By Mike McIntyre
With the Australian Open now completed and 21 year old Naomi Osaka firmly entrenched as a major star on the WTA Tour, the past week has given some other faces the chance to steal the spotlight as the tennis season continued in both St. Petersburg, Russia and Hua Hin, Thailand.
In Russia, Petra Kvitova was eager for more matches despite making a run all the way to the finals in Melbourne. The early feel-good-story of 2019 defeated former World No. 1 Victoria Azarenka before falling in the quarterfinals to Donna Vekic. None the less, Kvitova is now 12-2 on the season with a title already in Sydney.
Vekic would make it all the way to the finals and aside from her big win over Kvitova also defeated former Roland Garros semi-finalist Timea Bacsinszky, former Wimbledon finalist Vera Zonareva as well as rising star and Russian hope Daria Kasatkina. An impressive week to say the least.
Ultimately the 22 year old Vekic was denied her third WTA title and was defeated by No. 2 seeded Kiki Bertens of Netherlands 7-6(2), 6-4 in the finals. Bertens had a great week dropping but a single set en route to the championship. It marks the eighth WTA title of her career. On her way to the finals, Bertens defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova who made it to the final eight at the Australian Open, and then took-out rising star Aryna Sabalenka as well.
In Thailand meanwhile, both of the top two seeds failed to get deep into the draw. No. 1 Garbine Muguruza was beaten in the quarterfinals by eventual champion Dayana Yastremska while No. 2 Caroline Garcia suffered the third opening round loss of her season, this time against American qualifer Jennifer Brady.
Yastremska is a relative unknown on the WTA Tour to many, but at the age of 18 the Ukrainian has already faced Serena Williams in a Grand Slam match recently in Australia and seemed to have learned a thing or two since that 2-6, 1-6 defeat. Yastremska captured the first title of her career late in 2018 in Hong Kong and is clearly going to be one to watch as this season progresses. She battled back in the finals against Ajla Tomljanovic after trailing 2-5 in the final set. She ultimately won the match 6-2, 2-6, 7-6(3).
Next on the women's side of the game is the Fed Cup - the female equivalent of the Davis Cup that just saw it's qualifiers take place on the weekend.The international competition will see the Czech Republic as the No. 1 seed and the United States as No. 2. The top eight teams in the world will battle it out for a spot in the World Group I semifinals.
The next round of actual WTA events will begin February 11th in Doha, Qatar where Petra Kvitova is the defending champion in singles and Jelena Ostapenko and Gaby Dabrowski hold the title in doubles. If you're interested in any sports gambling then do keep an eye out for Fed Cup results to see who, along with Bertens and Yastremska are ones to watch early on in 2019.
Check back with us often here at ProTennisFan for previews of upcoming events as well as recaps of the action that is already in the books. You can also follow us on Twitter for timely updates and check out my podcast The Southpaw Slice that I co-host along with Ben Lewis every Monday.