Cibulkova is Cinderella in Singapore

Dominika Cibulkova completed an improbable run to win the WTA finals title in Singapore.  As the 7^th of 8 to qualify, she lost her first two round robin matches, first to Kerber and then to Madison Keys.  In order to have a chance to play make the semifinals, she had to beat Simona Halep in straight sets.  Simona Halep is no easy out, but she came into her match with Cibulkova suffering from a knee problem.  Cibulkova won that match and made it to the semis.

In the semis Dominika then beat Svetlana Kuznetsova, whose presence in the semis was also somewhat improbable.  She only qualified for the year-end championships by winning a tournament in Moscow the week before.  The semifinal match between Cibulkova and Kuznetsova was the best of the tournament, with Cibulkova winning in 3 sets.  Angelique Kerber had been cruising throughout the tournament, and defeated Aggie Radwanska, the defending champ, decisively in the semis.  It’s never easy to dominate Radwanska, so the stage appeared set for a great end to a great year for Kerber.

However Cibulkova, the human fire plug, would not be denied.  She played fantastic tennis in the final, with very few errors and a lot of winners.  When things are going perfectly for Cibulkova, as they were in this match, she can be hard to beat.  Recall that she made the final of the Australian Open in 2014, where she lost to Li Na.  So this was one of those super days for Dominika, and she took out Kerber in straights to win the biggest title of her career.   Although Kerber was surely disappointed by the loss, she can hardly feel down about the year she had.  She won two majors and gained the world number one ranking.  She is definitely the player of the year on the WTA.

Other finalists with notable years were Karolina Pliskova, who reached her first major final in New York, and Garbine Muguruza, who won her first major in Paris.  Muguruza, despite her breakthrough at the French Open, has some soul searching and work to do in the off-season if she wants to go to the very top.  She is frequently hampered in matches by emotional ups and downs which cause her to play poorly for stretches.  In her round robin match with Pliskova, for example, she served for the match twice but still lost.  In tennis, where big points, rather than the most points, determine match outcomes, poor play at the wrong moments can be devastating.  Muguruza must learn this principle by improving her awareness of key moments in matches and making sure she plays her best when it counts most. 

Tennis Happenings

Del Potro wins in Stockholm

Juan Martin del Potro won his first title in 33 months when he beat Jack Sock in the Stockholm final.  Del Potro’s resurgence continues.  When he first came back he was hitting slice backhands almost exclusively, but he is now coming over the ball more frequently and with more power.  His awesome forehand has never been better, and he is getting a lot of free points on his serve.  Barring a recurrence of his injury problems, he will be a force to reckon with in 2017.

Sock had a great tournament.  He beat rising superstar Alexander Zverev in the semifinal.  That loss was the second third set defeat for Zverev in the past few weeks (the previous loss was to Tsonga).  It’s possible that the 19-year-old does not yet have the level of mental and physical stamina he will need to go to the top of the tour.  There seems little doubt that he will get there, though.  It will be interesting to see if he can crack the top ten next year.

WTA year end championships

The year end championships are under way in Singapore.  Svetlana Kuznetsova squeezed into the final eight by winning the Moscow, then jumped on a plane to Singapore and beat Aggie Radwanska in her first round match.  Her hair was bothering her in the match so she gave herself a haircut in during a changeover!  Muguruza’s enigmatic up-and-down play manifested itself again when she lost to Karolina Pliskova.  Down a set and a break, Garbine came back, won the second set, and served for the match up 5-2 with two breaks in the third set.  Yet she still managed to get herself broken three straight times and lose.  Pliskova played better defensive tennis than I’ve ever her do before, so her work off court is paying off.  Angie Kerber looked like the world number one when she beat the always tough Simona Halep in her second match.  Dominika Cibulkova, the human fire plug, played hard, as usual, but lost her first two matches – one to Kerber and the next to Madison Keys.  The court in Singapore is quite slow, and it’s my opinion that slow courts favor big strong players who don’t move so well but who hit hard.  John Isner on the men’s side is one of those players, as is Pliskova on the women’s side.  Because of the conditions in Singapore, Pliskova bears watching.

Kyrgios Suspended

Nick Kyrgios was suspended for conduct detrimental to the game after he stood on the court and watched balls go by until he lost to qualifier Mischa Zverev in Shanghai.  The suspension was for 8 weeks, until January 15, 2007.  The 2017 Australian Open starts Jan. 16.  The suspension will be reduced to 3 weeks if Kyrgios can demonstrate that he’s undergoing suitable “treatment” to address his behavior.  Nick was also fined $25,000.

In my opinion this punishment was far too light.  Kyrgios has a long and strong history of misconduct, some of it vulgar, on the court.  Moreover, in the post match interview in Shanghai he stated that he owed nothing to fans who paid a lot to see him play.  In the next eight weeks there are few important tournaments, since Kyrgios will not make the year-end championships, and $25,000 is a pittance of a fine for someone in Kyrgios’ income bracket.

I believe the suspension should have ended after the Australian Open.  Kyrgios is from Australia, so it would be a meaningful setback for him to be excluded from that tournament.  In my view Nick very much needs a sanction that actually means something to him.  The fine is not nearly as important. 

