WTA week of 1/10; Sydney 500 & Adelaide 250

fundrazer

G.O.A.T.
That’s such a horrible feeling. I absolutely hate double faulting.
Yeah. The worst too is when it feels like you're not doing anything that much different than you normally are, except you can't serve. I'm not a great player, somewhere between 3.5-4.0 NTRP, but my 2nd serve is usually ok. Sometimes though the doubles just come in waves and it kills my momentum. Other matches I will have maybe 1-2 a match.

I think maybe if you start slowing down your serve which is what Aryna apparently was doing, or thinking that you need to swing slower and "get it in," that also tends to lead to problems. You need the racquet head speed to get the serves down into the box, especially on 2nd serves. When you start slowing the racquet down it just leads to more problems.
 

Aussie Darcy

Bionic Poster
What's with the direct acceptance and qualifiers gap. All these dubs player doing well in quallies.
I saw that yesterday in Sydney. Utterly confused me.
#94 Liu v #589 Shibahara with the latter winning
#88 Haddad Maia v #726 Dabrowski??
#90 Schmiedlova v #594 Heisen
#685 Olmos v #117 Parry with Olmos winning

Was nobody ranked 150-500 available? Why did it go from top 120 to players outside the top 550? Bizarre.
 

coolcamden

Hall of Fame
Yeah. The worst too is when it feels like you're not doing anything that much different than you normally are, except you can't serve. I'm not a great player, somewhere between 3.5-4.0 NTRP, but my 2nd serve is usually ok. Sometimes though the doubles just come in waves and it kills my momentum. Other matches I will have maybe 1-2 a match.

I think maybe if you start slowing down your serve which is what Aryna apparently was doing, or thinking that you need to swing slower and "get it in," that also tends to lead to problems. You need the racquet head speed to get the serves down into the box, especially on 2nd serves. When you start slowing the racquet down it just leads to more problems.

I always say, Ball in Hand. And Stationary. Serves are the closest thing you ever have with being in complete control in tennis. And when double faulting, you get so mad at yourself, and it gets in your head and starts messing with it Real Fast. I even feel back for my opponent when he double faults.
 
I saw that yesterday in Sydney. Utterly confused me.
#94 Liu v #589 Shibahara with the latter winning
#88 Haddad Maia v #726 Dabrowski??
#90 Schmiedlova v #594 Heisen
#685 Olmos v #117 Parry with Olmos winning

Was nobody ranked 150-500 available? Why did it go from top 120 to players outside the top 550? Bizarre.

yeah the quallies in Adelaide is stronger. Hopefully the seeds prevail to make this interesting.
 

D-Lite

Hall of Fame
I'm expecting a thrashing for Raducanu from Rybakina, at least in this first set as it's going to take her a good amount of time to settle whereas Rybakina made the final in Adelaide last week - that's a really tough first round draw. Even against Swiatek, playing players who have already won several matches at the start of the season as your first match is tough let alone when they've had multiple solid season on the tour. Unfortunately if this continues Raducanu essentially has very little match play before the AO and won't have qualies like at the USO to work her way in.
 
Raducanu down 0-4 against Rybakina, who just played a final in Adelaide. Tough first match, but still Emma is not looking like the player who won the USO atm ...
 

ScottleeSV

Hall of Fame
I don't know whose game looks more broken since the US Open - Sabalenka's or Raducanu's.

It's very uncomfortable watching Raducanu at the moment (and I sadly feel compelled to, being British). This is not even match of any description right now.
 

D-Lite

Hall of Fame
Yep, but can’t serve is can’t serve. Ana obviously had a good career, but she never truly recovered.
Agree with you there. I think she had 1-2 decent seasons at the end of her career where she won a few titles and got deeper into majors again but never another final.
 

D-Lite

Hall of Fame
Two US open finalists get trashed! So much for GS champion.
Somewhat expected given the weight of expectation and complete lack of match play/tour experience from Emma. We have seen this on the WTA Tour time and time again - I'm really not surprised. Also, when we get to the clay season, the same thing is to be expected as she's not played any WTA clay events either - I've no idea if she's any good/confident with movement on clay. Really she needs to play out this season in full and I'll expect more from her in 2023. Of course, a 0 and 1 drubbing is pretty rough but given she had a 10 day Covid isolation and then didn't play last week I really wasn't expecting anything more than 6-2 6-2 at best vs an in-form Rybakina. To compound this, as the most recent major champion and 'it girl' sponsorship wise, all players will be looking to being Raducanu down a peg or 2. At this point a 50% win record this season is looking like it would be a good result.
 

