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    Is it this year that the Isner tiebreak comes into force at Wimbedon?

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      Yes. At 12-all in the final set, for both Men and Women. It's a standard first-to-seven breaker, not the first-to-ten that the Aussie Open used.

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        Blimey, Konta loses 6-3 6-2 to Ons Jabeur, despite Konta committing only 8 unforced errors (versus 15 winners) in the match. Indicates that Jabeur must have played insanely well.

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          Wow, that is extraordinary. And a real blow, as I thought Jo was on to finally win her hometown event.

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            Wimbledon’s unique system for seeding the men has promoted Kevin Anderson to fourth. As Anderson has been struggling with an injury, if whichever 5-8 seed in that quarter is not great on grass then that could be an interesting section of the draw to watch for an unexpected semi-finalist.

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              One wouldn't normally expect to see British qualifiers for Wimbledon, what with the generous doling out of WCs to home players meaning that those whose ranking is at qualifying tournament level tend to get WC direct entry into the main draw, and the Brits in the qualies have mostly not earned the right to be there by ranking but are themselves WCs at that level, lower ranked than their oppo. And unsurprisingly most British men and women exited in Q1. But Samantha Murray and Liam Broady both made it to Q3, where sadly they both lost today, both of them taking their matches the distance (in Liam's case losing from two sets up).

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                Hope is not lost for either - the new rules on late withdrawals getting half-prize money mean more Lucky Loser spots than ever are pretty well certain.

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                  A 15 year old has qualified in the ladies singles, the beeb tells me - the youngest ever in the Open era. I thought they'd introduced a rule about needing to be 16 to compete now but I might have misremembered that about gymnasts at the Olympics?
                  Last edited by Rogin the Armchair fan; 28-06-2019, 08:41.

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                    The minimum age is 14. However, above up to the age of 18 that there are restrictions on how much a player may play, both in total and at particular levels. At 15, Gauff may play up to 10 tournaments in the year and in the Fed Cup (that doesn't count against the 10). She is only allowed to take one wild card into events of a higher category than WTA Internationals, which she had already used up to play in the main draw in Miami, where she won a round. However, the slams are not technically part of the WTA and retain the right to give wild cards to players of their choosing - Gauff also played in the qualifying at Roland Garros (and the main draw doubles there) and is surely a shoe-in for a main draw WC at Flushing Meadows.


                    Oh, and as mentioned a few days ago.

                    Originally posted by Janik View Post
                    Wimbledon
                    the first tranche of wild cards for Wimbledon were announced yesterday... The others were both interesting selection; former runner-up Sabine Lisicki, whose combination of repeated injuries and loss of form now means she needs a wild card to even play Wimbledon qualifying, and young American Cori Gauff, who won the 2018 French Open girls singles and over a year later is still only 15!.
                    Gauff beat Alona Bolsova in the first round of qualifying. Bolsova was only in Wimbledon qualifying as the points she gained making the last 16 at Roland Garros are yet to be reflected on entry lists (there is a six week lag on these, to allow people to schedule ahead). Bolsova is a top 100 player and was the top seed at Roehampton.

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                      Originally posted by Rogin the Armchair fan View Post
                      Wimbledon’s unique system for seeding the men has promoted Kevin Anderson to fourth. As Anderson has been struggling with an injury, if whichever 5-8 seed in that quarter is not great on grass then that could be an interesting section of the draw to watch for an unexpected semi-finalist.
                      A Zverev is the 5-8 player who has lucked out by getting into Anderson's quarter. He has (per seeding) to get past Khachanov first though. And I suspect that if he does make the QF, his QF oppo will more likely be Raonic (or Wawrinka) than Anderson, if the latter is not fully fit.

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                        Potential R2 tie Nadal v Kyrgios is one to watch out for isn't it, given that Nadal is one of the players who has been most obviously provoked by Krygios's disrespect of his peers.

