Kontaveit wins WTA Finals debut, extends streak

Anett Kontaveit has won 11 consecutive matches
and 26 of her last 28. 2016 photo by Paul Bauman

   Red-hot Anett Kontaveit, seeded No. 8, defeated No. 2 seed Barbora Krejcikova, the reigning French Open champion, 6-3, 6-4 today in a round-robin opener in the WTA Finals in Guadalajara.

   Both 25-year-olds made their WTA Finals singles debuts. Kontaveit, from Estonia, has won 11 consecutive matches and 26 of her last 28. She began working with coach, Dmitry Tursunov, a 38-year-old Moscow native who trained in Northern California as a junior and professional, just before her hot streak.

   In a doubles round-robin opener, No. 2 seeds Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara, a native of Mountain View in the San Francisco Bay Area, downed No. 7 seeds Darija Jurak and Andreja Klepac, the San Jose champions in August, 6-0, 6-4.

   During the night session, No. 3 seed Karolina Pliskova, the Stanford runner-up in 2015, edged No. 6 seed Garbiñe Muguruza, who won the Stanford doubles title in 2014 with just-retired Carla Suarez Navarro, 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (6) in a battle of former world No. 1s. No. 4 seeds Nicole Melichar, the San Jose doubles champion in 2019 with then-44-year-old Kveta Peschke, and Demi Schuurs dominated No. 5 seeds Samantha Stosur and Zhang Shuai 6-2, 6-2. 

   ATP Challenger Tour — In the first round of doubles in the €66,640 ($76,530) Peugeot Slovak Open in Bratislava, N.Sriram Balaji and Divij Sharan of India ousted No. 3 seeds David Pel and "Yosemite" Sem Verbeek (University of the Pacific, 2013-16) of the Netherlands 6-3, 6-4.

   In the opening round of doubles in the $52,080 Knoxville (Tenn.) Challenger, Ruben "Sandwich" Gonzales of the Philippines and Christopher Rungkat of Indonesia dismissed JC "Penney" Aragone of Yorba Linda in the Los Angeles region and Dennis "Vladimir" Novikov of San Jose, Calif., 6-1, 6-3. 

   Jason "Carl" Jung, a native of Torrance in the L.A. area who represents Chinese Taipei, and Mitchell "Freddy" Krueger of Dallas beat wild cards Martin "God" Damm of Bradenton, Fla., and Govind Nanda of Carmichael, Calif., in the Sacramento area 6-4, 6-4.

   USTA Pro Circuit — No. 6 seed Strong Kirchheimer of Cary, N.C., outplayed wild card Keenan "Pass The" Mayo of Sacramento 6-0, 6-4 in the first round of a $25,000 tournament in Harlingen, Texas.