Aussie Darcy
Bionic Poster
Terrible move by the WTA. Singapore or somewhere with less extreme conditions would've been far better. Mexico is of course known for it's very high altitude which impacts a variety of things for the sport.
WTA Finals relocated from Shenzhen to Guadalajara prompting withdrawal rumours around #1 Barty due to the altitude and other factors
- Thread starter Aussie Darcy
- Start date
dumb-person
Rookie
Beggars can't be choosers. Do you really think that WTA had so many options? I'm happy it will be played.
R. Schweikart
Professional
If you only knew at which heights ski World Cup races are held....
Jack the Hack
Hall of Fame
This is a really surprising choice, especially considering that the WTA Tour headquarters are in Florida and 15 out of the current top 20 players in the race to the WTA Finals are from Europe. It seems like the logical choice would have been to hold this somewhere in Europe, especially considering that practically every tournament after Indian Wells is also in Europe. I agree that it's hard to see this as a showcase event by staging it in the middle of Mexico in November.
Here's the list of the top 20 players in the race as it stands right now.
Here's the list of the top 20 players in the race as it stands right now.
| Rank | Player | Region | Age | Tournaments Played | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 -Ashleigh Barty | ASHLEIGH BARTY | AUS | 25 | 12 | 6411 |
| 2 1Aryna Sabalenka | ARYNA SABALENKA | BLR | 23 | 16 | 4669 |
| 3 1Barbora Krejcikova | BARBORA KREJCIKOVA | CZE | 25 | 15 | 4398 |
| 4 -Karolina Pliskova | KAROLINA PLISKOVA | CZE | 29 | 16 | 3972 |
| 5 -Iga Swiatek | IGA SWIATEK | POL | 20 | 12 | 2921 |
| 6 7Maria Sakkari | MARIA SAKKARI | GRE | 26 | 14 | 2842 |
| 7 1Naomi Osaka | NAOMI OSAKA | JPN | 23 | 9 | 2771 |
| 8 1Garbiñe Muguruza | GARBIÑE MUGURUZA | ESP | 27 | 15 | 2671 |
| 9 1Ons Jabeur | ONS JABEUR | TUN | 27 | 16 | 2435 |
| 10 1Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova | ANASTASIA PAVLYUCHENKOVA | RUS | 30 | 14 | 2329 |
| 11 1Elise Mertens | ELISE MERTENS | BEL | 25 | 16 | 2325 |
| 12 3Cori Gauff | CORI GAUFF | USA | 17 | 16 | 2325 |
| 13 5Elina Svitolina | ELINA SVITOLINA | UKR | 27 | 17 | 2283 |
| 14 109Emma Raducanu | EMMA RADUCANU | GBR | 18 | 4 | 2282 |
| 15 5Jessica Pegula | JESSICA PEGULA | USA | 27 | 16 | 2232 |
| 16 -Angelique Kerber | ANGELIQUE KERBER | GER | 33 | 14 | 2171 |
| 17 2Daria Kasatkina | DARIA KASATKINA | RUS | 24 | 19 | 2061 |
| 18 4Paula Badosa | PAULA BADOSA | ESP | 23 | 14 | 2057 |
| 19 7Belinda Bencic | BELINDA BENCIC | SUI | 24 | 16 | 1939 |
| 20 42Leylah Fernandez | LEYLAH FERNANDEZ | CAN | 19 | 16 | 1911 |
Aussie Darcy
Bionic Poster
Well yeah i'm sure it benefits the weather and such. Hitting a ball for hours on end at low oxygen? Terrible.
Aussie Darcy
Bionic Poster
Singapore hosted it for several years. I'm sure other countries would've been able to host it. I'm sure the WTA are probably still in discussion over this.
Aussie Darcy
Bionic Poster
5 for Raducanu, Leylah would need a whole bunch. Still have Indian Wells and a few 500's to come too.
Seems unlikely Osaka will play. Barty now in doubt.
Mustard
Bionic Poster
It's hardly Quito or Bogota.
R. Schweikart
Professional
They played two football world cups in Mexico (1970 and 1986), with matches in Guadalajara and even cities with higher elevations.
Aussie Darcy
Bionic Poster
I am aware. The Mexico City Olympics were held in 1968 and saw many upsets and athletes who were tipped to do well, didn't do as well due to the altitude impacting the athletes. Athletes from nations with high altitudes did well as they were acclimatized, however others like us here in Australia didn't (since many are on the ocean level).
Aabye5
G.O.A.T.
How long does it usually take a skier to complete a giant slalom?
vive le beau jeu !
Talk Tennis Guru
lol, my thought exactly... they make it sound as if they're gonna play at the Everest base camp!
guadalajara's elevation is only ~1500m...
