Wozniacki caps great year with Singapore triumph

Caroline Wozniacki has completed an amazing 2017 by winning the WTA Finals in Singapore.

Her win over Venus Williams was her first in their head to head competition and completed a 60th match win for the year, the most by any woman on tour.

8 finals for two titles and a rise in rankings from 19 in January to 3 at years end, her highest since 2012.

Wins over three reigning world number ones showed just how significant Caroline’s comeback to the elite stage has been. Only a major title continues to elude her.

The Singapore triumph was not without its hurdles, the round robin stage interrupted by an unexpected loss to Caroline Garcia who ended up topping the Red Group.

Although Wozniacki dominated the group apart from that three set match, the rules dictated that she play a semi final against top of the White Group Karolina Pliskova.

Wozniacki cleaned up Pliskova, just as she eventually would four of the five top seeds she played throughout the tournament.

Venus Williams was far from disgraced in the final and indeed the whole shebang.

From a thrashing in her first match against Pliskova she edged Jelena Ostapenko in a three hour thriller before denying Garbine Muguruza the year end number one ranking with a straight sets triumph.

A semi final win over Caroline Garcia brought back many memories and the first set of the final was willing and full of winners.  

Wozniacki twice drew a break ahead, only for Williams to in each case immediately break back and even the score.

Wozniacki had another service break up her sleeve though and the vital opener was hers 6-4.

Set two was similar with 3 breaks to two and the match won 6-4 6-4.

The year ended with rankings:

1 Simona Halep 6175 points

2 Garbine Muguruza 6135 points

3 Caroline Wozniacki 6015 points

Australia has a new number one female player - Ash Barty at career high 20.

While the elite WTA players were doing battle in Singapore, the ATP players were on show in Europe,

In Vienna:

Semi Finals

Jo-Wilfred Tsonga (8) d Philipp Kohlschreiber 

Lucas Pouille d Kyle Edmund

Lucas Pouille won the title 6-1 6-4

In Basel:

Semi Finals

Roger Federer (1) d David Goffin (3)

Juan Martin del Potro (4) d Marin Cilic (2)

Roger Federer won the title (his 9th in Basel)

Halep humbled in Singapore

Two rounds of the WTA Finals have been completed, and two players have appeared to be the favourites to advance to the big match.

From the red group, Caroline Wozniacki (6) has thrashed Elina Svitolina (4) and world number one Simona Halep, losing just four games in total over the the two matches.

Halep and Caroline Garcia (8) are probably set to fight for second place in the group as both have one win, but Garcia’s chances are slim given she will need to overcome Wozniacki, while Svitolina is set to go home after her final round robin match against Halep.

The white group has been all Karolina Pliskova (3) with straight sets wins over both Venus Williams (5) and Garbine Muguruza (2).

Surrendering just eight games to her victims - four each - Pliskova is primed to have a shot at regaining the number one ranking.

This will happen if she wins a likely semi final against Halep and proceeds to win the whole tournament.

At the moment, though, I predict Wozniacki to win everything.

In Vienna we have only two quarter finalists to this point - Alexander Zverev (1) and compatriot Philipp Kohlschreiber, the latter having defeated fifth seed John Isner in the opening round.

Another American, Sam Querrey (6), also disappeared in round one as did third seed Kevin Anderson (7).

Querrey dipped out to Albert Ramos-Vinolas and Anderson fell to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.

Basel, or alternatively the Federer Invitational, has seen just one seed suffer - Mischa Zverev (8) - not as fortunate as his younger brother over in Austria.

Three players have so far slipped through to the final eight - David Goffin (3), Jack Sock (5) and Roberto Bautista Agut (6).

Wozniacki impresses early in Singapore

The WTA finals kicked off in Singapore with all initial round robin matches won with relative ease.

In the White Group, whose matches began first, Karolina Pliskova (3) was at the peak of her powers, defeating Venus Williams (5) 6-2 6-2.

Pliskova won 54% of points on the Williams serve and converted five of twelve break points in the match.

Garbine Muguruza (2) was almost as efficient in her victory over Jelena Ostapenko (7) 6-3 6-4.

It was Muguruza’s returning of second serve which impressed in set one, but her much improved points won % on her own first serve in set two which enabled a position of strength from which she won in straight.

Day two was the Red Group’s chance to shine and Simona Halep (1) did just that in the opening match against Caroline Garcia (8).

