Wednesday, November 20, 2024

The Fighting Italians would like to have a word....

"Champions!" 

Today, for the fifth time, Italy became the Billie Jean King Cup (formerly Fed Cup) champions, defeating Slovakia in the final, 2-0.  Lucia Bronzetti defeated Viktoria Hruncakova 6-2, 6-4 in the first rubber of the final, and Jasmine Paolina defeated Rebecca Sramkova 6-2, 6-1 in the second. 

Team Italy was in the final last year, too, but they were defeated by Canada when Leylah Fernandez pretty much went crazy on everyone.

Starting in 2006, the fierce squad made up of Francesca Schiavone, Flavia Pennetta, Sara Errani, and Roberta Vinci won the Fed Cup four times, bringing the same grit and excitement that the Czech Republic brought to the competition. I named these players the Fighting Italians because they never, ever gave up, and it was a thrill to watch them battle.

Of the four, only Errani remains on the tour, and she reached what was perhaps her peak this year (of course, she also has a Career Slam in doubles) when she and Jasmine Paolini won an Olympic gold medal. But the spirit of the Fighting Italian is preserved in Paolini, whose cheerful demeanor sometimes conceals her relentless grit. And today, Bronzetti found her inner Pennetta when--playing in the most stressful of circumstances--she won Italy's first point in the final. 

The Italian team, led by Captain Tathiana Garbin, was made up of Paolini, Errani, Bronzetti, and Elisabetta Cocciaretta.

As always, there were a couple of lesser known players who stood out in the competition. Such players sometimes go on to become big stars on the tour (Pennetta, Petra Kvitova); others simply rise to the occasion. During this season, two players earned some special notice--Rebecca Sramkova of Slovakia and Katarzyna Kawa of Poland. 

It's no surprise that Sramkova was a star in this competition. She won her first WTA title this year, and she played in two other finals. During BJK Cup play, Sramkova defeated both Danielle Collins and--in the semifinals--a very in-form Katie Boulter. Kawa was Iga Swiatek's doubles partner, and she showed that she really knows her way around a doubles court.

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Saturday, November 9, 2024

Hot Coco, tough cookie

Today, for the first time, the WTA Finals final went to a third set tiebreak. The match, which lasted just over three hours, featured 3rd seed Coco Gauff and 7th seed Zheng Qinwen, and they put on a show totally worthy of the last big final of the season.

Zheng won the first set 6-3, and immediately went up a break in he second set. But just when it looked like the Chinese star might run away with the match, Gauff broke her, picked up momentum, and took the second set 6-4. The third set was exactly what it should have been--a contest of changing momentum, with each player broken twice. The set went to a tiebreak, and Gauff pretty much did run away with that, going up 5-0, and eventually winning it 7-2.

It was an interesting event, which began with poor attendance, but then drew crowds. Under the new rules (about which I have mixed feelings), Barbora Krejciova made the final eight because she had won a major. And regardless of how I feel about the rules, I'm never really unhappy if the Czech is part of the mix. 

Krejcikova hasn't played a lot lately, and--aside from winning Wimbledon--hasn't won much this year. After struggling in 2022 with an arm injury, a knee injury in 2023, this year, she was out for a long time with a back injury. Of course, it's much more fun for fans to say that she's inconsistent and that's that, when---in fact--her body just hasn't allowed her to gain any momentum. (When a woman on X wondered how Krejcikova had won Wimbledon, the champion herself showed up and replied: "I won seven matches in a row." So there.)

The Czech star has sometimes acted as Iga Switek's kryptonite, defeating her in two finals. They played each other in the first opening round of round robin play. Neither had played much tennis lately, yet Krejcikova went up a set and 3-0--then her back went out again. She continued to play, but lost to Swiatek. Krejcikova next played Jessica Pegula, who was dealing with a worsening knee injury (she eventually withdrew from the event); Krejcikova defeated her, then went on to defeat Coco Gauff 7-5, 6-4.

The WTA Finals present most of us with some math challenges; I just wait to hear who made it to the semifinals. World number 1 Aryna Sabalenka did, but world number 2 Swiatek did not, despite winning two of her three round robin matches. In the semifinals, Gauff defeated Sabalenka, and Zheng Qinwen defeated Krejcikova.

Winning the doubles championship were former U.S. Open champions and 2nd seeds Gabriela Dabrowski  and Erin Routliffe, They defeated 8th seeds Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend 7-5, 6-3. Siniakova and Townsend defeated Dabrowski and Routliffe in this year's Wimbledon final.

Former world number 1 and two-time major champion Garbine Muguruza served as tournament director, and of course, the question hanging over the event was/is "Why is this happening in Saudi Arabia?"

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Saturday, November 2, 2024

WTA Finals begin with a win for Sabalenka

After what seemed like a very long Asian swing, the WTA Finals began today. World number 1 Aryna Sabalenka started things off in singles by defeating Zheng Qinwen 6-3, 6-4. Sabalenka is now 4-0 against the Chinese star. Next, Jasmine Paolini defeaed Elena Rybakina 7-6, 6-4. Not to take anything away from Paolini, who played very well, but it wasn't a surprise that Rybakina--who hasn't played much lately--lost this match. This was, by the way, Paolini's first-ever WTA Finals match. 

For her part, Rybakina--we hope--is in better physical health; she's been chronically ill since the spring. And one reason that she may have had a prolonged illness is that she apparently received significant abuse from her former coach. The 2022 Wimbledon champion is now working with Goran Ivanisevic.

In doubles, Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Ellen Perez defeated Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens 1-6, 6-1, 10-6, and Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend upset top seeds Lyudmyla Kichenok and Alona Ostapenko.

Returning to the Asian swing: The good news is that Karolia Muchova performed very well; the bad news is that she sustained yet another injury. However, it was her hip (and not her wrist) that she injured, which is a kind of inside-out piece of good news. Muchova lost to Coco Gauff in the Beijing final. This was her third loss in a row to Gauff. On her way to the final, Muchova defeated Sabalenka, and that was the third time in a row that she had beaten the world number 1.

The top  (500 and 1000 events) Asian swing champions were Beatriz Haddad Maia (Seoul), Coco Gauff (Beijing), Aryna Sabalenka (Wuhan), Daria Kasatkina (Ningbo), and Zheng Qiwen (Tokyo). Beijing an Wuhan are WTA 1000 tournaments.

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