Serena's Schedule

[drm025]

So I had assumed that Serena had 5 tournaments left according to her website: Toronto, Cincy, USO, Beijing, and YEC. Today, I was looking through the scheduled tournaments for the rest of the year and it looks like Serena has committed to Tokyo too?? I had assumed she would skip it, since she only needs to play 4 of the 5 premier 5 tournaments, right?

She is playing so much tennis this year! I don't want her to get burnt out... She could just pull out of a tournament, but if she's already committed, she'll have to count a zero-pointer.

 

[ozza]

Theoretically she can't skip Tokyo. You are not allowed to skip the same Premier 5 in consecutive years, so she had to "commit".

 

[RJD11]

Theoretically she can't skip Tokyo. You are not allowed to skip the same Premier 5 in consecutive years, so she had to "commit".

I thought once you past 30 you can -play when you want.

 

[RJD11]

Serena Williams‘ take on her 2013 season, which has included seven titles (one being the French Open), a 51-3 record, a career-best 34-match winning streak and a fourth-round loss at Wimbledon: “decent.”

“Honestly, I would have preferred to do better in some tournaments,” Williams said in a conference call on Monday leading up to next week’s Rogers Cup in Toronto. “I need to do well in a tournament like Toronto to get ready for the last Grand Slam of the year and do really well there too.”

 

[tented]

Serena Williams‘ take on her 2013 season, which has included seven titles (one being the French Open), a 51-3 record, a career-best 34-match winning streak and a fourth-round loss at Wimbledon: “decent.”

Some may guffaw at this, but I think it should serve as a lesson to the lower-ranked players. For Serena to be having such an amazing year, yet only call it "decent" shows the level of drive, competitiveness, and desire that has made her such an incredible champion.

 

[ozza]

Theoretically she can't skip Tokyo. You are not allowed to skip the same Premier 5 in consecutive years, so she had to "commit".

I thought once you past 30 you can -play when you want.

You have to register as an over 30 player before the seasons starts. Serena didn't do that.

 

[special700]

How do you know she did not register?

 

[ozza]

How do you know she did not register?

Journalists reported it at the beginning of the year.

 

[drm025]

Theoretically she can't skip Tokyo. You are not allowed to skip the same Premier 5 in consecutive years, so she had to "commit".

Do you think she's likely to skip since she doesn't list Tokyo on her website?? Receiving another zero would make the fact that shes playing a lot of tournaments worthless because she'll hardly be able to count any of them!

 

[ozza]

Theoretically she can't skip Tokyo. You are not allowed to skip the same Premier 5 in consecutive years, so she had to "commit".

Do you think she's likely to skip since she doesn't list Tokyo on her website?? Receiving another zero would make the fact that shes playing a lot of tournaments worthless because she'll hardly be able to count any of them!

I will believe it when I see it. Imo if she plays Tokyo, she will play Beijing. It's either neither or both.

Serena's still only 'played' 12 tournaments and that includes the zero's from Dubai and Indian Wells. You can only have 3 zero's on your ranking maximum. Really Serena has only played 10 tournaments, and if she skipped Tokyo and Beijing would only be playing 13 tournaments before the end of the year (Toronto, Cincinnati, US Open). So she could skip both if she liked with no effect on her ranking (you only count 16 events + Year End Championship).

In the event she does follow her website's schedule and skips Tokyo, but plays Beijing, she will have to drop her lowest points total from a non-mandatory (the 280 points for winning Bastad), it's unlikely to affect her ranking position.

 

[drm025]

Theoretically she can't skip Tokyo. You are not allowed to skip the same Premier 5 in consecutive years, so she had to "commit".

Do you think she's likely to skip since she doesn't list Tokyo on her website?? Receiving another zero would make the fact that shes playing a lot of tournaments worthless because she'll hardly be able to count any of them!

I will believe it when I see it. Imo if she plays Tokyo, she will play Beijing. It's either neither or both.

Serena's still only 'played' 12 tournaments and that includes the zero's from Dubai and Indian Wells. You can only have 3 zero's on your ranking maximum. Really Serena has only played 10 tournaments, and if she skipped Tokyo and Beijing would only be playing 13 tournaments before the end of the year (Toronto, Cincinnati, US Open). So she could skip both if she liked with no effect on her ranking (you only count 16 events + Year End Championship).

