From Myrtle Beach,  South Carolina, January 2019

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페북 ID: @Living Next Level: Between Europe and Korea

인스타 ID: @mewanderer99

WTA 2019 제 1의 주 대회 (1월) 

1. (호주) Brisbane International - Brisbane, Australia

2. (중국) Shenzen Open - Shenzen, China

3. (뉴질랜드) ASB Classic - Auckland, New Zealand

***

1. (호주) Brisbane International - Brisbane, Australia

포인트:

시드:

 결승전: 

Karolina Pliskova (체코) def. Lesia Tsurenko (우트라이나) 4-6 ,7-5, 6-2

하일라이트 동영상:

2018 우승자:

Elina Svitolina (우크라이나)

***

2. (중국) Shenzen Open - Shenzen, China

포인트:

시드:

 결승전: 

Aryna Sabalenka (벨라루스) def. Alison Riske (미국) 4-6 ,7-6 (7-2), 6-3

2018 우승자:

Simona Halep (루마니아)

***

3. (뉴질랜드) ASB Classic - Auckland, New Zealand

포인트:

시드:

 결승전: 

Julia Goerges (독일) def. Bianca Andreescu (캐너다) 2-6 , 7-5, 6-1

2018 우승자:

Julia Goerges (독일)

***

여자 테니스 순위

From Seoul, South Korea, October 2018

1. TIANJIN OPEN, CHINA

(and a preview of the Race to Singapore)

ABOUT

The 2018 Tianjin Open is a women's professional tennis tournament played on hard courts. It is the 5th edition of the tournament, and part of the 2018 WTA Tour. It takes place at the Tuanbo International Tennis Centre in Tianjin, China between 8 and 14 October 2018. Maria Sharapova was the defending champion but chose to end her 2018 season early due to injury.

POINTS

Winner - 280 / Runner-up - 180 / Semifinalists - 110 / Quarter-finalists - 60 /

Round of 16 - 30 / Round of 32 - 1

SEEDS

FINALISTS

 French Caroline Garcia defeated Czech  Karolina Pliskova, score 7(9)-6(7) 6-3

 Second-seeded Caroline Garcia won her first tournament of the year with a 7-6 (7), 6-3 win over top-seeded Karolina Pliskova in the Tianjin Open on Sunday. It was the 16th-ranked Garcia’s first title since she won back-to-back trophies at the Wuhan and Beijing tournaments in Asia just over a year ago. The Frenchwoman’s two titles at the end of last season earned her a spot into the year-end WTA Finals in Singapore. This year, the victory in Tianjin is not enough to put Garcia into a second consecutive year-end final appearance.

 Pliskova’s failure to take the title also kept her from confirming a berth in the WTA Finals. Currently in eighth place in the race to Singapore, the Czech will have to wait out the results from next week’s tournaments in Luxembourg and Moscow to see if she qualifies for one of the three remaining spots. Pliskova is scheduled to play in Moscow. American Sloane Stephens, Ukrainian Elena Svitolina and Dutchwoman Kiki Bertens are the other remaining contenders for Singapore.

 Garcia was down 1-5 in the first set tiebreaker before she rebounded. She saved a set point for Pliskova at 5-6 to go on to win the hour-long first set. In the second set, Garcia raced to a 5-0 lead, and first served for the match at 5-1, but had to wait for her victory to come three games later. She secured the title with her sixth ace of the match.

 WINNER 

Caroline Garcia (France)

***

2017 WINNER: Maria Sharapova (Russia, left) defeated Aryna Sabalenka (Belarus)

2. HONGKONG OPEN, CHINA

ABOUT

The 2018 Hong Kong Tennis Open (also known as the Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open for sponsorship reasons) is a professional tennistournament played on hard courts. It is the ninth edition of the tournament, and part of the 2018 WTA Tour. It takes place in Victoria Park, Hong Kong, from October 8 to 14.

POINTS

Winner - 280 / Runner-up - 180 / Semifinalists - 110 / Quarter-finalists - 60 /

Round of 16 - 30 / Round of 32 - 1

SEEDS

FINALISTS

 Dayana Yastremska (Ukraine, centre right) defeated Wang Qiang (China) , score 6-2 6-1

 WINNER 

Dayana Yastremska (Ukraine)

***

2017 WINNER: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Russia, left) defeated Daria Gavrilova (Australia)

2. LINZ OPEN, AUSTRIA

ABOUT

The 2018 Upper Austria Ladies Linz is a women's tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts. It is the 32nd edition of the Linz Open, and part of the WTA International tournaments-category of the 2018 WTA Tour. It is held at the TipsArena Linz in Linz, Austria, from 8 to 14 October 2018.