The scoreline was 6-4 6-2 but could have been closer had Garcia converted break points as well as Halep did - one from six compared with four from five.

Three of the break points came in game four of set two, with the chance to level at 2-2. Halep managed to save, however, and proceeded to break again for 4-1 and effectively seal the match.

Up second were Elina Svitolina (4) and Caroline Wozniacki (6).

The performance of the first round of matches was left to last as Wozniacki tore apart Svitolina 6-2 6-0 and served a severe warning to all 7 others that the dangerous Dane was not here just for kicks.

Caroline smashed the Svitolina second serve 11 of the 12 times it was delivered to her and she broke the Ukraine serve each time a chance was created - five from five.

Elina was zero from one - that one in game one of set two 

Watch out number one ranking chasers - Wozniacki is here to win the tournament and other stuff is purely ancillary.

The men are playing too, believe it or not.

In Vienna, Sascha Zverev is top seed and he won his opening match against Viktor Troicki. Not so fortunate were fifth seed John Isner, and veteran Feliciano Lopez.

In Basel the Federer presence is hard to miss as he is aiming for title number eight here. He has made the final in his last ten appearances, but this year he has form players in the draw aside him, including Cilic, Goffin and del Potro.

Even his first round match against unseeded Frances Tiafoe presents a challenge of sorts, considering the five set match the two gave the Flushing Meadows crowd in this years US Open. This time however it is played in Roger’s back yard.

So far, not many major highlights, and one seed through to round two - Roberto Bautista Agut (6), winning his opener over qualifier Mikhail Kukushkin.

Delpo defends Stockholm

Winners of five titles over the weekend are available and significantly Juan Martin del Potro has broken through for only his second crown since Sydney 2014. The other one was here last year. Defending his Stockholm Open was another step in a full comeback to where he wants to and should be - a returning top ten player.

Already Delpo has reached number 19 and barring another injury stretch he is set to charge through in 2018.

His final win as fourth seed over another top achiever in number one seed Grigor Dimitrov was comprehensive, and no doubt a little disappointing for the crowd who should have expected something closer. However the Argentine cut the Bulgarian to shreds. The opening set was the beginning of a horror story, although Grigor wasn’t playing too badly.

But you can’t argue with 85 % points won on first serve or just one break point to save (dutifully done). Set two saw two more breaks of the top seed’s serve while del Potro saved the single break point he faced.

6-4 6-2 and the Argentine won easing up.

Damir Dzumhur has had his best season by far, capturing his first ATP title in St Petersburg and making his best efforts so far in smashing his ranking - he has for years hung around mid sixties to mid nineties while never threatening the top fifty.

This year he began at 77 and jumped to 36 a couple of weeks ago, his career high. He celebrated with a second title for 2017 in Moscow - a love affair of Russia continuing.

He, as sixth seed, defeated unseeded Ricardas Berankis in the final.

Jo-Wilfrid Tsonga snagged a fourth title for 2017 in Antwerp, sneaking past one of the years biggest improvers Diego Schwartzman 6-3 7-5. Diego had stopped the surprising run of Stefanos Tsitsipas in the semi final.  Tsitsipos jumps 27 spots to 95, his entry to the top hundred a career high.

Moscow also found another winner who has renewed her game in 2017. Former top twenty player Julia Goerges, seventh seed, won the final against Daria Kasatkina, not dropping a set, in fact something she hadn’t throughout the tournament.

Finishing 2016 ranked 54, Julia was still sitting at 54 half way through 2017. Then she began a serious run:

Finalist at Bucharest and Washington, quarter finalist at Cincinnati and fourth round at US Open. The USA was a terrific stretch. And now with the Moscow title, 28 year old Goerges sees her ranking at 18, just three shy of her career high of 15, achieved over five years ago.

The other successful female came from the Luxembourg final, and it was German improver Carina Witthoeft. Her title win in the Luxembourg Open was at the expense of Monica Puig 6-3 7-5 in all unseeded final.

Carina’s win shoots her 22 places up the rankings to 51, just two spots below her career high.

This weeks light shines brightest on Singapore, where the top eight performed ladies of 2017 battle it out in the WTA finals. Last years final eight included the winner and runner up Dominika Cibulkova and Angie Kerber, neither who have qualified this year.

Semi finalists Aga Radwanska and Sveta Kuznetsova also are missing this year.

