WTA 1000 Dubai 2/19 - 2/27 2023

[JazzNU]

saw highlights for the first time - Dubai court doesnt seem all that slow! Much faster than Doha in fact! nobody else here seems to care about the court speed, so .....

I care very little about court speed, but Dubai regularly has a faster court than Doha. That's been the case for a long while.

[Deuce]

https://www.wtatennis.com/news/3077431/ ... z-in-dubai
At least Swiatek thinks the court speed matters! And Dubai is fast.

And you've said several times that Swiatek is good on slow courts, but not so much on faster courts.
Yet she looked just as good today as she did on the slower Doha court, and there is no sign of her momentum stopping.
It's interesting how the perspective keeps changing to accommodate the results...

[Deuce]

She needed to go a level up in the second set? From "murderer" to "maniacal murderer"? It was 1 & 1, in 72 minutes!
I guess that is the way they have to think about these things. You can always hit it harder, you can always have more winners.

I watched the entire match. She did have to increase her level at the beginning of the 2nd set. You can't judge on statistics or score alone. Leylah came out in the 2nd set more determined, and taking the points to Swiatek. But Iga adjusted and upped her level as needed, as champions do.
The second half of the 2nd set was much like the 1st set - one way traffic. But for the beginning of that 2nd set, it was very enjoyable, competitive tennis from both players.

[ti-amie]

Day 6 Order of Play

Centre Court
Starts at 12:00 PM

ROU A. BOGDAN vs USA J. PEGULA (3)
FOLLOWED BY
USA M. KEYS vs BLR V. AZARENKA (15)
FOLLOWED BY
POL I. SWIATEK (1) vs RUS L. SAMSONOVA (14)
NOT BEFORE 7:00 PM
LAT J. OSTAPENKO (13) vs BLR A. SABALENKA (2)
FOLLOWED BY
CZE B. KREJCIKOVA vs CZE P. KVITOVA (12)

Court 1
Starts at 12:00 PM

UKR A. KALININA vs CZE K. PLISKOVA
NOT BEFORE 2:00 PM
SUI B. BENCIC (8) vs CZE K. MUCHOVA
FOLLOWED BY
KAZ E. RYBAKINA (9) vs USA C. GAUFF (5)

Court 3
Starts at 12:00 PM

CHN Z. YANG/RUS V. ZVONAREVA (7) vs JPN S. AOYAMA/JPN M. NINOMIYA
NOT BEFORE 2:00 PM
CAN L. FERNANDEZ/USA B. MATTEK-SANDS vs BLR A. SASNOVICH/CHN Y. XU
FOLLOWED BY
RUS V. KUDERMETOVA/RUS L. SAMSONOVA vs MEX G. OLMOS/CHN S. ZHANG (4)
FOLLOWED BY
USA C. GAUFF/USA J. PEGULA (1) vs TPE H. CHAN/TPE L. CHAN
FOLLOWED BY
ROU M. NICULESCU/BEL K. ZIMMERMANN vs RUS A. PAVLYUCHENKOVA/KAZ E. RYBAKINA

[Deuce]

It looks like Ostapenko took care of Linda Fruhvirtova quickly.
I didn't see the match, but 2 and love seems rather efficient...
Ostapenko has gotten herself back into the mix this year, after being relatively anonymous for a few years. I wonder if Kenin will ever be able to come back in a similar way.

Muchova in two close sets over Cirstea...
Kvitova keeps hanging around with a straight set win over Putinseva...

[ashkor87]

Bencic' fighting qualities! She is simply refusing to lose when it gets close..she wasn't always like this..used to lose close matches because she had no extra gear ..as when Andreescu beat her at the USO the year she won it ..I thought that was bencic' best chance to win a major but she faltered when it got close .
Something seems to have changed in her life..good for her! And for us ...

[ponchi101]

I agree that Belinda is getting it done a bit more frequently lately.
I just want to see her having the same believe against top opponents. She has the game.

[ashkor87]

How will Coco do against Rybakina? On a faster court like this .? I actually expect her to do better than on a slow court like abuDhabi .very interesting match coming up

[ashkor87]

https://www.wtatennis.com/news/3077431/ ... z-in-dubai
At least Swiatek thinks the court speed matters! And Dubai is fast.

In these conditions, Iga is not invincible..

[JazzNU]

Bencic' fighting qualities! She is simply refusing to lose when it gets close..she wasn't always like this..used to lose close matches because she had no extra gear ..as when Andreescu beat her at the USO the year she won it ..I thought that was bencic' best chance to win a major but she faltered when it got close .
Something seems to have changed in her life..good for her! And for us ...

Belinda's best chance was in 2021. She couldn't beat Emma. A loss more glaring by the day. Losing to Bianca in 2019 is something many top players had to contend with that year, starting in Indian Wells and ending at the US Open. Losing to Emma is an entirely different story.

[JazzNU]

I agree that Belinda is getting it done a bit more frequently lately.
I just want to see her having the same believe against top opponents. She has the game.

She's getting into I'll believe it when I see it territory for me. I used to think she was a real contender. I've been thinking less so lately. She looks great at these 500 events a la Rublev, but doesn't seem to be able to play that level match after match at the 1000s and GS. She won that Olympic Gold of course, but that wasn't a murderer's row draw she had and then she pulled that gamesmanship at the end to help with closing out Marketa.

I'd be less surprised by her than I would by Pliskova, she hasn't reached that level of I'll believe when I see it, but I'd like her to change my mind in the next month, for instance. Make the finals of Dubai, Indian Wells, or Miami and maybe it'll seem like more of a possibility to me again. It's been a while since she's gotten to a final of that level.

[ashkor87]

She has been beaten lately only by tier 1 players..which is to be expected

[Suliso]

So far Samsonova not doing any better vs Swiatek than Fernandez managed.

[Suliso]

1 & 0 against a top 20 player. Crazy, isn't it.

In other news Rybakina has withdrawn with a lower back injury. Gauff will play Keys in QF's.

[ashkor87]

Swiatek has become a monster...