November 17, 2015
Timea Bacsinszky, Anna Karolina Schmiedlova, Belinda Bencic, Karolina Pliskova, Johanna Konta – who gets your vote for WTA Most Improved Player Of The Year?
PRAGUE, Czech Republic – Injuries tried to keep her down, but she just kept getting back up – Maria Sharapova has battled through a series of injury struggles, including a leg injury that kept her out for almost four months, and scored the 10th Top 10 year-end ranking of her legendary career this week.
Sharapova, who spent most of the season ranked No.2 in the world right behind Serena Williams, dipped down a bit after the aforementioned leg injury that sidelined her from early July to late October, falling to No.4 right before the year-end WTA Rankings this week. But it actually speaks volumes – to miss almost half the season and still finish No.4 is a testament to how good her first half was.
She spoke about the ups and downs of 2015 at the WTA Finals in Singapore a few weeks ago.
“It was frustrating because you train and want to see some sort of reward – and by reward I don’t mean wins, I mean just going out there and seeing how you translate your work onto the field,” she said.
“I did quite a few starts and stops those four months. But I had the luxury to give myself the chance to heal, because I was somewhat consistent in the first half of the year and knew I was already in the WTA Finals. It was frustrating not competing, but it was good to not play through a tough injury.”
Those first six months brought her a number of huge results – most notably her 10th Grand Slam final at the Australian Open, where she fell to Williams, but also a pair of Premier titles in Brisbane and Rome, and a run to the semifinals of Wimbledon, where she was again thwarted by Williams.
After the lengthy lay-off Sharapova looked fantastic in Singapore, powering through her three round robin matches to qualify for the semifinals, where she was edged by an on-song Petra Kvitova.
And this week, No.4 on the year-end rankings – the 10th Top 10 finish of her career, and perhaps even more impressive is that nine of those 10 Top 10 finishes have come in the Top 5.
She’s finished the last five years in a row in the Top 4, too.
“I didn’t have expectations coming into the WTA Finals. Of course it’s always tough to sit down after a match and say you’re happy, especially after you lose it,” she said. “But I think it would be quite unprofessional of me to not take a lot of positives out of this week. I think there’s a lot to look forward to in the off-season and next year – as well as a couple of more matches coming up pretty soon.”
The World No.4 was referring to the Fed Cup final – she, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and the doubles team of Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina will take on an all-star Czech team featuring Kvitova, Lucie Safarova, Karolina Pliskova and Barbora Strycova. She’s eyeing her first personal Fed Cup title.
“I’m really glad that I have a chance to compete and be part of the team,” the Russian said.
“I’m just looking forward to the experience – it’s something new for me.”
Back together! #TeamRussia pic.twitter.com/DZsNpZzDi4
— Maria Sharapova (@MariaSharapova) November 11, 2015
We asked you to vote for your favorite WTA Shot Of The Month, and you picked Agnieszka Radwanska’s sensational shotmaking. Watch it again now!
Groups, schedule, results and BBC Sport coverage times for the ATP World Tour Finals in London, which feature Andy Murray.
The center court stage was set for the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global final…
Two of the most popular players on the tour, Petra Kvitova and Agnieszka Radwanska, took the court.
After Radwanska stormed out to a 6-2, 2-0 lead, Kvitova and her huge lefty game began catching fire.
The Czech won eight of the next 10 games to sneak out the second set, 6-4, and go up 2-0 in the third.
But Radwanska didn’t panic – she steadied the ship to break back and get the decider back to 3-all…
And, with her crouch shots in full flow, she pounced – she reeled off the last three games in a row.
The Pole got a bit emotional after closing out a hard-fought 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 championship victory.
The WTA Finals represents the biggest title of Radwanska’s career – it was her 17th overall WTA title.
Beyond that, she went in as a big underdog – Kvitova had won six of their eight career meetings.
But she has one advantage now – she’s 3-2 against Kvitova at the WTA Finals, and 2-0 in Singapore.
