Tatjana Maria’s Path To Victory

[BartyParty]

Tatjana Maria just came through qualifying to win the HSBC Championships. Her path to victory might be one of the most impressive group of players I’ve ever seen defeated in a WTA 500 Level event.

R1: d. Leylah Fernandez, former US Open finalist
R2: d. Karolina Muchova, former French Open finalist
QF: d. Elena Rybakina, former Wimbledon champion
SF: d. Madison Keys, current Australian Open champion
F: d. Amanda Anisimova, current Doha champion

All this at the age of 37, and on top of that, she had lost 6 first round matches in a row before this tournament.

 

[Martin J]

At this stage of her career, it must've been a very satisfying victory. Quite impressive run to be honest, especially wins over Rybakina and Keys.

 

[Gizo]

An astonishing title run, and a real 'feel good storyline'.

I was preoccupied watching live tennis in person elsewhere all week, but it was fun to watch the highlights of her slicing and dicing her way past a succession of big name opponents.

Muchova with one working wrist, and hitting one handed backhands due to pain in her left wrist, came closer than anyone else to beating her all week, when she was 2 points away from a straight sets win in R2.

Her low skidding forehand slice really looked to wreaked havoc for all of her opponents, at times spooking them and at times tempting them to overcook shots.

 

[Fedforever]

It's great after endless GOAT threads to realise how much a victory like this can mean to someone.

Hope she fulfils her ambition to play doubles with her daighter!

 

[Gizo]

Maria went into Queen's on the back of 9 match losing streak. A week before, she lost to the qualifier and world no. 229 Valentina Ryser (who has only appeared in 2 grand slam qualifying draws before alongside 0 main draws) in the 1st round of the Birmingham 125 challenger (it's still annoying to me that it has been downgraded) on grass.

I've seen Ryser play at Ilkley during each of the last 2 years. She was involved in a fun (and heavily rain delayed) qualifying match vs. Harmony Tan last year, but it's safe to say that I heavily favoured Maria (regardless of her being 37) to beat her on grass. So to instantly go from a 1st round defeat at a WTA 125 challenger, to a winning a stacked WTA 500 event coming through an incredibly difficult draw, was some turnaround.

 

[travlerajm]

Any time a slicer beats the bashers, it’s time to celebrate.

 

[Deleted member 827468]

well done, maria tatjana

 

[welcome2petrkordaland]

Visions of Nicolescu but María used the slice and dice to take her to the title! Gotta be a rough day at the office when you get nowhere by hitting hard shots to the corner only to see them sliced back at you over and over again. with zero pace and you’re not particularly comfortable at net or moving foreward.

 

[Bill Lobsalot]

Any time a slicer beats the bashers, it’s time to celebrate.

She served incredibly well too. Better than her opponents who are known good servers.

 

[speedysteve]

It was a great week for her.
Disarming and in some cases dismantling the hard hitting, hardcourt loving brigade was great to see again (remember Connors Vs Ashe at Wimbledon?

There's too little variation on the tour.
Caused by homogenised courts and equipment.
Bring back more fast grass courts and folk that can play on them - shake things up.

I thought Anisimova was a good sport right to the end including the speech.

 

[sortof]

Maria has yet to lose a final. Four finals reached - four titles won! Provided she survives the 1st round in Wimbledon she is bound to achieve a new career high in the rankings.

 

[big ted]

Prediction: she will win Wimbledon losing sets in rounds 2, 4, & semis

 

[dje31]

It was an impressive display, round after round, dismantling and unnerving her competition, with a game that hasn't been around for decades.

Extra props to Maria in remaking her game, especially bucking current tradition and going to a OHBH.

Could someone on the mens' side pull off something similar? Or could it only be exploited on grass?

Further, would he be castigated as being a pusher? Or an outright junk-balling hack?

 

[Hitman]

Surprised no one is calling it an inflation title, which clearly it isn't.

I didn't watch all her matches, other than the final and parts of the semi. Did see the highlights, well played, she fully deserved it.

 

[Martin J]

Just watched some of her matches and it was really refreshing to see someone who's playing a grass court tennis, very effective slices (off both wings, interestingly) and net approaches with a very solid volleying, so dealing with her unorthodox game (for modern standards anyway) seemed like a nightmare for her baseline era opponents. Even Wimbledon champion Rybakina couldn't really break her with her power tennis as she was phenomenal at absorbing the pace and making her opponent dealing with a junk ball, which was usually followed by a net approach/volley.

But the match against Muchova showed the way to exploit this brand of tennis, particularly the slice forehand, it's just that today's players are uncomfortable of playing a forecourt tennis. Muchova was a few points from victory mainly because imo she wasn't shy of coming forward and taking advantage of the slower slice shots by simply catching them early and putting them away. But I'm very glad that the vulnerabilities of the current field have been exposed by an unorthodox, but still efficient grass court tennis. Hopefully it will inspire other players to try different things on the surface in the future.

 

[fritzhimself]

I also offer my greatest respect for their performance.
But isn't it strange that a lady of 37 is cleaning up everything that has rank and name.
It's not a glorious achievement for women's tennis.

