How McEnroe Solved The Lendl Puzzle

Overall, I know there are exceptions, I don’t think it’s a good idea for parents to get involved in coaching, not past an early age. At some point they have to take a step back. I know of situations where everything has ended in tears because of course the dynamics can be terribly confused. How can you sack your own father eg ?

Seems to me Tennis Canada and Bianca’s parents (not to mention Coco) are doing the right thing with Bianca.

Development coaches make a difference. The best can clean up the core shots of many very good young players and veterans alike. A player needs a few voices out there.

And no, I put zero faith in Osaka’s dad as a tennis genius. There is some part of me that says, look, Osaka’s dad, or everyone’s dad, got someone else to pay for their kids tennis development. For an expensive sport, good for them.

The other part of me is like, no. They are now incredibly wealthy. If you want to invest in the future of other kids that need the help with their tennis, then go ahead and do that.

I don’t know how places such as the Nadal academy handle this. His academy cost $62,000 per year. I already know what they do there, because it’s the same as other places and they aren’t going to have anyone at Nadal’s level, now or ever. But there you have it – one of the wealthiest players in tennis history has an academy that charges $62K a year. This is your latest and greatest version of giving back.

Meanwhile somewhere there’s a kid hitting on a backboard somewhere that can’t get enough of it. And that kid is your next champion.

Kerber dodging a Riske match? Wow Catherine, you are very down on the Kerber. Is her game really in shambles?

Top players like Kerber should be getting through her first matches playing around seventy percent capacity.

Andrew – you clearly haven’t kept up with Kerber/Riske. Alison has beaten her 2/0, last week in Zhengzhou in 3 sets and now she comes to Japan and here’s Alison again. Unfortunately Angie is playing 70% capacity ( she hasn’t won a match since R1 W’don) but at least she has Dirk Dier with her now and he’s a familiar figure in her box. Angie’s big weakness is her serve – a number of coaches have not solved this problem and it’s leaving her at a disadvantage against a player like Riske.

Other readers of this site will know that I’m far from being down on Kerber – I want to see her pick up her game. It’s not too late but she needs the right support. Doesn’t do well on her own.

Going back and forth on Bajin: speculation here, Scoop, there was a comment up on Twitter at that giggling Osaka thing. Is this true an Wimbledon or a rumor? Bajin says the right things in interviews but reporters keep trying to drag his personal life out. But what the rumor mill on that Twitter post suggests is that Bajin’s personal issues are the kind of thing that would disrupt an elite player’s frame of mind and if things had been bad for some time then of course Osaka would drop the axe.

Bajin might have blown up his own coaching gig because of Bajin. Not just his book, but because he’s got issues himself. Fine coach. With issues.

I’m still against her dad coaching because I think it’s bad form. And there are plenty of good “hitting partners” and ball machines for that matter out there.

With the complications that can come with parent involvement, Bianca is fortunate that her parents (and Coco) are supportive, but have no special interest in tennis.

On the financial support question, I thought Shapovalov’s story is interesting. When he was as young as 8, his mother posted a video of Denis practicing. He was very impressive for such a young kid, his game style was pretty much the way it is now. I don’t know if the video did bring in any sponsors, though.

A few years later Denis decided not to accept the Tennis Canada offer to join their training program in Montreal. Denis did not want to leave home, he was doing well with his current coach, and his mother wasn’t keen on the Tennis Canada approach of group training. But $ was a big issue. Fortunately, Andrzaj Kapinski, a wealthy businessman involved with organizing tennis events, agreed to sponsor the youngster. He did not want to be repaid, but asked Denis, if he became successful, to support a promising young player in turn.

Hartt, saw some Bouchard clip yesterday. She played such solid tennis in 2014, her form looked solid and believe it or not Bouchard looked stronger physically, more like a super athlete and less like a model etc. Her game was so grooved and her timing was ideal.

I’m pretty hard on her tennis. I think I get now what she refers to when she talks about her game and how she’s feeling. Her game didn’t look all too bad. I wonder if the switch from Babolat to Yonex has worked well also. Her timing is thrown a little and sometimes players don’t make a great adjustment here also.

