The Resurgence

So much of the action on the tennis courts this year has been about seeing young players make a real statement -- previously unheralded athletes finally breaking into the upper echelons of the sport, former Junior champions having epiphanies on the adult Tours. But this week some of the attention may have shifted from the newbies to the veterans as a couple ladies who'd seemed to fall by the wayside this year are putting themselves back on the map with some surprising performances.

At the inaugural Tianjin Open in China, U.S. Open semifinalist Shaui Peng looks to have recovered from her upsetting withdrawal in New York, reaching the quarters with her win today. Top seed Jelena Jankovic on the other hand was less successful, battling through an uneven opening round only to be upset by world #112 Saisai Zheng on Thursday. But there are a few others in the draw that merit attention too. Su-Wei Hsieh, doubles champ at Roland Garros this year, was once ranked in the top twenty-five in singles and even picked up a couple titles in 2012. Now, though, she's all the way down at #160 in the world and lost in the first round of every major this year. She may have gotten her game together now, though -- she opened with an easy first round win in Tianjin and followed up today by surviving a three-setter against fifth seed Shaui Zhang. And Sorana Cirstea, a breakout in 2009, had climbed back into the top thirty this season, but after failing to defend runner-up points from Cincinnati, she's now back in triple digits. She suffered a heart-breaking loss in the Big Apple, too, going three sets with Genie Bouchard and just falling short. The Romanian has been on point this week, though -- she hasn't faced a seed yet in China, but she also hasn't dropped a set and with Jankovic out of her way, she could have a clear path to the semis and even beyond.

The bracket opened up a bit in Linz, too, with Singapore-qualifier Ana Ivanovic pulling out with a hip injury and Bouchard earlier today also giving Tsvetana Pironkova a walkover to the quarters -- and a couple ladies will try to take advantage of those holes. Camila Giorgi, who beat Carla Suarez Navarro on her way to the Katowice final and Maria Sharapova in Indian Wells, has slowed down a bit since, losing six first round matches over the summer. Unseeded at the Generali Open this week, she notched her third win over Andrea Petkovic this year, losing just three games to the top twenty player in their opener. With no seeds left in her half, there's no reason her winning will stop. She might have to face off against another rebound story, Karin Knapp, whose health struggles the last few years pushed her almost beyond #500 in the world. She's become a force again this year, though, nearly beating Sharapova in the Australian heat and picking up her first career trophy in Tashkent this fall. This week in Austria she opened with a big win over Sabine Lisicki and today took the first set from Magdalena Rybarikova before the Slovak retired. She'll face Pironkova next, before possibly meeting Giorgi, a match that could be a real battle between two re-emerging talents.

But the real comeback story is happening over in Japan, where former U.S. Open champion Sam Stosur is putting together a late-season surge. Once ranked #4 in the world, she briefly fell out of the top twenty this year, losing to players like injury-addled Timea Bacsinszky, Guangzhou qualifier Yafan Wang, and world #406 Naomi Osaka. It might not have been a precipitous fall, but with just a handful of wins over elite players this season, it far from impressive. But last week the veteran Australian got to the semis in Beijing, taking out Caroline Wozniacki and forcing Petra Kvitova to a third set. And at the site of her first career title five years ago she seems to have confidence again -- with many seeds in her section out already, the first real challenge won't come until after she wins her next match, but if she can keep the momentum she's gathered the last few weeks, the might be able to add trophy #3 in Osaka to her mantle.

With just a week left before post season, most of these ladies are getting in their last few matches of 2014 this week, but for many it doesn't seem like too-little-too-late. There's plenty of opportunity for them to carry their success into the new year, and if they can keep it going, there's no reason they won't be able to rise back to new heights -- and maybe climb even higher.

The Year of the Brit

It's been a pretty good couple months for UK athletes. First they played host to a successful Olympic Games, winning twenty-nine gold medals in the process. Golf's golden boy Rory McIlroy won the PGA Championship and returned to the #1 ranking in the sport. And, maybe most spectacularly, their tennis stars have finally come out of the shadows and taken the spotlight.

It started with perennial also-ran Andy Murray, claiming Gold at the All England Club less than a month after being denied the Wimbledon crown. A few weeks later he ended a seventy-six year Major drought with a stunning win at the U.S. Open.

