Osaka set to take on Stephens
SINGAPORE — Naomi Osaka and Sloane Stephens, the past two U.S. Open women’s singles champions, will make their career debuts at the WTA Finals by playing each other in their first match in Singapore on Monday.
The initial stage of the eight-player
WTA Finals field is a round-robin competition with two pools of four players. The two players with the best record from each round-robin group advance to next Saturday’s semifinals.
It’s been a whirlwind six weeks for Osaka, a dual Japanese-American citizen who plays under the Japanese flag, since winning the U.S. Open.
Her major victory — the second title of her tour career, with the first coming at Indian Wells in April — was marred by controversy as Serena Williams initiated a number of run-ins with umpire Carlos Ramos during the match.
“For me, I think I’m playing tournament after tournament, so I don’t really have time to think about, like, my life changing or anything,” Osaka said of her increased fame. “So, yeah, I feel like I would need the year to end to maybe process more. I mean, with the recognition part, I do feel a bit different.”
Stephens, a 25-year-old American who won the U.S. Open in 2017, is looking forward to this second outing against Osaka. She won their first meeting in the 2016 Mexican Open quarterfinals in straight sets.
“I think it will be super fun, and it’s a great matchup,” Stephens said. “Obviously everyone works all year long to get here. It’s my debut here as well as hers, so it’s new territory for both of us. We both have had amazing accomplishments, so we’ll be looking forward to the match and we’ll see what happens.”
The two join Angelique Kerber, the reigning Wimbledon champion, and Kiki Bertens, who qualified for the tournament when No. 1 Simona Halep withdrew with a herniated disc in her back, in the Red Group. Kerber and Bertens play Monday’s second scheduled match.
The competition gets underway today with White Group action. Petra Kvitova, the 2011 WTA Finals champion, will play Elina Svitolina, who debuted here last year, in the opening match. Caroline Wozniacki, this event’s 2017 champion, faces Karolina Pliskova, making a third consecutive appearance here, in the second match.
Major change
LONDON — That epic 70-68 fifth set at Wimbledon will never be matched or surpassed, or even challenged.
The All England Club said Friday it will introduce final-set tiebreakers next year, starting when the score reaches 12-12 in the decider.
The grass-court Grand Slam tournament is the second of the four majors to use a final-set tiebreaker to determine a singles match — either the fifth set in a men’s match or the third set for the women. The U.S. Open, however, starts its final-set tiebreakers at 6-6.
At the Australian Open and the French Open, players still have to win by two games in the final set in singles matches.
In a tiebreaker, the first player to get seven points — leading by at least two points — wins the set.
In 2010, John Isner and Nicolas Mahut played the longest match in tennis history at Wimbledon. The match took more than 11 hours and was played over parts of three days before Isner won 70-68 in the final set.