Sam Stosur’s performance at the Doha WTA tour event headlines another week of Aussies Abroad, with the Australian making the final before losing to world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka.
That wasn’t all that happened, with other Australians competing in Bogota, San Jose, Memphis, Dubai and Monterrey.
Doha
Four Australians competed at the Doha WTA event but only Sam Stosur and Jarmila Gajdosova made the main draw. Gajdosova played Romanian Sorana Cirstea, while Stosur was set to play the winner after receiving a bye as the third seed.
Gajdosova she was completely outclassed by Cirstea losing 6-4 6-1, setting up a re-match of the first-round clash at this year’s Australian Open. It would be a reversal of that upset result, with the Australian comfortably beating Cirstea 6-4 7-6. It highlighted how Stosur had suffered from the pressure of her home tournament.
Past the Romanian, Stosur had a favourable draw, and it showed as she defeated Petra Cetkovska 6-3 6-2, then Monica Niculescu 6-2 2-6 6-3, to set up a semi-final clash with Marian Bartoli.
After Stosur took out the first set 6-3, Bartoli retired with a right calf injury. Stosur played Azarenka in the final, and was smashed by the Belarusian 6-1 6-2. It would be Azarenka’s 17th straight victory, and increases her record against Stosur to 6-0. Nonetheless, it was a great week for Stosur, and she will look to continue that at Dubai this week where she will be among the favourites.
Bogota
Jelena Dokic was the only Australian to play in Bogota, Colombia, seeded fourth in the tournament. In the first round faced she lost a close contest to qualifier Paula Ormaechea. It was a wasted opportunity for Dokic to win a title and gain valuable ranking points because of the lack of top players.
San Jose
In Aussies Abroad last week we mentioned Matthew Ebden’s entry in the San Jose ATP tour event. In the first round Ebden faced Israeli Dudi Sela, and in a tense three setter Ebden prevailed 6-7 6-2 7-6.
This set up a meeting with South African Kevin Anderson, but the Australian was easily defeated 6-1 6-2 in a disappointing display. Ebden will want to forgot that performance quickly and bounce back at the ATP event in Memphis this week.
News
15 year old Ashleigh Barty won her first professional tournament title, defeating Olivia Rogowska last week in the ITF Futures tournament in Sydney. Barty, who was a qualifier for the tournament, was impressive in winning the match 6-1 6-3.
At the other Australian ITF Future event in Toowoomba, Mark Verryth was the best placed Australian, making the semi-final. Verryth, who is currently ranked 687th in the world, lost to Canadian Erik Chvojka 6-3 6-4. Chvojka would end up winning the tournament, defeating Ze Zhang in the final.
Anastasia Rodionova made the semi-finals of the WTA doubles event in Doha. After failing to qualify for the main draw in the singles, Rodionova teamed up with Nuria Llagostera Vives to make the semi-finals, losing to Spears and Kops-Jones. It follows an impressive win with Sania Mirza at the doubles in Pattaya City the week before, and moves her to 18th in the doubles rankings with Llagostera Vives.
Finally something that was not included in last week’s Aussies Abroad, and that was a victory on the ITF Futures for Australian Johanna Konta. She won the Rancho Mirage tournament in California in the United States by defeating Lenka Wienerova in straight sets.
Rankings
ATP
37 Bernard Tomic DOWN 1
86 Matthew Ebden UP 2
165 Marinko Matosevic
170 Lleyton Hewitt DOWN 27
187 Greg Jones DOWN 1
188 James Duckworth DOWN 1
209 Ben Mitchell UP 1
262 Matt Reid DOWN 4
267 Peter Luczak UP 3
300 James Lemke
The big news from the rankings this week is Hewitt moving down 27 places, to 170 in the world and fourth among all Australians. This is due to Hewitt not competing in San Jose to protect the points he gained from that tournament last year when he made the quarter final.
Apart from that no big movers, with only Ebden gaining a couple of positions following his first-round victory over Dudi Sela in San Jose.
WTA
5 Sam Stosur
43 Jarmila Gajdosova DOWN 2
74 Jelena Dokic UP 2
96 Anastasia Rodionova
102 Casey Dellacqua UP 3
130 Olivia Rogowska UP 2
195 Isabella Holland UP 1
227 Bojana Bobusic UP 3
228 Sacha Jones UP 4
237 Johanna Konta UP 42
Despite her final at Doha, Stosur remains in fifth position in the rankings, though still a clear No.1 among the Aussie women. Apart from that everyone gained or stayed in position aside from Gajdosova, who slipped two places. Even Dokic gained two spots despite her first-round loss
Konta moved into the top ten after her futures win, moving up 42 spots to an overall world rank of 237. Expect a similar rise from Barty next week when her points are added. Barty is currently 637 in the world but could move close to 400 with her win.
This week sees both the WTA and ATP in Memphis, with the ATP also going to Marseille and Buenos Aires, and the WTA in Monterrey and Dubai. There are plenty of Australians in these tournaments, so here is a run-through.
Dubai
For the second leg of the Middle East tour, three Australians competed with Stosur again the headline act. Both Casey Dellacqua and Anastasia Rodionova were eliminated in qualifying. Stosur faces some tough opponents, with Jelena Jankovic, Agnieska Radwanska and Sabine Lisicki in her side of the draw, but after last week’s final she would feel confident.
Monterrey
As in Bogota, Dokic is the only Australian competing in the WTA event in Monterrey. The unseeded Dokic has a relatively easy task in the first round against Alexandra Cadantu. Again, if Dokic plays well she could win the tournament, considering the lack of high-profile players.
Memphis
Despite Memphis being both a WTA and ATP event, no Australian women are competing, with Bernard Tomic and Matthew Ebden the only men to start. Ebden he had to qualify for the main singles draw, and fell to American Bobby Reynolds in three sets, 7-6 6-7 6-2.
Tomic is in the main draw and the eighth seed for the tournament. It will be his first since the Australian Open, playing the Croatian Ivan Dodig in a tough first round. Dodig, who has been plagued with injury this year, is a big server and heavy baseline player.
Despite this, Tomic can beat him, and this is the perfect tournament for Tomic make a semi-final or even a final. Americans John Isner and Andy Roddick would be the main obstacles, but with his tempo game he certainly could give those players a good contest.
Finally there are both women’s and men’s ITF futures events in Mildura this week, and Aussies Abroad will provide the results in next week’s edition, with a host of Australians competing.
That’s it for another week of Aussies Abroad, join us next week as we review this week’s action and look ahead to next week on the WTA and ATP tours.
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