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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Catastrophic end to Li Na's historic season

The 2011 year will be remembered as a landmark year in Li Na's career, as the Chinese clinched her first Grand Slam title at the French Open. However, the way she finished her participation at the season-ending WTA Championships, where only the best eight singles players from the season compete, should be forgotten. Li suffered the biggest loss in three years, falling to Samantha Stosur with a horrible scoreline of 6-1 6-0 in 66 minutes. In 2008 in Berlin Li lost to Nadia Petrova by the same scoreline.

Li has never defeated Stosur in their six meetings, four of which were in 2011, but today's defeat is the worst of the six. Just four winners and 32 unforced errors from a recent Grand Slam champion. Must be tough.

The US Open titlists Stosur has now reached her second semifinals at the WTA Championships. Last year she lost to eventual champion Kim Clijsters. This time Stosur's semifinal obstacle will be Petra Kvitova. (photo: Tidalist)

Can WTA Championships beat Grand Slams at tennis fashion?

I'm regularly reviewing fashion at Grand Slams (take a look at this year's tennis outfits at the Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and US Open) and this time I've decided to add the season-ending Championships, as another great tennis stage. The singles field at the $4,900,000 tournament this year played in Istanbul consists of eight players, so only the mere quantity of players significantly reduces the diversity of outfits. Therefore, nothing can outclass Grand Slams as the best stages for all the fashion fun, although some stars had brand new looks prepared for the WTA Championships.

Li Na and Victoria Azarenka are sporting neat outfits, but they are nothing new, we've seen them in previous tournaments. Li is wearing Nike Women's Holiday Smash Classic Top and Pleated Skort. Azarenka already gave a lot of exposure to her Nike Women's Holiday Set Point Graphic Tank and a matching skort during her run to the Luxembourg title and Tokyo semifinals.

Petra Kvitova, another Nike representative, is just like Azarenka wearing purple and grape tones. Caroline Wozniacki is wearing the best of her recent Adidas by Stella McCartney dresses, which she should've worn at the US Open, in my opinion, instead of the similar dress in white. Read more »

Victoria Azarenka routinely defeats Samantha Stosur in Istanbul

At the WTA Championships Victoria Azarenka continued her dominance over Samantha Stosur, not giving the Australian even one set in all their five meetings.

The seventh-ranked Stosur excitingly closed the opening day of the WTA Championships with her first win over Maria Sharapova in their ten meetings. Wednesday's order of play put the Stosur vs. Azarenka match first, and whether Stosur was emotionally and physically tired from her yesterday's accomplishment or Azarenka was too good, Azarenka crushed Stosur 6-2 6-2, with the Australian showing brief resistance only at the end of this White Group match, by saving three match points. (photo: sr_cranks)

Stosur finally beats Sharapova, 0-9 becomes 1-9!

Samantha Stosur's dream season now has another memorable mark besides the US Open title – the veteran defeated Maria Sharapova for the first time in their ten meetings in the long history of seven years.

In their five previous matches, the last one of which dates back to 2006, Sharapova never lost more than four games per set, but today her dominance over Stosur encountered an obstacle and the Australian was victorious in the first match of the White Group at the WTA Championships. Read more »

Who's the best of the best? Istanbul will tell.

The 2011 TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships in Istanbul start tomorrow, not affected by the devastating earthquake that killed around 270 people in Turkey. Players and the Tour expressed their condolences, but their job is calling them to focus on the big task ahead.

Since only the most successful eight players of the season are in the competition, it is not entirely reasonable to talk about the toughness of the draw, but we can always speculate: is the world No.1 the favorite, or the most-established players, or the late season bloomers, or someone else? Let’s analyze the two round-robin groups.

RED GROUP: Caroline Wozniacki, Petra Kvitova, Vera Zvonareva, Agnieszka Radwanska

The tournament will start with the clash between Kvitova and Zvonareva. Kvitova is making her debut at the WTA Championships, but at this year’s Wimbledon she showed she doesn’t shy away at grand stages. Also, the Czech is fresh off a WTA title in Linz.

