With Johanna Konta having been pipped at the very last moment for the 8th berth at the WTA Finals last year, hopes are high that she'll make the cut this year (and maybe with plenty to spare )
Jo made a superb start to her new campaign to be 1st on the Road to Singapore after lifting the Sydney Premier title in week 2
She's been overtaken by the Williams sisters in today's new list but with 1010 points is still very nicely placed in 3rd.
Next on the list for GBR is Naomi at 101 with Heather at 110 and Tara at 144.
Here's hoping for 5 in the top 100 by Year End and 1 in the top 8
I must admit that I wondered whehter her run to the SF was just a flash in the pan last year. I was a bit nervous at the start of this year with the death of her mental coach and her new set up. It seems however, whatever was going right last year is carrying on. So the only questions will be how her clay and grass seasons go as they were pretty abysmal last year. Go Jo!
Serena was on a mission this past fortnight; it was a pity Jo had to meet her at the QF stage otherwise there's a fair chance she'd have matched or bettered last year's SF.
Yes here's hoping she can be a more consistent winner on the clay and grass this year (it shows how expectations have now risen that a set of results which included beating Vinci on clay and Kvitova on grass could be regarded as abysmal!).
Plenty of points on the hard to defend before that...plus hopefully a Fed Cup promotion to earn; as you say, go Jo :)
Serena was on a mission this past fortnight; it was a pity Jo had to meet her at the QF stage otherwise there's a fair chance she'd have matched or bettered last year's SF. Yes here's hoping she can be a more consistent winner on the clay and grass this year (it shows how expectations have now risen that a set of results which included beating Vinci on clay and Kvitova on grass could be regarded as abysmal!). Plenty of points on the hard to defend before that...plus hopefully a Fed Cup promotion to earn; as you say, go Jo :)
Oops, I forgot about those. I guess I was more remembering relatively early exits at the GSs. I thought she went out in the first round in the French, with Robbo.
Yes, she lost Roland Garros R1 to Goerges and Wimbledon R2 to Bouchard ( beat Puig in R1 )
The clay win over Vinci was in the Rome Premier 5 event ( Italian Open ) where she reached the last 16. On grass she beat Kvitova and Makarova on her way to the SF in Eastbourne where she lost in 3 sets to Ka Pliskova. Also lost to Friedsam, Garcia and Doi on clay and Zheng Saisai and Wickmayer on grass. Overall won 8, lost 8 ( 2-4 on clay, 6-4 on grass ).
I guess with Jo it's all on a different relative level these days. She has 3705 ranking points and 'just' 380 of her counting points ( 466 in total ) have come from last year's clay and grass combined. Certainly it's a period where she could make rankings progress this year.
-- Edited by indiana on Monday 30th of January 2017 09:39:17 PM
Vinci is extremely average on clay (surprisingly), so I wouldn't read too much into that.
I agree though, it's the period that could make or break her end of year ranking. Last year's French was miserable for many reasons, but the weather particularly. If I remember Jo's match correctly, the court was slow, it was damp and cold and windy. Not conducive at all to Jo's game, so there's definite opportunity to pick up points there. I would also point to Madrid, which although clay, plays differently and players like Kvitova have won titles there.
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