2016 WTA Rogers Cup.

[Aussie Darcy]

Premier 5 tournament.

Not as many withdrawals compared to the ATP version but Serena is out as is Azarenka, defending champ Bencic, Wozniacki, Jankovic and a few more.

Top seed is Kerber followed by; Muguruza, Radwanska, Halep, Venus, Vinci, Suarez Navarro, Kuznetsova, Keys, Cibulkova, Kvitova, Stosur, Pliskova, Konta, Pavs and Svitolina.

Some real 1R popcorn matches:
Safarova v Bouchard
Poots v Pavs
Keys Vesnina
Makarova v Brengle
Garcia v Strycova
Cornet v Petko
Sloane v Giorgi
Stosur v Watson

Doubles features Hingis/Mirza, Garcia/Mladenovic, the Chan's, Makarova/Vesnina.

Also in prep for Rio we see a bunch of the pairings here.
Errani/Vinci playing for the first time since their split back when they were co-number 1.
Kerber/Petkovic
Gavrilova/Stosur
Kasatkina/Kuzzy
Muguruza/Suarez Navarro

Anyone know why Mattek Sands/Safarova split? They were the defending champs but Mattek Sands plays with Watson and Safarova is playing with Babos.

 

[PDJ]

I just saw Errani /Vinci playing doubles together (would have been better if they had paired up at the beginning of the year) but great to see how they do as I'd love them to get an Olympic medal.
BMS and Watson could be quite a special pairing. I hope so.

 

[PDJ]

I generally find the doubles more interesting than the singles, especially so for this tournament.

 

[Marius_Hancu]

Saw yesterday late afternoon
amazing Q match
Broady - Dibbs
Being the last match, the whole house was there.
Naomi Broady (UK) has the most amazing 1HBH out there, including the men and Gasparyan
top and slice
6' 2", she's very athletic,
S-Vs very effectively and has a feathery dropshot
Go watch her tonight!
She will have a tough match with Puig, but if she wins, watch out Carmine

Late bloomer (26).

Encouraged her Davis-Cup style at all critical moments
and it probably helped, as she's a bit moody and needs reinforcement

 

[Marius_Hancu]

The new draw
http://3pam8anagme464n1l3p4ufl4.wpe...p-content/uploads/sites/3/2016/07/MDS-4-1.pdf
favors Halep, but not Bouchard.

 

[Marius_Hancu]

The practice courts are here:
http://practice-scheduling.com/Tournament/Details/1

 

[ScentOfDefeat]

Very depleted draw. I'm disappointed in Bencic, what's going on with her?

 

[PDJ]

Very depleted draw. I'm disappointed in Bencic, what's going on with her?

I assume she's still injured. She and Azarenka are walking (or not?) disasters.
Both appear to be very unlucky with their health.

 

[skyline]

Bencic has been nursing an injury for much of this season. I'm so miffed she and Serena are missing from this tournament. Especially Serena, who won't even play Cincinatti.

I understood skipping Cincy to give herself time to recover between Olympics and USO, but why Montreal, too?! :-( She could have used the warmup.

 

[Fedole]

Bencic has been nursing an injury for much of this season. I'm so miffed she and Serena are missing from this tournament. Especially Serena, who won't even play Cincinatti.

I understood skipping Cincy to give herself time to recover between Olympics and USO, but why Montreal, too?! :-( She could have used the warmup.

Be interesting to see how much of a dent Kerber can make in the points difference. She'll need strong performances at Montreal, Cincy AND the USO to stand a chance, ideally winning at least one really. Long shot but you never know.

 

[skyline]

Be interesting to see how much of a dent Kerber can make in the points difference. She'll need strong performances at Montreal, Cincy AND the USO to stand a chance, ideally winning at least one really. Long shot but you never know.

I anticipate Kerber losing points from not defending Stanford once live rankings account for it. That would make it even longer of a shot.

I'd love it if she made a deep run at Montreal tho, both for stability and to potentially force Serena to freaking play Cincy. Come on, Serena.

 

[Mainad]

Bencic has been nursing an injury for much of this season. I'm so miffed she and Serena are missing from this tournament. Especially Serena, who won't even play Cincinatti.

