Talk About Tennis 2.0

Pam Shriver working with Donna Vekic. Not sure about beyond here, but in the box for this tournament. If this was well known, I missed it.

And Xavier Malisse is Alexei Popyrin's new coach.

Kind of a strange choice, in the sense that Malisse was a natural player; not known for putting too much effort off court.
But maybe he learned that was (part of) the reason he did not achieve what people thought he would when he came up. Anyway, first experience seems to be positive.

Russell was one of the most genuine and sincere players when he played. He didn't have as much physical talent as other players, but he always gave an honest effort. Very genuine off the court, as well. There was no BS with him.
I assume he's no different as a coach.

I say that's a good choice.

I've lost track. Is this new or old news?

Raemon Sluiter, former coach of Kiki Bertens and Tallon Griekspoor, will be working with Elena Monfils this year. Haven't found an English news source and I won't force you to read Dutch (or a poorly translated version of it). French is the best I can offer right now:

https://www.proximus.be/pickx/fr/230689 ... -svitolina

I was wondering who Elena Monfils was. Does Gael have a little sister?
The Bing search enlightened me. Txs.

ti-amie wrote: ↑Mon Mar 13, 2023 1:17 am I've lost track. Is this new or old news?

Working with Genie on what?

Cirstea's superb improvement over the past few months, she attributes to her new coack Johansson.. says he has taught her to look outside, at her oppoent's game and what she is doing, not just her own - interesting...

Thomas is a good man - very humble and approachable.
He's also a very brave man to sign on to work with Cirstea, whom I figure more than a few coaches would actively avoid (see video below).

I saw Cirstea on a practice court once, and she was asking one of her coaches when was the proper time in a match to fist pump!

And then there is this (below)... Demanding that the chair umpire give a warning to her coach (Adrian Cruciat)! She didn't realize that the warning would count against her...

I and some others here have noticed that something seems not right with Kasatkina this year...
She had a good year last year - the best year of her career, rising to #8 in the rankings... but this year has seen a few lopsided losses, and back-to-back wins only once. To me, she seems less energetic on the court - kind of more apathetic. And she was never like that - I've seen her running every ball down even in practice.
Something seems to be bothering her. Whether that something is related to tennis or not, I have no idea. But it certainly seems that something is not right with her mindset on court this year.

This slipped under the radar - likely because she made no announcement about it - but she changed coaches a few weeks ago. Gone is Carlos Martinez, with whom she worked for 4 years and had her best year last year... and in is former player Flavio Cipolla.

(Any bets on Carlos Martinez being Raducanu's new coach soon? )

Here's an article with Daria talking about the coaching change...

Kasatkina Reveals Coaching Switch...

And here's an interesting article/interview with Carlos Martinez's perspective on the split from Kasatkina...

Why Carlos Martinez is No longer Coaching Daria Kasatkina...

.

I looked it up and Cipolla (who is doing a trial with Kasatkina) coached Vasek Pospisil before and an Italian player (Mager)... interesting choice.

I was on a tournament transport ride with Cippola once, when he was mid-career, he was already complaining about his knees, which I think led to his retirement eventually.

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 14, 2023 9:52 pm I was wondering who Elena Monfils was. Does Gael have a little sister?
The Bing search enlightened me. Txs.

Spent quite some time debating what to do here; the WTA website still has her listed as Elina Svitolina but she's gone for Elina Monfils on her socials. I'll stick with Svitolina if she shows up in draws as such.