Three tournaments in Asia were the highlight of WTA action last week. The biggest of them, the Premier-level Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo saw former world number one Caroline Wozniacki sail to her first title of 2016 and her second at the event, also her biggest title in almost four years. The Dane inches closer to a top 20 return as a result.
Meanwhile, on the Asian mainland, Lara Arruabarrena and Lesia Tsurenko lift their second career trophies, winning the Korea Open Tennis and Guangzhou International Women’s Open respectively. Tsurenko will return to the top 60 while Arruabarrena will set a new career-high ranking.
Last week’s titlists
The majority of the first half of this season was a turbulent one for former world number one Caroline Wozniacki. The Dane had a rough finish to the 2015 season and looked set to get back on track when she reached the last four in her debut 2016 tournament in Auckland. This however preceded a 5-6 streak all the way till March which included an opening round exit at the Australian Open. The Dane then suffered an ankle injury after Miami which forced her out of the claycourt swing including the French Open, putting an end to 36 consecutive appearances in Grand Slams.
By the time she returned to the tour on grass in Nottingham, Wozniacki had dropped out of the top 30, for the first time since 2008. Her road back from injury was not an easy one as she recorded back-to-back wins in just one tournament since Nottingham. A first round loss in New Haven, having made the last four in 2015, saw the Dane plunge to 74th in the rankings.
It was at her most successful Grand Slam, the US Open, where things took a 180-degree turn as Wozniacki rolled into her first Grand Slam semifinal since finishing runner-up here in 2014. Along the way, she racked in her first top 10 wins this year, over Svetlana Kuznetsova and Madison Keys. In the last four, she was stopped by eventual champion Angelique Kerber. She vaulted back into the top 30 once again after that.
The Dane was unseeded in Tokyo this year. In her opener, she claimed her first win over Belinda Bencic since beating the Swiss en route to winning Istanbul in 2014, putting an end to a four-match losing streak against her. She then rolled past fourth seed Carla Suárez Navarro and qualifier Magda Linette before taking down second seed and defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska to enter her first final of 2016. Wozniacki then breezed past Japanese youngster Naomi Osaka for her first trophy of 2016 and her 24th career title. This title was her biggest one since the Kremlin Cup in 2012 and it also marked the ninth year in a row where the Dane has won at least one title.
The top four seeds had opening round byes but top two seeds Garbiñe Muguruza and Radwanska were the only seeds to advance past the last 16 stage. In the last eight, Muguruza was defeated by Elina Svitolina, for the second time in a row. The other six seeds were not fortunate as fifth seed Madison Keys faltered in the first round while third seed Karolina Pliskova lost her opening match to qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich. Sixth seed Dominika Cibulkova, seventh seed Petra Kvitova, and eighth seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova exited the tournament at the second hurdle.
Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko had her best season to date last year where she won her maiden WTA title in Istanbul. Her other best achievements included a quarterfinal appearance in Indian Wells along with semifinal finishes at Premier-level events in New Haven and Moscow. She ended the year ranked 33rd.
The Ukrainian however, endured a slow start this year as she went winless through the first two months before snapping this losing streak in Indian Wells where she reached the third round. However, in her next 12 tournaments, she failed to pick up back-to-back wins but turned things around at the US Open where she made the round of 16 at a Grand Slam for the first time, defeating the likes of Irina-Camelia Begu and Dominika Cibulkova en route but her run ended in the hands of Roberta Vinci, the 2015 finalist.
As an unseeded entrant in Guangzhou, Tsurenko cruised into the quarterfinals untroubled, dropping a combined total of just nine games in her victories over Japan’s Junri Namigata and Uzbek Nigina Abduraimova. She then upset fifth seed Alison Riske in three sets to reach the last four where she defeated Estonian Anett Kontaveit to make the final where she took on second seed and defending champion Jelena Jankovic. Tsurenko defeated the Serb in three sets for her second WTA title.