I understood skipping Cincy to give herself time to recover between Olympics and USO, but why Montreal, too?! :-( She could have used the warmup.

Lol...Serena regularly skips the lesser tournaments. She always develops an injury of some sort that forces her to pull out. Mysteriously, these injuries only ever manifest themselves in the smaller events but never at the Slams. Strange that.

 

[JonnyMac]

Lol...Serena regularly skips the lesser tournaments. She always develops an injury of some sort that forces her to pull out. Mysteriously, these injuries only ever manifest themselves in the smaller events but never at the Slams. Strange that.

Such cynicism - You'll never catch me being cynical or sarcastic...
Although.... what you say is absolutely true - LOL !

 

[Soianka]

Serena has had plenty of injuries at slams. Obviously Serena would be more willing to play through injuries at slams than other tournaments. No slam contender is going to risk further hurting themselves weeks before a slam.

Serena's longevity is a testament to her intelligently planned scheduling and exercising caution with her body. But I'm sure you know better...

 

[MichaelNadal]

Wow, Venus/Keys could be colliding here.

 

[skyline]

Serena has had plenty of injuries at slams. Obviously Serena would be more willing to play through injuries at slams than other tournaments. No slam contender is going to risk further hurting themselves weeks before a slam.

Serena's longevity is a testament to her intelligently planned scheduling and exercising caution with her body. But I'm sure you know better...

I agree with you, and I bet this inflammation is something she'd gladly play through at USO but doesn't think is worth playing through at Toronto. After all, she played through the flu at 2015 FO, but skipped Madrid over what seemed like a flu=like illness this year.

I'm just disappointed. I totally understood skipping Cincy given the mere two weeks between Olympics and USO but come ooooooooooon.....I wanted to see her warm up for Olympics at Montreal!

I'm worried Venus is too exhausted to go far after Stanford, so it just sucks, leaves me deprived of my two favorites.

 

[Aussie Darcy]

Very depleted draw. I'm disappointed in Bencic, what's going on with her?

How is this draw depleted? 8 of the top 10, 16 of the top 20. Compared to 6 of the top 10 for ATP and 12 of the top 20.
"Only" Serena, Vika and Bencic out in terms of big name stars. Maybe throw in Wozniacki and Jankovic but neither would go far being unseeded.

 

[Aussie Darcy]

Dasha Gavrilova beat Beck in straights. Should be a good 2R match between Gavrilova and Halep.

Also apparently Makarova crumbled against Brengle, Makarova was up 4-2 in the 3rd set but lost 4 straight games to lose the match. Makarova faces either Keys/Vesnina 2R.

Mostly rain delays though so not many matches have started/finished.

Other results/live scores before rain:
Garcia/Strycova in the 3rd set with Strycova up 3-2 but on serve.
Lucic Baroni up 6-2 3-0 with 40-0 (3 BP's) as well over Hibino.

And that's all the play we've had..

 

[skyline]

Any play for the rest of the day? Would like to see MLB finish her match against Hibino....

 

[Aussie Darcy]

Any play for the rest of the day? Would like to see MLB finish her match against Hibino....

Play has just resumed for Garcia/Strycova and play started for Svitolina/Brady, hopefully the rain backs off!

 

[skyline]

Play has just resumed for Garcia/Strycova and play started for Svitolina/Brady, hopefully the rain backs off!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, I just want MLB to finish off Hibino! She's such headcase, things can change in five minutes let alone overnight.

 

[Aussie Darcy]

Lucic-Baroni crushed Hibino 6-2 6-0
Strycova defeats Garcia 2-6 6-3 6-3
Svitolina won the first over Brady 6-2

Stosur/Watson just started

 

[skyline]

Awesome MLB! Next up is Kerber. Sadly MLB is typically Kerber's pigeon but there's always a first....

 

[Aussie Darcy]

Venus v Strycova R2. They haven't played since the awkward handshake match last year.

 

[Aussie Darcy]

Also great chance once more for Muguruza to reach that number 1. Next few weeks are crucial for top 5 players.

Whilst the points don't come off this week we've got the following rankings wise.

August 1st: No top 20 player will lose points

August 8th: No top 20 players playing this week so no points will be gained, however:
Kerber will lose her Stanford title points. That's 470 points.
Aga will lose Stanford QF points. 100 points.

