Lesia Tsurenko won her third WTA title in Acapulco, defeating Kristina Mladenovic, 6-1 7-5 in a windy final. Tsurenko benefited from two retirement wins during the week – still, it was a great week for the Ukrainian player who won her second title in seven months. Despite not playing her best in the final, i’m encouraged by Mladenovic’s start to the year with this already being her second final of 2017.
A positive post from Ajla Tomljanovic, hopefully signalling her second round retirement in Acapulco was only precautionary.
After all eight seeds lost before the semi-finals in Kuala Lumpur, there was a cavernous opening in the draw. I’m really pleased that Ashleigh Barty grabbed hold of the opportunity and came through to win her first WTA title. Barty, who won seven matches having come through qualifying, eased past Nao Hibino in Sunday’s final, 6-3 6-2. The 20-year-old looked great in Australia and 2017 looks set to be a big year for Barty. The Aussie will crack the world’s top 100 with a new career best ranking on Monday.
Barty also teamed up with Casey Dellacqua to do the double in Kuala Lumpur.
The wildcards for the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells have been announced.
Madison Keys confirmed that she will return at Indian Wells next week. Her first match of 2017 will be next Friday or Saturday.
It looks like Belinda Bencic is now with Nike!
This is wonderful.
And finally, the draw for the BNP Paribas Open will be held on Monday at 3pm local time, which is 11pm UK time. I’ll be back on Tuesday to kick off a busy month of tennis!
Moo's Tennis Blog 
Ashleigh Barty’s title run so impressive! She delivered four bagels over the course of her tournament and only lost one set all way through.
Can’t wait to see what she does on grass and clay.
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Yeah, and she’s still only 20. Good win for Lesia Tsurenko in Acapulco as well this week (though Kiki continued her great run of form by reaching the final).
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Yeah my only concern is that she seems very Stosur like in her personality (as well as her game). May be a problem when it comes to backing up successes.
Her forehand is absolutely fabulous, though, and she has all the shots when touch is required.
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Qualifying starts for Indian Wells in less than 24 hrs, and there is still no draw information????
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Should be soon…
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N. Hibino, in the finals of KL one week, and then in the qualies of IW the next week.
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Same would of been for Barty but she has pulled out of IW qualifying.
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Barty is better doing the smaller wta events right now anyway IMO. She should keep riding this wave of confidence and gradually building up her ranking.
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I agree with Andrew. In addition,to be in the finals of one tournament. Then to fly halfway around the world- exhaustion,jet lag,airplane food,lack of sleep, etc,etc,etc, and immediately start playing in another tournament on Monday would be very difficult, I would imagine.
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