Last week, for the second time in 2016, three tournaments were held concurrently across the globe. On American grounds, the Bank of the West Classic and Citi Open, held in Stanford and Washington D.C. respectively saw new names carved on their trophies as Johanna Konta sailed to her first ever WTA crown in Stanford while Yanina Wickmayer emerged champion in the American capital.
Over in Europe, at the sole Scandinavian stop on tour in the southern Swedish town of Bastad, Laura Siegemund completed a dream week by winning her first title at the Ericsson Open. Both Konta and Siegemund will hit new career-high rankings whilst Wickmayer is assured of a top 40 return.
Last week’s titlists
British number one Johanna Konta recorded one her biggest achievements January this year when she made her first Grand Slam semifinal at the Australian Open. Two months later, she made the last eight of the Miami Open. After enduring a dire campaign on clay where she managed just two wins, she bounced back on grass by reaching the semifinals at her home tournament in Eastbourne. At Wimbledon, she met Eugenie Bouchard in the second round, falling to the Canadian in three sets.
Konta was making her debut at the Bank of the West Classic, entering the tournament as the third seed. After an opening round bye, she defeated wild card Julia Boserup and China’s Zheng Saisai to make the semifinals where she prevailed over the in-form second seed Dominika Cibulkova to book her place in her first ever WTA final. Going up against top seed and two-time champion Venus Williams, the Brit was impressive in a 7-5, 5-7, 6-2 win over the American. It was her second straight victory over Williams, having upset her in the opening round of the Australian Open this year en route to the last four.
The first round stage saw the demise of two seeds, sixth-seeded Jelena Ostapenko and eighth-seeded Varvara Lepchenko. Ostapenko was taken out by youngster Catherine Bellis whilst Lepchenko who made consecutive semifinal appearances here in the last two years fell to eventual semifinalist Alison Riske.
All four quarterfinalists from the top half of the draw this year were American, namely Williams, Riske, Bellis and fourth seed CoCo Vandeweghe. In the only all-seeded quarterfinal clash, Cibulkova took out the fifth seed, Misaki Doi of Japan. Seventh seed Alizé Cornet was sent packing in the second round by Zheng.
28-year-old Laura Siegemund’s 2016 season has seen the German achieve many firsts. Beginning the year just inside the top 100, she scored her first Grand Slam victory at the Australian Open before beating former world number one Jelena Jankovic to make the third round.
She then scored seven straight wins from qualifying all the way to the championship round in Stuttgart on home soil, there she lost to fellow German Angelique Kerber. Along the way, she racked in a trio of top 10 wins over Simona Halep, Roberta Vinci, and Agnieszka Radwanska.
Her post-Wimbledon journey began in Bucharest last week where she reached the last four. Returning to Bastad where she made her main draw debut all the way back in 2010, the sixth seed did not drop a set en route to the last four where she faced compatriot Julia Goerges. Despite losing the opening set, Siegemund progressed to the final via a Goerges retirement in the decider due to a hip injury. Playing Katerina Siniakova for the title, the German produced a straight-set win to lift her maiden WTA title.
Siegemund was the sole surviving seed in the top half of the draw come the quarterfinals after top-seeded Kerber withdrew from her second round match with an injured elbow. Third seed Kiki Bertens and seventh seed Yaroslava Shvedova, the only other seeds in that half, dropped their openers.
Siniakova, who emerged from qualifying, had a dream run to the final, defeating a pair of seeds, fifth-seeded Anna Karolina Schmiedlova and second-seeded Sara Errani, in the second round and quarterfinals respectively. Defending champion and local girl Johanna Larsson, who was the number eight seed took out fourth seed Annika Beck in the last eight, she fell to Siniakova in the semifinals.
Former world number 12 Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium ended a five-year title drought last year when she captured her fourth title in Tokyo during the fall. This year, the 26-year-old came close to winning Acapulco only to meet eventual champion Sloane Stephens in the last four, whom she lost to in straight sets.
Since then, the Belgian reached the third round of the French Open and the quarterfinals in Birmingham. She travelled to the Citi Open after falling out in the first round of Wimbledon, where she came up short to 15th seed Karolina Pliskova.
Seventh-seeded Wickmayer’s road to the final began with straight-set wins over Madison Brengle and Zhang Shuai. She then defeated fourth seed Kristina Mladenovic in three sets to make the last four where she faced sixth seed Yulia Putinseva for a place in the final. Both Putintseva and Wickmayer were the only surviving seeds at that stage of the tournament, the Belgian won that match 6-4, 6-2 to advance. In the final, she beat American Lauren Davis by a similar scoreline to take home her fifth trophy. Wickmayer had never won a match against Davis before in their three prior encounters.
This year’s edition of the Citi Open saw defending champion and second seed Stephens dumped out in the first round by Japan’s Risa Ozaki, who went on to reach the last eight. Other seeds who joined Stephens in the opening round exodus were fifth seed Eugenie Bouchard and eighth seed Monica Niculescu. Davis beat third seed Monica Puig in the second round en route to the last four where she saw off fellow American Jessica Pegula, who took out top seed Samantha Stosur in the quarterfinals.
Rankings
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Williams leaps ahead of Victoria Azarenka, who is expecting and will sit out the rest of the year. The American takes over the sixth spot from the Belarussian. Meanwhile, Cibulkova closes out the top 10 rankings. The Slovak is back in the top 10 for the first time since January last year.
Stanford champion Konta rises into the top 15 for the first time in her career, sitting at 14th. Siegemund records a new career-high ranking of number 32 as she looks poised to be seeded at a Grand Slam for the first time at the upcoming US Open. Wickmayer follows suit, moving back into the top 40 for the first time since mid-2013 at 36th.
Moving down the list, Riske improves 20 spots to number 58 whereas Bastad semifinalist Goerges moves up from 73rd to 65th. Right behind the German is Stanford quarterfinalist Zheng, who rises from number 74.
Bastad runner-up Siniakova vaults thirteen places from 92nd to 79th. Davis is close to returning to the top 100 as the American is up from 122nd to number 104 after her runner-up finish in Washington D.C. Washington D.C. semifinalist Pegula makes a 38-spot-leap from number 173 to number 135.
Road to Singapore
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Cibulkova’s semifinal result in Stanford sees the Slovak crack the top 5 standings in the race to the WTA Finals. Not far behind at eighth place is Konta. Stosur moves up one spot to 11th while Williams improves from 18th to 15th. Siegemund leaps into the top 25 from number 34 and she now sits at 22nd place. Stanford quarterfinalist Doi rises from 37th to 29th.
Wickmayer surges 23 spots from 60th to 37th and Riske goes up from 66th to 46th. Also joining Riske in the top 50 is Siniakova, the Czech moving up from 70th to 49th. Goerges and fellow Bastad semifinalist Larsson improve in the race as well, rising from 63rd to 55th and 74th to 63rd respectively. Davis enters the top 100 standings, the American vaulting 37 spots from number 127 to 90th.
This week’s action
The second stop on the US Open Series, the Coupe Rogers, commences this week. The third Premier 5 tournament of the year, despite witnessing the high-note withdrawals of defending champion Belinda Bencic and world number one Serena Williams, still boasts a stellar line-up, with sixteen of the world’s top 20 in action. Kerber, the second seed leads the field.