August 15: Olympics week so no points will be gained but Rogers Cup points will come off so:
Halep loses 585 points
Serena loses 350 points
Muguruza loses no points
Aga loses 190 points
Kerber loses 105 points

August 22: Cincinnati points will come off and then be up for grabs BUT Serena isn't playing.
Serena loses 1000 points. Won't gain them back as she's not playing.
Halep loses 585 points. Can gain some/all/more points back.
Muguruza loses 0 points. Can gain huge points and her gap at this stage would be very close to Serena as Muguruza will only gain points from Montreal while Serena will lose 350 and gain nothing as she isn't playing either.

If Serena doesn't play Cincinnati, I honestly believe Muguruza could get to number one. Serena has 1350 points she's losing by August 22 whilst Muguruza has 0. Muguruza is playing 2 Premier 5's until August 22 while Serena is playing 0. The gap between them is currently 2818 points. Minus 1350 that's 1468 points. If Muguruza wins either Cincinnati or Toronto and reaches the final of the other, she should get there.


Serena definitely needs to play Cincinnati to keep being number 1. Cause after that she has US Open SF points (720) to defend while Muguruza only has 2R points to defend (70).

 

[Aussie Darcy]

Stosur was 2 points away from set 1, up 5-2 30-30 on Watson's serve and is now at 5-4 back on serve. Christ.

 

[Aussie Darcy]

Stosur wins the 1st 7-5 anyway.
And wins the 2nd set. Will face Doi or Kasatkina

 

[spystud]

Petra rolled through Linette.

Sloane/Giorgi on TC now, Sloane serving to force a decider.

 

[spystud]

Giorgi breaks, back on serve @ 4-5.

 

[Marius_Hancu]

Well, watched from home as the rain delays killed my patience on site
Naomi Broady beat Puig playing like a top 30
not only service bombs,
but a lot of LOBS, SLICES, DROPSHOTS
not to say anything about her 1HBH.
Kept her temper under control, and came back again after loosing the 1st set.

If she isn't too tired, I give her a chance at beating Muguruza, who looks too slim, perhaps a bit tired.

Watch that match.

 

[spystud]

Breaker for Sloane/Giorgi.

 

[spystud]

Camila wins. Good.

 

[MichaelNadal]

I agree with you, and I bet this inflammation is something she'd gladly play through at USO but doesn't think is worth playing through at Toronto. After all, she played through the flu at 2015 FO, but skipped Madrid over what seemed like a flu=like illness this year.

I'm just disappointed. I totally understood skipping Cincy given the mere two weeks between Olympics and USO but come ooooooooooon.....I wanted to see her warm up for Olympics at Montreal!

I'm worried Venus is too exhausted to go far after Stanford, so it just sucks, leaves me deprived of my two favorites.

I don't think Venus was all that tired in the final, just didn't play well. I don't think her first match here would be will Wednesday so she will be fine I hope.

 

[PDJ]

Well, watched from home as the rain delays killed my patience on site
Naomi Broady beat Puig playing like a top 30
not only service bombs,
but a lot of LOBS, SLICES, DROPSHOTS
not to say anything about her 1HBH.
Kept her temper under control, and came back again after loosing the 1st set.

If she isn't too tired, I give her a chance at beating Muguruza, who looks too slim, perhaps a bit tired.

Watch that match.

I appreciate your posts on Broady. I've known of her, and her brother, for years.
She was treated shamefully by the LTA so I've always followed her progress with interest. If she could string a few wins together I think her confidence could soar and she's capable of a much higher ranking.
Where I have reservations is that she's not always tactically astute, and whilst this could be said of many players, it's, to my mind, what holds her back generally.
But given your description of her match, maybe this is changing. I hope so.

 

[PDJ]

Also great chance once more for Muguruza to reach that number 1. Next few weeks are crucial for top 5 players.

Whilst the points don't come off this week we've got the following rankings wise.

August 1st: No top 20 player will lose points

August 8th: No top 20 players playing this week so no points will be gained, however:
Kerber will lose her Stanford title points. That's 470 points.
Aga will lose Stanford QF points. 100 points.

