Everyone Watches Women's Tennis

News Around the Tour, DC & Prague Open Preview

• Matipaishe RM • Season 1 • Episode 6

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In this episode I will take you through some of the key news that's been announced around the WTA tour in the past week and a half, from title wins to comebacks to breaks and retirement announcements. Then to this week's competitions, the DC Open and Prague Open, I'll provide a brief preview plus my winner predictions for each of the tournaments.

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Matipa Ruzive (00:06)
Hello and welcome back to Everyone Watches Women's Tennis, a tennis podcast that is solely focused on the women's game, giving you regular updates about what is taking place on the WTA Tour, both on and off the court. Hi everyone. Welcome back as per usual. Today I just have a quick little fun, I say quick, I haven't finished recording, maybe it's not gonna be quick at all, episode for you.

Because Wimbledon ended recently,

it means we kind of have to refresh our heads, our minds and then start moving on to a different part of the season which I mentioned last episode is the North American Hard court Swing.

And so today I'll just be going through some of the news that has been announced within the WTA tour this week. So going from the winners

off the two 250 level clay tournaments that occurred in the past week to retirement announcements.

And then once we go through all of that,

list of quick news, I'll also just do a brief, brief preview of this week's two tournaments. So the Washington DC Open and the Prague Open. And those are the first two hard court.

tournaments after Wimbledon.

Okay, so just getting into news around the WTA tour. I'm just going to start on a happy note and you'll realize as I go through the different news, It'll start off on a high and then it'll probably end on a not so high. So we'll start off on some highs, quite a few highs, and then we'll end on a couple of lows as well.

So as I mentioned, right after Wimbledon, there are some tournaments on clay that are held. One was in Hamburg

Germany, and the other one was in Iasi Romania.

with having two tournaments it also means we have two tournament winners which is always great news.

So starting off in Hamburg, we have Lois Boisson winning her first WTA title. And this was down at the 250 level on the clay, as I mentioned,

And she's reaching more and more milestones. And I guess Clay's her thing because that French Open performance and then winning her first WTA title on Clay. So great to see that with that result as well. She jumps to number 44 in the live rankings. And just a quick overview. A lot of this news I'll just be doing fast

Because of something always happening, if I go too in depth, we would be here forever.

I didn't get the chance to watch the final fully. It did start a bit earlier

here in Australia than other matches typically do in Europe for us. So I was following the score line, but I didn't get to watch the full match. But from what I did follow, I saw that Lois was down a double break in the first set and she came back to win that match in straight sets. So she was down a double break in the first set and then she was also down a break in the second set.

she was still able to overturn that and win the match in straight sets. So congratulations to her. It's nice to see, it's nice to see her making steady progress especially on that, on that French Open performance.

And then moving on to the second tournament winner, have Irina Camelia Bagu who won her sixth WTA title and it was done on home soil in Iasi, Romania against Swiss Jill Teichmann. And she won that match six love seven five. I don't have too much to say about that match, but it's always nice seeing a player win a title when they're in their home country or even their home city or town.

for this tournament, I was actually hoping for an old Romanian final, just to guarantee that there'd be a Romanian winner, but we got one regardless.

Then third news I've got for you is Sloane Stephens former Grand Slam champion, US Open 2017. She was awarded the 2025 Muhammad Ali Sports Humanitarian Award at the annual SBs. And for those that don't know what SB stands for, it's Excellence in Sports Performance yearly awards.

So essentially the Oscars of sports. She was recognized for the impact she's making off the court with her Sloane Stephens foundation that helps shape.

with her Sloane Stephens foundation. And this foundation, what it does, I would actually read off the website, because I think it's always with foundations or with like brands and companies. Sometimes the best source is to go to their website and see what the brand actually says about themselves. So the Sloane Stephens foundation

It helps shape constructive futures for youth by providing enhanced educational opportunities and encouraging healthy active lifestyles through tennis.

And with Sloane for like the past year and a bit, I have been seeing her a lot more off the court, still involved in tennis, but doing a lot more advocacy for children and advocacy for women in tennis as well. So great to see that because I think with sports you have to

Obviously achievements on the court mean a lot. You've worked your whole life for it, but you have to be

I think you have to become well-rounded as a person because this sport that you play, this job that you have, it's not forever. And when you step off the court, who are you as a person? Like what do do with your success? So it's always nice to see when players go beyond themselves or look at beyond themselves as tennis players.

