Week 44 - WTA Elite Trophy - Zhuhai, China [Doubles Only]

blob · All-time great

Week 44 - WTA Elite Trophy - Zhuhai, China [Doubles Only]

Michael D · All-time great

But that's weird, how come with a partner whom she has never played with before? How does this entrance work... anyone know?

blob · All-time great

Michael D wrote:
But that's weird, how come with a partner whom she has never played with before? How does this entrance work... anyone know?

It's convoluted: P8, B.2.a.ii - http://www.wtatennis.com/sites/default/files/basic_page_files/2017_wta_official_rulebook_section_ix_wta_finals_wta_elite_trophy.pdf

Jaffa · Challenger level

Very good for Anna to be in this and well earned. I don't understand how the points work though, is it the same as the singles points?

blob · All-time great

Jaffa wrote:
Very good for Anna to be in this and well earned. I don't understand how the points work though, is it the same as the singles points?

For doubles, it's only prize money. No ranking points.

$16K for any participation, plus $5,250 for each Round Robin (RR) win. Winners of each RR group go straight to the final. Final losers get $10,635 on top of RR earnings, the winners get $21K on top of RR earnings. Max earnings for undefeated RR & tournament win is thus, $47.5K ($16K Participation + $10.5K Undefeated RR + $21 K champions).

Spectator · All-time great

Convoluted ... but how marvelous! Well done to Ms Smith. A superb accomplishment.

Michael D · All-time great

It is indeed complicated... I guess the question is really how does Anna get to be in this, by herself, and not with Nicole, who she has been playing with for the last 6 months or so? Since Nicole has the higher ranking, it's hard to see how Anna would have gained more points in a particular time period... and if Anna is accepted, why not Nicole too? And if maybe Nicole was not interested, well from your last posting, even if there are no points, the financial incentives are VERY good, since that is a whack more money than the doubles players usually earn outside the grand slams!

I see Alicja is ranked 31, so 8 places higher than Nicole's 39, but I have no knowledge of Anna having played with her before...

blob · All-time great

Rosolska is a little bit like Anna this year, in that she started with one regular partner, and that partnership ended in the middle if the year. She was previously teamed with Gabriela Dabrowski. Dabrowski made the year end
finals in Singapore with Yifan Xu (they won Miami together).

Rosolska has never played with Anna, but has played against her on three occasions, 2 in doubles, one in singles:
Doubles:
Limoges $125K, Nov. 2016 (Anna & Voracova won)
Nottingham $75K, (Anna & Joss won)

Singles:
Torhout $75K, Apr. 2008 (Anna won)

Alicja has played with some Brits to some effect though:
Hev in Wuhan 2016 (R64), Quebec City 2012 (FR)
Naomi in Katowice 2016 (SF), San Antonio $125K 2016 (QF), Doha 2016 (R32)

Take out the players that made Singapore, who are thus ineligible for Zhuhai, whether they qualified in singles or doubles. Then discount the 12 singles players in Zhuhai, and the other 11 doubles players in Zhuhai, and you're up to 47 other players, which takes you very roughly to where Anna is. That's a very rough and imprecise method of assessing it illustratively.

Nicole is eligible, but has chosen not to play.

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

Or maybe Anna and Nicole as a team would not have made it but would have done with other partners. And Anna was asked by a higher ranked player and Nicole was not?? Dubs can be cut-throat in this regard.

wimdledont · Challenger level

With no ranking points on offer it's effectively an exhibition tournament, with a ridiculously weak field. Only one player within the top 32. One of the Chinese girls is WR199. Overall, there are two teams, including Anna+, competing against 4 local wildcard combinations.

Great opportunity for Anna though to swell her bank account, perhaps to the extent that she may be able to look at recruiting a travelling coach for some part of 2018.

Michael D · All-time great

The Optimist wrote:
Or maybe Anna and Nicole as a team would not have made it but would have done with other partners. And Anna was asked by a higher ranked player and Nicole was not?? Dubs can be cut-throat in this regard.

Not that cut throat I wouldn't have thought - not unless Anna doesn't intend playing with Nicole again, and they have been doing very well as a pair of late, having both just reached CHs! There is a 5 yr age difference between Anna and Nicole, so I would think that Anna sees this as the kind of opportunity that is less likely to fall her way many times again. Also her earnings this year have been lower todate than Nicole's $90,900 vs $111,390... so blob's explanation makes sense in both these respects. Nevertheless if Anna and Alicja do well here, its good for Anna to have another string in her bow for the coming season...

Spectator · All-time great

Yes, there's an odd mismatch between the singles field - Kerber, Mladenovic, Stephens, Pavlyuchenkova, etc - and the doubles. But since this could work to Ms Smith's advantage, who are we to complain?!

Michael D · All-time great

Spectator wrote:
Yes, there's an odd mismatch between the singles field - Kerber, Mladenovic, Stephens, Pavlyuchenkova, etc - and the doubles. But since this could work to Ms Smith's advantage, who are we to complain?!

Ranking points can be gained from the singles matches though. That's the difference compared with the doubles. Why there is a difference is another question...

-- Edited by Michael D on Monday 30th of October 2017 04:40:29 PM

indiana · Tennis legend

A wikipedia article for last year's Elite Trophy kind of gave up on working out how some of the doubles pairs had been arrived at.

" ... It was unclear how the selection was determined eventually as two teams were announced as participants despite not fulfilling these criteria".

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_WTA_Elite_Trophy

blob · All-time great

Under way against Zhang/Liu, *0-1