 

[travlerajm]

I also offer my greatest respect for their performance.
But isn't it strange that a lady of 37 is cleaning up everything that has rank and name.
It's not a glorious achievement for women's tennis.

Just another example of the devolution of the prevailing tennis technique.

 

[dje31]

Just another example of the devolution of the prevailing tennis technique.

Well, bashing topspin from behind the baseline, back-and-forth until there's an unforced error, has worked so well, for so many, for so long, nobody challenged it, until they encountered Maria. And when plan A doesn't work, there's no plan B, and they fall to pieces.

Anxious to see if anyone else, men or women, adopt this strategy, on other surfaces as well.

 

[dje31]

Another thing I noticed about Maria, besides the slicing, is, at 37, she ran down everything--that they showed in the highlight YT--and volleyed like McEnroe in his prime.

 

[Martin J]

Well, bashing topspin from behind the baseline, back-and-forth until there's an unforced error, has worked so well, for so many, for so long, nobody challenged it, until they encountered Maria. And when plan A doesn't work, there's no plan B, and they fall to pieces.

Anxious to see if anyone else, men or women, adopt this strategy, on other surfaces as well.

I was nice to see players like Feliciano Lopez or Gilles Muller having deep runs at Wimbledon or winning grass titles playing with allegedly extinct/outdated style, imo it busted the myth that you can't play the classic grass tennis on the modern and "new" grass.

Still believe the reason we don't see such experts is because the academies don't teach/encourage that style (probably due to a relative lack of tournaments where such tennis could be effective), but if the tour decide to extend the grass season (add a grass Masters at least) and possibly introduce faster courts (they already did to be fair) for the post-USO part of the season, it could be different.

 

[AmericanTwist]

I would like to see Maria hit more topspin shots. I think she has slices down pat lol... This game style works on grass (generally until others discover how to counter her shots), but doesn't work at all on the other surfaces. Great job, mom of two!

 

[tennis24x7]

Surprised no one is calling it an inflation title, which clearly it isn't.

I didn't watch all her matches, other than the final and parts of the semi. Did see the highlights, well played, she fully deserved it.

This is her last hurrah before she goes away into the tennis oblivion. Good for her, hopefully this can help pay for her in the next few tournaments.

 

[tennis24x7]

Just watched some of her matches and it was really refreshing to see someone who's playing a grass court tennis, very effective slices (off both wings, interestingly) and net approaches with a very solid volleying, so dealing with her unorthodox game (for modern standards anyway) seemed like a nightmare for her baseline era opponents. Even Wimbledon champion Rybakina couldn't really break her with her power tennis as she was phenomenal at absorbing the pace and making her opponent dealing with a junk ball, which was usually followed by a net approach/volley.

But the match against Muchova showed the way to exploit this brand of tennis, particularly the slice forehand, it's just that today's players are uncomfortable of playing a forecourt tennis. Muchova was a few points from victory mainly because imo she wasn't shy of coming forward and taking advantage of the slower slice shots by simply catching them early and putting them away. But I'm very glad that the vulnerabilities of the current field have been exposed by an unorthodox, but still efficient grass court tennis. Hopefully it will inspire other players to try different things on the surface in the future.

This is a one time event. This cannot be replicated over and over.

 

[speedysteve]

I would like to see Maria hit more topspin shots. I think she has slices down pat lol... This game style works on grass (generally until others discover how to counter her shots), but doesn't work at all on the other surfaces. Great job, mom of two!

Made me think of Monica Niculescu.
She had a slice FH and topspin drive BH.
Gave opponents little rhythm.

I remember her dismantling Kvitova (when Kvitova was in her prime) 2016!

"Niculescu powered to victory 6-4 6-0 as the two-time Wimbledon champion wilted in the final, completely losing her rhythm in the second set. The unseeded Romanian had not won a main tour title in more than two years, but she excelled on service and broke a brittle Kvitova on five occasions."

 

[Moose Malloy]

This is a one time event. This cannot be replicated over and over.

just lost 6-0, 7-6 to Fernandez in the first round of Bad Homburg. Outside of Queens, she's only won 4 matches at tour level this year.

 

[tennis24x7]

just lost 6-0, 7-6 to Fernandez in the first round of Bad Homburg. Outside of Queens, she's only won 4 matches at tour level this year.

The title win was compensation for her grinding on the tour the last hurrah before she retires.

 

[ey039524]

It was an impressive display, round after round, dismantling and unnerving her competition, with a game that hasn't been around for decades.

Extra props to Maria in remaking her game, especially bucking current tradition and going to a OHBH.

Could someone on the mens' side pull off something similar? Or could it only be exploited on grass?

Further, would he be castigated as being a pusher? Or an outright junk-balling hack?

The male equivalent would be the magician fabrice Santoro. There won't be another again on the men's side.

Hsieh is pretty much done playing singles, but the women are ripe for another crafty player like this. Although Barty had many more weapons, she killed the field w her variety, including her slice.