And then the fourth one, this deserves some fanfare. Venus Williams, say 45 year old, even though age doesn't really matter. 45 year old Venus Williams, legend, all time great, seven time singles Grand Slam champion. Will be back on the court. She received a wild card to the Washington DC Open and will be competing for the first time in about 16 months.

and she'll be competing in both, ⁓ she'll be competing in both the singles and doubles with Hayley Baptiste. So that's going to be great to see more on that later, since I will be doing a preview of the DC Open. Then onto some, now we're getting to the, so those, so that was all the good stuff. And then now we're just going through some news that's, you know, not great.

⁓ we'll start off here with Eugenie Bouchard will be retiring. She announced that she'll be retiring from professional tennis in the next month or so.

She announced that her final tournament will be at the Montreal Open, also known as the Canadian Open. I will use those interchangeably. Yeah, it'll be her last tournament. She received a wild card, so she will play the first round and then hopefully she can win as many matches as possible.

It's a fitting end considering she was born in Montreal, Canada.

and that she'll be able to end her career on her terms and be finishing it off on home soil. But on Eugenie Bouchard, she made her mark on the tennis world in about 2014. I remember watching this actually by making the semi-finals of that year's Australian Open.

So she made the semi-finals of the Australian Open as well as the French Open and then later made the Wimbledon final but but falling short of the title to Petra Kvitova. I think with Eugenie her career never hit the heights that we expected off it due to

coaching changes, injuries, concussions, and just being out of form. But she did make an impact that year of 2014, even the year before coming into 2014, she was voted WTA Newcomer of the Year.

but great and impactful career nonetheless.

And she is credited to have like paved the way for Canadian tennis for players such as Bianca Andreescu and Leylah Fernandez.

then moving on to the next bit of news. Zheng Qingwen announced that she won't be playing for a short while. There's no specific date or like time period, but she recently had elbow surgery and this was due to a persistent right elbow injury.

which makes sense because we've seen her with like

which makes sense because we've seen her playing with an elbow brace slash compression sleeve thing since the Australian Open and her performances as well kind of line up with having pain in her elbow. She's had some great performances, but then she's but she also hasn't hit the heights that she has in the past couple of years.

What I'm trying to say is she hasn't played her best tennis consistently this year. So she will be out of the US Open for sure. But

Yes, just wishing her a very speedy recovery, for sure.

And then lastly, the news that we have around the tour, Onze Jebo, former world number two and three time Grand Slam runner up, announced that she'll be taking a break from professional tennis,

citing that she hasn't felt happy on a court for some time now and it's very sad to hear especially coming from one of the most joyous players on the court

but it also makes sense considering the injuries that she's dealt with past couple of years. And in that post she made about taking a break, she said there's also been other challenges that we don't know of. it's an indefinite break. We're not sure how long she'll be out for, but wishing Ons the best. I don't think anyone has a bad thing to say about her.

But yeah, her the best and hopefully she can come back soon.

and win a grand slam, fingers crossed. I say that tentatively, but I'm still hopeful, always hopeful.

would Ons be one of the best players to not have won a slam? Not sure. I'll do my research on that. I'll bring it back to you guys. I'll report back.

and then some further news to do with the tour.

the Canada Open, obviously once that tournament comes around I'll discuss it in more depth but at the moment we've had a couple of players pull out, some pretty big names as well. So I'll just quickly go through them. We'll start with the ones that I've already mentioned that aren't playing for a while anyway. So that's Zheng Qin Wen.

and onshibo. And then we also have Paula Badosa who pulled out due to injury. It's the back issue of course. her back has caused her issues

for I don't know how many years.

But just before Wimbledon she suffered a further tear in her lower back. So that's what's keeping her out of the next couple of tournaments. Hopefully she'll be ready by US Open. I'm quite sad for Paula because last year, this section last year, she performed really well. And that's basically what propelled her back to the top 10. So...

Knowing you can't play also means knowing that you're gonna drop points and maybe your ranking as well Which means when you do come back to play you might not be seeded or you'll be seeded in uncomfortable places And then the last player as I Record right now who's pulled out is world number one Aryna Sabalenka She announced that she's pulling out citing fatigue which

again makes sense considering she's played 56 matches so far this year which is the highest of anyone in the top 50 and I think her fatigue is both physical and mental.

And as the US Open champion.

defending champion especially most likely going against a crowd that's not gonna like you

due to that French Open and the French Open comments. She probably has to mentally prepare herself, but also be physically at her peak, because she's gonna have to fight to retain her US Open crown.

