Talk About Tennis 2.0

Looking forward to seeing how Bencic does..upset special- Alexandrova will have to adapt to a very different court, and Kudermetova would be tuned to it already.
Coco gets AA in round 2, I would expect Coco to win. Anisimova will do well at IW and Miami though, slower conditions and she is used to heat and humidity.

Nice to see Parks playing well, consistently..good win over Wang- fought off all 4 break points, won in straights ..after qualifying

Raducanu beat Sakkari

Not a big deal. Sakkari game has dropped like the "Titanic" even though her ranking somehow stayed in the seeded range,

Osorio beat Sakkari. At the Aussie.
As Patrick said. Sakkari is no longer in any way a measure of the other player being good. She has dropped tremendously.

Sakkari's loss says more about her than Raducanu. Then again the H2H favors Raducanu.

Muchova is up next for Raducanu.

Monday Order of Play

Center Court
Starts at 2:00 AM

BRA B. Haddad Maia (13) vs RUS A. Potapova
Followed By
RUS D. Kasatkina (10) vs ROU S. Cirstea
Followed By
BLR V. Azarenka vs UKR A. Kalinina
Followed By
TUN O. Jabeur vs USA P. Stearns
Followed By
ARM E. Avanesyan vs RUS M. Andreeva (12)

Court 1
Starts at 2:00 AM

RUS D. Shnaider (11) vs POL M. Frech
Followed By
CZE K. Siniakova vs UKR M. Kostyuk
Followed By
JPN M. Uchijima vs LAT J. Ostapenko
Followed By
USA M. Kessler vs USA A. Anisimova
Followed By
RUS E. Alexandrova vs RUS V. Kudermetova

Court 2
Starts at 2:00 AM

USA A. Muhammad/NED D. Schuurs vs BEL E. Mertens/AUS E. Perez (5)
Followed By
CZE L. Noskova/KAZ Y. Putintseva vs CHN X. Wang/CHN S. Zheng
Followed By
JPN A. Ito/RUS E. Yashina vs BRA B. Haddad Maia/GER L. Siegemund
Followed By
USA D. Krawczyk/MEX G. Olmos vs JPN S. Aoyama/JPN E. Hozumi

Court 3
Starts at 2:00 AM

GER E. Lys vs ROU I. Begu
Followed By
SVK R. Sramkova vs DEN C. Tauson
Followed By
KAZ A. Danilina/RUS I. Khromacheva (8) vs RUS A. Potapova/RUS Y. Sizikova
Followed By
CHN X. Jiang/TPE F. Wu vs CHN Y. Xu/CHN Z. Yang

Then why is nobody complaining about Sakkari getting direct entry into tournaments?!

ashkor87 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 17, 2025 1:47 am Then why is nobody complaining about Sakkari getting direct entry into tournaments?!

She's ranked #29 per the WTA site

https://www.wtatennis.com/players/318312/maria-sakkari

Then why is nobody complaining about Sakkari getting direct entry into tournaments?! Yeah, yeah, i know- rankings, rankings are the only way etc...but the outcome is Sakkari gets entry and Raducanu doesn't, who, you all seem to agree, is the better player.

ashkor87 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 17, 2025 1:54 am Then why is nobody complaining about Sakkari getting direct entry into tournaments?! Yeah, yeah, i know- rankings, rankings are the only way etc...but the outcome is Sakkari gets entry and Raducanu doesn't, who, you all seem to agree, is the better player.

In that match up, yes Raducanu is the better player. Raducanu can't play often enough to be a better player though Sakkari's ranking will take a hit if she doesn't defend the finalist points from Indian Wells in a few weeks. Rankings measure results - they are not intended to be predictive.

My point is - why make such a big deal about rankings,? And complain so much about wild cards? Maybe we need more wild cards!

I expect a lot of unexpected results here! The playing conditions vary too much from Doha to Dubai, players will find it very difficult to be consistent from one week to the next. Which, I think, is why we got the Kalinskaya - Paolini final last year.. expect something similar this year! Also the fact that Dubai is fast, faster than Doha at any rate.. players like Raducanu, Coco, Paolini, even Pegula who didnt do much at Doha, may do well here. Certainly Bencic...by my logic, Bencic should win this... she likes these kinds of courts and she hasnt played Doha.

If Coco flops again, I will get very concerned about her!

Sabalenka could so well here too, did not do much at Doha, so she is fresh, not tied down to the slow conditions there.
then the wind turns again, at IW and Miami - Anisimova etc will like those conditions again.