From last year we have Simona Halep, Garbine Muguruza, Karolina Pliskova and Elina Svitolina. Joining them are Venus Williams, Caroline Wozniacki, Jelena Ostapenko and surprise packet Caroline Garcia.

Titles up for grabs in Europe

Quarter finals have been reached in Moscow (ATP), Antwerp (ATP), and Stockholm (ATP)

Semi Finals have been determined in Moscow (WTA) and Luxembourg (WTA)

Stockholm has gone as per the seedings, the final eight being:

Grigor Dimitrov (1) v Mischa Zverev (5)

Jack Sock (3) v Fabio Fognini (6)

Yuichi Sugita (7) v Juan Martin del Potro (4)

Fernando Verdasco (8) v Kevin Anderson (2)

Elsewhere, being a seed has not necessarily been a guarantee for success.

In Moscow, Julia Goerges (7) was the only seed left in the quarter finals, and she survived through to the final four:

Daria Kasatkina v Irina-Camelia Begu

Natalia Vikhlyantseva v Julia Goerges (7) 

Not all that brighter for the men’s supposed best of the field. Here is the final eight:

Daniil Medvedev v Mirza Basic - Daniil knocked out the top seed Pablo Carreno Busta while qualifier Mirza has burst into his first ATP main draw of 2017 and is making a big run of it.

Andreas Seppi v Damir Dzumhur (6) - Seppi dismisses 4th seed Philipp Kohlschreiber in the second round.

Dudi Sela v Adrian Mannarino (3) - Sela did not meet a seed until now due to the late withdrawal of eighth seed Karen Khachanov.

Ricardas Berankis v Alexander Bublik - Berankis made the main draw because of a protected ranking and Bublick, a lucky loser from qualifying, rode his luck by defeating second seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas. 

Antwerp quarter finals are:

David Goffin (1) v Stefanos Tsitsipas - qualifier Tsitsipas, ranked 122, beat 6th seed Pablo Cuevas in the opening round, and had the measure of big serving Ivo Karlovic before the Croatian retired, a set down. Neither player had dropped serve in the match to that point.

Diego Schwartzman (4) v David Ferrer (5)

Joao Sousa v Ruben Bemelmans - Sousa defeated Benoit Paire (7) and Bemelmans shocked Nick Kyrgios - after taking the first set in a tie break, and winning 89% of points on his first serve, Nick just fell in a screaming heap, points won on first serve dropping to around 50% for the rest of the match. The 98th ranked Belgian used seven extra years on Nick to full advantage.

Julien Benneteau v Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (2)

We could still have the top two seeds in the final.

In Luxembourg the final four will do battle as follows:

Monica Puig v Elise Mertens (5) - Monica can do no wrong, it seems, since defeating top seed, Angie Kerber, in the first round 

Pauline Parmentier v Carina Witthoeft - Carina defeated 8th seed Varvara Lepchenko in the first round and Kiki Bertens (2) in the quarter finals.

Federer conquers Nadal

The results from last week were interesting to say the least.

Shanghai saw the Nadal train derailed when Roger Federer won another final against the top seed - the third this year. (He also won a fourth match against Rafa in the round of sixteen in Indian Wells).

The straight sets victory was a surprise to most and gave Federer his second Shanghai trophy.

I have to feel sorry for both finalists in Hong Kong. The weather was horrible and delayed the start of the match for about five hours for Dasha Gavrilova (7) and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (6).

Further delays meant that the match, which lasted over three hours anyway, finished well past midnight.

Gavrilova fought hard to win the first set, after being down a break, but it was Pavlyuchenkova who controlled the rest of the match. The deciding set was 2-2 with no break, but the next eight games were all service breaks, Pavlyuchenkova failing to serve out the match on two occasions.

In the tie break Gavrilova led 3-1, but the Russian reeled off six straight points to take the set and the title.

Maria Sharapova was granted a wildcard in Tianjin, and would normally have faced top seed Caroline Garcia in the first round. However, the French player’s late withdrawal meant that Maria would play ninth seed Irina-Camelia Begu.  

Sharapova won this battle and all others until the semi final, where she knocked over third seed Shuai Peng.

49 games to 22 was the domination into the final where Sharapova found things more difficult against unseeded Aryna Sabalenka, but still won 7-5. 7-6 (8).

First title since returning to the tour.

Barbora Strycova (2) triumphed in Linz, defeating top seed Magdalena Rybarikova in two decisive sets.