August 15: Olympics week so no points will be gained but Rogers Cup points will come off so:
Halep loses 585 points
Serena loses 350 points
Muguruza loses no points
Aga loses 190 points
Kerber loses 105 points

August 22: Cincinnati points will come off and then be up for grabs BUT Serena isn't playing.
Serena loses 1000 points. Won't gain them back as she's not playing.
Halep loses 585 points. Can gain some/all/more points back.
Muguruza loses 0 points. Can gain huge points and her gap at this stage would be very close to Serena as Muguruza will only gain points from Montreal while Serena will lose 350 and gain nothing as she isn't playing either.

If Serena doesn't play Cincinnati, I honestly believe Muguruza could get to number one. Serena has 1350 points she's losing by August 22 whilst Muguruza has 0. Muguruza is playing 2 Premier 5's until August 22 while Serena is playing 0. The gap between them is currently 2818 points. Minus 1350 that's 1468 points. If Muguruza wins either Cincinnati or Toronto and reaches the final of the other, she should get there.


Serena definitely needs to play Cincinnati to keep being number 1. Cause after that she has US Open SF points (720) to defend while Muguruza only has 2R points to defend (70).

I thoroughly enjoy your 'ranking' posts.
I just wish I could 'like' them x20!

 

[PDJ]

Lol...Serena regularly skips the lesser tournaments. She always develops an injury of some sort that forces her to pull out. Mysteriously, these injuries only ever manifest themselves in the smaller events but never at the Slams. Strange that.

You can understand why she does it. And it seems to happen fairly frequently.
I wonder how many times over the last few years?

 

[MichaelNadal]

^Vee doing promotion for Eleven in Montreal yesterday.

 

[THUNDERVOLLEY]

Lol...Serena regularly skips the lesser tournaments. She always develops an injury of some sort that forces her to pull out. Mysteriously, these injuries only ever manifest themselves in the smaller events but never at the Slams. Strange that.

Nonsense. She was limping on court--clearly injured during Wimbledon 2007, the only way she lost to Henin at the event.

...but its no surprise another member would like that myth.

 

[spystud]

That was 9 years ago, it's okay to let it go.

 

[THUNDERVOLLEY]

Yes, some should let go of the "Serena is only injured at the lesser tournaments" myth..but I understand that some cannot stand her majors success, so they need to dream up something to whine about.

 

[PDJ]

 

[PDJ]

Yes, some should let go of the "Serena is only injured at the lesser tournaments" myth..but I understand that some cannot stand her majors success, so they need to dream up something to whine about.

Perhaps you could enlighten us to how many tournaments she's withdrawn from in the last few years; how often she's retired; and how many of those were at the four majors?
I look forward to your response.
Off the top of my head, I think she only played one tournament for the rest of 2015 after her failed Grand Slam bid at the USO.

 

[skyline]

I mean, obviously she's more willing to play through discomforts at GSs than in places like Toronto. I'm just frustrated because I wanted to see her play this week.

Aussie Darcy, thanks for the rankings breakdown. I do think that the only way Serena HAS to play Cincy is if Muguruza goes far here, no? Personally I hope she does because I'd like to see a full field in Cincy and worry it'll be super depleted post-Olympics.

 

[spystud]

Zero after USO.

 

[PDJ]

Zero after USO.

Not even one?

 

[spystud]

Aussie, IW, Miami, Rome, French, Wimbly, that's the list.


Granted, 5 of 6 finals though.

 

[PDJ]

Yes, some should let go of the "Serena is only injured at the lesser tournaments" myth..but I understand that some cannot stand her majors success, so they need to dream up something to whine about.

Until you come up with further stats, I'll help you.
In 2015 Serena Williams was scheduled to play 15 tournaments (plus Fed Cup). She played 10 (including all 4 majors).
She either withdrew before, or during, 5 others. A third.
Yup, a third.

 

[PDJ]

Aussie, IW, Miami, Rome, French, Wimbly, that's the list.


Granted, 5 of 6 finals though.

She's invariably impressive, and consistent, when she plays.
I wonder how many she's not played?
But I'm sure @THUNDERVOLLEY will enlighten us. She's a helpful sort.

 

[skyline]

She pulled out of Madrid. That's the only withdrawal I can think of for this year (besides Montreal). Anything else others can think of?

 

[spystud]

Hopman Cup, Dubai, Stanford.