In awe of a narky Scottish God

[Janik]

If Ostapenko can win a Slam then most of the top 50 women are potential future slam winners, Ash Barty amongst them. For her to stand out from the crowd she will need to repeat this a few times. As for Konta, Barty's subsequent run would have been more of a salve if this wasn't the third consecutive event, and fourth from five, where Jo has lost her opening match.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Good point. Konta seems to be in terrible form, let's hope she can turn it round against Niculescu in Beijing R1 today.

Very disappointed to see that Drugscheat just beat her US Open nemesis Sevastova in Beijing R1. I fear the worst. Drugscheat's notional R3 opponent is the utterly useless (when one actually wants her to win, i.e. in matches against Drugscheat) Halep, who will no doubt extend her 0-7 H2H against her to make it 0-8. I find it difficult to see anyone in the draw who will stop Drugscheat making the final, except perhaps Pliskova in the semis. I'm just hoping that if she does make the final then Muguruza can inflict a defeat of gratifyingly humiliating proportions.

[Jimski]

Muguruza is frustratingly inconsistent herself. She's had opportunities to pretty much sew up that year end number one, and keeps losing in quarters and semis to opponents she really should be beating.

[Janik]

Brits round-up

On the ATP World Tour, Kyle Edmund (seeded #6) beat Bernard Tomic in R1 of Chengdu, but then lost to American Jared Donaldson in R2. Inglot/Nestor (seeded #4) had similar fortune in the doubles, winning one and losing one.

Over on the WTA, Jo Konta and Heather Watson were already out by the time of last week’s action preview. That left Smith/Melichar in the doubles as the only British involvement. They had won their R1 match, but then lost very narrowly in R2, 11-9 in a match breaker.


At second tier level, #4 Naomi Broady, Katie Boulter and Laura Robson all played in Templeton, CA. Boulter and Broady both lost three setters to Maria Sanchez (Jo Konta’s mate and on-off doubles partner) in R1 and R2 respectively. Laura Robson went a round further before falling to #5 Taylor Townsend.One Brit in the doubles, Deigman w/ Schenck, but they lost heavily in R1.
Olivia Nicholls was the only Brit to come through qualifying in Clermont-Ferrand, but she then lost in R1 to #6 Sofia Shapatava. Shapatava played with Webley-Smith in the doubles, and they reached the Semis before losing to top seeds Lapko/Lister. Lapko/Lister went on to take the title, beating all-British pair Grey/Nicholls in the title match; Grey/Nicholls best win of the event came in the QFs, when they only lost one game to the #3 seeds.
Santa Margherita di Pula. Amanda Carreras. Pretty standard. She made the QFs this week before losing a tough looking three setter (based on the scores) to top seed Polona Hercog.
Harriet Dart, Tara Moore and Katie Swan were all playing in Stillwater, OK. However all went out in R1, Moore to top seed Danielle Rose Collins, Dart to #5 Usue Maitane Arconada and Swan to Karman Kaur Thandi. The Stillwater doubles went very close to seedings, won by the top pairing Jaksic/Whoriskey. That should tell you where #2 Dart/Mestach and #3 Moore/Perrin got to. The other British-tinged pair was Borthwick/Thandi. They made the QFs before running in to Dart/Mestach.

On the Men’s side, the only singles action was Cameron Norrie and Alex Ward in Tiburon, CA. Ward was in on a special exemption after missing the qualies to play in the final in Columbus the previous week. When he did get across the States, he lost to Alejandro Gonzalez in R1. Norrie, seeded #8, dropped a set to Elias Ymer in R1 and to Mitchell Krueger in R2, but has been increasingly dominant in his wins since over #4 Michael Mmoh and Prajnesh Gunneswaran. Norrie plays Tennys in the final today, Sandgren being the #2 seed for the event. Bambridge/O’Hare, seeded #2, made the Semis of the doubles here, with Salisbury/Klein losing in the QFs.
Also making a doubles semi were the Skupskis, in their case in Orleans where they were the #2 seeds.