In the event she does follow her website's schedule and skips Tokyo, but plays Beijing, she will have to drop her lowest points total from a non-mandatory (the 280 points for winning Bastad), it's unlikely to affect her ranking position.

If she does skip Tokyo, I think she has to drop 2 non-mandatories. Her tournaments for 2013 would be: Brisbane, AO, Doha, Dubai, IW, Miami, Charleston, Madrid, Rome, FO, Wimby, Bastad, Toronto, Cincy, USO, Tokyo, Beijing, YEC. That's 18 total tournaments and she would have to count 3 zeros for Dubai, IW, and Tokyo. So, of the 15 remaining tournaments she could only count 13 (YEC does count for one of the 16, I don't know why people keep saying it's extra, it only works that way for the men). She would have to drop Bastad and either a premier tournament win (Brisbane or Charleston) or Toronto or Cincy if she doesn't go far.

 

[JesuslookslikeBorg]

serena is very busy this year..around 50 matches already.. thats often a whole season in the past.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Theoretically she can't skip Tokyo. You are not allowed to skip the same Premier 5 in consecutive years, so she had to "commit".

Do you think she's likely to skip since she doesn't list Tokyo on her website?? Receiving another zero would make the fact that shes playing a lot of tournaments worthless because she'll hardly be able to count any of them!

I will believe it when I see it. Imo if she plays Tokyo, she will play Beijing. It's either neither or both.

Serena's still only 'played' 12 tournaments and that includes the zero's from Dubai and Indian Wells. You can only have 3 zero's on your ranking maximum. Really Serena has only played 10 tournaments, and if she skipped Tokyo and Beijing would only be playing 13 tournaments before the end of the year (Toronto, Cincinnati, US Open). So she could skip both if she liked with no effect on her ranking (you only count 16 events + Year End Championship).

In the event she does follow her website's schedule and skips Tokyo, but plays Beijing, she will have to drop her lowest points total from a non-mandatory (the 280 points for winning Bastad), it's unlikely to affect her ranking position.

If she does skip Tokyo, I think she has to drop 2 non-mandatories. Her tournaments for 2013 would be: Brisbane, AO, Doha, Dubai, IW, Miami, Charleston, Madrid, Rome, FO, Wimby, Bastad, Toronto, Cincy, USO, Tokyo, Beijing, YEC. That's 18 total tournaments and she would have to count 3 zeros for Dubai, IW, and Tokyo. So, of the 15 remaining tournaments she could only count 13 (YEC does count for one of the 16, I don't know why people keep saying it's extra, it only works that way for the men). She would have to drop Bastad and either a premier tournament win (Brisbane or Charleston) or Toronto or Cincy if she doesn't go far.

How does it work? For each mandatory (less than 4 premier 5
tournament) that she does not participate, does she have to drop
points from one non-mandatory tournament?

Also, since they made IW as mandatory, what is the complete
list of penalties for Serena for missing it. How does she get away
with it? I assume she will not be paid any bonus pool money.
Is that correct?

 

[Correspondent Kiu]

Vika pulled out of Toronto, so did Maria way before then!
They gonna let other girls fight Serena...
Lets see if Serena plays both Toronto and Cincy. She will at a disadvantage if she does, going into the big apple.

 

[RJD11]

Williams has amassed a 51-3 record this year, picking up seven WTA titles to bring her career tally to 53 (Brisbane, Miami, Charleston, Madrid, Rome, French Open and Bastad). And for a player who has done almost everything there is in the sport, she has achieved a few more: in February she returned to No.1 in the world, becoming the oldest player ever to hold the top spot; during Wimbledon she surpassed 600 career match wins, just the 15th player all-time to do so and only second active player (after Venus Williams); and a few weeks ago she won her first International-level title in Bastad.

The American has won the WTA Championships three times before, in 2001, 2009 and last year.

"I congratulate Serena on becoming the first player to secure her place at the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships - Istanbul 2013," said WTA Chairman & CEO Stacey Allaster. "Serena is having yet another extraordinary season on tour, and continues to be one of the sport's greatest champions. She has earned the opportunity to defend her title and be part of our very special season finale in Istanbul."

