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Wk.8- Rise of an Unassuming Spaniard

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Wk.8- Rise of an Unassuming Spaniard


*WEEK 8 CHAMPIONS*

MERIDA, MEXICO (WTA 500; Hard Court Outdoor)

S: Cristina Bucsa/ESP def. Magdalena Frech/POL 6-1/4-6/6-4

D: Cristina Bucsa/Jiang Xinyu (ESP/CHN) def. Isabelle Haverlag/Maia Lumsden (NED/GBR) 6-4/6-1

AUSTIN (TX), UNITED STATES (WTA 250; Hard Court Outdoor)

S: Peyton Stearns/USA def. Taylor Townsend/USA 7-6(8)/7-5

D: Storm Hunter/Taylor Townsend (AUS/AUS) def. Eudice Chong/Liang En-shou (HKG/TPE) 6-3/6-4

Antalya, Turkey (WTA 125; Red Clay Outdoor)

S: Moyuka Uchijima/JPN def. Anhelina Kalinina/UKR 7-5/7-5

D: Maria Kozyreva/Iryna Shymanovich (RUS/BLR) def. Momoko Kobori/Peangtarn Plipuech (JPN/THA) 7-5/6-1

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PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Cristina Bucsa/ESP

…neither the ever-unassuming Spaniard nor her game has ever really *jumped out* over the years. Coached by her self-taught father, a former biathlete who was a two-time flag bearer (1998 and 2002) for the Moldovan Winter Olympic team, Bucsa was unsponsored until finally signing a clothing deal in the middle of last season (four years after her slam debut) after previously having bought her own gear and rackets off the shelf.

Bucsa has always done things “her own way,” stating that she “doesn’t have time” and “wants to take care of (her)self.” She still doesn’t have a public social media profile (aside from a Facebook account to set up doubles partnerships) in an age where “going viral” is often as much of a path toward recognition on tour than actual results.

Thing is, Bucsa actually *has* those.

The one-time New Year’s baby (she was born in Moldova, for which she played early in her career, on January 1 in 1998) has been one the most consistently upward-trending players on tour the last few seasons. After mostly operating in the shadows early on, I can specifically remember her largely-unfamiliar name popping up numerous times during the pandemic in 2020 when she emerged as the winner at several of the localized series of events held in Spain (as occurred all over the world during the sport’s shutdown), and she’s only seen her results slowly get bigger ever since, especially since 2024.

She was an Olympic Doubles Bronze winner that year, won a 1000 doubles title in Madrid and cracked the Top 20, while also reaching her first singles 1000 Round of 16 in Beijing. Last year, she reached her maiden 4th Round at a major (U.S.) and her first tour-level singles final late in the year in Hong Kong (she was RU to Vicky Mboko in a three-setter), where she also won the doubles. It led to her first Top 50 ranking this January.

Still, she came into Merida on a five-match losing streak, having lost 10 of 11 sets. The perfect unassuming lead-in to the best week of her career, I guess.

Bucsa didn’t lose a set en route to the singles final, taking out Donna Vekic, young Canadian Marina Stakusic, Turkish star Zeynep Sonmez and Jasmine Paolini, clipping the Italian 7-5/6-4 to notch her first career Top 10 win (she’d been 0-10) and doing so on her father’s birthday.

Simply by reaching the final, Bucsa passed Jessica Bouzas Maneiro as the new ESP #1 and assured herself of a new career-high ranking. But she wasn’t finished.

After taking a 6-1 1st set in the final against Magdalena Frech, Bucsa raced to a 5-2 lead in the 3rd after the Pole had sent things to a decider. She wobbled slightly, failing to serve out the win, but then immediately broke Frech to end the 6-1/4-6/6-4 match and claim her maiden tour title at the 500 event. She’ll be the new #31-ranked player in the world on Monday.

But Bucsa still wasn’t finished.

Just like in Hong Kong, Bucsa also reached the doubles final in Merida, played *after* the singles final on Sunday night.

