A Couple Young Guns and Some Old Hat

As is so often the case, tennis players got right back to work after the Australian Open, some traveling halfway across the world to compete in tournaments this past week. And impressively, when all was said and done, we not only saw some recently-struggling stars start to turn things around, but a couple relative newcomers prove they're here for the long haul.

🤩 @iga_swiatek soared to the @AdelaideTennis title with a straight sets victory over Bencic!

More on her near-flawless performance --> https://t.co/PfKG7loQJo pic.twitter.com/AxlcKV2W0K

— wta (@WTA) February 27, 2021

I'll start in Adelaide where a slew of top shelf talent crowded the draw, and some strong workhorses stepped up to the challenges. Danielle Collins, who was somewhat surprisingly dismissed in the Australian Open second round, somewhat made up for it with a win over top seed and still-#1 Ashleigh Barty here. And Coco Gauff, who's been a little quiet since her breakthrough 2019 season, will make her top forty debut Monday after making the semis.

But ultimately the final came down to reigning French Open champion Iga Swiatek and former U.S. Open semifinalist Belinda Bencic, who'd only won a handful of matches since play resumed last August. She encouragingly put together a string of wins this week, but was ultimately no match for the nineteen-year-old Pole. Swiatek hit 22 winners and just 6 errors in the barely hour-long match, dominating on serve and breaking her opponent four times. In what was just her third championship round, she showed nerves and came away with the trophy without losing a set the whole tournament -- she didn't lose one during that Roland Garros run either. And with two titles now, on two surfaces, she's really proving the force she's going to be.

Meanwhile at the inaugural Singapore Open, another young talent made us sit up and take notice. Twenty-one year old Alexei Popyrin, who'd outlasted David Goffin in a nearly four-hour marathon in Melbourne before falling in another five-setter to Lloyd Harris, rebounded nicely at this event. While he was able to avoid a second round rematch with Harris, who lost his opener to wildcard Adrian Andreev, and second-seeded countryman John Millman eliminated for him, he did face former U.S. Open champ Marin Cilic in the semis. The Croat, who'd lost his last four matches before this event, seemed to be pulling things together this week, but Popyrin was unperturbed and was able to notch the upset to make his first career final.

On Sunday he faced off against Alexander Bublik, who I feel is a better player than his #46 ranking suggests. With wins over Yoshihito Nishioka and Radu Albot this week, he too was looking for his first career title -- he'd come up short in his last three attempts, most recently at the start of the year in Antalya. He came up short here too -- after losing the first set, world #114 Popyrin stormed through the second to force a decider and never looked back. He won seven straight service games at love and only lost six points on serve total for the match. If his performance in Australia didn't put him on the map, his maiden title this week sure did, and hopefully it's just the start of what we'll see from him.

Of course, it wasn't just the new generation that came out swinging this past week. In Montpellier, it was two veterans who made good on their top seedings to make the final. Roberto Bautista Agut was hoping to turn around a slow start to the year -- after a perfect 6-0 record at ATP Cup in 2020, he was 1-2 this season and lost his first round at the Australian Open too. But he seemed back on trace in France, notching a solid win over dark horse Ugo Humbert in the quarters and following through in straight sets over Peter Gojowczyk to make the final.

In the bottom half of the draw, recently struggling David Goffin -- he ended 2020 with five straight match losses and had gone down this year twice in a row to players ranked outside of the top hundred -- seemed to right his course this week. Still seeded second thanks to that weird COVID-related ranking system, he pulled off an impressive win over a very talented Lorenzo Sonego and held tough against Egor Gerasimov to make the final. After he dropped the first set to RBA, I was sure he was done for, but the Belgian found the strength to rebound and come back for the win. It was his fifth career title and his first since 2017 -- and coming after so many months of hard knocks, it might not have come at a better time.

Finally in Córdoba, we'll get the perfect juxtaposition of the two themes of the week -- old versus new, veteran versus upstart. Thiry-three year old Albert Ramos-Viñolas is four years removed from his career-high ranking in the top twenty, and with seven first round losses since the lockdown, most people probably didn't give him much of a chance here. But he stunned top-seeded Diego Schwartzman in the quarters and backed it up with a win over another Argentine, Facundo Bagnis, in the semis.

Meanwhile, young Juan Manuel Cerundolo, only nineteen and ranked just #335 in the world, was playing his first ever tour-level tournament, and boy did he make a statement. After slogging through qualifying matches, he took out fellow young gun Thiago Seyboth Wild in his opener, and then got the better of two seeds in the next two rounds -- Miomir Kecmanovic and Thiago Monteiro. Can he possibly keep his Cinderella run going in tonight's final? Well, I suppose weirder things have happened.

And while the result may not have wider implications for the inevitable passing of the torch in this sport, it might just seal in the winner between the two generations for this week, at least.

Against All Odds

Now I know I've talked about how wide open the draw was in Singapore, but I'm not sure anyone expected things to go the way they did. From the opening blows, to stellar debuts, to surprising upsets we saw a little bit of everything at the WTA Finals this year. And at the end of it all not only was it one of the most unlikely candidates left standing, but she had nabbed by far the biggest win of her already successful career.