He wasn't the only Brit making waves in New York, though. Eighteen-year-old Laura Robson might have been the Cinderella story of the tournament, stopping not one, but two Grand Slam champions on her way to the fourth round -- this after teaming with Murray to capture the mixed doubles Silver in London, too. She didn't stop there, however. At a then-high rank of #74 in the world, Robson took out three seeds on the way to her first Tour final in Guangzhou, ultimately losing a hard-fought battle to Su-Wei Hsieh, but chopping another fourteen spots from her ranking.

But perhaps the greatest breakthrough came this past weekend. While Murray lost a tight final to Novak Djokovic in Shanghai, and Robson was ousted in her Osaka third round, often overlooked Heather Watson was making her own move in Japan. Just twenty herself, her previous best performance this year might have come when she took a set off Maria Sharapova in Tokyo -- the only top-thirty player she's ever beaten was Lucie Safarova back in Miami -- but she didn't let her inexperience stop her last week. After defeating sixth-seeded Anabel Medina Garrigues in the second round, she sailed until reaching the championship match, stumbling a little against fellow final first-timer Kai-Chen Chang, but finally winning her first trophy in the more than three-hour match.

It wasn't a huge title -- only one player ranked higher than #20 was in the draw -- but it was enough to push Watson into the top fifty as of this week's standings. It was also the first Tour title won by a British woman in twenty-four years, a feat that might match the more headline-grabbing accomplishments of her compatriots. And as she joins the ranks of the many Brits making breakthroughs this year, she might just be ushering in a new era of athleticism in the sport, changing the face of the top ranks in the years to come.

Where'd They Go?

If the top ranks of the tennis world have seen something of a resureection in recent weeks, the middle tiers seem to be stumbling a bit this time of year. Despite some impressive starts to the year, a couple players have faded the last couple months of the season. And they'll need to take the next few weeks to regroup if they're going to make a statement in 2013.

World #32 Christina McHale started off the year with real promise -- after her breakout in 2011 she made the quarterfinals in Doha and beat then-Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova in Indian Wells a few weeks later. The young American climbed to a career high ranking in August, breaking the top twenty-five, but has struggled since then. She withdrew from New Haven with illness and wasn't well enough to win her first round match at the U.S. Open. After pulling out of two tournaments after New York, she lost her first match back in Beijing to Ana Ivanovic and this week in Osaka couldn't quiet get her game together. Against Kai-Chen Chang in her opener, she lost more than half her points on serve and in a break-filled match -- nine in total -- she was the weaker player on return. Hopefully once she's fully recovered she'll be able to get back on track -- it'd be nice to see her notch a couple more elite wins and cement herself as a force in this sport.

Frankly I'm a little more surprised at the performance we've seen out of Yaroslava Shvedova recently. The doubles star had lost singles ground last year when injury hampered play in the second half, but came back swinging in 2012. She beat defending champion Na Li at Roland Garros to make the quarters and famously dealt Sara Errani a Golden Set at Wimbledon a month later. Her climb up the rankings has been phenomenal -- the Kazakh is at #28 coming to Japan, having started the year out of the top two-hundred -- but her showing since the summer, less so. She hasn't made it past the second round of any event since, and this week in Japan was trounced by thirty-five year old Tamarine Tanasugarn in her first round. It's probably too soon to be overly concerned, but it would be great to see her turn her luck around before she loosens her grip on the top too much.

Mona Barthel was a little further under the radar when she broke onto the scene in January. Largely unknown when she qualified for Hobart, she stunned four seeds in a row to take the title and went on to notch wins over Jelena Jankovic and Marion Bartoli before the spring was over. She stumbled in the months that followed though, losing six matches in a row and losing her opening rounds in the last three Majors. She did manage a semifinal in Quebec City, but this week in Linz she seemed to revert immediately. In her first round against Kiki Bertens, she was able to force a deciding set, but couldn't convert a single point on return during it. After a relatively short hundred-minute match she was sent packing again, the eighth time this year the German wasn't able to win a match at an event. She still has enough points to hold on to a decent ranking, but she'll need to up her game if she wants to prove her early results this year were no fluke.