This time she walked off with *two* titles, taking the crown alongside Jiang Xinyu with a 6-4/6-1 win in the final over Maia Lumsden and first-time tour finalist Isabelle Haverlag. It’s Bucs’a eighth career title, while Jiang picks up #7.

The pair won a MTB in the 1st Round over Kasintseva/Strakhova, but then didn’t lose a set the rest of the way.

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RISERS: Magdalena Frech/POL and Kimberly Birrell/AUS

…Frech came up short in the Merida final, the third of her career at tour-level, but produced her best WTA result since 2024 (when she reached her other two title matches).

Wins over Maria Timofeeva, Jessica Bouzas Maneiro and Marie Bouzkova got the Pole into her first tour SF since she won the title at another event in Mexico, in Guadalajara in September ’24. Against Zhang Shuai, Frech couldn’t close out the veteran in straights, as Zhang saved four MP in the 2nd set before winning an 8-6 TB. But Frech took control in the 3rd to reach the final, another three-set affair vs. Cristina Bucsa.

After dropping a 6-1 1st set, Frech forced a decider and denied the Spaniard when she served for the match at 5-3, but couldn’t keep things on serve and saw the match and her week end with her losing her serve at the very worst time.

She’ll jump from #57 all the way up the #36, nearly within slam seed range as the spring schedule beckons.

In Austin, Birrell reached her fourth WTA semi (second in ’26, after doing do at 500 Adelaide), stringing together wins over Petra Marcinko, Caroline Dolehide and fellow Aussie Ajla Tomljanovic.

She lost in three sets to Peyton Stearns in the final four, falling short of her third tour final appearance in three seasons, but will climb back into the Top 70 in the new rankings. Her career-high of #60 came just ten months ago.

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VETERANS: Taylor Townsend/USA and Zhang Shuai/CHN

…Townsend’s professional career has mostly centered around her doubles success, including two major crowns in 2024-25 and a stint as the WD #1, but she’ll occasionally spark in singles, as well. The 29-year old pulled double duty in Austin.

A wild card in the singles draw, Townsend barely escaped the 1st Round, saving a MP in a win over Linda Fruhvirtova, then followed that with victories over Nikola Bartunkova, Rebeka Masarova (from a set down) and Ashlyn Krueger (in straights after trailing 4-0 in the 1st, saving a SP in the TB) to reach her maiden tour-level singles final.

In the title match against Peyton Stearns, Townsend held three SP of her own in the opener, but couldn’t pull the set into her column and went on to fall in two, 7-6(8)/7-5. She’ll climb 30+ spots on Monday into the Top 90.

Townsend slipped six spots all the way down to #9 in the doubles rankings coming into the week, but reclaimed her momentum alongside Storm Hunter, taking the doubles honors.

Zhang has pushed well beyond the 24-match losing streak that she suffered through in 2023-24. In Merida, the 37-year old made her way through qualifying and ultimately reached the SF, her second WTA semi since late last year (Guangzhou).

An opening win over Varvara Lepchenko was followed up by an upset of defending Merida champ Emma Navarro, then a straight sets win over Victoria Jimenez Kastinseva. Trying to reach her first tour-level singles final since 2022, Zhang pushed Magdalena Frech deep into the 2nd set after dropping the 1st. Zhang saved a pair of MP at 5-4, then two more in the TB, which the Chinese veteran won 8-6. All it did was delay the inevitable, though, as Frech put away a 6-3 deciding set to advance.

Zhang will jump 25 spots to #61 on Monday, her highest standing since August 2023, when she was 16 losses into the losing streak that took place over a 20-month stretch (February 2023-September 2024).

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COMEBACKS: Peyton Stearns/USA and Ashlyn Krueger/USA

…ranked #28 last spring, #62-ranked Stearns returned this past week to the city of her old college exploits in Austin, where she reigned as the women’s NCAA singles champion in 2022 while playing for the University of Texas. Turns out, the old muscle memory held up.