And the road wasn't easy for Aga Radwanska -- the former world #2 had for some time this year fallen well out of contention for the postseason, dropping out of the top ten this summer for the first time in years. But she rallied strong in the fall, picking up titles in Tokyo and Tianjin and came to the year-end championships with a little more momentum than most. But she struggled early, losing a marathon to a surprisingly strong Maria Sharapova, who'd scored her first match win since Wimbledon in their opener, and then getting bested again by U.S. Open champ Flavia Pennetta to build a 0-2 deficit. But a win over top seed Simona Halep on Wednesday kept her hopes alive and Sharapova's staying perfect in the round robins got the two of them tickets into the semifinals.

Things came down to the wire in the other draw group as well, and were turned a little on their heads there too. While Garbiñe Muguruza, fresh off a title in Beijing, seemed to sail through her postseason debut -- she dominated her round robin matches, only dropping one set late in the week, and secured her spot in the semis with little drams -- the fate of everyone else remained up in the air until the end. And Petra Kvitova, who won this title during her groundbreaking 2011 season, was kept on the edge of her seat -- after losing her first match to Angelique Kerber, she was constantly playing catch up, only securing her spot in the final four after Singapore newbie Lucie Safarova shocked Kerber for her only win of the event, and sealing an entry for her compatriot.

The biggest surprises, though, came in Saturday's semifinals which pitted the two players who'd rocketed through their early rounds against a couple ladies who barely made it out of their group matches. But Radwanska brought her late burst of momentum with her -- against Muguruza, a woman who'd won every one of their meetings this year, including one just weeks ago in Beijing, the Pole was finally able to turn the tables, coming back after dropping a tight first set and powering through for the three-set win. And Kvitova, who'd largely struggled against Sharapova since that unexpected victory at Wimbledon years ago, had an even easier time, finally ending the long-ago champion's impressive run in Singapore. With both of the favorites getting a little spooked in their Halloween matches, we were treated to a final no one could have predicted.

Aga was the underdog there too -- with a disappointing 2-6 record against the two-time Major winner, and only one win over a top ten player this year before coming to Singapore, her chances were pretty slim. But the world #6 built herself an early lead, taking the first set and grabbing an early break in the second. Kvitova fought back and even got ahead in the decider, but Radwanska stayed strong, committing just five errors throughout the match and breaking her opponent an astonishing seven times. And after another two hours on court, the lady who hadn't claimed her spot at the WTA finals until just a week before it began, was triumphantly -- and frankly, by the skin of her teeth -- the one walking away with the trophy.

It's quite an ending for a woman who for so much of the season looked like her best days were behind her. And even if she started off slow this week, by finishing with some of the biggest wins of her career, she's certainly reasserted herself as a real force in the sport for when the new year starts. And while the threats will surely be bigger in the months ahead, perhaps the opportunities will be too -- and after she battled her way through this draw, there's not much else I expect she can't handle.

Opening Salvos

This year's WTA Finals could be one of the most interesting year-end championships we've seen in years -- with the most dominant player on Tour sitting out the postseason, nearly half the qualifiers making just their first appearance at this event, and each and every entrant showing a little vulnerability since the U.S. Open, it really is anybody's game. And with the first round robin matches in the books, we've gotten a glimpse of who might be most willing to take advantage of the opportunity.

Play kicked off Sunday with a rematch of the first shocking semi in New York this year -- eventual champion Flavia Pennetta, who at thirty-three has said this would be the last professional event of her career, hoped to repeat against top seed Simona Halep. Both have been below their best recently -- the Italian was upset by a qualifier in Tianjin and withdrew from the Moscow quarters with a foot injury, just after clinching her entry to Singapore, while the world #2 retired from the draw in Beijing after early losses in both Guangzhou and Wuhan. That could have presented an opportunity for Pennetta to pounce, but this time the Romanian was able to take charge, dropping just three games in the barely hour-long match. It was an important start for the favorite, who in her debut last year reached the final with a victory over Serena Williams in the early rounds. If she wants to go one better this time, she'll need to show her recent struggles were just a fluke and such a decisive win to start off may have done just that.

The second match in Singapore was just a little more challenging -- Maria Sharapova, by far the most experienced of the field, took on Aga Radwanska, who'd made a solid late-season push to qualify for her seventh appearance here. MaSha, who won this event an entire eleven years ago, started the year off strong, but a leg injury sustained during her Wimbledon semifinal lost forced her out of summer events and the U.S. Open -- when she finally did return to play in Wuhan, she retired in the third set of her opener with an arm ailment. The Pole meanwhile, who'd fallen as low as #15 in the world after a weak start to 2015, made a nice jump higher with a semi showing at the All England Club and titles in Tokyo and Tianjin. While she pulled out of Moscow last week, she seemed to have the momentum that could take her far at the Finals, but Sharapova may have stopped that. After dropping the first set the Russian roared back in the second and fought off a late surge from her opponent in the decider and, in the nearly three-hour match, Sharapova was the one left somewhat unexpectedly standing. But she'll have to regroup quick if she's going to keep up her streak -- with a match against a decidedly more rested Halep on Tuesday, she'll need every ounce of energy she's got.

