Someone in Istanbul finally took a set off of Petra Kvitova. That someone, of course, was semifinalist Sam Stosur, who won the first set of today's WTA Championships Red Group match. Kvitova came back, however, and won the match 5-7, 6-3, 6-3. The Czech player has not lost on an indoor court in 2011.
The last time that a player reached the final while making her debut at the Championships was 2004, when Maria Sharapova won the tournament. Sharapova, after going down 0-4 in the third set, was victorious over Serena Williams.
Victoria Azarenka, of the White Group, won the second semifinal. She defeated Vera Zvonareva 6-2, 6-3. Zvonareva made it the semifinals because Azarenka lost her third round-robin match to Marion Bartoli, who was substituting for Sharapova, who had withdrawn. It's complicated!
Kvitova and Azarenka are not the only finalists. The world number 1 doubles team of Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik defeated Vania King and Yaroslava Shvedova 6-3, 6-4. And Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond defeated defending champions Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta 4-6, 6-3, 10-7. Dulko and Pennetta led in the super-tiebreak most of the way through, but in the end, Huber and Raymond out-played them and took control of the match.
According to the rules, Vera Zvonareva made it into the Semis because she had the best winning % of games (wins/losses) than Radwanska or Wozniacki. WTA Today (not the WTA site) has the rules plus shows this-along w Tennis.com today (Final Round Robin Standings under story "what we have learned"-
ReplyDeleteSingles - Red Group
Petra Kvitova (3-0) (Sets: 6-0)
Vera Zvonareva (1-2) (Sets: 3-5)(games won/lost: 48.6% won)
Agnieszka Radwanska (1-2) (Sets: 3-5) (games won/lost: 45.5% won)
Caroline Wozniacki (1-2) (Sets: 3-5)(games won/lost: 45.3% won)
It couldn't have anything to do with the other Azarenka's group since they were not playing her group. That's why WTA.com said that Radwanska only had to win a set off of Kvitova-then the semis would have been decided by sets instead of games.
The WTA uses the first of the following that apply: greatest number of wins, greatest number of matches played, hth if two are tied, and--if 3 are tied:
ReplyDeleteAnyone not playing all 3 matches is automatically eliminated.
If the 2 remaining players played each other, the winner gets the nod, or...
a. highest percentage of sets
b. highest percentage of games
Any remaining tie is broken by hth.
I am not sure what your answer has to do with your post which said Zvonareva was in because of the Azarenka, Bartoli, and Sharapova situation.
ReplyDeleteThey were in a different group than Zvonareva so what happened in that group would have no bearing on Zvonareva. As it says in the rules, you quoted, which are the rules I read, the second semifinalist(Kvitova was already in semis) in Zvonareva's group was determined by "highest percentage of games"
Oh, I was just going over the very complex rules because this tournament can get really confusing.
ReplyDeleteRadwanska and Zvonareva were in the same group, and, yes, of course, that was the only contingency. I was just trying to point out how complex the whole chain of events was--not that everything that occurred had to do with every other thing.