WTA 1000 ATP 1000 Miami 3/21 - 4/2 2023

[ponchi101]

Rybakina back to her normal level. It just took her a couple of matches to adjust to these courts.

Adrian Mannarino. You would never want to play like Adrian Mannarino. But you should want to play like Adrian Mannarino, because that is the kind of game that can actually be imitated (you will NEVER, in a million years, hit one FH like Roger, Rafa or Novak).
He took the first set from Hurkacz. By just playing smart.

[ti-amie]

Tuesday, March 28, 2023 Day 9

Stadium Starts At 12:00 Noon

(9) Taylor Fritz VS (7) Holger Rune
Not Before 2:00 PM
(25) Martina Trevisan VS KAZ E. RYBAKINA (10)
Followed By
(1) Carlos Alcaraz VS (16) Tommy Paul
Not Before 7:00 PM
(3) Jessica Pegula VS (27) Anastasia Potapova
Not Before 8:30 Pm
Quentin Halys VS (4) Daniil Medvedev

Grandstand Starts At 11:00 Am

(10) Jannik Sinner VS (6) Andrey Rublev
Followed By
(26) Botic van de Zandschulp VS Emil Ruusuvuori
Not Before 2:30 Pm
(14) Karen Khachanov VS (2) Stefanos Tsitsipas
Followed By
Hubert Hurkacz Or Adrian Mannarino VS Christopher Eubanks Or Gregoire Barrere
Not Before 7:00 Pm
(25) Francisco Cerundolo VS Lorenzo Sonego Or Frances Tiafoe

Butch Buchholz Starts At 11:00 Am

QF
Maximo Gonzalez/Andres Molteni VS Austin Krajicek/Nicolas Mahut
Followed By
(3) Lyudmyla Kichenok/Jelena Ostapenko VS Leylah Fernandez/Taylor Townsend
Followed By
(OSE) Magda Linette/Bernarda Pera VS (ALT) Irina-Camelia Begu/Anhelina Kalinina
Not Before 5:00 Pm / After Suitable Rest
QF
Kevin Krawietz/Fabrice Martin VS Tommy Paul/Ben Shelton

[Deuce]

Rybakina back to her normal level. It just took her a couple of matches to shake adjust to these courts.

Adrian Mannarino. You would never want to play like Adrian Mannarino. But you should want to play like Adrian Mannarino, because that is the kind of game that can actually be imitated (you will NEVER, in a million years, hit one FH like Roger, Rafa or Novak).
He took the first set from Hurkacz. By just playing smart.

I would never want to play AGAINST Mannarino!
He is this generation's Brad Gilbert.
He just beat Hurkacz in 2 tiebreak sets (blanking him in the 2nd).

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

They finally halted play. I'm waiting to see if there's any more play tonight.

[ponchi101]

Doubt it. The shot they showed was heavy, heavy rain. And considering that then you will need to dry the courts, if they re-start it will very late.

[ti-amie]

I'm hoping that they revise the OoP soon.

[Deuce]

Storms usually blow through, not lasting more than an hour.
After the rain stops, they can dry the court in about 30 to 45 minutes with their loud, polluting machines.

Tiafoe - Sonego has maybe an hour left (or maybe just 15 minutes) - Sonego is up a set and 3-2...

Barrerre and Eubanks are just starting a 2nd set tiebreak - so maybe an hour left there (or maybe just 15 minutes, as well) - Eubanks won the 1st set...

Andreescu - Alexandrova are not as advanced, still in the middle of the 1st set...

But all three of those matches are on different courts, so I think they can finish all three matches if the rain stops before, say, 10pm-ish.
Sabalenka - Krejcikova may have to wait until tomorrow... But if Sonego - Tiafoe finish quickly (like within 30 minutes of resuming), it's feasible that the Sabalenka - Kregcikova match could be played tonight.

I now see that the chance of rain drops to "21%" at 10pm.
Let's hope...

[Deuce]

... and they're back on court...

Eubanks closed it out, winning the tiebreak. This gets him into the top 100, they said.
He seemed genuinely thrilled .

[Deuce]

Sigh....
Andreescu again....

[Deuce]

For those interested in this latest deja vu...

Andreescu Injury...

Yeah - sure I feel bad for her, as her body is clearly not made to withstand the normal rigours of tennis... And she was playing better and perhaps even 'finding her groove'... but I grew tired of the dramatic effects quite a while ago.

The video in the link does not show how the injury occurred, nor does it reveal her initial screams, which were extremely loud.
For some reason, this 36 second clip seems to be the only thing the WTA has released on it.
She was down for about 10 minutes... Alexandrova gave her a nice hug and some encouraging words as she was put into the wheelchair and rolled off the court.

