2017 WTA week of 1/8; Sydney (Premier) & Hobart

spystud

spystud

Talk Tennis Guru
Serena, Simona, Garbine taking the week off, all the other big names are in Sydney.

Early part of the draw in pretty picture form...

C1iMPoFUQAQQXzZ.jpg

Full Sydney draw pdf



We mentioned it already in the other thread, but Hobart could really be decimated by withdrawals. Siniakova is the only one confirmed out now, but more will follow.

Hobart draw pdf
 
Zhang just withdrew from Brisbane doubles with Stosur after her singles loss to Cibulkova? Interesting to see her play there.
Bouchard v Zhang should be a good match.... or Zhang could steamroll Genie. Guess we will see.
 
Also interesting to see Ash Barty is having to play Hobart qualies. Didn't get a main draw wildcard into Hobart or Sydney and didn't even get a qualifying wildcard into Sydney. She just pushed the world number 1 to 3 sets and she's an Aussie. Odd not to reward her with something... She would draw a decent crowd. Obviouslly Sydney gave it to Bencic and Bouchard who are bigger names but Hobart? They'll be lucky to get anyone.

Anyway, she won her 1R qualies match against a South Korean and in the 2R she defeated Gibbs in 3 sets. She'll face 6th seed Ozaki for a spot in the main draw.
 
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Sydney streams a lot. Bravo!

At 7 PM EST streaming starts tonight with one of my favorites: Naomi Broady,
the owner of a great 1HBH, fighting to qualify

Bouchard later at 9.30 PM EST.
 
Aussie Darcy said:
This is just so sad. Poor Hobart. This is their twitter..
C1mfnYtXgAMExz6.jpg:large
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:( So sad.

So is the BeIn coverage of WTA. The announcer sounds like one of the online streaming guys. Sounds like he needs antidepressants. They always sound a little sad when they're talking to themselves. I know a lot of people here like quiet, dignified commies, but I don't think they attract new viewers. BeIn is a network whose main sport is soccer. They have a chance to try to pick up some new viewers, but a boring announcer doesn't help. Also low def sucks :(

Edit: Hobart guy is a little peppier. First guy wasn't that bad...I guess it's the nature of the beast.
 
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Belinda retires in 2nd set of her match. Toe injury or something, I wasn't quite sure. Shouldn't impact AO I would assume, but injuries really set her back last year and I don't want it to happen again.
 
Aussie Darcy said:
Interesting to see Sloane play. She hadn't recovered from her foot injury for Auckland where she was defending champ but she'll be in Sydney. Let's keep an eye on that one. Possible withdrawal coming.
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And despite travelling to Sydney, Sloane withdraws from both Sydney and the Australian Open. Same injury that has bothered her since August. Just as she was starting to get her career on track with a couple titles.
 
Aus Open is going to miss so many seeds and top names.
We've got; Azarenka, Ivanovic, Kvitova, Keys, Sloane and Lisicki. That last one wouldn't have been seeded but she'll always be a grand slam finalist and therefore a big(ish) name.

Won't be surprised to see one or two more seeds withdraw as well.
 
I thought Ivanovic would not have been seeded either. No idea what Sloane's ranking even is these days.

Edit: doesn't seem like Sloane would have been seeded either.

Been following seed withdrawals with interest as I'd like Ana seeded, but it appears she'll be the first under the cutoff line.
 
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Despite losing in the 2R of qualifying, Gibbsy gets into the main draw as a lucky loser and faces Petkovic.

Poor Hobart has had so many withdrawals...

6 lucky losers, 4 qualifiers, 1 protected ranking and 3 wildcards.
 
But in saying all that, the Hobart draw has some decent unseeded players/people to watch at the event.

Former French Open champ Schiavone as a wildcard
Former top 10 Petkovic
Former top 10 Safarova
Aussie Cabrera who knocked out seeded Misaki Doi
Former top 15 and former Wimbledon SFist Flipkens
Aussie Jaimee Fourlis
Former number 1 Jankovic. (Already knocked out though)
The less successful Pliskova twin
Surprise French Open QFist Shelby Rogers
2x WTA titelist and USO 4R last year Tsurenko
 
Sydney:
Cibulkova thrashes Siegemund 6-2 6-0.
Vinci thrashes Sakkari 6-4 6-0.
Konta beats Rodionova.
Strycova up 6-3 2-1 on Makarova as well.
 
Pavs with backhand pass and follows up by blasting two returns. 3 points in a row for 2-0 up on Stosur. Aaaand holds for 3-0.
 
Oh wow, Pavlyuchenkova is working with someone called Simon Goffin. If that last name is familiar, it's cause it is. Simon is David Goffin's brother. Apparently Simon worked with Petkovic last year and now works with Pavs.
 