Fedal final in Shanghai

Finals are decided in both Shanghai and Hong Kong.amd while one is as expected the other is a relative surprise considering the initial field.

The Shanghai crowd will be thrilled to have tickets to a Federer Nadal match up. It wasn’t looking like happening early though, as Juan Martin del Potro battled through an injury to take the first set in his semi final against the Swiss number two seed.

However, Federer was not going to surrender another clash to the Argentine 16th seed, remembering how the 2017 US Open quarter final loss scarred him 

Bouncing back with a brilliant serving exhibition, Roger lost just a single point on his own first serve in set two, and broke the first del Potro serve, enough to take the set 6-3 and level proceedings.

Set three was similar, with no break points on the Swiss serve and just a point taken off his first serve again. Tha Argentine was broken twice and Federer joined Rafa in the final 3-6 6-3 6-3.

In Hong Kong six of the eight seeds were dumped before the quarter finals, either through poor tennis or retirements because of injury pre match.

The remaining seeds, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (6) and Dasha Gavrilova (7) managed to navigate their way through the mess and book places in the final.

Pavlyuchenkova dispensed with Qiang Wang in straight sets and Gavrilova treated Jennifer Brady in the same way in respective semi finals.

In the only match between the two finalists so far, Gavrilova was the victor.

Another Nadal Federer showdown ?

The ATP tour has moved to Shanghai where the tournament has been headlined by 7 of the worlds top ten ranked players.

Having reached the quarter final stage, we have lost third seed Alexander Zverev in a wonderful battle with Juan Martin del Potro (16). Each player was broken only once in the match which was over in less than two hours but enabled a scoreline of 3-6 7-6(5) 6-4.

The top two seeds, Nadal and Federer, have been untroubled in reaching the final eight, neither dropping a set in their respective two matches.

Nadal has lost just seven games.and his serve is yet to be broken this tournament. A seventh title for 2017 is highly likely at this rate.

Grigor Dimitrov [6] will be Rafa’s final 8 opponent while other quarter finals are:

Marin Cilic (4) v Albert Ramos-Vinolas - expected quarter finalist Thiem (5) was ousted in the second round by Viktor Troicki.

Viktor Troicki v Juan Martin del Potro [16] - Troicki also removed John Isner (12) in round three.

Richard Gasquet v Roger Federer (2) - Federer would have been surprised not to see form player David Goffin (8) as his opponent but the Belgian lost his second round match to Gilles Simon. Gilles in turn lost to Gasquet in a lengthy three setter.

The women are in Hong Kong during the WTA Asian leg of 2017 and the quarter finals make for unusual reading.

Apart from losing Venus William (2) and Aga Radwanska (4) in the second round, to Naomi Osaka and Samantha Stosur respectively, Elena Vesnina (5) exited in round one courtesy of Luksika Kumkhum, ranked 130 from Thailand.

Shuai Zhang (8) also lost before the last eight and we had the unfortunate walkovers given by Elina Svitolina (1) and Caroline Wozniacki (3) before they even hit a second round ball.

Svitolina carried a groin injury into Hong Kong, suffered in the final loss to Garcia in Beijing, and Wozniacki cited an elbow complaint.

Two seeds are left in the quarter finals:

Nicole Gibbs v Jennifer Brady - all US clash

Lizette Cabrera v Dasha Gavrilova (7) - all Aussie battle

Qiang Wang v Samantha Stosur

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (6) v Naomi Osaka

Garcia grabs another title

Simona Halep (2) won her Beijing semi final easily against Jelena Ostapenko (8), and in doing so achieved her long awaited goal of world number one ranking.

The final was a match between Halep and the previous weeks Wuhan winner Caroline Garcia. The French player, unseeded again, had ousted 12th seeded Petra Kvitova in the semi final, following an epic quarter final victory over third seed Elina Svitolina.

In a close encounter, the final featured an attacking Garcia edging Halep with more winners and a presence on court which was just enough to give her the title.

The 6-4 7-6 (3) scoreline indicates the tightness of the contest. After swapping service breaks, the first set was on serve until Garcia broke in the final game and the second set tie break speaks for itself

Interestingly, Garcia didn’t face a break point entering the tie break, whereas Halep had to save nine, possibly indicating the Romanian’s slight vulnerability in this final.

Garcia jumps six places into the top ten to a career high ranking of 9 and Ostapenko climbs one spot to 7, also a career high.

