Week 41 - WTA International ($227K) - WTA International Hong Kong Hard

philwrig · Hall of fame

Week 41 - WTA International ($227K) - WTA International Hong Kong Hard

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

True, but it's worth it. I remember that year Andy was point chasing.

The advantage in my mind as that if they get some more points at the WTF then it helps their rankings for the following year, so they get better seeding.

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

The advantage for the women is that the tail end of the season is a bit shorter - everyone plays Beijing and then there are only 2 weeks of additional point chasing. Andy was playing every week for another month. On the other hand, the last week before Singapore is in Moscow, so a long way from Singapore and with a very different climate. Given the frantic race to the finish line, I agree we could see some tired players, and I would think there is a good chance whoever does just miss out initially will make an appearance at some stage due to a withdrawal.

Maybe the most surprising thing is that two players who could benefit, Kerber and Radwanska, are also playing this week.

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes, while in various ways not as gruelling a bulid-up for the women there does seem to be a case for having a week's gap after the final regular tournament.

Puts all the players on a more equal footing and would surely help the WTA make more of the event, not least because everyone, they and the players included, would know in advance all who was playing, and build to It. It did seem a bit of a palaver the year the ATP went straight from the Paris Masters into the Tour Finals.

Swapping the WTA Tour Finals and WTA Elite Trophy weeks would seem to make sense to me. Be interesting to know why they schedule it the less obvious way round.

Yes, many of the same issues would then effect the Elite Trophy event, but with respect it is not the same showpiece.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Looks like jo's withdrawn ahead of her R2 match, hopefully just precautionary. No more details at the moment I don't think.

PaulM · Tennis legend

Yeah hopefully nothing serious, although given this event adds nothing to her ranking now, feel a bit for Naomi who could have done with a kinder draw!

Hopefully we'll get news of what is up soon.

Jan · Hall of fame

Hope Johanha's ok - I wondered why I couldn't find her match!

philwrig · Hall of fame

Abdominal strain cited, which doesn't sound too bad, but could be tricky to overcome over a short period.

blob · All-time great

"abdominal strain" should always be enclosed in sarcastic/sardonic quotes; being the tours official macguffin for "I've fulfilled my obligations to this event, and am thinking that I've messed my schedule up a bit, so could do without playing any more right now."
In Johanna's case, it may well be that she accepts a last minute WC into the Kremlin Cup Premier next week, as a deep run there would guarantee her a place in Singapore. Continuing to play this week reduces the chance of that happening with fatigue and late arrival, and so forth. Hence the 'abdominal strain'.
This is something that as a top 10/20 player next year, she'll have to become au fait with, as there are a whole raft of special commitment rules for those players, but also special privileges that can be invoked regarding WC's etc. It also affects what scores can go on your ranking in some very specific combinations of circumstances/compositions.

indiana · Tennis legend

Re Moscow, as per tennisforums two WCs have already been given to two non race contenders and two 'top 20' WCs remain to be allocated and at the moment among others, Muguruza, Keys and Kuznetsova, last year's winner, are not entered anywhere. Cibulkova and Suarez Navarro are entered for Moscow.

Are there any rules as to who gets 'top 20' WCs ?

Hopefully Jo will be OK and all works out for Singapore however, but she was getting a bit of stick on that forum for not being entered for Moscow.

Re Singapore, I read from a Steven on Twitter ( reputedly a reliable source ) that if Cibulkova reaches the SF in Linz, and hence at that stage ties ranking & race points with Jo, Jo would still be ahead on tiebreak.

-- Edited by indiana on Friday 14th of October 2016 04:59:08 PM

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Having started this tournament and got to the point where wins would give her more points towards Singapore, then I would be surprised if Jo's withdrawal is tactical rather than through a genuine injury. I suppose we will know based on whether or not she shows up in Moscow.

If she doesn't play next week then she has an anxious wait with a very narrow lead over Cibulkova.

Wildcards have probably been discussed enough on this forum but if qualification for Singapore is determined by who gets a WC into Moscow that would be very fair. On the other hand everyone involved could have just entered Moscow normally and not needed a WC.

Heather led 2-0 I think but lost the fist set 3-6

(edited to correct the extra large font size)

-- Edited by tony_orient on Thursday 13th of October 2016 06:05:03 PM

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

The second set also went to Wozniacki by the same score. Scoreline pretty much as expected I suppose.

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

Unless she is targeting Zhuhan. It's a week later and she'd have a fair chance of winning it.

If she's plays next week, even if she qualifies for Singapore she'd be knackered. Saying that, she's not played Singapore before, so it would be and honour.

philwrig · Hall of fame

I think this is far from tactical either, but instead very sensible, would have been easy to push ahead to try and pick up as many ranking points as possible, but clearly she knows her body very well, and has decided she doesn't want to risk making it much worse. I doubt she'll play next week either, but may play as alternate in Singapore if Domi takes her spot, or else be hopefully fully fit for Zhuhan. Her decisions regarding her schedule this year and when to pull out have been just about spot on, so I suspect she's made the right call again this time.

indiana · Tennis legend

Naomi and Heather have finally had some doubles action and won, coming through a MTB that they were always ahead in but did get rather close.

R1: Naomi Broady & Heather Watson CR 153 (73+80) beat Ya-Hsuan Lee & Kotomi Takahata (TPE/JPN) CR 270 (162+108) 4-6 6-3 [10-8]

QF: Naomi Broady & Heather Watson CR 153 (73+80) vs Chang Liu & Jia-Jing Lu (CHN/CHN) CR 420 (242+178)

Liu & Lu beat the Chinese #3 seeds.

-- Edited by indiana on Thursday 13th of October 2016 02:29:03 PM