Tennis Talk 2023: Vol 42 (Off-season talk)

Maybe in this particular one some haunting thoughts from Monastir invaded her mind.

https://twitter.com/TennisTV/status/1732044411549401424

This is what happens to poor people like Lahyani if they seek of appize and commercialise everything.

some haunting thoughts from Monastir invaded her mind



Anyway, she's a break up. So she needs to put the thought of Mirra walking around Christmas markets sampling Stollen treats and mulled wine while whistling Fairytale of New York... and sweat it out for two more sets in december.

Solana Sierra ran out to a 6-2,4-2 lead against Parry and then never had another game or break point. It's a very french evening so far with Burel and Parry winning and Paquet being up a set and a break.

Sorry, Sierra actually had one game point in the final game of the match when she served to avoid the final set bagel.

No Argentinian that spends the whole year playing other Argentinians (and ecuadorians) is taking down the low level Queen of Montevideo!

lol, first Sierra and Riera were the greatest of rivals with five matches this year up to the end of April. Then Riera chose to go elsewhere and Sierra ended up playing Capurro Taborda every week.

In other news that will break SaMeBe's little heart: Nick Kyrgios announced a couple of hours ago on his OnlyFans that he will not be able to compete at the upcoming Australian Open.

Hevvur lost a 28 point service game at 5-5 in the final set after she had just broken back from Hartono leading 40-0 when she served for the match the first time.

Someone tell Paquet she is going to make the top100 if she keeps this up.

She made a romanian baby in the audience cry.

Spanish, sorry.

Nando's forgot about the WTA125 Montevideo final.

Oh, they remembered in the 5th game just now.

Parry making yet another comeback. She may have had a fairly dodgy year, (failing to even vulture 40ks properly) and Zarazúa was absolutely cruising BUT Parry won this event 2 years ago and she said she would win it again.

Will the low level Queen of Montevideo regain her crown!?

∧＿∧
　(　･∀･)
　(　つ┳⊃
ε (_)へ⌒ヽﾌ
(　　(　･ω･)
◎―◎   ⊃  ⊃

It really is a shame stuff like that doesn't really work on this forum.

Go Diane! ✺◟( ᐛ )◞✺ Go!

Parry needs to stop losing her serve when she serves at 4-5 in the final set of finals. She already did this against Sinja Kraus in a Heraklion W40.

Parry as bad at getting over the line as Emma Raducanu attempting a latte order in an Australian accent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XQXlbWnzvo

Sounds good to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agNMLX14rpA

Ver ageist from Jack Sock.

g'day mate!

Jack Skarpetka won't be missed

The FFT gave Alize Cornet their wild card for the Australian Open, so she will be able to extend her record of most consecutive singles main draw appearances to 68. If she wishes to carry the streak, which started at the Australian Open 2007, to an almost unfathomable 70 straight appearances when Wimbledon rolls around, she will have to slightly improve her rankings though or go through qualies. Given that she defends just about nothing in the first half the season, I quite fancy her prospects of gaining direct entry into the Mother of All Grass Events.

oh la la Ice Cream Drama Queen

WTA Tour: Chief executive Steve Simon to relinquish role and become executive chairman

https://www.bbc.com/sport/tennis/67687861

Mladenovic is not even good enough anymore to be competitive against someone who lost to Jenny Lim very recently.

...Or is she?

The fall Rouen WTA125 will be upgraded to a WTA250, moved to the end of April (same week as Stuttgart) and converted to clay.

Erika Andreeva in tatters.

Cocciaretto not even good enough anymore to be competitive against a lady of progressed age that has never been in the top150.

The upcoming changes possibly more likely to interfere with Brenda Fruhvirtova's plans than Erika's?
The overall aim seems to be to make the sub-slam tournaments slightly bigger and more impressive sub-slam tournaments.

Brenda is in ruins as well with W25s giving fewer points going forwards.

Erika is in tatters because the surface and level she is good at currently lost a tournament (as of now).

Tbf Erika did get to a junior slam final on clay.