The mens Beijing final featured old and new after semi finals in which Rafa Nadal (1) defeated Grigor Dimitrov (3) in a testing three setter, and Nick Kyrgios (8) dispatched Alexander Zverev (2) in a most impressive straight sets display.

The final, however, was one way traffic, all heading to Spain. Kyrgios had no answer to Nadal whose 2017 is increasing in titles.

Nick won only 48% of points on his serve and Rafa did not drop serve the entire match in which he surrendered a mere three games.

The Tokyo final was won by David Goffin (4) whose end to 2017 has been stellar.

He defeated unseeded Adrian Mannarino.

Mannarino had defeated top seed Marin Cilic with a semi final third set whitewash 6-0 and Goffin won his semi against Diego Schwartzman (8) in two tie breaks.

Goffin replaces Pablo Carreno Busta at number 10 in the world rankings, a career high previously achieved in February this year.

Halep closing in on No. 1

In Beijing Garbine Muguruza opened up the chances of three other players to take over her number one position in the world.

The Spaniard exited in the first round against Barbora Strycova 1-6 0-2 retired.

Karolina Pliskova (4) lost her chance when Sorana Cirstea delivered a big straight sets upset in the third round.

Elina Svitolina (3) made it to the quarter finals and fought for over three hours with Caroline Garcia (unseeded, but unlikely to be that way in tournaments for much longer).  The French woman appeared destined for defeat a number of times but climbed out of holes with a fierce determination, not unlike that displayed in her Wuhan final triumph last week.

Garcia won 6-7 (5) 7-5 7-6 (6) and Svitolina remains waiting for another chance to take the top mantle in WTA rankings.

Simona Halep (2), though, who has wasted several opportunities to grab the top spot in the past, only needs to win one more match and she will overtake Muguruza to achieve her goal.  It will be difficult, since her semi final opponent is Jelena Ostapenko (8), the Latvian yet to drop a set this tournament. 

However, Halep, apart from donating a set to Alison Riske in her opening match, has been ruthless ever since, and is hot favourite to win both her semi final and the final, and take the lead in both the WTA World Rankings and the 2017 WTA Points Race.

Winning the final, should Halep reach it, won’t be a walk in the park. It will be either Petra Kvitova (12) or Caroline Garcia who she will need to overcome and neither of those players will fold easily.

Petra is showing some of her Wimbledon winning form, dispatching Wozniacki for the loss of just five games, and then her Fed Cup team mate Barbora Strycova in another strong straight sets victory in the quarter final.

The men are also entertaining the Beijing crowds - the semi finals have been determined - 

Rafa Nadal (1) v Grigor Dimitrov (3)

Nick Kyrgios (8) v Alexander Zverev (2)

Nadal was down a set and taken to a second set tie break in his opener against Lucas Pouille, but has been comfortable since. Dimitrov will provide something harder.

The other semi is one between two of the young guns - Zverev already a top five player and Kyrgios set for the top ten if he can avoid his nagging injuries.

In Tokyo, another ATP 500 event is down to the final four:

Marin Cilic (1) v Adrian Mannarino

David Goffin (4) v Diego Schwartzman (8)

No luck for Milos Raonic who retired injured in the second round. Also out in the second round was US Open finalist Kevin Anderson (5).

We had already lost in the opening round Dominic Thiem (2), Sam Querrey (6) and Albert Ramos-Vinolas (7).

Garcia wins in Wuhan

Although she may have come away from Wuhan with four significant scalps, it has ended up with little for Ash Barty, losing to Caroline Garcia in the tournament's final.

The match began with a close opening set but it was stolen by Barty, after two failed attempts by Garcia to serve it out. The Australian won the tie break 

Appearing the more composed player in set two, Barty cruised to 5-4 and served for the match. Then she mirrored Garcia's first set collapse. Broken for 5-5, another chance came as the French number one was herself broken next game.

However, Barty had lost all confidence and lost serve and the resultant tie break. 

The match was level but Garcia ran through the decider, losing just two games.

Garcia moves up five spots, to a career high 15 in the world, while Barty shifts up 14, to a career best of 23.

Tashkent also saw the crowning of an unseeded champion - Kateryna Bondarenko upset second seed Timea Babos in straight sets.

Final in Chengdu will be between Marcos Baghdatis and Denis Istomin, both unseeded.

Final in Shenzhen will be between Alexandr Dolgopolov (5) and David Goffin (2)