WTA week of April 4: Charleston & Katowice
- Thread starter spystud
- Start date
ScentOfDefeat
G.O.A.T.
A confident Cibulkova might be a bit too much for Giorgi to handle.
Harry_Wild
G.O.A.T.
Elena "the qualifier" Vesnina makes it to the finals! What is the odds of that?
Aussie Darcy
Bionic Poster
She's a past finalist and was inside the top 30 a few years back so it's not like it's some qualifier who's never been in the top 100.
Aussie Darcy
Bionic Poster
Just to summarize the year thats been in Premier tournaments.
Brisbane International. Azarenka d Kerber. (2 players you'd expect in a Premier final)
Sydney International. Kuznetsova d Puig. (Puig playing her first Premier final, this tournament had many withdrawals)
St Petersburg Trophy. Vinci d Bencic. (Top 2 seeds in the final, pretty good)
Dubai Championships. Errani d Strycova. (All seeds lost in their first match, crazy)
Qatar Open. Suarez d Ostapenko. (Unseeded Ostapenko reaches the final, first Premier 5 final)
Now we have Vesnina v Sloane. (Vesnina a qualifier, hasn't played a final since 2013)
Some low ranked players reaching big tour finals...
Brisbane International. Azarenka d Kerber. (2 players you'd expect in a Premier final)
Sydney International. Kuznetsova d Puig. (Puig playing her first Premier final, this tournament had many withdrawals)
St Petersburg Trophy. Vinci d Bencic. (Top 2 seeds in the final, pretty good)
Dubai Championships. Errani d Strycova. (All seeds lost in their first match, crazy)
Qatar Open. Suarez d Ostapenko. (Unseeded Ostapenko reaches the final, first Premier 5 final)
Now we have Vesnina v Sloane. (Vesnina a qualifier, hasn't played a final since 2013)
Some low ranked players reaching big tour finals...
ScentOfDefeat
G.O.A.T.
Well, every tournament seems to be a "Premier" of some kind. The word has completely lost its meaning.
Aussie Darcy
Bionic Poster
Just saw a clip of the Errani/Vesnina match. Only just occured to be how awful that match would've been with the noise. I know people can't stand Vika and Sharapova's noise (I kinda don't care much) but Errani's and Vesnina's are the 2 worst for me in the entire game. Maybe it's because they pretty much say words instead of moaning/grunting.
flyingboris
Legend
Not sure if anyone here watched the Giorgi-Cibulkova match, but that was not pretty - at least in terms of tennis. So many wild misses from Camila, so many unnecessary POME!!'s from Dominika. I'm glad it's over! 
(6-4 6-0 Domi)
(6-4 6-0 Domi)
ScentOfDefeat
G.O.A.T.
Of course Giorgi had to play much worse in the final. It's becoming a trend. Cibulkova was too solid in the end. The presence of Camila's father - and the obsession the cameras have with him and his reactions - always adds an undesirable layer of creepiness to these Katowice finals.
ScentOfDefeat
G.O.A.T.
Vesnina is riding a huge wave of confidence. I don't expect it to be easy for Sloane.
TahoeTennis
Legend
Vesnina looking tough!
Marius_Hancu
Talk Tennis Guru
Great bod Vesnina and she plays much better in singles than I ever expected
TahoeTennis
Legend
Sorry for the jinx! She (Vesnina) was looking good with a break point at 2-2, now she's down 5-2 Sloane stepping up the heat!
Sloane stepping up the heat!
ScentOfDefeat
G.O.A.T.
Great match now.
TahoeTennis
Legend
Reversed the jinx!
flyingboris
Legend
I love how Sloane just Goes To Work these days, game face on, with none of the petulant behavior of old. Very solid!
Edit: and she takes the tie break, after impressively fending off a set point. :bow:
Edit: and she takes the tie break, after impressively fending off a set point. :bow:
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ScentOfDefeat
G.O.A.T.
