Djokovic Dad Says Federer “is envious” of Novak

Enjoyed Match Point Canada-Brad Gilbert podcast. Excellent listen – I go back and forth on Brad Gilbert – the fact is Brad Gilbert knows his tennis, he must be a truly great coach to work with and I am sorry more players haven’t consulted him, even to get Gilbert’s take on THEIR game – to see it through his eyes. The very least that the players can do is listen to his podcast interviews.

Interesting how he talks about players and it’s amusing (to me) how protective the Match Point Canada hosts are of Andreescu! You can tell the acting assumption is: there’s Andreescu and then there’s everyone else. It’s how Gilbert sees things as well. I find it a little rich to look at the Australian Open that way though – there’s always a drop off in level for players, and it’s rare for players to back up a big slam win with another big one as Osaka did (see Osaka now!). Gilbert put it best when he said if you look at Andreescu from age 15 to now you see that injuries have hurt her more than anything. She has a game and a style that hurts.

That said they make an effort especially on the women’s side to go deep on the top ten WTA players.

I thought Gilbert’s comments on the Canadian men were good as well. They should all take a listen, though he didn’t go as much into the “older vets” who I believe have proven this year that they are interested in their own careers. As John Isner once said famously:

“I am out here playing for myself first”

No need to be a doormat.

Tignor, Tennis.com piece on Sharapova. Good article. Indeed the ultimate competitor, with or without meldonium. https://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2020/02/maria-sharapova-retires-tennis/87712/

Tommy Paul just defeated Zverev in SS.

Humbert v Fritz in Acapulco. Fritz kind of needs this to save his season. Too much pressure to “start” winning in IW/Miami.

Brad Gilbert, Rubin, Eubanks, Baker all had interesting things to say about winning. I love that Gilbert told Andre Agassi all he had to do was win a close match and he’d be in good shape for a tournament. I love that. Agassi said why would he want that? Gilbert said because it builds confidence that grows from having toughed out a win. It was more the attitude.

And a sweet win for Tommy Paul. He came through qualies so yet again when he has a few matches under his belt and a few wins he’s almost a different player. Also erases that bitter feeling of losing. As they say winning cures losing!

Tommy Paul is 4-0 against Top 50 this year, beating Cuevas, Ramos-Vinolas, Dimitrov and now Zverev.

Isner better watch out.

The Reddit community to the rescue as they screengrabbed Kyrgios’ Instagram. He posted “No wonder this country doesn’t have any good players.” with a middle finger emoji.

I think he should definitely be suspended now.

https://www.reddit.com/r/tennis/comments/f9q5ua/kyrgioss_instagram_story_after_the_match/

Night tennis: Muguruza and Yastremska started playing around midnight and Barty/Muguruza is also the last match on. This is ridiculous scheduling and I don’t know why players don’t complain. ATP just as bad – matches ending 4 am. Who benefits ? TV ?

Yastremska served 8 df v Mugs. Garbine let Dayana just beat herself. Sascha didn’t look pleased.

BTW – re these new coaching rules in WTA – I’ve seen several full matches this week and haven’t noticed any difference at all. Maybe a bit of signalling from the box but nothing worth all the fuss.

There are two youngsters who are friends but who will battle it out on the court, FAA and Shapo. Each has won against the other in important tourneys, and Shapo creamed his buddy at last year’s USO.

Those start times absurd. I’ve seen late times that are reasonable where the matches end after midnight, even well after, but those Doha times are terrible. That said, they are being compensated richly – whatever they earned last night is a small fortune, staying up late is still staying up late, but they get paid. Doha I bet pays huge appearance fees and the expectation is if in the draw you go with it.

With Genie in a never-ending slump and Bianca with never-ending injuries, thank goodness there is a bright spot with a female Canadian player, Leylah Annie Fernandez.

“Leylah Annie Fernandez just doesn’t know how to lose right now.

Less than 24 hours after her second-ever WTA main draw win, she made it a third on Wednesday night, crushing eight-seeded Nao Hibino 6-3, 6-0 to advance to the quarter-finals of the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presented by HSBC.” (Tennis Canada)

She also had to play qualies at that tourney. She just moved up over 30 spots to No.158. Because this is her first full year on the main WTA tour, she doesn’t have many points to defend.

True. I was thinking of Canada’s WTA prospects. Saw some of the Fernandez/Hibino match. Fernandez burning off a lot of nervous energy between points. She has a nice fast trigger on her forehand, but it’s also the shot that she has less control on. All I can say is the weather must be nice in Mexico, the courts look great there and it seems like a good event.

Fernandez-Potapova in Mexico – fireworks. Excellent match for two notable up and coming players, and bragging rights as well. Match Point Canada should be all over this one!

Question?

Who, outside the big 3, and under 30 years old, has the best volley?

Catherine, Leylah Annie Fernandez is an interesting case. She is small, and not likely to get any bigger. But seeing how she dominated Bencic in their Fed Cup match makes me optimistic. Bencic was not playing badly, but Fernandez was so aggressive and so accurate with her shots that Bencic could not even get into the match. Belinda had high praise for the youngster after that match.

Struff.

Clijsters gets WC for Indian Wells.

Cressy is playing the Calgary Challenger this week, after just winning the one in Drummondville. He got a w/o today. Pospisil lost his first round match. Not a surprise because he had to travel all the way from Europe. It was good of him to fulfill his commitment to the tourney, Vasek has played a lot of tennis lately and must be pretty tired.