2018 Indian Wells - WTA Premier Mandatory
- Thread starter Aussie Darcy
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Aussie Darcy
Bionic Poster
Good win for Venus over her sister Serena.
Wins 6-3 6-4.
Not a bad performance by by Serena, obviously not her best but still good considering the pregnancy and birth.
Wins 6-3 6-4.
Not a bad performance by by Serena, obviously not her best but still good considering the pregnancy and birth.
tennis_pro
Bionic Poster
Finally...it would've been embarassing if she got broken again.
AiRFederer
Hall of Fame
Damn.
Yea true maybe peak peak Venus is better than peak peak Serena. But like you said that peak is short lived. She played great today. Hopefully she is not shanking balls all over the court the next match.
tennisaddict
Bionic Poster
LOL at the Serena No 1 finger wag. ... Good she lost.. This kind of ego deserves crushing .
MichaelNadal
Bionic Poster
tennisaddict
Bionic Poster
It will be a good swansong if Venus wins one big title here.. but doubt she has it her to win 4 more matches
Speaking of around that similar subject line of wrestling/MMA what was Chuck Liddell doing there? LOL
Devil_dog
Hall of Fame
It's a big ticket event, man! Plus I think he's a Cali kid.
DRII
G.O.A.T.
Just seems odd to me.
MichaelNadal
Bionic Poster
Nah she doesn't. I predict she comes out flat in her next match, esp as this will have drained her emotionally.
I've kinda lost all hope of seeing her win a huge title after that W final. I think that was that, last best chance. But I'll happily eat crow if she proves me wrong.
13 years, 35 posts, and you show up for the Queen, you better slay
Did you mean "you better play"? If so just now getting back into it after a long hiatus. You know "IT" happens in life. Also actually I just wanted that match to be over so I can watch some of the Chung match before I have to hit the sack.
stringertom
Bionic Poster
Flatter groundies and a much shakier FH that almost cost her at the end tonight. I've seen it all for 20 years and it's spotty more often as she ages and deals with her fatigue.
Pater Tempus Invictus.
ruerooo
Legend
ruerooo
Legend
Yes ! I saw an early interview with her coach and they are planning for RG - though I'd love to see her win in Miami; I won't lie
Venus for IW, Serena for Miami. I’m here for it.
Tho I really have such a feeling she’s gonna lose her next match.
70後
Hall of Fame
LOL at a Fedr Fundamentalist taking time out from his fellow religionists' daily mass offering up "Fedr" 20 times a day in the direction of Basel with hindquarters pointed at Mallorca butting in to talk about finger wagging and ego.
Aussie Darcy
Bionic Poster
Indian Wells 4R:
(#1) Halep v Wang
Vondrousova v Martic
Osaka v Sakkari
(WC) Anisimova v (#5) Pliskova
(#8) V. Williams v (#21) Sevastova
(WC) Collins v (#27) Suárez Navarro
(#7) Garcia v (#10) Kerber
(#20) Kasatkina v (#2) Wozniacki
3 Americans, 2 Czechs, everyone else from a different country.
7 unseeded players, 9 seeded players.
(#1) Halep v Wang
Vondrousova v Martic
Osaka v Sakkari
(WC) Anisimova v (#5) Pliskova
(#8) V. Williams v (#21) Sevastova
(WC) Collins v (#27) Suárez Navarro
(#7) Garcia v (#10) Kerber
(#20) Kasatkina v (#2) Wozniacki
3 Americans, 2 Czechs, everyone else from a different country.
7 unseeded players, 9 seeded players.
stringertom
Bionic Poster
Gender reassignment is not on my bucket list but the British tabloids claim at least two former ladies saved eggs and delayed their full Caitlyn plunge long enough to be moms now.LOL - let's see you try it
However, it's obvious Serena has a lot more work to do on and off the court. Venus played smart tennis and exploited her sluggish movement (body serves!). It's not coming back until she pays some dues.