Tamira Paszek had made her breakthrough years ago, making the girls' final at both the Wimbledon and U.S. Open Juniors championships. She even made the fourth round in both events' main draws in 2007 and cracked the top forty at sixteen years of age. Her start to this season was less impressive -- she went 2-13 in the first five-and-a-half months -- but she quickly shut up any doubters with her performance in Eastbourne. Just a week before (successfully) defending a slew of quarterfinal points at the All England Club, she beat five higher ranked players to take her first title in almost two years. But she's struggled off the grass -- the Austrian managed to make the quarters in Montreal, but has only won a handful of matches elsewhere. In her homeland, the seventh seed, she should have been the aggressor, but committed too many errors against Bethanie Mattek-Sands in her first round. After losing her first set quickly, Paszek stayed close in the next, but couldn't defend her second serve and lost in another two-set match. Clearly a threat on the lawn, she's going to have to prove her power translates onto other surface if she wants to be a real threat to the top ranks.

And while all these ladies will need to execute a turn around, perhaps we'll be most closely watching the progression of Sabine Lisicki. My comeback story of 2011, she won two big titles and score a slew of upsets in her post-injury run. And while she seemed plagued with problems at the start of the year, she nevertheless worked to the #12 spot by May and made her way deep into the Wimbledon draw. Like Paszek, though, she didn't seem to find success off the grass -- Lisicki won just one match after the Olympics and earlier today fell in just over an hour to Linz wildcard Patricia Mayr-Achleitner, ranked #159 in the world. Injury has been a problem for the German for years, and she's intimated in the past that she might quit the game if her health doesn't hold up. Hopefully she'll make a turn for the better -- you can't deny that, when playing her best, she's one of the true stars of the game.

As the 2012 season winds down it may be too late for these ladies to turn things back in their favor this year, but that doesn't mean all hope is lost. A couple big wins here and there and they'll be back in the spotlight, back on the upswing. And if they are able to come out of hiding soon, play to their full potential, it could make for an interesting year to come.

New Stars Emerge

The last couple weeks on the ladies Tour have been dominated by a very familiar group of players -- those we've become used to seeing in the later rounds of the Majors and the ones who've been staples in and around the top-ten for most of the year.

But at the slightly smaller events this week we're starting to see some new faces last into the latter matches. It's not that the tournaments are without star power -- winners of the last two Grand Slams are in both draws -- but it's a couple others who have potential to really make an impact.

At the HP Open in Osaka, some of the year's break-out stars are continuing their momentum. U.S. Open semifinalist Angelique Kerber, just a shade off her career-high ranking, has only dropped seven games in her first two rounds. And Petra Cetkovska, who began the year ranked #142 in the world, has followed up well on her fourth-round run at Wimbledon -- she's now made her third Tour quarterfinal since July.

But the true player to watch in Japan might be veteran South African Chanelle Scheepers. A true journeywoman, the twenty-seven year old has never finished a year ranked inside the top one hundred. But since nearly defeating Francesca Schiavone at the U.S. Open and then earning her first career title in Guangzhou immediately after, she's vaulted into everyone's attention. She had a tough second round match against doubles champion Yaroslava Shvedova and faces a more-than-intimidating Sam Stosur next, but the girl knows how to persevere and I wouldn't put an upset past her.

The ladies in Linz have been similarly impressive. Fes champion Alberta Brianti hadn't made much of an impact in the intervening months, but a dominating win over uber-tough Sabine Lisicki in the first round put the Italian back on the map. And Ksenia Pervak, who won her maiden crown in Tashkent back in September, has a very good chance to make a dent in the draw when she takes out Daniela Hantuchova later today.

But here I've got my eye on qualifier Sorana Cirstea. Once ranked #23 in the world, the young Romanian hasn't followed up on her French Open success from years ago -- this year alone she's lost in or before the second round of seventeen events. But two ITF titles, including one last month in Saint Malo, may have helped her turn things around -- she began her run in Austria with a fairly easy win over Wimbledon quarterfinalist Tamira Paszek and then staged an impressive come-from-behind win over world #15 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova -- her first top-twenty win in over a year. She'll next face either Brianti or Lucie Safarova, neither an opponent to be overlooked, but certainly less of a challenge than what she's already faced.

Sure it's getting late in the year and there's not a lot of time left to make a big move in the rankings. But as their seasons wind down it sure looks like they're all looking to get momentum moving in their direction. And as they prep for 2012, now might be the perfect time to come out swinging.

The Chance of a Lifetime

It's been over a year since any of the four ladies playing championship matches tomorrow have won a trophy, and boy must they all be hungry. And with just one win standing between them and the opportunity to put themselves back on the map, you can bet we're going to see some fierce fighting on Sunday.

