AUSTRALIAN OPEN JANUARY 20 - FEBFRUARY 2, 2020 WOMEN’S TENNIS ASSOCIATION MATCH NOTES MELBOURNE, AUS | JANUARY 20-FEBRUARY 2, 2020 | AUD $4,100,000 GRAND SLAM EVENT wtatennis.com | facebook.com/WTA | twitter.com/WTA | youtube.com/WTA Tournament Website: www.wtatennis.com | @AustralianOpen | facebook.com/AustralianOpen WTA Communications: Catherine Sneddon ([email protected]), Adam Lincoln ([email protected]) AUSTRALIAN OPEN - QF BOTTOM HALF MATCH-UPS [28] ANETT KONTAVEIT (EST #31) vs. [4] SIMONA HALEP (ROU #3) TALE OF THE TAPE 20 GS APP 39 GS SF 0 APP 6 GS 0 TITLES 2 WTA 1 TITLES 19 HARD MD 66 WINS 219 GS MD 23 WINS 92 Halep leads 2-0 Kontaveit attempting to become the first Estonian to reach a Grand Slam semifinal... Halep is the only quarterfinalist who has yet to drop a set this fortnight... Kontaveit has not won a set agasint the Romanian in two previous meetings GARBIÑE MUGURUZA (ESP #32) vs. [30] ANASTASIA PAVLYUCHENKOVA (RUS #30) TALE OF THE TAPE 29 GS APP 49 GS SF 4 APP 0 GS 2 TITLES 0 WTA 7 TITLES 12 HARD MD 166 WINS 258 GS MD 70 WINS 64 Muguruza leads 4-1 Muguruza’s only loss to the Russian came via retirement at 2018 Stuttgart... Pavlyuchenkova attempting to reach a Grand Slam semifinal for first time in 49 appearances, would be the second longest streak before making final four debut WOMEN’S TENNIS ASSOCIATION MATCH NOTES MELBOURNE, AUS | JANUARY 20-FEBRUARY 2, 2020 | AUD $4,100,000 GRAND SLAM EVENT wtatennis.com | facebook.com/WTA | twitter.com/WTA | youtube.com/WTA Tournament Website: www.wtatennis.com | @AustralianOpen | facebook.com/AustralianOpen WTA Communications: Catherine Sneddon ([email protected]), Adam Lincoln ([email protected]) AUSTRALIAN OPEN - QF BOTTOM HALF MATCH-UPS THE ELITE EIGHT PLAYER AO YTD CAREER YTD CAREER YTD CAREER NAME W/L* W/L* W/L* PRIZE $ PRIZE $ TITLES TITLES [4] Simona Halep 23-9 5-1 375-169 $24,250 $35,132,271 0 19 [28] Anett Kontaveit 8-4 5-2 108-90 $32,100 $4,030,892 0 1 [30] Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 19-11 5-2 343-257 $27,500 $9,820,319 0 12 Garbiñe Muguruza 21-7 9-1 245-138 $53,075 $19,270,804 0 7 *Includes 2020 Australian Open CAREER GRAND SLAM RECORDS - BY ROUND REACHED PLAYER NAME R128 R64 R32 R16 QF* SF F W TOTAL* [4] Simona Halep 12 7 3 3 7 2 3 2 39 [28] Anett Kontaveit 10 2 4 3 1 0 0 0 20 [30] Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 15 17 10 1 6 0 0 0 49 Garbiñe Muguruza 5 9 1 6 4 1 1 2 29 *Includes 2020 Australian Open CAREER QUARTERFINAL RECORDS - GRAND SLAMS PLAYER QF SF FINALS NAME W-L W-L W-L [4] Simona Halep 7-6 5-2 2-3 [28] Anett Kontaveit 0-0 0-0 0-0 [30] Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 0-5 0-0 0-0 Garbiñe Muguruza 4-3 3-1 2-1 WOMEN’S TENNIS ASSOCIATION STATS & STORYLINES ON THIS DAY... YOUNG GUNS On this day in tennis history, Steffi Graf wins her With Angelique Kerber (32y, 15d) out of the tourna- fourth and final singles title at the 1994 Australian Open ment, it will be the first time since 2012 the final eight with her 6-0,6-2 defeat of Aranxta Sanchez Vicario. players are all under 30 years old. The oldesnt re- Graf also won the title in 1988, 1989 and 1990. mainin players are Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (28y, 214d) and Simona Halep (28y, 128d). RANKING WATCH The youngest player remaining in the draw is Sofia Kenin (21y, 80d) followed by Ashleigh Barty (23y, 284d). Ashleigh Barty will extend her stay at No.1 and se- cured the top ranking through and after the Australian Should Kenin go on to reach the final two, she would Open. Including the weeks of the Australian Open, be the youngest finalist since 2008 when Maria Shara- she extends her current reign atop the WTA Rankings pova (20y283d) defeated Ana Ivanovic (20y82d) in the to 21-consceutive weeks (28 weeks overall). final. Naomi Osaka was just older than Kenin is now when she won the title last year at 21y102d. Simona Halep has secured the No.2 ranking by reaching the QF followed by Karolina Pliskova at No.3. Elina Svitolina, Belinda Bencic and Bianca Andreescu will fill positions No.4-6. A NEW CHAMPION? With 2016’s champion, , out of the With her loss in the quarterfinas,Petra Kvitova will be Angelique Kerber ranked between No.10-12 depending on results. tournament, the Australian Open will crown a new new champion on Saturday and their 26th different champion in the Open Era. Sofia Kenin will at least equal her career-high of No.12 by reaching the SF but would need to reach the final in order to make her Top 10 debut (at No.9 or 10) Only three remaining