Kvitova and Radwanska posed with WTA legend and WTA Finals Ambassador extraordinaire Chris Evert.
Going into the fall, Radwanska hadn’t won a WTA title in more than a year – she’s won three since.
By virtue of reaching the final, the Pole also passed $20 million in career prize money. Kvitova too.
She’s the first player in WTA Finals history to win the title after going 1-2 in the round robin.
And she’ll now be No.5 on the year-end WTA Rankings – just edging Kvitova, who will finish at No.6.
Alexander Peya and Bruno Soares break down Dodig/Melo’s impressive comeback against Herbert/Mahut.
Flavia Pennetta, who played the last tournament of her career – the WTA Finals – as the World No.7, isn’t the first player to go out at the top of her game. Here are the 15 players who retired while in the Top 10, including six players who retired while in the Top 5 – and someone who retired at No.1:
Margaret Court (AUS)
Court, who won 24 Grand Slam titles in her career, which still stands as the record for most Grand Slam titles all-time, was ranked No.5 in the world when she retired from professional tennis in 1977.
Olga Morozova (RUS)
Morozova, a two-time Grand Slam finalist, retired in 1977 when she was still No.10 in the world.
Kerry Melville Reid (AUS)
Melville Reid, who won the Australian Open in 1977, retired in 1979 when she was ranked No.9.
Greer Stevens (RSA)
South Africa’s first Top 10 player, Stevens – pictured center – was No.10 when she retired in 1980.
Chris Evert (USA)
Evert was a fixture at the top of the WTA Rankings, finishing Top 3 every year from 1975 to 1988. She was ranked No.4 in the world when she played the last tournament of her career, the 1989 US Open.
Manuela Maleeva-Fragnière (SUI)
Pictured right, Bulgarian-born Swiss Maleeva-Fragnière retired in 1994 at No.9 in the world.
Martina Navratilova (USA)
Navratilova retired from singles competition in 1994 when she was No.6. She would keep playing doubles, though, until 2006 – she also played a handful of singles events between 2002 and 2005.
Kimiko Date-Krumm (JPN)
Date-Krumm, then Date, retired at the end of 1996 when she was No.8 in the world. Almost a dozen years later, in the fall of 2008, the ageless Japanese returned to the tour and is still going strong.
Steffi Graf (GER)
After a phenomenal Channel Slam – winning the French Open, the finals of Wimbledon – Graf, the Open Era record-holder for most Grand Slam titles with 22, announced her retirement. She was No.3.
Kim Clijsters (BEL)
Clijsters retired from the tour in 2007 as a one-time Grand Slam champion and World No.4. She came out of retirement as a mom in 2009 and went on to win three more majors before re-retiring in 2012.
Justine Henin (BEL)
A seven-time Grand Slam champion and dominant World No.1, Henin suddenly retired a few weeks before the 2008 French Open while still ranked No.1. She came back in 2010 before re-retiring in 2011.
Elena Dementieva (RUS)
Two-time Grand Slam finalist Dementieva called it a career at the end of 2010 at No.9 in the world.
Marion Bartoli (FRA)
Two tournaments after winning her first major at Wimbledon in 2013, then-World No.7 Bartoli retired.
Li Na (CHN)
Two-time Grand Slam champion and former World No.2 Li retired in the fall of 2014 ranked No.5.
Flavia Pennetta (ITA)
Last but not least, talk about going out on a high. Pennetta, who had never been ranked higher than No.10 in the world beforehand, broke back into the Top 10 at No.8 after winning her fairytale first Grand Slam title at the US Open this year, and subsequently announced she’d be retiring at the end of the season. She made it as high as No.6 and played her last tournament, the WTA Finals, as the No.7.
Agnieszka Radwanska turned her season around in style to capture the biggest title of her career in Singapore – and for that reason you voted her October’s WTA Player Of The Month.
Watch Hot Shot as Roger Federer closes out the first set against Novak Djokovic. Watch live tennis at tennistv.com.
ATP World Tour Uncovered profiles Stan Wawrinka.
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