2024 WTA Dubai 1000

slipgrip93

Professional
So Paolini should be moving up to the top 15 abouts, and Kalinskaya within top 25. So AK shouldn't have to qualify for Indian Wells.
 

bluetrain4

G.O.A.T.
So Paolini should be moving up to the top 15 abouts, and Kalinskaya within top 25. So AK shouldn't have to qualify for Indian Wells.
What was her pre-Dubai rank? If that wasn't high enough, I guess it would depend on when the ranking/entry cutoff is for IW. It's probably the upcoming week since qualifying starts on March 6. If that's the case, she should be good.
 

Gizo

Hall of Fame
Well done to Paolini, and despite the disappointing nature of today's result, still a very successful week for Kalinskaya.

Kalinskaya was by far the better player until she had to serve for the match, and Jasmine is one of the biggest and toughest fighters on the circuit. She finally broke into the promised land of the top 100 (well actually technically it's the top 104) right at the end of 2019, and her success and rise has been a wonderful story IMO. The number of 'tough 3 set wins' that she has enjoyed during her career, including IIRC quite a large number of wins from a set down, is not surprising. And as I said a few times, I really like her groundstrokes, especially her forehand.

It's a sign of the nice progress that both players have made, that this season they've faced each other in the 4th round of a grand slam and then in the final of a WTA 1000 event. Now I think the WTA scheduling with back to back WTA 1000 events, so soon before Indian Wells / Miami, is ridiculous, but that's another matter.
 
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So Paolini should be moving up to the top 15 abouts, and Kalinskaya within top 25. So AK shouldn't have to qualify for Indian Wells.
Dude, Indian Wells is a 96 player draw! Entry list was released weeks ago with Kalinskaya probably ranked around 40...so of course she's in. Why would she have to qualify???

What this result does is that she will now be SEEDED at IW, which should protect her from a daunting early round draw...
 
It was actually a very high quality match. The highlight reel obviously - and mercifully - does not show much of the Kalinskaya finish-line collapse that made for a somewhat anticlimactic ending. But for most of the contest, these two were going all-out, blasting bullets all over the place on this notoriously fast court. Anna is clearly on the upswing, striking the ball at a truly elite level. But it's just incredible to see how tiny clay-born Jasmine has turned herself into a little hardcourt beast, capable of smashing it hard, low and deep on nearly every shot. Major kudos of course to Renzo Furlan, who was everything but a hard-hitter in his day, but was a very intelligent and well-prepared player - and is clearly a very intelligent and well-prepared coach.

The highlights:

 
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Aussie Darcy

Bionic Poster
Interesting final, kudos to Paolini who I said earlier in the week has been wildly under the radar just building herself up.
 
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slipgrip93

Professional
Kalinskaya really threw it away. From 5-4 15-0 she hit all sorts of errors.

does not show much of the Kalinskaya finish-line collapse that made for a somewhat anticlimactic ending.

Thinking back, those last two were the most awful, loose critical games that AK played in these last three matches of hers. I hope it was just nerves and inexperience with the stress in a big stakes final. I don't want her to just settle to be like another Kournikova. It looks like a great relation with her coach though, that helped get her to this breakthrough point.


I’m fairly impressed with Jasmine‘s ball striking. I almost want to demo the VCore 100 again, but I know it’s all her. Looks like she’s using PTP yellow string with no visible lead on the hoop.

Similarly, I was curious about Kalinskaya's wilson racquet. It seems like an older version of a 100 ultra and I'd never tried those ultras and they are supposedly touted as a power line. And she could just have great mechanics on her flattish hard very clean looking groundstrokes kind of like Rybakina. Her forehand could maybe use a little more spin though.
 
