US Open Women’s Title A Wide Open Race

I’ve no idea who’s going to win the women’s title either but I’m going to come out and say it won’t be Gauff and it won’t be Barty, because I don’t think Ashleigh has it in her to win in New York, at least not yet. It seems opponents are getting the hang of how she plays.

Jeff, I think it’s stretching things a bit to pick Serena for Wimbledon next year. What’s wrong with her is mainly age and that’s not something that reverses itself, unfortunately.

Simona has a nagging Achilles problem and I’m not betting on her. Bianca ? She’s seems to have been forgotten with all this guff about Gauff but if she can stay fit I’d expect her in the later rounds.

Keys bt Kuznetsova SS in Cincy – close match but a good win for Maddie who seems to have tightened up her game these days.

Not my favourite GS the USO – too much frenzy and hype and potential for mayhem. But that’s the appeal I suppose.

If she lucks on a draw full of people who have never played her 🙂

And so much rests on her fitness.

Well – that’s Bianca out – she’s already being puffed up to win it. (ubi tennis)

Sloane has dumped Sven Groeneveld after not such a long haul. Didn’t notice he’d made much difference to her game. Is it going become the fashion now to change coaches mid-year ? So Sloane joins Muguruza, Kerber in the WTA officially coachless queue pre USO.

On today’s Tennis Podcast they announced they will have an interview with Larry Stefanski (to be aired on Wed.) where he will talk about coaching Rios, among other things.

The folks at Match Call Migrants have nicknamed her “Sloane Whatever.”

It’s a shame that she seems to be another very talented player who isn’t making the most of her talent.

Maybe the players here have a point – they pay the bills and if a coach isn’t working for them it’s their job to cut bait. With Harrison it was the other way around, his coach upped his rates, Harrison balked and the coach walked. Then Harrison hired him back, and has been through a coaching carousel since.

Kerber said, after parting with Fisette and hiring Schuettler, that it didn’t matter if your coach was a good coach or a poor one, what was important was your own motivation. And now Rainer exits after a few months, leaving that statement rather hanging in the air….

Harrison worked with Grant Doyle, who after Harrison reached #43 upped reqs on $, then left. Harrison rehired him in 2015 as his career suffered, then began his turnaround. Then nosedive, then resurgence in mid 2016 with Peter Lucassen, then Sanguinetti, then Iron Mike Russell. His worst results have been with Russell.

Harrison may be like Kerber etc in that he needs a new voice every year or so. He’s probably a stubborn guy – for some reason bad habits creep into Harrison’s game within a year of taking care of them. I don’t think this is an isolated instance – players by nature want to do what’s familiar to them, so going against the grain leads them back to the grain without some distraction or way to trick themselves into adding new dimensions to their games.

If we look at Nadal for example, some years his serve has been excellent, and other years it loses some mph or some of its form or angles. Even Nadal gets used to playing a certain way until he decides to focus on it for a period. Then he gets addicted to playing better than ever and that doesn’t ware off easily.

No, I don’t blame Russell and definitely don’t blame his wife! He’s a moody guy on court. He should definitely focus on the doubles and see what he can do.

He might want to read more. He could probably benefit from some good tennis books. It provides perspective and may help him see things a little differently. I can’t imagine losing first Rd of qualies is what he expected!

Andrew – I think you’re absolutely right in your first paragraph, particularly re Kerber. She starts off well with a new coach and then slowly reverts to old losing habits. I don’t know much about Harrison but the pattern certainly fits. The most durable players are able to find their way back or ‘trick’ themselves as you put it.

There should be a lending library of coaches. You take a suitable one off the shelf, try for a while and then return and test out another one. So you’ve always got a new coach and new inspiration 🙂

Scoop, Evert said something about Bouchard that I think says a lot for other players too. Players figure out other players. Bouchard’s match vs Andreescu wasn’t so different from Bouchard vs anyone in her dream year. If anything her serve was a little better and her volleys a little better. But many players know how to beat Bouchard, and many coaches do too now.

Catherine’s got a good hunch that word gets out.

Harrison was funny. In one interview maybe 2017 maybe early 2018, he said if I were giving advice on how to beat me in the past I’d put the ball in play and wait for Harrison to self destruct, which would happen.

So his bad habits came roaring back.

Contrast that with the top ladies or the top guys. Even their habits come back. Djokovic once had his serve go on holiday! Then he recovered it a few times over his career so that it was once again formidable – even the Djokovic second serve is very tough, designed to make players feel like they don’t have much to work with.

As Andrew has said, players (even successful ones) must continue to develop their games. Bouchard did not do that. her game is still basically what it was in 2014. I suspect that is why some of her coaches did not last long, that they wanted her to make some changes and she wouldn’t do it.

The other problem for her is she has to be supremely confident to pull off her high risk style, and she is no longer confident. She has a pattern of winning the first set, playing well. But she can’t maintain that level and loses the next two sets. It must be incredibly discouraging to lose match after match. I think she is at something like 11 losses in a row. You have to give her credit for continuing to compete.