Stearns’ run saw her go three sets in her first four matches en route to her third tour-level singles final (first on hard court), going the distance in wins over Francesca Jones, Oksana Selekhmeteva and Kimberly Birrell (while getting a straight sets win over Kaja Juvan). Stearns hadn’t reached the QF/SF level in a WTA event since her Rome semifinal last spring, when she upset the likes of Kalinskaya, Keys, Osaka and Svitolina in succession (then went to Madrid and got a win over Anisimova, too). It was her only QF+ result at tour-level all last season.

Against Taylor Townsend in the final, Stearns saved three SP in the 1st set, won a 10-8 tie-break (on her fifth SP) and took the match in straights to earn her second WTA singles title and book a return to the Top 50 in the new rankings.

Of note, Stearns’ title run comes amidst official complaints against her recently-added new coach, Rafael Font de Mora, regarding alleged misconduct and inappropriate relationships with players during his previous coaching stints on tour.

Meanwhile, Krueger is surely hoping her semifinal run in Austin will turn around what has been an exceedingly sluggish start to her ’26 campaign.

Having reached the Top 30 last July and appearing in a pair of tour-level finals (a title in ’23, RU in ’25) in recent years, the 21-year old Bannerette came into the week at #103 after a 1-5 start to the new season, and was on a 1-7 slide going back to late last year. Since her 1st Round win over Sofia Kenin at the U.S. Open last summer, she’d won just two of thirteen matches.

Wins in Austin over Caty McNally, Anastasia Zakharova and Yuan Yue gave her her best result in more than a year (’25 Abu Dhabi RU after a trio of Top 40 wins over Kasatkina, Fernandez and Noskova). Against Taylor Townsend in the semis this weekend, Krueger took at 4-0 1st set lead, and even after letting her lead shrink had a chance to serve out the set at 5-4. After Townsend forced a TB, Krueger rallied from 5-1 down to hold her first SP at 6-5. But she dropped the last three points of the breaker, then saw Townsend close out the match in two.

Krueger will still climb more than 20 spots in the new rankings, nearly back into the Top 80.



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FRESH FACES: Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva/AND and Zeynep Sonmez/TUR

…20-year old Andorran Jimenez Kasintseva rode her successful Merida qualifying run to her third career tour-level QF (her second at the 500 level, along w/ another Mexico-based event in Guadalajara last September), ensuring her Top 100 debut on Monday.

VJK opened with a win over veteran Yulia Putintseva, then followed up with a victory in a 3:20 battle with Magda Linette. Facing her third straight thirtysomething foe, experience finally won out with Zhang Shuai’s straight sets QF win.

The Andorran, the 2020 AO junior champ, made her slam MD debut last year at the U.S. Open, as well as appearing in a pair of 125 finals last season and recording her maiden 1000 MD win in Madrid.

Meanwhile, Sonmez and Merida once again proved a great match, as the Turk reached her third tour-level QF, with all of them coming at the tournament: a title run in ’24 and QF last year when it was a 250 event, and this year’s follow-up QF at the newly-christened 500.

Having already posted an upset of Ekaterina Alexandrova while putting together a fan-friendly 3rd Round run (as a qualifier) in the season’s first major (a first in Melbourne for a woman from Turkey), Sonmez finally found her footing once again by recording her first match wins (after four straight losses) since AO26 with victories vs. Cadence Brace and Ann Li. Against Li, Sonmez staged a comeback from a set and 4-2 down to reach the QF.

Her run ended there, as she she fell to Cristina Bucsa a round short of the semis.

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DOWN: Emma Navarro/USA

…while the fortunes of so many Bannerettes have either continued to rise, or are on an upward trajectory, Navarro is starting to head in the other direction.

