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The WTA Finals ended on an appropriate, if not entirely satisfying, note Sunday in Singapore. Pulled to her right by Angelique Kerbers so-so forehand, Dominika Cibulkova stepped over, adjusted to an extreme western grip and laid into a cross-court forehand. When the ball smacked the net tape, it had enough spin to crawl over and die on Kerbers side of the net.Due largely to the mental yips, Cibulkova had failed to convert three previous match points. But serendipity earned her the fourth, and a 6-3, 6-4 upset of top-ranked Kerber in 1 hour, 16 minutes. It ended the official WTA tournament year on a surprising note.I have no words, the elated winner chirped in her on-court interview afterward.She wasnt the only one.Kerber stood by, eyes glazed, through the trophy presentation. It seemed that her mind seemed a million miles away, which was not a bad place to go under the circumstances.Granted, Cibulkova played exceptionally well in the final, while Kerber never got a handle on her game. On the other hand, its fair to wonder what on earth Cibulkova was doing playing in the final. The details constitute a pretty strong case against the hybrid round-robin/knockout format, which will also be employed by the ATP in a few weeks at its own year-end shootout.Lets set the table: Cibulkova, who will rise to No. 5 on Monday, is a useful player. A pugnacious, energetic, 27-year-old Slovak, she has been to the quarterfinals at every Grand Slam event. She has played in one major final, losing the 2014 Australian Open title match against Li Na. Cibulkova rode that achievement into the top 10 but soon after went into a terrible slump.Consistency and loss of nerve have always been Cibulkovas bugaboos, and those are precisely the qualities that separate Grand Slam champions from the puzzling contenders and also-rans. You have to win seven consecutive matches over two weeks against a (presumably) escalating class of player to triumph at a major. Its a monumental ask.Round-robin based events allow a player with a loss, or even two (as weve seen for the second year in a row in Singapore), to win the championship. Kerbers record in this weeks WTA Finals?was 4-1; Cibulkova finished 3-2, but shes the champ. It turns the most fundamental premise in tennis upside down.You have to take a close look at Cibulkovas run to really appreciate all the irony in this scenario. Kerber bested Cibulkova in the first round-robin match for either player. Then Madison Keys crushed Cibulkova, giving up just five games. With the first two rounds of the round robin complete, winless Cibulkovas path to qualifying for the knockout stage was barely more than a mathematical oddity. She had to beat WTA No. 4 Simona Halep in straight sets and Kerber had to beat Keys in straights as well.After Cibulkova did her part with a win against Halep, she wouldnt even watch or track the Kerber-Keys match on a live-scoring module. She went shopping and, as she told the press before the final, got the news that she had qualified when she returned to the hotel: I started to get messages like, Congratulations, you are there! We were just jumping and really, really happy.Playing with house money against Kerber, Cibulkova hit the jackpot: She put 83 percent of her first serves into play, and her winners-to-unforced errors stats were nearly a reverse image of Kerbers. Cibulkova had 28 winners to 14 unforced, while Kerber had 14 and 23, respectively.Furthermore, Cibulkova created an interesting template for how to play the top-ranked player. She served predominantly down the middle, keeping Kerber from taking charge with her return. When returning, Cibulkova went after Kerbers weakness, her second serve. Cibulkova played from on or inside the baseline, took time away from Kerber, found the angles and kept the ball deep. Well see more women trying to implement those tactics come January.Its no wonder Kerber looked so disenchanted after the match. When the players tell the media that they take all their rivals seriously, theyre just reciting from the media-training handbook. A player who wins has every right not to want to go back out and play the person she has just defeated again, for even greater stakes.It wasnt easy, after two losses to play Halep, Cibulkova said. First two matches I was a little unlucky. Today I was lucky.It might have been the understatement of the week. Nike Air Max 720 Bestellen . "It doesnt get any better than that," Giambi said. "Im speechless." The Indians are roaring toward October. Giambi belted a two-run, pinch-hit homer with two outs in the ninth inning to give Cleveland a shocking 5-4 win over the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night, keeping the Indians up with the lead pack in the AL wild-card race. Schuhe Bestellen Großhandel . Speaking Thursday on TSN 1050 Thursday, the Leafs GM also touched on the questions surrounding the teams leadership and the struggles of his big-name free-agent signing. “Its not from lack of effort from the coaching staff. https://www.schuheshopschweiz.ch/gunstig-kaufen-nike-air-max-schweiz-outlet-bestellen-d126.html . Clarkson had been dealing with an elbow injury in early January and will be out of action for at least one week. He has three goals and five assists through 36 games with the Leafs this season. Nike Air Max 95 Günstig Kaufen . -- Ryan Blaney provided more evidence that Penske Racings No. Schuhe Bestellen Günstig . "Jeff is a hard worker who was an important special-teams contributor for us last season," said Stamps GM John Hufnagel. Dave Roberts of the Los Angeles Dodgers has topped Joe Maddon and Dusty Baker to win the National League Manager of the Year Award.After taking over for Don Mattingly this past season, Roberts continued the Dodgers trend of playoff appearances by guiding the club to a 91-71 record and a fourth consecutive NL West title. The Dodgers have now reached the postseason in four consecutive seasons for the first time in franchise history.I think, you know what, its about the process, and I think this is actually the first day Ive had a chance to reflect on what happened from the first day of spring training to now, Roberts said. And even after the postseason, I didnt really play the season out in my head too much. But I think to set goals, to play every out and try to get better, I think that as a group, as an organization, we did that. Obviously we came up short in the sense of winning a world championship, but Im just proud of the way our guys battled adversity all year.As much as the teams on-field success defined Roberts rookie season as a manager, so did the player injuries he was forced to overcome. The Dodgers broke camp in spring training with 10 players on the disabled list, believed to be a record to open a season.It did not get any better for the Dodgers, as 28 players ultimately hit the disabled list, the most players any club has put on the DL in the past 30 seasons. The list of injured players included staff ace Clayton Kershaw, who was lost for 75 days after a back injury in late June.Did I expect us to have the injuries that we did? I think when you look at it from that lens, [the season was] more challenging [than expected], Roberts said. But I think that the support that I had completely exceeded what my anticipation was. The relationship with the front office, the coaches, the way that the players bought into us, made this wholee season considerably easier than I anticipated.ddddddddddddI think the focus on the day-to-day, and not getting even ahead to tomorrow or the next day, made it a lot easier. And I think that at any point of the season, [if] I would have stepped back and looked at the expectation or the injuries, it would have felt daunting, but it never really felt that way, even in late June when we were eight games back.Instead of the team collapse that was predicted, the Dodgers turned an eight-game NL West deficit at the time of Kershaws June 26 injury into a division-title-clinching celebration one week before the regular season was completed. The Dodgers ended up winning the division over the San Francisco Giants by four games.Roberts also gave credit to Terry Francona of the Cleveland Indians, who won the American League Manager of the Year Award. Roberts played for Francona when Francona was Bostons manager.He definitely influenced me, and I think that the way he related to players, his relationship to the front office and fans, Roberts said. To me, the main thing with Tito is that he just let players play, and when you as a coach or manager can empower your players, it goes a long way. From Tito to a lot of different managers and coaches that Ive had the great pleasure of being around, helped me form, I guess my managing, I guess, style.Roberts becomes just the second Dodgers rookie manager to lead the team into the postseason after Tommy Lasorda in 1977 and only the sixth rookie manager to ever win the award.The Dodgers won 90-plus games for the fourth consecutive season, a feat that had been accomplished just one other time in franchise history, when they won 90-plus games in six consecutive seasons from 1951 to 56. ' ' '