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Novak Djokovic, Samantha Stosur and Angelique Kerber have warmed up for the end of the season by picking up titles in three different parts of the world within 12 hours of each other.
In Shanghai, defending champion Novak Djokovic made his feelings about the loss of his world number one ranking felt by defeating Juan Martin del Potro to successfully defend the title that he won over Andy Murray last year.
As with last year, the Serb did not have it all his way, even after sweeping through the first set with the loss of just one game.
After the lopsided first set, del Potro, who thrashed recently re-crowned world number one Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals, took the second set and then stayed in the match in the third set, saving two championship points to send the deciding set to a tiebreaker.
Djokovic’s class told in the shootout, as he picked up his second consecutive title in China, having also triumphed in Beijing over Nadal last week. It also keeps alive his faint hopes of overtaking the Spaniard in the battle for the year-end number one ranking.
Any chances of that happening are all but shot, with Djokovic needing to defend his ATP World Tour Finals title in November and Nadal having nothing to defend for the remainder of the year.
Djokovic, Nadal and David Ferrer have already qualified for the prestigious event in London, held at the end of the season. Del Potro joined them by reaching the final in Shanghai, in addition to winning in Tokyo, whilst Andy Murray withdrew due to a persistent back injury which forced his non-participation at Roland Garros.
In Osaka, Stosur picked up her second title of the season, and second in Osaka, by overcoming young Canadian Eugenie Bouchard, who was making her first appearance in a WTA Tour final after previously winning the junior Wimbledon title in 2012.
Signs were ominous when Stosur lost the first set 6-3, but the Australian’s experience told as she overhauled the 19-year-old in the next two sets to pick up what is only her fifth career title, this coming exactly four years since she won her maiden WTA Tour title by defeating future Italian nemesis Francesca Schiavone in straight sets.
That breakthrough came almost 18 months after a serious disease derailed her once-promising singles career, having previously enjoyed a successful doubles partnership with Lisa Raymond.
This also marks the first time she’s been able to win multiple titles in one season; she had previously stunned Victoria Azarenka to win Carlsbad in August.
Not even the experience of Bouchard having beaten Stosur in their previous meeting in Charleston was enough, though the Australian was injured on that occasion.
The Canadian is now odds-on to be named the WTA’s Newcomer of the Year, having started the year ranked 135 and having claimed the scalps of Stosur, Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic during the season.
She is also set to be seeded at next year’s Australian Open, where only the top 32 get this privilege.
By winning the title in Osaka, Stosur has guaranteed herself a place in the alternate year-end championships, held in Sofia this year. It will be her second participation at the tournament after 2009, when it was held in Bali.
Another player who willl be at Sofia this year will be Ana Ivanovic, but the Serbian was denied her first title in almost two long years when she was edged out by Angelique Kerber in Linz in straight sets.
Ivanovic was contesting her first WTA Tour final since turning 24 in November of 2011 and was desperate to add another title to her stalled tally of 11, but found Kerber way too good for her as the German won only her third career title and first since April last year.
The Serbian has disappointed since winning the French Open in 2008 and this will come as yet another blow in her attempt to return to the game’s upper echelon, her ranking having plunged down to 65 in July 2010, having captured only three titles since her 21st birthday in 2008 and having never won a Premier title.
She is now in danger of ending another season without winning a title, after failing to reach a championship match last year.
For a player to have enjoyed a successful career, he or she must have won at least 12 titles, and earned at least $20 million in prize money. Ivanovic only has 11 titles and just over $10 million in earnings.
Kerber, meanwhile, did not expect to play this tournament but applied for a late wildcard after seeing her hopes for the WTA Tour Championships hanging by a thread.
But the decision paid off and she leaves the small Austrian town with only her third title overall and the final plane ticket to Istanbul up for grabs.
It now means that each of the WTA Tour Championships qualifiers have captured at least one title throughout the season. Entering Linz, Kerber had yet to win a title all year, having lost two previous finals to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Petra Kvitova in Monterrey and Tokyo respectively.
Two alternates still need to be decided over the final week of the regular season, with former world number one Caroline Wozniacki and Roberta Vinci the likely two to travel to Istanbul on stand-by.
Maria Sharapova has withdrawn from the event due to a shoulder injury which forced her to withdraw from the US Open in August, while Sloane Stephens saw her chances all but shot by falling in the quarter-finals in Linz, when a title was required.
Wozniacki’s chances will depend on how she performs in Luxembourg, which she will contest as the top seed, while Vinci will play in Moscow as the tournament’s second seed.
It’s set to go all the way down to the wire in the final weeks of both the ATP and WTA seasons, and with all eight direct places being decided in the women’s event, there are still four places up for grabs for the men, with Tomas Berdych, Stanislas Wawrinka and Richard Gasquet among those likely to qualify.
The next (and final) major event for the men before the World Tour Finals is the Paris Masters, where David Ferrer is the reigning champion.
Both Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are confirmed to participate, and both have nothing to defend from last year, Djokovic having lost in the second round and Nadal not playing due to his long-term knee injury.
Nadal will also play in Basel, where Juan Martin del Potro, his conqueror in Shanghai, is the defending champion.
The Spaniard can all but lock up the year-end world number one ranking if he performs well in both Basel and Paris, one of the major events he has yet to conquer despite his dominance at the ‘other’ major event in Paris, the French Open.
He has also yet to win the ATP World Tour Finals, being denied by Roger Federer in 2010.
Speaking of Federer, the great Swiss’ time at the top could be coming to an end, with speculation retirement could loom in a years’ time.
The 17-time Grand Slam champion was upset by Gael Monfils in Shanghai, casting doubts over his chances of qualifying for the World Tour Finals, which he has won six times (including four in the Tennis Masters Cup era).
Federer has not missed the event since 2001, the same year he put an end to Pete Sampras’ domination at Wimbledon.
His latest setback could be the latest signs of his decline, and it won’t be a surprise if he retires before the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Bring on the final weeks of the season.
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