Talk About Tennis 2.0

Factor in the fact that Borg retired at age 25, and was still the RG champion, and truly impossible to even fathom all the variables.
For those of us old enough to remember him: the footwork on clay was beyond belief.

And back to Indian Wells...which extremity will Medvedev injure today?

I've read a story. Maybe it was even from Mats himself. Like he was training with Borg right before Roland Garros 82 (which Wilander won) and Borg was beating him badly without breaking a sweat. So yes, quite easy to imagine that Borg could win some more.

The Sakkari-Aryna match has been delayed because... they don't have the balls on court.
You know, who would have thought you needed them?

Delayed because the audio isn’t working for the line calling system

Why is there no backup plan to use linespeople in the event the automated system fails?
Seems like very poor planning from a tournament perspective.

One thing I learned working is that technology is great, when it works. From a workplace perspective, you were completely unproductive if the network went down. Tools were available via the corporate network; files were stored in the cloud, all communication tools were network based. I wouldoften wonder how we used to accompish anything before computer networks took over.

Saturday, March 18, 2023 Day 13

STADIUM 1 Starts At 11:00 Am

F
(1) Barbora Krejcikova/Katerina Siniakova VS Beatriz Haddad Maia/Laura Siegemund
Not Before 1:00 Pm
SF
(5) Daniil Medvedev VS (14) Frances Tiafoe
Followed By
SF
(1) Carlos Alcaraz VS (11) Jannik Sinner
Not Before 5:00 Pm
F
Wesley Koolhof/Neal Skupski Or Santiago Gonzalez/Edouard Roger-Vasselin VS John Isner/Jack Sock Or Rohan Bopanna/Matthew Ebden

They did have linespeople ready to take to the court when the audio/HawkEye Live system was not working. They may have had to summon the linespeople from the 4 corners of the tournament site, but they were there, under the seats, ready to take to the court. The decision was made to wait until 3:30pm (local time), and if the system was still not functional, they were going to bring the linespeople in.

I have a few friends who are linespeople, and they've told me in the past that the tournaments do have a plan in case of a failure of the automatic line calling system (whether it's due to a power failure or other cause), and there are linespeople on site to come onto the courts if this occurs (usually only enough to cover the main courts - so if the automatic system fails at the beginning of a tournament when there are many matches to play on various courts that use the automatic system, there will be delays in the schedule).

Sabalenka is continuing to prove the accuracy of the theory that tennis is 95% mental at the pro level.
She always had the shots to be a dominant force on the tour - but she was psychologically weak/fragile; she was beating herself more than opponents were beating her. But now, she has obviously matured (which is obviously emotional/psychological, not physical), and has a different demeanour and outlook on the court. And that’s why she’s winning so often now - because her mental game has finally caught up with her physical abilities.

She is not playing any differently technically - the physical strokes were always there. She is playing with more self-confidence, self-belief, focus, clarity, calmness... her mental approach is significantly better than it was in the past - and that is what has made the difference.

Ergo, tennis is 95% mental at the pro level.
They all know how to hit a tennis ball very well. The difference among them is 95% mental. Even the players themselves say this.

Whether Sabalenka can maintain this better mental approach for the rest of her career or not obviously remains to be seen. Of course, there will be a few 'blips' here and there - because it's human nature to not be able to maintain an absolutely consistent psychological state at all times - it is often dependent upon, among other elements, what is happening in a person's life at any given time.
So whether Sabalenka is able to retain a consistent enough psychological approach/outlook to remain at the top of the game or not is something that only time will tell. But for right now, she's certainly headed in a good direction.

The problem with Swiatek dominating the tour as she has been (she has one of the biggest leads in points ever) is that she gets so used to not being threatened in a match that she doesn't know what to do or how to react when she is threatened.
We've seen that the few times that she is challenged in a match - she looks lost, she looks down, she's very frustrated, she even looks resigned to the fact that she won't win. The 'killer instinct' seems to disappear, and is replaced with sort of a frustrated depression.

That's what we saw in the 1st set tonight, as well.
Can she lift herself up before Rybakina closes it out? Right now, it doesn't look like it...

Right now Iga is down 6-2, 4-0 to Rybakina and there's no reason to think this match is not done and dusted.

Swiatek has not played a three-set match this year. So she's either crushing people, or getting crushed herself. Of her four losses this year (I'm being just slightly premature here), the closest was the 6-4 6-4 loss to Rybakina at the Australian Open.

Not that she's losing to just anyone: her last six losses have been to Rybakina, Krejcikova, Rybakina, Pegula, Sabalenka and Krejcikova again. So those are all absolutely top-tier opponents. But as Deuce said, when she's been seriously challenged, she hasn't had any clue of how to fight back out of it.

I absolutely love how Rybakina goes bonkers when she wins.
She makes Borg look downright psychotic.

The Rybakina - Swiatek result here shows, once again, that court speed is not a significant factor in determining who will do well, and who won’t.
Court surface matters more than court speed (due to the bad bounces on clay and grass, the footing stability on hardcourt as compared with clay and grass, etc.) - but even court surface isn’t very significant these days.
These players are talented and intelligent enough to adapt quite well to different court speeds.

Rybakina is evidently better than (even) I think! Ponchi is right.
I can't see any matches so will have to hear from you folks how it went