Packed crowds cheering thrilling matches… The Akron WTA Finals were a remarkable success.
The city of Guadalajara, in western Mexico, stepped in at short notice to host the event after the expected host Shenzhen withdraw due to Chinese pandemic travel restrictions.
Billie Jean King credited the WTA with having “killed themselves” to make the Finals happen after scrambling to find the replacement venue, with no change of date possible.
But some in tennis were unhappy with new location. Ash Barty’s coach Craig Tyzzer was one of those who expressed concerns, “We only just found out it’s in Mexico at 1500 metres [above sea level] and they’re using pressure-less balls [that] absolutely fly. It’s a ball that if you use it in normal conditions, it doesn’t bounce.
“I mean, it’s not the greatest advertisement for the best girls in the world to be playing something they’ve never done before. In conditions they’ve never played, in a country they don’t play and at altitude, I just feel it’s ridiculous.”
But King, attending the event where the singles trophy is named after her, offered the players advice on playing in the high altitude.
“First of all, the balls go through the air much faster, bounce a little higher,” she said. “You have to catch it early. Sometimes, especially when you first get here, it’s important to really think out in front of your contact point. Think even earlier than normal. Let the air work for you at this altitude.”
Any difficulties the players had about coping with their high-altitude environment were washed away by the lovefest with the crowds that encompassed every player from the stars to the least famous doubles player. All athletic accomplishments were enthusiastically acknowledged and every player was cheered off court. Spectators fought hard in good natured tussles to nab signed balls, hit by the victorious players into the crowd.
And the crowds were there…a different sight from the many empty chairs usual in Shenzhen. By the third night, Guadalajara had already drawn more fans than the entire week-long Shenzhen tournament.
Described by Chris Evert as the women’s “fifth major”, 2021 was the event’s 50th anniversary. This year’s participating players were seemingly unperturbed by the drop from a $US14 million total prize pool in 2019 – the Finals were cancelled in 2020 – to the total of $5 million offered in Guadalajara.
Played over eight days in a round robin format, the Finals featured eight singles teams and eight doubles teams. Qualification for the event was based on The Race to the WTA Finals positions, instead of the regular WTA rankings.
So, Garbiñe Muguruza was WTA ranked 5 but seeded 6 in Guadalajara due to her Race ranking of 7. The absence of World No. 1 (in both rank and the Race) Ash Barty, caused all the seeds to rise by one. Barty’s absence also meant that Anett Kontaveit, ranked 9 in the Race, made the cut and became 8th seed.
The names of the four groups – Chichén Itzá and Teotihuacán for singles, and Tenochtitlán and El Tajín for doubles – are a tribute to ancient cities in Mexico and the pre-Colombian era of its history.
The Singles
Garbiñe Muguruza fought her way through to win her first WTA Finals title. The Spaniard wooed the crowd by wearing the jersey of the Mexican national football team at her court entrances and post-match interviews.
Muguruza started the event with what she described as a “painful loss” to Karolína Plíšková, 6-4 2-6 6-7(8-6). Her serving dropped off in the second set, allowing Plíšková to take it easily.
The players broke each other’s serve at the start of the third set but Muguruza managed to save two break points on her serve in the 10th game before missing the opportunity of two break points in the next game. In an unusual tiebreak, the receiver won 11 of the 14 points played, including Plíšková’s fourth match point when Muguruza hit out.
At the end, Plíšková reflected, “”Well, that was a very tough match for both of us.” Muguruza added. “I fought as hard as I could. At the end, it was just one point difference.”
Next up for Muguruza was this year’s French Open winner, Barbora Krejčíková. Their previous match was the fourth round of the US Open, when Krejčíková had a dizzy spell due to a diaphragm issue and received medical treatment off court, just after Muguruza had comeback from 0-4 in the second set to lead 6-5. When Krejčíková returned to the match, she won, and as she apologised at the net, Muguruza called her “so unprofessional”.
So there was some intrigue about how this match would turn out. Before the match, during the umpire’s formalities at the net, Muguruza did not even glance at her opponent.
Muguruza lost the last five games of first set, hitting 18 unforced errors and only two winners, then won four of first five games of the second. She had improved her serve and groundstrokes. Still, Krejčíková fought to get back on serve as 3-4. She was broken the next game and then Muguruza held 6-3 for one set all.
