Sharapova Ban Reduced to 15 months

Scoop –

Simona – well you would say that wouldn’t you ? 🙂 🙂

Martina Hingis – not surprised at her comment. I never ranked her that highly as a competitor despite the wins.

Martina N – I was around for almost all of Martina’s career and I can assure you that despite the gossip she steered clear of drugs. And I’ll believe that until I’m shown definite proof of the opposite.
But she worked out etc when few women did.

Chang under 5 feet ? Surely not ! 🙂

Scoop –

No, I don’t underrate Hingis. She came along at a time when her game took her to the top but, as you say, it wasn’t enough to keep her there.

I just think that comment of hers re Davenport was astonishing – something a player might think but would be careful about voicing.

I guess guys like macmac are getting their rankings as high as possible to set up for qualifying draws at small events and the Australian.

Kind of fascinating how Russian players can be lightning rods for controversy. Whether Kafelnikov and tanking, Sharpie and female players dislike plus meldiniun, or Davydenki and the betting express, they do tend to have a few higher profile incidents in the shady side I’d the game. But most Russian players have nada and are not magnets for anything, like chesnikiv and cherkasiv.

Hartt I had heard of players in stories about them in the media how they don’t practice together. I saw those very same players practicing together. I guess it’s from the idea that they only trust their coaches and hitting partners. Found it unrtrue. I think a few of them only hit with hitting partners , but for most part they only stop practicing with other wta players when they are on the business end I’d a tournament and there aren’t any players left. Some wta stars do only hit with male practice partners, but they seem time be few.

Gabriela Dabrowski and her partner Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez got to the SF at Beijing, beating some good teams on the way. I hope this partnership is the one Gaby needs to get some big wins. As Scoop said, she is a good player, one of those who is under the radar.

Genie Bouchard seems to get extreme reactions – she has lots of avid fans but many people are downright hostile. I’ve stopped reading comments sections about her because of all the vitriol. But people who do know her say she is a very hard worker who takes her tennis seriously. I hope she can work her way back up the rankings.

Oh and Sharapova – my guess is that when she returns there’ll be about as much conviviality with fellow pros as there was before ie: hardly any.

Scoop –

Perhaps we should remember that some of these players are very young and maybe have not had the best people around them or had the best advice, and in later life may look back with regret on the face they presented publicly.

No one should be called a B – on the basis of a few tv encounters with someone who doesn’t know them in private life.

Just saying.

It’s so great that the top ATP players sometimes hit with juniors. Denis Shapovalov talks about how when Denis was a kid Federer stopped signing autographs just before he got to young Denis and the boy burst into tears. But at Rogers Cup a few years later, when Fed needed that rare thing, a lefty with a one-handed backhand, 15-year-old Denis got the call. After a brief tryout with Edberg, he was accepted. You can imagine how nervous and excited Denis was, but he though he gave Fed a proper workout.

Kyrgiis gets third title of 2016. Eventually guys like Thiem, Kyrgiis etc despite my personal feelings, they’ll win a big one. Thiems best shot is to equal Muster by winning a French. Kyrgiis by winning something. You could argue for Milos. I wouldn’t but he’s now good enough to win a big one, he’s no more lumbering than Michael Stich or Richard Jrajicek. Their foot work was better, but I think their games weren’t superior, just simpler.

Scoop, I get what you’re saying on Raonic. He seems a smarter player than Philippoussis and a better one than Todd Martin. Better and worse players have won slams in the last 20 years or so. I think it’s up to him – if he loosens up a little I think he’ll do it, maybe even beat a big five player in the title match. Usually it’s another big five player that wins that match against a better big five player. Fact is, those guys are aging. They are in the last quadrant of their playing careers and that’s a fact, however strong they are. We knew the day was coming and with a bumper crop of very good players, maybe even great ones, coming along, the years, even the last two years, of slam dominance could come undone with one blazing shot, like the one Djokovic launched against Federer in 2010 in the US open semifinal. That seminal shot could belong to any number of players.

