2018 WTA week of June 18: Premier Birmingham & Mallorca

WWW Birmingham?

  • Muguruza

    Votes: 1 14.3%

  • Svitolina

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Pliskova

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Kvitova

    Votes: 4 57.1%

  • Goerges

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Kasatkina

    Votes: 1 14.3%

  • Mertens

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Vandeweghe

    Votes: 1 14.3%

  • Barty

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Other?

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    7
Aussie Darcy

Aussie Darcy

Bionic Poster
Two good tournaments this week.

Premier Birmingham which always attracts a great draw.

Seeded players in order are: Muguruza, Svitolina, Pliskova, Kvitova, Goerges, Kasatkina, Mertens and Vandeweghe.

A lot of decent unseeded players: Pavs, Mladenovic, Osaka, Barty, Domi, Gavrilova, Konta, Makarova and Vekic.

Wildcards went to:
Boulter, Svitolina and Watson

Kvitova is the defending champion.

A lot of juicy 1R matches:
Muguruza v Pavs
Pliskova v Rybarikova
Domi v Gavrilova
Kvitova v Konta
Cornet v Makarova
Svitolina v Vekic

Qualifying was pretty good too and featured: Giorgi, Pera, lefty Pliskova and Bouchard(!), Genie is a win away from the main draw, she's won 2 qualifying matches so that's good from the 2014 Wimbledon finalist.


Mallorca is the other tournament on this week and it's pretty decent for an International.

Seeds are: Garcia, Kerber, Sevastova, Kontaveit, Suarez Navarro, Collins, Safarova and Sabalenka.

Good unseeded players: Krunic, Stosur, Vondrousova and Azarenka (using a PR).

Wildcards went to:
Schiavone, Kostyuk(!), Kuznetsova and Arruabarrena,

Sevastova is the defending champ.


Poll is for Birmingham.
 
Weird scheduling in Mallorca.

Qualifying still not finished, two matches yet to start but a main draw match between Stosur and Vondrousova has already finished with Sam winning.

Odd to see someone in the 2R when qualifiers haven't been filled.
 
Vondrousova struggle continues. She doesnt look like she is enjoying tennis lately. Awful body language in every match
 
helixx said:
Vondrousova struggle continues. She doesnt look like she is enjoying tennis lately. Awful body language in every match
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NaomiKonjuhPotapova said:
I really like her but she's been struggling for a while. But grass is not her best surface (yet) but so does Stosur.
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Watched the match and Stosur was playing well for grass (normally terrible on the surface). Vondrousova choked big in the second set though. Was up a break and Stosur was playing this incredibly long service game at deuce and kept getting game points but would make poor errors. Vondrousova had many chances to go up the double break but failed. She went on to serve for the set but just couldn’t do it and she lost the next 3 games to lose the match. Not great.
 
NaomiKonjuhPotapova said:
Did Sloane broke Anett? She lost 2 winnable matches.
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Cannot confirm 100% but Kontaveit had some conflict with her coach (Glenn Schaap, reason was apparently pretty lol - her boyfriend & priorities). In RG Schaap left before Kvitova match, Anett managed to win it and hoped things get sorted out. Before Stephens match she found out that they are not going to and she's been a bit of a mess since. She is currently working with Nigel Sears but it is just initial testing period for now.
 
unbiased said:
Cannot confirm 100% but Kontaveit had some conflict with her coach (Glenn Schaap, reason was apparently pretty lol - her boyfriend & priorities). In RG Schaap left before Kvitova match, Anett managed to win it and hoped things get sorted out. Before Stephens match she found out that they are not going to and she's been a bit of a mess since. She is currently working with Nigel Sears but it is just initial testing period for now.
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O yeah I heard that she's working with Nigel atm but I did not know that he left her before Kvitova match!
Poor girl.
 
Good to see some of the top WTA singles players playing doubles together. Kasatkina/Muguruza playing doubles together at Birmingham. Currently down a set, but leading 2-1 in 2nd set.
 
keys_speed-01.jpg
 
If Petra manages to win the title here that would be her FIFTH of the season. Incredible.

In 2017, the most amount of titles won for the whole year was 5 by Svitolina.
2016 had Domi win 4.
2015, 2014 and 2013 all had Serena with 5, 7 and 11(!) respectively.
 
Aussie Darcy said:
If Petra manages to win the title here that would be her FIFTH of the season. Incredible.

In 2017, the most amount of titles won for the whole year was 5 by Svitolina.
2016 had Domi win 4.
2015, 2014 and 2013 all had Serena with 5, 7 and 11(!) respectively.
Click to expand...

I think 2013 was (Arguably) Serena's best year (But uniquely, not in GS) as she's 75-4 that year.
 
Wow, monumental choke by Mertens.

She led 6-3 5-2, served for the match at 6-3 5-3 40-30 but couldn’t convert her match point and was broken. In the next game she had three more match points but Jakupovic saved them all and held serve. They eventually went to a tiebreak and Mertens led 3-0 with a double minibreak but managed to lose it and so it was back on serve for 4-4, she went on to have another match point at 7-6 but couldn’t convert it and she lost the second set.

Jakupovic now up 5-1 serving for the match in the 3rd.
 
Mallorca:

Nice 3 set win for Azarenka. Next plays Safarova who got past Kostyuk in straights.

