DeCeMend

With the win yesterday over Swiatek (the 1st after 7 losses), #8 Paolini can dream to return to the Finals, as #9 Rybakina lost to Sabalenka in the same day.

Jasmine is now ahead of Elena with 218 points. Jazz PaoPao has Gauff in SF, just like in Cincinnati QF (Paolini won).

H2H
Sabalenka 8-2 Pegula

Jessica won in the Finals'23 and the very first match between them, Cincinnati'20, during the pandemic, played in NYC just before the USOpen without public.

The last time they played was USOpen SF, when Aryna won a tight match 6-4 in the 3rd (then she won the tournament).

H2H
Swiatek 7-0 Paolini

Cincinnati's final was the most recent meeting, with Iga winning the title.

My three shots are scheduled on Oct 21st. It will be my first time, as I turned 50 this year and now I can get them at local clinic.

Linda Noskova 36-23 in 2025. Started the year at #26:

F
Prague
Beijing

SF
Abu Dhabi
Bad Homburg

QF
Dubai
Monterrey

Lost in first round in AusOpen and Roland Garros. Lost the first match in Indian Wells, Miami, Montreal and Cincinnati.

Linda Noskova:

d. Wang
d. Zheng
d. Potapova
d. Kartal
d. Pegula
l. Anisimova

d. Putintseva
d. Osaka

X Rybakina

Shanghai QFs

[10] Rune X [Q] #204 Vacherot
#44 Bergs X [4] Djokovic

#54 Rinderknech X [12] Aliassime
[16] Medvedev X [7] de Miñaur

The two USOpen SFs, Djokovic X Aliassime, can meet in the ATP 1000 Shanghai final.

[17] Linda Noskova 7-6(2), 6-3 [11] Osaka.

👀

H2H
Musetti 4 - 3 Aliassime

Lorenzo won Miami'25, Olympics'24, Monte Carlo'22 and Lyon'21 (the last three on clay).

Félix got the better in Davis Cup'22 (Canada won the title), Florence'22 (indoor) and Barcelona'21 (clay).

[4] Djokovic is now the highest seed in Shanghai, followed by [7] de Miñaur and [8] Musetti.

Djokovic X Bergs and [10] Rune X Vacherot are QF matchups. Musetti gets [12] Aliassime for a place among them; the winner takes [15] Lehecka or Rinderknech.

With Qinwen Zheng dropping her final points from Wuhan last year, she drops to #11 and Ekaterina Alexandrova gets into the Top 10 for the first time, though behind 760 points from #9 Rybakina.

Poor Noskova: after making the final in Beijing, had a difficult first round in Wuhan against Putintseva (won in 3) and now Osaka in the second round.

Mboko needs to play more matches in smaller tournaments.

Anisimova.

Just realized that Yulia Putintseva at #63 in the rankings had to qualify in Wuhan.

16/21 in 2025.

If you are thinking Noskova X Anisimova is not a good match, don't bother to switch to Machac X Vacherot.

At least Anisimova is playing well. Machac is just missing most of the shots.

Qualifier #202 Vacherot *4-0 [20] Machac.

Players sweating in Shanghai as they were in full summer swing in Latin America.

Umpire's perfect pronunciation of Machac highlighting his real name in original Czech, not the adapted western/English one.

[11] Osaka X Leylah
[9] Alexandrova X Mboko

Canadians will have difficult first rounders in Wuhan.

Also in the 1st round:
[12] Muchova X Kostyuk

Foki 6-4, 6-4 Arnaldi, very close match.

It was fun to watch: they made fewer errors than average nowadays and there was a lot of net play.

Fokina showed a little more power and put more pressure.

The good thing about the Asian swing is all matches are available and we can find Fokina X Arnaldi in the main feed.

As Fokina is shaved and had his hair cut, you can still recognize him by the exaggerate swing of the yellow racquet that makes the ball land out of the court so often.

Mensik, despite the power of his forehand and thunderous serve, is a break down in the third against #79 Jesper de Jong.

Jakub lost the second set tiebreak 2-7.

After losing the Beijing final to Sinner, #52 Learner Tien travelled to Shanghai and had a difficult first round match against #46 Kecmanovic. Tien won in three in 2h06'.

Now he is fighting the lowest seeded player, [33] Corentin Moutet, and, in case of winning, [30] Norrie or #80 Cazaux next.

#4 Anisimova 6-1, 6-2 against the Roland Garros champion and world number #3 Coco Gauff. 👊

Andreescu confirmed her first service game, breaks in the next from love and confirms the third too.

I thought I would watch this on a Canadian cable TV, but it was wishful thinking.

Andreescu will play today in Wuhan against Valentova.

Hope Bianca lasts physically more than a match this time.

Noskova and Kartal play each other today for a place in SFs and an even higher career high.

Jordan Thompson started the year #26, seed at AusOpen, career high, but he dropped to #78 in the last month of the season.

Qualifier #159 Yannnick Hanfmann serving for the match *5-1 [25] Francis Tiafoe in the third set.

Eva Lys +21 —> #45, career high, with QFs at Beijing.

Sonay Kartal also +21 —> #60 also with QFs at Beijing.

Linda Noskova (#22), Maya Joint (#35), Lois Boisson (#38), Emiliano Aranga (#49) and Alexandra Eala (#54) all with new career highs next week.