WTA Tour early January tournaments are all up for grabs
By Harry Floyd
WTA Tour: most of the top players in women’s tennis have all been upset in their first tournaments of the season. Here’s how it happened.
The WTA Tour appears to be up for grabs this week.
After tennis superstar and world No. 2 Serena Williams lost earlier this week at the ASB Classic, other top players in women’s tennis began to fall.
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World No. 1 Angelique Kerber dropped her quarterfinals match at the Brisbane International to Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina in 3 sets. WTA Finals defending champion Dominika Cibulkova also lost to Alize Cornet in straight sets. That means both top seeded players in the tournament are out.
Elsewhere at the Shenzhen Gemdale Open, Simona Halep lost a tough second round match in 3 sets. Also ousted from the same tournament was Agnieszka Radwanska, who lost a quarterfinals match in 3 sets to Alison Riske.
While it is only the first week of 2017, the tennis world is somewhat shocked by the outcome of this week’s WTA play thus far. Also losing in the ASB Classic, after a very strong first two opening rounds, was former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki. The Danish tennis star lost a hard fought 3 set quarterfinals match.
Going into the 2017 WTA Tour, it was known that the field would be competitive. The 2016 season brought with it new young and rising stars on the tour, mid career players coming into their own, and strong veterans such as Williams who are always in contention. There was no doubt that 2017 would be any different. If anything, this week is proof that the WTA Tour will be extremely thrilling to follow this season.
The Australian Open is just weeks away. All of the top players in women’s tennis will use these early tournaments losses as motivation moving forward.
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