Week 39 - WTA Premier 5 ($2.4M) - Wuhan, China Hard

PaulM · Tennis legend

Week 39 - WTA Premier 5 ($2.4M) - Wuhan, China Hard

Jan · Hall of fame

Just home.
Oh no cry cry

A131 · Intermediate Club Player

More worrying from a wider perspective - the stadium was practically empty. Or were my eyes deceiving me?

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

I'm not surprised Ash has had a great year and a restricted schedule and Jo seems burnt out. Onwards and upwards for next year.

vohor · Grand Slam Champion

Kuznetsova loses 3&3 to Cornet.

Big help for Jo on the Road to Singapore :D

JonH · All-time great

Looks like all the top ladies are trying their best to avoid Singapore!

indiana · Tennis legend

JonH wrote:
Looks like all the top ladies are trying their best to avoid Singapore!

Yes, rather remarkably all the players in race positions #8 to #15 win precisely zero matches in total. 7 lost their one and only match and one isn't here.

#7 Ostapenko is into R3 so stretching her gap to #8 Jo. #16 Garcia also, but she is very far back in points from the top 8 ( still would be over 700 points back if she won the title here ).

blob · All-time great

Very close match against a good pair, with Anna & Nicole just on the wrong end of things

R16: Anna SMITH/Nicole MELICHAR (GBR/USA) 107 (56 + 51) lost to Gabriela DABROWSKI/Yifan XU (CAN/CHN) 37 (18 + 19) 7-6(3) 4-6 [9-11]

JonH · All-time great

indiana wrote:
JonH wrote:
Looks like all the top ladies are trying their best to avoid Singapore!

Yes, rather remarkably all the players in race positions #8 to #15 win precisely zero matches in total. 7 lost their one and only match and one isn't here.
#7 Ostapenko is into R3 so stretching her gap to #8 Jo. #16 Garcia also, but she is very far back in points from the top 8 ( still would be over 700 points back if she won the title here ).

pliskova could get back to top spot this week as well

JonH · All-time great

...and Ostapenko secure her tickets to the ball

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

Ash has beaten Aga in 3, the second set being 6-0. So definitely no reflection on Jo.

indiana · Tennis legend

Helen40 wrote:
Ash has beaten Aga in 3, the second set being 6-0. So definitely no reflection on Jo.

Then again Aga is not having a great year. And good a year as Ash is having and as well as she may have played vs Jo, I have little doubt that Jo at her best would have advanced. But she just isn't that close to her best at the moment, for whatever reasons such as the season just having caught up with her.

LordBrownof · Futures level

indiana wrote:
Helen40 wrote:
Ash has beaten Aga in 3, the second set being 6-0. So definitely no reflection on Jo.
Then again Aga is not having a great year. And good a year as Ash is having and as well as she may have played vs Jo, I have little doubt that Jo at her best would have advanced. But she just isn't that close to her best at the moment, for whatever reasons such as the season just having caught up with her.

Jo has said on a number of occasions that surprisingly this year's Wimbledon was her least stressful yet. Whilst it may have felt that way at the time, she may have underestimated the emotional toll.

blob · All-time great

LordBrownof wrote:
indiana wrote:
Helen40 wrote:
Ash has beaten Aga in 3, the second set being 6-0. So definitely no reflection on Jo.
Then again Aga is not having a great year. And good a year as Ash is having and as well as she may have played vs Jo, I have little doubt that Jo at her best would have advanced. But she just isn't that close to her best at the moment, for whatever reasons such as the season just having caught up with her.
Jo has said on a number of occasions that surprisingly this year's Wimbledon was her least stressful yet. Whilst it may have felt that way at the time, she may have underestimated the emotional toll.

Also, dutifully playing every single week of the GB grass season, whilst admirable in pleasing home fans and supporting home events, might have been inadvisable. That would have arguably been true even if she had not had such good runs in three of those tournaments, and thus played an awful lot of tennis without a break. That necessitated a very different and heavier match schedule to that which Johanna has more usually employed.

After reaching the final in Nottingham, missing Edgbaston, the next week might have been propitious, as was noted by various correspondents at the time. Ah! the clarity and infallibility of hindsight.

JonH · All-time great

For what it is worth, WTA announced that Halep, Svitolina, Pliskova and Venus WIlliams are now confirmed and join Muguruza as qualifying for the finals. Seeing as Woznaicki is now ahead of Venus in live running for the Race, she must also be confirmed in effect (probably announced next week) leaving 2 places. Ostapenko would seal it with a win this week, no means out of the question, and Jo Konta is of course in 8th place. After this week, the big one in Beijing is followed by Linz/Hong Kong and then Moscow. Jo is in Beijing, Hong Kong and Moscow, most of the other players in the running are playing 3 events as well although Kuznetsova is only down for Beijing and Moscow - that may change if she gets herself a good result in Beijing I guess. Madison Keys is down for only one event, as is Kerber ie beijing.VandeWeghe and Stephens also are only down for 2 events.

Being honest, with Mladenovic as woefully out of form as Jo, Kuznetsova is the only realistic alternative to Ostapenko and Jo qualfying, unless someone has an amazing run - a feat which is notably absent in the WTA this season. Personally, I think Jo is home and dry bar the shouting. Bold prediction ?!