I did not expect to write an article about the way Peng Shuai is playing this week in Miami.
But she is performing some of the most amazing tennis I’ve seen on the WTA Tour in a good while. After doing a Biofile with WTA #24 Aravane Rezai of France, the previous day, I went to see her play on court two against Peng Shuai on Thursday.
Shuai was up 3-0 and was just crushing shots all over the court, with depth and precision, rarely missing. Every shot was a bullet. At the 3-0 changeover, Rezai called for her coach Nicolas Escude. But what he said, however impressive it looked as he advised her eye to eye, did not work.
Shuai just kept on unleashing her furious, two-fisted explosions off both wings deep with pace, over and over and over. All the while, during the onslaught of her yellow missiles, Shuai hums and sings to herself, very lightly but very clearly noticeable. She looks quicker and slimmer now too, as a result of working with a fitness coach who attends all her matches. Her coach is named Tim Nichols.
So far this year Shuai has won 25 matches (including qualifier wins, 23-7 overall) and her ranking has jumped from #72 at the start of the year to a present #32. Shuai has never won a WTA title, though she did win a gold medal at the prestigious 2010 Asian Games.
This week Shuai bombarded Greta Arn and Rezai out of the tournament in straight sets, and most impressively yesterday on stadium court, she dismissed #11 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova 63 61. It wasn’t even close.
Kuznetsova, a two-time grand slam title winner, looked totally helpless as Shuai fired away at her, non-stop, relentless and with stunning precision. Shuai became so confident she even dared to do something out of her comfort zone late in the second set.
Known as one of the messiest volleyers in all of women’s tennis, Shuai blasted a forehand crosscourt and came to the net, which is extremely rare for her to do. Kuznetsova countered with a good, solid shot down the middle but Shuai pounded a double-hander backhand swing volley into the open court for a violent winner. Even the Argentine reporter seated next to me, who has been a silent, stoic viewer for all the other matches, uttered a very impressed reaction at that winning shot.
Now the 25-year-old Shuai is into the fourth round and will meet #26 seed Alexandra Dulgheru for a spot in the quarters.
After defeating Kuznetsova early in the afternoon, Peng Shuai played a doubles match with Shahar Peer in the late afternoon/early evening, against the tough team of Srebotnik and Peschke, the WTA’s second best team of 2010.
Of course, I was curious to see if Shuai could continue this marvelous level of tennis excellence in doubles so I ran over to see some of this match. Yes indeed, Shuai was the dominant player on the court, blazing her baseline shotmaking and returning, to lead her and Peer to the exciting upset 75 76 win. Even the NBA great Bob McAdoo was an impressed spectator at this match, enjoying it with his daughter, son and wife. (By the way, I did a Biofile with McAdoo and he discusses why he loves tennis so much, so stay tuned for that feature next week.)
(Interestingly, Shuai does not hum or sing during the points in doubles.)
I asked Peng Shuai’s coach Tim Nichols about why is she playing such amazing tennis right now. Unreflective of how well she is playing, coach Nichols only gave me a short disappointing cliche as an answer though, “Hard work. Hard work. Simple as that.”
Peng Shuai must be putting in the hard yards for sure. Like the bright orange outfit she wears on court (via Li Ning, though she wore all white for the dubs), Peng Shuai is one fire.
And Peng Shuai could be on her way to a first WTA title, of any kind. Don’t be surprised. She could even win this tournament, if she keeps playing at this phenomenal level. Tom Perrotta of Tennis magazine said he’d buy me a beer if she does.
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Scoop Malinowski · March 30, 2011 at 2:48 am
Then Peng goes out and loses her next match to Dulgheru 36 46! In retrospect it’s probably not a big surprise that Peng could not maintain that high level high risk style of tennis. Maybe Dulgheru is the real deal. We’ll see against Maria.