Oh, and a quick note on the Tour stuff coming this week, mostly as it is already underway. The main event is in Beijing, which is a Premier Mandatory for the Women and a ATP500 for the Men. As noted up thread, Jo Konta (seeded #6), badly in need of some form, plays Monica Niculescu in R1 of the Women’s singles. Konta is the only British woman involved in the main draw, as Heather Watson’s week has once again ended before it really started, beaten in the first round of qualifying by Nicole Gibbs. Ended for the singles at least; Heather has cadged a good partner for the doubles, Sloane Stephens, and they are through to R2 after beating Sevastova/Vekic. Their next opponents will be #4 Babos/Hlavackova. Smith/Melichar suffered another tough loss, 12-10 in a match breaker this time, to #8 Groenefeld/Peschke in R1.
On the Men’s side in Beijing, Kyle Edmund will play #2 Sascha Zverev in R1 and Aljaz Bedene faces Marcel Granollers. Bedene is also playing the doubles w/ Bautista Agut. Just doubles over in Tokyo, with J.Murary/Soares the #2 seeds and Inglot/Nestor also involved.

[Janik]

Good point. Konta seems to be in terrible form, let's hope she can turn it round against Niculescu in Beijing R1 today.

Err, not even close (3 games won only). She is going to miss out on the Tour Finals again...

[Janik]

We are probably getting nothing to cheer about at Tour level once again this week, what with Andy Murray physically hurt and Jo Konta seemingly mentally so. Will the Challengers provide some succour?

On the Men’s side that means the event in Stockton, CA as that is the only one of the five running to have attracted Brits. These are Cameron Norrie, who is seeded #8 again, Liam Broady, Alex Ward, Jay Clarke and Curtis Clarke (last one is a new name on me). The two Clarkes were in the qualifiers, ‘were’ as Curtis lost in q1. Jay got a bye through that but will still need to register two wins to join Norrie, Broady and Ward in the main draw. Norrie plays a wild card, Deiton Baughman (once he has a trifling other match elsewhere in California done and dusted, of course), Broady faces Mitchell Krueger and Ward plays #6 Darian King. Many of them will presumably also play doubles, but the draw for that isn’t out yet.
Surprisingly little happening on the Women’s side, given the Prem Mandatory dominating the full tour (this is normally enough to get big ITF events going, as players outside 100 can’t get Tour entries). However there are just two events offering $25k prize money, and none offering higher. Suzy Larkin entered the event in Toowoomba, Aus, but lost her opening match in qualifying. And that, barring late entries not on acceptance lists or doubles ones that are not published, will be that as far as the ITF circuit is concerned this week. Over to you then boys, I guess...

[Satchmo Distel]

I'm not yet sure that Drugscheat is fit enough to play a full week's competitive tennis where she's on court every day. But even if she wins it, is anyone paying attention except the Chinese and the tennis officianados? Plus Serena is due back for the Australian.

[Etienne]

Curtis is Jay's older brother. He's not remotely on the same level, so I assume he's going as coach/hitting partner/company for lil bro. Yasmin Clarke their older sister was an aspiring pro too, who had some issues with the LTA.

If you're looking for nightmare Sharapova scenario's on the top 7 places for the WTA Tour finals are done on points. The last place is discretionary. This is relevant to this thread too, as it is likely that Konta will have that eighth spot. There's a case for giving it to Sloane Stephens, but I wouldn't be totally astonished if they handed it to Drugscheat.

[Etienne]

Laura Robson was at the Las Vegas festival during the shooting, but escaped unhurt.

[Janik]

Her twitter feed is full of media people asking her to direct message them as they want her to discuss this on the news. The woman has just suffered a horrendous experience, leave her in peace for a while for pity's sake.


Back on court and in more pleasant news, there have been no matches involving Brits on the WTA since the last post (hardly surprising, seeing as Watson/Stephens is the only crumb left; they are not due up until tomorrow at the earliest). So the non-Brit update - Sloane Stephens case for a wild card place in Shanghai was not helped by a second straight R1 loss; she hasn't won a singles match since the US Open final. However it seems the WTA are not going to use that rule anyway. Fingers crossed. Meanwhile Halep will get an 8th chance to bring some truth and light to the world.
Over on the ATP side, Aljaz Bedene beat Marcel Granollers in R1 in Beijing and now faces doubles partner Roberto Bautista Agut in R2. But before that, in fact later this morning, he and Bautista Agut will play in tandem. And the match taking the headline slot in the night session is Kyle Edmund vs Sascha Zverev, which will happen not before 9pm local time. That is 1pm UK (I think!).