Harry_Wild

G.O.A.T.
Raducanu really just gets killed in matches now! It such a beat down! Being a fan of hers, it sort sad and then I sort blame her for not keep her team after the U.S. Open. She has no confidence in her game now!
 

D-Lite

Hall of Fame
Rybakina destroyed Raducanu! Wow! I told her she should of kept her U.S. Open coach! LOL!
Do you know if he was even available to be a full time coach on the tour? I thought the guy had commitments and a desire to remain in the UK for much of the year.
 
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D-Lite

Hall of Fame
Raducanu really just gets killed in matches now! It such a beat down! Being a fan of hers, it sort sad and then I sort blame her for not keep her team after the U.S. Open. She has no confidence in her game now!
She's not played a match since November, had 10 days in isolation and this is her first match of the season versus an in-form player who has a tonne of WTA match play over the past few years and far bigger wins over top players than Raducanu actually does.

Emma's run to the US Open title was incredible, winning 10 matches, but she also benefitted from an ideal draw. Rogers, Bencic, Sakkari and Fernandez. The first 3 being extremely prone to mental lapses and Fernandez being in her first major final with a game that clearly was effective but not so much with the pressure of the final and against a top form Raducanu (likely due to having 0 pressure and expectation from herself).

As self-assured as Emma makes out she is, and as grounded as she claims to remain, she really needs to knuckle down now and get plenty of matches in between now and Indian Wells/Miami. She will then have the challenge of her first clay swing which her ranking will allow her to play all of the M1000s so she best sharpen up pronto.
 

Harry_Wild

G.O.A.T.
Do you know if be was even available to be a full time coach on the tour? I thought the guy had commitments and a desire to remain in the UK for much of the year.
Maybe, but he could of still be her coach by Facetime and by telephone if not in person. The way I understood it, that she wanted someone with more WTA Tour experience, which to makes zero sense since her coach already when she won her GS title!
 
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ScottleeSV

Hall of Fame
Do you know if be was even available to be a full time coach on the tour? I thought the guy had commitments and a desire to remain in the UK for much of the year.

He did have domestic commitmemts, but I don't think Raducanu asked him to carry on. Had she done then who knows, maybe he would have seriously considered it, especially if she'd shared some of that newfound wealth with him.

I agreed with the decision to move on from him at the time. I'm not so sure anymore. Maybe she should have kept Richardson but brought in 'consultants' from time to time. I don't think she'd be winning these matches necessarily but she might be performing better.

God knows what that new guy thought of this performance. Even Rybakina looked fed up being out there. You don't learn much from winning like that.
 
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D-Lite

Hall of Fame
The mention of Ivanovic earlier is somewhat apt, her 2009 season was a car crash after making #1 and winning RG. This is a real possibility for Raducanu, and Ivanovic was a tour regular from like 2005/2006 playing the top players like Venus, Mauresmo, Henin, Kuznetsova and so on regularly so you'd think that would harden you up to not have such a dip.
 

D-Lite

Hall of Fame
He did have domestic commitmemts, but I don't think Raducanu asked him to carry on. Had she done then who knows, maybe he would have seriously considered it, especially if she'd shared some of that newfound wealth with him.

I agreed with the decision to move on from him at the time. I'm not so sure anymore. Maybe she should kept Richardson but brought in 'consultants' from time to time. I don't think she'd be winning these matches necessarily but she might be performing better.

God knows what that new guy thought of this performance. Even Rybakina looked fed up being out there. You don't learn much from winning like that.
Rybakina's had a lot of learning opportunities the amount of finals she's lost in the past few years. Of course, she may well break through this year but it appears she struggles with the occasion once it's marked as a final. She experienced it twice also at the Olympics in the SF and the Bronze medal match.
 

accidental

Hall of Fame
I saw that yesterday in Sydney. Utterly confused me.
#94 Liu v #589 Shibahara with the latter winning
#88 Haddad Maia v #726 Dabrowski??
#90 Schmiedlova v #594 Heisen
#685 Olmos v #117 Parry with Olmos winning

Was nobody ranked 150-500 available? Why did it go from top 120 to players outside the top 550? Bizarre.