POINTS

Winner - 280 / Runner-up - 180 / Semifinalists - 110 / Quarter-finalists - 60

Round of 16 - 30 / Round of 32 - 1

SEEDS

FINALISTS

Camila Giorgi (Italy)  defeated Ekaterina Alexandrova (Russia), score 6-3 6-1

 WINNER 

 Camila Giorgi (Italy)

***

2017 WINNER: Barbora Strycova (Czech Republic) defeated Magdalena Ribarikova (Slovakia)

wtatennis.com

wikipedia.com

washingtonpost.com

From Seoul, South Korea, June 2018

   Another year has passed and here we are again, a few hours before we know the 2018 finalists of Roland Garros for the women's competition. For those who remember, in 2017 the final match put face to face Romanian Simona Halep and Latvian Jelena Ostapenko. Simona was the favorite and everybody was expecting her to win. She was up one set and had three games to one in the second set, but Jelena came back and won the second set. In the third set Simona had 3 to 1 again, but again, Jelena recovered and won the third set and the championship with it. 

   For nostalgics, here is a video with the most important moments of that final:

VIDEO HERE: SIMONA HALEP-JELENA OSTAPENKO 2017 ROLAND GARROS FINAL 6-4 4-6 3-6 

   2018 and another story. Ostapenko was eliminated in the first round of the competition and most probably she will be out of Top 10 by next week. But there is Simona Halep, a model of consistency in women's tennis, who never left Top 10 since she entered there for the first time in 2014. She is now world No 1 and she is again in the semifinals of Roland Garros, hunting for her first Grand Slam trophy. 

THE 2018 SEMIFINALS: 

Garbiñe Muguruza (Spain) - Simona Halep (Romania)

(they met 4 times so far, Garbiñe won 3 times)

   This meeting is especially important because it will decide who will be No 1 in the WTA rankings. Right now Simona leands the renkings with 7270 points and Garbiñe comes in 3rd place with 6010 points. If Garbiñe wins, she will be the new number one. 

Current rankings, top 5:

    Muguruza and Halep met 4 times until now, with Muguruza winning 3 of those encounters, but all three were on a hard court. There was a single clay meeting in 2015 in Sttutgart which Halep had won. This year in Doha Halep should have played the semifinal against Muguruza, but she had to retire due to injury. 

Direct meetings score:  Muguruza - Halep 3-1

Road to the semifinals:

   In this tournament so far, Muguruza has met Kuznetsova, Ferro, Stosur, Tsurenko - who are all ranked lower than Top 32, and in the quarter-finals beat rank no 28 Maria Sharapova. Muguruza beat all these players in only two sets, and almost did not play with Tsurenko who has retired after playing just 2 games. Halep played Riske, Townsend, Petkovic, rank no 16 Mertens, and rank no 12 and former no 1 Kerber. She played 3 sets against Riske and Kerber. So Halep has met stronger players than Muguruza did, however, Muguruza is known for playing extremely good especially in Grand Slam tournaments. 

Quarter-final Halep - Kerber 6(2)-7(7), 6-3, 6-2:

SEE THE HIGHLIGHTS HERE (VIDEO)

   Those who watched the Australian Open last January remember for sure the epic confrontation between Halep and Kerber, where both played extremely well, but Halep was able to win in the end and advance to the final (see link at the end of this post for the Australian Open semifinal between Halep and Kerber). Here at Roland Garros, Kerber started the first set very well. She was leading 4 to 0 when Halep started playing better and better. She managed to comeback and bring the score to 6-4 but it was not enough because Kerber was doing almost a perfect game. Halep lost the first set in tiebreak, but the fact that she was able to come back from 4-0 gave her a psychological advantage. Kerber did a perfect defense, but Halep committed very little errors - that is something rare for her - and brought Kerber to exhaustion. Simona showed she grew a lot mentally and she looks ready to win a Grand Slam. 

Quarter-final Muguruza - Sharapova 6-2, 6-1

SEE THE HIGHLIGHTS HERE (VIDEO)

   Sharapova has played great this year on clay, and looked like she is back in the game. Fans were expecting a lot from her in this quarter-final, even thinking that maybe she can win the competition. But with Muguruza she failed to make her serve and this marked the end of her road at Roland Garros. However, she is raising in the rankings, which is definitely great for her career after the drug use suspension. 

