Tennis Random, Random (On Court)

[ashkor87]

Sad...maybe good for them though...hadn't been looking very positive on the court lately ..noticeable at the USO even ..

Reports say it was Siniakova's decision, took K by surprise ...

[ti-amie]

Spinopsys
@spinopsys@aus.social
Look, you can never say never but this career looks like it’s toast. It’s fast becoming a curiousity and a train wreck. A pub quiz night question. Done in by thinking she knows more than actual professional coaches with winning WTA Tour experience. It’s clear she does not listen to anyone.

Compare her to Leylah Fernandez, the other surprise 2021 USO finalist, who has has had her best season on Tour this year, capped with leading Canada to a BJK Cup Title. Steady and doing the work of becoming a consistent performer at the top level #Tennis

https://www.bbc.com/sport/tennis/67406695?

Emma Raducanu: Briton pulls out of December exhibition match

By Russell Fuller
BBC tennis correspondent

Britain's Emma Raducanu has pulled out of an exhibition match in Macau at the start of December as she continues her rehabilitation from hand and foot operations.

The 2021 US Open champion - who turns 21 today - has not played since April, but is still hoping to return to the tour in January.

The exhibition in China has come too soon, however, especially as the organisers wanted time to seek out a potential replacement.

Raducanu has fallen to 289 in the world rankings, but will be able to use a protected ranking of 103 next year as she has not played for over six months.

That might be high enough for a place in the main draw of the Australian Open, but she is still likely to need a wildcard for the WTA Tour events in Brisbane and Auckland in the first week of the season.

Raducanu has been restricted to just nine matches in 2023 and in May had an operation on both of her hands and left ankle, which she injured in Auckland in the first event of the year.

The hand pain, caused by a bone very close to her wrists, had been troubling her since the end of the 2022 season.

Raducanu returned to the court to begin some very light work at the start of August, and posted a video of herself hitting some soft, oversized tennis balls to Kyle Edmund at the National Tennis Centre in London.

But progress in the first two months was slow and Raducanu took the opportunity to visit her grandmother in China. It was not until the start of October when a more structured return to tour competition began to take shape under the guidance of LTA staff at the National Tennis Centre.

If Raducanu's rehab was behind schedule at this stage - and her summer months were described as a "bit of a black hole" by one observer - then genuine progress appears to have been made since.

She has been working through the different coloured tennis balls children start out with. That means beginning with a red ball, which is decompressed and has little bounce, before progressing to an orange, green and then the regular yellow ball.

There is not yet any sign of Raducanu developing a team around her which could offer stability and confidence as she returns to the tour.

Raducanu said shortly after her three operations that "circumstances made it unfeasible" for her to continue working with Sebastian Sachs, and she is still without a dedicated coach.

Her short-lived partnership with Andy Murray's former strength and conditioning coach Jez Green has also fizzled out, and she is currently using LTA staff for both fitness and physio.

Whether or not Raducanu is on the starting line for the first tournament of the new year, she says she has been "very itchy and hungry to go for quite some time now."

"I think the biggest thing from the last few months was how much I missed the sport," she told Today on BBC Radio 4 last month.

"I think that was the standout thing - how much I missed training, how much I missed my body hurting and feeling tired and dragging yourself through certain exercises when you don't feel like it."

[Owendonovan]

"I think that was the standout thing - how much I missed training, how much I missed my body hurting and feeling tired and dragging yourself through certain exercises when you don't feel like it."
That was a couple years ago, Emma.

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

[meganfernandez]

She can take vacation whenever she wants or needs to. Not without consequences, but she can afford any fines. She should prioritize her body and health. Complaints still valid.

[ashkor87]

"major"
https://www.wtatennis.com/news/3788088/ ... 0set%20for

Some interesting predictions from Navratilova, who knows a thing or two about tennis!
Hard to disagree with her but I would bet on Coco for the AO, Swiatek for the French, Muchova for Wimbledon and Saba for the USO....

[meganfernandez]

"major"
https://www.wtatennis.com/news/3788088/ ... 0set%20for

Some interesting predictions from Navratilova, who knows a thing or two about tennis!
Hard to disagree with her but I would bet on Coco for the AO, Swiatek for the French, Muchova for Wimbledon and Saba for the USO....

I'm going with Sabalenka to repeat at AO, Swiatek for the French, Cooc or Jabeur at Wimbledon, a surprise at the Olympics (maybe Leylah), and Osaka at the US Open.

Also betting that injuries will continue to keep Muchova off the podium.

Edit: I did mine before clicking on the link with Navratilova's predictions. Osaka's former hitting partner thinks she will do very well because she's just better than most women on the tour when she is in form.

[meganfernandez]

Was this alraedy posted? So sad. I'll miss Anett. Her match with Serena at the US Open was amazing.
https://www.wtatennis.com/news/3784299/ ... ith-jabeur

[ashkor87]

Was this alraedy posted? So sad. I'll miss Anett. Her match with Serena at the US Open was amazing.
https://www.wtatennis.com/news/3784299/ ... ith-jabeur

Kontaveit is certainly a good player, and, like all good players, will be missed .
But she should have been able to beat Serena, all it took was solid professional play, as Tomljanovic showed..Kontaveit was #2 in the world.

[ashkor87]

https://www.wtatennis.com/news/3789961/ ... yer-awards

Not that we have any say but maybe a poll on this could be fun..

[meganfernandez]

Was this alraedy posted? So sad. I'll miss Anett. Her match with Serena at the US Open was amazing.
https://www.wtatennis.com/news/3784299/ ... ith-jabeur

Kontaveit is certainly a good player, and, like all good players, will be missed .
But she should have been able to beat Serena, all it took was solid professional play, as Tomljanovic showed..Kontaveit was #2 in the world.

Kontaveit struggled after getting COVID in the spring of 2022. It took her months to recover, and I don't think she ever fully did. Her #2 ranking was from the previous fall and earlier in 2022, before she got COVID. I was actually surprised she played as well as she did versus Serena.

[meganfernandez]

https://www.wtatennis.com/news/3789961/ ... yer-awards

Not that we have any say but maybe a poll on this could be fun..

I'm contributing to Tennis.com's year-end coverage, which includes weighing in on Player of the Year and things like that. I went with Sabalenka for POTY because she changed the narrative of her career. Her legacy was heading toward "best player to never win a Slam." She vanquished her demons - the Australian Open final was a nailbiter, the kind of close big match she had choked away before - and changed her story. She suffers because it all happened so early in the season and she lost the #1 ranking to Swiatek at the end. But I think what she accomplished is bigger than what Swiatek did, by a hair.

Swiatek certainly has a good case by seizing hte No. 1 ranking at the end of the year. Could go either way.

I had to make a case for 5 players each in the WTA and ATP. It was pretty hard to do more than 2 on each side. I had to write it before the ATP Finals, and Carlos still had a play at it. But even then Novak was pretty much the runaway winner and now of course he is. For the women, it's either Sabalenka or Swiatek. I made a decent case for Coco - her 18-1 blitz in the summer had it all and she came through under the heaviest expectations possible and stole the show in 2023. But after that, I was reaching to make a case for Vondrousova and Svitolina as my 4 and 5 picks.

Sinner, Medvedev and Shelton were my 3-5 picks for the men. I really wanted to pick Mannarino. I hope he fits in one of the categories we haven't worked on yet.

[ashkor87]

Wow! Good to know you do have a hand in all this...