Tennis Talk 2021: Vol 38 (Off-season talk)

In central Europe I love spiders and gladly share my space with them. They are not out to kill me. I don't fancy the thought of sharing space with nasty spiders from other regions though.

This is about Zavatska though. She had a giant spider sitting right there on her vacuum. Eager to clean her apartment, she bravely took on the spider with a modern woman's sword - a broom - a bunch of hours ago and then nothing was heart again from her....until a few minutes ago. So she likely won and is alive and well - physically anyway. Whether her mental side has been left scarred for life remains to be seen.

What a riveting story edy. I was thoroughly engrossed

In another latest twist, Maria Camila Osorio Serrano aka Camila Osorio is now called Maria Camila Osorio

https://www.instagram.com/p/CXJspyXlTxN/

https://www.wtatennis.com/tournaments/2022

Part of the 2022 WTA calendar has been released.

There are three tournaments in the week directly before RG. Not a calendar historian, but that seems unusual.

giving lower ranked players more opportunities because all the China tournaments being cancelled means they missed out end of this year?

Lower ranked players should be busy qualifying for RG that week.

giving finnish but mid-range ranked players (think 60-100ish) a chance to earn some prize money before being knocked out R1 RG?

Hey, Vera will make 2nd round with some luck.

VJK or Fett?

Is Kiki finnish?

nope still French

https://www.instagram.com/stories/johannalarsson111/2724783717183697090/

wow JoLa and SofA.

IW (WTA1000), St Petersburg (WTA500) and jointly Tenerife and Philipp Island (WTA250) won WTA tournament of the year in their respective category.

Meanwhile at the W15 Santo Domingo of the ITF Women's Pro Tour



With the win she reached her first pro tour QF since 1998.

Sylvia Schenck was double bageled in her next match.

The great Manolo Santana died.

https://twitter.com/BenRothenberg/status/1469011825002004481

ITF not going to schedule any tournaments in China next year either (though just like with the WTA it's questionable if China was even going to want to hold any)

Vera against Vikhlyantseva in the first round of Limoges after what happened this week in Angers.

Fairytale win for Igor Marcondes in his home challenger. Mid 20s, future player that had never gone to even a QF at challenger. Last win in a challenger main draw had been in 2016. Came through this week all the way from qualies, upsetting the odds in four of his five matches in the main draw.

Not too dissimilar, oft-injured Vitalia Diatchenko picked up her 2nd indoors WTA125 title. Originally a loser in qualies, she profited from Kalinina's withdrawal to enter the main draw. On the way to the title she even avenged her qualies loss by gritting her teeth and coming back from all sorts of deficits, including multiple match points, against he Latvian nemesis Daniela Vismane.

well done Vitalia

Angela's favourite Katie won the french championships....or something like that.

Katie who?

KT Boulta?

Well of course. Do you know any other Katies that Angela likes?

https://www.instagram.com/p/CXYpqNoMtnD/

There are reports that Hopman Cup will make a comeback in 2023....on clay in Nice, France!

cancel the clay part though, let's play it at Queens on the grass

The LTA or a British company should have bid for it then.

It will reportedly only be a five year contract with the french organisers, so maybe you guys can pick it up after that time has passed.

what time of year will it be played in Nice then?

Not sure that's been announced. My guess would be the week directly ahead of RG.

The exchange down during Vera-Vikhlyantseva. Unbelievable!

What an epic win for Vera!

you delighted?

Mouratoglou and Holger Rune are working real hard on the backhand slice. Rune will win all the titles next year with it.

Mouratoglou will become the #1 coach in the men's game?

Tennys Sandgren
@TennysSandgren
The idea that Herbert is
1) putting others at risk
2) putting himself at risk
Is anti-science

Also same

Classic (kinda) swedish Evangelical.

Dec 15, 2021 -- 1:25PM, wisewords wrote:

you delighted?

Yes, very!

Oh boy, Garcia went from 6-2 to 7-9 to lose the second set tiebreak and is currently down a break in the final set.

Not down no break no more.

Aslan Karatsev quite scandalously won Most Improved Player at this year's ATP Awards. His improvement really happened in the second half of 2020.

I see Kateryna Kozlova got married to hockey star Michael Baindl and is now called Kateryna Baindl.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CXg8AeAoHQu/

Favourite? ...Watching that also made me realise just how much I miss the commentators.

The above is TennisTV's selection of 2021's funniest moments.

towel towel towel! wow wow wow!

go Vera go go

A guy I had never heard of before this week, 22 year old local waiter wild card Gabriel Decamps, is just four won service games away from getting to the SF of the Rio de Janeiro challenger (that is rather randomly being held on hard courts)

Kacie Harvey (sub 1.1 prematch favourite) stormed out to a 6-4,5-0 lead. Wasted multiple match points, including a 40-0 on her own serve, in the following minutes and soon found herself facing a 6-4,5-7,1-5 deficit. Her opponent Demicheli had a bunch of match points on her way to losing all of her lead (and then also her service game at 6*-5 after she had broken again at 5-5). Had a further two match points at 6*-4 in the Tiebreak of Truth and Justice before she eventually succumbed to lose the tiebreak 6-8.

Just your typical UTR match....

Oh, and Harvey took a MTO after the second set.

Matilde Paoletti was found not guilty in her doping case because the panel accepted that the substance had entered her body from something her mother had smeared all over the lil cute family dog to treat its paws. Don't have animals if you are a pro athlete, or let the animal toughen everything out without ointments.

She had initially been suspended provisionally after a test from her 2021 Palermo doubles participation had come back positive.