Not a good week for the Clarkes in Stockton, as Jay conceded a walkover in his first match to join Curtis on the sidelines. That was in qualifying, but the main draw is now also underway and there was a win for Liam Broady over Mitchell Krueger but defeat for Alex Ward to #6 Darian King. Cameron Norrie plays his R1 match later today. Brits also feature in three of the four doubles pairs in this event, #1 N.Skupski/Smith, #3 Bambridge/O’Hare and #4 Salisbury/Klein. Salisbury/Klein play today.
On the Women’s side, Larkin is playing the doubles in Toowoomba w/ McPhee (a local). They play their R1 match tomorrow.

[Janik]

One year ban for Dan Evans. A good chunk of which he has already served.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Woo-hoo, well done Simona, bravo! My reverse jinx worked a treat there. If Halep gets to the final she'll be the new WTA no.1 unless Svitolina wins the tournament. She'd deserve that, in my book, for services to tennis this week.

[Janik]

Wider update is that the Women's last eight in Beijing is nearly complete (just waiting on the result of #12 Kvitova vs #5 Wozniacki, which Petra currently leads by a set). The winner plays Strycova, who benefitted from Muguruza retiring with illness in R1. The other QFs are #3 Svitolina vs Garcia, #9 Ostapenko vs Cirstea and Kasatkina vs #3 Halep. If Halep reaches the final she will become World No.1 unless she is beaten in that match by Svitolina. In that case the Ukranian would take over at the top. If neither of those happens, Muguruza retains her spot.
On the British front, Jo Konta has benefitted both from the WTA's announcement that it won't be wild carding anyone in to Singapore, and the elimination of most of her rivals for 8th position. The only remaining threat is Caroline Garcia. Konta won't play in Hong Kong next week, but is signed up for the last gasp event in Moscow this time around. Hopefully she won't need much from there. Oh, and on court the last Brit in WTA action went out when Watson/Stephens lost in R2 of the Beijing doubles to #4 Babos/Hlavackova.

Rather more seeds are through to the last 8 of the Men's draw in Beijing, which is #1 Nadal vs #6 Isner, #3 Dimitrov vs #5 Bautista Agut, #8 Kyrgios vs Darcis [Q] and TBC vs TBC (winners of #7 Berdych vs Rublev, which is in a final set and Fognini vs #2 A.Zverev). From that one should be able to deduce that Aljaz Bedene lost to Roberto Bautista Agut in R2 (6-0 4-0 retired, which is worrying) and Kyle Edmund lost to Sascha Zverev in R1. Bedene/Bautista Agut also lost in R1 of the doubles, which occurred before their singles encounter was curtailed.
The other ATP World Tour event is the Japan Open in Tokyo. That will have a Brit in the final as the doubles Semi (to be played tomorrow) is Inglot/Nestor vs #2 J.Murray/Soares. As noted on the sporting longevity thread, Daniel Nestor has won at least one Tour level title doubles title for 23 straight seasons. But he hasn't got a pot yet in 2017, and there are only three further chances after this. I hope Dom Inglot likes pressure to perform!


Stockton was the sole ATP Challenger with British involvement. The last time we stopped in Liam Broady was in to R2 with Cameron Norrie yet to begin his campaign. It's up to the QFs now, which will feature Norrie but not Broady, who lost to Tennys Sandgren. Who is whom Norrie plays next. In the doubles, #1 K.Skupski/N.Skupski and #4 Salisbury/Klein are in to the QFs but #3 Bambridge/O'Hare lost in R1.
Finally Toowoomba on the ITF Women's, where Larkin was no more successful in doubles than she had been in singles, losing her first match w/ McPhee.

[Satchmo Distel]

Has Federer skipped Beijing or is he injured?

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

The form Konta's in right now, you wonder if her qualifying for the Tour Finals (or whatever it's called) would be as much use as when Arsenal used to qualify repeatedly for the Champions League.

