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January 29, 2022,
Once Naomi Osaka fell in the third round, without major resistance, we felt and printed that the 2022 Australian Open was wide open.
And it was.
The translation was that the final winner was going to be very hard to predict.
Oddly enough, once the tournament reached the semi-finals, it was very predictable who would win that round.
As reported by the global news leader CNN, “There seems to be no stopping Ashleigh Barty at the moment.
The 25-year-old raced into the Australian Open final on Thursday after crushing American Madison Keys 6-1 6-3 in just over an hour on court. Barty has yet to drop a set in the tournament and Australia is now anticipating a first home Australian Open singles champion since 1978.”
The odds are, that quest by Ashleigh Barty, will result in a historic reality.
Though Madison Keys has now concluded a fantastic run, before and during the 2022 Australian Open, there was never a doubt in our minds that she was not going to win it.
The key match for us was her competition against China’s Wang Qiang which went into a third set knockdown, drag out fight, decided in a tiebreaker.
What is Wang Qiang’s current ranking?
As of December 6, 2021, number 1,700 in the world.
Now we don’t pretend to be experts as these things but 1,700 does not come across as a very high ranking.
And yet Madison struggled with her, making one unforced error after another.
Still, Madison survived and won. That’s all that matters right?
It depends upon what your goals are and where you hope to land at the end of the tournament.
Though she won, the way Madison played, once she reached the top players in the tournament, if she doesn’t bring her “A” game, they are not going to be very forgiving.
Ashleigh Barty has not forgiven anyone the entire tournament, not dropping even one set.
Her match victories have been by scores of 6-0, 6-1; 6-1, 6-1; 6-2, 6-3; 6-2, 6-0; 6-1, 6-3 and Amanda Anisimova gave Ash her strongest test with Barty winning 6-4, 6-3.
Not a tie breaker in sight.
Ash had no reason to be tired since previously the surging Australian powerhouse has only spent just over six hours on court during the year’s Aussie Open and has never remotely appeared to be in trouble.
So it was absolutely no surprise that she easily dispatched of Madison in two sets.
Very predictable.
Her finals opponent in American’s Danielle Collins pounded Poland’s Iga Swiatek into submission, 6-4, 6-1, in a match where the first set was never in doubt and not as close as the score indicates.
Before this match began, it was obvious that Danielle has too much fire power and passion for Iga to withstand her pounding.
Though highly ranked at number 7 in the world, up to this tournament, one of her best results on the hard courts was the 4th round at the US Open.
Iga won the 2020 French Open, on clay.
We felt that even though Danielle was ranked 27 and Iga 7, this match wasn’t even going to be close.
We attribute this to the Caroline Wozniacki School of point gathering, of which Iga is an exceptional student.
Caroline Wozniacki is a retired Danish professional tennis player.
She has won more than $35 million in prize money. There’s a lot to be said for that.
Known for her footwork and defensive abilities, Ms. Wozniacki won 30 WTA singles titles, including six in both 2010 and 2011, the most in a year by a WTA player from 2008–2011.
Extremely impressive.
In our opinion, here is the most telling accomplishment on her resume.
Caroline was ranked world No. 1 in singles for a total of 71 weeks, including at the end of 2010 and 2011. She achieved the top ranking for the first time on October 11, 2010, becoming the 20th player in the Open Era and the first woman from a Scandinavian country to hold the top position.
Very impressive. It truly is.
On paper.
Why do we say that?
She was number one for 71 weeks, yes, well over a year, including at end of the years of 2010 and 2011.
When did she win her first and only Grand Slam?
In 2020 at the Australian Open.
How can a player be number one for so long but not have a Grand Slam victory trophy on her mantle?
Isn’t that a fair question? Answer?
Point gathering.
She was extremely good at that. Caroline was very consistent and played well at a ton of tournaments, which helped her accumulate a lot of points but at some point, if you truly are number one, shouldn’t you win a Grand Slam during your number one reign?
We would watch her play on the hard courts, unfortunately for Caroline, during the Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova era, and whenever she faced either of those two in a Grand Slam showdown, we knew that number one ranking was completely irrelevant to what was about to happen under the lights.
So now, when Iga faced Danielle, with a much higher ranking, throw that figure out the window.
Proof?
Look at how some of the players ranked above Iga have done at the Slams, on the hard courts. How many times have they lofted a US or Australian Open Grand Slam trophy.
Aryna Sabalenka – 0.
Garbine Muguruza – 1 (2020 Australian Open)
Barbora Krejčíková – 0
Karolína Plíšková – 1 (US Open 2016)
Maria Sakkari – 0
Anett Kontaveit – 0
Paula Badosa – 0
Iga Świątek – 0
And now Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, a spot below her- 0.
In fact, Ms. Pavlyuchenkova best results on the hard court Slams are the quarters.
Finally, Ons Jabeur – 0. Best results are the quarters at the 2020 Australian and the third round at the US Open.
So think about it. Of the top 12 ranked players in the world, between all of them, they have only won 2 Grand Slam titles on the hard courts.
Even Ashleigh has no hard court Grand Slam titles on her resume. Her two Grand Slam titles were on grass and clay. She mostly likely will change that in 2022.
Now, drop once more to the next two players, Naomi Osaka and Sofia Kenin and they achieved 5 Grand Slam titles between them on the hard courts.
For emphasis, top 12 – two. Next 2 – five.
What does that tell you about the WTA point system? It does indeed rank players who are very consistent at the Grand Slams but it in no way tells you who are going to win showdowns, especially when these Paper Tigresses play fierce power brokers on the hard courts.
America’s Danielle Collins is a fierce power broker.
Coming into the semi-finals, her ranking was not the most telling indicator. It was her power and fierceness that was going to render Iga Swiatek’s number seven ranking meaningless.
So now we have Danielle facing Ashleigh Barty in the finals.
A very unforgiving player chasing history.
Danielle, hoping to win her first Grand Slam, is chasing her own personal historic moment.
Once Naomi Osaka meekly exited, the 2022 Australian Open was wide open and unpredictable.
The fact that Danielle and Ashleigh, two hard court power brokers ended up in the finals, despite the rankings?
That was very predictable.
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OPENING PHOTO fcielitecompetitor.com, fciwomenswrestling2.com, femcompetitior.com, grapplingstars.com, fciwomenswrestling.com lev-radin-Shutterstock-photo-credit-Editorial-use
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Wozniacki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryna_Sabalenka
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garbi%C3%B1e_Muguruza
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbora_Krej%C4%8D%C3%ADkov%C3%A1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karol%C3%ADna_Pl%C3%AD%C5%A1kov%C3%A1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Sakkari
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anett_Kontaveit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Badosa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iga_%C5%9Awi%C4%85tek
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anastasia_Pavlyuchenkova
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ons_Jabeur
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naomi_Osaka
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sofia_Kenin
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