There are three WTA events scheduled for the week after the US Open - Québec City, Hong Kong, and Tashkent. All of the American women playing next week are in Québec City - Venus Williams, Shelby Rogers, Madison Keys, Anna Tatishvili, Madison Brengle, Melanie Oudin, Allie Kiick and Irina Falconi. That's 8 women out of a total of 24 in the Main Draw. Get that international experience ladies.
via ESPNW with no accreditation. Its obviously not mine.
Oh, and Stacey Allaster's darling Eugenie Bouchard, as everyone knew but paying fans, will not be playing Hong Kong. Sabine Lisicki is now the top seed there with Daniela Hantuchova the second seed. What I don't get is that Bouchard ducked out of playing Québec City using the excuse that she was playing Hong Kong. It turns out she was never on the entry list for that tournament but will turn up in Wuhan. Will that be a bigger payday for her?
I thought that the WTA had cleaned up it's bait and switch tactics but I guess I was wrong. Remember when Serena Williams was hated by fans because it seemed she would enter tournaments and then withdraw? It turned out that Serena was never entered into those events but her name was used to sell tickets. And she wasn't the only one. The WTA really went all in on fan sites that posted their entry lists back then and from what I understand it's still very difficult to get information on WTA events. Now the same fan sites are flooded with apologists for what just happened in Hong Kong with Bouchard. That never happened with Serena who was hung out to dry by her Association.
There are still some cultures where your word in your bond. Apparently Honk Kong is one of them.
Meanwhile, US Open sensation Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia will be playing in Tashkent, honoring her committments. Can you imagine Sloane Stephens going from New York to Tashkent? She couldn't even make it to Québec City, a short flight from New York City. Too lowly a stage for a great player like Sloane?
Oh well. The entry list for Wuhan is stacked. Even Sloane is going to be there. I wonder how many will actually make it there? It's a Premier Level tournament though so I don't think they'll pull anything there.
End Note: I wasn't going to publish this short post now but I think the WTA needs to be called out on its tactics when it comes to a tournament like this. The attempts to belittle the TD in Hong Kong as being naïve are disingenuous at best.
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