The Tennis Thread

[Chaky]

Ah, I've been so busy recently and neglected the tfs tennis thread.

Glad I was able to watch Federer vs Tomic this morning. I can't say I'm a great fan of Tomic off court and the way he was talking up his chances in this match-up was just asking for a slap-down. Actually I thought he played fairly well but Federer came up with some great stuff. I don't think he's been broken so far this tournament. Bernie should maybe try letting his tennis do the talking for a while.

Scott - I agree with what you are saying about Keys and Stephens. But it's not just America. There seem to be a crop of young players on the WTA who are beginning to make their move. Robson obviously has made some big scalps at slams. And Donna Vekic from Croatia is only 16 but will already break Top 100 after winning her first slam match which is pretty rare these days with the Age Eligibility Rules restricting tournament play. Are we seeing the new era emerging?

 

[Not Plain Jane]

Neither Nole nor Fed have been broken thus far!

 

[Scott]

oh i agree with you there chaky. in fact i was thinking today....two or three years ago,we wondering when were ever going to see a rise in young talent. then 2011 came along petra who was only 20,won wimbledon and vika at 21 won the AO.....and suddenly 2012 exploded with impressive young talent. i'll add barthel,begu and kiki bertens to that list. and we were introduced to a few more at the AO. i liked the game of the spaniard who played serena...garbine muguruza.

 

[Not Plain Jane]

Whoa, what an epic clash between Stan and Nole. Stan played THE best I have ever seen him play, and Nole had to dig deeeeeeeeep to win in the end. Exciting.

 

[Chaky]

i'll add barthel,begu and kiki bertens to that list. and we were introduced to a few more at the AO. i liked the game of the spaniard who played serena...garbine muguruza.

I've never seen Garbine play, or Bertens or Barthel! A few people say Mona plays similar to Anna Chakvetadze so I am really keen to watch her. Just always seem to miss her matches when they've been on TV.

Whoa, what an epic clash between Stan and Nole. Stan played THE best I have ever seen him play, and Nole had to dig deeeeeeeeep to win in the end. Exciting.

Best men's match I've seen so far this week. I had to go somewhere this afternoon but the match was neverending and I ended up being late because I couldn't leave it! Feel bad for Stan when that ball on BP got called out and the umpire agreed but it was apparently on the line. Potentially changed the whole result. I thought after Stan got pegged back in the second set he would fall away so gotta give him immense credit that it ended up deep in a fifth.

Gotta give credit to Radwanska as well. The stats from her match against Ivanovic were really impressive. She served up 7 aces (same number as Djokovic against Wawrinka!) including finishing with two in a row. Hasn't dropped a set all year. Of course the draw gets a lot tougher now.

I do hope to see Aga play Sharapova. Her matches this week have been so one-sided, I wonder if it's just that she's back to her best or the opponents have been weak.

 

[Scott]

i woke up early during the second set of that men's match and it was worth it. that is the best i have ever seen wawrinka play. just the fact that stan is so prone to meltdowns and questions surrounding his belief. really loved how he held his served unfortunately till that very last point. novak just couldn't get a real play on it throughout those three final sets. hopefully despite the loss,knowing he can play that level it will give him some much needed motivation for the future. i just wonder how well novak will recover for berdych?

i agree chaky about finally seeing somebody who can come up against maria. her matches thus far have been so overhyped and so blown out of proportion,she needs more competition. i will say though it'll be interesting because li na is actually the one with a closer h2h with maria than aga but who knows. li na has actually looked pretty composed and confident this week.

 

[Scott]

yeaaa sveta!!! great to see her back and not just back but playing better again.

 

[Not Plain Jane]

^ I was wondering if she'd coming through; it was very back and forth. But somewhat uncharacteristically , she pulled it together in the end!

 

[Scott]

i think what saved her was her attitude. sveta used to get into this habit of to getting down on herself too much and couldn't overcome it in a lot of situations. i tell you even before the injury took her out for those few months,sveta was struggling for a while between her RG victory and RG last year. which is partly why caro was able to get over her so much in 2010 & 2011. she had gone through about 3 or 4 different coaches and she was saying last year at RG after taking out aga radwanska(where i think we started seeing some flashes of the old sveta,even then)they all tried to tinker with her game too much thinking that was her issue. her service motion had changed....the topspin off that forehand had gone away.....now that she's hired on this argentine coach before RG,she's returned to her original game-style that won her majors. i think that coupled with being away for a good while has definitely regenerated her spirit again. it's been a blessing in disguise as they say. i don't think she'll get through azarenka ultimately,however,doing so well out of the gates at a major no-less,is a tremendous stepping stone for her to getting back to top form....possibly back into the top echelons of the game again. i think if we rated the players by their sheer talent and ability,sveta to me is second to serena williams. she just has everything and can do everything. it's really interesting because if it hadn't been for justine henin,sveta would have likely had 4 majors instead of two.