                        Of course, when Kyrgios was still outside the top 100, in 2014, he was player no.3 in that marvellous sequence of four consecutive players each ranked outside the top 100 to eliminate Nadal from 4 consecutive Wimbledons (Rosol - Darcis - Kyrgios - Brown, the perfect sequence question for a tennis-themed special edition of Only Connect).

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                          Cori Gauff drawn to play Venus in R1! Apart from the wonderful story of young Cori playing an African American tennis legend, there's also the amazing age difference stat. Venus born 17.6.80. Cori born 13.3.04. That may be an all-time record for an age difference in a slam singles match. I bet for sure it's the all-time record for age ratio in such a match.

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                            Put them on Centre! Put them on Centre!

                            Gauff has talked about how Serena inspired her to play. She didn't mention Venus. She is probably too young to have been watching and appreciating Venus in her pomp.

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                              Originally posted by Evariste Euler Gauss View Post
                              Cori Gauff drawn to play Venus in R1! Apart from the wonderful story of young Cori playing an African American tennis legend, there's also the amazing age difference stat. Venus born 17.6.80. Cori born 13.3.04. That may be an all-time record for an age difference in a slam singles match. I bet for sure it's the all-time record for age ratio in such a match.
                              Thinking of age differences between players leads to thinking about Kimiko Date (DoB 28.07.70). I've not looked at all her opponents in her latter years, but I have found that she lost to Belinda Bencic (DoB 10.03.97) in the first round of the 2014 Australian Open.

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                                Martina Navratilova 's weird and brief comeback tops that.

                                2004 French Open R1: Navratilova (18.10.56) l to Gisela Dulko (30.01.85) - 28 years and 7 months between them, compared to 26y 7m for Date/Bencic and 23y 7m for Williams/Gauff.

                                She also lost to Dulko again in R2 of Wimbledon that year after bridging a 23-year gap to beat Catalina Castano in R1.


                                Edit - the biggest ratio of the three is Date-Bencic: 43/16 = 2.69. Of the others, 39/15 (Williams/Gauff) = 2.60, 48/19 (Navratilova/Dulko) = 2.53.
                                Last edited by Janik; 28-06-2019, 16:20.

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                                  Summary of where we are at this week, then.

                                  Jo Konta’s loss to an inspired Ons Jabeur was covered above. On Konta’s side of the net apparently her movement was very tentative as she appeared wary of the slipperiness of the surface. That won’t have helped. A shame after she battled through the previous round against Maria Sakkari.
                                  Jabeur backed that win up by recovering from a set and match points down to beat Alize Cornet in three in the QFs. Sadly, she could take the court for her Semi today against Angelique Kerber after an ankle injury she picked up late in set three against Cornet flared up a bit overnight. She seems reasonably confident that the withdrawal is precautionary and she will play Wimbledon.
                                  The day off was probably good for Kerber. She will go into her Wimbledon defence in pretty good form, Semi in Mallorca and Final here, but with quite a bit of Tennis played. It’s very rare for players to play for four consecutive weeks, which is what Angie is facing if she wants to defend her Slam crown. She is yet to drop a set on the South coast, the best win of the lot being against #6 Simona Halep in the QFs.
                                  On the other side of the draw we got a reprise of last year’s final, #8 Aryna Sabalenka vs #11 Caroline Wozniacki in R3. Sabalenka got revenge in that, but was then dumped out in the QFs by #3 Kiki Bertens (having another good week on grass after the Rosmalen r-up). That set Bertens up for a Semi against #2 Karolina Pliskova after Pliskova beat Ekaterina Alexandrova in the QFs. Alexandrova had benefitted from a retirement from Jelena Ostapenko in R3, and this one may not have been precautionary – Ostapenko was clearly hobbling as she made her way up to the net to shake hands. If she is hurt, that is a real sickener for her; she was just beginning to shows signs of form at long last after the QF in Birmingham the previous week.
                                  Pliskova beat, nay thrashed, Bertens in today’s Semi 2&1. That sets up a very good quality final tomorrow of two players with strong previous records in Sussex. Pliskova was the runner-up in 2016 (l to Cibolkova) and winner in 2017 (bt Wozniacki). Kerber the runner-up twice previously in 2012 (l to Paszek) and 2014 (l to Keys).
                                  In the doubles, the only British pair, Dart/Watson, lost in R1 to # Melichar/Peschke. It was close, 10-6 in a match breaker, but these were the only seeds to survive R1. D’Oh! The final is Flipkens/Mattek-Sands vs Chan/Chan.

