Monday, November 6, 2023

She's the WTA Finals champion! She's number 1!..... She's Iga Swiatek, of course

Last year, when, at the last minute, the WTA--which is sponsored by a company that "focuses primarily on improving women’s health and well-being"--moved the WTA Finals from Shenzhen to a state whose leaders are dedicated to letting women die, get maimed, or suffer permanent disability, I was beyond disappointed. But, as a friend of mine likes to say, it can always get worse.

Back when we used to learn how to think in school, we were all taught the logical fallacies. It seems clear that they are no longer taught--spend five minutes on X or watch a session of Congress--so the concept of either-or thinking may be new to a lot of people. Either-or thinking is a logical fallacy in which a person is presented with only two choices, when--in fact--there may be many choices available.

A good example would be "You can play the Finals in Saudi Arabia, or you can play them somewhere where there's no stadium." I exaggerate. To be fair, Ostrava--according to a former member of the WTA Players' Council--was the original alternative to Saudi Arabia, but the Council selected Cancun, where there was no stadium. Why, one wonders, was the selection again made at the last minute?

When the players (sadly, minus Karolina Muchova, who still can't catch a break) arrived in Cancun, they couldn't practice--because the courts were not available. The stadium was still under construction, so the competitors had to just wait (or maybe some of them went all Badosa in the hotel--I don't know). Then there was the rain--a lot of it--to add insult to injury. And then there was the wind, which was fierce. The players complained, and--of course--they were told by some to shut up. Business as usual.

Somehow, the Finals did take place, with alternate Maria Sakkari substituting for the again injured Muchova. But the event had to be stretched to nine days because of the rain, with both the singles and doubles finals being played on Monday instead of Sunday. Players had to endure repeated rain delays, but patience wasn't the ony requirement; those who knew how to master the wind had a distinct advantage.

It wasn't all grim. At one point, while the ballgirls were wiping the courts dry, the deejay played "YMCA," and when the chorus came on, the girls dropped their towels so that they could properly dance out "Y-M-C-A!"

Sometimes, the math at the Finals can be confusing, but this year, the two singles finalists blew their way to the final. Jessica Pegula and Iga Swiatek each won all three of her round robin matches, and neither of them dropped a set. Pegula defeated Coco Gauff in the semifinals, and Swiatek--in a brilliant performance--defeated world number 1 Aryna Sabalenka. In addition, Swiatek lost only 20 games en route to the final--the fewest conceded games since the event was established.

There was also brilliance from Pegula, who, arguably, handled the wind better than any of her competitors. Pegula now holds the unique status of being the only woman in WTA history (more precisely, since the rankings system was established, in 1975) to play the four top-ranked women in the world in one event. Numbers 1, 3 and 4? No problem. But number 2 proved to be another matter.

If Swiatek looked deadly against Sabalenka in the semifinals, she looked even more lethal in the final. In just under and hour, the Polish star defeated Pegula 6-1, 6-0. She had first and second serve win percentages of 82 and 69, and the only break point opportunity that she faced--when she served for the match--she saved. It should also be noted that Pegula looked a bit tired--she just wasn't the same player who had stormed through round robin play and the semifinals. She also played three round robin doubles matches, so that was a lot of tennis.

In winning the championship, Swiatek has reclaimed the world number 1 ranking, and the glory that comes with being the year-end number 1.

6th seeds Laura Siegemund and Vera Zvonareva won the doubles title, defeating 8th seeds Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Ellen Perez 6-4, 6-4 in the final. Top seeds Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula lost all three of their round robin matches; 2nd seeds Storm Hunter and Elise Mertens won all three of their round robin matches, as did 7th seeds Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe.

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