Monday, July 27, 2015

WHEN ALMOST NOTHING HAPPENED



Hi, my name is bridgepea and I am a WTA Tennis Addict. 

How do I know that I am a WTA Tennis Addict?  Consider the following:-

·         I know the time difference between where I live and Baku
·         I know where Baku is
·         I systematically convert foreign currency to US currency in order to figure out how much stuff costs
·         I Google the area that is hosting a WTA tournament to see how I can get there
·         I tweet about random matches
·         I subscribe to various sites that show tennis year round, even Challenger matches

 

During the past week I thought I would have a tennis let down from Wimbledon, but it was not to be. I watched Lesia Tsurenko claim her first WTA title, beating Ursula Radwanska in a gripping match, at least for the first set.


Over in Bad Gastein, Samantha Stosur won her second title of the season, beating Karin Knapp, who had to double up, having had her semifinal postponed due to rain.  Knapp only has herself to blame for failing to win the title as she served for the match at 5-4 in the second set. 

Some folks refer to this part of the season as Vulture Season.  This is due to the fact that it is at this time of the year, and other times, when the rank and file players earn a bit of money.  It is also that time when the top players earn their appearance fees.  Surely that is the only reason why Jelena Jankovic is all the way in China for a US$125K event, unless she is there promoting the Tour, in which case, the Spin apologies profusely. 

I kind of like this time of the year as it gives me a chance to watch tennis without having a vested interest in the outcome.  I am also quite happy to see players that I have never heard of, or who I have heard of but never seen play, either because they are on an outside court where there is no tv, or they are not facing a top player.  

I have to say that kudos to the WTA for its deal with Perform.  While some matches are not broadcast on TennisTV, you can find these matches on other platforms, which is good for the sport as it offers more visibility for the women who would not otherwise get that visibility. 

This week sees WTA tournaments in:

·         Baku (H)  - Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova is the No. 1 seed and Karin Knapp is seeded No. 2. 
·         Brasil Tennis Cup (C) – Tatjana Maria is the No. 1 seed and Alja Tomljanovic is seeded No. 2 – great chance for either of these women to raise their rankings and win a title in the process
·         Nanchang (H) – Jelena Jankovic is the top seed with Saisai Zheng being the No. 2 seed.




1 comment:

Savannah said...

Zheng is already out in Nanchang.