2017 WTA Premier Stuttgart & Istanbul

Who will win?

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Aussie Darcy

Aussie Darcy

Bionic Poster
Well it's the week we've been waiting for. The long awaited return of the oh so controversial Maria Sharapova. She can't play til Wednesday but she'll be in the draw either way.


Stuttgart is LOADED with players for a Premier tournament:
Seeds are: Kerber, Pliskova, Cibulkova, Halep, Muguruza, Konta, Radwanska and Kuznetsova.

There's a bunch of awesome unseeded players. Stosur, Vesnina, Coco, Garcia, Kiki, Suarez Navarro, Vinci, Lucic-Baroni and of course Sharapova.

2x defending champ is Kerber with Siegemund being the finalist from last year.

Qualifying is also looking good.
C98dsjPWsAICCXG.jpg


We could possibly get Broady v Ostapenko 2R. AKA "you hit the ball boy with your racket"



Istanbul lineup looks ok.

Seeds are: Svitolina, Babos, Poots, Begu, Bouchard, Arruabarrena, Cirstea and Mertens

Defending champ is Cagla Büyükakçay who's on like an 87 match losing streak.



So who will take home Stuttgart?

Here comes a great week of what i'm sure will be drama filled tennis!
 
Draw is currently underway for Stuttgart I believe. Unsure on Istanbul but i'll try to get links when I can, although i'm sure Spy will be very helpful on that front.
 
Bit of drama today with Radwanska coming out saying the following about Sharapova and wildcards:


"I'm not hiding my views, I think the same as Andy Murray. This kind of entry into the tournament should be available only for players who were dropped int he ranking due to injury, illness or other random accident. Not for those suspended for doping. Maria should rebuild her career in a different way, beginning with smaller events. She wouldn't have a chance for a wildcard if I was a tournament director.

She also said the following about Maria's wildcards:
"Now in Germany, next in Spain, but so far she hasn't been invited to play at slams in Paris (French Open) and London (Wimbledon) and in my opinion that's how it should remain," world number eight Radwanska told Poland's sports daily Przeglad Sportowy.

"She should win her place thanks to good results."
Click to expand...


Sharapova's agent bit back and said the following:

C99qiolUwAE9yyC.jpg
 
These WTA "fights" remind me of those vicious rap diss tracks. I'm totally envisioning Sharapova singing the chorus of Kung Fu Kenny's HUMBLE. briefly.

But I actually don't like to see this drama all the time. It gets tiresome after a while and sometimes it's extremely childish (that statement from Sharapova's agent is overly aggressive).
 
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I've got no idea who will win Stuttgart, that's a strong field and no one is quite consistent enough to be a safe bet. Sharapova is of course the big unknown. Will she do a Federer and blitz everyone in her path after an extended break? Or fizzle out in the first round?

As for Istanbul, you know it's a weak field when Bouchard is seeded. Has she even won a WTA-level match this year?
 
Racqueteer said:
I've got no idea who will win Stuttgart, that's a strong field and no one is quite consistent enough to be a safe bet. Sharapova is of course the big unknown. Will she do a Federer and blitz everyone in her path after an extended break? Or fizzle out in the first round?

As for Istanbul, you know it's a weak field when Bouchard is seeded. Has she even won a WTA-level match this year?
Click to expand...
Had a decent-ish start to the year by making the Sydney SF with wins over top 10 Cibulkova and also beat Zhang and Pavs. Made the AO 3R too. She's on a 5 match losing streak on the WTA main tour this year now though.
 
Thanks, saved me looking it up. She's had a better year than I thought, in that case. All the tournaments where I've paid attention to her, she has lost in the first round. Maybe she'll be able to make an impact in Turkey and get some confidence back.
 
Chris Evert, an 18-time Grand Slam singles champion and ESPN television commentator, thinks it may have.

“I have a feeling there’s going to be a little different Maria that’s coming back,” Evert said. “I think that she’s had a little bit of a wake-up call as far as living life.

“I feel like she’s out of her bubble now. She went back to school for a little bit, she’s gotten better in her business, she’s made more appearances, she’s socializing more with her friends. I think she’s going to be more open.”

http://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2017...-stuttgart-meldonium-suspension-tennis/65561/
 
PDJ said:
Is she actually ranked? I'm not sure she is??
Click to expand...
oh man,, I hope Maria wins this one..... she looks so good coming back. but Simona is next favorite player to win it all...she is HOT after the Fedcup.....she destroyed everybody in Fedcup this weekend.
 
Do you guys have any Pictures from the player party at Stuttgart ??????? oh what I wouldn't give to see how the WTA players are greeting Maria at the party ................ they are probably all sucking up to her in reality,,,,ALL Hippcrates..........
 
spystud said:
Guess they're solving the Maria scheduling issue by just backing everything up a day. Technically the tourney starts Monday the 24th, but there's only two doubles matches & the four remaining qualies. Not the most entertaining OoP you'll ever see.

http://www.wtatennis.com/SEWTATour-Archive/posting/2017/1051/OP.pdf
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Generally Fed Cup means they never have many matches on the Monday.