The third set started with each player holding serve before a 12 minute game which was a match itself with Krejčíková saving five break points before Muguruza converted the sixth with a forehand winner. Inspired, Muguruza held firm for the rest of the set, winning the match 2-6,6-3,6-4.
Muguruza let out an ecstatic scream after her winning point and did not look at Krejčíková as they shook hands at the net. She had her revenge. But more importantly, she had kept herself in contention to eventually win the tournament.
Krejčíková lost her three singles matches to Plíšková, Muguruza and Anett Kontaveit, but made up for it in the doubles.
After beating Krejčíková, Muguruza faced Kontaveit and won in straight sets 6-4 6-4, through her better serve and Kontaveit’s six double faults.
In the semis, Kontaveit drew Maria Sakkari, who had defeated Iga Świątek 2 and 4 in a manner that left Świątek so distraught she was permitted not to attend the post match conference and to instead answer journalists’ written questions.
As Sakkari’s mother, former professional player Angeliki Kanellopoulou, watched on, the first set quickly went to Kontaveit 6-1. The second, however, was tight with two games each around ten minutes. Sakkari needed four set points but took it 6-3.
It looked as if she was on a roll when, at 2-2 in the third, she broke Kontaveit – only for Kontaveit to break back to love, then hold to love. The following game was 18 points in 12 minutes. Sakkari seemed to tire and was not moving her feet as well, leaving her to lurch at the ball and bat it into the net.
When Kontaveit went on the take the set 6-3, it became her 48th win for the year, tying with Ons Jabeur for the most tour wins.
After the match, Kontaveit said, “When I went [broke] down in the third set I was thinking if this is my last match, I’m really going to enjoy it. That really ended up changing things around for me and I felt more free and had a lot more fun.”
Muguruza’s semi against Paula Badosa was the first semi at a WTA Final between two Spanish players. Badosa is one of the WTA’s big improvers this year, winning her first tournament at Indian Wells.
Muguruza took the first set 6-3. Her excellent returning pressured Badosa’s serving and she won only 55% of points on her first serves. Badosa gave a bewildered look to her box and slapped the side of her head.
Down 0-2 in the second set, Badosa had three break points on Muguruza’s serve in the next game but couldn’t break. Near the end of the set, Muguruza seemed to get nervous. Badosa had an easy love game to get to 3-5 but a shaky Muguruza managed to get through the next game for 6-3. Walking to the net, she looked over to her team and pointed at her head. They responded by pointing at their heads, acknowledging their player’s mental toughness.
The compatriot players shared a warm embrace at the net. Muguruza said “We’ve trained together but it’s actually the first time that we’ve played. It’s very tough to face the first match in such an important tournament. I think that I played very well and I dominated very quickly.”
Muguruza became the first Spanish player to make the final since 1993, when Arantxa Sánchez Vicario lost to Steffi Graf. Now she faced Kontaveit for the second time in the event and again won in straight sets. She took the first with a mighty topspin lob. Kontaveit had made 22 unforced errors to Muguruza’s 10.
In the second game of the second set, Muguruza lost her footing and took what looked to be a nasty tumble but she quickly got up and seemed unaffected.
Games were on serve at 3-3 when Kontaveit suddenly broke, helped by four Muguruza errors.
The Spaniard steadied and soon broke, then held for 6-5. Sadly for Kontaveit, it was now her turn to miss everything. She made four consecutive unforced errors to hand the Championship to Muguruza.
The Doubles
The Doubles component of the WTA Finals is a mere 45 years old.
The two-time defending champions of 2018/19, Tímea Babos / Kristina Mladenovic, failed to qualify for the tournament this year. Mladenovic dedicated this year to improving her singles ranking and Babos’s new partnership with Veronika Kudermetova ended the year at 39 in the Porche Doubles Race to the Finals.
Three eligible teams withdrew before competition began. Ash Barty and Jennifer Brady withdrew after Barty decided she would forego the event to return home to Australia after more than six months away. Barty / Brady had withdrawn before the seedings were determined.
Caty McNally / Coco Gauff, were ranked 6th in the Doubles Race to the Finals. After they lost the US Open final, McNally was out for five weeks with a hand injury and chose to resume playing in the singles competition at the WTA125 Dow Tennis Classic. Alexa Guarachi / Desirae Krawczyk moved up a place to become 6th seeds, as did Darija Jurak and Andreja Klepac to be 7th seeds.