                                  On the Men’s side, most of the R1 matches were still unplayed last update. Let’s start with the R1 losses. Joining Paul Jubb on the sidelines were Jay Clarke and James Ward, who both lost from a set up against Juan Ignacio Londero and Thomas Fabbiano respectively. Cameron Norrie beat Jeremy Chardy and Dan Evans topped #8 Radu Albot though. That produced a very British segment of the draw as R2 pitted #3 Kyle Edmund vs Norrie and Pierre Hugues-Herbert (who gets quasi-Brit status for the next few weeks on the grounds that he is playing with Sir in the Wimbledon doubles) vs Dan Evans. Those matches were both straight sets wins for the expected players, Edmund beating Norrie 2&2 and Evans topping Herbert 3&5 (I maintain that is as expected on a grass court).
                                  That means Edmund vs Evans in the QFs on Thursday. Pre-match I wouldn’t have been certain at all on the call on that, but the higher ranked player came through, Kyle recovering from losing the opening set 6-1 to take the next two 6-3 6-4 from Evo. That sent Edmund through to a Semi against Big Serving Taylor Fritz (said so often one assumes that is his full name), who beat Hubert Hurkacz (a very promising youngish Polish player) in the QFs. The Semi went Fritz’s way in two to mean no Brits in the Final.
                                  Instead the title match will be an all-American affair as Fritz faces Sam Querrey after the later beat #5 Fernando Verdasco in the QF and Fabbiano in the Semis. Fabbiano had earlier beat #2 Laslo Djere and #6 Gilles Simon (the Queens finalist), so he had a good week and James Ward shouldn’t beat himself up to much to have lost to the Italian.
                                  The final is Querrey’s first title match in well over a year and Fritz’s first since reaching the final in Memphis back in 2016 in what was only his third ATP level event. It’s a big match for both players then. But don’t expect many (any?) service breaks. The Women’s Final should be a whole load more watchable as a spectacle.
                                  On the Men’s side there was arguably more interest in the Doubles than the Singles. For a handful of days, until A.Murray/Melo were beaten in R1 by top seeds Cabal/Farah. In fact, the Colombians went on a Brit-hunting session, following that up by beating Evans/Glasspool in the QFs (I think I mentioned their R1 win over Bambridge/O’Mara up thread) and #4 Inglot/Krajicek in the Semis. Indeed Cabal/Farah have taken the title, beating #2 Gonzalez/Zeballos in the final.
                                  The other British pairs involved in this, K.Skupski/N.Skupski, Clayton/Ward and Norrie/Londero, all exited in R1.

                                  Over in Antayla the final is not yet fixed as a brutal first Semi between Miomir Kecmanovic and Jordan Thompson, which featured zero breaks up served, used up all the light. Kecmanovic won the breakers 5-7 7-5 7-1. The other Semi stands at 6-3 5-5 to Lorenzo Sonego vs #4 Pablo Carreno Busta overnight. Kecmanovic will be making his ATP final debut tomorrow, as would be Sonego if he were to finish off. Carreno Busta has been in finals and won titles before (actually fewer than one would expect, just 3-3 previously) but never on grass and not inside the last 24 months.