I think that's the match. The only worry I had was that Stephens wouldn't play solid against an opponent who makes very few mistakes, but she seems to be focused and willing to fight until the bitter end. First set in the bag, which is crucial, I feel, because Vesnina was a qualifier and has played more matches.
If she keeps this level I can't see Vesnina coming back to win this.
If she keeps this level I can't see Vesnina coming back to win this.
spystud
Talk Tennis Guru
Ha, apparently you missed her match all of a week ago against Watson. She was worse than old-school Sloane then.
flyingboris
Legend
flyingboris
Legend
Well say what ya want about the girl she is stacking up titles now. 3 this year. And 4 in last six months. When she is focused she is dangerous. People have been comparing her to Genie. She is light years ahead of Genie now.
There's still quite a few ways that Sloane can improve her skills. Usually her footwork has all the precision of a bunch of golf clubs tumbling out of their bag, for instance. And for some reason her serve is nowhere near the weapon it used to be a few years ago.
But it may be that the mental aspect of the game is slowly coming around. She still has her dull patches, but she's getting better at recovering from them. So maybe there's hope for her.
But it may be that the mental aspect of the game is slowly coming around. She still has her dull patches, but she's getting better at recovering from them. So maybe there's hope for her.
pentagruel
Rookie
I rather like Sloane's game. It has much better margins then Keys for example and thusly should be much more consistent. She also has enough power to dictate and end points. If she makes her serve into a bigger weapon then I can seriously see her becoming a challenger for every tournament she enters.
Sloane still has her meltdowns but with more experience they have become fewer and fewer. Hopefully she can continue to roll on and improve, especially at the important tournaments where she has flopped thus far this year.
Sloane still has her meltdowns but with more experience they have become fewer and fewer. Hopefully she can continue to roll on and improve, especially at the important tournaments where she has flopped thus far this year.
Aussie Darcy
Bionic Poster
Sloanes 2016:
Auckland champion
Australian Open first round loss
Acapulco champion
Indian Wells first round loss
Miami first round loss
Charleston champion
It's all or nothing with her
'Credit to Ben Rothenberg for that'
Auckland champion
Australian Open first round loss
Acapulco champion
Indian Wells first round loss
Miami first round loss
Charleston champion
It's all or nothing with her
'Credit to Ben Rothenberg for that'
pentagruel
Rookie
Quite literally. Insane stat actually.
Yea like i said if she bothered to win a couple rounds at those big tournaments she would be top ten right now lol
Whats really interesting is a couple years back she did the complete opposite. Did well at the majors and could not do anything anywhere else.
Aussie Darcy
Bionic Poster
Hard to believe years later that Sloane was the player touted as the next Serena after defeating her at the AO. Crazy.
Harry_Wild
G.O.A.T.
Only Sloane and Vika are multiple tournament winners his year. Never thought Sloane would able to win a tournament and now it is multiple tournament in a year and year is only 1/3 over!
JJGUY
Hall of Fame
funny how things have changed, three years ago Sloane had big success at slams but failed to win matches on WTA tours. Now she is on the opposite, winning title after title on tour but has trouble going deep at slams.
MichaelNadal
Bionic Poster
So happy for Sloane, hope she and Madison can get rolling for the American girls.
spystud
Talk Tennis Guru
Svitolina blew 5 MPs to lose to #155-ranked Panova in Bogota today.
http://www.wtatennis.com/news/article/5493984/title/svitolina-stunned-in-bogota
http://www.wtatennis.com/news/article/5493984/title/svitolina-stunned-in-bogota
Aussie Darcy
Bionic Poster
And defending champ Pereira lost like first round as well, I haven't even bothered looking at the draw. I wonder if there's any players who have won a title before or if we are guaranteed a new champ
Aussie Darcy
Bionic Poster
Arraeburana has a title
Dominguez Lino has 2
And that's it. Also the titles were mostly at Bogota, why don't they just get rid of these bad tournaments that attract noone
Dominguez Lino has 2
And that's it. Also the titles were mostly at Bogota, why don't they just get rid of these bad tournaments that attract noone
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