2015 Tennis Thread

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Originally Posted by killer_carlson

Genie seems more interested in off court endorsements than she does about winning.

Not sure where the girl who was all business, all about winning went to.

Meddling agents and father? I understand she ditched her longstanding coach and agent. Not sure why these athletes are so quick to ditch the people that got them there.

Maybe she'll still be hawking Pinty's in 2016 after all....

[Inglewood Jack]

one of the crazier speculations I heard was that Genie lost too much weight this year in an attempt to get faster, and thus also lost a bunch of her baseline power.

I dunno how much sheer bulk adds to your hitting strength in tennis, I always thought it was more about technique, flexibility an leverage (length). why she would feel the need to be faster anyways is strange, since she played a lot of good defense last year. in fact, the big hitting women's champions often don't have to play a ton of defense at all because they're too busy ragdolling their opponents with titanic forehands.

on the WTA side, it does seem like you need to be 6+ feet tall with the ability to blast the other player off the court to have a chance at a major. all the other smaller, much more cerebral players (e.g. Halep, Radwanksa) just can't come up with a game plan to get around the Serenapova buzzsaw.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by CedarMeter

Vasek and Jack are through to the 2nd Round Doubles, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6 over Estrella Burgos/Souza. ‪#‎PospiSock‬ Rolland Garros 2014

Amazing to think that they went from joining up for Wimbledon for the hell of it to the #2 seeds at the French Open 10 months later.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Inglewood Jack

one of the crazier speculations I heard was that Genie lost too much weight this year in an attempt to get faster, and thus also lost a bunch of her baseline power.

I dunno how much sheer bulk adds to your hitting strength in tennis, I always thought it was more about technique, flexibility an leverage (length). why she would feel the need to be faster anyways is strange, since she played a lot of good defense last year. in fact, the big hitting women's champions often don't have to play a ton of defense at all because they're too busy ragdolling their opponents with titanic forehands.

on the WTA side, it does seem like you need to be 6+ feet tall with the ability to blast the other player off the court to have a chance at a major. all the other smaller, much more cerebral players (e.g. Halep, Radwanksa) just can't come up with a game plan to get around the Serenapova buzzsaw.

IMO she just got on a roll early in her career and now has hit a rough patch where she's lost confidence and her edge. Also it does appear there may be more distractions going on outside the court with all the attention she gets. I think she will eventually get things together but I'm somewhat cool on her chances of ever becoming a multiple grand slam champion as her first serve is mediocre and will likely never be a strength and her ground strokes are good but she simply doesn't have a killer shot. When your biggest strength is supposed to be your mental game it means you don't have a lot of weapons and we are seeing right now as she's not sharp mentally and isn't very competitive.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Genie needs more matches first and foremost. 1st or 2nd round losses are ensuring she doesn't get any match action. But I also seriously doubt she can swallow her pride and play a bunch of 250 level events (or even Challengers...) just to build her confidence up. Rright now I don't think there's a single top 50 player she'd be favoured to beat.

Evidently, she has been able to swallow her pride a little. She was interviewed by TSN today after her doubles match and mentioned that her priority is to play as much as possible. She's going to take some wildcards into prep tournaments.

[Machiavelli]

Originally Posted by Inglewood Jack

on the WTA side, it does seem like you need to be 6+ feet tall with the ability to blast the other player off the court to have a chance at a major. all the other smaller, much more cerebral players (e.g. Halep, Radwanksa) just can't come up with a game plan to get around the Serenapova buzzsaw.

Serena definitely isn't 6 feet tall.

[Inglewood Jack]

Originally Posted by Machiavelli

Serena definitely isn't 6 feet tall.

she's probably the one example where the extra muscle bulk more than makes up for the 3-4 inches she gives up on girls like Sharapova and Kvitova. I believe she weighs about the same as those two and others in the 6+ foot club.

so I guess Genie if you wanna hit harder...hit the gym and try to get swole?

[GirlySports]

Top 10 women going into the French Open

1. Serena Willams 5'9"
2. Maria Sharpova 6'2"
3. Simona Halep 5'6"
4. Petra Kvitova 6'0"
5. Caroline Wozniaki 5'10"
6. Eugene Bouchard 5'10"
7. Ana Ivanovic 6'0"
8. Carla Suarez Navarro 5'4"
9. Ekaterina Makarova 5'11"
10. Andrea Petkovic 5'11"

[Inglewood Jack]

stop subverting my shaky narrative about super tall women and power dammit

ok so not really anybody is over 6 feet tall other than Maria. but just eyeballing that list, and I bet if we extended it down, the ones with heavy enough shots to win a major either have above average height or bulk. Genie is a run of the mill physique similar to Wozniacki, and we know how many big trophies she's got in her case.

geez I don't even believe this stuff when it comes to hockey and here I am arguing about size/truculence in a tennis thread

[homestand]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Nothing but disappointment for a year straight for her. Maybe the fame and fortune got to her head?

Genie certainly has not looked the same since being steamrolled by Kvitova.

In my opinion, a lot of heavy lifting was done for Genie at Wimbledon 2014
when Cornet (25) upset Serena (1) 1-6, 6-3, 6-4. After Genie defeated
Cornet, Genie defeated Kerber. Kerber (9) had played a marathon match the
previous day against Sharapova (5) 7(7)-6(4), 4-6, 6-4.

Genie avoided playing Serena and Sharapova and faced opponents coming off the emotional high of playing the match of their career.

[GirlySports]

Serena against Victoria right now in a 3rd round battle.

Azarenka took the 1st set.

[Resolute 14]

Serena has been chasing the match from the very start, but looking stronger now that her back is up against the wall.

[GirlySports]

She needs to get that break back and make it 4-4

[Senator Clay Davis]

High quality stuff for a third round match. If Serena forces a third set darkness comes into play.

[Resolute 14]

Azarenka got screwed there. That should have been deuce, not a replayed point.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Azarenka got screwed there. That should have been deuce, not a replayed point.

I think Serena stopped. Its like the ref has blown the whistle.

[Resolute 14]

Serena had already blown the shot before the line judge called it out. It's not Azarenka's fault that Serena quit playing.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Vika has every right to be pissed with that one. Serena also should have conceded the point.

[GirlySports]

Now shes pissed. 0-40

[GirlySports]

There will be about 15 breaks in this set