Following two successful, record-breaking editions, Istanbul hosts the WTA Championships for the third and final year in 2013. In 2012, the tournament attracted more than 73,000 fans during six days of competition, the highest attendance at the year-end event since 2000. Broadcast coverage reached 167 countries, and the overall hours produced increased 25 percent, including live matches, match replays and highlights. Nearly 42 million fans followed the on-court and behind-the-scenes action via WTA social media and digital platforms, and it was a record-setting week for the official WTA website that week, with approximately 4.8 million page impressions and nearly 500,000 unique visitors. - See more at:


http://www.wtatennis.com/news/article/3338761/title/serena-first-to-qualify-for-istanbul#sthash.LGGjZfVY.dpuf
- See more at: http://www.wtatennis.com/news/article/3338761/title/serena-first-to-qualify-for-istanbul#sthash.LGGjZfVY.dpuf

 

[tented]

Williams has amassed a 51-3 record this year ...

"I congratulate Serena on becoming the first player to secure her place at the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships - Istanbul 2013," said WTA Chairman & CEO Stacey Allaster. "Serena is having yet another extraordinary season on tour, and continues to be one of the sport's greatest champions. She has earned the opportunity to defend her title and be part of our very special season finale in Istanbul."

51-3: You know a player is having an amazing year when you can remember every loss.

 

[Calvy]

Williams has amassed a 51-3 record this year ...

"I congratulate Serena on becoming the first player to secure her place at the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships - Istanbul 2013," said WTA Chairman & CEO Stacey Allaster. "Serena is having yet another extraordinary season on tour, and continues to be one of the sport's greatest champions. She has earned the opportunity to defend her title and be part of our very special season finale in Istanbul."

51-3: You know a player is having an amazing year when you can remember every loss.

And the hilarious thing is, she thinks she's only has had an okay year so far at best.

I guess that's why she number 1, never good enough.

 

[kskate2]

Williams has amassed a 51-3 record this year ...

"I congratulate Serena on becoming the first player to secure her place at the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships - Istanbul 2013," said WTA Chairman & CEO Stacey Allaster. "Serena is having yet another extraordinary season on tour, and continues to be one of the sport's greatest champions. She has earned the opportunity to defend her title and be part of our very special season finale in Istanbul."

51-3: You know a player is having an amazing year when you can remember every loss.

And the hilarious thing is, she thinks she's only has had an okay year so far at best.

I guess that's why she number 1, never good enough.

Well if you think about it, 2 of her 3 losses came at the slams where she should thrive. So it's understandable she would feel that way being a perfectionist and all.

 

[Calvy]

Williams has amassed a 51-3 record this year ...

"I congratulate Serena on becoming the first player to secure her place at the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships - Istanbul 2013," said WTA Chairman & CEO Stacey Allaster. "Serena is having yet another extraordinary season on tour, and continues to be one of the sport's greatest champions. She has earned the opportunity to defend her title and be part of our very special season finale in Istanbul."

51-3: You know a player is having an amazing year when you can remember every loss.

And the hilarious thing is, she thinks she's only has had an okay year so far at best.

I guess that's why she number 1, never good enough.

Well if you think about it, 2 of her 3 losses came at the slams where she should thrive. So it's understandable she would feel that way being a perfectionist and all.

True!

It makes no sense she isn't the Wimbledon champ right now, none.

 

[colleen66]

Williams has amassed a 51-3 record this year ...

"I congratulate Serena on becoming the first player to secure her place at the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships - Istanbul 2013," said WTA Chairman & CEO Stacey Allaster. "Serena is having yet another extraordinary season on tour, and continues to be one of the sport's greatest champions. She has earned the opportunity to defend her title and be part of our very special season finale in Istanbul."

51-3: You know a player is having an amazing year when you can remember every loss.

And the hilarious thing is, she thinks she's only has had an okay year so far at best.

I guess that's why she number 1, never good enough.

Well if you think about it, 2 of her 3 losses came at the slams where she should thrive. So it's understandable she would feel that way being a perfectionist and all.

True!

It makes no sense she isn't the Wimbledon champ right now, none.

Even though on paper she has had a season most players would give their right arm for, there is a feeling of "this should have been better". I am sure that the "unsatisfied" feeling Serena has will be used as motivation during the USO and the end of the year tournaments.