Can we make predictions in women's tennis today? Compare January 2011 picks and year-end Top 10

In the beginning of the year our loyal contributor John Bolan made a prediction of how Top 10 would look like at the end of the season and a lot of readers presented their Top 10 picks in the comments. Now that the tennis 2011 has ended, I thought it was perfect time to ask John to do a comparison of the prediction and the actual season-ending rankings. He was eager to accept my proposal. Continue reading to see the shocking changes over the last 11 months, such as Justine Henin and Dinara Safina not playing any more and Petra Kvitova, who was never even mentioned, joining the elite big time.

On January 8, 2011 the Women’s Tennis Blog published my article "Who will be Top 10 players at the end of 2011?".  My picks were listed with reasons why I chose them. Many fans used the comment section to submit their picks. Now that the year is over, let’s find out how we did.

Most of us only named about 5 out of the 10 Top finishers. The reason that we did so poorly was the injury factor. Five of the top players were injured for most of the year – Justin Henin, Kim Clijsters, Dinara Safina, Serena Williams and Venus Williams. Most of us had at least 3 of these injured stars on our Top 10 list. The most difficult factor in picking the Top 10 is trying to guess who will not be able to play a full season and 2011 was an unusual year with so many of the top stars injured for so long.

No one picked the number 2 finisher – Petra Kvitova. Only one person picked Marion Bartoli and only one picked Andrea Petkovic. These omissions hurt the overall accuracy of our picks. Read more »

Comparative analysis of Top 10 players and their performance at big tournaments in 2011

This blog likes to give its faithful readers an opportunity to contribute and show their take on women's tennis, so here's Omair's analysis of our year-end Top 10 players and their 2011 results at Grand Slams, Premier tournaments and the WTA Championships. Have a look at what the numbers suggest.

Just to note, in the following tables CW is Caroline Wozniacki, PK is Petra Kvitova, VA is Victoria Azarenka, MS is Maria Sharapova, LN is Li Na, SS is Samantha Stosur, VZ is Vera Zvonareva, AR is Agnieszka Radwanska, MB is Marion Bartoli and AP is Andrea Petkovic.

WIN-LOSS RECORD OF THE YEAR-END TOP 10 PLAYERS AGAINST EACH OTHER IN 2011

The win-loss record is in itself self-explanatory, showing who has been the most dominant player - Petra Kvitova. Please also note the number of wins by a player against Top 5 players, especially for Top 5 players.

OVERALL WIN-LOSS RECORD IN 2011

Kvitova is not the leader only in the percentage of wins over fellow season-ending Top 10 players, but is also the leader in yearly win-loss record overall.

2011 GRAND SLAM WINS OF TOP 10 PLAYERS

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Andrea Petkovic would rather be a drummer than a tennis player

Andrea Petkovic, or better said Petkorazzi, released a new video on YouTube revealing five things we didn't know about her. The clip is hilarious and even though I will tell you what Petkorazzi's secret five things are, you have to watch how she illustrated them.

Here are Petkovic's untold abilities/disabilities, embarrassing things from the past, weaknesses and dreams:

  1. Can sing an entire Tarkan song
  2. Doesn't like golf because she sucks at it
  3. Used to adore the Backstreet Boys
  4. Would rather be a drummer in a rock band than a tennis player
  5. Has a weakness for pretty boys

The world No.10 Petkovic failed to win her maiden Premier WTA title this month in Beijing. Her next tournament are the year-end Championships in Istanbul, where she's an alternate. She was supposed to play this week's Luxembourg but her knee is not perfectly healthy.

China Open: Agnieszka Radwanska claims second straight Premier title

World No.12 Agnieszka Radwanska defeated Andrea Petkovic 7-5 0-6 6-4 in the final of the $4,500,000 China Open and extended her perfect record against the German to 5-0. It's Radwanska's second big title in two weeks, after last week's Tokyo event with the prize money of $2,050,000. And that's not all, during the US Open series, Radwanska won the Carlsbad tournament and played the semifinals of Toronto.

There were 15 service breaks in the match of 28 games. After winning the first set that lasted more than half of the match, Radwanska won only nine points in the second set and was bageled. The Pole came back in the decider, opening it with a break and later she was the one to have the decisive break for a 5-4 lead before serving out the victory. It should be pointed out, though, that Petkovic won more points in the match, 101 to Radwanska's 100.

To win her seventh career title and third this season, the 22-year-old Radwanska defeated Zheng Jie, Sofia Arvidsson, Ana Ivanovic, Flavia Pennetta, and in the end Andrea Petkovic, who was playing the greatest final of her career. Radwanska won an astonishing $775,500 and 1000 ranking points in Beijing, which will take her back to Top 10.

Radwanska has won 22 of her last 25 matches. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Andrea Petkovic, Agnieszka Radwanska to play for China Open title

Andrea Petkovic and Agnieszka Radwanska will face each other in the final of the China Open and it's not only a big moment in their careers because it's a Premier-level tournament, the winner of the match will return to No.10 in the rankings. Also, they are both contenders for the three remaining berths in the WTA championships draw in Istanbul.

The ninth-seeded Petkovic quickly defeated Monica Niculescu 6-2 6-0 and reached her biggest career final, but she far from underestimated her qualifier opponent, who had upset fourth seed Li Na in the first round.

"My opponent had a totally different style than all the other girls. I don't think I had a match like this the whole season," Petkovic said after taking all seven of Niculescu's service games. "So I prepared differently. I put my two coaches on the other side of the court and made them play slice all the time. So I think I was quite prepared for what was waiting for me here today."

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