players have won a Grand and could go to No.7 with a first Grand Slam title. Slam title: Barty (2019 Roland Garros), Halep (2018 Roland Garros, 2019 Wimbledon) and Muguruza (2016 Roland Garros, 2017 Wimbledon). Anett Kontaveit is likely to return to the Top 20 should she reach the SF and is projected to return to Top 15 by reaching the final. Meaning Kenin (into SF), Kontaveit () and Pavly- uchenkova () have a chance of winning their first Grand Slam title. In the Open Era, including Kerber, Garbiñe Muguruza is projected to return to the Top 30 by advancing to the QF. She could return to the Top eleven players have celebrated winning their maid- 20 if she reaches the SF, coupled with a Kontaveit QF en major at Melbourne: Kerry Melville-Reid (1977 loss. She can climb as high as No.16 by reaching the Jan), Chris O’Neil (1978), Barbara Jordan (1978) final and No.11 with the title. Hana Mandlikova (1980), Mary Pierce (1995), Mar- tina Hingis (1997), Jennifer Capriati (2001), Amelie Mauresmo (2006), Victoria Azarenka (2012), Caro- Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova needs to reach the SF to remain in the Top 30 (pending other results). line Wozniacki (2018). SEMIFINAL DEBUT This year’s Australian Open will feature at least one Grand Slam semifinal debutante as Sofia Kenin has advanced to the final four. Kontaveit and Pavlyuchen- kova play today for a chance to join Kenin in making their Grand Slam semifinal debut. This will be the eighth-straight year (since 2013) that the Australian Open has seen a player making her Slam semifinal debut. Further, since the 2013 Austra- lian Open, 26 of the 29 Grand Slams have witnessed a Slam semifinal debut. WOMEN’S TENNIS ASSOCIATION STATS & STORYLINES COUNTRY BREAKDOWN AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE A total of 34 different countries were represented in With Ashleigh Barty’s win over Petra Kvitova on the draw this year at the Australian Open with players Tuesday, she not only avenged last year’s QF loss from eight different countries advancing to the QF. to the Czech but has become the first Australian to reach the SF here in Melbourne since Wendy Turnbull With Sofia Kenin into the SF, an American has now in 1984. Her historic run will continue with a chance reached the semifinals at 20 of the last 22 Grand to become the first Australian to reach the final since Slams. An American has also ascended to the top of Turnbull did so in 1980. the Australian Open podium a total of 17 times in the Open Era - the most of any country followed by Aus- Should she win the title, she would be become the tralia with 10. first Australian to win her home slam since Chris O’Neil in 1978. Anett Kontaveit hopes to be the first female from Es- tonia to reach the SF of a Grand Slam. Barty is used to making Australian history after her title run at Roland Garros last year becoming just the third Australian woman in the Open Era to win Roland Garros and first since Margaret Court in 1973. After winning back-to-back titles last year on the clay of Roland Garros and the grass courts of Birming- ham, she ascended to World No.1 becaming the first Australian woman in 43 years to reach the top spot: a position she regained after winning the year-end Shi- seido WTA Finals and a posititon she will hold after this fortnight. PAV’S DROUGHT Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova has a chance to end a thirteen year streak of 49 straight Grand Slam appear- ances without reaching a SF. Her record in QF match- es stands at 0-5 with her last attempt coming here last year falling at the QF stage to Danielle Collins who SUPREME GARBIÑE subsequently made her Grand Slam SF debut. Should Pavlyuchenkova win today, it would mark the Garbiñe Muguruza is back in the Australian Open second most attempts by a player ever before reach- quarterfinals for the first time since 2017. The two- ing the final four of a major. time Grand Slam champion has only made the QF at a major on one other occasion since she won the title PLAYER GRAND SLAM at Wimbledon in 2017. ATTEMPTS NAME SF DEBUT However she looks back to championship form earn- STRYCOVA, Barbora 53 2019 WIM ing back-to-back complete match wins over Top 10 opposition for the first time since she won the title at LIKHOVTSEVA, Elena 46 2005 RG Cincinnati in 2017. This could be in thanks to her re- VINCI, Roberta 44 2015 USO union with former coach and Grand Slam champion herself, Conchita Martinez, with whom Muguruza won TAUZIAT, Nathalie 42 1998 WIM her second Grand Slam title.