While we’re still indulging in food and drinks celebrating the New Year, WTA players are already in the heat of the competition and those that lifted champion’s trophies at the dawn of the 2017 season are Karolina Pliskova, Katerina Siniakova and Lauren Davis.
At the biggest tournament in the first week of January, the $890,100 Brisbane International, third seed Karolina Pliskova raced past Alize Cornet 6-0 6-3 in the title match. The Czech won the first set in just 18 minutes and even though her French opponent recovered in the second set, Pliskova’s serve did the talking and the victory is now taking her to No.5 in the WTA rankings, ahead of Dominika Cibulkova.
At the $626,750 Shenzhen Open in China, world No.52 Katerina Siniakova lifted her maiden WTA career title, recording a 6-3 6-4 victory over American eighth seed Alison Riske in the final. During the week, the unseeded Czech ousted two Top 10 players, Simona Halep and Johanna Konta.
Another first-time titlist is American world No.61 Lauren Davis, who defeated Croatian eighth seed Ana Konjuh 6-3 6-1 to win the ASB Classic in Auckland. The 23-year-old Davis squeezed through the draw that included big names such as Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Caroline Wozniacki.
Now the schedule takes us to the Apia International Sydney and the Hobart International. Our Jimmie48 is already in Sydney, taking photos of qualifying action and practice sessions.