Aussie Darcy
Bionic Poster
Live rankings update:
Sloane up to #11
Konta down to #13
Kasatkina up to a new career high #16
Sevastova up to #17
Mladenovic down 4 spots to #19
Kuznetsova plummets down 8 spots to #26
Zhang jumps 4 spots to #29
Cirstea up 3 spots to #32
Osaka up 3 spots to #41
Martic up 9 spots to #42
Defending champ Vesnina who lost today nosedives down 19 spots to #43
Vondrousova up 4 spots to a new career high #52
Sakkari up 6 spots to #52.
Sloane up to #11
Konta down to #13
Kasatkina up to a new career high #16
Sevastova up to #17
Mladenovic down 4 spots to #19
Kuznetsova plummets down 8 spots to #26
Zhang jumps 4 spots to #29
Cirstea up 3 spots to #32
Osaka up 3 spots to #41
Martic up 9 spots to #42
Defending champ Vesnina who lost today nosedives down 19 spots to #43
Vondrousova up 4 spots to a new career high #52
Sakkari up 6 spots to #52.
MichaelNadal
Bionic Poster
MichaelNadal
Bionic Poster
Great view from the stands:
marc45
G.O.A.T.
NYT:
Clarey...
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Amanda Anisimova’s power and precision have been remarkable for a player of any age in her first appearance at the prestigious BNP Paribas Open.
Veteran coaches like José Higueras are already calling her two-handed backhand one of the best in the professional game, even if she is just getting started in the pros. At 5 feet 11 inches, Anisimova also has a big serve that should only get bigger.
But what has also turned heads here is the poise she has displayed, at age 16, in straight-set upsets of two big-hitting members of the tennis establishment: 23rd-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the second round and ninth-seeded Petra Kvitova in the third round, the latter being Anisimova’s first appearance on a main show court at any top-tier professional event.
Her hands might have been shaking after she finished off her 6-2, 6-4 victory over Kvitova on Sunday, but she assured me later that they had not been trembling during the match.
Anisimova looked thoroughly in her element — unhurried and unflustered — even as Kvitova, a two-time Wimbledon champion with power aplenty off both wings, cranked up the pace and the volume.
“That’s because, in her mind, Amanda’s already been out there before,” said Martin Blackman, the general manager for player development at the United States Tennis Association. “She’s always seen herself competing on the big stages. She’s been preparing for this since she was 8 years old.”
Her potential is clear as she prepares to face another top 10 player, fifth-seeded Karolina Pliskova, in the fourth round on Tuesday.
A letdown is hardly out of the question, but the trick is for no one to get ahead of oneself.
Not the U.S.T.A. Not the news media. Not Anisimova and her already sizable entourage, which includes her father and head coach, Konstantin Anisimov; her mother, Olga; her traveling coach, Max Fomine; her longtime coaching consultant, Nick Saviano; and her longtime agent, Gary Swain; as well as Max Eisenbud, the hard-driving IMG vice president who represents, among others, Maria Sharapova and Madison Keys.
“We’ve got a very long view,” Konstantin Anisimov said. “We are very happy she is doing way better than we expected, to be honest with you, but at the same time we are staying very calm and understanding that she is young. She is still growing, and she is definitely not ready to play a full schedule and at age 16. She is not allowed to play a full schedule. So we are trying to do more quality than quantity.”
Handling precocious success is a longstanding tennis conundrum, even if prodigies no longer dominate the women’s game in their teens like they used to. Playing restrictions, designed to protect them, have kept prospects in their midteens from racking up too many ranking points. The game is now more physical, favoring more mature players, and also has become more team-oriented, favoring those who can afford a large support staff.
Anisimova, the youngest player in the top 150 of the global rankings, is at no disadvantage in that last department, and the entourage also includes her Chihuahua Miley, who gets the star treatment but has also created the occasional travel problem.
“Once we went to Hawaii, and my mom flew for six hours to California and she didn’t know about the quarantine rules for Hawaii,” Anisimova said. “So she had to fly back home another six hours with Miley.