But on that not so nice sad news, there is a flip to it. Like it's hard hearing and it's hearing when players have to pull out due to injury or can't play, especially these like mandatory tournaments because.

they're big opportunities to win big titles

but it does provide an opportunity for other players, especially those who would have had to play qualifiers to make it through to the main draw without having to go through that process.

And it helps them as well, because then they might actually have a better run at the tournament since they won't have to play qualifiers a few days beforehand.

Moving on to the Prague Open, which obviously is the capital city of Czechia, also known as the Czech Republic. This is a 250 level tournament and it's held, I know I call this part of the year the North American Hard court Swing, but this is a tournament that's outside of that continent.

Just going through it quickly, I'm not going to do any like going draw by draw predictions. None of that. I just want to let you know that there's a tournament on, and just give you a brief overview about the top seeds defending champion and

who I think is gonna take out the title. I will say I feel like I think these

I think these like lower levels of the 250s and the 500s, I think they're more difficult to predict than

than Grand Slams and a thousand level tournaments because the whole field isn't there and

and sometimes top 10 players aren't there. So you don't have a clear favorite. You have seeds, but you could have someone who seeded number one, but ranked 20 and are in a bad patch of form. So it's hard to make a call on that, Anyway, so for Prague Open, we've got the top seeds.

Sorry, before I go into the top seeds, a couple of them pulled out. So some of the numbers are a bit weird because there's some players that are missing, but I'll just let you know what the seeds are based on the people that played and what they were seeded, if that makes sense. So we've got Linda Nosková seeded number one. Then we have Rebecca Sramkova seeded two.

And then we have Wang Xinyu as the fourth seed. Then Marie Bouzkova as the fifth seed. And then we've got Elena Gabriela Ruse seventh seed. And then Alycia Parks, eighth seed. And An Li as the ninth seed.

And in this draw we actually have 10 10 checks and because the first round has already been played moving on to the second round we have eight check players

which again obviously makes sense. It's a home tournament. You'd always want to play in front of a home crowd and most likely wild cards would have been given out to Czech players that wouldn't be able to make it direct into the draw. Then saying all of that, the defending champion so the 2024 champion was Magda Linette but she is not in the field.

And then

but she's actually going to be playing in Washington DC. So someone else will be taking over the crown. Hopefully a Czech player. Like I said, I like when people win at home for the smaller tournaments, like the smaller and mid-sized tournaments. Grand slams, I'm not too fussed then just quickly going into my prediction. I think Linda Nosková, again, Czech,

will take the title.

She's playing quite well, especially coming off the fourth round at Wimbledon. She ended up losing to Amanda Anisimova, but she made a good showing off of it. She made a good showing off it. was like a three set battle. So that's that's my winner. But if let's say the Czech player or a Czech player doesn't take the title, I think Wang Xin Yu.

⁓ should also take that one out. She's also played quite well

She had the final in Berlin.

She didn't end up playing as well as I expected at Wimbledon but I still think she she's been in good form and her confidence is up.

Then moving on to the Washington DC Open, I will be watching this tournament. Again, they've already played the first round of matches. I'll still talk about the tournament as if it hasn't started and then I'll just go through the results of the first round.

So with the DC open, I'll start with our seeds, which go from Jessica Pegula is seeded number one, then Emma Navarro at two.

Seed number three is Elena Rybakina Fourth seed Clara Tauson

then Magdalena Frech at seed number five, Sofia Kenin sixth seed, then Marta Kostyuk as the seventh seed. And to close it off, we've got Magda Linette as the eighth seed. So as you can see based on the seeds, only one player in the top 10 is in this draw, but the field is stacked regardless.

5 Grand Slam Champions

in the draw and that includes seven time grand slam champion legend venus williams sorry every time i speak about venus i'm hyping her up because

I think she deserves a lot more ⁓ fanfare. Anyway, then obviously Naomi Osaka has won four Grand Slams. We have Emma Navarro, Elena Rybakina and Sofia Kenin who all won one Grand Slam.

And then last year's winner is Paula Badosa but Paula is not playing due to injury. So again she will not be retaining her title and there will be someone taking it over. In the draw as well there's only one past winner which is Jessica Pegula and she won in 2019. And then

I will quickly go through some notes that I have and just some highlights of the tournament so far and then give you my semi-final prediction and my winner prediction.

So start with round one.

just going through round one and the matches.

