Under-23s in top 8 of Shenzhen WTA final
Petra Kvitova
The oldest player in Shenzhen, China, to play the WTA final last week was Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic. At 29, she is just a year older than Simona Halep, the Romanian. Of the 8 who qualified to play the WTA final, Under-23’s dominated. After good many years, 38-year-old Serena Williams was not in the WTA finals. With it, Tennis goes into a new era. Serena was missed in Shenzhen.
Bigger money packet
The top 8 in Shen Zhen played in a round robin format in 2 groups, for the semifinal slots. This year, the 4 Women’s Grand Slam went to 4 different players. Two were newcomers to the top 10, Bianca Andreescu won the US-Open and Ashleigh Bartly won the French-Open. The other two were Simona Halep and Naomi Osaka. They were in Shenzhen.
Many new names registered good wins against top 10 in the 2019 WTA professional tou. Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic had a good run to appear in the top 8. [The last Swiss player was Martina Hingis]. The others in Shenzhen are, Petra Kvitova, Karolina Pliskova, and last year’s surprise winner Elina Svitolina.
After the glamour of photo shoot and inauguration parties, the battle for high stakes and reputation began. In 1972, Billie Jean King won the title in Rome and went home with US$ 600, with the Men’s winner receiving US$ 3,500. She triggered the ‘equal pay issue’ in Women’s Tennis. In recent years, Serena Williams positioned herself well and finalised the formalities of equal pay. The money offered in 1972 for the WTA year-end final was US$ 100,000. In Shenzhen this year, it is US$ 14 million. All 8 players took a good pay packet home.
Simona Halep
The ‘magic portion’
Throughout the year, super speed and strong athletic ability of players, made the matches longer in duration and certainly, very good to watch. It has strained the players, especially those who appeared in the final rounds. Big name withdrawals from events were common. After the midway mark of the year, many had muscle support bandages. Mastery of the Net game could be the answer to escape long ground stroke Base game. Future player development will have to address this and emphasis must begin at local level.
Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova, with large body frames, generated power, to remain on top for many years. Martina Navratilova’s agility, which made her an all-court player, kept her up. Steffi Graff had the fastest footwork yet to be seen. It reduced opponents shot selection to the bare minimum. In this manner, in development, the appropriate natural ability will have to be found and fostered, to win. Development should never be prototype based.
In Shenzhen, the top 8 had their comfort zone game developed to full potential. The Tennis was very good to watch. It was not a question of who will make the mistakes first but, as to who will hit the winner first. This made Tennis thrilling to watch.
Equation for winning Tennis
Tennis is not a one-off-success registering sport, even within a match. It is a game where a better part of the rallies played in a match must be won, to be compiled into ‘Games’ and subsequently, games into ‘Sets’. It involves calculating with Chess-like mathematics. Such calculations always change with the dynamics of the game and the level of physical fatigue of the player. Very few in the development field address this sublime effective aspect, which is an interaction of personality and skill level of the player. This is the ‘magic portion’ of Tennis, that which makes the player a world beater.
Doubles in Shenzhen
A good number of Singles players have branched out to become Doubles specialists. Host nation China will be proud to have their players in the WTA final, with their Doubles performances. Women Doubles is increasingly popular now. The best of these are yet to come.
The WTA ranking for Doubles is a line-up of past Singles players. Asiatic presence is noticeable in Doubles. Matches were action -packed with short rallies. Speed and winners were the theme.
Grand Slams and Money
Women players led by Sloane Stephens, have employed a Law firm in USA, to represent them in negotiations with the Grand Slam events. Players feel, Grand Slam events are not transparent and they are not being treated fair. The Men are already at it, according to Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece. In the amateur days, money matters were out of bounds for players.
At present, 3 global bodies control Tennis. The International Tennis Federation [ITF-1915] is the franchise holder of brands ‘Davis-Cup’ and the ‘Fed-Cup’. They control the Grand-Slam fund, which gets money from 4 Grand Slam events. Grand Slam owners are on one side with 2 professional bodies- ATP and WTA- owned by the players, with a current player playing administrating, on the other side in this.
Grand Slam events declared good earnings, even 25 years ago, and the figure then was well over US$ 500 million. Professionals now want more. Their travel and training cost has escalated. Events cannot do without players and players cannot do without events. Both face somewhat of a Catch-22 situation. A tug-of-war set up, for the future. Tennis will survive this too.
-George Paldano, Int. competition player; Accredited Coach of German Federation; National coach Brunei, Sri Lanka; Davis-Cup,
Federation Cup captain/coach–
geodano2015@gmail.com