Though Anisimova has been a champion-in-training for much of her young life and has been home-schooled from the beginning, her parents, both immigrants from Russia, have shown restraint.
The latest example: Anisimova could have entered qualifying for the Australian Open this year, but she and her family chose to remain in the United States, working on her fitness and refining her game in an extended off-season.
“I didn’t want to make such a long trip, especially because I didn’t get into the main draw of the Australian Open,” Anisimova said. “So I decided to skip that one and have a real off-season. I think I had eight weeks.”
She spent much of it at the U.S.T.A.’s new national campus in Orlando, Fla., and her movement has noticeably improved since last season.
“I got some great preparation, and I think I got better physically and mentally there,” she said.
She made her Grand Slam debut as a wild-card at the French Open at age 15, losing in the first round, and then later won the United States Open junior title by defeating an even younger prodigy from Florida: 13-year-old Cori Gauff, who goes by CoCo.
Now 14, Gauff is the youngest of a particularly promising new wave of American women’s players, including CiCi Bellis, already ranked 45th at age 18, and Caroline Dolehide, a fast-improving 19-year-old with a powerful and versatile game who took the first set off the No. 1-ranked Simona Halep on Sunday before losing 1-6, 7-6 (3), 6-2 in the third round.
“It’s really exciting, this new generation that is coming up,” Anisimova said.
The key is to remain focused on improvement even after the contracts and attention begin to roll in.
“I’ve been trying to use my head more when I play,” Anisimova said. “Playing smarter and not just bashing the ball, going for crazy shots all the time. So I am starting to think more and analyze the game. Like, when I’m out of the court and used to go for down-the-line shots — I don’t do that anymore.”
What has also been impressive is the way her power game has held up against power in Indian Wells. She will see plenty more big shots against Pliskova, the flat-hitting and huge-serving former No. 1 from the Czech Republic.
“Amanda’s a very, very good striker of the ball, probably one of the best out there already,” said Higueras, who coached Michael Chang and Jim Courier and is now a master coach consultant with the U.S.T.A. and has frequently visited Anisimova’s practice sessions here.
Higueras continued: “She is very solid from the ground with tremendous power from both wings and a very, very good serve with good volleys. She’s a pretty complete player for being as young as she is. If the people around her are patient enough and process-oriented enough, I think in two, three, four years she will be able to do pretty much everything — some things better than others, but with no holes in her game.”
That is quite a statement from a veteran coach who is not prone to overstating his case. But then anyone who watched Anisimova treat her center-court match against Kvitova like business as usual can see that there is genuine cause for excitement.
“Nobody should get carried away, but she’s a special player,” Blackman said. “With a special ability for handling the moment.”
Clarey...
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Amanda Anisimova’s power and precision have been remarkable for a player of any age in her first appearance at the prestigious BNP Paribas Open.
Veteran coaches like José Higueras are already calling her two-handed backhand one of the best in the professional game, even if she is just getting started in the pros. At 5 feet 11 inches, Anisimova also has a big serve that should only get bigger.
But what has also turned heads here is the poise she has displayed, at age 16, in straight-set upsets of two big-hitting members of the tennis establishment: 23rd-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the second round and ninth-seeded Petra Kvitova in the third round, the latter being Anisimova’s first appearance on a main show court at any top-tier professional event.
Her hands might have been shaking after she finished off her 6-2, 6-4 victory over Kvitova on Sunday, but she assured me later that they had not been trembling during the match.
Anisimova looked thoroughly in her element — unhurried and unflustered — even as Kvitova, a two-time Wimbledon champion with power aplenty off both wings, cranked up the pace and the volume.
“That’s because, in her mind, Amanda’s already been out there before,” said Martin Blackman, the general manager for player development at the United States Tennis Association. “She’s always seen herself competing on the big stages. She’s been preparing for this since she was 8 years old.”
Her potential is clear as she prepares to face another top 10 player, fifth-seeded Karolina Pliskova, in the fourth round on Tuesday.
A letdown is hardly out of the question, but the trick is for no one to get ahead of oneself.
