After surviving a set and 4-1 down in the second set, and then 5-2 down in the third set of her Paris quarterfinal against Roberta Vinci, Marion Bartoli overcame her semifinal challenge against Klara Zakopalova, coming back from 4-2 down in the first set to win the set in the tiebreak, before bageling her opponent in the second set and winning the match 7-6(3) 6-0. Bartoli is now in her first ever final at the Open GDF Suez and obviously it means a lot to her to go that far at her home tournament.

Angelique Kerber, who ousted top seed Maria Sharapova in the quarterfinals, will be Bartoli's opponent in the title match, having defeated Yanina Wickmayer 6-7(2) 6-3 6-4. Note that Kerber has played four tournaments this season and this is her third semifinal in 2012, after Auckland and Hobart. (photo: Lawntennisnews)

First have a look at the table showing average rank of players who defeated each of the year-end Top 10 players and the lowest-ranked player to beat year-end Top 10 players during 2011. 

Vera Zvonareva needs to be mentioned here for her consistency as she is the only one of the Top 10 who was not beaten by a player ranked outside Top 35, while the rest of her colleagues from this elite group were beaten at least twice. The lowest-ranked player to defeat Zvonareva during 2011 was Tsvetana Pironkova, ranked 33rd (seeded 32nd) during the third round of Wimbledon.

Of Zvonareva's 22 losses only three came at the hands of players ranked between 30 and 35 and interestingly they came at the hands of players ranked 31, 32, and 33. Also, a total of only three losses came at the hands of players ranked between 21 and 29, while the rest of 16 came at the hands of Top 20 players. Average rank of Zvonareva's conquerors was 15, while the average rank of the conquerors of all the remaining Top 10 players was not even within Top 20.

Victoria Azarenka also needs to be mentioned here, because only five of her 17 losses came at the hands of players ranked outside Top 20, and of those five losses two came at the hands of Serena Williams who had low ranking due to her health problems and lack of play. Average rank of Azarenka's conquerors in 2011 was 23.

Let's continue with more specific tables, one for each of the Top 10 players, containing:

1) names of tournaments where players lost a match;

2) rank of the player that defeated them;

3) name of the player who defeated them.

Players who have beaten a Top 10 player in question twice or more in 2011 are highlighted in the tables.

Interestingly, three players have beaten Caroline Wozniacki twice this year, only one of them being a Top 10 player. Petra Kvitova has been beaten twice by only two players in 2011 – Andrea Petkovic and Vera Zvonareva – both the year-end Top 10 players. However, Petkovic was ranked 11th when she defeated Kvitova in Cincinnati.

It's interesting to note that Kvitova, who can be considered the player of the year especially for her Wimbledon and WTA Championships titles, played two events on the ITF Women's Circuit in 2011 – Nassau she exited in the opening round, while Prague 2 she lost in the final. Also note that six of Kvitova's 13 losses (almost 50%) came at the hands of players ranked below 40.

SUMMARY STATS FOR WOZNIACKI

Total rank of players who defeated her: 465
Number of defeats: 17
Average rank: 27.4

SUMMARY STATS FOR KVITOVA
Total rank of players who defeated her: 474
Number of defeats: 13
Average rank: 36.5

Victoria Azarenka has been beaten twice or more by three players – Li (both times at Grand Slams), Kvitova (three times) and Serena Williams (twice). Maria Sharapova was beaten twice by two players – Kvitova and Li, both Top 10 players.

Flavia Pennetta needs to be mentioned here since she was the one who spoiled the perfect record of Sharapova in three-set matches during 2011. Before the US Open Sharapova had won all the matches during 2011 that went to the third set, however Pennetta changed all that at US Open when she beat Sharapova 6-3 3-6 6-4 in the third round of US Open.

SUMMARY STATS FOR AZARENKA
Total rank of players who defeated her: 398
Number of defeats: 17
Average rank: 23.4

SUMMARY STATS FOR SHARAPOVA
Total rank of players who defeated her: 603
Number of defeats: 14
Average rank: 43.1

Lisicki and Stosur have been able to defeat Li Na twice or more this year, with Stosur beating her on four ocassions. Samantha Stosur has been beaten by Sharapova (three times), Kirilenko (twice), Bartoli (twice) and Kvitova (twice).

