The final Premier Mandatory tournament of the year, the China Open in Beijing crowned its first ever two-time champion last week as 2011 winner Agnieszka Radwanska took home her second title at the event, also her third Premier Mandatory-level trophy overall. Moreover, the Polish number one not only solidifies her position in the top three rankings but by winning Beijing, she also achieves a career milestone, with it being her 20th career title.
Last week’s titlists
The ever-consistent Agnieszka Radwanska continues to soar to greater heights in her career which now spans more than a decade, having turned professional in 2005 aged 16. The Pole’s 2016 season began with a title in Shenzhen and this was followed by a semifinal result at the Australian Open. She then made the last four at three of her next four tournaments, thus accumulating a 21-6 record through the first four months of the year. Transitioning to the red dirt, her least preferred surface, the Pole suffered a setback in Madrid when she was sent packing in the first round by Dominika Cibulkova. She did post a decent run at the French Open however, making the last 16, her best showing there since making the last eight in 2013.
Having made the semifinals and final of Nottingham and Eastbourne respectively and the last four of Wimbledon last year, Radwanska returned to the green lawns looking to consolidate those results. However, she was not so fortunate this time around as she dropped her opener in Birmingham and fell short to Cibulkova twice, in the quarterfinals of Eastbourne and the round of 16 at Wimbledon. Things went sour for the Pole in Montreal as she suffered an early loss in the hands of Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. She then endured another forgettable Olympic campaign when she was upset by China’s Zheng Saisai in the first round.
Returning to American soil, the Pole looked to have found her groove once again when she reached the last eight in Cincinnati and followed this up by winning her second title of the year at the Connecticut Open. She then matched her best result at the US Open by reaching the last 16. Radwanska faced her first task of defending a title this year in Tokyo but fell short to eventual champion Caroline Wozniacki in the semifinals. She then posted her 10th quarterfinal appearance of 2016 the following week in Wuhan.
Having won the China Open in five years ago, Radwanska was one of three former champions in the draw. She went through her first three matches unscathed, beating the likes of Wang Qiang, Ekaterina Makarova and Wozniacki, all in straight sets. In the quarterfinals, she moved past Yaroslava Shvedova easily but faced her biggest test of the week in the last four against 16th seed Elina Svitolina as she surrendered nine games (her most of the week) en route to a straight set win over the Ukrainian.
She then faced 11th seed Johanna Konta in the final and ended the Brit’s run, coming out on top with the scoreline 6-4, 6-2 for her second title in Beijing. Radwanska does not only become the first multiple at the Premier Mandatory event, the China Open also marks the second tournament where she has won more than once, having won the Toray Pan Pacific Open in 2011 and 2015. Even more imposing since finishing runner-up to Belinda Bencic in Eastbourne last year, the Pole has now won all of her last six finals contested, the biggest being the WTA Finals last year.
Second seed Garbiñe Muguruza, who was the defending champion in Beijing, crashed out in the last 16 as the Spaniard was swept aside by the in-form 14th seed Petra Kvitova, who went on to reach the last eight. She was joined in the sidelines by world number one Angelique Kerber, the German succumbing to Svitolina in the last 16 in straight sets. Fourth seed Simona Halep was also sent packing in the last 16, the Romanian falling to Chinese number one Zhang Shuai, an eventual quarterfinalist. Meanwhile, sixth seed Venus Williams and seventh seed Carla Suárez Navarro lost in the first round. 10th seed Cibulkova and 15th seed Pavlyuchenkova also fell early, both dropping their openers.
The draw this year witnessed three surprise quarterfinalists, namely Zhang, Shvedova and Australia’s Daria Gavrilova. Shvedova had upset Suarez Navarro in the opening round while Gavrilova took out 12th seed Timea Bacsinszky in the second round. In the last eight, Svitolina moved past Gavrilova while Konta beat Zhang, both winning in straight sets. In the other quarterfinal, eighth seed Madison Keys battled past Kvitova in a tight three-setter.
Rankings
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Third-ranked Radwanska extends her lead over fourth-ranked Halep in the rankings, the Pole now ahead by 1000 points. Meanwhile, Keys records a new career-high ranking of seventh courtesy of her semifinal showing in Beijing. Konta makes her top 10 debut, rising from 14th to ninth after finishing runner-up in Beijing while the other Beijing semifinalist, Svitolina, improves four places to 15th.
Zhang surpasses her previous career-high of 30th, the Chinesewoman going up nine spots to sit at a new career-high of 27th while fellow quarterfinalist Shvedova moves up from number 39 to number 32. Gavrilova inches back into the top 40, the Australian surging 11 spots to 38th. France’s Alizé Cornet, who emerged from qualifying and eventually made the round of 16 in Beijing, re-enters the top 50 from 58th to 49th.
Players who witness letdowns in their rankings include Muguruza who falls out of the top five from fourth to sixth after failing to defend her title in Beijing. Last year’s runner-up Bacsinszky drops two spots to 17th after an early exit in the second round this year.
Pavlyuchenkova, who lost in the first round, exits the top 20, the Russian going down from 17th to 21st after failing to match her result in Beijing last year where she was a quarterfinalist. Sara Errani and Ana Ivanovic, both semifinalists last year, fall from 34th to 46th and 38th to 61st respectively after both skipped the event this year as they sit out the remainder of the season.
Road to Singapore
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Two more qualifiers for the WTA Finals were revealed last week as both Radwanska and Karolina Pliskova confirmed their spots in Singapore as the fourth and fifth qualifiers respectively. Radwanska, by winning Beijing, overtakes Halep for third place in the race to the year-end championship, thus affirming her chances of being the third seed.
With three spots left, the fight comes down to sixth-placed Muguruza, followed by Keys, Konta, Cibulkova, Suárez Navarro and Svetlana Kuznetsova, with Muguruza next in line to seal her qualification. All six women will be in action this week, looking to secure their place in Singapore.
However, of the six, only three will make it to the year-end championship, with the following two entering as alternates and both of them will be also the top seeds for the complementary year-end championship, the WTA Elite Trophy in Zhuhai, southern China, played the week after the WTA Finals.
This week’s action
As the 2016 season approaches its business end, a trio of tournaments will take place this week. The Chinese city of Tianjin will host the Tianjin Open and top seed Radwanska returns to defend her title, with Kuznetsova being the other top 10 feature of the tournament. Down south in Hong Kong, Kerber, Venus Williams and Konta spearhead the Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open. Over in Europe, the Generali Ladies Linz, played indoors on hardcourts will witness the likes of other Singapore contenders Muguruza, Cibulkova, Keys and Suárez Navarro lead the charge.