John Farley Spotlight WTA: 18 Different Winners - The Stats

Eighteen different WTA players have won each of the first 18 tournaments of the 2019 season. 18 different sets of lips kissing those trophies. Here are some stats that put a personality on this streak:


A Two-Year Perspective:

• The first 18 tournaments of 2017:  Different winners except 3: Karolina Pliskova won in both Brisbane and Doha, Johanna Konta won in both Sydney and Miami, and Elina Svitolina won in both Dubai and Taipei City (replaced in 2019 by Hua Hin).
• The first 18 tournaments of 2018:  Different winners again except 3: Elina Svitolina in both Brisbane and Dubai, Petra Kvitová in both St Petersburg and Doha, and Elise Mertens in both Hobart and Lugano.
• Elina Svitolina was double winner in both 2017 and 2018 through the first 18 tournaments but has not reached a final in 2019.

General:

• In addition to all the winners of the first 18 tournaments being different players, all the runners-up (17 of 18) were different except Petra Kvitová, who was a finalist in both Melbourne and Dubai.
• 5 players were both winners (w) and runners-up (ru) during the streak (different tournaments that is): Bianca Andreescu (w: Indian Wells, ru: Auckland),  Ashleigh Barty (w: Miami, ru: Sydney), Sofia Kenin (w: Hobart, ru: Acapulco), Petra Kvitova (w: Sydney, ru: Melbourne and Dubai), Karolina Pliskova (w: Brisbane, ru: Miami).

Rankings: (Note: The rankings used were the rankings of the players at the time of the tournaments of course, not the current rankings.)

• Average ranking for winners: 34. 
• Average ranking for runners-up: 49
• In 7 of the 18 tournaments (approx. 40%), the lower ranked player beat the higher ranked player. They just so happened in 7 successive tournaments: Doha: (Elise Mertens/Simona Halep), Dubai (Belinda Bencic/Petra Kvitová), Budapest (Alison van Uytvanck/Marketa Vondrousova), Acapulco (Yafan Wang/Sofia Kenin), Indian Wells (Bianca Andreescu/Angelique Kerber), Miami (Ashleigh Barty/Karolina Pliskova), Charleston (Madison Keys/Caroline Wozniacki).
• Winners:
• Only 4 were in the top ten.
• Only 5 were in the ranking range 11-20.
• Therefore, 50% of the winners (9) were outside the top 20.
• The range outside the top 20 was: 21 (Elise Mertens) - 89 (Polona Hercog). In fact 8 of the 9 were 45 or higher.
• If you remove the four top ten winners from the calculations, the average ranking of the remaining winners is 42.
• Runners-up:
• Only 5 were in the top ten.
• Only 2 were in the range 11-20.
• Therefore, 61% of runners-up (11) were outside the top 20.
• The range outside the top 20 was: 30 (Donna Vekic) - 152 (Bianca Andreescu).
• There were two other runners-up outside the top 100 - Iga Swiatek at 115 and Astra Sharma at 138.
• If you remove the five top ten runners-up from the calculations, the average ranking of the remaining runners-up is 66.

Ages:

• Winners:
• Average age was 23
• Three were teenagers:  Amanda Anisimova (17),  Dayana Yastremska (18), and Bianca Andreescu (18), with 3 recently graduated from the teenage years - Aryna Sabalenka and Sofia Kenin at 20 and Naomi Osaka at 21.
• The range was: 17 (Amanda Anisimova) - 30 (Julia Goerges).
• 7 of the 18 (approx. 40%) were 25 or older. 
• Runners-up:
• Average age was 25
• Three were teenagers, Iga Swiatek (17), Bianca Andreescu (18), and Marketa Vondrousova (19).
• The range was:  17 (Iga Swiatek) - 31 (Angelique Kerber)
• 10 of the 18 (approx. 55%) were 25 or older.

Country Representation:

• There were 19 different countries represented among the winners and runners-up.
• 14 of the countries are from Europe (Belarus, Belgium, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, and Ukraine), 2 each from North America (Canada, United States) and Asia (China, Japan), and Australia.

The Takeaway:

They stand at each end of the court

Two women who define the sport

By their play have it positioned

At a new level of competition

Anyway, that's how I see it.

