Great hope Halep - How far now?

How far will Simona Halep go at the 2014 USO?

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SystemicAnomaly

SystemicAnomaly

Bionic Poster
Harry_Wild

Harry_Wild

G.O.A.T.
World no.1 Simona Halep is out after losing to Hseih in three sets, 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 in the 3rd round of 2018 Wimbledon tournament.
 
Fintft

Fintft

G.O.A.T.
I've watched Hseih at AO she did have great results there as well with her funky tennis. And if Halep had said the other day, that her "whole body hurts on grass" that didn't help either.
 
A

ALEXT

Semi-Pro
Marius_Hancu said:
Hsieh saves match point, shocks Halep at Wimbledon

As Halep said elsewhere, she did not have a professional attitude during the match. She also realizes (for how many years now?) she won't win W without coming to the net.
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Not quite what she said... She only spoke about this match not Wimbledon in general.

She frankly admitted in her press conference that today she was not focused and negative (what she called being unprofessional) and did not follow the game plan - come to the net more and be aggressive (she called it out), hence could not close the match. She attributed this to being tired physically and mentally after the clay season.

Nothing from what she said in her press conference indicates that she just realized that she needs to go to the net to win on grass and pretty sure this is common knowledge for her and her camp and nothing new.
 
Harry_Wild

Harry_Wild

G.O.A.T.
“Nothing from what she said in her press conference indicates that she just realized that she needs to go to the net to win on grass and pretty sure this is common knowledge for her and her camp and nothing new.”

Many WTA tour players have only rudimentary volley skills. You can tell who they are by seeing who actually plays doubles in their career history. I don’t think Halep had been playing doubles. At least never seeming her in doubles. Double forces you to be comfortable at the next since have the time you are pretty much there by design of the game of doubles.
 
Marius_Hancu

Marius_Hancu

Talk Tennis Guru
ALEXT said:
Not quite what she said... She only spoke about this match not Wimbledon in general.

She frankly admitted in her press conference that today ...
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Read again:
I said: As Halep said elsewhere, she did not have a professional attitude during the match [that is "today"!].

Nothing from what she said in her press conference indicates that she just realized that she needs to go to the net to win on grass and pretty sure this is common knowledge for her and her camp and nothing new.
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Where did I say "she just realized"?
Read again:
I said: She also realizes (for how many years now?)

And by the way, knowing is one thing and doing something effective about is something else. She comes less than in 2014 to the net and her repertory of used shots is smaller. And that is valid on all surfaces.

Granted, she won RG (a great thing :)) with that approach.
 
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A

ALEXT

Semi-Pro
Maybe she is content with the fact that the game she is comfortable with is not suited for grass and she will never win the Wimbledon but she is fine with it. Who knows?
Not all the players are good on all surfaces...even the greatest of the greatest and that's fine I guess.

Her style of play, as-is, brought her some success over the past 5 seasons isn't it, so why the obsession with what she "should" do? I guess she and her team know better what's best for her; it's her career after all and no one else's... and she already proved she has the game to win GSs on clay and HC.

Sure, it would be nice to use more variety and further develop all aspects of her game, but you have to recognize that it's easier said than done...
 
winstonlim8

winstonlim8

Professional
Harry_Wild said:
“Nothing from what she said in her press conference indicates that she just realized that she needs to go to the net to win on grass and pretty sure this is common knowledge for her and her camp and nothing new.”

Many WTA tour players have only rudimentary volley skills. You can tell who they are by seeing who actually plays doubles in their career history. I don’t think Halep had been playing doubles. At least never seeming her in doubles. Double forces you to be comfortable at the next since have the time you are pretty much there by design of the game of doubles.
Click to expand...

Have you seen the way all too many WTA doubles matches are played nowadays? With the exception of the best pairs (that why they're the best and win) much of it seems to be a 4-player version of singles dinglydonglypinglypongly ball bashing to me.

AND the men seem to be going the same way, too.
 
A

ALEXT

Semi-Pro
Marius_Hancu said:
I'm with Martina and Boris on this issue:

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I'm not completely. She is human not robot. Every human being is different.... Maybe the great Navratilova could do it in her time one week apart from RG.... credit to her... but that was then and her and this is now and Halep.
While we are all yapping from the comfort of our homes or media sets, if you take a step back and think about it, you have no clue what goes through the mind and body of these athletes at every given time.

Every single player had ditched tournaments on their mood at one point or another (officially perhaps they were "injured"). If anything, her mistake was being honest and speak her mind in front of the media to start all this rumble. She should've done what any other player would do - make some unverifiable excuses like getting injured during the match, etc.... and leave it at that. Instead she was frank and everyone jumped on it....

Yeah, I too was disappointed how she lost this match and I would expect her to fight for her live in every match and go deep, but I would not make such a big deal out of this situation now. To me, it was clear that this Wimbledon would be a write off from the beginning and understandably so.

I hope she is back 100% for the HC season and has a good run at USO. Will see...
 
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SystemicAnomaly

SystemicAnomaly

Bionic Poster
Marius_Hancu said:
I'm with Martina and Boris on this issue:

Click to expand...

