WTA Finals - RIYADH

[jimlosaltos]

Sabalenka takes out Zheng in straights to open the round robin.
That makes Aryna 5-0 vs Zheng and 21 of her last 22. Hot as a pistol

Rybakina has barely played since the US Open, but she's here and with an intriguing new coach - Goran Ivanisevic.

I call Goran "the serve whisperer" after what he did to help Marin Cilic, already a very good server, reach a remarkable level of serving and overall play to win a US Open in a dominant performance, agains a good field. And, Goran also helped Djoko a lot with his serve, likely extending the Serb's career.

What can Goran do with Rybakina, who is already one the 3 best servers on the WTA?

Meanwhile, Iga is presumably here with her new coach, Wim Fissette, a very successful WTA coach also see as a technical coach, to focus on here --- serve. Trend?

Maybe TPN will get some good, new serving videos

Event link here.

[jimlosaltos]

Gauff beat Pegula, next up Iga, "Swiatek holds a domineering 11-1 head-to-head record against Gauff."

Good test to see if her new "grip expert" coach has had an impact.

As a Med school dean once told me: "Never underestimate the power of placebos".

[stotty]

Apparently the match between Coco and Swaitek attracted a crowd of just 400 people - embarrassing. And tickets were just $6 each. Locals just aren't interested it seems. Women just don't rank in Saudi culture one little bit, which is terribly sad.

[jimlosaltos]

Well that's huge. Coco Gauff came into today's match having won ONE of ELEVEN (11) matches vs Iga.
I triple checked the WTA app listing, which appears to be wrong. It has zero prior wins for Coco, since it is missing Cincinatti 2023, which Coco won in 3 sets.

Today, she won easily. Tale, no make that a war too early barometer, of two plans by players to improve their service.

1) If improving Iga's serve was her motivation in hiring Wim Fissett, there's way to go. She won only 50% of her first serves. Riyadh is indoors, other than that I haven't heard anything about conditions -- other than the stands being pitch black, perhaps so viewers won't realize no fans at there.

2) Coco was the same old Coco hitting 11 double faults in only 10 service games. But she won 67% of her first serves, which was enough on the day.

Iga was broken 5 times (7/12), Coco twice (6/8).

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[jimlosaltos]

Coco's upset of Iga guarantees Sabalenka the year end number one ranking.
Then Rybakina promptly beat Saby

Long reign for Iga ends a bit anticlimactically

Zheng took out Pegula with a pair of breadsticks.

[jimlosaltos]

Single elimination semifinals are set after Krejcikova beat Gauff in what perhaps seemed a dead rubber for the American who was already qualified.

Krejcikova will face the No.2 qualifier from the Purple Group, No.7 Zheng Qinwen, (Wen won their only prior meeting)

Gauff will take on World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka. ( The two are 4-4 but Saby has won that last 3 in a row including at this year's Australian Open)

[jimlosaltos]

Things getting interest as the WTA winds down. Coco upsets Sabalenka and will meet Zheng Quinwen for the Tour Final title Saturday. Saby was on a hot streak, perhaps 21 of last 22 matches coming in. Not sure if Saby is 100% or if clinching the year end number one took the edge off her intensity, but her enormous serve seems to have left the tour a week early - 0 aces and only 44% won on first serve. { When have you seen Sabalenka win a higher percentage on her second serve than on her first (48% on 2nd, 44% on first)

Replacing Brad Gilbert, who had taken Coco to a US Open title by getting her to rally more, use her speed and backhand to play defense, with relative unknown coach Matt Daly, is working in the short run. Coco seems more comfortable being aggressive. {Her long time coach Jean Christophe Faurel is still there). We'll see what happens with her forehand and service issues next year.

Wen has rediscovered her serve, which went wander for a good part of this year, and that makes her more dangerous: 9 aces and 78% first serve % won today.

Coco won her only meeting with Zheng this year on Rome's clay.

[jimlosaltos]

Coco Gauff became the youngest player to win the WTA Tour Finals in over a decade, coming from behind multiple times to top Zheng Quinwen.

WTA: "Gauff squeaked past No.7 Zheng Qinwen of China 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(2) in a 3-hour and 4-minute final to clinch the Billie Jean King Trophy and her ninth career Hologic WTA Tour singles title. This is the longest final at the WTA Finals since time stats started being tracked in 2008.

In her third consecutive WTA Finals appearance, Gauff needed to overcome multiple deficits to prevail over Zheng. Gauff had to come back from a break down in the second set, and she was twice down a break in the third set, where Zheng served for the match at 5-4.

Reminiscent of her run to the 2023 US Open title (where she fought back from a set down in three matches), Gauff used her grit to battle back on each of those occasions.

Gauff will be rewarded with $4,805,000 for her week in Riyadh –- the largest payout at a Hologic WTA Tour event

[stotty]

Gauff will be rewarded with $4,805,000 for her week in Riyadh –- the largest payout at a Hologic WTA Tour event

Outrageous amount of money, simply outrageous.

[jimlosaltos]

Outrageous amount of money, simply outrageous.

No kidding. "Sport Washing" isn't cheap . Big increase too, per Wiki: "total prize money for the 2024 WTA Finals is US$15,250,000, an increase of 69.44% compared to the 2023"

Since Gauff lost a RR match she could actually have made more money.

Alternates get a cool quarter of a million to come and cool their heels and have a few practice hits for top players. Although I'm not sure what a Western female would do with spare time in Riyadh