Garcia had to fight hard against the unconventional Hsieh but the top seed did win in 3 sets.

Defending champ Sevastova gets an easy win over Kuznetsova who's still struggling since her return from injuries.

Kerber locked in a 3rd set against Riske. Match was suspended due to darkness. Riske has pushed some big players of late. In a 3rd set against Kerber, pushed very hard against Coco last week and took a set off Halep at the French.

Arruabarrena upset Suarez Navarro in straight sets. Plays Stosur for a spot in the QF. Been a long time since Stosur made a grass QF.

Birmingham:

Very easy win for Garbie over Pavs which makes me happy ahead of Muguruza's Wimbledon title defense.

Kasatkina overcomes lefty Pliskova in 3 sets.

Nottingham champ Ash Barty easily beats Dodin and sets up a 2R vs Goerges who beat Sakkari.

Dasha gets past Domi and will play Petra who easily beat Konta.

Martic upsets Coco (always good).
 
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Jakupovic is 27? Looked like a rising contender. Keeping up with Osaka today, looks like a close match. 3-3
 
Jakupovic just broke Naomi at love. Oops Naomi is talking to coach about maybe retiring. Said she can't serve.
 
SystemicAnomaly said:
Any alternatives to WTA TV, other than betting sites, for watching Mallorca?
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Search for the matches on youtube. You can filter for "live" which will give you only the channels that are currently streaming. Can often find WTA matches this way, but not always. Won't find live slam matches on youtube though.
 
Wednesday:

Caroline Garcia advanced to the quarterfinal stage in the WTA Mallorca Open after a two-set victory over Johanna Larsson in the round of 16.

Garcia, who is the tournament's No. 1 seed, beat Sweden's Larsson 6-4, 6-3.

Earlier in the day, Alison Riske beat Angelique Kerber in their delayed match to eliminate progress to the next round.

The match was postponed due to darkness on Tuesday, but Riske eventually emerged victorious with a winning score of 5-7, 6-2, 6-1.

Elsewhere, Sofia Kenin came from behind to beat Alison Van Uytvanck to progress to last eight.

Kenin, who is the world No. 90, lost the first set 2-6 before battling her way back with two consecutive 6-4 set victories.

Also on day three, Lara Arruabarrena beat Samantha Stosur in two sets 6-3, 6-4 while Tatjana Maria claimed victory over countrywoman Carina Witthoeft 7-6 (1), 6-3.
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Fifth-ranked Elina Svitolina believes she is making progress on grass after reaching the quarterfinals of the Birmingham Classic for the first time with a 6-4, 6-2 win over France's Alize Cornet on Wednesday.

Svitolina was within a couple of wins of becoming world No. 1 earlier this year without ever enjoying much success on grass.

"I was expecting a good match with her [Cornet] because she plays well against the top players," the 23-year-old Svitolina said. "She certainly produced some great rallies. But I was very happy with my performance and happy to be in the quarterfinals for the first time here."

A drive-volley and smash combination helped the second-seeded Ukrainian break serve for the first time in the fifth game, and she never looked like relinquishing the advantage throughout the rest of the set.

Svitolina next plays Mihaela Buzarnescu, a 30-year-old Romanian who is at a career-high No. 30 after being ranked 267th a year ago. Buzarnescu beat Petra Martic of Croatia 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the Wimbledon warmup tournament Wednesday.

Magdalena Rybarikova, who rose almost 90 places last year to reach a career-high No. 17 in March, once again showed her liking for this surface with a fine recovery against Kristina Mladenovic.

After losing the first set, the Slovak accelerated toward victory against the former top 10 player from France with an array of slice ground strokes, clever approaches and sharp volleys.

Rybarikova, who won the title here in 2009, reached the Wimbledon semifinals last year.

"I think I'd been a bit passive. The key was when I played more cross-court slices and drops and made an early break in the second set," Rybarikova said. "That's the way I am trying to play on grass. I am thankful that I have the game to do that."

She next faces Slovenian qualifier Dalila Jakupovic, who followed up Tuesday's win over Elise Mertens with a victory against 18th-ranked Naomi Osaka, who retired with an injury after losing the first set 6-3.
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Aussie Darcy said:
Muguruza was thrashed by Strycova 6-1 6-0 in Eastbourne last year only to win Wimbledon a few weeks later so I guess it’s not all doom and gloom
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I think circumstances were a little different last year given how disrupted Eastbourne was by the rain last year. Part of me thought it was a tank to avoid playing too many back to back matches.

I don't know what to make of this result. Seemed like another disinterested Garbie match. She will turn up for Wimbledon I am pretty sure, but at same time who knows what could happen. Conchita won't be around to keep her positive.

One other thought is that she probably needs more of a support team traveling around with her. I think she gets along well with physio, but other than that it's just Sumyk, and their relationship is too confusing.
 
Big babe tennis coming up in Birmingham, Kvitova vs. Goerges. Petra holds the H2H 5-1, but they've never played on grass together before.
 
Tatjana Maria knocks out Lucie.

T Maria v Kenin for a spot in the Mallorca final. That’s unexpected. One of them looking for their maiden tour final in singles.
 
Kvitova in control, takes the first 6-1, this could be over soon.
 
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