THE 2018 SEMIFINALS: 

Madison Keys (USA) - Sloane Stephens (USA)

(they met 2 times so far, Stephen won both meetings)

Direct meetings score:  Stephens - Keys 2-0

   The two players met only two times until now, the most important meeting being the 2017 US Open final when Stephen won the title (see the link at the end of this post). What is sure is that one American will be in the final!

Road to the semifinals:

   Stephens eliminated Rus, Frech, Giorgi, ranking no 25 Kontaveit (who had previously eliminated Kvitova), and ranking no 14 Daria Kasatkina (who had previously eliminated Caroline Wozniacki, the current world No 2 and the Australian Open champion). Keys defeated Vickery, Dolehide, Indian Wells champion and rank no 21 osaka, rank no 31 Buzarnescu (who had previously eliminated rank no 4 Svitolina), and Putintseva.

********

GRAND SLAM FLASHBACK

US OPEN 2017 Final: Madison Keys - Sloane Stephens 3-6, 0-6 (WATCH HERE)

AUSTRALIAN OPEN 2017 Semifinal: S. Halep-A. Kerber 6-3, 4-6, 9-7 (WATCH HERE)

wtatennis.com

From Seoul, South Korea, June 2018

Roland Garros (French Open), Paris

ABOUT:

  The French Open, also called Roland-Garros, is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks between late May and early June at the Stade Roland-Garros in Paris, France. The venue is named after the French aviator Roland Garros. It is the premier clay court tennis championship event in the world and the second of four annual Grand Slam tournaments, the other three being the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. The French Open is currently the only Grand Slam event held on clay, and it is the zenith of the spring clay court season. Because of the seven rounds needed for a championship, the slow-playing surface and the best-of-five-set men's singles matches (without a tiebreak in the final set), the event is widely considered to be the most physically demanding tennis tournament in the world.

  Ten-time French Open winner, Rafael Nadal, is the defending champion in the Men's Singles. Jeļena Ostapenko was the defending champion in the Women's Singles but lost in the first round to Kateryna Kozlova.

Male (left) and female (right)'s trophies

THE SEEDS:

  The players who already left the competion at he date this post was published are the ones highlighted with pink. Last year's champion, Jelena Ostapenko, lost in the first round and lost her points, which will put hr out of the WTA Top 10. 2017 runner-up Simona Halep is sill in the competition and being the current No 1 is also considered the favorite in the race to win the trophy. 

Point system:

Winner - 2000

Runner up - 1300

Semifinalists - 780

Quarterfinalists - 430

Round of 16 - 240

Round of 32 - 130

Round of 64 - 70

Round of 128 - 10

GALLERY OF THE CHAMPIONS:

2017 winner: Jelena Ostapenko, Latvia

2016 winner: Garbine Muguruza, Spain

2015 winner: Serena Williams, USA

2014 winner: Maria Sharapova, Russia 

wtatennis.com

wikipedia.org

From Seoul, South Korea, May 2018

<Semifinal in Rome, Italian Open>

   Last year Simona Halep reached the final in Rome but lost to Elina Svitolina. Her current No position can be maintained if she defends as many of the points as she can. With Caroline Wozniacki, ranked No 2, leaving the competition in the quarter-Simona is able to maintain her position, but a title in Rome would be a great achievement and would consolidate her leadership in the WTA rankings. For now, she is going to maintain the No 1 position untill at least the start of French Open (Roland Garros). This means Simona is also seeded first for the French tournament.

   Halep beat Caroline Garcia in two sets. She did not have to work too much for the victory as Garcia commited error after error. Meanwhile, Sharapova comes after a not so easy win over Jelena Osptapenko in the quarter-finals, so she would be theoreticaly more exhausted. Halep did not play the match in the Round of 15 because her opponent Madison Keys has retired. It will be an interesting match to watch, definitely.

   Simona talked about the semifinal against Sharapova, saying she is expecting a very difficult game and that she has only one thing in mind: to play a good match. "I look forward for a difficult match, of course. It was always difficult against Sharapova, but I know I have a chance, and if I do my game it will be fine. I will try to do everything on court in order to win, but I do not have other expectations. I will enter the court and give my best. This is what I want." 

   She also mentioned she is not thinking about statistics, which favor the Russian with 7 wins to 1 loss. "I feel this match is open, anyone can win. I do not thing about the past confrontations."

The last meeting between Simona and Maria in Beijing. Simona won in two sets, 6-2, 6-2:

The Quarter final against Caroline Garcia, score 6-2, 6-3:

이전다음

012345678

ziare.com

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