Of all the Top 10 players, the US Open champion Stosur suffered the biggest loss in terms of how low her opponent was ranked, falling to No.262 Melinda Czink in the first round of Wimbledon.

SUMMARY STATS FOR LI

Total rank of players who defeated her: 624
Number of defeats: 17
Average rank: 36.7

SUMMARY STATS FOR STOSUR
Total rank of players who defeated her: 865
Number of defeats: 23
Average rank: 37.6

In the beginning of this analysis I've already said so much about Vera Zvonareva's consistency, but there were two players against whom the Russian was weak: Agnieszka Radwanska defeated her four times in 2011, Samantha Stosur three times.

Agnieszka Radwanska also had her fair share of unwelcome opponents: Petra Cetkovska, Lucie Safarova, and Top 10 players Wozniacki and Kvitova all defeated Radwanska twice this year.

SUMMARY STATS FOR ZVONAREVA
Total rank of players who defeated her: 338
Number of defeats: 22
Average rank: 15.4

SUMMARY STATS FOR RADWANSKA
Total rank of players who defeated her: 453
Number of defeats: 18
Average rank: 25.2

Marion Bartoli has the unwelcome title in the elite 10, falling to the lowest-ranked opponents on average. Bartoli also has the unlikely honour of being the only Top 10 player who was beaten four times by players ranked outside Top 100 during 2011. However, she also played the most tournaments – 29, while no other Top 10 player played more than 22.

Andrea Petkovic and Caroline Wozniacki were the only players to beat Marion Bartoli twice or more this year. Wozniacki, Sharapova and Radwanska handed Andrea Petkovic two or more losses this year.

SUMMARY STATS FOR BARTOLI
Total rank of players who defeated her: 1310
Number of defeats: 25
Average rank: 52.4

SUMMARY STATS FOR PETKOVIC
Total rank of players who defeated her: 461
Number of defeats: 17
Average rank: 27.1

So far we've featured numerous Omair's analytic tables covering the following topics:

• Comparative analysis of Top 10 players and their performance at big tournaments in 2011;
• Top 10 players in 2011 – how they scored against fellow big opponents; and now
• Top 10 players in 2011 – what do their losses suggest?

Did all these analyses help you draw some conclusions or direct your attention to specific data which you didn't realize before? Did some specific numbers maybe only strengthen some of your theories about certain players? (photos: © Neal Trousdale)

We can soon start calling our reader Omair a stats expert. After seeing his "Comparative analysis of Top 10 players and their performance at big tournaments in 2011" received so well, Omair eagerly rushed to thrill us with more analysis, this time focusing on the year-end Top 10 players and the ranking of opponents that they beat in 2011 (Part 1) and on the ranking of opponents that beat them (Part 2). Let the tables do the talking!

The table above shows the number of tournaments where a year-end Top 10 player defeated more than one Top 10 player. Petra Kvitova tops here with three tournaments, at two of which she defeated three or more Top 10 players en route to the title (Madrid and WTA Championships). World number one Caroline Wozniacki is the only Top 10 player who did not beat two Top 10 players in a single tournament.

Let's continue with tables showing tournaments won by each Top 10 player and tournaments where the player (though did not end up winning the event) ended up beating two or more Top 10 players.

As mentioned earlier, Kvitova tops the list of most Top 10 players defeated en route to title – at the WTA Championships in Istanbul she ended up beating as much as five Top 10 players, Top 8 players to be exact! Second in this list is Li Na who defeated four Top 10 players on her way to the French Open title this year. Take notice, Wozniacki only once defeated a Top 5 player on her way to title, which was in Brussels where she defeated then-No.5 Schiavone.

Actually, Kvitova was the  only one who ended up beating three Top 10 players in more than one tournament. Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sharapova, Li Na and Marion Bartoli did it once during 2011 – Azarenka at the WTA Championships, Sharapova in Rome, Li at the French Open and Bartoli in Eastbourne.