Example, moving from a TF racquet to Dunlop seems easier than Babolat to Yonex. The first two have similar weights etc. Federer would go through an extreme amount of customization just to get an updated version of the racquet on the shelves – his racquet may be for sale, meaning someone can buy the racquet model, but the ones he uses are customized to the player and are not for sale!

Long gone are the days when people could buy Jay Berger’s racquet at K-Mart. Berger is the only guy I’ve ever seen in my short tennis life who used what anyone else could get for fifty, sixty bucks.

Apparently Kapinski assisted other Canadian youngsters as well. A couple, whose names I forget, also helped Denis and other young players. I think it may have been Casey Curtis, Milos’ childhood coach, who suggested Shapo to Kapinski, but would have to check on that. The tennis community in Canada has to be quite small, so I imagine there are a lot of links like that.

Osaka has the larger than life thing going. It’s a lot of money.

The Tennis Podcast twitter has this question:
“If you could have one woman and one man, from any era, to come out of retirement at their peaks, and teleport into the Australian Open, who would you choose and why?”

How would people here answer that question?

It’s a bit of a pointless question because we’re assuming this player will be competing with players now – which would obviously be a bit silly.

I’d say probably Evonne Goolagong but of course she played on grass at her peak in the AO. Same with BJK, my other choice. (not sure when they changed from grass)

Man ? Probably Ken Rosewall. But as I say, I don’t think it’s a very well thought-out question.

Grace and technique my reasons.

Andrew – how did Navratilova change the game ? She played a classic serve/volley style and played it to perfection but she didn’t change anything.

Andrew – probably the reason people don’t mention Martina’s greatness these days so much is that no one plays S/V anymore, except occasionally on a few points in a match. Yes, I know about Taylor Townsend but she’s not going to be winning slams. Martina also modelled her game on BJK’s – who I consider Martina’s equal when we’re discussing greatness.

Players did do fitness training and conditioning (even Margaret Court did in the 60s) but Martina made a big thing of it – so that may have encouraged women to hit the gym more. Men began to do this as well – it was a general change in the sport.

Bianca might be interested in her place in the history books – it’s a bit early to say. As for Gauff – we already know because she’s mentioned it once or twice – she’s going to be the GOAT.

I had my Bianca winning the USO treat today. A Slam required a much bigger treat than usual. Bloor West Village, my local shopping area, had a big Ukrainian festival today, so I took the easy way out and got perogi. They are so popular in this area, which has a big Polish population, as well as Ukrainian, that I figure they can count as a Canadian treat. The Romanian poster on Match Call Migrants tells me they aren’t eaten in the area where Bianca’s family comes from.

But my other treats are definitely Canadian – “Cracked Canoe” beer from the Moosehead brewery, and a lovely fruit tart with every type of berry imaginable.

No one said great players are simple. I am convinced they are all a bit crazy. I actually don’t even believe that McEnroe stands out at all in terms of his temperament. If they didn’t have Hawkeye how many McEnroe type players would we see?

Andrew – yes, Angie’s serve lost her the match. And Riske went out to Zheng later so she’s no world beater as yet. I’m very surprised that over the years Angie, her coaches and all the resources of the DTB haven’t been able to fix her serve. Torben Beltz was interviewed not long ago about working with Vekic cf Kerber and when he discussed Angie he never mentioned her serve. It was as though only Donna had a serve worth bothering about. As Angie gets older you’d think a decent coach would help her here because it would save her so many miserable losses.

I still believe Fisette was the best coach for her and he did try to tweak her serve. But he departed and Angie is who she is. She does a lot of gym work and she’s strong and fit – why can’t she get something on her serve ? It’s frustrating. Easier said than done of course, for us sitting in front of a screen.

I hold out no great hopes for Angie in Japan. She’ll just repeat her loss to Riske.

My theory is that Felix did want to play on the same team as Kyrgios. His comments on Kyrgios after FAA defeated Nick were so out of character for Felix that he must feel very strongly. He praised Nick’ skill. “His tennis qualities are incredible.” But he went on to say: “So you have to look at the two things, there’s the tennis player and there’s the person. I really don’t like associating with a person like that.”

