Hitting Next To An ATP Champion in Bradenton

Just curious–is his daughter ranked as a junior or anything?

Imagine if you played the father.

The chasm between recreational player and ATP level is wider than the Grand Canyon.

Scoop, you must be talking about Anastasia Sysoeva. She is actually 17 years old. Okay player, saw her play our friends daughter who we train with occasionally when they are in FL., Charlotte Chavatipon, about a year ago and she got crushed 6-0, 6-0. In competition she was very defensive, way behind the baseline. But she should be a solid college player.

George I occasionally hit on the courts next to the 51st and 82nd ranked ATP tour players at my club. I’m a solid 4.0 – no way I’d get a game off either. Pace, depth, spin rate, ball striking, recovery. These guys hardly miss and never take a point off!!

Thats her Scoop, very tall, the family lives in Cali, mom is originally from Guam. Her dad had her training 6 hours a day from a very young age. She signed a letter of intent with U of Texas.

They have played twice. She beat Sysoeva 1 and 2 in Texas last October. The match we went to was in Carson last April. She beat her 0-0 in that match.

Ha, true. Charlotte is almost exactly a year older so making progress against an older girl is all good.

Jimmy Johnson and Vasileios Psyrras have worked with Charlotte. Johnson runs a tennis academy in Cali.

Laver Cup put off a year (2021 in Boston)–so the US Open will most likely be canceled (they are deciding shortly, including whether to hold it without fans) and the French may very will happen in September–I cannot see it happening without some limitation on the number of spectators or no spectators.

Many of you may have seen the Djokovic proposal on the player relief fund. Keep in mind this is just a proposal and not anything anyone has agreed to. I am hearing there is much work to do on this and it’s pretty clear that the aim in the players putting this out is to publicize this issue and see how much the tour is willing to contribute.

One interesting aspect of the Coronavirus fallout for the tennis world has been that this has cooled off chances of Gimelstob coming back this year as was anticipated. His PR tea is still hard at work with a scholarship donation and a fluff piece by a pseudo-journalist in recent days but I am told that there ar many other considerations now in tennis than for his eventual return to be a priority. I would assume he and Djokovic have spoken over the last month or so but I doubt it was over anything concrete on how to proceed.

Gimelstob was a great chess player when the players had some cards to play. The virus and the aging of the big 3 have put that in the past. ATP will find sponsor money harder to come by post virus. In addition, once Fed, Djoker, Rafa are done, which will be soon in relative terms, players have zero power at the top.

After the big 3, fans do not and will not care as much. No all time greats, no all time rivalries. Players will be interchangeable, a meteoric rise here and there, then back to the pack. The odds of having the dapper Fed, the suave young Rafa, and the uber talented yet somewhat villain in Djoker at the same time was one in a trillion. Murray tossed in for a while added to the greatness of that era.

Just like we look back at the glory days of the 1970s-1980s where a tennis marriage was the biggest story in the world, we will look back at the big 3 days as the glory days. Once its done, tennis will fade even more into the background. Too much competition for interest, and that will get more intense going forward.

The ATP will have less power in the grand scheme, but the players will have almost zero power. Same with WTA, players are going to learn that instead if 100-120 making a good living from tennis like now, maybe a third of that will make a living from tennis in 5-10 years.

It cracked me up to see Alison Riske calling for lower ranked players to use the lay off to organize. Seriously? The money pot will shrink fast and all but the top 15-20 players will be glad to pay their bills with tennis.

Scoop, its never just one thing that leads to downfall. I built up and sold 2 businesses over the years, its always dominoes that lead to success and failure.

Tennis has multiple issues going forward. The loss of the big 3 is one of them. The odds of multiple other players coming along, in their prime, with great stories, staying healthy and on top for a decade is slim.

But even if another big 3 would emerge, sports has changed. Young folks are into esports, wrestling, etc. 1000 channels, streaming services. Tennis fans are older and dying off.

The third domino is the current economic situation. Less money in fans pockets, less money in sponsors pockets. So you have a one, two, three strikes all coming for tennis at the same time.

The USTA announced $20 million in pay cuts and marketing cutbacks. Just a tip of the iceberg for tennis federations around the world.

“Sam, Yes Anastasia is more than ranked, she has WTA points already at 16. Earned in Cancun.”

So she’s probably not going to become a college player?

“I told her and her brother”

How old is her brother?

“they could have the court but one had to play me in a ten point tiebreaker.”

A stern ultimatum, huh? 😉

“She whooped me.”

Scoop, have you ever gotten beaten by a girl before? 🙂

“I want rematch!”

Maybe you’ll get one if you stick around long enough.

“After tiebreaker I gave copy of Facing Marat Safin to Andrei Cherkasov”

Autographed?

Did you hear about this? Germany is acting like it’s going back to its Nazi past:

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/04/a_german_crackdown_on_shutdown_dissenter_has_a_distinctly_fascist_feel.html

“Yes I play a lot of junior girls and high school and college girls, I lose quite often.”

Nice of you to let them win–very gallant. 🙂

“I tried to get rematch today but she’s in Naples for the weekend. Brother Nikolay is 15.”

At what age do you think she and her brother started playing? About age 3?

Also, do you think kids like these are just “genetically” gifted? Or do you think lots of folks, given the same training and coaching at such an early age, could produce similar results?

“Sam, a fair reporter asked about it in the Trump press briefing yesterday.”

Thanks, Scoop–I did some Web searches and found a bunch of articles too.

“He may be the first high profile indictment Q alluded to”

What is Q?

“Demonrats are trying to rig the election with mail voting. They are all conspiring to demand mail votes for next election.”

Let them try every trick in the book–ain’t gonna happen.

“Biden is senile and can’t even handle press questions.”

Well, recently he said that he’s the only candidate still left who can beat Ronald Reagan, and I agree!!! 😉

You know, he’s starting to make Jessica Simpson look really intelligent! LOL. 🙂

“I’m not being quiet anymore. At some point the poeople hav to rise up and fight. We are at war.”

Yes, we should not be quiet. Freedom of speech is a precious thing. Use it or lose it.

Glad that the Bradenton event went forward today. Hopefully things are gradually starting to get back to normal.

Hope you get your rematch with Anastasia soon. 🙂