Jack Sock Vows: I will be back and better than ever

I love the bubble talk with girls because we have been immersed in girl’s juniors for so long. The formation is comically predictable at this point.

At age 7-8 the girls are all silly, play tag or hide and seek more than practice. All the parents are buddies, play dates, tennis leads to everything else.

Ages 9-12, like clock work, if your girl beats their girl, every single tennis parent wants to train with your kid, your coach, your program. If their girl wins the match, no matter how close or by what means, they do not give you the time of day. On court, girls still talk and giggle with each other though.

Ages 13-14, girls stop talking to each other unless already friends. Total silence from the time they get balls at the tournament desk. When playing doubles will help rankings, they will partner up. If they win, doubles partners will be friendly to each other. Lose and they act like they never met before once the match is done. Parents of ‘it’ girls (well ranked girls) act like royalty. They will give condescending advice to ‘lesser ranked’ parents, but only socialize with other high ranked parents.

Age 15-16, 2 types of girls show up to tournaments as many others have quit tennis by now. The girls with a chance to win, very serious, full entourage surrounding them. Do not talk to anyone unless they win and Collette from Zoo Tennis wants to do an interview. The rest of the girls are there for the boys, strutting, laughing, looks like a any high school cafeteria at this point.

Age 17 and up, pretty much only the bubble girls are left playing serious juniors and they are the ones who go on to the pros.

I didn’t know Robson was even particularly friendly with Bouchard – let alone they’d had a tiff. Robson has been completely off the radar here for a long time. She was tried out as a commentator at the GB Fed Cup tie early this year but didn’t do too well I heard. Her twitter photo is so glammed up I didn’t recognise her.

Laura’s career went off the rails before she was out of her teens. Not sure what went wrong, apart from her talent not being equal to her publicity.

Thanks – I don’t see the Standard and Robson’s story hasn’t been anywhere else.

I think she’s living in a dream. Not sure how she hurt her hip she’s played so little tennis. Her movement wasn’t ever that good anyway.

The ES calling her a ‘British tennis star’ is stretching things a bit. I know I sound grudging but I really think Laura should face reality and accept she’s not going to go anywhere now. It’s a kind of half life, just hanging around the game. I wonder how people can do it.

Thiem d. Federer, now 5-2 vs Fed?! Wow

Djokovic d. Berretini 6-2 6-1. Total shellacking.

Thiem was a beast today, really beat up on Federer, though Djokovic beat up on Berretini far, far worse (total beat down). Anyone else amused with Michael Venus and Klassen, both past dubs partners to Ryan Harrison, doing great in London as one of the top dubs teams? I’m amused. Tennis has so much irony in it.

Scoop, I’m shocked. World Team Tennis, 2016. Harrison joined wtt and was MVP that year and teamed with Klassen to win thw wtt doubles. It was one of the reasons Harrison’s confidence tank was overflowing – he had battled through some qualies draws that summer, then played wtt and was MVP, won matches with Klassen including the wtt team title, and then qualified with his brother for the US open main draw, where he knocked off Raonic before falling in round three.

Harrison had a huge summer after a generally abysmal year.

Hartt – I remember your making that exact same comment about Bouchard around 3 years ago and although Genie seemed to try she’s never looked like getting back to a decent ranking. Her game just isn’t there. She’s a bit young to think about retirement but I wonder how much real enjoyment she can get out of her tennis life now.

Sam Stosur is a player who should retire IMO. And Sabine Lisicki. W’don finalist and now qualifying. I wouldn’t like to see Angie following that path. Somehow I don’t think she will. Big decision for all players – how to make the graceful exit. Serena ? We’re waiting.

Bouchard doesn’t tackle the game as she had. She’s not the same player or person she was in 2014. This happens to players on both tours. Sometimes they never recapture the magic. Deep down there’s a competitor there, but at this point I’m pretty sure Bouchard is more in it for the lifestyle on tour than its rigors, or history etc. She’s safe and sound in the Bouchard Bubble.

Yeah, Harrison. Predictable. You ditch what works and then pay the price. For whatever reason he’s not capable of looking at what worked for him. He thrived having a team element to his game, then ditched the team. In fact, we could look at this as: Harrison rises in 2016, winning matches everywhere that summer whether qualies for main draws, doubles matches or wtt and he enters US Open and 2017 on a high note, and continues to do well. Then 2018, scuffle with DY over stupidest thing of all time, and by end of 2019 doesn’t play WTT much (a match or two?) Finds himself at his lowest ranking, maybe since 2010.

Predictable. The guy can’t see what others see about him, that he needs matches and confidence. Wherever he can get them. He’s a confidence player.