As the 9th ranked team in the Race, Gabriela Dabrowski / Luisa Stefani crept into the eight when Barty / Brady withdrew. But Stefani took a tumble in the semis of the US Open and ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament. The resulting surgery required meant she was forced to sit out the rest of the season. Their place in the eight was taken by Sharon Fichman / Giuliana Olmos.
The inclusion of Olmos gave the event its only Mexican player. She wore a red, green and white ribbon – the Mexican colours – in her braided hair. She and Fichman didn’t win a match but after losing 4 and 1 to the eventual champions, the team narrowly lost to Guarachi / Krawczyk 9-11 in the match tiebreak and pushed eventual finalists Hsieh Su-wei / Elise Mertens in a close 4-6 6-7 match.
US Open champions Sam Stosur and Shuai Zhang surprisingly only managed to win one match, though improved in each general round, from losing 2 and 2 to Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Demi Schuur, to a match tiebreak loss to Darija Jurak / Andreja Klepac, before beating Japanese team Shuko Aoyama / Ena Shibahara 4-6 6-3 10-7.
Stosur / Zhang were playing just their fifth event together. As suggested by the scoreline, their match against the Japanese was one of the best of the event. Shibahara required a medical time out in the second set for extensive treatment on her neck, but recovered enough to play her part in the remarkable match tiebreak. Stosur / Zhang led 9-1, giving them seven match points. They failed to convert any of them as their opponents won each of those seven points. Finally, Stosur / Zhang claimed the next point and the match.
Stosur commented: “After today’s match, we wish the tournament was just starting. We got off to a bit of a slow start so, unfortunately, we’re finished now. But to finish the year with a win together is fantastic. We both played really well today and it’s great to play in front of the awesome fans here.”
Barbora Krejčíková was the only player at the event to play both singles and doubles and, therefore, to play on eight consecutive days.
She made up for not winning a singles match by taking out the doubles event with her longtime partner Kateřina Siniaková. Together they won all five of their matches; the three general rounds, the semi and the final.
The final was a straight sets victory for the Czech pair, 6-3 6-4. For this match, the scoreline did not represent the quality of the play by the opposition of Hsieh Su-wei / Elise Mertens. They were overcome through the clever strategy of Krejčíková / Siniaková, who often returned down the line to bypass World No. 1 Hsieh and prevent her taking control of the net.
Their patterns of play feed their strengths. Both are excellent at the net; Krejčíková with greater touch and Siniaková with aggressive punching volleys.
Former Czech Martina Navratilova yelled encouragement to them as they played for the doubles trophy named in her honour. She also provided an enjoyable moment when Krejčíková accidently hit a ball out of the court and directly to Navratilova. Always a perfectionist, Navratilova looked disappointed with herself for missing the catch, then managed to laugh about it.
The victory to the Czechs meant that Siniaková usurped Hsieh as World No. 1.
Siniaková finished the year with one title more than Krejčíková, partnering Jeļena Ostapenko for a win in Moscow when Krejčíková was off playing singles.
After the match, Krejčíková appeared slightly tense and focussed elsewhere as she sat in her chair awaiting the trophy presentation, and also as she stood waiting on the podium. It turned out she had a speech to make. As Navratilova and Siniaková wiped away tears, she spoke of Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution which began on 17 November 1989 and led to the overthrow of an undemocratic regime and the formation of the Czech Republic.
“We have here Martina Navratilova [who] was forced to emigrate Czechoslovakia because of the regime that was there. I’m really happy that the regime is not there anymore and we can live in freedom… I’m really proud to be from Czech Republic.”
The Last Word
Chris Evert was asked by BeIN Sports if she preferred the era of tennis when she played, the era of a great rivalry, between her and Navratilova. “First of all, the reason we were always in the finals is because the depth wasn’t there. Everyone asks me to compare eras and I’m going, well, there are so many more players now, so many more countries that are investing money in their players, so much more talent out there.
“We’ve had rivalries, we’ve had dominance, when Serena was dominant, and this is the third kind of component, having a boatload of talent at the top, seeing who’s going to breakthrough. I like this. This is exciting.”
Title images by Getty Images
Update – 27 June 2024
Garbiñe Muguruza has been named as Tournament Director of the WTA Finals, which will take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for the next three years.