ATP WTA GS Wimbledon 7/1 - 7/14 2024

[ti-amie]

Cross Osaka off.

Zheng serving 23 aces against her was insane. No anticipation or any semblance of quick reacting.

Keep adding to the reasons I really don't care for grass court tennis. Serve botting is not tennis in my very humble opinion.

[Suliso]

Better retrievers are not served off the court, though.

[ti-amie]

Better retrievers are not served off the court, though.

Boring

[Suliso]

More seriously why do we think Osaka is so much weaker on grass than hard? It can't be a lack of power so perhaps doesn't move well enough?

[ponchi101]

(About the serving) It is also a bit of bias. When a player serves 40 aces in a match, it makes the news. When you have one of those baseline matches in which neither player served a single ace (super slow clay courts do that), that doesn't make the news.
Notice how Raonic lost his match with Fritz just after hitting that record. And that did not make the news.

[ponchi101]

More seriously why do we think Osaka is so much weaker on grass than hard? It can't be a lack of power so perhaps doesn't move well enough?

I say that backs MY theory. She is a great mover on hard courts, where she can stop and turn directions easily. But she is not light on her feet; she needs the traction of a hard court, and grass (and clay) does not give it to her.
And also. She lost to Zheng on a day in which Qiwen hit 23 aces. I wonder how many players would have beaten her that day. I am sure Iga, a recognized grass-phobic, would have gone down too.

[Suliso]

Did she hit 23 aces all on her own or Osaka "helped" by returning poorly?

[ashkor87]

Saw some of them..they were genuine aces

[jazzyg]

We definitely disagree there. She served well but several of her aces should have been returned in play. Osaka looked frozen.

Grass court tennis is by far my favorite, but differences of opinion are what make the world go around. There is greater variety in shots now on grass than any other surface, and holding serve matters, creating more tension.

[ponchi101]

Did she hit 23 aces all on her own or Osaka "helped" by returning poorly?

Well, by definition, an ace is one you did not even touch. So sure, maybe Naomi was not reaching for them, but that is the point.

[Owendonovan]

Zheng only has 7 more aces than Coco this season, she's not a Rybakina when it comes to serving. I'm of the mind that Naomi had an off day.

[jazzyg]

Some players get aced a lot, and it's not just bad luck.

When Bencic was healthy, she used to give up hellacious ace totals. I remember Kristyna Pliskova (yes, that one) had like 25 aces against her in a lead-up tournament to the Australian Open one year, and then I started noticing several players notched their career high against her. I don't know whether it's guessing wrong, or in Bencic's case, getting frustrated and not contesting serves, but it's rarely accidental.

Agassi, who was the greatest returner of all time when he had a good look at a serve, gave up the career high for aces to just about every big server on tour because he stood right on the baseline and had limited reach. Every time someone got that total, the announcers would say he was doing it against the best returner in the game, clueless to the fact Agassi was easy to ace for the big servers.

[skatingfan]

Some players get aced a lot, and it's not just bad luck.

When Bencic was healthy, she used to give up hellacious ace totals. I remember Kristyna Pliskova (yes, that one) had like 25 aces against her in a lead-up tournament to the Australian Open one year, and then I started noticing several players notched their career high against her. I don't know whether it's guessing wrong, or in Bencic's case, getting frustrated and not contesting serves, but it's rarely accidental.

Agassi, who was the greatest returner of all time when he had a good look at a serve, gave up the career high for aces to just about every big server on tour because he stood right on the baseline and had limited reach. Every time someone got that total, the announcers would say he was doing it against the best returner in the game, clueless to the fact Agassi was easy to ace for the big servers.

Bencic does the same thing with returning which is why she gets aced so often.

[JTContinental]

Zheng only has 7 more aces than Coco this season, she's not a Rybakina when it comes to serving. I'm of the mind that Naomi had an off day.

Especially since Zheng's serve sucks and has a huge technical flaw.

[ashkor87]

Coco is finally hitting her stride on grass! That win over Alexandrova is a sign.. Coco could win W at this rate...revised probabilities..

Rybakina 30 %
Sabalenka 25
Coco 20
Swiatek 9%
Andreeva, Paolini, Jabeur 5% each
The field 1%
Just to add up to 100