                                  And finally, Wimbledon qualifying.
                                  As basically covered up thread by a combination of me and EEG, Liam Broady was the only British man to survive Q1 and he went on to be two sets up* in Q3 against #12 Gregoire Barrere. Set two was even a bagel, 6-0, but this was the high point as Barrere won the next three to turn it around.
                                  * - Wimbledon is the only Slam to play best-of-five in qualifying, and only does it in Q3.
                                  On the Women’s side, Gabriella Taylor and Samantha Murray won their Q1 matches against Chloe Paquet and Peng Shuai prespectively. Taylor lost in Q2 to Ysaline Bonaventure but Murray beat Cristina Bucsa before losing to another Spaniard, Paula Badosa in Q3 in a three setter. To date three Lucky Loser spots have been announced for the Women’s Singles main draw (withdrawn players include Katie Boulter) but none of these have gone to Murray.
                                  For reasons I don’t understand there was no Doubles qualifying this year. Just straight to a main draw. I think this was a very late decision.

                                  Oh, and a note on non-Brits coming through qualifying or not. In addition to 15 year-old Cori Gauff winning through and landing a plum R1 match against Venus Williams, a player at the other end of the spectrum got lil’ sis - that is Giulia Gatto-Monticone, who is 31, has battled on through a pro career (she has had a world ranking every year since 2002) without ever breaking the top 150 until, well, now. She finally made her Slam debut last month at Roland Garros, losing in R1 to Sofia Kenin (in three), after winning through qualifying there. And now she has gone back-to-back, qualifying again and this time she gets to play Serena Williams, hopefully on a big show court. Shades of Roger Federer vs Marcus Willis in terms of one to keep a video of to show the family in later years.
                                  The one who didn’t make it through was Sabine Lisicki. She fell at the final hurde to Lesley Kerkhove, despite winning set one 6-0.

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                                    Does being a Gatto-Monticone make her a mountain cat of some sort? Eye of the, er, Snow Leopard!

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                                      Pliskova was on fire. Not just beating Kerber today, but all week. Her set score line for the whole tournament reads 6-3 6-3 6-1 6-2 6-2 6-0 6-1 6-2 6-1 6-4. That's Nadal-in-Paris-like.

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                                        Sonego beat Carreno Busta in the incomplete Antalya Semi. The final is currently a set all after two breaker sets. Fritz is a set up on Querrey in Eastbourne.

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                                          Taylor Fritz beat Sam Querrey 3&4 in the end in Eastbourne to win his first ever ATP Tour level title. The winner in Turkey was always going to be a newbie, as neither Lorenzo Sonego or Miomir Kecmanovic had played in a final before. Sonego it was who came through that, taking the third decisively, 6-1, after the opening two breaker sets.

                                          And with that, let's decamped to a dedicated thread for the big show.

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                                            With the end of Wimbledon we get… the clay court season slight return! Two more weeks most on dirt before the US Open hardcourt series gets underway.

                                            Or mostly in the Men’s case, as the cut-offs are less distinct on the ATP than the WTA. In fact there was even another grass court event for the blokes last week, the Hall of Fame event in Newport, Rhode Island. Brits such as Dan Evans have played this in the past, but the only one involved this time was Alex Ward, who got a main draw wild card and promptly lost in straight sets to Kamil Majchrzak in R1. That was as far as Majchrzak got as in R2 he ran into top seed John Isner, who went on to win the event for the fourth time in his career. Isner’s defeat foe in the final was #1 Alexander Bublik.
                                            The other two ATP events were on dirt, in Bastad (Sweden) and Umag (Croatia) respectively. #5 Nicolas Jarry beat #6 Juan Ignacio Londero in the Bastad final to claim his first ever ATP Tour crown (previous best runner up twice), whilst in Umag the winner was Dusan Lajovic, who was also taking his first ATP crown. His final opponent was Hungarian Attila Balazs, who made it all the way from qualifying to the title match. Balazs pre-tournament ranking was 203, and at 30 he had never been in an ATP Tour final before. He has only ever played three Challenger finals, with two losses in 2019 and a win in 2010; most of his career has been at Futures level. Now, with a new career high ranking of 141, he can book his flights for US Open qualifying with certainty.

