis for men and women at both the collegiate and professional level. 

 The Series will feature equal prize money in a groundbreaking tournament format that combines the ATP Challenger Tour and WTA 125K Series. Beyond expanding the number of chances to compete, the Series offers an unmatched potential prize of wild cards for top American finishers into the main draw of the BNP Paribas Open, which is widely considered the top combined ATP World Tour and WTA professional tennis tournament in the world.

WINNER:

Sara Errani, Italy

wtatennis.com

http://oraclechallengerseries.com/

From Cluj-Napoca, Romania, February 2018

1. Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, UAE

RESULTS:

FINALISTS:

WINNER:

Elina Svitolina reigned supreme at the 2018 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, defending her title from last year.

The 23-year-old defeated Russian Daria Kasatkina with a 6-4 6-0 win.  In the semifinals, Kasatkina passed over Garbine Muguruza in a three-set match, while 

Svitolina beat German Angelique Kerber in two sets. As Caroline Wozniacki did not participate in the Dubai competition, she lost her number one position to Simona Halep, who also did not paricipate due to a leg injury.

2017 winner:

Elina Svitolina, Ukraine

2. Hungarian Ladies Open, Budapest

FINALISTS:

WINNER:

Belgium’s Alison van Uytvanck won the second title of her career when she defeated Dominika Cibulkova for the Hungarian Open title in Budapest.

The unseeded Belgian fought through a hard-fought battle to claim her 6-3 3-6 7-5 victory over the top seeded Slovak.

"I had two tough service games in the third, and I was able to manage to get through that,  and it was getting better and better. I was getting a little bit more confident, and I just kept fighting. I’m so happy with the win."

2017 champion:

Timea Babos (left), Hungary

wtatennis.com

From Cluj-Napoca, Romania, February 2018

Qatar Total Open, Doha

<Winner: Petra Kvitova, Czech Republic>

The 2018 Qatar Total Open is a professional women's tennis tournament played on hard courts.  It turned into a WTA Premier 5 tournament starting with the 2018 WTA Tour. 

Points (singles):

Winner - 900

Runner-up - 585

Semifinal - 350

Quarter final - 190

Round of 16 - 105

Round of 32 - 60

Round of 56 - 1

Seeds:

Seed No 1 Caroline Wozniacky was defeated by Petra Kvitova in the semifinals. Seed No 2 Simona Halep was scheduled to play Garbine Muguruza in the semis, but she withdrew before the match due to an older unhealed ankle injury. 

2017 champion:

Karolina Pliskova, Czech Republic

wtatennis.com

wikipedia.com

From Cluj-Napoca, Romania, February 2018

1.Taiwan Open, Taipei City

<The winner, Hungarian player Timea Babos>

FINALISTS

RESULTS

FINALISTS

RESULTS from quarters to final

wtatennis.com

From Georgensgmund, Bayern, Germany, January 2018

1.Australian Open, Melbourne

Australian Open point system:

Win: 2000

Runner-up: 1300

Semifinals: 780

Quarter-finals: 430

4th round: 240

3rd round: 130

2nd round: 70

1st round: 10

Results from Quarter Finals to the Final:

Results from Quarter Finals to the Final:

From Georgensgmund, Bayern, Germany, January 2018

Danish Caroline Wozniacki is finally a Grand Slam champion, after securing victory

 over top seed Simona Halep in her first Australian Open final, 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-4. 

"I think last year, already for a year and a half, I've proved that I can beat anyone out there

on court", Wozniacki said at her post-championship press conference. 

"When you're in the finals, I'm not going to lie, I was really nervous before going out there on court,

but once I kind of settled in and we had the warmup, I thought, I have everything to win."

Simona Halep had an impressive comeback in the first set when, from the score 4 to 1 for Wozniacki,

 she pushed the set into tiebreak.

However she was defeated in the tiebreak in the end.

Halep won the second set, 6 to 3, but she got more and more tired, while Wozniacki 

seemed to manage her condition better.

In all, Caroline hit just 19 unforced errors and 25 winners in a nearly 3 hours match. 

For Halep, it was another agressive display: 40 winners off-set by 46 unforced errors, accompanied

by an impressive six aces off her ever-improving serve.

Simona had more winners, but also more errors. Caroline's winners came in key moments 

of the match. This, and her better physical condition were the aspects which mattered in the end.

"I was really tired", Halep said after the match. "I had so many problems at my feet, pain everywhere.

But, you know, I think I did pretty well with all the things that were going on.

After the first set, I was just out. I don't know what happened. No energy, no power. 

But then I just said that I have to hit all the balls, and then I could take the second set."

<Caroline reacts after the final point>

Wozniacki had been the underdof in her first previous Grand Slam (US Open) finals, against 

Kim Clijters in 2009 and Serena Williams in 2014. She had her own physical issues late 

in the AO final, calling her trainer for an acute left knee injury.

<Players hug after match>

With the match in critical stage, Caroline got one last streak, earning the championship point with

 a sensational rally and taking the win one point later, becoming the first from her country

 to win a singles Grand Slam title.

"That was a crazy point. I think we both played very well."

"I can still smile", Halep said. "It's fine. I cried, but now I'm smiling. It's just a tennis match in the end. 

But I'm really sad I couldn't win. I was close again, but the gas was over in the end."

"She was better. She was fresher. She had actually more energy in the end."

<Simona and her team>

Ranked No. 1 for 67 weeks between 2010 and 2012, Wozniacki will return to the top spot 

on Monday after six years.

"I think being the new Grand Slam champion and World No. 1 sounds pretty good. I'm very excited for that.

 It's a dream come true."

VIDEOS:

Blood pressure is rising, Halep seeks medical treatment

Caroline Wozniacki press conference (F)

Simona Halep press conference (WF) 

The fight to the top: Halep v Wozniacki final

spiegel.de

wtatennis.com

ausopen.com