WTA year-end final of 2022
View(s):For elite professional tennis players, qualifying into the year-end final is a dream. This year has witnessed many prominent names finishing their career for good. Remembering new names will depend on the success of the emerging players. Iga Swiatek of Poland is world’s number one with well over 10000 WTA ranking points. Ons Jabeur of Tunesia is number two in the ranking. With such performances, their names are easy remember.
Swiatek, at 21 years age, has done enough to say, a legend is born. She is the favourite into the 5 million US dollar prize money WTA year-end finals in Fortworth, Texas, USA from the October 31 to November 7.
Competitive sharpness
Others eligible are Contaveit, Aryana Sablenka, billionaire’s daughter Jessika Pegula, Maria Sakkari, Coco Gauff, Caroline Garcia, Paula Badosa and veteran Simona Halep. The final eight will be named in the final weekend prior to the Texas event.
Players voiced lack of events prior to WTA final to be an issue. In Sri Lanka too, we lost sporting events with 2019 bombing, the next two years with Corona and this year with financial issues. The Ukraine war has created quasi world war like implication. All of these have indirect impact on global sports.
Competitive sharpness enhances performance contributing to spectatorship interest and good playing form. Regular competition is better than best training sessions to peak in performance. WTA and ATP are navigating through troubled waters to keep professional tennis alive.
The Doubles
Tennis doubles is a combination efficiency based game. Traditional positioning for doubles became ineffective. Every time a format becomes dominant, a new idea appeared to overcome it. In the 1970s and 1980s Australians John Newcombe and Tony Roche placed themselves right at the service line and won. It covered opponent’s drop shot, groundstroke attacks and the lob. These two players were competent in every department of tennis. This too did not survive.
Strangely, the two best singles players do not make the best winning combination of doubles. It is more so now with sophisticated interactive dynamics in positioning and in execution of speed oriented groundstrokes. Recently, in a rally of 28 shots, which is very long in doubles, Krejchikova with Siniakova, as partners, took four different positions at net, base line and on both sides of the court. Opponents lost all tactical perspective and one ending up completely out of the court. These two players mentioned are one and two of the WTA doubles ranking. Their effective court coverage position was instinctively after every shot. So hilarious it was when the opponents settled down after losing the point dropped their racquets and clapped. In doubles, a good and perfect partnership is a rare occurrence. A delight to watch.
In doubles before the free for all player positioning, the game outcome was predictable. Predictability took away the suspense and surprise element for spectator to enjoy the game. The emerging doubles positioning along with the annual doubles ranking has made it as attractive as WTA and ATP singles. It is who-is-who of tennis doubles.
Known names in doubles
In this year’s WTA doubles finals, there will be many familiar singles names. Playing doubles after a singles career is a recommended way to extend the career and earnings. I believe sustaining the physical requirements and skill levels for doubles are not strenuous as singles. With a partner on court stress level is somewhat easier to accommodate. There is less fire and fear in doubles than in singles. Most doubles players are still very active in singles and some are in the Top 10 of WTA singles ranking.
Jelena Osterpenko and Krejchikova are grand slam singles title winners. They have qualified into WTA final in doubles. Krejchikova is an arch tactician with unimpressive stroke making ability. Her partner Siniakova, a vibrant with ability to pull out most unorthodox strokes, intercepting opponent’s shots at net. Her unpredictability has often broken opponent’s rhythm and confidence. Siniakova and Krechikova are one and two in the WTA doubles ranking in 2022.
Young blood
The Americans Coco Gauff and the emerging Jessica Pegula are partners and are third and fourth in the doubles ranking. These two under 21-year-old players have matured immensely playing doubles. This is another use of doubles in tennis. In fact, junior singles and doubles has been the traditional route of juniors into open-events for decades. The transitional workload for maturity and tactics for open singles in tennis is unachievable with coaching alone. [Nor with comfortable couch-talk seated on cushions] Doubles is one of the effective routes. Young Gauff and Pegula are proof of this from present generation of players.
–George Paldano, European and Asian competition player; Coach German Tennis Federation; National coach Brunei and Sri Lanka; Davis-Cup, Federation Cup coach; coached players into 200 ATP, WTA and ITF in Europe and Asia; WhatsApp +94775448880–