Surprisingly it's the ladies in Japan who have gone the least time without a tournament win. Forty year old Kimiko Date Krumm, a titleist in Seoul last year, will meet thirty-three year old fellow veteran Tamarine Tanasugarn, the 2009 victor in 's-Hertogenbosch will contest the oldest final in Tour history Sunday, proving that age really isn't an issue on the tennis court.

Both have had magnificent runs in Osaka -- the sixth-seeded Date Krumm, ranked #4 in the world nearly fifteen years ago, knocked off French Open finalist Sam Stosur and top-fifteen player Shahar Peer in consecutive matches, while the Thai star survived two three-set matches before dismissing second seeded Marion Bartoli in under two hours. They've played twice before, both times on carpet, and each time took all three sets to decide the outcome -- they've split the wins, but Tanasugarn won the only final they played together.

But something tells me this time might be different.

As the hometown favorite, Kimiko has already used the crowd to her advantage all week, but wins over teenager Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and former #1's Maria Sharapova and Dinara Safina all this year alone, she's more than shown she can still hit with the youngsters. With an impressive 8-6 career record in finals compared to Tamarine's 3-7, she continues to prove she can handle the pressure. And if making history one time this weekend wasn't enough, she has the chance to become the oldest Tour champion ever, trumping Billie Jean King who has held the record since 1983.

On the other side of the world are two women who are going on two-years without that once common championship trophy. In Linz Austria, where Serena Williams had been planning to make her comeback, 2008 champion Ana Ivanovic took her place as a wildcard and stormed through her early rounds, beating Sorana Cirstea and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova in just over two hours combined. Meanwhile, thirty-one year old Patty Schnyder took out three seeds -- Klara Zakopalova, Andrea Petkovic and top-seeded Daniela Hantuchova to make her second final of the year.



The pair have split their last eight meetings, but Ivanovic has won the last four, including a straight set win on her way to the '08 French Open trophy. But since then, she's had quite a hard time of things since then, and it's hard to count out Schnyder who, a veteran herself, still wins more matches than she loses on Tour. And making the finals here after that heart-breaking third-round loss at the U.S. Open, it's nice to see her on this side of things. I really don't know who's going to win this match, but the trophy would certainly put a well-deserved end to two very long droughts.

And at this point in all of their careers, they couldn't have asked for a better chance to make an impact.

The Breakthrough

I think it's safe to say that, before today, Australia's Sam Stosur was the best WTA player without a singles title to her name.

But this has been her comeback year, and one of hard-fought re-establishment as part of tennis's elite. Once ranked at the top of the doubles circuit, she missed most of 2007 and a chunk of last year with a viral illness, dropping well into the triple-digits before getting back on course. When 2009 began, she was the best player in her country -- even ranked higher than former #1 Lleyton Hewitt -- and took no time in fighting her way back.

In March Stosur made the quarterfinals in Miami, beating top seed Dinara Safina on the way. But her biggest success came a few months in Paris where she made the semis, her best ever Grand Slam showing. Over the summer she defeated French Open champ Svetlana Kuznetsova in Toronto, Serena Williams in Stanford, and made the finals in Los Angeles. As a result Sam had earned her highest career ranking, breaking into the top twenty for the first time.

Still the ultimate goal of a singles trophy continued to elude her -- at least until today.

As the third seed this week in Osaka, Sam had a relatively easy time in her early rounds. She didn't drop a set in her first three rounds, and was steadfast in the semis against U.S. Open runner-up Caroline Wozniacki, a woman who'd beaten her 6-1 in their last two third sets.

In the championship match today, Stosur faced a feisty Francesca Schiavone. The Italian has had her own struggles this year, beginning 2009 with a handful of early-round losses but also out-lasting her seeding in Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. She played one less match in Japan, thanks to a third-round walkover, but earned her second final of the year with a decisive win over Sania Mirza.

But Sam was just too much to handle today. After a tight first set, Stosur rolled over Francesca in the second, 6-1, to claim her first career title -- and if she stays healthy and as strong as she's been all year, it looks like this is just the well-deserved first of many after a very long wait!



Incidentally after a week rife with retirements in Shanghai, Rafael Nadal finally made his way to that championship match to face Nikolay Davydenko. And after a tough two hours in China it was the Russian who walked away with the trophy -- his fourth of the year. While it might have been disappointing for Rafa, who benefitted from two consecutive opponents withdrawing from their matches, making the finals of a Masters event has to give him some confidence going into the last leg of the year. Here's hoping next time he can convert!