2nd seed Gesela Dulko defeated top seed Anabel Medina Garrigues to win in Fes todayTop seed Vera Zvonareva defeated number 3 seed Victoria Azarenka in Prague today, 7-6, 6-2. This was Zvonareva's fourth final of the season, and her first win. She is now number 13 in the world, and I have a problem with her being permitted to play in a Tier IV event. For some time now, I have wanted the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour to place a restriction on higher ranked players that would keep them from playing in Tier IVs, but they do not seem to think such a restriction is necessary. While I appreciate the argument that having higher-ranked players at a lower-ranked event may bring up the overall level of play, I think that the disparity in levels renders an injustice to the lower-ranked players.
Meanwhile, Gisela Dulko won what looked to be a thriller against Anabel Medina Garrigues, 7-6, 7-6, in Fes.
I'd be difficult to enforce such a thing in a week (the first of the red clay season, no less) where the only WTA tour events taking place were BOTH Tier IV tournaments, though. :)
ReplyDeleteI guess it won't be an issue next year since they're supposed to be changing the tournament designations and there won't be "Tier" events anymore (though I suppose there'll still be what are considered "lesser" WTA events).
This is one of the reasons I was really sorry that Warsaw was taken off of the calendar. But no one ever said a player had to play every week, either.
ReplyDeletethe problem with Vera is that she can start lapsing again easily and end up not even being able to win a Tier IV tournament. but your point is well-taken.
ReplyDeletecongrats Gisela! que magnifico!
I don't see Vera "lapsing." She fell down the rankings because of problems with her mentality, and those appear to be gone, for the most part--at least the type that caused her tumble. I just see her going up now.
ReplyDeleteI agree that such high players competing in the tier IV events is tough on some other players, but I think for someone like zvonereva, she isn't at the very top of the game, and having lost a few finals, maybe she needed some confidence in actually winning a tournament. It is a risk though, as if she had lost it might have been worse for her confidence. But yeah, it's difficult to enforce something like preventing top players entering these events, but i do agree it's rough on the lower ranked players.
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