Tennis News

WUHAN, China – Johanna Konta defeated Carla Suárez Navarro in the third round the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open, in a match featuring two players battling for a spot among the Top 8 to qualify for the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.

The win positions Konta 246 points out of the Top 8 and she could narrow the gap to 86 points should she advance to the semifinals. While the cutoff for the Top 8 will be a moving target, the narrow gap certainly indicates that a Top 8 finish for Konta is within striking distance.

While the focus centers on the Road to Singapore leaderboard at this time of year, Konta also has a chance to make her Top 10 debut on the WTA rankings this week – if she is able to reach the finals at Wuhan with other results fall in her favor.

Currently ranked No.13, Konta faces a tough road to the finals with a quarterfinal matchup against Petra Kvitova and a potential semifinal against the winner of Simona Halep vs. Madison Keys.

It has been 32 years since the Top 10 included a British woman when Jo Durie graced the Top 10 (weeks of August 20, 1984) at No.10 before dropping out after a first round loss at the 1984 US Open. Only three British woman have found their way to the Top 10: Virginia Wade (career-high of No.2), Sue Barker (career-high of No.3) and Durie (career-high of No.5).

Konta is scheduled to play Beijing next week and Hong Kong the following week. She is not entered into a tournament in the final week of the season.

Road to Singapore leaderboard Update

Wednesday, September 28th

Two third round matches in singles and all doubles matches were postponed due to rain. These matches are scheduled to be played on Thursday, along with the quarterfinals in both singles and doubles. Here is a look at the latest update:

SINGLES:

Qualified: Angelique Kerber, Serena Williams

Next to Qualify: Simona Halep can secure her spot in Singapore by reaching the semifinals in Wuhan. She will play Madison Keys in the quarterfinals on Thursday. If Keys defeats Halep, the Romanian, could still qualify this week, but will need several results to fall in her favor.

Looking ahead, Karolina Pliskova (final) and Agnieszka Radwanska (title) have a chance to qualify this week as well.

Current Projected Top 8 (Remaining 6 Spots)

Contenders for Top 8 in Action (Current projected cut off is 3,051; points trailing the current projected cutoff)

DOUBLES:

Qualified: Garcia/Mladenovic, Hingis/Mirza, Makarova/Vesnina

Next to Qualify: It is possible for as many as three of the Current Top 8 teams to qualify this week, depending on results; however, they will need to have at least reach the semifinals with other results falling in their favor.

Current Projected Top 8 (Remaining 5 Teams)

Contenders for Top 8 in Action: The current projected cut off is 3,270 (points trailing the current projected cutoff)

All photos courtesy of Getty Images.