ATP Cup: The Lleyton Factor

Yes we disagree Scoop. Because Gauff was full grown at 12.5 years old. She is what she will be as far as size and strength. Sure she will gain some match feel but her main problem is her forehand grip is too western. She has no power on the forehand and can not handle deep pace or low balls to her forehand. Her forehand is a liability and that makes it very hard to be much more than she is now.

Gauff has no special weapons. Not that big, not that much power. A very good athlete, which is how she will win her share of matches.

There is no reason to believe Gauff will change her forehand grip. There is little reason to believe she will be anything more than a bit better in 5 years. There is nothing that is going to move the needle a ton on her game.

Put Anasimova in her place. Plays Pegula, about whom I know nothing at all. These young girls don’t have the weapons or the know-how to challenge Serena, let alone beat her. But although Serena looks a good bet for the AO she should find life a little tougher there. However, with Bianca absent, which looks very likely at the moment, can’t see anyone in her way. Certainly not Gauff.

Not a good week for the hype machine. The announcers and media so want Gauff to be Serena and Anisimova to be Sharapova.

The real Sharapova at age 17 beat prime Serena to win Wimbledon. The fake Anisimova at age 18 loses 1-1 to old Serena. And sorry, but Sharapova had the face of a model, and Anisimova certainly does not.

And do not get me started on why Gauff, at 3 inches and 40 lbs lighter, with no huge serve or monster forehand weapons is not even remotely close to prime Serena.

I guess the WTA is desperate, but trying to make these players into something they have no chance at is not going to help. Reality will be what it will be.

I agree, when we saw Serena at the fund raiser last week she looked fit, but she already looks tired out after a few matches. Hard to see her putting enough matches together to win #24. Father time is undefeated.

My hunch is someone unexpected wins the AO.

Osaka down and out to Ka Pliskova – Fisette won’t be happy. Not sure if these two are a good match although I know it’s early days.

Dear oh dear. I hate to have been proved right. I’ll further predict it’ll be six months from the time we last saw Bianca until we see her again. And she may not be the same player when she comes back.

Bad for her naturally, and bad for the women’s game. Just awful.

Something didn’t go right there.

Osaka/Pliskova was a very tight match – they went toe to toe and Ka saved a match point.

Anisimova is another one who put the cart before the horse. Boat loads of sexy Instagram posts for years now. Sought out Pova’s agent to lead the endorsement charge. Hanging with Kyrgios and celebrities.

Got to grind, fight, and win something first though. Results at the pro level in majors, then fame…not the reverse.

Wow. Rublev wins Doha! Yes, Hartt, all. I wonder what Rublev has in terms of the emotional reserves, if he has enough of a lion in him to go for big ones – his game has some areas that are cough a little weak, though from the back court he does some nice work and I like watching how he goes big. Did Moutet let the moment eat him up? Sometimes that’s all it takes, Rublev looked across the net, saw his opponent nervous, and then says: got this.

I think all of us have said many times we put the blame on the parents and coaches and team and media and on and on. When we say Gauff or Anisimova at this point it goes without saying it means the adults and tennis establishment, rather than singling out the players for all the blame.

Gauff likely has no idea what a western grip even is, no idea posing in front of a fire right now was strange, etc. Anisimova’s dad, RIP, was telling tennis people in New Jersey he had the next Sharapova when she was very young. So when she started posting pics on Instagram at age 15, dad had been telling her for years already she was the next it girl.

So I think its safe to say most of us mean the entire hype machine of adults when we say their names…..it just would take a long time to type that every time they are discussed.

Andrew – Jon’s right. It’s not the ‘little girls’ we’re picking on, and I don’t like to think I’m coming across like that, but the grown-ups around them. It’s a pity there aren’t laws about this but I suppose they’d be hard to enforce.

(Funny how we don’t go on about ‘little boys’.)

