Talk About Tennis 2.0

I missed that Konta retired from her match.
Venus should have. Her problem was not so much the ankle but the knee that buckled on her a couple of times after she decided she would finish the match. Apparently the knee had already been giving her problems.

She had enough wraps on that knee to embalm a mummy.

I'm sure medicine in Australia is great, but something requiring surgery away from home has got to be even more scary.

Dasha's Achilles tendon surgery went well.

Ok. This sport is simply not for her. She played two matches and she gets injured again.
It is terribly sad, but I find it hard to draw any other conclusion. Reminds me of the NBA's Ralph Sampson. His body simply could not take it. Seems like Bianca's can't either.

She did play a tournament last week too where she made the semifinals. So far, her injury trajectory seems to be on par with someone like Nishikori.

I forgot that she did play that tournament. The comparison with Nishikori is spot on. Two tournaments, two months off.

I don't think missing the next 3 tournaments is the biggest deal. I have the feeling she won't be the only one actually. A surprising number skipped out on Adelaide. And I'm thinking now that this won't be it, think the travelling and quarantining in a pandemic is more of a drain than some think. Now, if she misses Miami, then I'll think this is yet another injury that will sideline her for awhile.

Don't get me wrong, this isn't a good sign given how many injuries she has had. But it's the end of February now and what this essentially means is that she won't be travelling to the Middle East in the next few days and spending the next 2 weeks there before returning to North America in time for the Miami Open to start. Educated guess says she just returned to Canada yesterday. This isn't the biggest deal to me. Yet.

Also, I never liked this swing of the schedule in non-pandemic times, so I might look at this differently.

Also, not to be too cynical, but Bianca can take the time off right now whether she's feeling great or needs a bit of time to heal. Barring any additional extension, Miami will the first tournament where those 2019 points she's been skating on have to be part of the calculation.

The same situation with the points holds for Barty too and yet she's playing after her disastrous Australian Open. There is no reason for me to doubt Andreescu hurt herself in some shape, form or fashion. The optics of this are terrible though. Some are saying she's the Delpo of the WTA and I strongly disagree. We've seen enough post op and rehab pics of him to know what injuries he's carrying. All we're getting from Andreescu is her agent saying she's got a "lower body issue". I think the sport and her fans are owed a better explanation.

I don't think we're owed an explanation, but I don't think this approach does her any good. She has definitely lost fans in the last year and some of that is how forthright she's been. When she doesn't say much, there's a lot of questions and negative comments on unrelated posts. When she's provides more updates, the comments tend to be overwhelming supportive.

As for Ash. One, I have no idea if she'd play the next 3 weeks if her home was in North America. I have my doubts. And two, I don't think they are in the same boat. Ash was similarly off the last year, but I remember Ash playing a full 2019 schedule or if she didn't, missing very little. The same can't be said for Bianca.


Disastrous Aussie Open? Is that the thinking on Ash's showing?

The draw was set up for Ash to make the final. She didn't.

Disastrous last match I would agree. 6-1 2-0 and then that score... Not very championly.