A trio of WTA tournaments were held over two continents last week. At the Tianjin Open, Chinese veteran Peng Shuai raced to her maiden WTA title while former world number one Caroline Wozniacki racked in her second trophy of the year at the Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open. Meanwhile in Europe, Dominika Cibulkova triumphed at the Generali Ladies Linz, capturing her third title of the year.
By virtue of winning Tianjin, Peng inches closer to a top 100 return. Wozniacki returns to the top 20 rankings for the first since February this year. Cibulkova, on the other hand, affirms her top 10 ranking, hitting a new career-high ranking in the process.
Last week’s titlists
30-year-old Peng Shuai recorded her best Grand Slam performace at the 2014 US Open when she reached the semifinals. The following year, she made the round of 16 at the Australian Open. The Chinese veteran, who had been ranked as high as 14th back in 2011, however, saw her career encounter a setback as a back injury ultimately forced her out of competition after the 2015 French Open where she retired midway through her opening match. Having come close to cracking the top 20 once again in early 2015, the injury layoff saw Peng end that year at number 136, her lowest finish since 2003.
Prior to Tianjin, Peng had only won three main draw matches all year long, her best coming over Venus Williams in the opening round of the China Open. Returning to Tianjin for the first time since 2014 where she was a semifinalist, Peng defeated the likes of Chang Kai-chen, 2015 runner-up Danka Kovinic and 2014 winner Alison Riske to lift her maiden WTA title, on her seventh try. She becomes the second Chinese player to win a title this year after Duan Ying-Ying won Nanchang two months ago.
Top seed Agnieszka Radwanska, who was also the defending champion, was forced to withdraw at the quarterfinal stage with a thigh injury. Meanwhile, fifth seed Monica Puig made the last eight as well but was sent home by Kovinic while second seed Svetlana Kuznetsova came up short to Riske in the semifinals. The other seeds, however, were not so fortunate as all of them exited at the first hurdle, the notable ones being the upset of fourth seed Timea Babos by Riske and third seed Elena Vesnina, who fell short to qualifier Shelby Rogers.
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Former world number one Caroline Wozniacki’s late-season surge has been a convincing one. After her semifinal finish at the US Open, she won the Toray Pan Pacific Open, her biggest trophy in four years, and then posted last 16 appearances in Wuhan and Beijing. On both occasions, the Dane’s run was halted was stopped by Radwanska.
The former world number one and fifth seed in Hong Kong went untroubled in her early matches, sailing past Zheng Saisai, Heather Watson and Wang Qiang, all in straight sets. In the semifinals, she moved past seventh seed and defending champion Jelena Jankovic in straight sets. She faced her biggest test of the week in the final, dropping her only set of the week against Kristina Mladenovic but ultimately prevailed for her 25th WTA title. 2016 also marks the first year since 2012 where the Dane has won multiple titles. Having gone 13-14 in the first eight months of the year, her resurgence has seen her post a 19-3 record since the start of the US Open.
This year’s tournament in Hong Kong saw half of the eight seeds safely through to the last eight. Fourth seed Samantha Stosur was the sole seeded casualty in the opening round. In the second round, second seed Venus Williams and sixth seed Caroline Garcia crashed out while third seed Johanna Konta withdrew injured. In the last eight, eighth seed Daria Gavrilova sent world number one Angelique Kerber packing, Mladenovic beat Bethanie Mattek-Sands in three sets while Jankovic moved past Alizé Cornet.
The improving Dominika Cibulkova began 2016 ranked 38th and her first half of the year was highlighted by reaching four finals, winning Katowice and Eastbourne. She then made the Wimbledon quarterfinals and rose to number 12, coming close to a top 10 return. After Wimbledon, the Slovak made the last four in Stanford but then suffered a couple of early losses before turning things around in Wuhan last month, when she made the final.
After an opening round loss in Beijing a week later, Cibulkova took a wildcard into Linz where she was a runner-up in 2011. Going unscathed in her first two matches, the second seed beat fifth seed and defending champion Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the last eight and then moved past fourth seed Carla Suárez Navarro to reach her sixth final of the year. The Slovak was unstoppable as she overcame a stern test from Viktorija Golubic to win 6-3, 7-5 and lift her seventh WTA title, her third of 2016. The Slovak has now tied five other players for most titles won this year.
Three seeds in Linz were sent packing in the opening round, namely sixth seed Kiki Bertens, seventh seed Daria Kasatkina and eighth seed Laura Siegemund. On the other hand, the other five seeds however safely made at least the quarterfinals. However, two seeds suffered unfortunate fates as top seed Garbiñe Muguruza was forced to retire after the rolling her ankle while third seed Madison Keys withdrew from her semifinal after falling ill.
Rankings
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Cibulkova rises to a new career-high ranking of number eight by winning Linz while Hong Kong winner Wozniacki surges back into the top 20, from 22nd to 17th. Puig moves up one spot to 32nd after a quarterfinal appearance in Tianjin with Hong Kong semifinalist Gavrilova not far behind, the Aussie going up from 38th to 37th. Tianjin quarterfinalist Naomi Osaka is up from 42nd to 40th.
Tianjin finalist Riske goes up 15 spots to 41st while Hong Kong runner-up Mladenovic is behind the American at 42nd, making a 12-spot leap. Linz runner-up Golubic improves eight places and records a new career-high ranking of 54th. Tianjin champion Peng vaults 70 spots from number 182 to number 108.
Stosur, a Hong Kong semifinalist last year, falls from 18th to 20th after a first round loss while Pavlyuchenkova drops from 21st to 23rd after failing to defend her title in Linz. Jankovic drops out of the top 40, from 37th to 47th after failing to defend her Hong Kong title while Swede Johanna Larsson, a semifinalist in Linz last year, falls from 47th to 56th after an opening round exit this year.
German Anna-Lena Friedsam, last year’s runner-up in Linz, drops 10 places to 68th after skipping the tournament this year. Last year’s finalist in Tianjin, Kovinic falls from 63rd to 72nd after failing to replicate a similar result this year.
Road to Singapore
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By virtue of their results in Linz, Muguruza, Cibulkova and Keys were announced as the final three qualifiers to seal their places at the WTA Finals, the eight-player was then set. The withdrawal of Serena Williams on Monday, however, now leaves a spot open with the three contenders for that last spot now being Konta, Suárez Navarro and Kuznetsova. Konta currently sits at eighth place but will not be playing this week. Thus, one of Suarez Navarro or Kuznetsova, both in action this week, can deny Konta’s qualification by winning the title.
This week’s action
This week marks the concluding week of regular WTA tournaments with the Russian capital, Moscow hosting the Kremlin Cup which will see the likes of top seed and defending champion Kuznetsova headline the tournament alongside top 20 stars Suárez Navarro and Elina Svitolina. Over in Europe, the BGL BNP Paribas Luxembourg Open will take place in the nation of Luxembourg, with two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova and former champion Wozniacki leading the charge there.