A guy I had never heard of before this week, 20 year old local waiter Mateus de Carvalho Cardoso Alves, is just one won service games away from getting to the SF of the Rio de Janeiro challenger (that is rather randomly being held on hard courts).

Nevermind

Forli really likes hosting tournaments. They already hosted two challengers in December (plus another earlier in the year) and on the 2022 they are as of now scheduled to host another four in the first seven weeks of the new season.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CXoe5mtKvJa/

TennisTV's drama compilation for 2021, including Jordan Thompson trying to start trouble with Elias Ymer in Washington.

Is Nole.playing ???

Very lazy umpire in this Choi vs Choi match at the Seoul W125. Said their first names somewhere near the beginning, but ever since then it's only been "Game Choi", "Advantage Choi"... How are the players supposed to know which one of them has the advantage?

If he feels he would mess up their names if he had to say them more often, he should at least say "white t-shirt Choi" and "black dress Choi", "left of chair Choi", "ponytail Choi", "braids Choi" etc...

Oh, and for everybody who didn't see: Vera Zvonareva won Limoges! She really did it!

....in doubles with Niculescu...

Meaning she won at least one WTA tournament or slam in doubles every year since her comeback in 2018.

2018 - clay Moscow (Potapova) and St. Petersburg (Swiss Timea B.)
2019 - Budapest (Alexandrova)
2020 - US Open (Siegemund)
2021 - Limoges (Niculescu)

#AlmostDoublesGOAT

Choi is ok at keeping the ball in-play, but she has very little pace. Choi on the other hand has a bit more pace on her shots, but she's a bit loose at using that pace.

Though a bit curiously, Choi's first serve has more pace than that of Choi.

For being such a paceless player, Choi is also too loose though. She should be making no errors ever with her game.

Choi got a bit lucky in the end. Choi really had Choi on the ropes, but then her legs started playing up just as she was going up 6-5 in the final set with all the momentum on her side. Choi kept fighting, but Choi used all her routine and cruelly sent Choi from side to side for the remainder of the match. Choi ultimately succeeded in grinding Choi down as Choi succumbed 4-7 in the Tiebreak of Truth and Justice.

Sounds like a good choice of match for you early hours viewing there Muller

Nadull R000aned up , an0ther triple jabber the R0na ripped through....

sounds like you really enjoyed the Choi's playing tennis, edy

I liked the contrast between Choi's more attack-minded game and Choi's rather defensive approach.

This gimmick sucks.

will Australian Open go ahead?
a) yes as planned.
b) yes but will be delayed by a few weeks and mess up the calendar
c) yes in December 2022
d) no

a)

will it be a Margaret Court type of Australian Open (mostly Australian players)?

no!

Just noticed that the Seoul courtside scoreboard listed "Challenges Remaining" with three accompanying balls for each player. There was however never hawkeye available at the tournament, and I sure saw some players be very doubtful about calls.

Also, Zhu Lin wins the title without dropping a set. Decent for a first tournament since Wimbledon.

Dec 22, 2021 -- 12:26AM, SamuelMertensBertens wrote:

will Australian Open go ahead?a) yes as planned.b) yes but will be delayed by a few weeks and mess up the calendarc) yes in December 2022d) no

a)

Austrian world number 15 Dominic Thiem has pulled out of January's Australian Open with a long-standing wrist injury.

The 28-year-old former world number three has not played since he sustained the injury at June's Mallorca Open.

The issue meant Thiem could not defend the US Open title he won in 2020 a month after reaching the Australian Open final.

The Melbourne Park tournament begins on 17 January and will feature Britain's Andy Murray, who was given a wildcard.

Tournament organisers are still unsure if defending men's champion Novak Djokovic will play, while women's 2021 runner-up Jennifer Brady has also withdrawn because of a foot injury.

Thiem, whose 2022 season will start at the Cordoba Open in Argentina at the end of January, said of his withdrawal: "We believe this is the right decision in order to have a good return to competition."

Saša Ozmo @ozmo_sasa
Per multiple reports in Serbia, Djokovic now looking more likely to play at the Australian Open. Not official yet.

I see Naomi is going to Australia. Wonder if she still hates tennis.

John Horn @SportsHorn
·18m
Yulia Putintseva & Sofia Kenin are scheduled to team up to play Doubles at the Australian Open... Intensity level will be through the roof with that duo #WTA #AusOpen
FEISTY!

not as feisty as Danielle and Sonya

Let Novak in you triple jabbed convicts, when will pe0ple learn tbe great man won' t be jabbed with MRNA gene therapy for a virus he has had@!

And if your listening NHS stick your b00ster up your ass!

RG only allowing vaccinated players to play too. Is this rule not also auto in US given New York (see Kyrie etc.), even though on Twitter people are saying it's not confirmed for US Open, but I thought it was NY state rule? So is Novak retiring?

Novak will only play and win Wimbledon this year?

Outright defo looks like it doesn't expect Djokovic to play AO (see Medvedev and Zverev's prices).

Dec 29, 2021 -- 4:29PM, wisewords wrote:

Novak will only play and win Wimbledon this year?

We'll probably follow suit by then tbh. Novak probs get forced to take it if no-one will let him play. It's too late though for AO if they don't rule in his favour for medical exemption.

you see all kinds of reporting on whether Novak will play AO or not. Pure guessing?

Dec 29, 2021 -- 1:53PM, n88uk wrote:

RG only allowing vaccinated players to play too. Is this rule not also auto in US given New York (see Kyrie etc.), even though on Twitter people are saying it's not confirmed for US Open, but I thought it was NY state rule? So is Novak retiring?

NY is indoors facilities I think. If Kyrie was a soccerballer he'd have no problems.