                                            The WTA events were both on clay at International level, in Bucharest and Lausanne. Two Brits played in qualifying in Romania, Naiktha Bains and Francesca Jones, but both lost in the first round of that. Bains did play the main draw in the doubles in tandem with Grymalska (born in Kiev, represents Italy), but they lost in R1 to #4 seeds Kuzmova/Kr.Pliskova. It was 10-7 in a match breaker mind, and Kuzmova/Pliskova did go on to take the title. The singles crown in Bucharest went to young (20) Kahakh-Russian player Elena Rybakina, who beat home hope Patricia Maria Tig in the showpiece to win her first WTA title. Tig had come through qualifying as her ranking had completely expired after she took an absence from the Tour, during which time she became pregnant and gave birth to a daughter. Her story over the last couple of years gives a flavour of the less glamourous bits of being a pro Tennis player. Go on, it’s well worth a read.
                                            No similar story in Lausanne but a first-time champion there as well as Frenchwoman Fiona Ferro (22) won her first WTA crown in her debut final. She beat #3 Alize Cornet to do that. Cornet was the defending champion.


                                            On to this week, and the WTA events are in Palermo (indoor clay!) and Jurmala, Latvia. Nothing of particular note as yet in Sicily, baring this is the first running of the tournament in six years. Oh and that Kiki Bertens is getting on last clay court event in whilst she can! Jurmala, by contrast, had Naiktha Bains and Francesca Jones in the qualifying again. Jones lost in q1 for the second successive week, but Bains won a round before losing in final Q. She was the highest ranked player to go out at that stage, so if there are any Lucky Loser spots going Bains will have a very good chance of taking them. If she does sneak in she will join Tig, who has burned one of her protected ranking entries to play in Latvia and so far, good choice! She has a R1 win under her belt.

                                            Back on the Men’s side, the less clear cut distinction has two clay events, an ATP500 in Hamburg and a 250 in Gstaad, but also the hardcourt opener in Atlanta. The later has British representation in the singles from Dan Evans and Cameron Norrie. Evans will play qualifier Jason Jung (Tpe) in R1, Norrie is already through to R2 after beating #7 Jordan Thompson in three. Evans and Norrie are also playing the doubles in Georgia with Thompson and Fritz respectively. They will be hoping to join #2 seeds Inglot/Krajicek in R2 after the later beat Ebden/Sandgren in their opener.

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                                              I don't know where I got the impression the WTA event in Palermo was being played indoors from. It clearly isn't.

                                              Anyway, good news so far from Atlanta where both Cameron Norrie and Dan Evans are into the QFs. Norrie backed ousting a seed (#7 Thompson) in R1 by beating a qualifier, Kwon Soon-woo, in R2. He faces Alexei Popyrin (Aus) in the QFs. Evans also topped a qualifier, Jung, in R1 and beat a seed, #6 Radu Albot in R2. His QF opponent will either be Reilly Opelka or #1 John Isner, who take to the court on the hour. Isner has an utterly stellar record in Atlanta - he is a two-time defending champion, and was the beaten finalist (l to Kyrgios) the year before that. And when he was losing to Nick, he was the three-time defending champion, i.e. he has won this event five of the last six years and been runner-up the other time! He was also runner-up in 2010 and 2011. 2010 was the first time the Atlanta Open was played. The only final in the decade long history of the event not to feature John Isner was in 2012. And then he lost in the Semis (to Roddick). The Atlanta Open is played on the courts of the University of Georgia, if I remember correctly. Which is John Isner's alma mater. Being a Bulldog clearly left a deep legacy with him.

