Tsitsipas better than Federer at 21?

Andrew – you’re right. Kerber’s slide into obscurity will be a sideshow and she’ll announce her retirement at the Berlin tournament.

A lot of ‘what ifs’ but that’s life. She’ll coach at her tennis centre in Poland and wait for H of F. But she’ll leave no legacy and no girls will try to play like her.

Jeff – I have to laugh. Kyrgios predicted Australia would win and no doubt saw himself in a leading role. He’s the most injured player in current ATP. I’m surprised he can stand up.

Kyrgios wants more team events in tennis and he’d prefer only the GSs left as regular tournaments. Otherwise he thinks the sport will die out.

He drones on about the Laver Cup, a glorified exhibition, but doesn’t seem to understand that the public’s appetite for team events can be quickly sated and where would we be then ? No tournaments in which players can be developed. It’s piffle. Nick thinks tennis is basketball.

Scoop, probably the greatest insight to Kyrgios is what you said. He doesn’t like being alone. He adores crowd love, women’s attention, the appreciation of teammates. That’s his favorite. He doesn’t like all the rest of the stuff.

Maybe he should Bryan Brothers it. Kyrgios would be a huge doubles draw and he would have something to look forward to every tournament while having less pressure to blow up.

Do we all want to see the guy healthier? If he sticks to doubles he no longer has a need to taunt. He can be a more compassionate guy, we all know so much of Kyrgios is puffery.

Kyrgios. The third Bryan Brother. Heir to Leander Paes. It would be great for him and the sport.

Russia won against Serbia. Khachanov and Rublev played the doubles vs Djokovic and Troicki. I could only see the scores, but the third set TB was very stressful and exciting. Russia won it 10-8. It sounds like Troicki was the weak link in the TB, and Rublev made some big shots.

I am a big Karen fan, and not a Troicki fan, so I was pleased with the result. The SF with Canada should be epic! Both teams have totally relied on just 2 players. Canada has a slight advantage because they have today off.

Andrew – I don’t know, I don’t know how many young players will say ‘I want to play like Angie’ – her game is pretty unorthodox from some perspectives and didn’t (doesn’t) hold up too well under pressure. Angie was just herself and somehow that took her to 3 GSs and hardly anything else. And when I said ‘legacy’ I meant that it’s complicated – half German, half Slav, blonde without being a bombshell, liking publicity and then not seeming to and living in Poland not Germany, and a revolving door of coaches – as I said before: unfathomable. But a great fighter for 13 years before she won a title, nearly giving up. She deserves H of F for that alone. She should have played more doubles.

Kvitova – is her forehand ‘possible’ for many players ?

Muchova – I’m not sure about her, although I like her game. 2020 could be an important year.

Yastremska and Bajin are already IG stars. I foresee an underwhelming future for Dyana. And another departure for Sascha.

Harold, who would you recommend for a young lefty with talent like Shapovalov or the French kids Moutet and Umbert (both of those guys were next gen finals and hit a nice ball – France…the country of female champions and “nice” ATP players 🙂

Moutet, Umbert if they want to make a dent in the game have to learn from other players. It’s a moot point because they’ll do whatever they think works for them, but if you could tell them hey, young lefties, here are some players you should watch, who would you suggest?

For Shapovalov, given that lefties are UNSTABLE, I’d try to develop a backhand that holds up under fire. I think Muster and Leconte had good backhands that were versatile and worked under stress. Navratilova also. Does Shapovalov care? Doubt it.

But he has coaches and they do think about this stuff. Hopefully they are thinking about what Shapo might try when others go after his backhand.

Dinara Safina has a fascinating piece on “Behind the Racquet.” She talks about the difficult adjustment to life after tennis, when you are no longer the centre of attention.

Given our discussions about current WTA players compared to players of the past, I thought this was especially interesting:

“I see many girls today content with what they are achieving, while when I played each person wanted to be better than the one ahead of them, more than anything. It is tough to judge when you aren’t playing but this is what I see. Henin, Clijsters, Davenport, Capriati, Pierce, Mauresmo and the other Russians were all pushing the limits, always eager to be better. I feel there was a different sense of rivalry in those years.”

A lot of former players say these things – that it was more competitive in their day. I don’t believe them. You don’t become a top ranked player today if you lack ‘ambition and drive’. And if you do start going through the motions you’ll be sliding down the rankings pretty fast. Lack of competitiveness hasn’t kept Serena around at 38.

There are more tournaments now and more players which maybe blurs the picture a little but I’d still maintain that no player who wants to be No 1 is going to be resting on their laurels. And I suppose if you want an ‘actual life’ you don’t choose to be a pro tennis player, or a Principal ballet dancer come to that.

In the DC SF Rublev played great tennis to beat Pospisil in the first match, and somehow Shapo pulled out the win vs Karen, so it will come down to the doubles.

Safina is probably discriminated against. She’d also have to let players know she wants to coach and players would have to think about who Safina is. Otherwise tons of coaches approach players and offer their services etc.

Safina could write a column or make it better known. Or volunteer in Russia at Spartak, which might be the most successful tennis academy in history (one of them, at least). The Czech academies have been awesome lately as well. Always impressed that Russia for decades now has produced quality players men and women – Russia invaded the sport in the 1990s on men’s side and the early 2000s on women’s side, and now they are back, gripping and ripping on both tours. Ukrainian women coming along. Somehow Belarusian. Somehow.

Most surprising tennis developments of late, Italian men, Czech women. That Serbia has more than Djokovic is interesting. All this as Spain admits “there is no new Spanish Armada”.

And Andrew, nothing about Czech tennis is surprising. They’ve been on the tennis map since Jaroslav Drobny played for Bohemia-Moravia. A long tradition. Changes in name but not in culture.

Congrats to Canada BTW – Hartt will be thrilled.

BTW – I looked on Muguruza’s Twitter and I’ve never seen such an avalanche of overwhelming praise on a coaching appointment ever. Just hope it all works out and Garbine can get back to the top 10.

Kenin definitely listened. I remember watching her literally fall backwards and land several feet behind the baseline on her serve a year ago or so and thinking, thats not going to work. That same match, the announcer (maybe Evert?), said the same thing. By the next season they had fixed it and her serve is now pretty dang good.

I am so excited! Canada in the Davis Cup final!!

Another reason older players may say they think today’s players are not as competitive as in the past is the junior arms race. It starts earlier and is much more intense with each passing year.

Kids are traveling all over the place at younger ages. More practice, more travel, more injuries at younger ages. Zoo Tennis week after week has blurbs about this or that 13-14-15 year old who has won this event in some far off land. These kids have been little travelers with pro like schedules since ages 10-11.

Its no wonder that once the ones that make it get some money or even instagram attention they don’t work as hard. Many are pretty burned out by the later teens.

I still don’t believe that top ranked players aren’t as competitive as they’ve always been. Possibly they have to be more so because there are more players and more tournaments. Some have always been satisfied to stay mid-level and that’s not going to change. If others get burned out early on then we don’t hear about them.

I always take Safina’s kind of comment with a large pinch of salt. Distance, as we know, lends enchantment to the view.

Simona Halep is engaged. Apparently there was an engagement party in Paris, and the wedding is slated for after next year’s USO.

RBA is sitting with the team in Madrid.

Scoop, I’m the one who posted that! The Romanian fan who runs Match Call Migrants said the BF is 12 years older, and was divorced twice. Apparently he is a wealthy businessman, but I could not get any further info so far.