WTA week of 7/30; San Jose (Premier) & Washington DC

[spystud]

We kick off the North American hard court season with a couple decent tourneys. The long-time Stanford stop has now moved south to San Jose.

San Jose draw pdf

Garbine/Keys/Venus/Mertens are the top 4 seeds & get R1 byes. Serena is 6 v. Konta in R1, Garbine should get Vika in R2. Keys is the defending champ.


Washington DC draw pdf

Caroline/Sloane/Osaka/Makarova are top 4. Makarova is defending champ, Sloane won in '15.

 

[spystud]

I will have a long rant about the TV coverage of both tourneys here in the States later.

 

[Deleted member 293577]

Interesting first rounder at Stanford (sorry, this will always be Stanford): doubles partners Mladenovic vs. Babos.

 

[sportmac]

Went to the qualies yesterday and today in Washington. Watched Bencic practice with someone I didn't know. She looked full strength and healthy. That girl can smoke the ball.

 

[Deleted member 293577]

Went to the qualies yesterday and today in Washington. Watched Bencic practice with someone I didn't know. She looked full strength and healthy. That girl can smoke the ball.

I just noticed she is up to 45 in the rankings. Wow, nice turnaround!

 

[fundrazer]

Went to the qualies yesterday and today in Washington. Watched Bencic practice with someone I didn't know. She looked full strength and healthy. That girl can smoke the ball.

I think she takes the ball a bit earlier which helps. She's very good at redirecting pace.

If Mugu wins this or Montreal/Cinci she's back in the avatar slot for me, but for now I'm keeping it Pim Pim. I'd rather be more frustrated with my own level of play instead of her's. I'm at least showing some improvements on the court lately, and I can't necessarily say the same for her

 

[Aussie Darcy]

Points to defend for the top players til the end of the US Open.

https://twitter.com/josemorgado/status/1023733359845900288

 

[Aussie Darcy]

Everyone should keep an eye on the serving records this week.

Georgina Garcia Lopez has a huge serve and quite often has served big on the ITF tours and WTA qualifying events but those serves don't officially count for the WTA. Now she's in the main draw of a Premier event after qualifying in San Jose and plays Tomljanovic in the 1R.

The fastest official WTA record is 210KMH (131MPH) by Lisicki at the 2014 Stanford tournament. Garcia Lopez has the fastest serve at 220KMH (136MPH) at the 2018 Budapest Open but isn't officially recognized. She also hit 210KMH during the Fed Cup this year but that's not official either.

Her serves this week will likely be 'official' so if she can serve big, she could get the record.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

@spystud

Interesting first rounder at Stanford (sorry, this will always be Stanford): doubles partners Mladenovic vs. Babos.

Actually, it's not been held at Stanford more years than it has been. I remember it as part of the Virginia Slims tour back in the 70s & 80s (til '91). The tournament was held in SF and Oakland from 1971 thru 1996. Stanford/Palo Alto from 1997 thru 2017.

Watched it first at the SF Civic Auditorium and then for many years at the Oakland Coliseum Arena from the late 70s to mid 90s.

 

[FakeEmpire]

I was checking the draws and saw Jamie Loeb's name, which made me wonder what happened to the other Jamie, Jamie Hampton. She went through multiple surgeries to heal a hip surgery, but she never came back. Has she retired for good or is she planning to return at some point? She seemed quite promising...

 

[spystud]

Honestly, I don’t think Jamie Hampton was ever very promising. This is not an attack on you, she just wasn’t ever very good.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

Very disappointed that Simona Halep is not playing SVC this year. Or DC for that matter. She put in a late request last year at Stanford but they turned her down because they had already promised their WC slots to Sharapova and others. As karma would have it, Maria and the other WCs all exited the tournament early.

After Stanford turned her down, DC granted Simona a slot last year but then did not treat her well. She was scheduled for 3 mid afternoon matches in a row (Tue, Wed & Th, iirc) in the brutal DC heat. As their #1 seed, you would think that they would have scheduled her for an evening session for the QF or previous round. She ended up retiring in the 3rd set of her QF match due to heat exhaustion. Little wonder why she chose not to return to DC this year.