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                                                Having bigged up Isner... he lost in R2! That is the first time in the tournament's entire history that he has lost before the Semis. Which is a remarkable statistic for something that has been going for a decent length of time. The score? Well, what do you expect in a Isner-Opelka match? Three breakers. 64 aces combined (Isner 33, Opelka 31), no breaks of serve, five break points saved in the course of the match (Opelka 3, Isner 2). Discounting double faults, of which Isner served 8 and Opelka 3, there were 36/211 points won by the returner. Which is 17%.

                                                Evans vs Opelka and Norrie vs Norrie vs Popyrin on Friday, then. Also due to play on Friday will be #2 Inglot/Krajicek, who are through to the Semis after beating Fritz/Norrie in a very tight match (two breakers and a match breaker) in the QFs. The other half-British pair, Evans/Thompson, went out in R1.
                                                Last edited by Janik; 25-07-2019, 13:53.

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                                                  Evans lost (v. disappointing) but Norrie won. He now plays #2 Taylor Fritz in the Semis, looking to do what Evo failed to do and break the big serving young Americans serve. Dan didn't even get to break point against Opelka. He only lost his own serve once, but, having not won a set one breaker, when he dropped it was very ill-timed - at 5-6 in set two! D'Oh.

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                                                    Ultimately disappointing in Atlanta as Cameron Norrie lost in three in his Semi to #2 Taylor Fritz. Fritz will play the no.3 seed Alex de Minaur in the final after the young Aussie won an opening set tie-break to give him the time to finally find a way of breaking Reilly Opelka’s serve. He managed it in set three, and then broke Opelka again at 5-3 for good measure. The age profile of the Atlanta Semi-Final line-up was interesting – Norrie, at 23 was the oldest! Fritz and Opelka are both 21, de Minaur 20. Tennis as it used to be.
                                                    There is a Brit playing on finals day in Georgia, mind. Inglot/Krajicek are into the Doubles showpiece. They followed up their QF win over Norrie/Fritz with a defeat of American pair Sock/Withrow in the Semis. The Final is against #1 Bryan/Bryan (Inglot/Krajicek are #2).
                                                    The big news story of the week on the ATP came from Hamburg, however. That was the breakup of the Sascha Zverev/Ivan Lendl coaching relationship. And how the story broke was a bit weird, Lendl going public about it whilst Zverev was midway through a home tournament. Sascha was clearly irritated by this. The news came out on the morning of Zverev’s QF against Filip Krajinovic. He won that in three to face defending champion and 4th seed Nikoloz Basilashvili in the Semis. That also went the distance, with Zverev serving for the match at 5-3 in the decider. He had two mtch points in that game but couldn’t convert, was broken and went on to lose the match in a deciding set tie-break. Zverev was the #2 seed for the event. The top seed was Dominic Thiem, but he went out at the QF stage to Andrey Rublev. Rublev then beat Pablo Carreno Busta to make the final, which he has just levelled at one set all (5-7 6-4).
                                                    The other Men’s event this week is the Swiss Open in Gstaad. The final of this should be just getting underway, and is an all-unseeded affair. Albert Ramos-Vinolas is one of the players involved. He is through to his first final since February 2018. He has a poor record in title matches at ATP Tour level to date, 1-5 in his previous attempts. However he will be a strong favourite against Cedrik-Marcel Stebe, who is into his first ever final at age 28. Stebe is playing on a protected ranking after missing over a year with injury, so his current number of 455 is misleading. However, prior to this event, he hadn’t won a Tour or even Challenger level match on his comeback! So this run is pretty stunning for him. He has beaten #8 Moutet, Vesely, Fabbiano and #5 Sousa to be at this stage.

