Talk About Tennis 2.0

Raducanu is, right now, not a bad draw for anybody. She is not playing well.
Leylah, I don't know, because her last match was a close one, with an injury. A crafty lefty on grass has always been tricky.
Sakkari. Uhm. As athletic as anybody else, and then she can't close it. I doubt anybody goes into a match with Sakkari with the remotest apprehension.
Jabeur. Maybe. Tricky shots, and deceptive good movement. But, on grass, we will know tomorrow.
Kerber. Nope, past her prime.
Bencic: another veteran that by now has proven where her ceiling is.

Not sure, Ashkor. With the exception of jabeur and Sakkari, all the others are ranked below Coco. I would flip it. She would be a bad draw for the rest.

ponchi101 wrote:What would be a "bad draw" nowadays? Apart from landing on Iga's side, on clay, who would be fearsome players on your side? Any of the top 10 (Sabalenka, Badosa, Kontaveit, etc) are, by definition, tough players, but nobody in that group is unbeatable. Drawing the current USO champ is nothing impossible, and any player below the top 10 is around the same.
Again, other than Iga on clay (and we will see soon if that spills over to grass or hards) I think there currently is no such a thing as a "bad draw". Or, the opposite: all draws are bad. It is called the WTA, right now.

Any big server could be a tough out on grass. Just not an easy match. Kanepi, if she is healthy - don’t know why she lost 0 and 0 to Pliskova last week. And evidently Magda Linette and Diana Parry are bad draws.

Osaka would be a bad draw (oops, she's not playing). Even though Gauff beat Pliskova today, it wasn’t routine. These would still be tough matches that could go the other way next time.

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Thu May 26, 2022 1:04 pm To the tune of Alanis Morrisette's IRONIC. "We will punish them by not letting them play, and their best player becomes #1 in the world".
I guess somebody did not think the whole thing through.

I suspect they didn't foresee that ATP will have a spine to remove ranking points.

WTA top 15 rankings after Wimbledon accounting for players still active this week

1. Iga Swiatek 8336
2. Anett Kontaveit 4296
3. Maria Sakkari 4133
4. Ons Jabeur 4010
5. Paula Badosa 4005
6. Aryna Sabalenka 3266
7. Daniele Collins 3130
8. Jessica Pegula 3086
9. Garbine Muguruza 2885 (max 3300)
10. Emma Raducanu 2712
11. Coco Gauff 2646
12. Leylah Fernandez 2580
13./14. Daria Kasatkina 2575 (max 2795); Belinda Bencic 2575
15. Karolina Pliskova 2477

By the way notice the change of generations. There won't be 30+ year olds in the top 10. The oldest are Collins, Muguruza and Pegula at 28.

And three teenagers lurking, at 10-12.

WTA Top 10 race before (and after) Wimbledon

1. Iga Swiatek 7290
2. Ons Jabeur 2990
3. Coco Gauff 2262
4. Jessica Pegula 2232
5. Maria Sakkari 2182
6. Daria Kasatkina 2071
7. Paula Badosa 2008
8. Belinda Bencic 1816
9. Veronika Kudermetova 1783
10. Danielle Collins 1756

Notables: Halep #12 or #13, Kontaveit #16, Sabalenka #14, Fernandez #23 or #24, Osaka #24 or #25, Muguruza #47, Raducanu #64, Pliskova #69.

Wow. Huge tumbles for Mugu, Raducanu and Pliskova, and Kontaveit dropping to #16 just a few weeks after reaching #2 is also huge.
Says a lot about what one big tournament can do for your ranking.
And Emma has to start winning or she will be out of the top 100 after the USO. Right?

Actually these are race points not ranking points after Wimbledon. In rankings Kontaveit stays safely #2. Lots of points for her to defend on the indoor circuit after USO.

Interesting that only 8 women have been named player of the year more than once.

Player of the year not being the same as #1 for the year? I guess?

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Sat Jun 25, 2022 3:44 pm Player of the year not being the same as #1 for the year? I guess?

No, definitely not the same. Player of the year is heavily based on who did the best at Slams.

The ATP did not shaft itself. The UK Govt, the LTA and then the AELTC imposed a ban which the vast majority of players, commentators and fans believe was unfair. The WTA and ATP decided, rightly so, that they had no option but to do something, and the sole thing they could do, for a tournament that they do not run, was to strip it of points. They had no other power or tool to apply.
Lay the responsibilities where they really should be.
And for Novak not qualifying for the ATP Finals: he chose not to be vaccinated, during a pandemic, and countries decide who enters or not. So, he gets to play two slams this year. Figure out who is responsible for that; it is not that hard.

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 08, 2022 11:01 pm The ATP did not shaft itself. The UK Govt, the LTA and then the AELTC imposed a ban which the vast majority of players, commentators and fans believe was unfair. The WTA and ATP decided, rightly so, that they had no option but to do something, and the sole thing they could do, for a tournament that they do not run, was to strip it of points. They had no other power or tool to apply.
Lay the responsibilities where they really should be.
And for Novak not qualifying for the ATP Finals: he chose not to be vaccinated, during a pandemic, and countries decide who enters or not. So, he gets to play two slams this year. Figure out who is responsible for that; it is not that hard.

The thing that really sucked about the whole ban thing as you said is that the UK government initiated it. Then the ATP & the WTA decided to strip the points from the tournament and who did that ultimately hurt but the players that played well in the tournament. That doesn't make sense at all to me. So the players who had nothing to do with the whole war and played in the tournament they even got hurt by all of this crap. My view also is that the Russian and Belarusian players really had nothing to do with the war so they also got hurt by not being able to participate which started this whole thing rolling. So really the entire mess hurt all the players or at least the ones that performed well in the tournament and they all definitely had nothing to do with this stupid war.