Already off to a slow start in 2026, with three one-and-done results in the season’s opening weeks, Navarro was the defending champion in Merida, where her 2nd Round defeat at the hands of Zhang Shuai gives her four winless events out of seven so far this season (5 of 8 back to to ’25), incluing at the AO, where she completed a calendar year stretch of 1r-4r-3r-1r (5-4) results in majors after posting a 4r-QF-SF-QF (16-4) run in the year that preceded it. Since her upset of Iga Swiatek last fall in the 3rd Round in Beijing, Navarro has gone 4-9.

On Monday, she’ll drop out of the Top 20 for the first time May 2024 (after 91 weeks, including a 30-week stretch in the Top 10).

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ITF PLAYER: Laura Samson/CZE

…another week, another Crusher champion. This time 17-year old Samson in the Trnava (SVK) $75K challenger.

A recent junior slam star — with a RG girls’ final in ’24, and ’23 U.S. Open SF — Samson improved to 7-1 in career pro finals with a 6-4/6-2 win over fellow Czech Lucie Havlickova, 20. The pair had teamed up last July to reach a tour-level doubles final on home soil in Prague.

Samson will crack the Top 200 on Monday, rocketing up 40+ spots to about #172.

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JUNIOR STAR: Nauhany Vitoria Leme Da Silva/BRA

…15-year old Brazilian Leme Da Silva, a year after falling in the tournament final, claimed the J300 crown at the South American Regional Championships in Santa Cruz (BOL), defeating Argentina’s Sol Ailin Larraya Guidi in a 5-7/7-6(3)/6-0 final. The two combined for the doubles title.

Last year, she reached the 3rd Round in the Wimbledon juniors, defeating Jana Kovackova before a three-set loss to eventual champ Mia Pohankova.

Though still two weeks short of her 16th birthday, Leme Da Silva (girls’ #36) has already produced some top level headlines. Aside from winning a $15K (and reaching another final) last fall, she notched a victory in her tour-level debut in Sao Paulo last September, as well as one in BJK Cup Playoff action vs. Portugal in October (a month later, she went 6-0 in Junior BJK Cup play)…

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DOUBLES: Storm Hunter/Taylor Townsend, AUS/USA

…though she fell in the singles final on Sunday afternoon, Townsend still had work to do. One of three women this season (two this week, w/ Cristina Bucsa in Merida) to reach both the singles and doubles finals at the same tour-level event in ’26, Townsend joined the other two in winning the doubles crown (only Bucsa also took the singles).

Teamed with Storm Hunter, the veterans won their first title together (after splitting the two previous finals in which they’d been opponents) without dropping a set all week, from their 1st Round defeat of Peyton Stearns/Venus Williams to their win in the final over Eudice Chong/Liang En-shou, who’d teamed since last summer to win three 125 titles and two at the ITF level (+ one in ’24), along with another WTA final appearance last fall in Guangzhou.

The win is Townsend’s 12th WTA title, and Hunter’s 10th. Hunter’s win is her second since she made her tour return at last year’s Austin event after missing nearly a year after rupturing her Achilles’ tendon during a BJK Cup practice sesion in April ’24.

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1. Austin 1st Rd. – Yuan Yue def. Rebecca Sramkova

…4-6/7-5/6-1. Last week, Sramkova saved six MP in the opening round of Dubai qualifying vs. Antonia Ruzic, eventually reaching the MD (falling in the 1st Rd.), while Ruzic became a lucky loser who played into the QF.

This time around, it was the Slovak who couldn’t put away any of three MP vs. lucky loser Yuan, having led 40/love on serve at 6-4/5-4.

Yuan ultimately won nine of the last ten games in the match.

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2. Merida 2nd Rd. – Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva def. Magda Linette

…5-7/7-6(5)/7-5. The Andorran wins in 3:20 in a match-up that saw shifts in momentum through all three sets.

Linette rallied from 4-2 back to take the 1st, then erased VJK’s 3-1 2nd set edge and forced a TB. Kasintseva led 5-2, and held on for a 7-5 win to force a 3rd set.

