Shiseido WTA Finals, Shenzhen; ATP Rolex Paris Masters
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| Hey! See in the corner up there? The Earth is round! |
So here we are! The WTA is at the end of the season. With a BANG (a BIG BANG, hopefully, for the bucks they'll get!) in Shenzhen. The men get their last Masters in Paris, and there are several players still hoping to get to their YEC.
Shiseido WTA Finals Shenzhen
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| That's a very cool skyline! |
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| And this is a very cool looking venue - Shenzhen Bay Sports Center |
This is what they fought for all year! The WTA Finals! The Year End Championships! And with the move to Shenzhen, this is really the big pay day. Biggest purse in tennis ever, both tours. Total prize money doubled from last year in Singapore and got to $14m. Winner can take home potentially $4.725m, surpassing the previous record of $3.85m set at the USO this year.
But enough about the dough. Let's talk tennis. As you all know, surely, the 8 players are divided in two groups where they'll play in a round robin format, top two in the groups qualifying for the SF stage. Ranking points for a winner that wins all her RR matches: 1500.
The top 8 ladies are all here and ready for action. Here are the h2h between all of them:
The groups draw:
RED Group:
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| #1 left! Nice! |
Barty - 99% 2019's YE#1 after a fabulous season, winning 3 titles on 3 surfaces: RG (like... What?), Miami and Birmingham and getting to two more finals in Beijing and Sydney.
Osaka - #3 had the best year of her career winning 3 titles too: AO, Beijing and (fittingly) Osaka. She's 100% in finals this year!
Kvitova - #6 won 2 titles: Sydney and Stuttgart and reached 2 more finals including the AO one.
Bencic - #7 fought hard until the last moment to get here and managed to do it with a title last week in Moscow to add to the one won in Dubai. She has also a final in Mallorca.
PURPLE Group:
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| Obviously a sad bunch of losers! :)) |
Pliskova - #2 not the greatest GS year for her, but everywhere else she was pretty much the best: four titles in Rome, Zhengzhou, Eastbourne and Brisbane (on all 3 surfaces!) and a final in Miami.
Andreescu - #4 after an incomplete season due to injury in which she barely lost any matches (5 to be exact!) and won three huge titles: USO, IW and Toronto. One of those five losses came in the Auckland final.
Halep - #5 had a consistent season with just one high note: Wimbledon. Also got to the finals in Madrid and Doha.
Svitolina - #8 had her best GS season ever getting (at last) to the SF stage in Wimbledon and USO. Sadly she also has the dubious stat of not reaching any finals this year.
Bookies say these are the odds:
Barty/Osaka/Andreescu 4
Pliskova/Halep/Svitolina 7
Kvitova 8
Bencic 12
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| Ooops! There was doubles too! Babdenovic won! Hooray! |
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| Ash Barty and her rosy cheeks! And a trophy... |
Phew! Onto the lads.
Rolex Paris Masters
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| Wet street, brown leaves and a cafe |
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| I had no clue Le Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy looks so cool from outside! |
It's an ATP Masters 1000. This time the draw has 48 players, all 16 seeds having byes in the 1st round. Only three absentees from top 20: Nishikori, FAA and Pouille. In theory 6 guys (maybe even 7 if Schwartzman wins tomorrow) still have chances to go through The Chunnel to London. So it will be pretty tense all through.
Here are the seeds: Djokovic, Nadal, Federer, Medvedev, Thiem, *Zverev, The Tsi, The Khach, *RBA, *Berrettini, *Fognini, *Goffin, *Monfils, *Schwartzman, Isner, The Man. (* means there's still hope).
Here is the draw (chalk R16):
1st quarter:
Djokovic v Schwartzman
RBA v The Tsi
Also here Gasquet, Edmund, De Minaur and The Tiaf v Fritz.
2nd quarter:
Medvedev v Isner
Goffin v Thiem
Other notable players: Cuevas, Dimitrov, Raonic.
3rd quarter:
Zverev v Fognini
Monfils v Federer
Albot, Coric v Verdasco and Simon v The Shap are in this section too.
4th quarter:
The Khach v Berrettini
The Man v Nadal
Also in here Tsonga v Rublev, Cilic and Struff.
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