*Note: The blog, after undergoing a small suspension due to the writing of my novella, "Homeless and Silent", which you can find on amazon here, is back. The novella very affordable, 99 cents without Kindle Unlimited and free with Kindle Unlimited. It's written in an unconventional style and uses stream-of-consciousness elements. Enjoy!
It seems like just yesterday Sorana Cirstea was on top of the tennis world. The tournament was WTA Toronto, one of the biggest tournaments on tour outside of the Grand Slams, an event in which almost all of the top players regularly enter. After Cirstea's breakout tournament win in Tashkent over Sabine Lisicki in 2008 and French Open quarterfinal run in 2009, Toronto provided Cirstea the perfect opportunity to bring her game back to the level it was at a few years back, if not soar higher. Toronto was the time when Sorana's middling career could take off once more.
The 2013 WTA Toronto was the tournament of Sorana Cirstea's life. Cirstea made the Final of the tournament, and while she lost to Serena Williams, it was an unbelievable run from a largely unheralded player. The players that Cirstea beat made the feat all the more impressive. Sorana beat Caroline Wozniacki, Jelena Jankovic, Petra Kvitova, and Li Na all in succesion. This included beating Jankovic and Li Na in straight sets. Considering that all of these players have, at least, made a major Final, it was almost inconceivable that Sorana Cirstea could pull this off. But, she did, and in August of that year, shortly after the Toronto run, she reached her career high ranking, number 21 in the world. The bad news for Sorana? It was all downhill from there.
Cirstea couldn't maintain the momentum she sustained in Toronto. She rounded out the 2013 season without making even the Quarterfinals of another event and went on a four-match losing streak to end the season, only winning one set in that span. In fact, Sorana only won three matches from the time she won her semifinal in Toronto until the end of the year. For a player with so much hope and promise, thoroughly deserved given the caliber of players she beat in Canada, this was very disappointing.
And it didn't get much better for Cirstea in 2014. She started off the year on a three-match losing streak (seven-match losing streak overall), meaning that she didn't even get a win (or even a set)until after the Australian Open. There were only two occasions in 2014 when Sorana could even put together two wins in a row (excluding Fed Cup), and the French Open was the last time all year that this occurred. WTA Montreal (the tournament switches between Toronto and Montreal every year) was a full-blown disaster for Cirstea as she lost in the First Round, and a ton of the points from her 2013 run fell off, meaning that her ranking went down the tubes. Cirstea ended 2014, like 2013 on a four-match losing streak.
2015 for Sorana has been poor, as well. She hasn't had a main-draw win in a WTA Tour-level event all season and has lost in qualifying for both the French Open and Wimbledon. Cirstea actually started this year on a six-match losing streak, which means she was on a ten-match overall losing streak including 2014. And while she finally won two matches in a row in her quarterfinal run in her previous tournament, Contrexeville, Cirstea desperately needs points. Sorana Cirstea is currently ranked number 161 in the world.
So, what does this all have to do with WTA Bucharest this week? Well, Bucharest is a Romanian tournament and Cirstea, being Romanian, received a wild card into the main draw, meaning that she didn't even have to remotely consider the possiblity of playing qualifying matches to get into her home-country tournament. Having the wild card gives Cirstea a nice platform to attempt to at least partially regain her 2013 Toronto form and get valuable points. At number 161 in the world, Cirstea is stuck playing qualifying matches at the majors, so a run in a tournament like Bucharest, which is a WTA-level event but not a high profile one, can allow Sorana to perhaps win a few matches and get her ranking closer to 100, which is around the place she needs to be to avoid slam qualies.
Her First Round opponent in Bucharest, Sesil Karatantcheva, is also very beatable. Sesil is currently on a three-match losing streak, and with the crowd thoroughly behind Sorana, oddsmakers only have Sorana as a slight underdog in the match. And while it isn't a cakewalk draw, Sorana can avoid the top two seeds until the Semifinals if she keeps winning. Perhaps Cirstea's home-country tournament could be yet another turning point in Sorana's career. It is important to note that, at 25, Cirstea has a lot of time to turn her career around, and a couple wins at a tournament like this could be exactly what she needs.
Sorana Cirstea has proven to the world before that she has what it takes to play with some of the best players in the world. It takes serious guts to come from a set down to a player of Sabine Lisicki's caliber and have the mental strength to take a third set tiebreak to win a WTA Title. It's also true that to make the Quarterfinals of a major, you have to have serious talent and mental fortitude. And tennis fans won't ever forget Cirstea's unbelievable run to the WTA Toronto Final.