In the decider, VJK couldn’t serve things out at 5-3, as the Pole got things back on serve, only to be broken to end the match on Kasintseva’s third BP/MP of game 12.

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3. Austin Final – Peyton Stearns def. Taylor Townsend

…7-6(8)/7-5. Facing off in the ninth all-Bannerette WTA final of the decade (but the first with neither Pegula or Keys involved), Stearns returns to her college town glory to get her first title in nearly two years (Rabat in May ’24).

She had to fight her way out of a hole to take the lead in the match, as Townsend led 4-2 and had two SP on return at 5-3. After Stearns got things to a TB and held four SP of her own, Townsend had a third SP at 8-7, but couldn’t capitalize on her second chance as Stearns took the breaker 10-8.

After four consecutive mid-set breaks in the 2nd, Stearns took the last advantage with a break for 6-5, then served out her second tour title.

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4. Austin 1st Rd. – Dalma Galfi def. Bianca Andreescu

…6-3/5-7/6-4. Having gone 13-1 in lower level competition in the season’s opening weeks, Andreescu makes her ’26 tour-level debut with her first WTA tournament appearance since October.

The Canadian managed to force a 3rd set after trailing Galfi by a 6-3/4-2 score, but immediately fell behind 4-0 in the decider. Andreescu saved a pair of MP at 5-2, and closed to 5-4, holding two BP in game 10 to get back on serve. But the Hungarian saved them both and served out the win.

Andreescu’s last MD win at tour-level was last summer in Montreal.

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5. Merida 2nd Rd. – Zeynep Sonmez def. Ann Li

…3-6/7-6(7)/6-4. Sonmez reaches her third straight QF in Merida after rallying from 6-3/4-2 down vs. Li.

In the 2nd set TB, the Turk raced to a 6-3 advantage, then had to sweat out her attempt to push things to a 3rd. Li knotted the score at 7-7 before Sonmez finally secured a 9-7 breaker win on SP #5.

In the 3rd, Sonmez took a double-break lead at 3-0, and led 5-3, but couldn’t convert any of four BP/MP on Li’s serve in game 9. She held her nerve and served out the win in the following game.

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6. Merida Final – Cristina Bucsa def. Magdalena Frech

…6-1/4-6/6-4. Bucsa becomes the second first-time singles champion on tour in 2026, taking the 1st vs. Frech and then not allowing the pressure to crash her dream week in the closing moments.

Up 5-2 in the 3rd, the Spaniard couldn’t serve out the title at 5-3, but immediately played to her greater strength and got the break a game later to claim the crown, the first leg of what was a sweep of the tournament’s titles.

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7. Merida QF – Jasmine Paolini def. Katie Boulter

…0-6/6-3/6-3. Paolini’s run in Merida ended in the SF (vs. Bucsa), but after coming into the week as the Top 10 player with the fewest wins (3) in the first seven weeks of the ’26 season (and the fewest of the 13 women who’ve ranked in the Top 10 so far this year), the Italian’s SF result was a much-needed one.

She had to rally from a love 1st set loss vs. Boulter to get that far, though, her first singles semi since Ningbo last October.

At 5-5 on the season, Paolini remains the only Top 10 player heading into the Sunshine Swing without an above-.500 mark on the season, but her two wins *did* inch her above Ekaterina Alexandrova (4 wins) amongst the baker’s dozen of players who’ve spent time in the Top 10 in ’26. At 4-6, Alexandrova is only one of those players currently under-.500 this season.

Paolini has some big points defenses just around the corner that will determine how long (and whether) she can maintain her Top 10 position, including an Indian Wells 4th Round, Miami SF, Stuttgart SF, Rome title and RG Round of 16 over the next three months.

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8. Antalya 125 Final – Moyuka Uchijima def. Anhelina Kalinina

…7-5/7-5. Uchijima wins her biggest career title and climbs back into the Top 100 (a Top 50 player last year, she’d dropped to #104).

