Champions Tournament 2021: Who are the favorites? Who will play? – SME.sk

BRATISLAVA. The tournament has not even started yet and it is already clear that it will bring the premiere champion.

After two years, the Masters Tennis Tournament for the eight best players of the season will take place in Guadalajara, Mexico. None of them ever won the prestigious event.

And six of them never even played at the event. And although four different players have won grand slams this year, only one will play in the best tournament.

World unit and Wimbledon winner Ashleigh Barty ended the season for pandemic measures. Australian Open champion Naomi Osakova also ended the season prematurely due to mental discomfort and in the end did not qualify narrowly.

US Open winner Emma Raducanu, who had almost no experience with top-level matches before the grand slam triumph, also did not qualify.

The only Grand Slam winner this season to play is Barbora Krejčíková, Roland Garros champion.

She was just a debist

The Czech tennis player is the jumper of the year. At the beginning of the season, she was the 65th player in the world.

“I think my journey is inspiring because I was out of the top 100 nine months ago. I had a doubles player label. Now I’m a grand slam winner and everything has changed,” she said after her triumph at Roland Garros for WTA.

However, its form in the competition of the best rivals in the world is questionable. Krejčíková is also the first player since 2016 to play the Champions Tournament in both singles and doubles. They will be tournament units with teammate Kateřina Siniaková.

In the summer at the Cincinnati tournament, for example, she complained that she had played a total of six matches in two days. “How should my legs work, where should I get energy?” she spoke for isport.blesk.cz.

And she also had a challenging program before the Champions’ Tournament. As the only participant in the singles, she went to help her country at the Billie Jean King Cup final in Prague.

“I think Barbora is super adaptable to whatever happens. But it doesn’t help much that she played last week in Prague. Flying from Indian Wells for nine hours, getting used to the new time zone and when you finally get used to it, you go away again, “said Martina Navrátilová for WTA.

Two experienced players

Karolína Plíšková will also represent the Czech Republic. She is going to her fifth Champions’ Tournament. She finished three times in the semifinals and once in the group.

Apart from Plíšková, only the Spaniard Garbine Muguruzová has experience with the Masters Tournament. He got to the prestigious event for the fourth time. Unlike the Czech Republic, however, her last participation dates back to 2017. Once she went to the semifinals and twice she finished in the group part.

Former world troops Martina Navrátilo and Chris Evert agreed for the WTA that the experience of the Champions Tournament does not have to play such a role as to significantly help two experienced players.

“It won’t help them much, because they play in a place they’ve never been before,” says Navratilova.

“More important is the current form, the surface and the fact that it is played outside,” adds Evert.

Great end of the season

The fight for the Champions Tournament was extraordinarily balanced this year and there were still vacancies shortly before the event. The two players who will make their debut have won the Champions’ Tournament at the last minute.

Spaniard Paula Bados won only her second WTA title in October. However, she triumphed at a prestigious event in Indian Wells. This is her greatest career success to date.

Estonian Anett Kontaveit became the very last qualifier. Until August 2021, she had in her career only one title from 2017 from a smaller event in the Netherlands.

In addition, it has had no significant success. Sometimes she managed to surprise her favorites, but she was not one of them herself.

However, in August she won the tournament in Cleveland, in September she won the most valuable title from Ostrava and shortly thereafter added a win from a prestigious event in Moscow. Participation in the Champions Tournament then guaranteed her a win in Cluj in Romania.

“I worked a lot on myself, but I still played with my top 10 opponents. I played really good tennis, but I always went short against the best,” she said. WTA Estonian.

Later, however, she hired former tennis player Dmitry Tursunov and under his leadership she had an excellent second half of the season, which sent her to the Champions Tournament.

“He brought new energy to the team and I started to believe in my game,” said Estonian about the new coach.

Kontaveitová became the first Estonian to enter the Champions Tournament.

Breakthrough season

Another debutante who also writes history for her country is Maria Sakkari. She is the first Greek woman to reach the final event. She was also good for a long time, but did not achieve exceptional results.

“You can’t even imagine how crazy it is when someone who is 26 – not 20 – gets into the top 10. When no one believed me, my loved ones and I believed it,” she told her. WTA Greek tennis player.

For her, as well as for Kontaveitová, Badosová or Krejčíková, the season is absolutely groundbreaking. However, two players who have already made their way to the top before will also make their debut at the event.

Aryna Sabalenková would probably go to the Champions Tournament last year. However, due to the pandemic, they canceled the traditional meeting of the best players in the world. Today, Belarus is a tournament unit, as the world unit Ashleigh Barty will not come due to pandemic restrictions.

The 2021 season was a turning point for Sabalenkova. She never did well in the grand slams, but at the Wimbledon and the US Open she reached the semifinals for the first time.

“At the grand slams, I couldn’t handle all the emotions they brought with them. After each one, I was disgusted that I couldn’t cope with the pressure. I felt like I would never get to the second week. We worked hard with a psychologist, “Sabalenkova admitted for WTA.

Large circle of favorites

Another player who would have played at the event a year ago is Polish Iga Swiateková. Last year, she sensationally dominated the unconventional, post-pandemic, autumn edition of Roland Garros.

This year she continued with convincing performances, created a new ranking maximum, became the world number four.

Evertová and Navrátilová agreed that Poľka could be the favorite of an exceptionally balanced year. The tournament takes place in Mexico in a place that the players do not know. “I would say that Krejčíková or Swiateková,” says Martina Navrátilová.

“If it were under normal conditions, I would say Sabalenko. But really, you can choose anyone here. Kontaveitová had a great end to the season, but I’m wondering if she won’t be tired anymore. So I would say in the end that Swiatek will win,” Evertová said again. .