I think Milos has good, but not great, movement. But I imagine the players who have excellent movement would love to have his serve. Hard to have it all!

I love “all the ingredients are there he just has to bake the cake now.” Totally agree.

Yes Hartt I notice Raonic in his SI mailbag and in his post essay before USOPEN this year he has a sharp analytical take on the game, pretty concise and for the most part aware of every facet of his game. Must be a dream player to coach, or an easy choice for a big name coach who has a player ready to work. His note on it taking six to eight months for a coach to show worth was interesting if not mistaken. I think he was trying to say as you said I think a coach shouldn’t be fired while a player is implementing changes.
Raonic was probably pleasantly surprised with Moya as the influence was immediate in terms of a more fluid Raonic. And like Hartt said also Raonic was wrong on Murray as he indeed hired Mauresmo.
By the way with all the Lendl praise that I also contribute to, lets credit Mauresmo in part for Murrays resurgence. Lendl had just dumped an injured Murray and Murray hired Mauresmo, who played a huge part in bringing Murray back to baseline. He didn’t have a bad 2015, being shown up only by Djoker and then winning Davis Cup. The reason Lendl came back at all because he was rejoining a Murray that was back in his element, not the injured Murray who begged Lendl to stay on board.
It was a no risk no brainer for Lendl to rejoin team Murray. And that’s in part because of Amelie.

Ivanovic makes me laugh 🙂

She certainly knows how to tweak the media – and they fall for it every single time 🙂

Who cares if she’s retiring ? I mean who cares enough to make this big thing of it ? Just put out something on Twitter.

Oh – silly me. That wouldn’t be a story would it ?

Andrew –

You’ve intrigued me 🙂

Who didn’t like Clijsters – fans or journalists ?
Unfortunately I missed much of her career so although I’ve seen her play on clips etc I don’t know much about her public appeal.

WTA ‘old guard’ really consists of Serena now, and by the end of the year will probably include Angie (and Radwanska ?) as well so we need to see players under 25 stepping up, although the arc of a great career probably starts much earlier than that.

Doubles news. Roger-Vasselin announced on Facebook that he is retiring from singles because of ongoing hip problems and will concentrate on doubles. His singles ranking is just under 300, so this makes sense. He is scheduled to play some doubles with Nestor and I hope ERV’s concentration on doubles means those 2 will play a lot more.

They had good success together in 2016, winning both Washington and Antwerp. After the Antwerp win, Nestor was quoted on the ATP site: “Anti-inflammatories, good partners. At this point in my career, whenever somebody asks me to play I say yes,” joked Nestor. Danny is now 44 and ERV, at 33, sounds like a youngster in comparison.

Ana Ivanovic – so farewell then.
2017 will be the year of retirements 🙂

Seems players retire if they can and want to. Roddick retired with fewer km on the speedometer so too many others. Then there are folks like Karlovic finding themselves Davis Cup finals warriors late career. Tennis such an individual sport. Knowing when to call it quits an art. Agassi said it was his job and he’d let everyone know. Fish walked away due to a freak injury. Sampras went out young and in glory. Santoro stayed as long as possible. Ivabovic I’m sorry to see her go. She was very hard on herself and clearly she expresses if she doesn’t feel like she can put her all in she’s done. Pennetta did the same. To my eyes they are all young but if a player like Ivabovic emphasizes she’s been in the sport for decades and a pro for over 12 years, and has the money to walk away, abmd can stay involved as a guest announcer why not.
More than the men’s side seems we are losing a lot of wta vets. Few will pull a Kimiko Date. Bottom line the wta in particular and the ATP soon enough will see youth movements and new faces. Nothing new.

Yes, Ana’s serve, especially that errant ball toss, was a mystery. I think I even ended up yelling at her (to the TV) after about the 10th terrible toss. Have to think nerves got the better of her but it still seemed strange for such an experienced pro.

When she had a bit of an upswing in her career I hoped she could keep that up but it did not happen. Although it’s true she was a “mid-list” player there was something appealing about her beyond her good looks and I usually rooted for her. (Although some of her celebration moves after good points could be a bit much.)

As far as when Kerber retires I think it’s hard to say. Probably will have a lot to do with how her body holds up and how much she still enjoys playing. As for Andy I would be very surprised if he retired within the next 3 years. Am not sure what would satisfy him in terms of goals but there are a lot more Slams he could win.

I rooted for Ivanovic hoping that her brilliant form would win the day. However for a very long time I think she may even be the streakiest confidence player on either tour. When she was on fire she was on fire and when she wasn’t she was abysmal. There wasn’t any steady state Ivanovic. There was no Sharpie like ability to just play within the lines or rely on one part of her game to get her back into matches. It was either everything works or fails no middle! As in literally worst set ever seen.

