WTA week of 6/17; Berlin 500 & Birmingham 250

ScottleeSV

Hall of Fame
lol wtf

So that’s the top 3 favourites for Wimbledon (Rybakina, Sabalenka, now Jabeur) who have all had to retire this tournament…
Oooh are the stars aligning for Katie?

Just kidding. And in any event, until we hear anything else, got to assume these retirements are precautionary and fairly minor in nature.
 

marc45

G.O.A.T.
lol wtf

So that’s the top 3 favourites for Wimbledon (Rybakina, Sabalenka, now Jabeur) who have all had to retire this tournament…
wait, I didn't know Sabalenka had pulled out too!...geez

p.s. see it just happened...thought Pegula was next...what a weird week for Berlin
 

tennis4me

Hall of Fame
What happens when both finalists declared "RETIRED/WO" at the same time? (Because one didn't know the other is going to retire or WO) /end-of-facetious-remark.

Geez. Imagine if you're paying for the day's match. 3 of matches in QF ended with RET. Didn't watch any. Was it really because of injury or due to Wimbledon?
 

marc45

G.O.A.T.
What happens when both finalists declared "RETIRED/WO" at the same time? (Because one didn't know the other is going to retire or WO) /end-of-facetious-remark.

Geez. Imagine if you're paying for the day's match. 3 of matches in QF ended with RET. Didn't watch any. Was it really because of injury or due to Wimbledon?
imagine we were close to that situation with Nadal and Fritz at IW in '22
 

spystud

Talk Tennis Guru
^ Since you made me look it up...

Kato/Zhang v. Hsieh/Mertens in the Birmingham final.


H-C Chan/Kudermetova beat Noskova/Siniakova to win Berlin.
 

Aussie Darcy

Bionic Poster
She’s had a nice career but might be news to some that this would be Tomljanovic’s first career title.

Despite 3 slam QF’s, 4 career finals, being the player to send Serena Williams into retirement, Ajla has never won a proper WTA title.

In with a huge shot against Poots.
 

Gizo

Hall of Fame
I would like to see Tomljanovic winning her first ever WTA tour title, and emulating Rus at Hamburg last year, Tatjana Maria at Mallorca in 2018 etc, in doing so when into her 30s.

I remember the Hua Hin final in 2019 against Yastremska, her most recent appearance in a WTA tour level final. She was 5-2 and a double break ahead in the final set, before Yastremska took a medical time-out, reeled off the next 4 games and won the decisive tiebreak to take the title. That defeat and going 0-4 in WTA tour level finals, really stung Tomljanovic.
 
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D-Lite

Hall of Fame
She’s had a nice career but might be news to some that this would be Tomljanovic’s first career title.

Despite 3 slam QF’s, 4 career finals, being the player to send Serena Williams into retirement, Ajla has never won a proper WTA title.

In with a huge shot against Poots.
That is crazy, especially as she seemed to have a few years where she was really contending at majors to make QF/SF. Someone else mentioned Maria, she also won like a bunch of titles in Bogota after Mallorca (appreciate Bogota is arguably the weakest WTA tournament on the calendar as WTA don't have a proper S American clay swing). Maybe if Ajla can win this it will allow her to grab a few more before retiring. Having said that, Putintseva is a nightmare and appears to be particularly solid this year. AT has played well on grass for some time now so here's hoping her experience can help her through. I feel like she's been on the comeback from injury a heck of a long time. When was it she returned? Because I wasn't sure if she got reinjured or something. I know Badosa keeps aggravating her injury - another player who seems to still be on the comeback trail.
 

D-Lite

Hall of Fame
Kalinskaya takes the first set 7-6 (0) against Pegula.

Putintseva up a set on Tomljanovic - 6-1. Hopefully Ajla can fight back but this is also not a surprising scoreline given how solid Putintseva is and how Tomljanovic has never won a title in her career (seems to mentally trip when it really counts even if playing well coming in).

Alexandrova efficiently through to R2 in Bad Homburg - she wins a lot on grass especially against players outside the top 10 - just swats them aside.

Andreeva and Yastremska 1 set apiece also.
 

D-Lite

Hall of Fame
Ajla Tom fighting back in set 2 - great to see a more competitive scoreline now.

Pegula - Kalinskaya is break central. Hopefully this goes to a 3rd set as there's not much between them. Pegula seems stressed and has high expectations it seems.
 

D-Lite

Hall of Fame
Yulia Putintseva reigns in Birmingham 6-1 7-6 (8) over Ajla Tomljanovic. I'm glad AT made it a competitive 2nd set but it's such a shame she can't find a way to her first WTA title. She has real results on grass and it still feels like she's not fully 'back' from injury for some reason, maybe it's just the lack of regular matches each week and mix of ITF and WTA events. This is still promising and gives her time to build for Wimbledon.

Putintseva up to 34 in the WTA live rankings - only 7 off a career high of 27 so it's showing how solid she's been this year. You won't want to draw her R1 at Wimbledon as you're going to have to knock her off the court by the looks of it.
 

