Tennis Talk 2026: Vol 17 ('s-Hertogenbosch, Queens, Stuttgart)

Vintage Adrian Mannarino

Shot Serena

Great start Nick, wisey will be loving this

The old bird's still got it

I feel for the umpire here. Assigned to a match between Kyrgios and Moutet! (And Kyrgios has even behaved so far).

Market took Bergs down to 1.03 or after his opponent slipped (from 1.5). Bergs lost.

no more Serena doubles (I would think, with Mboko's injury).

Jun 8, 2026 -- 1:46PM, mesmerised wrote:

This presenter Isa Guha is good by the way, not in the league of Sue Barker,Gabby Logan (football/Athletics) or Hazel Irvine (Snooker etc), but is far far better than Baldwin.

Isa's cricket background shining through today. Said Mboko just had to retire hurt. That's a cricket term.

Wouldn't have known, don't know anything about Cricket tbh.

Heavyweight Romanian clash of the day today, Sorana v Raducanu, market can barely separate them

I said Dart wasn't worthy of a WC pre-tournament and wouldn't do much, then Samsonova doesn't bother to ask the umpire to halt play when the surface was too slippery for her (other matches called few minutes before), and then she has the luck of Belinda pulling out of Queens (and Berlin) so gets to face an even muggier opponent than herself in Rakhimova who is to grass what chocolate is to a teapot.

Rybakina 1.20 against Maria. She couldn't deal with her slicing and dicing at all last time at this venue.

this match is better than 90% of Wimbledon women's finals

it's a fascinating match-up.

£87k 1.14 backer was heavily sweating at 0-30 serving to stay in the match

crypto queen destroying slice queen now

meddy very lucky to not get 1.01 gubbed

£1.2m matched on the Dart match going into the decider

Maria suffered from 'I just took a set off of a big player' syndrome

fake Romanian takes first set of Real Romanian

Market hates Emma

Crazy market PUNISHED

Emma wanted it more by the looks of it.
Anne taking away Sorana's win in Romania saying Emma wasn't 100%

ffs is any tennis player ever 100% fit, every player is always carrying something or other.

really should be a free win for emma against whoever wins this dart-rakhimova mugfest

Winner of ATP Queens will get 130k more than winner of WTA Queens, amazed nobody's kicked up a fuss over this yet

Jovic moves really well on grass, currently 40/1 for Wimbledon, if she wins this tournament those odds will come in, won 10 out 11 matches on grass overall, worth backing that now regardless

will get a decent seeding position as well, currently 19th in the live rankings, rubbing shoulders with tennis royalty Sorana 2 places ahead

spotted another player at a career high as well with Lilli Tagger, that's a name destined to be written in the stars

Jun 12, 2026 -- 3:18PM, SabineIsGOAT wrote:

really should be a free win for emma against whoever wins this dart-rakhimova mugfest

no all British QF as Darty Harry lost.

Jun 12, 2026 -- 3:18PM, SabineIsGOAT wrote:

really should be a free win for emma against whoever wins this dart-rakhimova mugfest

Rakhimova is no match for healthy Emma, but Emma's body can break down at any time and this is her 2nd match of the day.

Will be given the 29 year old another Wimbledon wildcard (nap)

speaking of 29 year olds, Donna isn't even 30. Feels like she's been around forever.

Will be 30 day before, Wimbledon starts. Dart has earned 315k in Wimbledon wildcards, not bad for a Peak 70th ranked player.

One player who's age I can't believe is Tomljanovic, briefly thought over a decades ago she could be a future star, but  no where near, most famous for dating Berrettini and their little docu-series thing,

She's 33 now, damn a virtual tennis pensioner

Jun 12, 2026 -- 4:08PM, mesmerised wrote:

Will be 30 day before, Wimbledon starts. Dart has earned 315k in Wimbledon wildcards, not bad for a Peak 70th ranked player.

Baltacha smiling in heaven.

would say she's more famous for retiring Serena, but yeah that too.

good thing she and Matteo didn't breed, that would be one injury prone child.

not only that, her peak ranking was just #32

saw some sit down thing she did with Mirra a while ago, she said she had a thing for Murray as well.

tactics against Amanda are really easy, she's a poor mover really, make her run corner to corner, her clunky frame doesn't like it, yet Jovic is trying to play Tennis.

why does Iplayer have to so far behind? still on 40 30 after game finished.

There's no reason it has to be like that. BBC doesn't understand that this is a problem to some and only a small small fraction would ever complain about it so nothing ever gets done about it. But annoying and makes it more or less useless.

agreed

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yet more nonsense from rybakina. 9 bps against boulter takes none, boulter gets only two opportunities to break and obviously does just that.