 

[Scott]

btw,chaky,about barthel,i would say in certain areas she's a little bit like anna but barthel is more of a striker of the ball than anna and her serve is bigger. i would say she's a bit closer to the style of her countrywoman georges or a stronger daniela hantuchova...she has very elegant strokes but is much more punishing.

huge letdown today from aga radwanska. after going up 2-0 she got completely passive and li na took control and really didn't look back,apart from those two games at the end. really been impressed though with li na since the start of the season. i think carlos has done a remarkable job on her consistency and getting her to be patient and work the points more. also,mentally we've seen her breakdown over the years during bad patches but she really seems to be handling them much better of late. to see that kind of improvement at this stage in her career is kind of nice.

 

[Scott]

did we just witness the changing of the guard? i don't want to get ahead of myself here but what a tremendous breakthrough for sloane stephens. unbelievable performance.

 

[Not Plain Jane]

YAY Sloane!!! I am happy to see a noob in the mix. Interesting two semis methinks.

 

[Chaky]

huge letdown today from aga radwanska. after going up 2-0 she got completely passive and li na took control and really didn't look back,apart from those two games at the end.

Yeah disappointing indeed. Aga has become one of my faves in the past year so this was a letdown. She had BPs in so many games but couldn't keep a lead and seemed to get really down on herself in the second set. Uncharacteristic errors throughout.

Eurosport has just started a replay of Sloane vs Serena so I want to see what happened. I kinda want a Sloane vs Na final. Probably jinxed them now.

Didn't get to see Roger vs Jo but it sounds like another good one. Really happy for Roger but ominous that he meets Murray next who has had a very untroubled route through.

 

[Scott]

i'm hoping li na snaps that losing streak today. she's looked mighty impressive so far and maria has not been tested hardly at all. i know that li na out of the three matches they played against one another last year two were totally one-sided contests but i see a different li na now.....more determined and focused. if she can do what she did against all that radwanska throws at a player the pace of maria shouldn't be too much of a problem for her as she reacts to pace even better. she's certainly out of all of them on this side of the draw the one that could honestly disrupt maria's rhythm.

 

[Scott]

yeaaa li na!!! she outclassed maria in almost every department today. her forehand which used to breakdown was indomitable. another improvement of carlos being in her camp,i think. and steady and composed. awesome performance. i think li na could very well win this whole thing. although not a wta event,she did beat vika at the start of the season at an exhibition so she knows what she needs to do against her.

 

[Chaky]

Never much liked Azarenka. Always found her screeching really off-putting for starters. I was maybe coming to appreciate her more as a player in the last year as she developed. And she seems nice off court.

But today's episode just adds to a catalogue of PR disasters for her in the last few weeks (remember the pedicure excuse). That to me looked like gamesmanship yesterday. She maybe misheard the question about her MTO in the on-court post-match interview but the crowd were clearly having none of it and maintained a stony silence followed by polite applause.

Li Na on the other hand is doing everything right. She's playing well and she's engaging the spectators with her personality in the interviews. It's excellent news for the WTA, who are investing so heavily in East Asia, that Li has made it to another final. I think the crowd will be really behind her. I hope she can take the title.

 

[Scott]

i was in the middle of watching that as soon as i posted about li na and i'm disappointed with vika more than anything. i was liking her a lot....i mean her attitude has done a complete 360 and she's cut down her antics but that just depreciated by respect for her. it was so egregiously transparent what she did. time-outs are time-outs and they get abused by a lot of the players but i have never seen anything like that especially in light of the subsequent contrary remarks she made at the end of that match. regardless if it affected the outcome or not,it was a classless gesture and i didn't buy it one bit of that injury nonsense. first of all,why that moment if her knee was bothering her,why not one of the two or three changeovers beforehand when we saw her come up off that leg?

 

[Scott]

well congrats to vika but i'll tell you one thing....vika has a lot of redeeming to do to win back my support again. it's just like that nonsense justine henin pulled against amelie mauresmo.....it just was never the same again for me. maybe now the way vika reacted in the end and the way the crowds treated her throughout the match,she realizes the full consequence of her behaviour. and although the criticism was justified the level of vitriol probably went a bit overboard and i do feel bad for her in that.....because she isn't the first and only and people have forgiven worse. and like she's been able to do very admirably the last two years,hopefully she will evolve and become a better competitor and a better person out of this because what i saw happen on court is not the same woman i've come to actually like as a personality. and i think that's what disappointed me the most.

as for li na,i feel utterly heartbroken for her. to not only deal with the ankle early on and then to fall and hit her head,i've never seen her unbalanced before. and i know she wanted this so badly....she was hungry. but you gotta love her attitude in the end....she said although sad in this moment she already has her sights on repeating her 2011 season. meaning she lost here that year and then went on to win RG. i hope she does it.

 

[Chaky]

Felt bad for Li Na. Falling on her ankle twice and banging her head. That's some bad luck. Well at least Vika got the taste of her own medicine a little with Na's MTOs.

The men's final was a little disappointing as well. I would rather watch Federer versus either of those two. And I'm not just saying that as a Roger fan. It's nice to have someone a little more aggressive to mix up the play with the counterpunchers. It was two hours before we got a break of serve. I just didn't find this match that compelling.

 

[Chaky]

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