Punches Fly in Beijing at Zhang-Kerber Box

Woz bts Siniakova SS. Caro is playing quite well at the moment – I’d say drugs to control her condition and marriage. She wants to make the most of opportunities offered to her.

FAA v Zverev – should be interesting.

Either Naomi’s in super form or Alison Riske is a phantom – she loses last 10 games in SS wipeout.

In the madness over happiness quadrant:
Svito d. Kenin. Svito is good, her speed and variety and strategy made a big difference. For a top ten player it’s hard to understand why Svito hasn’t collected her first slam yet in this “get your slam while you can” era 🙂 Kenin did well to push this. Still not a fan of the Kenin game, but her grit is admirable.

Andreescu batters Brady. After Brady ousted Keys, Andreescu sends her home very quickly and viciously.

D. Kat handles Alexandrovna. This is a nice result for D. Kat.

Yes, agreed Osaka made very short work of Riske. I’m surprised others didn’t do so last week. Riske is aggressive and consistent, but her game is hard to watch.

re: happiness over success versus She the North. If I’m Osaka I’d want to put Andreescu away as quickly as possible. But if I’m Andreescu I’d want to drama queen this match to the max, because it would keep her undefeated against top ten players and intimidating.

Riske looked extremely tired towards the end of that match. Pretty easy for Naomi. Bianca seemed a little irritated at times v Brady. Got caught well off balance on one shot and just looked exasperated. I guess she’s thinking ahead. Some of those dropshots won’t work v Osaka who has phenomenal speed. Battle of the forehands ? I pick Naomi to win. She’s in better shape mentally. And Coco’s not there.

I’m sorry to see Naomi, who seems a nice girl, attracting a Serena-type frenzied fan base. Not her fault of course.

Scoop, if Tiafoe hires Mal Washington that would be fantastic. Or Bryan Shelton, strong player in his day. He could dig deep and hire a superb strategist in Zina Garrison. He could hire Chanda Rubin.

The point is his buddy hasn’t helped him. Zverev has been playing no mercy tennis since the pep talk from Federer and Nadal at Laver Cup, and Tiafoe, who could have benefitted from this kind of pep talk, probably thought he would play the same guy from the US Open. Reality, Zverev has a full confidence tank and is firing on all emotional and physical cylinders.

You don’t bring a water pistol to a war. You bring the best. Tiafoe can do better than his buddy. At a minimum both of them have to have some goals for the rest of the season, because the results last few months have been AWFUL.

Japan: Goffin sends Canada home. First he dismissed last week’s champ CarrenoB, now ousts Shapovalov in straights. At least Shapo fought to the bitter end with two tiebreak sets. Chung d. Cilic, nice win in three.

China
Tsitsipas survives Basilashvili, Querrey d. Schwartzmann of US open quarters fame.

Next gen is…a mess.

I have no idea who will win the Bianca vs Naomi match, but am looking forward to it. It is important for both players, and they both will need to bring their best tennis and a fighting spirit.

Andrew – re Osaka’s fan base, it’s my fault for reading Youtube comments. I always promise myself I won’t read online comments but it’s a promise I often break.

Zverev playing great now, fired up by Nadal and Federer. They pushed no mercy on the guy. Good for them.

re Malivai Washington would be helpful in many ways. His dad was famously outspoken, and sadly very mistaken, especially as it regarded how one of his sons was an excellent player, and the other three were very strong but not at his level. I read it as “powerful man tries to get his kids into tournaments by any means necessary”.

Washington would be no non sense as well as understanding. He would get that Tiafoe wants some space but on the court it would be our job is to improve every day until the rest of your playing career

Washington would be a good coach for anyone. He knew success at the highest level and from what I could tell he was always decent. Scoop probably has met him. Seems like a genuinely good human.

I have a feeling Andreescu could rout poor Naomi. Naomi had an emotional week last week and some weird postings on her social media about her rapper bf. Bianca could take her apart.

Petko gets an essay into Best Sports Writing – piece she did for Racquet Magazine. She’s the German Patti Smith, or wants to be. Although she seems to prefer life in the US. She speaks English with an American accent.

Sloane Stephens pic with her fiance. Sloane definitely more interested in her personal life than tennis these days.

Bianca is sounding positive.
“I feel like US Open didn’t even happen, which I think is a good thing. I’m starting off fresh. I think taking a couple weeks off after US Open really helped, as well. Take a break mentally and physically to regroup for this tournament.

Yeah, I’m glad I’m here. It’s a new challenge, new circumstances, different environment. But I’m always up for the challenge, so I’m happy to be here.” (Tennis World)

When she talked about taking a couple weeks off she meant from tournaments, because she was practicing during that time.

Also, Osaka must fire her dad. She needs a real coach. This time last year she was in Andreescu role and cleaning up. It’s like facing a mirror image of herself last year – recently won a US Open over Serena Williams, playing fantastic. Then…

A wake up call for Osaka. Firing a coach that wasn’t working didn’t help. Hiring her dad proved to be a decent transition. Now the wake up call if she wants to enjoy her perch on top of the tennis world, though obviously more humbled by a better player.

Straight sets. Yeah, dad’s gotta go.

Scoop, I hope you are right, but I will be pleasantly surprised if Bianca wins that easily. I guess it is hard for me to predict a Bianca win, because it will be even more disappointing if she doesn’t get it.

Zverev d. Querrey, Tsitsipas d. Isner, so Zverev vs Tsitsipas for next gen bragging rights. Thiem vs. Khachanov. China Open showing the next generation is finding something. They were able to toss all the veterans out with the exception of Thiem. Next gen will have a finalist at very least for a decent draw at the China Open.

In Japan, Djokovic routed Pouille (who just got married?) and Goffin d. Chung very badly, 6-2 6-2. Goffin has been ferocious this tournament.

It looked like Bianca was sailing through the first set, with 2 breaks, but then Naomi got the breaks back to take it to 5-5. Bianca then broke and finally managed to serve out the set, winning it 7-5. Not as easy as Scoop predicted, but she got it done in the end.

Naomi getting OCC.

You’re wrong all of you who said SS. I think I’m right.

Unfortunately, Scoop’s prediction was incorrect. It was a tough, hard-fought match, but Naomi was the better player and deserved the win. She served very well and her groundies were great, giving her the edge in rallies.

So Bianca’s long winning streak has come to an end.

Osaka’s dad wins the match. So much for my absolutely incorrect commentary, I am flat out wrong! This is a nice “I’m as good as ever” statement warrior match from Osaka in drumming Andreescu out of China. As if to say: we have a rivalry on tour now.

Yeah I blew this.

Osaka now undefeated in her dad Francois.

As I said before the match, my gut feeling was that Naomi would win. At her best she has bigger weapons than Bianca, but she did have to play her best today to win the match.

As Catherine said, Bianca will see what she needs to work on. I think the serve is one. She has a pretty good serve, but it could be better, allowing her to get more free points off the serve, and to have a better first serve %.