Only three seeds in this year’s edition safely advanced into the last eight, namely Riske, Jankovic and third seed Ana Konjuh. Jankovic and Konjuh both won their quarterfinal matches to set up a semifinal clash which Jankovic won in straight sets. Top seed Sara Errani crashed out in the second round, the Italian was joined by Montenegrin Danka Kovinic. Meanwhile, seventh seed Katerina Siniakova and eighth seed Zheng Saisai faltered at the first hurdle.
24-year-old Spaniard Lara Arruabarrena had a breakthrough in 2012 when she lifted her maiden WTA title in Bogota aged 19, defeating Alexandra Panova in the final. The Spaniard, who resides in Barcelona, has also finished every season ranked inside the top 100 2012 onwards. To date, three semifinal and seven quarterfinal showings were her best results since winning Bogota.
Arruabarrena began her Seoul campaign by defeating Dutch qualifier Arantxa Rus. She then moved past eighth seed Louisa Chirico in three sets. She reached the final after defeating second seed Johanna Larsson and Romanian Patricia Maria Tig, in the quarterfinals and semifinals respectively, dropping not more than four games in each match. In the match for the title, she overcame another Romanian, the fifth seed Monica Niculescu in three sets, scoring bagels in the two sets she won.
Seven of the eight seeds in the Korean capital were victorious in their opening matches, the only casualty being seventh seed Nicole Gibbs. However, defending champion Irina-Camelia Begu, who was the top seed lost in the second round, with Chirico, fourth seed Kristina Mladenovic and sixth seed Kirsten Flipkens followed suit. Third seed Zhang Shuai, made it to the last four, her second semifinal in two weeks, but was defeated by Niculescu in straight sets.
Rankings
.png)
Svitolina, a Tokyo semifinalist rises from 20th to 18th while Wozniacki improves six spots to sit at number 22. Monica Puig is up from 33rd and sets a new career-high ranking of 27th after making the last eight in Tokyo. Zhang goes up from 40th to 38th after a last four showing in Seoul while Tokyo finalist Naomi Osaka vaults 19 places to break into the top 50 for the first time in her career, she now sits at 47th.
Niculescu improves from 55th to 49th after finishing runner-up in Seoul. Tsurenko surges from 80th to 53rd after winning Guangzhou. Seoul champion Arruabarrena rises from 90th to new career-high ranking of number 61. Meanwhile, Guangzhou quarterfinalist Viktorija Golubic moves up five places to 62nd while Tokyo quarterfinalist Magda Linette, who emerged from qualifying, goes up 14 spots to 95th.
Begu drops from 23rd to 26th after failing to defend her title in Seoul. Sloane Stephens, a quarterfinalist in Seoul last year, dips two spots to 29th after missing the tournament to recover from a foot injury. Last year’s quarterfinalist in Tokyo, Ana Ivanovic, is down four spots to 34th after sitting out the remaining of the year to nurse injuries. 2015 Tokyo finalist Bencic falls out of the top 30, from 26th to 40th after a first round exit this year.
Road to Singapore
-1.png)
After a quarterfinal finish in Tokyo, Radwanska overtakes Pliskova for fourth place in the race to the WTA Finals. Svitolina moves up one spot to 18th while Wozniacki is not far behind at 20th, rising from her previous position of 33rd. Zhang rises from 35th to close out the top 30 standings at 30th. Osaka soars into the top 40 standings, from 53rd to 38th.
Konjuh goes up from 49th to 46th after making the semifinals in Guangzhou while Niculescu moves up five spots to 50th. Moving down the list, Tsurenko rises from 87th to 58th while Arruabarrena improves from 89th to 61st. Jankovic vaults 17 places to currently sit at 64th while Linette surges from 100th to 88th.
This week’s action
The final Premier 5 tournament of the season, the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open hosted by the Chinese city of Wuhan will be the main highlight of tennis action this week. World number one Angelique Kerber, alongside fellow top four seeds Muguruza and Radwanska will lead the stacked field of 56 players. Over in Central Asia, the Uzbek capital Tashkent will play host to the Tashkent Open as it witnesses the likes of top two seeds Kirsten Flipkens, Cagla Buyukakcay alongside defending champion Nao Hibino spearhead the tournament.