It could even come from someone unexpected who has decided that’s it, he’s going to Wawrinka himself into the conversation, expand the big five to the graying six. Who knows.

I think the big five will keep winning slams this year. I just don’t think they can possibly win all of them.

Internally in Canada, no offense to Dancevic, but Raonic is about to have serious competition breathing down his neck. Sure, he lives in Monte Carlo and thinks of himself in the conversation of the big four, big five players, as someone who’s about the punch their ticket, but fact is Canadian tennis is better than ever. It has a versatile lefty in Shapovalov, who has – obviously – better than good instincts out there and a self-awareness that pushes rather than smashes him. And there’s the Felix kid, who’s got the same range of game as Shapovalov. Canadian tennis has gotten so strong that they almost – almost – overshadow the rise of the next gen U.S. players – what they lose in terms of quantity of players they make up in the maturity of their games.

Raonic’s probably taken note of them and considers them far off. But with an ATP that’s getting older and a wave of retirements opening up space for young guys, they are moving up a lot faster.

Personally, in watching all of the scorelines from the challengers, I am SHOCKED – absolutely shocked – that guys like Tiafoe, Rubin, McDonald, others are in contention for those titles. That kind of progress is something we haven’t seen since Kyrgios blasted his way past Jarmere Jenkins, DY, Kosakowski (who played him tough) towards his first challenger title back in 2014, on his way to the top 50 from the lower 200s. He won back to back challengers and by Wimbledon that year knocked off Nadal. This was a little over a year after getting his hat handed to him in Australian Open qualies, courtesy of Brad Klahn.

Bottom line – the fact that these young guys are winning challengers, and several of them, so early shows that they are legitimate. They are already beating veteran challenger players, somewhat easily, and are staking claimm to the well worn path from challenger wins as young players to real-life ATP wins.

Raonic is no doubt taking note. He has to be. So he must feel some pressure to produce now. He can win by taking things a little more in stride, looking forward to things rather than adding more pressure on himself.

Scoop, I hope you are wrong about Raonic. I still have hope that he will win at least 1 Slam. It would help if he could avoid injuries for a few months in a row. I do agree with you and Andrew that he needs to loosen up, not put so much pressure on himself. It sounds like Moya and Piatti have been trying to achieve that, but I’m not sure if it is in Milos’ nature.

And of course I am very excited about both Shapovalov and Auger-Aliassime. They are obviously extremely talented but what is especially impressive is they are strong in the mental side of the game. And they both realize they have a long way to go and a lot of work to do. Last summer Denis said something to the effect of “I am still a nobody.” He wasn’t carried away by all the hype.

I’ve started to pay more attention to some of the younger American players. Had already been following Fritz but, as you know, there is a big crop of promising American kids. It’s hard to keep up with all of them, but what a bright future for American tennis!

Scoop, yes – I think Raonic learns from his mistakes. He probably learned he should scout his opponents better, and I’d think Moya got an earful here. And he should hear the critique from McEnroe, to uncork some of that adrenaline so it doesn’t grind him into the asphalt every time he faces a real contender in a higher-stakes match.

These aren’t major changes. More blowing off steam so he can take advantage of opportunities during his matches and create some where needed. That’s not magic, it’s just an approach. Raonic’s fine technically, no quibbles. His movement could be better and it’s gotten better.

Moya’s succeeded in pushing Raonic to a better place. Only that closed-mouth, not going to show I’m ready to rumble, too-cool-for-school Raonic’s got to show he’s a person out there. I think that’s enough to get him to another slam final. And if he’s been there once he’ll get the stakes. A Davis Cup championship would also do wonders for him and he’ll soon have the back-up he needs beyond Pops and stalwart Dancevic.

Don’t get me wrong, I like Dancevic. Like his game, like what he does on the court. I don’t think he’s quite had the right voice in his ear, and he’s been plagued by injuries for the better part of it. No offense, Felix and Shapovalov probably know why Raonic’s moved ahead and Dancevic and other Canadian stand-out juniors haven’t.