Linda Pearce is the Chief Tennis Writer and general sports reporter for The Age. She writes about a range of sports, including football, netball, and gymnastics. Linda has twice been named Australian tennis writer of the year.
The world-beating season few had predicted for Angelique Kerber has fallen one match short of ending on the same type of high note as it began, with the top seed upstaged 6-3, 6-4 in the WTA Finals by an opponent, Dominika Cibulkova, now celebrating her own belated career peak.
As the new sister-in-law of GWS Giants ruckman Shane Mumford, Australian-born British tennis player Johanna Konta has a growing interest in a still-foreign game. That preliminary final loss to the Western Bulldogs? "Quite heartbreaking," says the world No.10, whose sister Eva is pregnant with the Mumfords' first (Australian) child.
In a year of firsts for Angelique Kerber, the prospect of one last success remains.
To the roll call of odd happenings at changes-of-ends in tennis matches, add the name Svetlana Kuztnetsova.
World No.4 Simona Halep wants to extend her collaboration with her Australian coach Darren Cahill into a second season. Early in the second set of the opening match in the WTA Finals, there was a little insight into why.
Barely 48 hours after late wildcard Svetlana Kuznetsova denied Australian Daria Gavrilova her first WTA tournament win, the Russian is due on court for her opening round-robin match in Singapore.
Singapore:
Top seed Angelique Kerber heads a strong Red Group at the WTA Finals after the round-robin draw was completed.
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