After a Kyrgios loss earlier this year, John McEnroe, who is high on Nick’s talent, tweeted that Kyrgios should “do something else” if he doesn’t like tennis.  I believe the ATP should echo that comment by suspending him from the 2017 Aussie Open. 

Tennis News

Murray wins

Andy Murray won in Shanghai, defeating Roberto Bautista Agut in straight sets in the final.  That result was hardly surprising, but Bautista-Agut’s victory over Djokovic in the semis certainly was unexpected.  Bautista Agut had a great tournament for sure, but we still have to ask what is going on with Djokovic, who has taken quite a few unexpected losses since the start of the summer.  I watched Djokovic pretty closely in this tournament, and here’s my take on it:

First of all, it doesn’t take much of a diminution in your game to relinquish total dominance of the men’s tour.  There are so many great players, and they all come to play when facing the world number one.  Djokovic is still playing great tennis, he just isn’t beating everyone all the time as he did last year.  Here are his issues I think:

First, his return of serve, historically the strongest part of his game, is not as effective as it usually is.  Novak is failing to get as many serves in play, with his backhand return spraying wide more often than it did a few months ago.  It’s hard to pinpoint why this would happen, but I believe his footwork in setting up for that shot isn’t quite as good as before.  When you hit the ball has hard as a top pro, being off by just a few millimeters at the point of contact with the ball is enough to cause a miss. 

Another issue seems to be the low ball, particularly on the forehand.  When Djokovic gets a forehand above the waist he is clocking it as usual, but he is missing the shot below the waist more frequently.  The misses are long, short and wide as well, which indicates a problem with timing to me.  This problem is most easily detected when he is brought in by short balls.  Again, under circumstances such as this, the little steps needed to position oneself for the shot are a bit less crisp than we’re used to seeing from him. 

There also appear to be psychological issues with Novak right now.  Over the past several months he has been far more irascible on the court, with near disqualifications for racquet or ball abuse on a couple of occasions.  He shattered a racquet in this last semi with Bautista Agut.  He is also exhorting the crowd to support him in a manner which suggests that he doesn’t believe he gets the love he deserves.  Although his fellow Serbs really love him, both Federer and Nadal seem to draw more affection from the global tennis community.  This reality, on top of the fact that Novak has always been a bit brittle emotionally on the court, have combined to distract him a bit. 

Once again, Djokovic fans needn’t panic.  He is still the world number one (though Murray is closing in on him), and his amazing defensive play seems to be as good as ever.  I almost feel that a few months without the number one ranking would help Novak enjoy the game.  The reduction in pressure would allow him to relax, regroup, and remember that tennis is a game that should be played, at least in part, for fun.  Let’s see what develops.

Wozniaki wins

            Caroline Wozniaki won in Hong Kong, defeating Jankovic and then Mladenovic in the final.  Over the past several weeks she has really been showing the world how she made it to number one.  She can still be overpowered on the court, but Caroline’s movement and defensive abilities are among the most enjoyable things to watch on the women’s tour.

            New Singapore qualifiers include Muguruza and Madison Keys.   Serena Williams has withdrawn, citing injury, but this group is shaping up nicely, and the year-end finals should be very entertaining.

Meltdown in Shanghai

Yesterday Nick Kyrgios, who won the Tokyo tournament last week, lost a match to Mischa Zverev, the older brother of rapidly rising star, Alexander Zverev.  Mischa is much older than his brother (29 vs. 19 years) and is a far less successful singles player.  His highest rank in singles has been 45, while the younger brother is now 21 in the world.  Kyrgios is ranked in the top 20 and obviously has great tennis talent.  So how was Mischa able to beat him?

The answer is simple: Kyrgios tanked the match in a manner so obvious that the fans, who paid good money to see the match, were outraged.  Kyrgios served balls underhanded and started to walk off the court before Zverev even hit the ball, made some fancy shots that clearly were not intended to win points, etc.  This performance was a more severe version of the behavior of his countryman, Bernard Tomic, who lost on match point earlier this year to Fabio Fognini by receiving serve while holding the wrong end of the racquet. 

In the post match interview, Kyrgios, like Tomic before him, was anything but contrite.  He stated that he owed absolutely nothing to the fans that had paid to watch the match.  In his post match interview after losing to Fognini, Tomic stated that he didn’t need to care about one match because he was already worth more than 10 million dollars at age 23.

Kyrgios was fined $16,500 for this performance and a suspension is being considered.  In my opinion a suspension through the 2017 Australian Open is needed.  If this incident was the only case of unsavory behavior by this player, perhaps the fine and a warning would be enough.  But remember that this is the guy who advised Stan Wawrinka, in the middle of a match and in front of the umpire’s microphone, that Wawrinka’s girlfriend was “banging” someone else.  This is the guy who lost a previous match at the US Open by retirement, after which John McEnroe tweeted that if Kyrgios doesn’t want to play tennis he should do something else.

This pattern of disrespectful behavior by Kyrgios, and to a lesser extent, Tomic, must stop.  Both of these men are well fixed financially, so a fine of $16,500 is not likely to impress Kyrgios enough.  Since the loss to Fognini, Tomic has played hard, so the problem with him seems under control.  But Nick needs to be barred from his home major next year so that he really gets the message.