World Number 4 and top seed 'Must have a rich daddy with a name like Felix' knocked out by a 30 year old Polish journeyman, peak ranking 53. Strange times when he is 4th in the world and a 39 year old is 2nd fave for Wimbledon.

34 years old and hungarian

rybakina losing a match she had no business losing. utter **** on bps and paid the price. third set carbon copy of the first, couldnt take multiple bps then broken at the end and that was that.

He lost to Majchrzak a 30 year old Pole

mesmerised • June 8, 2026 11:53 AM
British Wildcards at Queens, and all 4 to Brits unlike the other tournies.

Boulter is acceptable as she is good on grass, could go on a mazy run at here,


Katie 1 step away from a 500 final, just needs to beat Donna Kebab Vekic

Jun 12, 2026 -- 8:43PM, mesmerised wrote:

He lost to Majchrzak a 30 year old Pole

my mistake. wrong round

That was her 5th ever win against a Top 10 opponent, and her best ever win beat the number 2 in the world, 4 of her 5 top 10 wins were all on grass, a shame for her she wont be seeded or is unlikely to be seeded at Wimbledon, so will probably be lumbered with a Sabalenka or Sorana in round 1.

You can guarantee if she faced Ryba again in Round 1 she would lose, as I doubt Elena really cared about this event and just wanted some grass practice as her ranking wouldn't have budged regardless of tournament result, then again she lost to Noskova last year, but generally gets to the last 8.

We should have nationalised Mirra when we had the chance, all plucky Brits will be out by Round 2, maybe even Emma as I think she'd have to win Queens just to get seeded, maybe a final is enough but that looks 50/50, even then you still really need to be a top 16 seed to avoid the top players in round 3, lost to all the big guns early on last year because of no seeding.

ryba didnt give a toss towards the end of the third. hate to see it but get it a lot with her. vekic will beat boulter if she has any interest in doing so.

ffs finally a rain free day at Queens, and now he have airplanes to deal with

Emma really is going to win her first ever non slam tournament

emma potentially injured

Jun 12, 2026 -- 3:54PM, TheCarambaExperience wrote:

Jun 12, 2026 --  3:18PM, SabineIsGOAT wrote:really should be a free win for emma against whoever wins this dart-rakhimova mugfestRakhimova is no match for healthy Emma, but Emma's body can break down at any time and this is her 2nd match of the day.

...

market panicking too much imo

yeah for sure

It's all on her motivation. She's clearly fit enough to win this match.

if this was at some random tournament in turkey or something I would be more concerned

really should be a free win for iva against whoever wins this emma-rakhimova mugfest

Shaking her head and pointing at her leg. Not a good sign.

getting rid of the strapping now. Sometimes that is the problem.

my opinion is she wins here, then gets owned by Iva, maybe even taps in that match.
But hard to tell what she will do here. She's not a fighter, it's close to Wimbledon. But it is a home tournament and she might want to impress her coach by fighting on.

hopefully Rakhi's annoying noises will motivate Emma to carry on and shut her up.

Haha Emma did one of her own.

Doesn't sound like someone who is thinking of tapping.

Zverev really is correct. Most players are dumb. I can understand being feisty is part of Rakhi's personality and game, but sometimes it's better to just take it down a notch instead of motivating a player who is sulking.

whoever can shout c'mon louder is gonna win

Market not having Emma for that match

1.28 Jovic SP
1.6 Emma 4-1* 1st Set

Same price after the set having gone 2.3

Iva's trainer visit spooked the market.

1.04 Prizmic up in smoke

Jun 13, 2026 -- 6:07PM, TheCarambaExperience wrote:

Iva's trainer visit spooked the market.

Yup. Ankle tape adjustment.

Market went way too pro Jovic at the start then did the same for Emma during the taping, and is now being more sensible.

yup

still learning about trainer visits 26 years after this exchange was launched.

yup. you sense they never will. interestingly Polymarket still don't have Jovic up on there womens outright for wimbledon.

They're probably like BF and only add these things on request.

1.28            £4,549.34
1.29            £20,821.21
1.3            £9,908.54

Jovic SP got a good tonking !

This is by far the best Emma has played in a long time, maybe not beating the very best, but had chances to self destruct, with the slip ad playing 2 games in a day,Vrkic will be hard to beat tomorrow but if Emma plays like today she would have a chance.

My Pre-season prediction was for her to reach the final at Wimbledon.

Draw is everything though so it's not really a value pick considering even if seeded, might still have to play top 8 player early on. I thought she would have had better season up until now, there was the Romanian run to the final but not enough to make top 16 for good seeding overall. Being KO'd at the two previous slams by Sierra and Potapova didn't help, but then again even if she had beaten Pottypova, she'd have faced Sabalenka again in round 3. Last year she was only knocked out of all 4 slams by the 3 best players in the world, Iga twice, Saba and Ryba.