I will have a long rant about the TV coverage of both tourneys here in the States later.

ESPN (online, at least) will be streaming SVC (San Jose) both the day and evening sessions. Starts today at 10am (Pacific time). TC, or at least Tennis Channel Plus, will be streaming DC starting at 2pm (Pacific time). Don't know if/when the regular TC will broadcast DC.

 

[spystud]

Two tourneys in the United States, FOUR matches televised. Four.

I could get into why TC & DC f*cked up their sh*t, but who cares. They just screwed the tennis consumer.

 

[NaomiKonjuhPotapova]

Went to the qualies yesterday and today in Washington. Watched Bencic practice with someone I didn't know. She looked full strength and healthy. That girl can smoke the ball.

Her boyfriend? She has a really cute BF who is her hitting partner as far as I know

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

Slow start by Kenin but she managed to turned it around to take the 1st set from Cepede Royg.

Shame that Christina McHale couldn't turn her match around. Her career record is now 1-2 against Sakkari

 

[PeteD]

Cepede Royg, destiny awaits Paraguayan tennis

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

Cepede Royg, destiny awaits Paraguayan tennis

Paraguayan tennis destiny is gonna have to wait a bit longer. Congrats to Kenin. Next round will be a 'mother'. She'll face the winner of Konta vs S Williams.

Perez and Tomljanovic match about to start in SJ.

 

[NaomiKonjuhPotapova]

From someone with that height, Garcia Perez serve % is really bad.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

From someone with that height, Garcia Perez serve % is really bad.

Decent service speed but, yeah, % could be better. Tomljanovic takes 1st set.

 

[PeteD]

Paraguayan tennis destiny is gonna have to wait a bit longer. Congrats to Kenin. Next round will be a 'mother'. She'll face the winner of Konta vs S Williams.
.

From what I saw Kenin can return some, so maybe she'll do something against WIlliams (gave up on Konta v Williams)

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

Alja took the 2nd set pretty easily. Hope she's ready to take on the #2 seed, Madison.

Battle of the Danielles next. Collins vs qualifier, Lao. The latter took out both Gibbs and Falconi in the Q rounds.

Noticed the new Shot Clock yesterday. Very visible. Glad to see it implemented. Bet it's going to give Rafa fits in Toronto and the rest of the U.S. Open series.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

Watching replays from DC on TC Plus. Petko-Loeb pretty one-sided. Started to watching the Boulter-Krunic match. GB's Boulter is pretty easy on the eyes.

Azarenka-Bondarenko starting soon in SJ. Will have to switch over to ESPN for that.

 

[Deleted member 293577]

@spystud


Actually, it's not been held at Stanford more years than it has been. I remember it as part of the Virginia Slims tour back in the 70s & 80s (til '91). The tournament was held in SF and Oakland from 1971 thru 1996. Stanford/Palo Alto from 1997 thru 2017.

Watched it first at the SF Civic Auditorium and then for many years at the Oakland Coliseum Arena from the late 70s to mid 90s.

Thanks for Santa Clarifying that. You are indeed older than I am.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

Thanks for Santa Clarifying that. You are indeed older than I am.

Old, indeed. I do miss the Stanford venue tho. Nicer area and vibe over there. The one plus for SVC is that the SJSU courts are closer to optimally oriented North-South. Perhaps 30 degrees off. The Stanford stadium courts were more than 45 degrees offset from the ideal. The sun was a very significant factor for much of the day because of that improper orientation.

 

[Deleted member 293577]

Old, indeed. I do miss the Stanford venue tho. Nicer area and vibe over there. The one plus for SVC is that the SJSU courts are closer to optimally oriented North-South. Perhaps 30 degrees off. The Stanford stadium courts were more than 45 degrees offset from the ideal. The sun was a very significant factor for much of the day because of that improper orientation.

I'm just glad they kept the tournament in the Bay Area. We need at least one tournament there.

Azarenka looking good, although not completely dominant.