D-Lite

Hall of Fame
Anyone watched Kerber and Wozniacki lately? Curious to know why neither are having a decent season, especially Wozniacki who showed promise at the USO last September.

Any idea where Halep is and if she's going to play Wimbledon?

Muchova is back this week in Eastbourne and will play a qualifier - it'll be interesting to see how ready she is for a return.
 

D-Lite

Hall of Fame
Brilliant hold from Kalinskaya to go up 5-4 in the final set over Pegula. Both of these players will be desperate to win this 500 event. Pegula has been ranked so high yet doesn't have that many titles to her name, and Kalinskaya lost that 1000 to Paolini earlier in the year so will be keen to get a W here.

Edit: unbelievable 4th MP saved by Pegula. 4-5 deuce now and both are really fighting for this.

Edit 2: Unbelievable hold from Pegula - 5 MP saved and it's 6-6 in the final set approaching the 2h 30 mark.

Both Pegula (Eastbourne) and Kalinskaya (Bad Homburg) are due to play next week although I imagine they probably won't after this 3-setter and a long week with delays in Berlin.

Neither Tomljanovic/Putintseva are entered into tournaments next week but a lot of the big names are outside of Swiatek, Sabalenka, Gauff and Jabeur.
 
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D-Lite

Hall of Fame
Pegula 6-7 (0), 6-4, 7-6 (3) Kalinskaya.

Outstanding hussle from Pegula to save 5 MP and win the 500 event in Berlin for her 5th title after missing the whole of the European clay court season.

There won't be a 2nd week on a row of couples winning titles on the ATP and WTA tour (I know this is a bit irrelevant but it's interesting how it's happened 2x this year for Boulter and De Minaur).
 

marc45

G.O.A.T.
Brilliant hold from Kalinskaya to go up 5-4 in the final set over Pegula. Both of these players will be desperate to win this 500 event. Pegula has been ranked so high yet doesn't have that many titles to her name, and Kalinskaya lost that 1000 to Paolini earlier in the year so will be keen to get a W here.

Edit: unbelievable 4th MP saved by Pegula. 4-5 deuce now and both are really fighting for this.

Edit 2: Unbelievable hold from Pegula - 5 MP saved and it's 6-6 in the final set approaching the 2h 30 mark.

Both Pegula (Eastbourne) and Kalinskaya (Bad Homburg) are due to play next week although I imagine they probably won't after this 3-setter and a long week with delays in Berlin.

Neither Tomljanovic/Putintseva are entered into tournaments next week but a lot of the big names are outside of Swiatek, Sabalenka, Gauff and Jabeur.
yeah, Rybakina is going to fire the body up for another try
 

tennis4me

Hall of Fame
Total domination by Hsieh/Mertens in set 1 at 6-1. They had control of most points. Even when Zheng was hitting great groundstrokes, the Mertens pair neutralized them by strategic lobs - often 2 in a row, then took control of the points. Kato is actually very fast player on the net, but her pushing poaching was often not good enough for the quick-handed defense of Hsieh.

This Hsieh/Mertens pairing is really one the most dynamic pairing to watch.
 

slipgrip93

Professional
At least AK will be close to the top 15 as runner-up. I hope she keeps it up and knocks on the door of top 10 someday and makes it to WTA finals.
I enjoy her game, and her use of a 'Henin' mold frame.
 

spystud

Talk Tennis Guru
Interesting trophies.

GQxqVa1WcAEqdFu
 

spystud

Talk Tennis Guru
Parks beat Pera to win a 125 in Italy, right after someone was real mad at her recently.


And here we go with two more 500s.

 

robyrolfo

Hall of Fame
Happy to see Putintseva win a title, but also another sign that the WTA is all over the place right now. She can be a competent and consistent player, but she basically has no weapons and forces you to beat yourself. Like a JV version of Gauff. Her personality is a lot of fun though, so her matches are good to watch. Plus she's super cute.

Also pretty happy for Pegula. Not a huge fan, but good to see her doing well after slumping for a while. Again, though, not great for the WTA when a player comes out of nowhere to win a title, beating the world #2 in the process (which isn't like Berrettini, before anyone says it).

Putintseva up to 34 in the WTA live rankings - only 7 off a career high of 27 so it's showing how solid she's been this year. You won't want to draw her R1 at Wimbledon as you're going to have to knock her off the court by the looks of it.
I'm something of a fan of hers, so I follow her results pretty closely. A few years ago she was pretty consistently toward the top half of the rankings, and usually went pretty far in big tournaments until she played one of the big guns.

Then, for some reason (not sure if injury or just slump), she really fell off for a while. Was back to playing in qualifiers for everything and was struggling to even make it into main draws. But, to her credit, she really turned it around this year and seems back to her old level.

As I said above, she is fun to watch, but her game is actually pretty limited and I don't see her climbing too much higher in the rankings, but you never know with the current state of things.

Parks beat Pera to win a 125 in Italy, right after someone was real mad at her recently.
Huh? Who was mad at her?
 
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