You can see that Li Na defeated four Top 10 players en route to her maiden Grand Slam title, more than Kvitova during her Wimbledon title run and more than Samantha Stosur who had to overcome only one such opponent on her way to the US Open trophy.

Vera Zvonareva won two titles in 2011 and all the victories in her Doha run included Top 30 players, two of which were Top 10. Agnieszka Radwanska was super hot in the later part of the season, winning Carlsbad, Tokyo and Beijing. The Pole scored two Top 10 victories in Toronto, more than in Carlsbad and Beijing actually, but lost in the semifinals of the tournament.

Just like in the "Comparative analysis of Top 10 players and their performance at big tournaments in 2011" the stats leader in the department of victories over fellow Top 10 players is mostly Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova.

What would you like to add looking at the stats? What are the details you notice and what do they tell you about specific players?

Stay tuned for the second part of the analysis to be posted this week on Women's Tennis Blog. The continuation will focus on the losses of Top 10 players and the rankings of players who defeated them. (Kvitova photo: © Neal Trousdale)

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.

1. Caroline Wozniacki did the near impossible in 2011 by repeating as the world’s number one. Because the WTA deducts ranking points won the year before, Caroline had the most points to lose. This meant she had to win more than she did in 2010 just to stay even. Only 3 people picked her to repeat. All but one person did include her in their Top 10. Caroline was the most consistent player on the Tour for the second straight season.

2. Petra Kvitova came from nowhere to finish number two. Although she was named as the most improved by the WTA for 2010, none of us thought she would have the year she had in 2011. She won both Wimbledon and the WTA Championships and must be included on the short list for number one in 2012.

3. Victoria Azarenka was my pick for number one and would have made it if not for the outstanding play of Caroline and Petra. Victoria continued to improve in 2011 and is poised to go even higher in 2012. She should continue her championship finals battle with Kvitova next year for the world’s number one player.

4. Maria Sharapova had a wonderful year rising to number two until faltering at the end with a disastrous showing in the final championships. Maria makes it through many matches on guts and determination alone. She may never be the player she once was before her shoulder injury, but she isn’t about to stop trying. By far the most popular player in women’s sports, Maria is also the most competitive.

5. Li Na played better than anyone at times in 2011, but she also played poorly too often. Maybe Caroline could lend her some of her consistency, and Li could show Caroline how to win a major in 2012. She won the French Open and is the best Asian player ever. She turns 30 early next year and has the honor of being the oldest player in the Top 10.

6. Samantha Stosur made all of us her fans at the US Open with her great win. Calm, cool and collected Sam may be the most popular player on the tour after Maria. She is a national hero in Australia and has the desire and talent to rise to the top of the standings.

7. Vera Zvonareva hired a new coach for 2011 and found a new demeanor on the court. The emotion has been replaced by a steely determination. She is now a very consistent player who is a safe bet to remain a Top 10 player.

8. Agnieszka Radwanska had a great run in the US Open Series. I watched her win the tournament at La Costa beating two Top 10 players, Petkovic and Zvonareva, with a heavily bandaged right shoulder.  Hopefully, the off-season will give her shoulder a chance to heal, and she will come back even stronger in 2012.

9. Marion Bartoli surprised us all in 2011. I never thought she would be in the Top 10, but she managed to be consistent enough to finish 9th. She just missed qualifying for the year-end Championships, but she did win her only game there as an alternate over Azarenka the eventual runner-up.

10. Andrea Petkovic (above is my photo with her) is the most exciting player in women’s tennis. She also works harder than any other and deserves her surprising fast rise to the Top 10. Let’s hope her knee heals this winter because the WTA needs to see her dance even more in 2012.

Of all the people who commented on my post with predictions, I think Paul was the top picker. He not only was one of three who had Caroline Wozniacki as number one, he was the only one to pick Andrea Petkovic. He even picked Andrea correct at number 10. In addition Paul had eight of the ten top players on his list. His other two picks were both injured but still managed to finish near the Top 10 – Kim Clijsters #13 and Serena Williams #12. He missed only Kvitova whom no one picked and Bartoli picked by only one person. Therefore, I proposed to Marija to send him one autographed picture of a WTA star (either Dinara Safina, Yanina Wickmayer, Flavia Pennetta or Shahar Peer) and she will gladly send him his award.