Glam over Glory. Maybe the money is too good and no one plays for record books. You get your slam, you’re already best player in Canadian history men or women, there’s no one yet on your radar from Canada. Just hit the pedal on that beamer.

I worry about this stuff. I notice in past few years that players have options beyond the game so they flirt with that and their tennis turns to mush.

So goes it. Enjoy this era of many many many wta players getting a slam.

Genie’s coach is Jorge Todero. I don’t know anything about him.

The coaching award that Sylvain Bruneau received is a Canadian award for coaches in all sports, not just tennis.

“During this gala, Sylvain Bruneau will receive the Jack Donohue Coach of the Year Award, which recognizes the outstanding contributions of a Canadian Coach who exemplifies the qualities of the legendary Jack Donohue. These values include honesty, integrity, positive attitude, competitiveness and a love of sport.” (Tennis Canada)

Andrew – I think Angie played for the record books. I think she sees that now. Luckily, whatever happens in her future she’s got the 3 GSs. So she’s free to do shampoo ads and whatever else. Maybe not opening the newest branch of Aldi or Lidl though. There are limits.

The O2 in London is such a social scene. You aren’t anyone if you aren’t there. Even if you can’t tell a tennis ball from a golf ball and you’ve never been near this particularly dreary part of London in your life.

Although I agree that the glam stuff can be distracting, it does not have to take away from the player’s tennis. As long as tennis itself remains the priority there can be time for some of the other stuff.

Players need to find a balance because if all there is is a tennis grind that too, can be a problem.

There is a terrific interview with Bethanie Mattek-Sands where she talks about changing her attitude. She knew some retired players regretted not taking more advantage of the travel, etc. So she decided she would stay in the foreign location for a day or two after a tourney, visit the Great Wall of China, etc.

I thought Tsitsipas played well in that match. I wasn’t able to see the final stats, but he won 14/18 points at the net in the first set. He went behind Medvedev a few times, a good tactic.

Before the tourney Stefanos talked about how much he enjoyed London, that he was looking forward to taking photos there and visiting art galleries. He is another player who does get the most out of the travel.

Kerber is Hall of Fame and doesn’t owe the sport etc. She can settle into her future role soon of handing out winners trophies at WTA Germany events. Unless she wants another slam.

It will be interesting to see which players do retire after the Olympics. Especially with the men, there are so many well into their thirties now.

Genie finally won a match. A gal’s gotta start somewhere!

“Genie Bouchard earns her first singles win since February, snapping a 13-match losing streak with a 7-6, 6-4 win in Houston over Valentini Grammatikopoulou.”
(twitter)

Can’t say I’m thrilled with new WTA site design. Horrible.

Zverev d. Nadal easily. Yikes. He must really be out of practice. And Tsitsipas over Medvedev…that BMW sponsorship he and Andreescu signed is ruining players 🙂

Rafa was far from his best today, but Zverev played well. He served extremely well, with an average first serve speed of 133 mph. and had several serves at over 140 mph. Even with this powerful serving he still had a first serve % of 69%. He had 11 aces and 2 DFs (which came one after the other).

The Koz prevailed in the third-set tie-breaker against Carr, who’s 20 and happens to be the No. 1 player from Ireland. The Koz has a good serve, but his forehand which is beefed up, can go astray, like it did at 3-4 with Carr serving at 15-40 when the Koz missed four forehands in a row. He looks like he’s in pretty good shape, but it’s indoor tennis. Seemed like a good guy. He hit Carr in the back retrieving a dropper and seemed truly upset and concerned with Carr’s well-being. Little strange I thought that right after the match, the Koz reached into his bag and took out his cell phone.

YOu’d think the guy would want to pick up his bag and go to the locker room, but instead he stayed in his chair and checked out his phone. The Koz gets the no. 1 seed, Kudla, in next round so that should be a good test for the no. 473-rd player.

And Cibulkova has retired – not a terrific surprise but she’ll be missed. Always an entertaining player and maybe the smallest of any top ranked player in today’s tennis.

Tsitsipas proving a lot past few tournaments. A win on nemesis FAA, a win on Medvedev. He’s been doing better. He was premature in going after the big three and has done better trying to get bragging rights for the next gens.

I still think he was wrong to try to rally the troops to go after the big three, and hope he learned the lesson of “butter them up then beat them silly” – that’s the Nadal and Djok and Federer method.

The Tsitsipas Medvedev rift is stupid. Why do they hate each other? Petty. Shows it’s not just the WTA with cold handshakes at net but these two.

Like I said and I think facts speak for themselves, when you are a player with Instagram you no longer need to be at your best or commit to the sport. You can just be a fellow traveler and live off past glory. Muguruza is a hall of fame first ballot. She’s also wasting best years of her playing life.