Appendix

Author's Notes:

• My pick for the "Aryna Sabalenka" of 2019 - Iga Swiatek from Poland, reigning Wimbledon Junior's Champion and runner-up in Lugano, Switzerland.
• To be fair, I should note that in the 21 ATP tournaments this year each was won by a different player except for Roger Federer's winning in both Dubai and Miami.
• Here are the tournaments, winners, and runners-up:

The First 18 Tournaments of 2019

 Tournament Winners and (Runners-up) - WTA

1. Brisbane – Karolina Pliskova (Lesia Tsurenko)
2. Auckland – Julia Goerges (Bianca Andreescu)
3. Shenzhen – Aryna Sabalenka (Alison Riske)
4. Sydney – Petra Kvitova (Ashleigh Barty)
5. Hobart – Sofia Kenin (Anna Karolina Schmiedlova)
6. Australian Open – Naomi Osaka (Petra Kvitova)
7. Hua Hin – Dayana Yastremska (Ajla Tomljanovic)
8. St. Petersburg – Kiki Bertens (Donna Vekic)
9. Doha – Elise Mertens (Simona Halep)
10. Dubai – Belinda Bencic (Petra Kvitova)
11. Budapest – Alison van Uytvanck (Marketa Vondrousova)
12. Acapulco – Yafan Wang (Sofia Kenin)
13. Indian Wells – Bianca Andreescu (Angelique Kerber)
14. Miami – Ashleigh Barty (Karolina Pliskova)
15. Charleston – Madison Keys (Caroline Wozniacki)
16. Monterrey – Garbine Muguruza (Victoria Azarenka)
17. Lugano – Polona Hercog (Iga Swiatek)
18. Bogota – Amanda Anisimova (Astra Sharma)

John Farley Spotlight WTA: The Young Belarus Triumvirate - Out of the Gates in 2019

At the end of the 2018 tennis season I featured three young Belarusian players - Aryna Sabalenka, Aliaksandra Sasnovich. and Vera Lapko - in an article entitled, "The Young Belarus Triumvirate - Showcasing Young Climbers of 2018."  Now, two weeks into the 2019 season and on the cusp of the Australian Open in Melbourne, let's check in and see how they are coming out of the starting gates of the 2019 season after extraordinary performances in 2018.


Aryna Sabalenka:

Coming into 2019 with a ranking of  #13 off two WTA titles in Connecticut and Wuhan, Sabalenka took the trophy in Shenzhen beating Alison Riske in a tough 3-set final, knocking out Maria Sharapova along the way. With that win she has risen to #11 in the world and set the stage for some real tennis poetry with the possibility after winning in Shenzhen - the first tournament of the year  - of very elegantly punctuating her year by winning the WTA Final in Shenzhen - the last tournament of the year. Go get it tiger.


Aliaksandra Sasnovich:

Sasnovich came into the year with a career-high ranking of #30. She made it to the quarterfinals in Brisbane and the semifinals in Sydney. In Brisbane she avenged her loss last year in the final by beating  #4 Elina Svitolina in the 2nd round and then, after getting through the qualies where she beat the Olympic Gold Medal winner, Monica Puig, she continued her "slaying" of top ten players kicking off the main draw in Sydney with a big win over #10 Daria Kasatkina. Two weeks in and already two top-ten wins. I would say Sascha has come out of the gates on fire.


Vera Lapko:

Although she only made it to the 2nd round at the Hobart International, losing to a very "in-form" Dayana Yastremska, in the first round she beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, ranked 23 points above her, a former Juniors #1 who has reached the quarterfinals in all of the Grand Slams. This was a big win for her and no doubt a confidence booster knowing that she can definitely compete on a very high level with the best players. Now ranked at #63 in the world, she is poised to move into the top 50 in singles.


The Triumvirate in Melbourne

So now onto the Australian Open where will see if our trio can maintain their momentum. Sabalenka is seeded #11, in the third quarter of the draw, and will open against a qualifier, Anna Kalinskaya, #167. She'll face either Katie Boulter or Ekaterina Makarova in round two. Petra Kvitová and Caroline Wozniacki are the top seeds in her quarter of the draw. Sasnovich, who at #33 in the rankings just missed getting seeded, in the 4th quarter of the draw, will open against the tricky slicer, Kirsten Flipkens #49. Sloane Stephens and Angelique Kerber are the top seeds in her quarter of the draw. Lapko is also in the 3rd quarter and opens against Johanna Larsson of Sweden, ranked at #75.

Obviously, as you can see, I’m a big fan of this trio: their youthfulness, their athleticism, their competitive spirit. And I’m excited to see how deep they’ll go into the Melbourne fortnight. I’m hopeful that at least two of the three will make it to the second week of the tournament, which is a big deal by the way, in terms of prestige, ranking points, and significant Australian bucks. It would be a huge step if one or more makes the semifinal or final. Each one of our trio has generated significant  momentum to start the season. Now let's see if they can keep it as they head to the serving line in Melbourne.



Anyway, that's how I see it.

Appendix:

I've included below the link to my post: The Young Belarus Triumvirate - Showcasing Young Climbers of 2018 and clips of Sabalenka in Shenzhen and Sasnovich.in Brisbane.

The Young Belarus Triumvirate - Showcasing Young Climbers of 2018

Aryna Sabalenka vs Alison Riske, Shenzhen Open 2019

Aliaksandra Sasnovich vs Elina Svitolina, Brisbane 2019