 

[Aussie Darcy]

Wow, big win from Azarenka who blew 3 match points in the 2nd set and was down 0-2 in the 3rd set but ended up winning 7-5 in the 3rd.

 

[Aussie Darcy]

Also, only 4 matches completed in Washington. Looks like rain will be an issue all week.

 

[Aussie Darcy]

Kratzer serving for the 3rd set breadstick over Riske..

 

[spystud]

Now back on serve @ 4-5.

 

[spystud]

And Riske is done.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

I'm just glad they kept the tournament in the Bay Area. We need at least one tournament there.

Azarenka looking good, although not completely dominant.

Amen to that. Sad that we lost our long-running ATP tournament a few years ago. It had a history going back more than a century (started in 1889).

Great that Azarenka is making something of a comeback but I'm happy that K Bondarenko was able to take a set off her -- the 1st she's ever taken from Vila.

 

[NaomiKonjuhPotapova]

Osaka vs Pera today will be interesting.

Osaka left HC on a high note. Won IW and beat Serena. Will she continue where she left of?

 

[FakeEmpire]

Honestly, I don’t think Jamie Hampton was ever very promising. This is not an attack on you, she just wasn’t ever very good.

No offence taken. I remember her defeating Radwanska on grass on 2013 in Eastbourne (I think) and I found her game amusing, if somewhat inconsistent. I didn't think she would amass a high number of Slams then, but I thought she could be a fairly consistent top 30-50 player with potential to rack some upsets here and there. But I might be overselling her a bit...

Maybe I'll be able to watch the very end of Bencic's match by the looks of it (hoping she doesn't let the second set slip away...).

 

[sportmac]

Her boyfriend? She has a really cute BF who is her hitting partner as far as I know

She was hitting with a tall blonde girl (there's about a million of them at the tournament!).

Was watching Lauren Davis practice this morning (she must be playing doubles as she lost to Chirico in the qualies). My goodness. She can take high balls (most of them as she stands about 5'2 or so) and pummel them. So impressive.

 

[spystud]

She’s playing with Kristie Ahn, they should win their first match.

https://www.citiopentennis.com/files/draws/1533022275_2.pdf

 

[sportmac]

My new young unknown player to follow: Frencesca Di Lorenzo.

No particular reason, just like how she was hitting in practice. Ex Buckeye who left school to go pro.

Past players I started following when they were unknown are Townsend and Ostapenko.

 

[spystud]

Caroline out of DC with a leg injury.

 

[NaomiKonjuhPotapova]

WTF with Adidas kit that Osaka is wearing???

 

[spystud]

Yeah, that’s a weird shade of green mixed with all that hot pink. Pera’s looking good in her leftover Wimbly whites though.

Naomi takes the first @ 2.

 

[spystud]

Now rain in DC.

 

[NaomiKonjuhPotapova]

Have to go back and forth between 3 matches but mainly in Osaka's match.
Looks very comfortable but a little bit lapse but now back on serve!

Pera serve to stay in the match.

 

[spystud]

From 2-5 down to up 6-5 for Sloane over BMS in the first.

 

[NaomiKonjuhPotapova]

Stephens on a roll post rain delay after trailing 2-5 to Sands. Serve for the set.

 

[NaomiKonjuhPotapova]

She was hitting with a tall blonde girl (there's about a million of them at the tournament!).

My guess is Fanny Stolar

 

[NaomiKonjuhPotapova]

Pera horribly makes 2DF and this set going into tiebreak.

Osaka closed the match with 8 aces.
Pera with 8 Dfs.

 

[NaomiKonjuhPotapova]

Citi draw is not working, please update @spystud

 

[spystud]

https://www.citiopentennis.com/files/draws/1533022275_1.pdf

 

[spystud]

Interesting first rounder at Stanford (sorry, this will always be Stanford): doubles partners Mladenovic vs. Babos.

Timea wins, 4 & 2.

 

[spystud]

Sloane is through in straights.

 

[spystud]

DC defending champ Makarova out in straights to Bogdan.

Belinda through in straights over Dart.