Not the U.S.T.A. Not the news media. Not Anisimova and her already sizable entourage, which includes her father and head coach, Konstantin Anisimov; her mother, Olga; her traveling coach, Max Fomine; her longtime coaching consultant, Nick Saviano; and her longtime agent, Gary Swain; as well as Max Eisenbud, the hard-driving IMG vice president who represents, among others, Maria Sharapova and Madison Keys.
“We’ve got a very long view,” Konstantin Anisimov said. “We are very happy she is doing way better than we expected, to be honest with you, but at the same time we are staying very calm and understanding that she is young. She is still growing, and she is definitely not ready to play a full schedule and at age 16. She is not allowed to play a full schedule. So we are trying to do more quality than quantity.”
Handling precocious success is a longstanding tennis conundrum, even if prodigies no longer dominate the women’s game in their teens like they used to. Playing restrictions, designed to protect them, have kept prospects in their midteens from racking up too many ranking points. The game is now more physical, favoring more mature players, and also has become more team-oriented, favoring those who can afford a large support staff.
Anisimova, the youngest player in the top 150 of the global rankings, is at no disadvantage in that last department, and the entourage also includes her Chihuahua Miley, who gets the star treatment but has also created the occasional travel problem.
“Once we went to Hawaii, and my mom flew for six hours to California and she didn’t know about the quarantine rules for Hawaii,” Anisimova said. “So she had to fly back home another six hours with Miley.
Though Anisimova has been a champion-in-training for much of her young life and has been home-schooled from the beginning, her parents, both immigrants from Russia, have shown restraint.
The latest example: Anisimova could have entered qualifying for the Australian Open this year, but she and her family chose to remain in the United States, working on her fitness and refining her game in an extended off-season.
“I didn’t want to make such a long trip, especially because I didn’t get into the main draw of the Australian Open,” Anisimova said. “So I decided to skip that one and have a real off-season. I think I had eight weeks.”
She spent much of it at the U.S.T.A.’s new national campus in Orlando, Fla., and her movement has noticeably improved since last season.
“I got some great preparation, and I think I got better physically and mentally there,” she said.
She made her Grand Slam debut as a wild-card at the French Open at age 15, losing in the first round, and then later won the United States Open junior title by defeating an even younger prodigy from Florida: 13-year-old Cori Gauff, who goes by CoCo.
Now 14, Gauff is the youngest of a particularly promising new wave of American women’s players, including CiCi Bellis, already ranked 45th at age 18, and Caroline Dolehide, a fast-improving 19-year-old with a powerful and versatile game who took the first set off the No. 1-ranked Simona Halep on Sunday before losing 1-6, 7-6 (3), 6-2 in the third round.
“It’s really exciting, this new generation that is coming up,” Anisimova said.
The key is to remain focused on improvement even after the contracts and attention begin to roll in.
“I’ve been trying to use my head more when I play,” Anisimova said. “Playing smarter and not just bashing the ball, going for crazy shots all the time. So I am starting to think more and analyze the game. Like, when I’m out of the court and used to go for down-the-line shots — I don’t do that anymore.”
What has also been impressive is the way her power game has held up against power in Indian Wells. She will see plenty more big shots against Pliskova, the flat-hitting and huge-serving former No. 1 from the Czech Republic.
“Amanda’s a very, very good striker of the ball, probably one of the best out there already,” said Higueras, who coached Michael Chang and Jim Courier and is now a master coach consultant with the U.S.T.A. and has frequently visited Anisimova’s practice sessions here.
Higueras continued: “She is very solid from the ground with tremendous power from both wings and a very, very good serve with good volleys. She’s a pretty complete player for being as young as she is. If the people around her are patient enough and process-oriented enough, I think in two, three, four years she will be able to do pretty much everything — some things better than others, but with no holes in her game.”
That is quite a statement from a veteran coach who is not prone to overstating his case. But then anyone who watched Anisimova treat her center-court match against Kvitova like business as usual can see that there is genuine cause for excitement.