                                                    Gstaad and Hamburg on the Men’s side are both clay court events, as are both the WTA tournaments going on this week in Jurmala, Latvia and Palermo. The Latvian public will have a home hope to pull for in the title match, as this is #1 Anastasija Sevastova vs Katarzyna Kawa. Kawa, a 26 year old Pole, is a qualifier who will be playing her first ever WTA Tour level final. She was only just ranked inside the top 200 at the start of the week, but has seen the draw open up in front of her – Sevastova is the first seed she will face (her SF win over Bernarda Pera was impressive though). She will be up against it as Sevastova looked very handy in her SF win over #6 Anastasia Potapova (the umpire for this match also had a first name of Anastasia!). Sevastova is going for just her fourth WTA title, and first in almost exactly a year (54 weeks to be precise). And also her first on home soil/dirt. The match is a 7pm start local time, so later this afternoon UK. The home support will also have a local to cheer in the doubles final as Jelena Ostapeko made up for a very desultory R1 singles loss (2&1 vs Pera) by making that.
                                                    The final in Palermo is also an evening match. It will feature #1 Kiki Bertens vs #8 Jil Teichmann. Bertens already led the WTA in match wins prior to this tournament, and is filling her boots against a field that really doesn’t hold a candle to her as a clay court player, one set in the QF against local player Jasmine Paolini aside. The second seed for the event was Alize Cornet, the World No. 48. Bertens ranking is 5. Teichmann, the no.8 seed, is ranked 90. Teichmann has nothing to lose, being a massive underdog. She also already has a WTA title to her name from earlier this year (Prague on clay back in May), so this won’t feel like an only opportunity. However, Bertens has a whole bunch of clay court crowns and a 9-3 overall record in tournament finals. It’s going to be tough for the Swiss player.


                                                    And on to next week. The WTA makes a sudden switch to US hard, with the two events happening being a Premier in San Jose and an International in Washington. The San Jose event was previously at Stanford for many years before switching in 2018. Despite having Premier prize money and ranking points, the entry list is still disappointing; the last direct acceptance for the 28-player main draw is a lowly 122. Which is good news for Heather Watson, seeing as that is her! She plays Zheng Saisai in R1, looking to build ion actually winning a match at Wimbledon last time out.
                                                    Just one Brit entered the Women’s singles competition in Washington. That was Naomi Broady, who got into the qualifying as the cut off was way low at over 500. Which was necessary given Broady’s ranking these days. The extent she has slipped was made clear on court – she was double-bageled in q1 by #2 Vickery. Also involved playing her first event since Wimbledon in the qualifying of this is Cory Gauff, who presumably didn’t ask for a wild card that would have been hers for the taking. She is the top seed in the qualifying draw, and is into the final round of it after a straight sets win in q1.

                                                    The doubles draws for the two Women’s events are not yet available, but they are for the ATP. And as has been reasonably reported, there is a notable pair in the Washington Men’s event – A.Murray/J.Murray. Jamie is actually the defending champion, so there is pressure on Andy here. They play a very handy French pair, Mahut/Roger-Vasselin in R1. The Doubles draw of this is actually very strong, with the other British connected team involved, Salisbury/Ram, being unseeded despite getting a seeding in Slams (the Bryans are also not seeded!). Salisbury/Ram play #2 Kubot/Melo in R1.
                                                    Doubles first? Sir Andy does distort things. On the overshadow singles side () Kyle Edmund is the #13 seed. The draw is a 48-man one, so he gets a bye to R2. He will play either Lloyd Harris or Ricardas Berankis. Dan Evans is also playing. He faces Yoshihito Nishioka in R1, with the carrot of a R2 clash with #7 David Goffin dangling.
                                                    Washington is an ATP500, but there are also two ATP250’s going on, one on North American hard in Los Cabos, Mexico, the other one final hurrah for clay in Kitzbuehel. Cameron Norrie is off South of the border. He plays Gregoire Barrere in R1. He is also playing the Doubles on a wild card with a local player. The top seeds in the doubles of this are Inglot/Krajicek.
                                                    As for Kitzbuehel, that will be mostly under our radar as play on clay when there are other options? All the Brits said “you have to be joking”. Dominic Thiem leads the field.

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