2020 Off To A Roaring Start

Nakashima is pretty good as a newbie, I think Tiafoe played like a veteran the last two sets, competed. Nakashima stayed there, but I think he needs a lot of work. I wrote a ton on it, sorry to bore everyone.

I mean Kiki deserved better than Bajin, who was oh so sorry afterwards (he said) but I bet didn’t care two pins at the time and led her to believe he’d stay around a little longer.

The only thing I’ve seen about what Dominic said about his split with Kiki was in Tennis World, and we know how reliable that site is! One sentence is so poorly translated it doesn’t even make much sense. According to the article, Dominic said that a girl takes a lot of time and commitment, and he isn’t looking for anyone now. Then there was the bit where he said he thought in the future there would be a girl watching from the stands. Not great, but not as terrible as it sounded at first.

Fed Cup – Osaka loses to Sorribes Tormo 0-6 3-6. Wow.

Naomi hasn’t played well since hiring Fisette.

Hartt – yes, I didn’t expect Naomi to shine on clay but that scoreline was surprising. Looks like CSN is beating Doi.

Some switching around in Canada/Switz. I’m afraid Canada may lose but without Bianca it’s a tough task.

I am watching the Leylah Annie Fernandez vs Jil Teichmann match. Jil won the first set TB, but the youngster played well overall, and showed why she is an exciting prospect.

Well, in that case we’ll see Wim skip off when his contract ends and land – where ?

Gasquet had to retire in the 2nd set of his match vs Pospisil after losing the first set. That is sad because Montpellier is usually a good tourney for Richard. But Vasek needs some wins to move up the rankings after losing so much time last season after his back surgery.

It is a good debate, USA/French men. Maybe Roddick was the best of the USA/French men’s players, otherwise France had a better group of players?

Osaka should Sloane or Muguruza it. Win slams when you feel like it and otherwise take it easy. She’s already a hall of famer and has cash flow from sponsors. IG it and forget the rest.

(I don’t believe that, but she’s welcome to do so, and there’s a precedent too – Serena Williams used to play very, very few tournaments. Maybe Osaka should do that, develop some other interests, play when she wants).

I shall attack Thiem. Actually I don’t. I believe he has a Thiem problem, but it could be why he’s so good. Looks at Muster, says (actually says this), “I know best” – and who are we to argue? Thiem sees his competitive final as proof he doesn’t need Muster and he’s doing great.

I disagree, but final is a final. I am more along the lines of the title of Ben Bloom’s column today, “Dominic Thiem now just another nearly man working in the shadows of sporting greatness”.

But, credit to Thiem. He was willing to chuck everything even in my view a mistake, I mean, MLADENOVIC!!!

Vesely in Semis in ATP/Pune/India, Berankis, Duckworth, and either Kwon or Gerasimov. This will be a nice ATP win for whoever gets it.

Since the chances of Canada getting into the Fed Cup finals are just about nil, ironically Canada will play a home or away tie in April. Here’s hoping Canada gets “home” and all the players are healthy.

Canada’s FedCup chances looking bad…miracle if they can win the dubs and push it on the singles side.

Groundies

Kenin – had no plans for a dress! As of 2:30AM after her Australian triumph, she had had no plans. I think Catherine mentioned this? Now I can tell why everything felt so out of place when she was on the banks of the Yarra river with the championship title.

Courtesy of: No Challenges Remaining Podcast/Courtney Nguyen

Do we have Tiafoe’s side of the story? Someone else asked this and, in fairness to Tiafoe (and in light of the GQ story), isn’t there some more information needed?

First, Tiafoe was no longer part of Ginepri’s day to day, as Ginepri was working on building his “Ginepri Performance Tennis Academy” when they were working together in 2018. Most of the day to day work was with Paul Kinney. This change was made at the end of 2018.

Without Kinney and Ginepri, Tiafoe made the Australian Open QF and also made the Miami QF. That doesn’t seem so awful – with Kinney/Ginepri he won the Delray tournament – and then achieved his best “big” results when they were out of his life.

Ginepri was funded by the USTA – so the expenses did not come out of Tiafoe’s pocket.

For all travel in 2018, he traveled with Evenden. Kinney and Ginepri weren’t anywhere to be seen. According to reporting on the subject, he traveled with Evenden because his ranking began to go in the wrong direction in early 2018 and he needed someone on the road.

By all indications, the break from Kinney and Ginepri took place before Tiafoe’s best results, even though he won the Delray title with Ginepri and Kinney. We have no idea who was paying for what, or what was requested.

What we do know based on reporting is that Tiafoe’s results were better without them for a good four months, and we also know Ginepri thinks the world of him.

There has to be more to this thing than “Tiafoe shouldn’t have said goodbye.” By all indications he needed someone for travel, and if Ginepri was pouring his energy into Ginepri High Performance Academy rather than Tiafoe High Performance, I think that says a lot.

Otherwise the reporting on Tiafoe is wild, and we know he had a slump from the French Open onward, and that he’s just getting back some of his level. The last half year have not been a good run for him. But there has to be more to this than he shouldn’t have left – what if Ginepri had already “left”.

Remember also, Tiafoe bought his parents a home and told them, well before he made a cent in pro tennis, “I will take care of all of you”. That’s exactly what he’s done.

So players make their choices. To me those choices don’t always make sense. I don’t get why Thiem tells Kiki “bye forever”, or why Tiafoe tells Kinney and Ginepri that he can’t work with them – it seems like a shock to me, and his performance since leaving them was uneven up until this solid challenger run.

But I’d say he does have specific goals, whatever they are, and that’s where he’s putting his chips. All his support, including his agent etc, they are all around the area where he now lives – he hits the courts where he’s most comfortable and may be one of the most “accessible” players. I don’t know if he hits with local players but that may be one of his goals too, to develop a few so that his legacy is bigger than himself.

I will probably eat my words again. But it seems we should ask Tiafoe some questions.

Tiafoe probably handles things well. He doesn’t (quite) live at home – he lives in a pretty nice part of the city, and his parents live quite a bit up the road (but better than where they had been at the tennis center!). For what it’s worth, he trains at the same place where he and his brother learned the game and apparently gives a tour to anyone who want to see it – hes’ constantly around where he “grew up”.

If it’s true regarding whatever rumor, it wouldn’t be the first time for a player and all the people they look after. Some players cut themselves off from where they are from and go and live in Monaco. What Tiafoe, some others do, is they go home and then everyone wants a piece of them.

His mentors are very good – they are at the top of the basketball world (and they are basketball team owners – pretty big deals).

I think he keeps things close to the vest. He has to, there’s too much on the line. In reading more about him I see that he puts a lot of pressure on himself – in that regard he’s not that different than Alex de Minaur and others. His game to my eye has a lot to it, and I think there are some models for him that would work because he has some things that can’t be caught – the competitive instinct and the sheer speed. Everything else he has to improve the level of consistency.

Anyways, I appreciate the bio-file, I read elsewhere that his hero was Del Potro. I think Tiafoe said he wanted to go to South America.

Wikipedia:
“Tiafoe’s tennis idol growing up was Juan Martin del Potro, in part because the Argentine was the first pro to sign a tennis ball for him.[43] The two first faced each other at Acapulco in 2017, with del Potro winning the match in a third-set tiebreak. Tiafoe picked up his first win over his idol at the 2018 Delray Beach Open en route to his first career ATP title

I’m going back on Kudla: hits off his back leg. Bad habit.