2024 WTA Dubai 1000

Gizo

Hall of Fame
Rybakina retired injured (unsurprisingly after her exploits in Canada the previous week as well) against Paolini at Cincy last year, so more bad luck for her in this particular match-up.

I quite like Paolini. She has been an impressive late bloomer, has nice compact groundstrokes, is an excellent athlete in terms of both speed and stamina and is a tremendous fighter with a quite a lot of victories during her career from a set down.
 
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coolcamden

Hall of Fame
Rybakina retired injured (unsurprisingly after her exploits in Canada the previous week as well) against Paolini at Cincy last year, so more bad luck for her in this particular match-up.

I quite like Paolini. She has been an impressive later bloomer, has nice compact groundstrokes, is an excellent athlete in terms of speed of stamini and is a tremendous fighter with a quite of victories from a set down.
Yes, I like Jasmine quite a bit. Your points are dead on. She’s a great fighter/player given her limited stature.
 

robyrolfo

Hall of Fame
Playing 3. I want whatever she got from the trainer.
Maybe the trainer just told her to calm down and stop trying to blast Gauff off the court, inevitably leading to a mistake. Once she dialed it down half a notch, she seemed in control.

We found today that COCO is FAke and so is brad gilbert
Woah there, don't throw Brad under the bus. I may be reading things wrong, but when they show a close up of him in the stands, I get the feeling he is often wondering what he got himself into. I think he is seeing that Gauff isn't the type of player that can really respond to his input in the long run.

Watching her matches, Gauff is still all over the place in terms of consistency. Of course her forehand is what usually gets the attention, as it reliably goes astray for at least some portion of a match.

Her serve is still concerning as well. Yesterday there was an interesting moment that was overshadowed by the umpire argument. After a couple of double faults (maybe even 3) in one of her early games, she said something to her box about them changing her serve (or something to that effect) as if that was causing her problems.

But I still think her biggest problem remains her own expectations. I think she see's Swiatek, Sabalenka and Rybakina regularly blowing people off the court, and wonders why she can't do the same (especially now that she is #3 in the world). I think she grew up watching Serena do it, and wonders why she can't do the same. Yes, she is a top player in today's WTA, but she isn't a great player. Her game is based on scrapping and retrieving. And in theory that is a good fit for Mr. "Win Ugly," but she doesn't want to do that. She has bought into the hype. She thinks she should be winning in style, and dominating the tour. But it's not going to happen with her skillset. Yes, she is a top player, and #3 in the world is awesome by almost every measure, but she expects to be one of the greats, and they really don't come along that often...
 

robyrolfo

Hall of Fame
Everyone was writing Iga off and saying it's all Sabalenka
Yet Iga is the only consistent player on tour.
Um, slams are part of the tour, no? Sabalenka has been way more consistent than Iga in slams lately.

First quality player she faces, immediately in trouble.
Still a lot of work to do for Gauff.
Yeah, last summer is looking more and more like the stars aligning. See above. She is still a great athlete, and a very good defensive player, but she isn't what everyone is desperate for her to be.
 

spystud

Talk Tennis Guru
GG9utQmWsAAC2Z1
 

Connor35

Semi-Pro
Um, slams are part of the tour, no? Sabalenka has been way more consistent than Iga in slams lately.

I concede that. But they each currently hold 1 Slam.

Iga won 80+% of her matches on all three surfaces last year.

Sabalenka did that on one, hardcourt, and her winning 80% there was still less than Iga's 85%.
 

robyrolfo

Hall of Fame
I concede that. But they each currently hold 1 Slam.

Iga won 80+% of her matches on all three surfaces last year.

Sabalenka did that on one, hardcourt, and her winning 80% there was still less than Iga's 85%.
Iga has been very good, no doubt. And I'm not one of those people (or casual fans) that think the slams are the only thing that exist in tennis, but to be a true top player you need to perform consistently in slams as well. Otherwise we would be talking about how awesome Pegula is too.
 

insideguy

G.O.A.T.
Iga has been very good, no doubt. And I'm not one of those people (or casual fans) that think the slams are the only thing that exist in tennis, but to be a true top player you need to perform consistently in slams as well. Otherwise we would be talking about how awesome Pegula is too.
Right now she leads sabalenka in every metric possible. More slams, More weeks at #1 more tournament wins. And she is 3 years younger. When all is said and done its not gonna be close.
 

coolcamden

Hall of Fame
Poor AK having to qualify, then being hurt throughout this match. She ain’t gonna last with Iga. May be a walkover even.
 

Connor35

Semi-Pro
Iga has been very good, no doubt. And I'm not one of those people (or casual fans) that think the slams are the only thing that exist in tennis, but to be a true top player you need to perform consistently in slams as well. Otherwise we would be talking about how awesome Pegula is too.

This would imply that Jessie & Iga are similar outside of slams.

But the fact is Iga has won 3 of the last 8 slams.
She's won as many slams as the rest of the top 5 combined.
 

AM75

Hall of Fame
#22, #26 and #40 One of THESE will be in a FINAL!
Can you imagine?
WTA is heading to another UNTHINKABLE DISASTER!!!
Dark DARK times are ahead!
Only Iga can save the face of women's tennis!
 

ScottleeSV

Hall of Fame
Hard to see past Swiatek winning 2 weeks running but stranger things have happened. I can only see Paolini having have half a chance tbh. Actually, more like an eighth of a chance. Iga aside, the top players have really made made a mess of this fortnight.
 

robyrolfo

Hall of Fame
Right now she leads sabalenka in every metric possible. More slams, More weeks at #1 more tournament wins. And she is 3 years younger. When all is said and done its not gonna be close.
But we aren't just comparing her to Sabalenka, are we? I mentioned Sabalenka specifically in regard to consistency in recent slams, but Sabalenka is hardly some benchmark for overall greatness. That's the larger point. Yes, Iga is putting together some good runs, but the tour is incredibly inconsistent and fairly weak these days.

This would imply that Jessie & Iga are similar outside of slams.

But the fact is Iga has won 3 of the last 8 slams.
She's won as many slams as the rest of the top 5 combined.
It only implies that if people ignored slams, Pegula would be considered a better player than most people consider her to be (not saying it's right or wrong, just pointing it out).

And you are comparing her to a weak top 5, and cherry picking a stat (when one of the players with the most slams, Osaka, just came back from a break).
 

robyrolfo

Hall of Fame
I can only think that Cirstea got really tight given the occasion, as a favorite with the final on the line.

I don't dislike Paolini, but I hope she gets beaten pretty bad in the final. Giorgi is, and should remain, the last Italian woman to win a Masters title.
 

slipgrip93

Professional
No appreciation thread for Kalinskaya?
I'd appreciated her just fine since noticing her at AO. :love:
Just who's going to jump the gun before it's confirmed she's having a real breakthrough in her career and winning a wta1000 title..
If she can keep up this level for the rest of her season putting this pressure on top 10 ,
sure she could be in the top 10 herself this year?? wowza.. just won the first set vs. Swiatek!
 
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