[Janik]

Just like the Champions League, there are significant points and prize money for simply showing up and playing your games, regardless of result. A player who qualifies by right, plays and loses all three round robin matches gets 375 rankings points (which would be about a 10% boost on Konta's current total) and $151,000. As if that wasn't enough gravy, it counts as a 17th eligible tournament on the finalists rankings, i.e. it doesn't have to displace another score. All other players can only count their best 16 events.

Has Federer skipped Beijing or is he injured?

Just not entered, I think. It's only a 500 for the Men (the same level as the concurrent event in Tokyo), so is optional. He is on the entry list for Shanghai next week, which is a Masters Series.

[Janik]

Finals now set in the ATP World and WTA Tour events. One will involve a Brit and that is the Japan Open doubles, which is something we knew ahead of the Semi. It will be Jamie Murray as he and Bruno Soares beat Dom Inglot and Daniel Nestor 11-9 in a match breaker. Nestor's chances of a Tour level title this year are now much more remote. The identity of the pair Murary/Soares will play in the final will make that near miss even more galling; it's a local wild card pairing in their first ever Tour final, Yasutaka Uchiyama and, um, Ben McLachlan (that name doesn't sound very Japanese...). The singles final in Tokyo is Mannarino vs Goffin, which rather pales against the star quality of the title match in Beijing, Nadal vs Kyrgios.
Meanwhile, on the Women's side, we will have our fourth different number one in three months next Monday, as Simona Halep, who had three times been within one match of this target and then lost, finally got over the bump by winning her SF against Jelena Ostapenko. Halep will play Caroline Garcia in the final, a match Jo Konta's connections will be watching intently as Konta currently boasts a 165 point advantage over Garcia in the race to Singapore, an advantage Garcia would overturn if she took the title as the points difference between winner and runner-up in Beijing for the Women is 350. If Garcia wins, Konta would have to take the title in Moscow in two weeks time to get back passed, and that is assuming that Garcia plays no further tournaments (she is entered for Tianjin next week but nothing the week after currently and is clearly struggling with an injury currently). However if Halep wins, then presumably Garcia will attempt to play in northern China to get the points to edge her ahead of Jo. However it will be tough; Garcia would need a very deep run and has drawn Sharapova (again wild carded into an event) in R1 of that.

Back on the Brit front but down a tier to the Challengers, where I'm wondering if Cameron Norrie beating Tennys Sandgren in the singles final in Tiburon last week ever got mentioned? The score there was 2&3, and Norrie repeated the trick in the QFs this week in Stockton, tighter this time but Tennys was the loser 6-3 7-6(5). Norrie subsequently beat Michael Mmoh (also for the second successive week) and is now awaiting the outcome of the other Semi between Smyczek and King to know who his final opponent will be. The doubles final will also have British representation, which was assured after N.Skupski/Smith and Salisbury/Klein won their QFs to set up a Semi against each other. Which Salisbury/Klein won.


Oh, and the qulaifiers for the World Tours for next week are already underway. Just one Brit involved, Naomi Broady trying to work her way through in Linz. Broady is through to q2 after beating Cadantu in q1.

[Jimski]

Nothing against Halep (in fact, I normally root for her), but it's annoying that we're back to having a number one without a major to her name.

[Etienne]

It's been such a terrible week for British women, that Alice Gillan who is just about to lose a 15k semi final in Sri Lanka has amassed as many points as every other British woman combined for the week.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

That's an excellent stat! (Only in some respects of course)

[Janik]

And it got worse, as Caroline Garcia beat Simona Halep in the final in Beijing. Jo Konta now needs to get to the final in Moscow to have any chance of making it to Singapore. Which isn't going to happen in her current form.

[Satchmo Distel]

Shanghai Masters: Hopefully concludes with Nadal v Federer but Nadal has to get past Dimitrov and probably Cilic; Federer has Gasquet and probably Del Potro to overcome.

[Etienne]

Konta withdrew from Moscow, so her only chance of playing in the finals is if someone else withdraw (most likely Venus).

[Satchmo Distel]

In Shanghai, Del Potro takes the first set against Federer, 6-3.

[multipleman78]

Federer swats Nadal away yet again. 5 times in a row he has beaten Nadal. It's remarkable to see Nadal so bereft of ideas against his old rival.