Granted winning junior slams doesn't mean that much eg Liv Hovde winning Junior Wimbledon.

Ernests Gulbis, who hasn't played in ATP/ITF competitions since early February, appears set to play in the Indian Tennis Premier League.

The man who once won a set against no other than Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon will be joined by other legends of the game like Lukas Rosol, who once won three sets in a single match (!) against no other than Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon.

Other stars are Maria Timofeeva, who won the WTA tournament in Budapest as a qualifier, and Ellen Perez, who...uhm....well....I mean....seems to be a nice enough person.

Oh, Ellen Perez won against Julia Grabher at Roehampton once.

Dec 12, 2023 -- 12:20PM, edy wrote:

WTA Tour: Chief executive Steve Simon to relinquish role and become executive chairmanhttps://www.bbc.com/sport/tennis/67687861

Steve Simon OUT!!

Ellen got to the WTA Finals 2023 doubles final, edy!

Yes, and in singles she beat Grabher at Roehampton.

you beat Grabher at Roehampton

Alice Robbe 1.52 into 1.23, huge money matched !

1.1 early doors. Don't think it's dodgy, just a huge punter maybe. Have taken it on, let's see.

Split at 1.73

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Big drift too to make Sevastova decent favourite after she opened as slight underdog.

1.03            £53,041.12
1.04    £0.50        £21,949.89
1.05            £12,691.23
1.06    £1,915.02        £21,901.02
1.07    £1,915.02        £35,302.66

Massive amounts matched ! All square now !

Dec 13, 2023 -- 2:40PM, Angela Rebecchi wrote:

1.1 early doors. Don't think it's dodgy, just a huge punter maybe. Have taken it on, let's see.

Beaten ! £1.5m matched !

Dec 13, 2023 -- 2:40PM, Angela Rebecchi wrote:

1.1 early doors. Don't think it's dodgy, just a huge punter maybe. Have taken it on, let's see.

Agre that it is not fixed in favour of Robbe despite the prices.

Edy pulling off ascII art without even proofing it on Labs Chat. Hats off!

I copied that. It's not my original work.

Dec 13, 2023 -- 3:54PM, edy wrote:

Big drift too to make Sevastova decent favourite after she opened as slight underdog.

T-H-E-Y knew.

High time for Erika to impress the world and show she has champion mettle.

She's a good boi.

Fils won ATP Newcomer of the Year.

why have I bet on sevastova

There's no harder working festive vulture than Erika and I hope she's rewarded with the title this week.
Battering Cocciaretto and now just a couple of matches left to play in 2023.

(Unless she can find a private 125 to play on Christmas day somewhere)

She only ever plays one match a week, but Mladenovic has played and will play even more offseason events. She surprisingly isn't signed up to anything next week, but she is scheduled to play the W40 that starts on December 25. She already played the Seoul WTA125 two years ago that ran right through (julian) christmas.

Gregorian christmas rather.

Hey Edy remember to put in your entry in the Missing in Action stakes.

If you're playing a W40 on Christmas day your life priorities might need some tweaking

In Navi Mumbai too, which is why I'm surprised she doesn't play next week. Could have nicely combined the W25 Solapur next week and the W40 Navi Mumbai the week after.

Tbf also, these ITF tournaments almost always only have qualification on Monday, sometimes even Tuesday. So her earliest match should be on December 26 or even 27.

I wonder if maybe she's all orthodox, as far as festivity dates are concerned, with her family having Serbian roots.

Dec 15, 2023 -- 9:14PM, Journeyman wrote:

Hey Edy remember to put in your entry in the Missing in Action stakes.

You are not too enthusiastic yourself about the prospect there, are you?

I think they all fall short for very different reasons.  Raducanu entered five events in 2023 and earned 17 million dollars. That's just under 3.5 million bucks per tournament. I'm not sure what her incentive is to enter lots of tournaments and potentially take the shone off her brand. Kyrgios is now a commentator with a megaphone. Amanda will get bored before the end of a single competitive set and Osaka just loves to troll.