I was watching the match live on TV, and I replayed the point where she went down - in regular speed and in slow motion. It looked to me like a regular, normal side-step. It didn't look like she rolled her ankle. Maybe a bone simply snapped... maybe a ligament just tore.
It looked somewhat similar to Halep's injury from 2 years ago - in which she didn't do anything flagrant or abnormal - just a regular, very benign looking tennis stride.

[Deuce]

Brawn won over brains this time, as the hardest hitter on the tour beat the smartest on-court player on the tour... Sabalenka 6-3, 6-2 over Krejcikova.

Here is pretty much the entire Andreescu drama - including the fall.
(Turn your volume way up for full effect!...)

[Fastbackss]

,
I would never want to play AGAINST Mannarino!
He is this generation's Brad Gilbert.
He just beat Hurkacz in 2 tiebreak sets (blanking him in the 2nd).

That's it. He reminded me of someone and I couldn't place it, thank you.

As for Bianca, it's devastating that it has happened again. You've previously articulated (well) why you have the opinion that you do.

I get it, and I respect it.

With that preface, I admit (and probably in the minority) that I enjoy watching her play. I like the variety in her game and like when she fights in a match. I also like her interviews.
(Ironically, I just had this conversation on Sunday with my normal doubles partner - about how polarizing she is. It reminded me of when I was a youth and you either loved or hated Agassi. I was in the former camp - probably because it was the polar opposite of my personality)

[Deuce]

I would never want to play AGAINST Mannarino!
He is this generation's Brad Gilbert.
He just beat Hurkacz in 2 tiebreak sets (blanking him in the 2nd).

That's it. He reminded me of someone and I couldn't place it, thank you.

You're welcome.
You owe me 25 cents.

Do you think Mannarino will write a book on tennis and call it 'Winning Uglier'?

As for Bianca, it's devastating that it has happened again. You've previously articulated (well) why you have the opinion that you do.

I get it, and I respect it.

With that preface, I admit (and probably in the minority) that I enjoy watching her play. I like the variety in her game and like when she fights in a match. I also like her interviews.

I don't hate her or anything... It's just that drama follows her everywhere - and when that's the case, it's not a mere co-incidence - it's because the person brings it upon him/her self.
I also don't like the fact that she seems to possess virtually no genuine humility. Back in 2019, when she was doing well, all she kept saying was "This is just the beginning". That's arrogant. I don't think it pleased many people.
Even last year, in an on-court interview, she said to the fans something along the lines of "I know that my dog Coco gets a lot of attention, but let's focus the attention right here on me, ok?" as she pointed to herself.
I'd like to like her... but with this stuff, I can't. I hope she grows up soon.

She does have an interesting game, though - as you mention, more variety than most. That's one reason I'd like to like her. But...

(Ironically, I just had this conversation on Sunday with my normal doubles partner - about how polarizing she is. It reminded me of when I was a youth and you either loved or hated Agassi. I was in the former camp - probably because it was the polar opposite of my personality)

^ That's interesting - because the reason I really DISLIKED Agassi was because his personality was the polar opposite of mine. Everything he did was to get attention. Not unlike Bianca (though she does different things than Agassi did).

[atlpam]

I watched the Ruud/BVDZ match completely. Ruud is in problems (and Botic may be in problems too).
it is not the loss, it was the quality of play. There was a stretch around 3-3 in the third in which Casper missed, in succession, one easy FH approach (into the net), one swinging volley (long), could not put away an easy smash, and then missed a regular volley, wide by a few feet. As per above, the final point was a signature of what had happened, as he hit a smash right back at Botic, who returned it only for Casper to dump it into the net. G, S & M BVDZ.
I think Casper is a very good player; his results last year say so. But I started to wonder: what if Casper's 2022 is something like JC Ferrero's 2003? (RG, USO F, #1 ranking). And from that high, it all went downhill.
Sole consolation for him: Casper kept fighting. But he needs to start winning a few matches to get back into winning form.

100%. Yet another crazy match. Casper's quality of play has very dramatically fallen so far this year. It would not at all have surprised me if his level had dropped some. But, sheeeeesh.

Join Thiem on the Challenger Tour? I mean, LOL, at least Casper has won some matches this year. But, while they both many times had some great rallies- van de Zandschulp was also nowhere near playing his best. Casper just choked more.

Funny- I don't recall it that Ferrero's career went downhill after his Roland Garros win. Of all things, he had a US Open final, an Aussie SF and two Wimbledon QF's after his 2003 Roland Garros win, and was winning titles and making finals until 2011. However, he was no longer a factor at Roland Garros after his win- never again making it past R3.

Ferrero was never the same after being out for awhile with a bad case of chicken pox.