The WTA tour transitioned from clay to grass last week. The Aegon Open Nottingham, Nottingham and Ricoh Open, s-Hertogenbosch were the opening stage of tennis action on the green lawns. Karolina Pliskova won her fifth title in Nottingham and by doing so, she has completed the sweep of winning at least one title on every surface.
Across the English Channel in the Netherlands, CoCo Vandeweghe reclaimed the Ricoh Open crown after lifting her first trophy at the same event in 2014. The title runs affirm Pliskova her place in the top 20 rankings whereas Vandeweghe finds herself close to grabbing a seed for Wimbledon end of this month.
Last week’s titlists
After a disappointing clay court swing which saw her net just five wins from five tournaments, including an opening round loss at the French Open, Karolina Pliskova took a late wildcard into Nottingham. It proved to be a smart move as the Czech navigated her way through the draw, closing out the week with her fifth WTA title, her first on grass.
Pliskova now has at least one title on every surface, Nottingham on grass, Prague on clay and a trio of hardcourt titles in Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, and Linz (played indoors). Moreover, she has now won at least one title every year beginning 2013 when she captured her maiden trophy in the Malaysian capital.
The Czech’s biggest test of the week came in the opening round against Anastasija Sevastova. It was the only match where she was taken to a decider. Pliskova faced grass court lover Alison Riske in the final and came out on top in key moments of the tight match to prevail 7-6(8), 7-5. Pliskova now moves her focus to Birmingham where she is the defending finalist.
Pliskova and her semifinal opponent, fourth seed Monica Puig were the only seeds to progress passed the round of 16 stage. Theire fellow seeds who exited in the opening round were local girl and sixth seed Heather Watson, fifth seed Yanina Wickmayer, and seventh seed Mona Barthel. Third-seeded Caroline Wozniacki, who was playing her first tournament after sitting out the past few months to nurse an ankle injury came up short to Anett Kontaveit in the second round. Another Brit, the second seed Johanna Konta departed in the second round as well, troubled by a pelvis injury.
Photo credit: Ricoh Open.
CoCo Vandeweghe has a game that jibes with grass and continued to prove so by lifting the Ricoh Open title for the second time in s-Hertogenbosch (pronounced Sir-toe-hem-bosh). Her most significant career achievements have come on this surface, her first Grand Slam quarterfinal came at Wimbledon last year and her first WTA title came here at s-Hertogenbosch in 2014.
Amazingly, the 24-year-old did not drop a single set all week and never surrendered more than four games per set en route to the final. Prior to the final, the most number of games she conceded in a match were six, in her opening match against Indy de Vroome and in the semifinals against compatriot Madison Brengle. In the championship round, she beat Frenchwoman and fourth seed Kristina Mladenovic 7-5, 7-5 for the title, a match which was purely all about big-hitting and first-strike tennis.
Belinda Bencic who was the top seed here made her return after a back injury lay-off the whole of last month. She did well by making the semifinals, falling to Mladenovic in three sets. The other seeds however, were not so fortunate. Seventh seed Eugenie Bouchard was bamboozled by qualifier Elise Mertens in round one, managing to win just two games. Germans Laura Siegemund and Anna-Lena Friedsam, who were the fifth and eighth seeds respectively also fell at the first hurdle. Second seed Jelena Jankovic and fourth seed Jelena Ostapenko crashed out in the round of 16, the former failing to capitalise on a set lead.
Rankings
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The first change in rankings came in Konta, who falls one rank to 19th after failing to defend quarterfinal points in Nottingham, thus swapping places with Elina Svitolina. Vandeweghe returns to her career high world number 32 after winning the title in s-Hertogenbosch and could potentially be seeded for Wimbledon. Nottingham semifinalist Puig is inching closer to a top 40 return, going up six spots to 43rd.
Brengle, courtesy of her semifinal showing in s-Hertogenbosch improves from 68th to 60th. Nottingham quarterfinalist Zheng Saisai and Nottingham runner-up Riske rise from 86th to 78th and 89th to 81st respectively. Ukrainian Kateryna Kozlova cracks the top 100 at a new career-high ranking of 98th after making the last eight in Nottingham.
On the other hand, Monica Niculescu, Nottingham runner-up in 2015 dips from 37th to 46th after skipping the tournament. Camila Giorgi, who was the Ricoh Open defending champion also falls from 47th to 66th after opting to not defend her title. Last year's champion in Nottingham, Ana Konjuh fell 31 places to 107th after withdrawing pre-tournament with a lower back injury.
Road to Singapore
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The Nottingham title puts Pliskova back in the top 20 standings in the race to the WTA Finals, moving up from 26th to 18th. After the Czech is Puig, who rises from 21st to 19th. Bencic cracks the top 30 after her semifinal run in s-Hertogenbosch, going up seven spots to 27th. Vandeweghe was the biggest mover, soaring 42 places to 41st. Mladenovic, like Vandeweghe, also enters the top 50 at 49th from her previous position of 70th.
Americans Brengle and Riske who posted good results last week move into the top 60, sitting next to each other at 54th and 55th respectively. Other players who improved in the race are Zheng (87th to 71st) and s-Hertogenbosch quarterfinalist Viktorija Golubic (94th to 86th).
This week's action
The string of warm-up events for Wimbledon continues in Birmingham and Mallorca which host the Aegon Classic Birmingham and the inaugural Mallorca Open respectively, both tournaments are already underway. The field in Birmingham will feature four top 10 players led by world number three Agnieszka Radwanska. On the other hand, three top 30 players lead the charge in Mallorca.