“Nobody should get carried away, but she’s a special player,” Blackman said. “With a special ability for handling the moment.”
ausfrewimuso
Semi-Pro
What was Venus’ average first serve speed?
I haven’t seen her serve this fast for a long time
I haven’t seen her serve this fast for a long time
I Am Finnish
Bionic Poster
How bad is it?Thiem is hurt
I Am Finnish
Bionic Poster
García next kasatkina or Wozniacki yikes
hope she can win her first premier 5 title
Last edited:
Aussie Darcy
Bionic Poster
Indian Wells is Premier Mandatory (hence why Svitolina flopped
)Girl won three Premier 5’s last year yet never went past the QF of a Premier Mandatory.
In her entire career she’s never gone past the 4R in Indian Wells, Miami or Madrid. Only Beijing has shown success with a SF. She just flops.
I Am Finnish
Bionic Poster
Just like bad as her slam statsIndian Wells is Premier Mandatory (hence why Svitolina flopped
Girl won three Premier 5’s last year yet never went past the QF of a Mandatory. She just flops.
she can better than thisAnyway
Premier Mandatory are: IW Miami Beijing Rome & cincinnatti
Premier 5 are: Doha Canada Dubai Madrid & Brisbane
Is it correct
?
NaomiKonjuhPotapova
G.O.A.T.
Or a slam. Thank God she has never touch the no. 1 spot yet. But still 23. Svitol may peak next year.
Harry_Wild
G.O.A.T.
Two Wild Cards!
underground
G.O.A.T.
Someone might have asked this before, but I noticed that on the draw sheet that Serena's name doesn't have a PR or WC next to it? In Miami she is in the draw as a WC.
EDIT: I guess she was still ranked high enough with her 2017 AO points to be in the main draw, but then those points dropped off when the Miami cutoff came round a couple of weeks later.
EDIT: I guess she was still ranked high enough with her 2017 AO points to be in the main draw, but then those points dropped off when the Miami cutoff came round a couple of weeks later.
THUNDERVOLLEY
G.O.A.T.
Serena is still rusty. After maternity leave, no one should expect her to jump back in and win everything in sight. She was not capable of that even in her pre-motherhood years.
It's not about that. I posted pages back that I'd be happy if she could win two-three matches here. She won two and lost her third to a wonderful Venus, so no shame in the result itself. What I'm really thinking of is the level of flustered she displayed last night, plus the serve not working very well at all.
As far as the big picture, she's doing way better than expected and has many reasons for optimism (indeed, I think she may be back to full glory by Wimbledon, which is WAY better than I dared hope for originally). Still, that unthinking smacking of balls here and there and everywhere last night.....she needs to think about why that happened. I know how remarkable Venus was on her serve but some of those returns were absolutely needlessly overhit.
It may be because she's playing under protected ranking (at least I thought she was).
I forgot to respond to this. I think you misunderstood me (or, rather, I wasn't very clear). I'm actually not minding the top half at all. I wish the draw wasn't so unbalanced, but the top half is nonetheless super exciting to me.
Martic-Halep and Pliskova-Osaka QFs would be more than allright with me. Halep and Pliskova are top 10, Osaka is one of the biggest young hopes and Martic is a wonderful player with high tennis IQ who I love watching and rooting for.
underground
G.O.A.T.
If she was she would have had PR next to her name in her draw, but it wasn’t there.
Yeah, then I don't know. I thought she was playing under protected ranking but I have to admit I didn't follow closely. I don't think about it much since I know she can enter any tournament she chooses to play in.
underground
G.O.A.T.
Like I mentioned I think it’s the points she still had from the AO and it was enough for the entry cutoff. Obviously she can play whatever she wants but was just a quirk that had me curious.
So then she would have played as #22 - wouldn't she have been seeded? She was about 22nd with AO points alone.....
70後
Hall of Fame
I wasn't looking at the rust in this match. I'm afraid the c-section may have done some damage that can't be reversed even after the body is fully healed.
Still, even without Serena, there is still Osaka to take out Sharapova.
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