Bagel coming for Sam. 8th straight loss going into the Aus Open. Her last win was at the last slam of 2016 at the USO.

Very bad form considering she reached the French SF last year.
 
My avatar serving for it.


It will be a long time before we see something as strange as Monica's Gold again.
 
Feel for Puig, i thought she was the more exciting player, got broken early each set she lost and that was it. Bummer...kind of like her after seeing her being so friendly to kids.
 
Wow. Nara ended up making the Hobart main draw as a lucky loser depite losing R1 of qualies. Not R3, not R2... R1. Sometimes it pays to stay behind before flying out straight away to your next city. Most have gone to Melbourne for the Aus Open qualies.
 
Kerber doesn't have the easiest of draws, does she? I fully expect her to get past Daria, but Daria's certainly no easy feat for a second round. Probably good for her, though, as it should help steel her for AO, assuming Daria doesn't have a bad day and just rolls over.

Rad should be able to pick McHale apart in straight sets. McHale can't frustrate Rad the way she can frustrate a certain someone. :-)

Remaining match-ups are all really interesting and definitely could go either way. I'll be hunting for some good streams tonight.
 
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Kasatkina played very well in Brisbane against Muguruza whilst Kerber was definitely off in Brisbane. Could be a 3 setter. Kerber should skip Sydney, she didn't seem good in Brisbane at all.
 
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Doubles seeds also are available for the Aus Open.

Garcia/Mladenovic top seeds
Mattek Sands/Safarova back together, 2nd seeds
Makarova/Vesnina
Mirza/Strycova
Hingis/Coco
Chans
Goerges/Pliskova
King/Shvedova
Niculescu/Spears
Hradecka/Siniakova
Atawo//Yifan!?
Hlvackova/Peng
Srebotnik/Saisai
Bertens/Larsson
Williams sisters!!!
Jurak/Rodionova
 
Aussie Darcy said:
Kasatkina played very well in Brisbane against Muguruza whilst Kerber was definitely off in Brisbane. Could be a 3 setter. Kerber should skip Sydney, she didn't seem good in Brisbane at all.
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She must feel like she didn't get enough court time in Brisbane. No other explanation. It should be all about AO for her now. If she manages to do well there, Serena almost certainly can't overtake her until at least Miami in March, and I'd be surprised if others could (Rad will be defending AO SF, plus IW SF, and I am too lazy to inquire into the rest, but odds are pretty long they could get there, I would think).

I would think she'll withdraw if she makes it into SF or sth.
 
skyline said:
She must feel like she didn't get enough court time in Brisbane. No other explanation. It should be all about AO for her now. If she manages to do well there, Serena almost certainly can't overtake her until at least Miami in March, and I'd be surprised if others could (Rad will be defending AO SF, plus IW SF, and I am too lazy to inquire into the rest, but odds are pretty long they could get there, I would think).

I would think she'll withdraw if she makes it into SF or sth.
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I was a big Kerber fan last year and still am so hopefully people don't take this the wrong way, but I can see her definitely losing early at the Aus Open. 3R against a tough seeded opponent. There will be heaps of dangerous unseeded players too from Safarova to Bouchard to Petkovic etc. She needs to train up and be ready cause what I saw in Brisbane was nothing worthy of a top 3 player to be honest. Although, what we saw of most top 10 players last week (besides Pliskova) was nothing worthy of top 10.
 
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Aussie Darcy said:
I was a big Kerber fan last year and still am so hopefully people don't take this the wrong way, but I can see her definitely losing early at the Aus Open. 3R against a tough seeded opponent. There will be heaps of dangerous unseeded players too from Safarova to Bouchard to Petkovic etc. She needs to train up and be ready cause what I saw in Brisbane was nothing worthy of a top 3 player to be honest. Although, what we saw of most top 10 players last week (besides Pliskova) was nothing worthy of top 10.
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I think she'll show up and go far (QF/SF), I just don't see her defending the title. Nothing against her, few players manage to defend their GS titles. Don't think Muguruza & Serena will defend theirs either.

Pliskova's been my dark horse from the beginning. Hopefully she doesn't actually have the "thigh" injury she cited as her reason for withdrawing from Sydney.
 
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Kuznetsova failed to serve out the first set at 5-4 and went on to lose it 7-5 to Pavs. Pavs now up 7-5 4-2 on the defending champ.

Pavs was playing well against Stosur yesterday but this wouldn't be good for Kuzy as the defending champ.

Strycova also sent Vinci to Melbourne with a straight sets wins.

Cibulkova on serve 3-2 against Bouchard.

In Hobart, Petko lost the first set 3-6 to Cepede but won the second set 6-0 and it's at 2-2 in the 3rd.
 
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