Sure, back in the day, there was less time between RG and Wimbledon. But it rather important to note that more events were played on grass throughout the year back then. In the 60s/70s, three of the 4 majors were played on grass. RG was the lone exception until the mid-70s. The US Open switched to HC in 1978 but the AO remained a grass tournament until 1988. And, of course, there were other grass venues besides the slam events. Today, only 1 grass slam event and the whole grass season is only 4-5 weeks out of the whole year.

For a good chunk of Martina's career, at 2 or 3 of the 4 majors were played on grass. When she started her career, the USO was still being played on grass. She played the AO a total of 10 times. 8 of those 10 were on grass. Martina played some 347 singles matches on grass compared to some 292 singles matches on clay. And she undoubtely played hundreds of doubles marches on grass as well.

Boris started as a pro in '83 so he was playing the AO, as well as Wimbledon, on grass for several years. In all, Boris played some 140+ matches on grass compared to 180 or so matches on clay during his career.

On another note, Simona did not really appear to be fully committed to winning on grass this year. She had signed up for only 1 pre-Wimby grass tournament (Eastbourne) and ended up pulling out of that w/o playing. For all I know, she had some practice on grass the week prior to Wimbledon but not much, if anything, prior to that. (NOTE: Since 2014, Simona has won a respectable 75% of her Wimbledon matches. During the same period she has won an impressive 85% of her matches at RG).
 
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MarcusInKensington

MarcusInKensington

Hall of Fame
SeeingDusk said:
she made it to all those QFs before she got injured. also made it to QF last year at uso.
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Making quarters isn’t a sign of a great player. A decent player, but not great. Anyway, she was good enough to beat Halep today, and that means we won’t have to listen to 2 weeks of her screeching, for which I am eternally grateful to her.
 
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Marius_Hancu

Marius_Hancu

Talk Tennis Guru
Now this:

---
@Simona_Halep

Hi everyone, wanted to give you a quick update. I had an MRI on my back and found out I have a disk hernia. I will discuss with doctors in the next few days but hope to be back soon and will keep you updated. Thanks for all your support
2764.png

---
 
A

ALEXT

Semi-Pro
Race points are the only ones relevant for YE#1 at this point and, as it stands today, Halep is

+1546 Kerber
+ 2181 Osaka
+2185 Wozniacki

If Woz wins Beijing, still possible, the points difference will become + 1835. At the time of my post Osaka was still in the tournament as well.

So, there are still 2250 points in play after Beijing. I know Woz and Kerber are not playing any International next week but Osaka does (HK) and in theory, she or any of the other two could play Moscow as well with a WC, especially that Halep withdrew and not sure if her WC was reassigned. I know none of them are in the draw in Moscow, but this could hypothetically change.

Anyway, in a highly unlikely scenario where Osaka or Kerber or Woz wins ALL the points left in play AND Halep withdraws from Singapore or retires in the first match (0 points earned), any one of them could take the YE#1.

My comment was about being theoretically and mathematically possible although the probability is nearly null; this is way I said it will take "a miracle" for that to happen. In other words, I'm saying it's possible but highly unlikely for her to lose YE#1.

Now in a more realistic scenario, if Osaka, Woz, Kerber don't play Moscow (likely) she is indeed YE#1 regardless anything else.
 
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Marius_Hancu

Marius_Hancu

Talk Tennis Guru
It's ovuh for 2018 :)

Live WTA Race - Last update : Saturday, October 13, 2018, 6:11 AM


1

✓ Simona Halep 27 ROU1 6921
--​

2

✓ Angelique Kerber 30.7 GER1 5375
---​

3

✓ Caroline Wozniacki 28.2 DEN1 5086
----​

4

✓ Naomi Osaka 20.9 JPN1 4740
----​
--

5

✓ Petra Kvitová 28.5 CZE2 4255
​
 
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bezs

bezs

G.O.A.T.
I know match practice is a reason, but why on earth is she playing in Moscow. If she goes deep, she has to fly halfway across to Singapore for the WTA Finals unless she tanks it midway through Moscow.
 
A

ALEXT

Semi-Pro
bezs said:
I know match practice is a reason, but why on earth is she playing in Moscow. If she goes deep, she has to fly halfway across to Singapore for the WTA Finals unless she tanks it midway through Moscow.
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Second reason (if not first) is money; a lot of them. Probably she will play a match or two and she will be in her way to Singapore.
 
Marius_Hancu

Marius_Hancu

Talk Tennis Guru
Singapore full list:

Simona Halep, Angelique Kerber, Caroline Wozniacki, Naomi Osaka, Petra Kvitova, Sloane Stephens, Elina Svitolina, Karolina Pliskova.

But Halep might not play, which will bring in Kiki Bertens.
 
bezs

bezs

G.O.A.T.
Seems like he's only sitting out for a year, wonder if there are plans for him to join her team again eventually.
 
Mainad

Mainad

Bionic Poster
bezs said:
Seems like he's only sitting out for a year, wonder if there are plans for him to join her team again eventually.
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I guess that will depend on whether she will replace him with a super-coach in the meantime (preferably one with grown-up kids).
 
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