Catherine, this is my theory. But I don’t believe the decision to skip the Laver Cup was made by just his team.

In the interview that I quoted, Felix had a lot more to say. I’ve never heard him be so negative about another player, so I actually took notes. Stephanie Myles conducted the interview in French, but she provided English subtitles over the video.

FAA also said: “I think he’s a good tennis player, but I never will be friends, or close with someone like that. Because we’re way too different.”

Although Felix won the match, he said it was very difficult to concentrate with Nick’s antics. As usual, Nick had a running feud with the ump, and when it was clear he would lose he tanked the last couple games. After the match he threw his racquet onto a path where people were walking. You can see how someone like Felix would be appalled by all these actions.

Note to player: can’t control the elements. A Kyrgios match is like a change in the weather. Kind of have to deal.

Given Medvedev “antics” at US Open, we should expect more antics to come…from everyone. Bad boy tennis is back in style whether someone wants it or not.

I’m sorry to state the obvious here, but the big three are also experts at bad boy tennis as well. Nadal silences a crowd with his play, Djokovic imagines a crowd that turned against him is cheering, Federer punches down when Evans suggests favorable scheduling helps the guy (helps everyone, do too playing most matches on the biggest courts instead of the outer courts).

If everyone were friends…that’s not the tour at all. Players like some players and not others. You have to compete against them whether you want to or not.

Pliskova vs Kenin – Pliskova plays around too much out there. Kenin did well to make her pay for that strategy. This is one that Pliskova should have wrapped up in two sets. I don’t see Pliskova winning a slam based on this kind of playing.

Kenin needs to get faster. Windsprints or something. Her footspeed is slow for the top fifty.

Watched highlights of Mladenovic vs Martic. Martic surprised me with her all court game at the US Open. Mladenovic did well to make the semis in Guangzhou. Not sure what the game plan was going into the match – Mladenovic has a similar kind of profile to the great Mary Pierce. If I were her team including the talkative Bajin I’d pull some Mary Pierce video and watch it. Mladenovic should have made this harder on Martic rather than make Martic seem like a super player.

Martic is “good”, good athlete, good all court game, fast, does everything well. Mladenovic should have been able to get a set here.

I never know why Ka Pliskova wins anything. Must be a reason.

Too many WTA tournaments seem to be going on at the same time in Asia – result: weak fields.

Reason Cahill and Simona are back together – Simona wants the Grand Slam in 2020 + Olympic gold medal.

1952/1970/1988 – 3 great players – so which great players had the chance and missed out ?

Even if Martic owns Plisko. Ok so Plisko got one on her nemesis and kryptonite Martic. I don’t get why Martic is a challenge for Plisko. Maybe because she’s faster. I dunno.

Andreescu, who has so many slams!

Reality check. Three straight years, each year with four different women winning grand slam titles.

Andreescu is a very good player. Very promising and delivered beautifully on that promise in winning two Masters and one slam in 2019 as a young player. That’s a half of fame year, she can retire right now.

But as for her future slams…let’s see what she has in the tank for the next few months. Will she have the famous let down of other players as in the pressure grows as the game grows, and suddenly backing it all up feels impossible, and the player is relieved…to lose?

Or does Andreescu want another slam so badly that she’s ok with the inevitable stumbling blocks ahead?

Only Osaka pulled off the back to back slam thing as of recent date with her US Open win in 2018 and her 2019 Australian. Andreescu might be able to repeat the Osaka feat…maybe. Osaka then promptly got rid of the best coach she’s ever had, maybe and likely because Bajin had issues that the Osaka camp couldn’t tolerate (whatever those demons may be – perhaps another female player, perhaps worse than that if some totally unsubstantiated rumors are true) and his underappreciated thirst for the spotlight himself a la Brad Gilbert.

Andreescu will avoid the coaching nonsense of Osaka, but not necessarily the pressure to pull a rabbit out of a hat again or the soon to grow capabilities of her opponents in finding an Adreescu weakness and giving her more of a run for her money. Remember now a win against Andreescu will be a career highlight for another player. Giant killers such as Putinseva might relish this chance.