WTA Bucharest could be the tournament that revitalizes the talents and mental strengths that once made Sorana such a formidable player. Playing in front of her home-country fans, the strain of having to potentially qualify gone from her mind, with a very winnable First Round match in front of her, it wouldn't be very surprising to see Sorana rise to the challenge once more.
It wouldn't be shocking to see a small WTA tournament in Bucharest, Romania revitalize Sorana Cirstea's career.
Showing posts with label wild card. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wild card. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Sunday, May 17, 2015
Should There Be Wildcards At Majors?
Over at Men's tennis forums, there is a nice debate going on about whether or not there should be wildcards at majors, and as I wanted to resurrect this blog, I thought that would be a good topic to resurrect with.
As you can see here, these wildcards for the French Open aren't going to the guys and girls ranked just below the main draw cut off or just below the qualifying cut off. We aren't seeing Dustin Brown, for instance, get rewarded for his hard work, not have to worry about qualifying, and instead get a main draw wildcard. Instead, these wildcards are going to mainly the French (although there are reciprocity agreements with Australia and the US), and are either going to young guns looking for a head start on the tour, or older guys/gals being rewarded for their time on tour (or recent success). The first group would be, in this year's selection of wild cards, players like Dodin, Halys, or Chung (for the qualifying draw) and the second group would be players like Mahut and Razzano.
So, I've read the vast majority of the thread on this topic on MTF, and from what I gather, there are two sides. The first (pro-wild card) side is that wild cards drive ticket sales, improve the atmosphere at the event, and generally just create a buzz around the community when a home wild card is playing. The other (anti-wild card) side says that more deserving players who just missed the cut off should get into the major instead of wild cards.
So, what side am I on? I admit, I'm copping out a little bit here, but if we stick to the eight wild cards for the main draw, I think that maybe six of the wild cards should be for local players (and possibly reciprocity agreements, although that is up for the majors to decide), and maybe two should go to players who have had a good run of form lately, but maybe just missed the cut off (the same general principle applies for qualifying too). That way we can get a buzz on the grounds for a young gun, like Halys for instance, but at the same time reward a couple of men and a couple of women who might not have made the cut, but are really playing well and are sure to be competitive in the main draw. An example of that, for instance, could be Kokkinakis for the men (although he is already getting a reciprocity wild card, the principle is the same). Perhaps say that whoever wins the Bordeaux Challenger, French or not, gets a wild card into the main draw.
Just my thoughts on this matter. Happy to be back!
As you can see here, these wildcards for the French Open aren't going to the guys and girls ranked just below the main draw cut off or just below the qualifying cut off. We aren't seeing Dustin Brown, for instance, get rewarded for his hard work, not have to worry about qualifying, and instead get a main draw wildcard. Instead, these wildcards are going to mainly the French (although there are reciprocity agreements with Australia and the US), and are either going to young guns looking for a head start on the tour, or older guys/gals being rewarded for their time on tour (or recent success). The first group would be, in this year's selection of wild cards, players like Dodin, Halys, or Chung (for the qualifying draw) and the second group would be players like Mahut and Razzano.
So, I've read the vast majority of the thread on this topic on MTF, and from what I gather, there are two sides. The first (pro-wild card) side is that wild cards drive ticket sales, improve the atmosphere at the event, and generally just create a buzz around the community when a home wild card is playing. The other (anti-wild card) side says that more deserving players who just missed the cut off should get into the major instead of wild cards.
So, what side am I on? I admit, I'm copping out a little bit here, but if we stick to the eight wild cards for the main draw, I think that maybe six of the wild cards should be for local players (and possibly reciprocity agreements, although that is up for the majors to decide), and maybe two should go to players who have had a good run of form lately, but maybe just missed the cut off (the same general principle applies for qualifying too). That way we can get a buzz on the grounds for a young gun, like Halys for instance, but at the same time reward a couple of men and a couple of women who might not have made the cut, but are really playing well and are sure to be competitive in the main draw. An example of that, for instance, could be Kokkinakis for the men (although he is already getting a reciprocity wild card, the principle is the same). Perhaps say that whoever wins the Bordeaux Challenger, French or not, gets a wild card into the main draw.
Just my thoughts on this matter. Happy to be back!
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