Things were just as interesting in Monday's contests, where the first match-up in the White Group pitted two newbies against each other. Wimbledon finalist Garbiñe Muguruza faced off against Roland Garros runner-up Lucie Safarova, both of whom scored their best Major results this year, and both of whom are also playing the doubles event in Singapore. Here too though, there were some questions hanging above the players -- the Spaniard retired from the final in Wuhan, seemed to recover for a title in Beijing a week later, and then pulled out of Hong Kong. Safarova, meanwhile, has struggled a bit more -- the last woman to qualify for this event lost openers in Linz and Moscow, not to mention at the U.S. Open and now hasn't won a match since New Haven. And that gave Muguruza the opening she needed -- the twenty-two year old fired off ten aces and forced fifteen break opportunities -- and even though the Czech was able to keep things tight at the end, the second seed may have shaken off her debut nerves a bit better and be in the prime spot to power through from here.

The last round robin might have resulted in the only real surprise we've seen at the tournament so far. Relative veterans Petra Kvitova, the only one in this group to beat Serena Williams this year, and Angelique Kerber, who's very quietly picked up four titles in 2015, might have been two of the most closely matched opponents to open against each other -- all but one of their six previous meetings have gone three sets. Still Kvitova lost early in both Wuhan and Beijing and Kerber, after reaching the final in Hong Kong skipped out on Moscow, leaving her fate in qualifying for Singapore in other players' hands. But the sixth seed came out swinging in her opener, grabbing the first set without allowing a break opportunity. Though things were closer in the second, Kerber was able to stay more focused in the tiebreak, able to score her first win over the Czech in more than three years. The only player to have notched an upset, the German is actually at the top of her round robin group and if she keeps hitting the way she did Monday, she might just stay that way.

Of course there is still plenty more ball left before this year's final trophy is awarded. And while the ladies who opened their campaigns with a win are certainly at an early advantage, anything can still happen from here. And in just about a week one of these players might have just established herself as the one to beat in the new year.

The Perfect Ending

Serena Williams may not have started the year the way we expected her to, but she sure finished it off strong -- even when, for a few separate moments in Singapore, her prospects for a fifth WTA Championship were a little bit in doubt.

Serena, surprisingly, did not come out on top of her round robin group -- though she would open against Ana Ivanovic, the only woman in the field to have beaten her this year, she also got paired with two year-end finals first-timers, the season's Cinderella Genie Bouchard and Simona Halep, one of the most consistent performers at the Majors all year long. But despite a relatively quiet fall, the young Romanian was not intimidated in her Singapore debut -- against Williams on Wednesday, she denied nine break opportunities and dropped just two games, handing the top seed her worst loss since a 2007 retirement against Patty Schnyder. She might have even been stopped in the early rounds, but Ivanovic needed three sets to defeat Halep in their last Red Group match, allowing just enough room for Serena to sneak in.

Meanwhile in the White Group, U.S. Open surprise finalist followed up on her late-season surge -- the last player to qualify for Singapore, she was the only one in the entire field to win all her round robins, only dropping a set to Maria Sharapova in her first match. None of the other ladies in the section could manage more than one win in the early rounds -- Agnieszka Radwanska scored a surprisingly one-sided win over Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, the Czech rebounded nicely to notch her first victory over Sharapova since 2011, and the French Open titleist barely survived a three-hour slugfest with Radwanska. Ultimately, with one less set lost in the round robins, it was Aga who squeaked her way into the semifinals along with the recently dominant Dane.

Wozniacki's strength carried through on Saturday too -- while Halep dismissed Radwanska in barely an hour, Caro came within a few points of finally defeating Serena again. Despite an on-paper drubbing in the U.S. Open final, she's been steadily gaining ground on the world #1, taking sets off her in Montreal and Cincinnati. This weekend Wozniacki actually won more points in the pair's two-plus hour match, taking the first set and serving for the match in the third before finally, unfortunately, folding at six-all in the tiebreak.

So finally after a long week of top-quality play among the very best players on the WTA Tour, Serena Williams and Simona Halep had set up a rematch of their round robin match just four days ago. But we were certainly not in for an exact repeat -- as should be expected after a Williams loss, the world #1 found a way to raise her game and get revenge. Though she struggled to hold serve early and even got down a break at 1-2, she quickly rebounded and unapologetically rolled off eight straight games to finish off the match and claim her record-tying fifth year-end championship.

Of course Serena is almost always the favorite at any tournament she enters, but with so many fumbles and stumbles along the way this year, today's outcome was far from certain. But by finishing off the year so strong she certainly served notice that she's not quite ready to pass the reins off to the next generation of superstars. And you can bet she's going to take this momentum with her and start off next season with a bang.