Week 7 - WTA Premier 5 ($3,198,000) - Doha, Qatar

wolf · Tennis legend

Week 7 - WTA Premier 5 ($3,198,000) - Doha, Qatar

blob · All-time great

With this being the Premier 5 this year, and Dubai the Premier 12 in their aternating rotation, it doubly benefits the players who are not in Fed Cup action and are available to play in qualifying here; bigger popints on offer.
Hopefully Naomi can get something going and take advantage.
Sorribes Tormo has very nearly 50% of her points dropping off in the next 6 weeks, so may be playing under some pressure. Like Naomi, she is best on hard courts.

JonH · All-time great

blob wrote:
With this being the Premier 5 this year, and Dubai the Premier 12 in their aternating rotation, it doubly benefits the players who are not in Fed Cup action and are available to play in qualifying here; bigger popints on offer.
Hopefully Naomi can get something going and take advantage.
Sorribes Tormo has very nearly 50% of her points dropping off in the next 6 weeks, so may be playing under some pressure. Like Naomi, she is best on hard courts.

I hadnt realised that is how Doha and Dubai work -are there any other alternating events? Realise the Canadian situation but that is just one event swapping between venues. Are there any others that swap status on the womens tour?

blob · All-time great

JonH wrote:
blob wrote:
With this being the Premier 5 this year, and Dubai the Premier 12 in their aternating rotation [...]
I hadnt realised that is how Doha and Dubai work -are there any other alternating events? Realise the Canadian situation but that is just one event swapping between venues. Are there any others that swap status on the womens tour?

Not currently, the arrangement is unique. It was agreed, unofficially, to try and get Serena and Sharapova to play in each country by allowing each other to rotate the higher status between them. Neither player had much time for Premier 5 back then though, and both UAE & Qatar have been generally unhappy with their returns and threatened to quit womens tennis. Which would be disastrous for the WTA, as Dubai World Tours are a very large sponsor.

JonH · All-time great

Thanks Blob - Is it not an issue that the events are so soon after Melbourne and v close to the USA premier mandatory events? Maybe a slot later in the year nearer the Chinese swing might work more naturally, finish the end of year gravitating to the east? I've worked a fair bit in both Qatar and UAE and weather is fine in early autumn, hotter than now but ok.

blob · All-time great

They've floated many putative remedies, but other events are unwilling to move, and WTA can't just create another Premier Mandatory (which is what both Doha & Dubai want - compulsory attendance from the top players under a penalty to their ranking - as do several other events).
So, they're stuck with their current spot, which, as you note, is in a dead zone between Australia and preparation for the insanity of the back-to-back Premier mandatories in America. IW then Miami in such short order is a blight on the calendar, but they have far too much power for that to change, especially IW, as Oracle (founded by IW Owner Larry ellison) now sponsor a whole load of tournaments, and a new Oracle Challenger tour of $125K events in America, and are subsidising a bespoke new stadium to transition the Stanford event elsewhere in California (San Jose) this year. (Stanford University kicked the longest running womens only tournament in the world out, becasue of... reasons. IMG offered costs and triple rents, but the University wanted rid).
So, really, unless there is a major shake up in the entire WTA tour structure and calendar then the tension seems intractable.

JonH · All-time great

Interesting - I see the top two men and women in the Oracle Challenger series get Indian Wells wild cards. Which other events are in the series and is there a points table somewhere do you know?

I guess Indian Wells is trying to position itself as that 5th slam the Americans seem to like the concept of, ahead of miami, so as you say they won't change. Past April, the gulf is too hot and of course clay takes over, and I guess the Chinese won't change, particularly with getting a 10 year contract for the WTA tour event.

And I guess the men's has similarly little room unless they push out the Paris indoor event and can get a large event in October perhaps after China and before O2?

blob · All-time great

This was the PR for the Oracle announcement: http://www.wtatennis.com/news/two-new-wta-125k-series-events-form-oracle-challenger-series-2018

They've already played the frst.

The points are the same for other $125K Challengers:

WIN	160
F	95
SF	57
QF	29
R16	15
R32	1
Qualified	6
FQR	4
QR2	1
QR1	1

If there are only 2 qualifying rounds, the points are

Qualified	6
FQR	4
QR1	1

indiana · Tennis legend

I thought that one original aim was of the 125 series was to bring fairly big women's level tennis to some areas that didn't see much. It has looked that that has become less of an issue and now err Indian Wells ...

blob · All-time great

As the kids like to say *shrug*

Edit: the standard shrug ASCII doesn't work in Activeboard, grr! You get this: ¯\_()_/¯

-- Edited by blob on Friday 9th of February 2018 07:34:33 PM

JonH · All-time great

Thanks Blob - personally I'd like them to link the 3 pre Wimbledon Challenger weeks for women and men with some sort of points system leading to wildcards for Wimbledon, it helps with that sort of narrative we've talked about before

wimdledont · Challenger level

Naomi, who would be q17seed, about to start.

blob · All-time great

Yikes! Naomi made just 1 first serve in her opening two service games.
0-3*

the addict · Tennis legend

One break back 3-4*

blob · All-time great

Naomi certainly picked up, but still only managed a first serve % of 28%.
Too little too late to rescue the first set.
4-6