But as long as she keeps trying to do the same thing she has little chance of winning.

Yes, Bouchard did have a decent start to the season. She also had some bad luck in draws, for example getting Serena in R64 at the AO, and Halep in R32 in Dubai.

But she had some spectacular losses as well, getting crushed by Bianca at Newport Beach 6-2, 6-0. And when she was in her slump she had some bad losses, such as in the first round of RG, with Tsurenko beating her 6-2, 6-2 and Ferro winning 6-2, 6-0 in Eastbourne.

Giorgi believes she can win a big tournament. She saw Flavia do this. While Giorgi has a lot more power on her shots (one of few I’ve ever seen who plays like Agassi – someone has to learn how to play this way – first strike tennis – from a very young age!). I’ll always be a fan of her first strike tennis.

Then there’s the near certainty that Giorgi consistency doesn’t exist. All fireworks and no strategy. That’s where the Agassi comparison fails – Agassi learned strategy.

Giorgi has a Wimbledon QF, but you’re right. She’s more the Blake of the WTA than the Agassi, and that may be generous. We’ve talked about her a lot before.

I’ll leave it at she has seen other Italian players win slams or do well at them, so should have the belief that it’s possible. But her game is so remarkably different from theirs and far more volatile.

I always hope players with this kind of talent can reign it in a little. Over time I see that it’s nearly impossible! The mental toughness some players demonstrate is itself a skill that’s as important as the huge topspin or a beautiful backhand. A bunch of world class winners is no match for the talent to think through a match.

Andrew, whenever I watch Dimitrov now I am going to think of your statement: “A bunch of world class winners is no match for the talent to think through a match.”

That ability to “think through a match” is one of the reasons I am so big on Andreescu. One of her former coaches said she has notes on other players – notebooks of them. Before a match she and her coach talk strategy, taking into account the player she will face. We’ve seen in matches how she can use her variety to keep her opponent off balance. But what I enjoy seeing is how she can win against a wide variety of opponents, at least in part by her ability to think through a match.

Ha ha Hartt! I know, Dimitrov (sigh). The guy has nearly every shot ever invented. Then a box a jello in the place of Plan B and Plan C when the going gets tough and he actually has to change gears.

Sorry to Dimitrov fans, one of best ball strikers. Not the same as adjusting on the fly…

Andreescu, that journal will help her. That’s what Serena Williams did and has done over time, in addition to training pretty darn hard for decades. She has shown she has “far more than a junior game”

I think Catherine’s said this before. Many players go with a junior game on the pro tour. It’s comfortable, it works, and it brings success. Then they don’t adapt and get confused and fire coaches, all of whom either tell them to change it up and get fired, or who tell them nothing’s wrong and stay on longer with a steady paycheck.

Catherine, how did Konta escape this? Because she’s originally from Australia? She has the most fire of any British female player I’ve seen in decades! Maybe the Hungarian roots like Seles (not to typecast players or nationalities – I’ve noticed Czech Republic, Russia, France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Italy to some extent have actual “systems” with good pro tennis results; the U.S. has good female pros somehow, possibly because of the competition and because women believe they can turn pro here in the states).

The UK has failed women’s players for decades!!!

Bianca isn’t the only one who has notebooks on tennis. I now have several, especially on Canadian players.

Andrew, I’ve added your statements about mental toughness and thinking through a match to my notes, so I won’t forget them. I have thought that for a long time, but you expressed it so eloquently.

Andrew – yes, whether I actually put it that way or not I certainly think that pattern is how it works out, maybe for the majority of young players. Many are called but few are chosen – everyone can’t reach the top and it takes perseverance plus talent and no one really knows where the talent comes from. Scoop told the story, from a German source, of how Kerber was thinking of giving up when she had been a pro for a while, she wasn’t getting anywhere, and how Andrea Petkovic talked her out of it so she carried on and gradually improved her game. Maybe she’s reached that stage for the second time now and needs similar encouragement – change her game the way Fed/Nadal did and exit on a high note.

Konta – Johanna’s big advantage is, as you suggest, her mixed heritage. She wasn’t developed in Britain. I don’t blame the LTA for everything. British girls don’t seem that interested in tennis, or aren’t really ambitious. Virginia Wade, UK’s last W’don winner, spent her childhood and learned her tennis in South Africa.

I’m a believer in serendipity – create a good system and talent will show itself. You can’t force it.

Hartt – Interesting comments. Kerber’s coach has to be a German speaker. She’s not comfortable in English. Could be Polish, she’s fluent in that, but I don’t know of any Polish coaches.

I’m not sure Angie understands what’s happening with her now – any future coach will have to take that on board. Never got the feeling Scheuttler was ‘on the same page’.
Free Angie’s will to win – something’s tied it up.

More like Stefanki wants a paying job! He takes jobs where clients have enough cash flow. Yes they are excellent. But I bet he’s an expensive coach, and he will only sign on with players that can foot the bill and be contenders!!!