Aabye5
G.O.A.T.
Do they have the Slam rule like they do for the ATP Finals?
Bartelby
Bionic Poster
Aussie Darcy
Bionic Poster
lol, my thought exactly... they make it sound as if they're gonna play at the Everest base camp!
guadalajara's elevation is only ~1500m...
Well thankfully those weren't options. London is 11m, Melbourne is 31m, Singapore is 15m, Shanghai is 4m, NYC is 10m. Guadalajara? It's 1,566m. 100x the elevation of Singapore which used to host the WTA finals.
Not really consistent is it for the ladies on tour?
vive le beau jeu !
Talk Tennis Guru
using a multiplicative factor to compare elevations is absolutely ridiculous... what if you compared it to a tournament played exactly at sea level or below?
you need to look at the atmospheric pressure if you want to make a valid comparision...
Dolgopolov85
G.O.A.T.
Is it more or less than Madrid?lol, my thought exactly... they make it sound as if they're gonna play at the Everest base camp!
guadalajara's elevation is only ~1500m...
Aussie Darcy
Bionic Poster
Madrid is 667m. Guadalajara is 1,566m
Dolgopolov85
G.O.A.T.
Damn, that's more than double the elevation of the highest major venue. WTA is welcome to hold the finals at Dharamshala next year, I will attend.
Aussie Darcy
Bionic Poster
For a tournament available to all players sure go ahead, Bogota used to be interesting as heck. However, this is the WTA Finals for the top 8 players of the season and altitude can impact players. We could get utterly random results. For what's meant to be the 5th most important tournament of the year, I wouldn't mess with it. I want to see Barty v Osaka and Barty v Krejcikova, Swiatek v Osaka on a nice hard court where they don't need to worry about altitude and other conditions. we rarely get all top 10 matches so the finals are crucial.
ttwreader
Hall of Fame
They are there to compete in a tennis tournament, not traveling or for leisure
I agree that it’s a strange choice, but I’m just downplaying the severity of the conditions.
Aussie Darcy
Bionic Poster
I'm sure it's not overly bad but after a long season it can be immense. Barty in particular has had it tough. Missed almost all of 2020 due to Covid lockdowns here, returned this year, hasn't been back to Australia since March due to quarantine restrictions and now being asked to fly to Mexico (which will disrupt training considering when she returns she'll have to do 2 weeks quarantine ahead of the Australian summer of tennis). Of course she wants to play, she's the defending champ from 2019 with lots of points to defend but this is inconvenient.
Raul_SJ
G.O.A.T.
Tournament moved from China to Guadalajara?
Thought China had conquered the virus long ago. What is going on? Or is it a matter of China not allowing visitors entry?
Wuhan hosts massive water park party as coronavirus concerns recede | CNN
Thousands of Wuhan revelers cram into a water park for outdoor rave more than eight months after Covid-19 was detected at the former ground zero.
www.cnn.com
21 days quarantine and entrance allowed only for Chinese nationals with prior entry approval. That’s how I understand it at least.Tournament moved from China to Guadalajara?
Thought China had conquered the virus long ago. What is going on? Or is it a matter of China not allowing visitors entry?
Wuhan hosts massive water park party as coronavirus concerns recede | CNN
Thousands of Wuhan revelers cram into a water park for outdoor rave more than eight months after Covid-19 was detected at the former ground zero.
Dolgopolov85
G.O.A.T.
I don't know what they're reporting in Western media but we do a lot of business with China as one of my organisation's associate companies and principal suppliers is Chinese. So get this: the Ningbo port was shut down in August over covid worries. Yes! This did not happen anywhere else to my knowledge. Even us incompetent Indians didn't shut down any of our ports.Tournament moved from China to Guadalajara?
Thought China had conquered the virus long ago. What is going on? Or is it a matter of China not allowing visitors entry?
Wuhan hosts massive water park party as coronavirus concerns recede | CNN
Thousands of Wuhan revelers cram into a water park for outdoor rave more than eight months after Covid-19 was detected at the former ground zero.
Conquered covid my ass. China is struggling with Delta but, as usual, not reporting the numbers because it would hurt Winnie The Pooh's ego.
Beacon Hill
Hall of Fame
There is no way to find out that information unless you personally visited both cities and brought a tape measure with you.
R. Schweikart
Professional
Many US track and field athletes coped quite well - Bob Beamon, Lee Evans, Tommie Smith come to mind.
R. Schweikart
Professional
There have been cross-country skiing events held at this altitude.
Born_to_slice
Legend
It's actually much easier to function at moderately high altitude. Altitude creates new red blood cells which actually helps with speed and endurance.
Similar threads