That being said I would love for Anisimova to rediscover her love of tennis. She's been the closest to carrying the baton of laser guided ground strokes. Also having a Russian/American fusion star in the spotlight would be good optics in a time of depressing world affairs and war.

Raducanu plays for the thrill and competition, not the money. With the combined knowledge of ~10 coaches in the past years, she will be ready to reach the 2nd round in at least 10 tournaments.

Kyrgios I don't think has the motivation to rehab and rebuild his body into the state required for professional tennis. I bought his

Anisimova - agree

Osaka I'm kind of on the edge. Fully expect her to play a very light schedule - being a single parent (I think) of a toddler in a sport that requires a lot of travel to play anything other than a very light schedule at the WTA level. Would think differently if she could just camp out in Sharm-el-Sheikh. Still, I think she will be able to win enough matches at enough tournaments to play 20 matches. There is too much serving and hard court prowess there.

Kyrgios I don't think has the motivation to rehab and rebuild his body into the state required for professional tennis. I bought his

....the unfinished sentence was originally going to be something along the lines of "I bought his recent buttocks PPV video on his OnlyFans. His a*s is quite literally in no shape for pro tennis.", but then decided against it (without removing the start )

Kyrgios uploaded a very cute video where he shows that a dog of his, or a dog he is acquaintances with, owns a drowsy Kirby plush. It is extra adorable.

The other factor with Emma is the way she seems to have become glass.

Did she maybe get too caught up in gym activity? Remember Daniela on Prime saying Emma was in the gym more than any player she'd seen and she said it in a way that seemed somewhat concerned.

Raducanu is meant to have an impressive hip thrust personal best. A gym rat, yeah, even if it doesn't quite show the way in hypertrophic muscle mass the way it does with some others.

I'm guessing you mean the player that Caramba is STILL banned from referring to as Maria S.

It will be interesting to see how Tursonov gets on with Kudermetova.

I feel he's been a bit unlucky with his three previous charges since 2021, perhaps Veronika will last the pace.

Anett Kontaveit (Aug 2021 – Jun 2022)   Retired at age 27.
Emma Raducanu   (Jul 2022 – Sep 2022)   Injured for most of 2023, return repeatedly delayed age 21.
Belinda Bencic  (Oct 2022 – Apr 2023)   Became pregnant and effectively retired during year, age 26.

Kudermetova and Tursunov are meant to already be over

https://twitter.com/AnnaK_4ever/status/1730941187341611061

Did you see the big dig Zabiiako had towards him?

https://www.reddit.com/r/NataDasha/comments/15ib0nh/natasha_ends_tursunov_as_a_coach/

.

Only just saw Bucsa was 0*-5, 15-40 down in the first set against Boisson before eventually winning the set in the tie break.

Dec 15, 2023 -- 9:10PM, edy wrote:

She only ever plays one match a week, but Mladenovic has played and will play even more offseason events. She surprisingly isn't signed up to anything next week, but she is scheduled to play the W40 that starts on December 25. She already played the Seoul WTA125 two years ago that ran right through (julian) christmas.

What happend to Mladenovic? how did she become so bad? I don't remember any major injury yet she's a genuine 200 in the world sort of player these days. She's only 30!

The Grinch stole her serve.

Martin Klizan, who originally retired after getting himself one (then) final Wimbledon pay cheque in 2021, will be back later today in the qualification draw of the M15 Antalya.

So the dust settles on Erika's late 2023 adventures and what have we learned. Let's leave aside Monastir and just look at the run of four 125 WTA 125s between October and December. One QF, one SF and two Finals. Pretty consistent. Clearly strong work ethic and tennis focus, backing up what she's said about having few distractions in her life which is good at this point of her development. Also no matter what you read on TF her serve is way better. She seems to me to have her emotions more under control. (Yes she still has her moments but the days of literally burying tennis balls in the court are over I think ).

These are the positives. However last night despite having decent support from the sparse crowd against the home favourite she lost a match I feel she should have won. A couple of points separated her from leveling the first set and going two breaks down so a bit unfortuneate there but when she levelled the match she shouln't have lost the third set. A thinking player doesn't lose to Elsa in that situation. It's the decision making she ha to focus on in 2024, the execution is just fine.