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Aussie Darcy

Bionic Poster
Kalinskaya does all the hard work beating Ostapenko, Gauff and Swiatek while Paolini gets a W/O against Rybakina and then has Cirstea in the SF. That's tennis though! Similar situation to Fernandez and Raducanu at the USO.
Karma for Kalinskaya for not being a good opponent in R1 against Hunter with the let call perhaps :) lol.
 

neytron

Semi-Pro
Saying her level wasnt there sounds more like taking responsibility than an excuse.
Iga didn’t just say that. She also said that she was very tired because she had been playing for 2 weeks. But it's funny. All her matches were in 2 sets and in Doha she played only 4 matches with 2 days of rest between them. And for Kalinskaya this was the 7th match this week, because she played qualys.
 

spystud

Talk Tennis Guru
McCartney Kessler got into the Puerto Vallarta 125 when Amanda withdrew, now she’s in the final against 18-year old Australian Taylah Preston.

Quite the first name battle.
 

Gizo

Hall of Fame
On the subject of Kalinskaya, I really like her service motion. I'd actually rank it as the most aesthetically pleasing service motion (note I'm not saying that she has the best serve which is different) on the WTA tour.

And her ground-strokes have clearly improved. I thought they've always been smooth and aesthetically pleasing as well, but she is now able to absorb redirect pace more effectively and the take the ball earlier.

The fact that she couldn't win her first WTA title yesterday will be a disappointment, but hopefully she can continue this nice progress.
 

robyrolfo

Hall of Fame
Just wrote a long reply, and this garbage app got rid of it.

Anyway, to sum it up, I'm going against the crowd and saying I'm not happy Paolini won. It's just a sign of how far the level has slipped in the WTA.

why is that?
Other than winning the Canadian Open, Giorgi never reached QF of WTA 1000.
I thought Paolini was under 25, but she's 28.
Because Camilia is the true #1 Italian woman in tennis. Paolini, Bronzetti, and especially that hack Travisan, are all a joke. None of them are beautiful and elegant to watch (talking their tennis).

And look at what Giorgi had to do to win her Masters title, while Paolini gets a walkover in the quarters against one of the top seeds, followed by two decent players that were in full choke mode.

wow guess I was right, that was an avalanche of UE's at the end. Good fight by Jasmine though.
I wrote a lot about this, but suffice to say I'm getting tired of hear the word "fight" to describe tennis players. You either give up (which rarely actually happens), or you try to play the points. Did anyone really expect her to give up in the biggest final of her career? It was a short, 3 set match in good conditions, and she wasn't injured. What was the fight? Playing the points? And what, her opponent basically handed it to her. Great. And her screaming "Forza" all the time, even after her opponents silly errors, is some proof of her "fighting"? Please, let's save that word for other players/matches, or other sports.

Now I think the WTA scheduling with back to back WTA 1000 events, so soon before Indian Wells / Miami, is ridiculous, but that's another matter.
This. These events were terrible. No atmosphere, no fans, incomplete draws (or limited player interest). I don't like Canada and Cincy back to back either. Takes something away from both. Only IW and Miami can get away with it, because of special circumstances (two coasts of a major tennis country, played months before the American slam, and the closing curtain on the hardcourt start to the season).

Tennis is desperate to increase viewership and fan interest, and these are supposed to be the second most important titles in the sport (after the slams), and they throw out sub par product like this.
 

albertobra

Hall of Fame
Just wrote a long reply, and this garbage app got rid of it.

Anyway, to sum it up, I'm going against the crowd and saying I'm not happy Paolini won. It's just a sign of how far the level has slipped in the WTA.

.
Would you have preferred Kaliskaia to win?
 

robyrolfo

Hall of Fame
Would you have preferred Kaliskaia to win?
Yes, I would have. Her winning would still have been a sign that the WTA is in a bad state, but at least she would have done so by beating multiple top players on her way to the final. That walkover for Paolini just feels wrong. No, it's not under her control, but still... I hope Jasmine faces Giorgi sometime soon (if Queen Camilia deems us worthy of her presence once again, something for which we certainly aren't worthy, but may her grace look favorably upon us), and Giorgi is in form and absolutely schools her.
 
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