by atlpam Poland, Switzerland, and Italy teams look strong.
by ponchi101 Kudos to Ruud to be there. He has no supporting cast.
by ashkor87 On paper, at least, Poland looks the strongest, with Switzerland and Greece next....too difficult to tell, though! How seriously will everybody take it, how much rust, chemistry between the players, all unknowns...
by ashkor87 Russia would be the strongest, given the depth they have on both men and women's sides, but of course they are not entered ..
And Pavlyuchenkova seems to have become a mixed doubles expert,!
by JTContinental Is Kamil Majchrzak still on the Polish team despite his doping ban? Or does this not apply to an expo event?
by
skatingfan JTContinental wrote: ↑Wed Dec 28, 2022 5:25 am
Is Kamil Majchrzak still on the Polish team despite his doping ban? Or does this not apply to an expo event?
No, doping suspensions apply to all sanctioned events.
by ponchi101 I'll admit that is a very pretty trophy.
by
skatingfan ponchi101 wrote: ↑Wed Dec 28, 2022 4:53 pm
I'll admit that is a very pretty trophy.
To be fair, the bar for attractive trophies in the ATP & WTA is pretty low.
by
Suliso Do they still give out those alien eggs? Memorable at least.
by
ti-amie Here is Sonego with the 2022 trophy.
Simon seems to have been the last winner to lift the alien baby egg in 2018.
The event wasn't held in 2020 but in 2019, 2021, and last year the trophy Sonego is holding up has been in use.
by JTContinental An early 2-0 lead for the US with straight sets wins for Fritz and Keys.
Elsewhere, Haddad Maia is up set on Trevisan and Greece/Bulgaria about to take the court for a match between two players I've never heard of
by ashkor87 Impressive performance from BHM ...
by ashkor87 Watching Badosa Dart live on YouTube..in case people don't know how to watch it..
Badosa playing well .has the power needed on this slowish court
by ashkor87 Badosa seems to be injured a bit. Leg somewhere..disturbing. She is not a great mover at the best of times .
by ashkor87 it is the first week of 23 and Swiatek already hit a 'shot of the year' contender in doubles aganst Kazakh! she is unbelievable! then she tweeted asking Federer if he approved, which he did, breaking a long silence on Twitter, apparently... the round the post shot was Federer's signature, now it is Swiatek's I guess!
by Suliso Nadal has started his season 0-2...
by Deuce ^ ... if you count novelty tournaments.
by Suliso He's not scheduled to play anything else before AO.
by ashkor87 Swiatek vs Bencic was a great match - playing Swiatek must be like single combat against Achilles - she is so quick and so relentless!
by
ponchi101 Suliso wrote: ↑Mon Jan 02, 2023 11:10 am
Nadal has started his season 0-2...
I was just reading a bit about that.
It is not only that he has started 0-2. Since his abs injury at Wimbledon, he has now played 10 matches, and has lost 6. He is 1-6 in his last 7, his sole victory being that dead rubber at the WTF against Ruud.
Of course, I have not been able to see anything here (they are not showing any tennis yet) but the article I read was saying that his SERVE point of contact is considerably lower and further in front. I did see that at the WTF; he just can't stretch high enough to generate consistency and variation of his serve. Tim Henman was saying that because the toss is lower now, he can only slice the serve.
So, it might be that the abs injury has changed his mechanics. And that is always a very iffy thing. Right now, I see him as maybe 4R at the Aussie. With luck.
by Suliso It could still be that Ruud is #2 for AO. He needs one extra win.
by
ashkor87 ashkor87 wrote: ↑Wed Dec 28, 2022 12:28 am
On paper, at least, Poland looks the strongest, with Switzerland and Greece next....too difficult to tell, though! How seriously will everybody take it, how much rust, chemistry between the players, all unknowns...
Holding up thus far, though Italy and US have surprised me. The women have made it possible! ..I would not expect US to get past Poland now, especially seeing how well Swiatek is playing doubles! .Greece vs Italy will hinge on how the respective second Players do..hard to tell, Greece may get more support from the locals?
by ashkor87 One of the questions I am trying to get a handle on..in mixed doubles, is the quality of the male player more important or the quality of the female player? As a doubles player, of course. ..theory of constraints tells us a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, which would imply it is the female player who will swing it...this United Cup will give us some insights...
by ponchi101 Always heard that the woman is more important. The reason why both Martina's were such great mixed players. Especially Navs: it made no difference to her if the guy across the net fired a missile at her; those hands could handle any shot.
by
ashkor87 ponchi101 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 02, 2023 4:11 pm
Suliso wrote: ↑Mon Jan 02, 2023 11:10 am
Nadal has started his season 0-2...
