Talk About Tennis 2.0

She is slimmer than last year, but I think she's still carrying 10 to 15 more pounds than when she won the US Open.

In any case, no matter how physically fit she might get, it's quite clear that she has no interest in running balls down.
It would be interesting to know how/why she lost interest in playing tennis.

Repeat: she just lost a couple of very close family members due to Covid. I don't know what she is doing playing at all, but saying she has lost all interest in tennis for no reasons may not be accurate.

We know that and at least I would never claim loss of interest based on 2021 alone. It seems to be going in that direction since the beginning of 2019...

I don't think she has lost interest. She is still here.
The competition keeps getting better, and what I would grant is that she is satisfied being a USO champion. She never struck me as a Steffi Graf type, completely driven in every match. I am pretty sure that when Sloane losses one match, she is perfectly fine with that.

Not a good forecast for Melbourne today. Lots of rain and thundershowers in the forecast.

Also quite windy. The players are having a lot of difficulty with their ball toss, and resultantly there are four breaks in the first five games of Sakkari-Fernandez.

The roof is closed on MCA.

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Thu Feb 04, 2021 2:47 pm Repeat: she just lost a couple of very close family members due to Covid. I don't know what she is doing playing at all, but saying she has lost all interest in tennis for no reasons may not be accurate.

Of course, losing people you are close with has a major impact.
But, as Suliso mentioned, the downfall and loss of interest has been present for quite a while - since long before she lost the family members. If you've watched her demeanour on the court over the past year or so - both during and between points, and on changeovers -, it's quite apparent that things are far from good with her.

One doesn't lose his/her ability to play this quickly - that only happens with age or significant injury. This problem is definitely mental. And mental things can easily snowball.
Maybe it's something unrelated to tennis that's bothering her - who knows? But it's quite clear that she is not at all focused on the court.

I take it back. It's not just the wind. Fernandez is having terrible problems with her ball toss today. Sometimes it's way out to her left, sometimes it's a couple feet behind her to her right. FIve double faults in the set, but it felt worse. She didn't hold serve once in the set, but broke Sakkari twice.

martini4me wrote: ↑Fri Feb 05, 2021 12:58 am I take it back. It's not just the wind. Fernandez is having terrible problems with her ball toss today. Sometimes it's way out to her left, sometimes it's a couple feet behind her to her right. FIve double faults in the set, but it felt worse. She didn't hold serve once in the set, but broke Sakkari twice.

Lots of breaks in the women's game is very common.

Leylah was having problems with her ball toss against Sloane the other day, as well. It's at the point now where she's far too conscious of it - and overthinking is the enemy of every tennis player. And she has to deal with the wind today, as well, which puts even more focus on her toss.
I'm afraid this won't end well today for Leylah.

Leylah-Annie lost?

I should mention that my daughter has a hyphenated first name so I will call Leylah-Annie by her full name.

ti-amie wrote: ↑Fri Feb 05, 2021 4:31 am Leylah-Annie lost?

I should mention that my daughter has a hyphenated first name so I will call Leylah-Annie by her full name.

Yes, she lost. It wasn't close. Nor was it an enjoyable match to watch - mostly because of the excessive wind, I suppose. Sakkari managed the wind much better than Leylah did - not surprising, as she is far more experienced than Leylah.

About 18 months ago, Leylah was playing in a Final, and had lost the 1st set and was trailing late in the second set... It was rather evident that rain was coming fairly soon. I said to Leylah's coach at the time (Dave Rineberg, who worked with Venus and Serena when they were young) "She needs to slow the pace and get to a rain delay - that's her best chance of changing the momentum." Dave said "Yup - that's what she needs to do."
5 minutes later, the match was over. 2 minutes after the match ended, the rain began. Dave said to me "She's still too young to be aware of these things."

By the way, she seems to have dropped the 'Annie' from her tennis name, surprisingly. Or the WTA decided to drop it, as she has appeared as 'Leylah Fernandez' in pretty much every draw since tennis returned last summer. I don't suppose the WTA could drop the 'Annie' without Leylah's permission.
Sadly, things like this could be a sponsor decision. Maybe Asics decided that it was easier to market Leylah than Leylah-Annie, and that was a condition of the contract.

The BBC saying this final won't be played.

Ouch.