Start thinking about your 2012 picks!

John, thank you for reflecting on your January's predictions. This article witnesses how fast women's tennis changes and how nothing is set in stone. (photos courtesy of John Bolan, Tony and Ralf Reinecke)

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

Maria Sharapova has the  most match wins at Grand Slams, being in the semifinals of French Open (losing to eventual champion) and final of Wimbledon (losing to eventual champion), followed by Caroline Wozniacki who has two semifinal showings but both times was beaten by the runner-up, while at the other two was beaten by players who got beaten in the very next rounds. Most consistent at Grand Slams was Andrea Petkovic, who reached the quarterfinals at three Grand Slams, falling short of two wins at Wimbledon to complete the set of quarterfinals. Of all the Top 10 players only Li Na managed to be in more than one Grand Slam final.

PERFORMANCE AT WTA CHAMPIONSHIPS

At the WTA Championships, Petra Kvitova proved too good for all the players, winning all five of her matches and hence the tournament, showing that she is the best of Top 8. She also defeated world No.1 Wozniacki and US Open champion Samantha Stosur.

PERFORMANCE AT PREMIER MANDATORY TOURNAMENTS

Victoria Azarenka was the most consistent in the Premier Mandatory category of events, as is obvious from the results above. No player other than Azarenka, Sharapova and Petkovic ended up in semifinals or above of two Premier Mandatory events.

PERFORMANCE AT PREMIER 5 TOURNAMENTS

Three Top 10 players ended up playing all the five events, world No.1 Wozniacki being one of them. The most consistent here was Sharapova, winning two titles and having a quarterfinal appearance at one, followed by Stosur who had two finals and two quarterfinals. Woznicki did win one title of this cadre but failed to advance to finals of the other four, ending up with semifinal appearance in only one event of the remaining four tourneys she played.

PERFORMANCE AT PREMIER EVENTS

Having a look at the Premiers played, it becomes evident that only Kvitova had wise planning of events not letting her overplay and she ended up with a title and a runner-up showing in the two events she played. Wozniacki played six events and won three of them, with runner-up showings in two of them. Only Wozniacki was able to win two Mandatory events, of others, Petkovic, Azarenka and Sharapova did not win a title in this category, while all the rest have at least one title and one semifinal or runner-up appearance.

Kvitova has been the player of year with the highest match winning percentage of the elite 10, plus titles in every mandatory category other than the Premier 5 category where she has one semifinal appearance. She has one Grand Slam (Wimbledon), year-end Championships, Premier Mandatory (Madrid) and Premier (Paris) titles in her bag and not forgetting the two International-level titles she won this season as well.

Omair, thank you for this detailed and insightful analysis, I think it's outstanding, and gives a great perspective into the very top of current women's tennis. What do others think? (first photo via WTA Tour, Kvitova photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Top seed Marion Bartoli retired with an ankle injury soon after the start of the third set of her opening match against Anabel Medina Garrigues at the Commonweath Bank Tournament of Champions in Bali. And that wasn't the only blow to the tournament on Friday. An earthquake hit the exotic island so much that the press conference had to be held outside the tournament facility. Luckily it happened after the matches were completed and spectators had already left.

"I’ve never done a press conference like this before," said Daniela Hantuchova who lost her quarterfinal to Sabine Lisicki 7-5 6-2. "It was quite frightening, but we seem to be okay."

Bartoli had to give up the match after two hours and 40 minutes of play, when Medina Garrigues was leading 4-6 7-6(7) 1-0, because of the injury the Frenchwoman sustained in the tiebreaker.

On one of Anabel’s dropshots I really felt my ankle blocked and my whole body went forward on it. It started to hurt a few seconds after and when I got the match point on my serve I really struggled to put any weight on my foot. Everything falls apart from there.

Ironically, this tournament has only a three-year-old history and Bartoli is leaving it injured for the second time. In the inaugural edition she handed the final to Aravane Rezai, while today she held two match points in the second-set tiebreak.