In some fields, where precocity occurs, kids are more protected. Eg, they go to ballet school and the Company takes care of them. That would be a great idea – junior tennis players at tennis school. Of course I know about ‘academies’ and I think most of them should be outlawed.

Catherine, what you are describing is something like what Tennis Canada does at the National Training Centre. Unfortunately, they can take just a handful of kids. But a lot of emphasis is put on their schooling, and on becoming well-rounded individuals. There will be the occasional brief piece introducing one or more of those players, but not much else. They tried hard to keep the hype about Felix at a manageable level, at least until he turned pro, and that was no mean feat.

Yes we pick wrongly on kids for adults choices. And agree with Harold, poor girl Anisimova. I’d like to see her do well, that’s impossible. Mr. Anisimova seemed like a very decent person. Maybe tone it down a little as well, though for the most part I agree that the discontent on the board is with the hype machine and how bad it is. It’s like the hype machine for tennis needs a media critic who can point out how nutty it is.

Last time I checked a semifinal result is very decent. Especially first tournament back.

Andrew, I agree with most of what you say about Anisimova, but one correction. This is not her first tourney back after her father’s death. Last fall she played Wuhan, where she won a match over Stosur before losing to Pliskova, and then Beijing, where she lost to Brady in the first round.

Feel bad for Sabalenka too. Not cold hearted people here. I don’t think Sabalenka has done well this year especially in China where she thrives. I can’t overlook the fact that her dad passed so recently and as a young person, or any age, that is rough.

Hartt I had no idea about the two tournaments in 2019 that Anisimova played and her results then sound about as well as she could do under the circumstances, it doesn’t take much to knock a player off course and to me that kind of loss is huge.

Catherine it’s not directed at you but of some somewhat merciless statements of which sadly I am party. I thought Miss Anisimova was played up big time and I have pointed to quite a hype machine of an article from ESPN magazine about her and the kind of endorsement money she could earn – it had some nice features but overall was one of the greater puff pieces I have read.

Then within days of that article, maybe fourteen maybe fewer, Anisimova dad dies and then withdraws from the US Open. One of the more spectacular turns in fortune for the worse in so little time, the wall of hype crumbling or at least tested under an extreme life circumstance.

So now maybe what, five months removed from that moment, Anisimova has a nice result and gets smashed in the semifinal by the superior player in Serena Williams. Should that take away from a pretty good week overall? Somewhat. But as far as the hype goes this was a good result.

As Jon suggested (sorry Jon if this isn’t quite what you said) there’s the Williams and then everyone else.

Agree. If it has to do with holes in their game – fine. That’s true, and for what it’s worth Serena Williams looked fantastic, hitting the ball the best I’ve seen since some of her better moments last summer and when it counted.

When a player’s dad dies or mom or sister etc, that’s a searing loss. The player never “gets over it” (though no one has suggested they do etc), just that they actually do not. James Blake for what it’s worth was somewhat shielded from his dad’s illness (cancer) and was muddling through his own comeback from his terrible injury. He didn’t just rebound as if nothing happened.

Someone else said this in addition to Harold, I think it was Pete Bodo, said Roddick would take the time to say to a reporter hey what you said hurt my feelings etc. I’d say at first glance hey comes with the territory but Bodo appreciated it and heard Roddick out so that he had a better sense of whatever it was at least from the player.

If anyone “follows” Anisimova, she responded to Serena Williams who had said how much she likes Anisimova (before they had played) and how badly she felt for Anisimova for her dad’s death and Anisimova post match wrote how much this meant to her. That looked like a genuine response from Anisimova and some gratitude.

So sure, Anisimova game has some holes and the hype machine was deflated. She also had a good result with a semifinal. Those two things can coexist. I was surprised by her strokes – better than I had thought they were, she hits a nice clean ball – and also by her anticipation that was worse than expected and her movement, which was a step slow against an in form opponent in Serena Williams. Those are real things that Anisimova would need to work on if she’s aiming for a bigger result.