Think she will beat Donna Kebab, Donna does not like it at all when she's up against the crowd, she's a real confidence player.

That's an impressive prediction Mes, my personal prediction was that she should go back to her original coach, silly mistake getting rid after her US open victory, inregard to this season she did well to get to that final and to be fair to her she has had a pretty bad virus lately, which makes todays performances look even better, not sure how her body will cope tomorrow, but would love to see her win on home turf, despite all her injuries and illness, the people who say she's rubbish have no idea, she is a very, very good tennis player, I think if she keeps to this sort of form over the next couple of years she could make top 10 and who knows maybe even win Wimbledon.

She said recently she got rid of so many coaches because they would tell her what to do without telling her why she was doing it, that was the same with Murray, always said he needed to know why he was doing something rather than just doing it blindly. She has a natural, high-energy, ultra aggressive style and always needs to play that way, it suits fast surfaces as well. Jovic was having her serves blasted straight back at her and she couldn't handle it. Either way should should be going into SW19 in a good headspace which has barely happened in recent years. She also seems to elevate  her game in front of the home crowd.

get real mes. all those coaches.. how many were there and every single one told her what to do without explaining. no chance. she doesnt like being told what to do and is high maintenance because shes got ideas way above her station because of the us open win. what shes been doing is harvesting as much coaching knowledge as possible and how do you do that.. by having a conveyor belt of coaches. if you cant tell shes up herself just by how she interviews then theres something wrong. theres no humility there at all

even if all of those coaches were dictatorial you really think she didnt know that before hiring them. of course she did. the tennis world is a small world and the way individual coaches work will be known by the players just from talking to each other

she knew what she was getting with every single coach she hired. of course she did.

With 1 single trophy in her trophy cabinet after several years on tour, it's hard to believe that a player could be up themselves, she hasn't got the silverware to possibly have an ego on court.

that may be, but she does. what a load of bs by the way, the idea she knows more than all those coaches do. thats half the problem. as if you question a former coach of nadal thats ridiculous. he will have forgotten more about tennis than raducanu will ever have known. no issue with her going back with richardson she should never have split with him. but even that tells a story

oh and when that one trophy is the biggest one of all, of course you can end up up yourself.

The problem with that US Open win was a lot of the hardcore fans point to the fact she didn't beat any top ranked players and had Leyla knocking them out instead who was spent by the time the final came, still you have to cross the line. Saba, Ryba, Iga, these multi slam winners would have the right to be full of themselves but most people class Raducanu as a one slam wonder. She has the capability however imo to reach those heights again, she has the game. Will never be 9-10 slam sort of winner, but 3-4 is possible.

cant argue with that and may well have won another one by now if she hadnt mucked around with all the coaches. when she plays first strike tennis on any fast court she can beat anyone and that means another us open win is possible, plus wimbledon and aus

Surprised no comments on the final here, was a reasonable game I though, first set a disaster for Emma, but came back and fought well in the second, shade dissapointed she couldn't beat Vekic, who isn't really anything more than a good grass court player, but i'm sure if Emma would have been told she would reach the final this week beforehand she would have bitten your hand off, seemed a bit unhappy with the coach in the first set, not sure how long he will last to be honest, but hopefully she will kick on again from here and have a very good wimbledon, but would need a lot of luck to get to the final I think.

most of us are burned out from watching the World Cup. Yeah it was a good final.

I'm not sure she is physically strong enough against these really strong girls or mentally strong enough. I suspect is loads and loads of self - doubt stacked up since the big win. I cannot see her getting close to another major championship might look good early rounds then gets found out. Throw in injuries she has had her day today was like men v boys bish bosh bashy.

Agree about her strngth, she could do with some time in the gym, she was hitting the ball pretty hard today though, if she can keep healthy and do very well at Wimbledon, it would be nice.

wasn't able to tune in til she was 5-2 up in the second set, then she instantly began losing, I saw Vekic an laughing with the umpire at one point over something said, but didn't hear, neither did Annabel.

Again it's all about the draw, if she keeps getting these nightmare draws like she has last year then it's hard to build momentum and belief, one thing is for sure even if she lost today, the home crowd really helps her.

She should however have made a better fist of the draws this year, lost to Sierra and Potapova.

She has to do something this year otherwise she'd have run out of excuses, 5 years on tour, plenty of wildcards, plenty of coaches, plenty of chances.

I guess shes still only 23, so has plenty of time, I mean Vekic is 29, Cirstea is doing amazing in her last year she's 30 something, I she stays fit and healty and keeps on wanting it, I think she could still do well at both Wimbledon and US open again, to be honest if I had her money, I wouldn't have the fight lol.