But her rise to top player was thrilling. Really belted ball back in 2008 and before Bouchard smacked her in the 2014 Australian Open which almost seemed like Ivanovic was back in champ form. It wasn’t a mirage but one wouldn’t be far off if they mistook it for one.

Kerber is listed at 5’8″ and 149 lbs which is not huge and in fact she does not seem heavily built when you see her with other people.

She has good muscle definition and stamina some of which comes from swimming I’d say as well as tennis training but I wouldn’t really put her in the Big Babe category with the 6′ + women.

Hartt –

Yes the camera is traditionally said to add several pounds to someone’s weight, at least that is the lore among models 🙂

I always remember when I first met Billie Jean K how small she seemed although she was pretty average in height and weight.

One girl half my size and maybe 60 percent my weight kicked my a$%. Scoop unless Ana lying about her weight to make herself look worse I cant say that’s the case. When she got to AO finals she beat Hantuchova in a thrilling semifinal and looked the powerhouse in doing so. Long time ago though. Sometimes she did look too sleight like Hamtuchova. And Sharpie is huge! Fit and huge as in strong. Maybe Ivanovic was sensitive to this.
She talked a lot about injury but I think after she got what she never dreamed of slam finals a French championship world number one what more to do? Getting second slam is maybe slightly easier because of experience but extremely tough. And Ivanovic again had a Giorgi-like streakiness or James Blake like streakiness in that literally she could beat anyone and lose to anyone. Her press conferences were fascinating as she seems to answer any question straightforwardly I’d guess a journalists dream to talk to and depending on the match either delightful or miserable to watch as a fan!
Again to me the amazing part of all of her career basically a Serbian girl from a country with not much in the way of a tennis tradition unless you count Seles which you shouldn’t becomes tops in tennis. Literally unbelievable but because we are so uses to it it’s not.

What next indeed! There are still 2 days left in 2016. 🙂

Scoop –

This guy has been around in Serena’s life for a while. I’ve seen mentions before but all low-key which presumably was the way she wanted it.

What struck me was that in some pictures he looks like a younger version of Patrick 🙂

Scoop the squeaky sneaks! Forgot that Ivanovic did that. Yes that was obnoxious. So too her somewhat in your face cheering on winning points that Hartt alluded to in Hartts comments. All minor stuff. Ivanovic was for some time far more competitive on court than others who were equally tall and strong, we’re looking at you Vaidisova! The feared big brigade of Davenport like champs, tall women with enormous power games, never materialized. Ivanovic and Kvitova followed Sharpie, maybe Muguruza, all superb tennis athletes with skills and strategies beyond mindless ball bashing. Thankfully. Though Dan often says how boring he finds wta, and with the uniformity of styles one is forgiven for accurately describing what’s right in front of them, I think we can all agree Ivanovic Kvitova even Sharpie have far more developed games more along line of well rounded ATP men’s players. Muguruza, the Spanish Ivanivic, also, as hard to make a Wimbledon final without finesse, athleticism, courage, power or some combination of them
Aka saying these ladies play like guys is a compliment and to say that some ATP players could take a page from these women’s strategies would be accurate too and a great career move on their part. Or for ATP coaches to take note to help their charges.

Andrew –

I suppose a ‘champ’ to me is someone who wins early and goes on winning for most of their careers. Piles up the big titles. We all know their names.

The rest might all be very good players, entertaining etc to watch and winning a few worthy trophies, but they aren’t ‘champs’ – just talented beyond the ordinary.

Not sure about your comparison with men players – seems to leave out a lot. Where does Serena fit in there ? Or Kerber ? Or Simona, the Kerber-in-waiting ? Or Radwanska ? Etc.

I don’t know if I’d describe Ivanovic, Kvitova, Muguruza as players with developed games ‘along the lines of well-rounded ATP men’s players’. Not really.
If so, they’d have a lot more titles by now.

Ivanovic,agree with Scoop. Only 1 player in recent memory was no champ upon his slam title and that is Korda, as he was without question doping in or around competition. Rios put together one of tennis more memorable runsk
But with Ivanovic she punched through that title and grabbed it during a tough era. True maligning Iva Majoli is unfair. And Ivanivic was a far superior athlete and tennis talent . I thought she’d compete for top player and stay a while. And she was #1 but ephemeral and her tenure was so brief. That’s why we lament it. Somewhat like Andy Roddick but Ivanovic had talent to burn.