2024 Australian Open - Women's Discussion

[robyrolfo]

Like I said we just disagree. Coco is not just a retriever. If the match was just upto Sabalenka she wouldn’t need to go out of her comfort zone. No player takes unnecessary risks if they can win more easily.

You and Mark are minimizing what Coco did in those matchups.

Against any player with some semblance of firepower, Gauff is absolutely just a retriever. Did you see her match against Kostyuk? Serious question, did you see it? Because when the commentators weren't making jokes about how bad the tennis was, it left one time to contemplate how Gauff could manage to win a slam and make deep runs.

Specifically for Sabalenka, her comfort zone is ending points with winners or unreturned balls. Gauff sometimes makes her have to hit two winners to get the point, instead of one, and that does irritate Sabalenka, especially in big matches where she is nervous. But, again, it's Gauff's retrieving that does it. Gauff's offensive game is never a factor in their matchups, save for some aces, and some sporadic points here and there that Sabalenka just brushes aside (because generally they are the result of her making a mistake and making it possible).

 

[mcs1970]

Against any player with some semblance of firepower, Gauff is absolutely just a retriever. Did you see her match against Kostyuk? Serious question, did you see it? Because when the commentators weren't making jokes about how bad the tennis was, it left one time to contemplate how Gauff could manage to win a slam and make deep runs.

Specifically for Sabalenka, her comfort zone is ending points with winners or unreturned balls. Gauff sometimes makes her have to hit two winners to get the point, instead of one, and that does irritate Sabalenka, especially in big matches where she is nervous. But, again, it's Gauff's retrieving that does it. Gauff's offensive game is never a factor in their matchups, save for some aces, and some sporadic points here and there that Sabalenka just brushes aside (because generally they are the result of her making a mistake and making it possible).

I can also say I doubt you have watched Coco play if you want to play that game. As for commentators wondering that nonsense there were people here even after Cincy who refused to give much credit to Gauff. The cry then was let’s see if she does this at the USO. When she did that do that then it’s the opponent made many errors.

As I said we just disagree. No one plays out of their comfort zone or makes errors in a vacuum.

 

[robyrolfo]

I can also say I doubt you have watched Coco play if you want to play that game. As for commentators wondering that nonsense there were people here even after Cincy who refused to give much credit to Gauff. The cry then was let’s see if she does this at the USO. When she did that do that then it’s the opponent made many errors.

As I said we just disagree. No one plays out of their comfort zone or makes errors in a vacuum.

Believe me, I have watched her play plenty. She gets more than her fair share of attention in the US, so it's often unavoidable.

And how can you question the commentators, when here in the US they go out of their way to hyper her up and praise her at every possible opportunity? How much nonsense did we hear during the AO about her "champions mentality," because they can't say anything good about her actual tennis? Darren Cahill, who isn't American and doesn't need the ESPN money to survive, was perhaps one of the only somewhat honest commentator (because he is still a polite guy, after all), and if you listen carefully he basically said that Coco was playing terribly a lot of time. And during that Kostyuk match, when she reached peak awfulness (along with Kostyuk), even the commentators that love Gauff (most of ESPN, the Tennis Podcast people) had to admit that it was a ridiculous spectacle (that Gauff still felt ok celebrating with a dance after the match).

Let's not even get into her USO run, which doesn't look good when you really hold a magnifying glass to it...