I guess the bigger Andreeva related news of the day is Kostyuk refusing to play the final of the Negometal Open de Bourge-de-Peage against Mirra at such short notice that the organisers have had to replace her with a bloke! (The final is Mirra Andreeva Yanis Ghazouani Durand).

Kostyuk true to form ending 2023 in drama mode.

Yastremska must have told Kostyuk that Mirra is meant to be a war and Putin fangirl.

Maybe of note too that Kostyuk was a replacement herself as well.

I remember thinking that Yastremska going ballistic when Mirra 'liked' Putin's social media jokes about Ukraine wasn't great optics. I thought it was a bit of an overreaction but Mirra has done little since to push back against the narrative that she is pro-Putin considering she's been probably the highest profile young player in 2023, a media darling and won WTA Newcomer of the year.

Mirra's biggest asset off the court is her quirky sense of humour and her seemingly effortless ability to be engaging to Western media outlets (in a way few of her countrywomen have managed ever since Sharapova did her mobile phone routine when she won Wimbedon two decades ago and the tennis world immediately fell in live with her).

It's probably better for her 'brand' to keep politics out of the picture as it's not aligned with the image that has been working for her (whereas Kostyuk's image is absolutely welded to politics). How much does a 16 year old really prioritise her 'brand' though.

* fell in love

I must start proofreading my posts.

Klizan won his first match back today in straight sets, although a 7-6,6-4 victory against an unranked opponent is possibly a bit underwhelming for a former top30 player. Even for a first match back.

This week's W25 in Monastir has not been able to even be done with the QFs till the end of Sunday.

Klizan also won his second qualification match and will next play Andreescu to successfully qualify for the main draw.

From a glance through Sapfo Sakellaridis's season, who is renowned for playing a ton (played about 300 official matches in 2021 and 2022 combined), she put up another eager schedule. Didn't play as many matches this year, is only at 103 so far, as she played no UTR and stepped up a level on the ITF tour, but signed up for a lot of tournaments again.

It's not a thorough analysis, but from the start of her season on January 11 up to this week she seems to have taken exactly one week off from tournament play (June 19 to 25). She is of course playing this week and is also signed up to play a tournament in the final week of the season.

Sakellaridi, sorry. Her similarly busy brothers are the Sakellaridis people.

I am embarrassed to only have learned today that it is Greek custom for women to carry a different form of the surname than their male relatives.

Sakellaridi - Sakellaridis
Sakkari - Sakkaris
.
.
.

Bayerlova is bound to gift herself a set of voodoo dolls of the Mushika twins for christmas.

Klizan lost first match in the main draw against #762 Ilya Snitari from Moldova in straight sets. Not the best start for his comeback.

Dec 20, 2023 -- 5:06AM, edy wrote:

Bayerlova is bound to gift herself a set of voodoo dolls of the Mushika twins for christmas.

Lost to Mao Mushika in singles and doubles last week.
Lost to Mio Mushika in singles and doubles this week.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C1IA9s5N5Kn/
classic Rublev

Mladenovic withdrew from both the W40 Navi Mumbai this coming week and the W50 Nonthaburi the first week of the new year. The Makarova and Maklakova Ekaterinas have to save the Navi Mumbai tournament now.

#5,452 · 6h ago

2012 Australian Open and US Open junior doubles champion Gabrielle Faith Andrews made a comeback last week at W15 Monastir. She partnered Townsend to win those two slams. She didn't really seem to make a big effort to transition to the pros and went to UCLA instead. This was her first ITF tournament since 2013.

https://www.tennisforum.com/threads/disappeared-players.424899/page-273#post-84605370

Leylah better watch out that her partner isn't stolen away from her.

Slaylah is 75s to win the Australian Open. It's hard to think of a better all round mental and physical conditioning end of year preparation she could have had than that run from Hong Kong to leading Canada unbeaten to BJK cup success (and away from singles playing the doubles match that ended the BK/Siniakova partnership). I see no dangers