Meanwhile, ex-#25/current #202 Kalinina reaches her second 125 final since her return to action last December after a six-month absence. The Ukrainian, a 2023 Rome finalist with four Top 10 wins under the belt (from 2022-24), made her way through qualifying at AO26 in January.

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HM- $35K Arcadia (CAL) USA Final – Akasha Urhobo def. Thea Frodin

…6-2/2-6/6-2. The battle of teenage Bannerettes goes to 19-year old Urhobo over 17-year old Frodin.

Urhobo’s third career title is her second this season, along with another $35K in January (when she def. Bianca Andreescu in the SF, then Madison Brengle in the final); while this was girls’ #13 Frodin’s maiden pro singles final. A junior semifinalist at AO26 this season, Frodin had ended Kristina Liutova’s eight-match winning streak in the semis.

Frodin (for now) is best known for portraying a young Serena Williams in on-court scenes in the movie King Richard.

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1. Austin 1st Rd. – Taylor Townsend def. Linda Fruhvirtova

…4-6/7-6(3)/7-5. Townsend rallies from 6-4/3-0 back, saving a MP on serve down 5-4 before forcing and winning a TB, then claiming another extended set in the 3rd.

It wasn’t just Townsend’s first MD WTA win of the season, but her first since exiting last year’s U.S. Open after failing to convert eight MP in a Round of 16 match vs. Barbora Krejcikova.

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2. Austin 1st Rd. – Ajla Tomljanovic def. Venus Williams

…6-4/6-1. Another wild card, another happy group of fans (and tournament organizer), and another loss for Venus. That’s 0-4 in 2026, with a career-long seven-match losing streak.

The future Hall of Famer (further proof that eligibility for induction should come, say, 20/25 years after a player’s WTA MD debut, even if the player is still “active”… so the inevitable isn’t delayed indefinitely as a veteran player dabbles) has won eight singles matches this decade, going a combined 8-37 since 2020.

Of note, it was Tomljanovic who ended Serena Williams’ career with a U.S. Open defeat back in 2022. Well, at least she ended it until further notice.

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Wk.8- Rise of an Unassuming Spaniard


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*SINGLES/DOUBLES TITLE SWEEP IN 2020s*
2020 Ostrava!!!: Aryna Sabalenka
2021 Stuttgart: Ash Barty
2021 Parma: Coco Gauff
2021 Roland Garros: Barbora Krejcikova
2022 Adelaide 1: Ash Barty
2022 Nottingham: Beatriz Haddad Maia
2023 Prague: Nao Hibino
2023 San Diego: Barbora Krejcikova
2023 Elite Trophy: Beatriz Haddad Maia
2024 –
2025 Rome: Jasmine Paolini
2025 Rabat: Maya Joint
2025 Chennai: Janice Tjen
2026 Merida: CRISTINA BUCSA
[2026 WTA s/d final in event]
Abu Dhabi: Ekaterina Alexandrova, RUS (L/W)
Austin: TAYLOR TOWNSEND, USA (L/W)
Merida: CRISTINA BUCSA, ESP (W/W)

*2026 FIRST-TIME WTA CHAMPIONS*
Abu Dhabi – Sara Bejlek, CZE (20/#101)
Merida – CRISTINA BUCSA, ESP (28/#63)

*RECENT ALL-USA WTA FINALS*
2020 Auckland – S.Williams d. Pegula
2022 Adelaide 2 – Keys d. Riske
2024 Strasbourg – Keys d. Collins
2024 Toronto – Pegula d. Anisimova
2025 Adelaide – Keys d. Pegula
2025 Austin – Pegula d. Kessler
2025 Charleston – Pegula d. Kenin
2025 Wuhan – Gauff d. Pegula
2026 Austin – Stearns d. Townsend

*2026 FIRST-TIME WTA FINALISTS*
Sara Bejlek, CZE (#101/20 = Abu Dhabi)-W
TAYLOR TOWNSEND, USA (#119/29 = Austin)
[doubles]
Dominika Salkova, CZE (Ostrava)
ISABELLE HAVERLAG, NED (Merida)