So round one, the top four seeds get a bye. So they don't play in the first round. They just move on to the second round, which is a round of 16. So we'll start at the top. Jess Pegula bye. Then Leylah Fernandez beat Maya Joint 6-3-6-3. Then Taylor Townsend beat Tatjana Maria 6-4-7-5.

Sofia Kenin beat Hailey Baptiste 6-3 7-6. Then third seed Lena Rybakina with a bye. Then we have 18 year old Victoria Mboko beating Anastasia Potapova 6-2 6-4. Then Venus Williams beat Peyton Stearns in straight sets 6-3 6-4. Then Magdalena Frech beat

Yulia Staro dubtseva 6-2 6-4 then Magdalene beat Danielle Collins 7-5 6-4 then Anna Kalinskaya won in straight sets against Kamila Rakhimova that was 6-2 6-3

and only three set match of the tournament was won by Caroline Dolehide against McCartney Kessler That was and that scoreline was 7-6-5-7-6-3.

Then fourth seed Clara Tauson with a bye. Then Emma Raducanu beat Marta Kostyuk 7-6-6-4. So that's the only fallen seed. We've got Naomi Osaka who played Yulia Putinseva and beat her 6-2-7-5. Then last match that was played was against Maria Sakkari and Katie Bolta with Sakkari coming out on top 6-3-6-4. And then of course Emma Navarro with a bye.

So that's the field. And then those are the round of 32 or first round results. Again, like I said, I'm not gonna go through the entire tournament and predict every single match, but what I'll do is give you my semi-final predictions and my finalist predictions.

which I've already mentioned before. But before I predict these, this next round, I'm just going to say, as I mentioned while going through the results is we did lose one seed in Marta Kostyuk to Emma Raducanu in two pretty tight sets.

Emma played very well, she was quite tenacious. Marta has just been having a horrid year, not matching the results that she had last year.

Yeah, Marta has just not been having a great year. Her last win was at the Italian Open and

That's five tournaments ago, not counting the Italian Open. So she hasn't won in five games.

And I think to be honest, she would have had a difficult time winning against anyone, let alone Emma Raducanu, who's got a great new coach in her corner, but is also playing very well and is also high on confidence. It's just not a great combination for someone who's looking for their first win in a while. But I'm sure it's coming soon for Marta.

And then another note is Venus Williams got through Peyton Stearns in straight sets of 6, 3, 6, 4. She was moving so well. I and she just looked happy to be out there to be playing tennis. someone said She's not here to sign autographs or take photos. She's here to play and

clearly evident and I will say great opponent to have in Peyton Stearns because Peyton's been in horrid form since making the semis off the Rome Open

three out of the four tournaments that she's played recently, she's lost in the first round. So she's looking and searching for win anywhere before that US Open comes around.

And if Hayton loses in the first round of the US Open, it means that this entire year she hasn't made it past the first round of any of the majors. So she needs to get her form up very, quick. but her best performances in Grand Slams have come at the US Open. But that's looking too far in advance, just giving her a warning.

Okay, those were just some matches tonight.

and then just going through my my semi-finalist predictions I have got here first semi-final is Sofia Kenin versus Rybakina then the second semi-final is Naomi Osaka versus Emma Navarro and then I've predicted for Kenin to win I'll be honest with you I don't really have any rhyme or reason for this it's just I believe in the Kenin ssaince

I think it's time. I think she's been slowly and a little bit quietly building up her form, building up her game because she's seeded again

and currently ranked number 26.

And once it starts clicking and working for Kenin

no one probably wants to be on the other side of the court against her but I think at the moment and I saw at the saw at the French Open she is losing in the mind to players she's not losing based on off her tennis because she was playing a really great game against Madison Keys at the French Open but she was really she was not satisfied and

She also had a few match points, but her not being satisfied with her game allowed her I think she let that creep in and then the doubt came and she wasn't able to win off her own racket but as I said, I believe in the Keninssaince and I think it's time for her to make a statement, make an impact and win her first title since 2020 at least her first singles title since 2020.

Okay, that is all I have to say for now. I appreciate you taking the time to listen. Don't forget to follow the podcast's Instagram,

which is EWWT podcast.

And yeah, and I said last episode as well, I'll be doing a tennis 101 video as well as podcast episode. So if any one who's listening and supporting me is confused about basically everything I talk about and you have specific questions you want about tennis answered, shoot me a message on the Instagram or if you have my personal contact details, just message me.

And I'll note that down and bring up those questions in the videos. But again, thank you for supporting me. Bye