To sum up, the second semifinal pair is Anabel Medina Garrigues vs. Sabine Lisicki. The first semifinal pair was determined yesterday – Ana Ivanovic vs. Nadia Petrova. (photos: Robertus Pudyanto)

Sabine Lisicki is relieving her jetlag in Bali by painting pottery which will be auctioned off for charity. In her blog for the WTA Tour, the German reveals that her parents are also in Bali. Lisicki's mother Elisabeth, a painting and ceramics artist, enjoyed doing art with her daughter, while father Richard was busy taking the pictures for Sabine’s Facebook page.

Lisicki used to be ranked No.218 and thought she would never qualify for Bali, but she had a fantastic 2011 with two WTA titles (Birmingham and Dallas) and Wimbledon semifinals.

The draw ceremony was attended by eight players, looking elegant in batik and kebaya designed by Rico Ananta, officials and the media.

In the opening round top seed Marion Bartoli will face Anabel Medina Garrigues, Sabine Lisicki will play Daniela Hantuchova, defending champion Ana Ivanovic will be challenged by Roberta Vinci, and Peng Shuai is drawn against Nadia Petrova.

(photos courtesy of Robertus Pudyanto)

Now that the WTA Championships in Istanbul have come to a close, let's shift our attention to the Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions which is about to start on November 3 in Bali. The Tour actually announced the draw of the really-season-ending tournament on the day the much more important season-ending tournament commenced (how awkward is that?), but I decided to postpone the Bali talk until Istanbul finishes.

You know that in order to qualify for the event in exotic Bali you have to win an International-level WTA tournament in the ongoing season and not qualify for the WTA Championships in Istanbul which features the best eight singles players of the year. To make things even more complicated, Marion Bartoli did not qualify for Istanbul and was therefore eligible to play Bali, but as the first alternate in Istanbul she did eventually play the event because of Maria Sharapova's withdrawal. Nevertheless, Bartoli is still qualified to play Bali. Pretty messed up. But hey, let's see who's in.

Direct qualifiers (in brackets are the titles they won in 2011):

Marion Bartoli (Osaka)
Sabine Lisicki (Birmingham, Dallas)
Roberta Vinci (Barcelona, 's-Hertogenbosch, Budapest)
Daniela Hantuchova (Pattaya City)
Anabel Medina Garrigues (Estoril and Palermo)
Nadia Petrova (College Park)

Wildcards:

Ana Ivanovic
Peng Shuai

Ivanovic and Peng have not won titles this year. Ivanovic is defending champion in Bali, while Peng is the only player in the Top 20 who has not won a WTA title in her career.

Players have gathered in Bali and photographer Robertus Pudyanto caught some beach tennis action of Shuai and Hantuchova.

The Bali tournament in this format was first organized in 2009. This year it will take place from November 3 to November 6. (photos: © Neal Trousdale)

"I am pleased to have signed with Lotto, an Italian brand, and although I'm Corse of 2 generations, my name is Italian in origin," said Bartoli who infamously used to be without a clothing sponsor for four years.

The first Bartoli's Lotto outfit was a white short-sleeve shirt and a red skort.

Lotto's women's tennis stars also include Francesca Schiavone and Agnieszka Radwanska. (sources: On the Baseline, Marion Bartoli Fan Blog, photo: Life.com)

Marion Bartoli needed three things to take the last spot in the season-ending WTA Championships: to win Osaka – check!, to have Agnieszka Radwanska lose before the quarterfinals in Moscow – check!, to win the Moscow title – well, it would have been too good to be true. Bartoli withdrew from her quarterfinal against Elena Vesnina citing viral infection, insuring Radwanska's qualification for Istanbul.

After a bye in the first round, Bartoli defeated Ksenia Pervak 6-1 6-1, but already after the victory she felt she needed a break.

It has been a very long season and I really tried to play till the very end but that was it for me.

The eight-women field for the WTA Championships is now complete: Caroline Wozniacki, Maria Sharapova, Victoria Azarenka, Petra Kvitova, Vera Zvonareva, Samantha Stosur, Li Na and last entrant Agnieszka Radwanska. (photos: © Neal Trousdale)