Players need to be physically present at the tournament site the day before qualifying to sign in for the event.

With covid it probably isn’t that easy to go between states at short notice if a qualifying spot opens up, so the doubles players who are already at the site end up getting in
 

D-Lite

Hall of Fame
Gauff ain't hanging around. Takes out Siniakova 1 and 2. I'm expecting a major final or SF from her this year.
 

D-Lite

Hall of Fame
I saw that yesterday in Sydney. Utterly confused me.
#94 Liu v #589 Shibahara with the latter winning
#88 Haddad Maia v #726 Dabrowski??
#90 Schmiedlova v #594 Heisen
#685 Olmos v #117 Parry with Olmos winning

Was nobody ranked 150-500 available? Why did it go from top 120 to players outside the top 550? Bizarre.
It's pretty cool that the top doubles players can push those around the #100 mark in singles, and even beat them. It just shows how competitive the doubles players are and often with that team aspect to their training that may benefit them competitively/mentally having the friendly competition and support. It would be good to see more of it going forward. I know I've seen Dabrowski on a number of qualies entry lists, so she must just dip in when she's at an event which needs to fill the qualies draw.
 

flyingboris

Legend
Watching the WTA highlights I had to replay several points to try to understand why Raducanu wasn't even close to reaching the ball. Sometimes she wasn't even out of position after hitting a decent deep ball, and still couldn't get anywhere near the next shot. Perhaps Emma's footwork isn't always up to snuff, but man those Rybakina groundstrokes are fast. :eek:

 

zvelf

Hall of Fame
When Raducanu won the U.S. Open, I remarked that she showed no glaring weaknesses. Whether she hid them then or developed them since, it’s clear now that Raducanu has numerous weaknesses. First, her mental toughness has completely disappeared and that could be due to the pressure she now faces as a Grand Slam champion with a big target on her back. She no longer seems invested in points. She tries to win points too early with high-risk shots instead of constructing them. Her second serve is now horrible. She double faults like crazy and even when she gets it in, there’s nothing on them. Her movement was great at the U.S. Open but that’s disappeared and she often doesn’t seem to know where to position herself anymore.

Some credit should go to Rybakina though. She is definitely a future top 10 player and she played superbly today for the 6-0, 6-1 win.
 

Turbo-87

G.O.A.T.
I have never seen serving yips like Sabalenka had last night. That was embarrassing. She even put herself behind in the point because she wasn't ready for a service return on the first serve, fully expecting it to be a fault.
 

Kralingen

Bionic Poster
I have never seen serving yips like Sabalenka had last night. That was embarrassing. She even put herself behind in the point because she wasn't ready for a service return on the first serve, fully expecting it to be a fault.
I seriously have never seen something like it. It's unreal that there's been little commentary on it, this is a world #2 and a top player who has completely forgotten their game.
 

flyingboris

Legend
I seriously have never seen something like it. It's unreal that there's been little commentary on it, this is a world #2 and a top player who has completely forgotten their game.
Didn't get to see it live, sounds like a pretty epic meltdown. Wondering if anyone will make a highlight reel of all missed serves. :eek:
 

Carax

Hall of Fame
I have never seen serving yips like Sabalenka had last night. That was embarrassing. She even put herself behind in the point because she wasn't ready for a service return on the first serve, fully expecting it to be a fault.
Guillermo Coria's 2004 Roland Garros final was excruciating to watch. It made it worse that it was a grand slam final and that he was the heavy favorite. People actually used to call him "the king of clay" before the actual best clay court player of all times showed up.
 

Devil_dog

Hall of Fame
Watching the WTA highlights I had to replay several points to try to understand why Raducanu wasn't even close to reaching the ball. Sometimes she wasn't even out of position after hitting a decent deep ball, and still couldn't get anywhere near the next shot. Perhaps Emma's footwork isn't always up to snuff, but man those Rybakina groundstrokes are fast. :eek:


I suspected Rybakina would win this match but not in such an overpowering manner... whoa.
 
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