The tennis year 2018 is over at least for the ladies. Time to take a look back at the best matches of the past season.
Simona Halep currently leads the women’s world rankings. And the Romanian also sees the list of the best matches at the top. The final of the Rogers Cup in Montreal against Sloane Stephens was chosen by the WTA as the highest quality match of the year.
Halep won the almost three-hour final with 7-6 (6), 3-6 and 6-4 and said: “Every time we play against each other, I have to play better than before”. Stephens could only return this compliment: “She makes me a better player in every one of our matches.”
Second place is taken by an encounter in February. Caroline Wozniacki and Petra Kvitova duelled in the semi-finals of the tournament in Qatar. The Czech recovered well from the lost first set and won the second round with 3:6, 7:6 (3) and 7:5 after a break in the second half. For Wozniacki, the defeat after her Australian Open triumph meant a setback in the fight for the first world ranking position for the first time.
Olga Danilovic and Anastasia Potapova, both 17 years old, secured their last place on the podium. With her 7:5, 6:7 (1) and 6:4, Danilovic not only crowned herself the first winner from the 2000s, but also the first “Lucky Lose Tournament Winner” in history.
Fourth and fifth places are Kiki Bertens’ final victory over Simona Halep in Cincinnnati and Angelique Kerbers’ first-round victory over Lucie Safarova in Sydney. Both later winners fended off two match points from their opponents in each of these matches. It remains to be hoped that the coming year will be as dramatic and of the same high quality as the 2018 season.