Another first-time qualifier, Agnieszka Radwanska, is also in action on the first day, against world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki. Radwanska is the hottest player this fall, having won 11 of her last 12 matches, including Premier-level titles in Tokyo and Beijing. Zvonareva was runner-up in Tokyo, while Wozniacki had the worst results of the group this fall, losing in the third round of Tokyo and the quarterfinals of Beijing.

To give you a deeper insight into the mutual relationships of the players, here are their head-to-head statistics, with this year's records in brackets. Read more »

Marion Bartoli takes two victories in one day for Osaka title

Because of rain, the semifinals and final at the HP Open in Osaka had to be played on the same day. The final took place "after suitable rest"of the victorios semifinalists, who were Samantha Stosur and Marion Bartoli. Later in the final, Bartoli defeated Stosur 6-3 6-1 and won the International-level title by losing more than four games only in one match!

The top-seeded Stosur beat Zheng Jie after two hours and 36 minutes, 7-6(5) 3-6 6-3. The second-seeded Bartoli saved both break points she faced and without dropping serve defeated Angelique Kerber 6-1 7-6(5) in one hour and 38 minutes. As you can see, Stosur spent one hour more on the court on Sunday than her final opponent.

Later, Bartoli defeated Stosur 6-3 6-1 without dropping serve. The loss must be a disaapointment for Stosur even more so because she won her first title at the HP Open two years ago.

Bartoli won her seventh career title and second this season, after Eastbourne. The players Frenchwoman beat en route to the trophy: Melinda Czink, Vania King, Ayumi Morita, Angelique Kerber, and finally the reigning US Open champion Stosur. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Poll: Vote for the cutest childhood photos of WTA stars

Since the photos of players when they were kids is one of your favorite sections on Women's Tennis Blog, I decided to include it on the homepage, at least for a while. Actually, it's all the idea of our reader Tony (PennettaFan on Twitter). Under the title "Little tennis stars", below in the left sidebar, you can see young Monica Seles and links to all the other players' childhood photos that have been included on Women's Tennis Blog so far.

Who has the cutest childhood photo?

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Also, I was inspired to make a poll where you can vote for the cutest childhood photo of a WTA player. This list is of course by no means extensive. Feel free to share some cute photos of WTA players you may have come across, and I can feature them in future articles and polls.

Below are my photo favorites included in the poll:

1) Dinara Safina – I love her face expression here.

2) Sara Errani – Adorable curly blond hair, love the vintage look.

Read more »

Stosur advances to HP Open quarterfinals

After a big battle in the first round, Samantha Stosur scored a straight-set win over Japan's Misaki Doi in the second round and reached the quarterfinals of the HP Open in Osaka, the International tournament where the Australian won her maiden WTA title just two years ago.

Stosur opened the event against Thailand's world No.168 Noppawan Lertcheewakarn (you can call her Nok for short). Leveled at 5-5 in the final set, Stosur survived a six-deuce game and scored a break to win 6-3 3-6 7-5 for only her second victory since her US Open triumph. Luckily, Stosur had an easier job in her following match, beating Misaki Doi 6-2 6-4.

Last year at the tournament Stosur lost to Kimiko Date-Krumm at the quarterfinal stage. Date-Krumm later played the historic final in which she and eventual champion Tamarine Tanasugarn had a combined age of 73. This year, Tanasugarn is through to the quarters so far. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Zvonareva and Stosur sixth and seventh to qualify for Istanbul

Vera Zvonareva and Samantha Stosur have occupied the sixth and seventh spot in the draw of the $4,900,000 TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships, which means that only one more player can qualifier for the singles competition and that will be either Agnieszka Radwanska or Marion Bartoli.

In order for Bartoli to qualify, she would need to win both Osaka and Moscow and Radwanska would have to lose before the quarterfinals of Moscow. The player who doesn’t take the eighth spot will join Andrea Petkovic as an alternate.

This will be Zvonareva’s fifth time to play the elite year-end Championships, while Stosur played last year for the first time.

Besides the two new additions to the draw, Caroline Wozniacki, Maria Sharapova, Petra Kvitova, Victoria Azarenka and Li Na had already qualified.

For the past three years the prestigious event was held in Doha, and this year it will take place in Istanbul for the first time. The 2010 champion was Kim Clijsters, whose injuries have prevented her for playing since August. (photos: sr_cranks)


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