Got this from twitter in terms of matches on the Monday.

0 on Monday in 2013, 1 in 2014 and 2015, 2 in 2016 and... back to 0 for 2017!

https://twitter.com/ryvlin/status/856289289315004416
 
Figured that played a role, but they'd be better off just finishing qualies today & calling the official start the 25th. Can only imagine the attendance for those two doubles matches.
 
I was thinking the same thing; that Aggie may not even beat Makarova. But she's owned her (6-2), though they've never played on clay before. Still, Makarova hasn't been playing that well, so she's overdue for a good tourney.

I had no idea their (Maria/Aggie) H2H was so one-sided: 13-2. No wonder AR hates her. I love Vinci. I wish she hadn't drawn Sharapova. She plays badly against her. Won four games in 2 matches. If I were a betting woman, and I am, I'd put 50 quid on Sharapova to win the tourney. I have a feeling she's going to play great. Revenge is a great motivator for some people. After hearing about Williams's pregnancy, she's got to be optimistic.
 
I wonder why Safarova isn't playing in Stuttgart or Istanbul. She was defending her title points from Prague this week. She falls at least 8 spots as a result and now looks like she'll be unseeded for the French Open. Odd, you'd think she'd want a seed considering she reached the final in 2015.

Good place to be seeded and get ranking points.
 
Also, either Kerber or Pliskova will be seeded #1 at the French Open.

I believe the others are defending too many points.
Cibulkova with the Madrid final
Halep with the Madrid title
Muguruza with Madrid SF
Then the others are too far behind even if they won both Rome and Madrid.
 
Aussie Darcy said:
I wonder why Safarova isn't playing in Stuttgart or Istanbul. She was defending her title points from Prague this week. She falls at least 8 spots as a result and now looks like she'll be unseeded for the French Open. Odd, you'd think she'd want a seed considering she reached the final in 2015.

Good place to be seeded and get ranking points.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure being seeded is such a big deal for her - I guess that depends on her H2H with top players. I can't imagine there's any one out there - with Serena out- that she can't beat. But she's rather brittle so could equally lose to most. Pity, as I like her and her tennis (when she's on).
 
If you're on Facebook look up Craig Webster. He's a former ATP player that has worked with many former players including a young Graf.
He's currently in Stuttgart and commented that Sharapova looks great in practice.
He's also very interesting in terms of tennis now and in the eighties. Both the pros and cons. But he made an interesting comment that footwork was much better previously than now. And the serve is neglected, it's all about groundstrokes.
 
PDJ said:
If you're on Facebook look up Craig Webster. He's a former ATP player that has worked with many former players including a young Graf.
He's currently in Stuttgart and commented that Sharapova looks great in practice.
He's also very interesting in terms of tennis now and in the eighties. Both the pros and cons. But he made an interesting comment that footwork was much better previously than now. And the serve is neglected, it's all about groundstrokes.
Click to expand...
And the VOLLEY...!!! Even when they get their asses to net -- running down a dropper -- their technique (hi, Maria, Serena) isn't very good. The men are just as hesitant to get to net. Goffin and Ramos-Vinolas were losing badly, and they still wouldn't follow a good offensive shot to the net. Of course, I blame Cedric Maurier, and Ilie Nastase. I read somewhere the ITF is considering a public horsewhipping, followed by hanging by the thumbs till sundown. Let's hope they follow through. ;^)B
 
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Aussie Darcy said:
I wonder why Safarova isn't playing in Stuttgart or Istanbul. She was defending her title points from Prague this week. She falls at least 8 spots as a result and now looks like she'll be unseeded for the French Open. Odd, you'd think she'd want a seed considering she reached the final in 2015.

Good place to be seeded and get ranking points.
Click to expand...

She might be eye-ing Prague title, so Stuttgart-Prague-Madrid-Rome will be too much for her as I believe she also will play dubs in Madrid & Rome
 
Cibulkova withdraws from Stuttgart.

Muguruza moves to her spot and gets a bye to the 2R. She's now in the same quarter as Sharapova, Vinci, Makarova, Radwanska, Konjuh and a qualifier/lucky loser.

Muguruza's previous spot will be replaced by a qualifier/lucky loser.
 
Osaka, Ostapenko, Kontaveit, Korpatsch get the first 4 qualie spots.


16-year old Yastremska bageled Petko in the second in Istanbul, closed it out in 3. Let's see how long until someone starts a thread about her.
 
That Stuttgart draw is so top heavy, but I expect Maria to get through it and go on a tear all the way through the French Open. She has had a whole year to rest all her nagging injuries that have bedeviled her, while her opponents have been slogging their way through 4 months of hard courts already. This was her best chance to beat Serena. I'm sure the pregnancy was timed to avoid this situation :)
 
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Vanhool said:
That Stuttgart draw is so top heavy, but I expect Maria to get through it and go on a tear all the way through the French Open. She has had a whole year to rest all her nagging injuries that have bedeviled her, while her opponents have been slogging their way through 4 months of hard courts already. This was her best chance to beat Serena. I'm sure the pregnancy was timed to avoid this situation :)
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You're joking right?
 
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