New Haven Open 2012: Winner Will Have Strong Performance at U.S. Open

The New Haven Open will finish up just days before the start of the U.S. Open, and either Petra Kvitova or Maria Kirilenko will build momentum and carry it through to a strong showing at the U.S. Open.

Kvitova defeated Sara Errani in one semifinal, while Kirilenko went through to the finals after Caroline Wozniacki retired their semifinal match due to a knee injury.

Neither of these players hold the top-seed in their section, but women’s singles tournaments are always less predictable than the men’s competitions. The last seven Grand Slams have seen seven different winners.

Victoria Azarenka and Agnieszka Radwanska, the two highest-ranked players in the world, have just one victory at a slam between them (Azarenka’s win at the Australian open earlier this year).

This is in stark contrast to the men.

Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are the top-three ranked players, and they account for every slam victory in the past three years. If not for Juan Martin del Potro’s surprise victory at the 2009 U.S. Open, one would have had to go all the way back to Marat Safin’s 2005 win at the Australian Open to find a major that wasn’t won by one of these three men.

In the women’s competition, anything can happen, and a player can pull off a monstrous upset with a little momentum. 

If Kvitova makes a deep run at the U.S. Open, it would not be all that surprising. She won Wimbledon in 2011 and currently sits at No. 5 in the world. Winning the New Haven Open could easily be the small boost in confidence she needs to roll through a possible quarterfinal matchup with Maria Sharapova.

Kirilenko, who is ranked No. 14, has had the least impressive results at slams of the three women. She has reached the quarterfinals twice in her career but never made it to the semifinals. Nevertheless, her form at the 2012 London Olympics allowed her to finish fourth in the singles and third in the doubles tournament.

Both players are capable of reaching the semifinals or further at the U.S. Open, and a victory heading into the last major of the year will be exactly the spark one of them needs to post an impressive result.