I was just reading a bit about that.
It is not only that he has started 0-2. Since his abs injury at Wimbledon, he has now played 10 matches, and has lost 6. He is 1-6 in his last 7, his sole victory being that dead rubber at the WTF against Ruud.
Of course, I have not been able to see anything here (they are not showing any tennis yet) but the article I read was saying that his SERVE point of contact is considerably lower and further in front. I did see that at the WTF; he just can't stretch high enough to generate consistency and variation of his serve. Tim Henman was saying that because the toss is lower now, he can only slice the serve.
So, it might be that the abs injury has changed his mechanics. And that is always a very iffy thing. Right now, I see him as maybe 4R at the Aussie. With luck.
Yes, probably right...YouTube does have some highlights videos usually...anyway very sad if Nadal is injured and unable to serve..
by ponchi101 I would not say he is injured. I would say they are trying a new serve that will not injure him.
For such a top player, he has to be the one player in all of history that has tinkered with his service the most. Not only his toss, but his grip too. He has changed it at least 3 times in his career. I would say even more.
by skatingfan That was unexpected.
by JTContinental Wow, Jess Pegula smoked Iga today
by ti-amie BTW that's Aga talking to Iga.
by ponchi101 She cried when she lost in Tokyo.
I gather that when she is playing for her country, it matters A LOT to her. In a sense, good. It shows she cares.
by ashkor87 saw a bit of highlights (always misleading!) but Pegula seems to have played the right way against Iga - on a fast court, she took time away from Swiatek, hit hard and deep and punished that topspun second serve that just sits up and begs to be hit.. great example for everyone.. Swiatek has excuses, of course, adjusting to a fast court Pegula had been playing on for a week, and so on.. but still, an impressive and salutary win.
by JTContinental Pegula/Trevisan to take to the court--I'm anticipating some world class bellowing that lasts even while her opponent is hitting the ball.
Incidentally, Trevisan has only 1 career win against the top 50 on ANY surface other than clay, and that was against Sakkari at this event, so I'm not even sure if it counts on the tour.
by Deuce Last year, I noticed that Trevisan was 'grunting' late at times - as in when the ball she hit had passed over to her opponent's side of the net.
But I watched about half of yesterday's match vs. Sakkari, and Trevisan was grunting loudly and a lot - on every shot - but was always doing so in the 'proper' time frame, (if there is a proper time for grunting). That is, she was grunting pretty much as she struck the ball.
Maybe there were complaints about the timing of her 'grunting' from other players.
I still say that fans should be permitted to get their money back if they ask for it when they are subjected to a Trevisan, Sabalenka, Azarenka, etc. match - strictly due to the disturbing screaming that these players needlessly produce.
by Deuce Isn't this about the 8th 'Final' of this whatever you call it?
It's difficult to follow such a stupid format as this.
I've only watched part of one match of this thing - about half of the Trevisan - Sakkari match - and that was simply because there was nothing else on that I was interested in.
I much prefer watching real tournaments - or Davis or Fed Cup.
by
skatingfan JTContinental wrote: ↑Sun Jan 08, 2023 2:10 am
Pegula/Trevisan to take to the court--I'm anticipating some world class bellowing that lasts even while her opponent is hitting the ball.
Incidentally, Trevisan has only 1 career win against the top 50 on ANY surface other than clay, and that was against Sakkari at this event, so I'm not even sure if it counts on the tour.
You know they're getting points for this event right? This is a tour event for both tours.
by
JTContinental skatingfan wrote: ↑Sun Jan 08, 2023 6:06 am
JTContinental wrote: ↑Sun Jan 08, 2023 2:10 am
Pegula/Trevisan to take to the court--I'm anticipating some world class bellowing that lasts even while her opponent is hitting the ball.
Incidentally, Trevisan has only 1 career win against the top 50 on ANY surface other than clay, and that was against Sakkari at this event, so I'm not even sure if it counts on the tour.
You know they're getting points for this event right? This is a tour event for both tours.
I thought so, but wasn't sure until they specifically mentioned it tonight.
Team USA rolled through this. David Witt is a great coach.
by Deuce The concept of the men and women playing together is an interesting one - because it's fairly unique...
But there were far too many key players missing on every team for it to capture my attention. Many top players opted to play the regular tournaments this past week instead of playing this.
Too many times, there were players that no-one outside their families had heard of pitted against well-known, well-established players.
And some entire teams were completely missing (like Canada, who would have potentially had one of the strongest teams).
For these reasons - and that it was created more as a money-making gimmick than as a legitimate competition -, I found it easy to dismiss.