*2026 MULT.DIFFERENT WTA FINALISTS BY COUNTRY*
3 – USA = Pegula,STEARNS,TOWNSEND
2 – CZE = Bejlek,Muchova
2 – GBR = Boulter,Raducanu
2 – RUS = Alexandrova,M.Andreeva
2 – UKR = Kostyuk,Svitolina
—
1 – BLR,CAN,CHN,ESP(Bucsa),GER,ITA,KAZ,POL(Frech),ROU

*RECENT 3/4 USA WTA SF*
2023 San Diego = Kenin (RU); Collins (SF), Navarro (SF)
2024 Toronto = Pegula (W), Anisimova (RU); Navarro (SF)
2025 Charleston = Pegula (W), Kenin (RU); Anisimova (SF)
2025 Beijing = Anisimova (W); Gauff (SF), Pegula (SF)
2026 Dubai = Pegula (W); Anisimova (SF), Gauff (SF)
2026 Austin = Stearns (W), Townsend (RU); Krueger (SF)

*2026 FIRST-TIME WTA SEMIFINALISTS*
Hobart: Taylah Preston, AUS (20/#204)
Hobart: Antonia Ruzic, CRO (22/#71)
Abu Dhabi: Sara Bejlek, CZE (20/#101)=W
Abu Dhabi: Hailey Baptiste, USA (24/#56)
Cluj-Napoca: Oleksandra Oliynykova, UKR (25/#91)
Cluj-Napoca: Daria Snigur, UKR (23/#144)
Austin: TAYLOR TOWNSEND, USA (29/#119)

*2025-26 OLDEST WTA SF*
37 – Tatjana Maria, GER (2025 Queen’s Club)-W
37 – ZHANG SHUAI, CHN (2026 Austin)
36 – Zhang Shuai, CHN (2025 Guangzhou)
35 – Sorana Cirstea (2026 Cluj-Napoca)-W
35 – Sorana Cirstea, ROU (2025 Osaka)
35 – Sorana Cirstea, ROU (2025 Cleveland)-W
35 – Sorana Cirstea, ROU (2025 Iasi)

*2020-26 WTA DOUBLES TITLES*
26 – Katerina Siniakova (1/6/6/3/5/4/1)
15 – Barbora Krejcikova (1/5/3/4/1/1/0)
15 – Elise Mertens (1/4/2/2/3/2/1)
13 – Luisa Stefani (1/1/2/3/1/4/1)
12 – Gaby Dabrowski (0/1/3/2/2/3/1)
12 – Anna Danilina (0/1/2/1/5/2/1)
12 – Hsieh Su-wei (4/2/0/2/3/0/1)
12 – Nicole Melichar-Martinez (2/2/2/0/3/3/0)
12 – Erin Routliffe (0/1/1/3/3/4/0)
12 – TAYLOR TOWNSEND (1/0/0/3/3/4/1)

Wk.8- Rise of an Unassuming Spaniard

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And this week the Wheel of Misdirection lands on Green-, no, Ven-, hmm, Cana-, no, Minne-, uh, in a late-week surprise maybe Cub-… nope, ah, it’s an old-tried-and-true, Iran.


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He wouldn’t care.

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— Pavlina 🇵🇸🇬🇷🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐝🐞✊🏾 (@peacegirl63.bsky.social) February 28, 2026 at 12:27 PM


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It’s astonishing how quickly we’ve descended into autocracy. Trump controls X, Truth Social, TikTok, Facebook, CBS News, Fox, all those janky right-wing stations like Newsmax. He’s about to get his clutches on CNN. And now he’s trying to seize control of the midterms. All in one year!

— Max Weiss (@maxthegirl.bsky.social) February 27, 2026 at 11:45 AM


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Monday, Monday…

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— Route60Plus (@route60plus.bsky.social) February 23, 2026 at 12:27 PM

All for now.

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