WTA 1000 Doha 2/11 - 2/17 2024

[ashkor87]

as usual, Swiatek hits shots that physics says arent possible at all,, her body weight going in one direction, she hits the winner in the other direction.. that off-backhand in particular.. how on earth does she do it? she is a genius, a monster..

Modern racquets and strings

then why is she the only one who can do such things? everyone with a modern racket should be able to..!

[ashkor87]

Azarenka might be a kryptonite for Ostapenko, but Iga is not affected at all.

Swiatek is very quick, and her second serve isnt as bad as Osta's...

[ti-amie]

Friday Order of Play

Centre Court
Starts at 7:00 AM

NED D. SCHUURS/BRA L. STEFANI (5) vs CZE M. BOUZKOVA/CZE M. VONDROUSOVA
UPCOMING
KAZ E. RYBAKINA (3) vs RUS A. PAVLYUCHENKOVA
UPCOMING
POL I. SWIATEK (1) vs CZE K. PLISKOVA

Grandstand 1
Starts at 8:00 AM

UPCOMING
USA C. DOLEHIDE/USA D. KRAWCZYK vs UKR A. KALININA/CHN Y. XU

[mick1303]

Quite likely LF will beat her now..she has started to go down her usual path ..showing signs of fatigue, eking out narrow wins over people she would blow away if she were fresh ..then losing to the first good player she meets. If I were managing her, I would certainly get her to play less..she won abu dhabi, but was it worth it? Just a she won Brisbane....

Well well, proved me wrong! Good win for Rybakina 4 and 2

Serious question here.
Why have we entered this era in which a player plays one tournament, wins it, and we immediately decide that they are so tired that they will not be able to play well the next tournament, if they are on consecutive weeks? The great ones from the past did it, regularly, and today's training is far better. Martina would win 2, 3 tournaments in a row, playing serve and volley tennis, and then go to a fourth and reach the final, and then do it again. So did Chris and Steffi. On the men's side, Lendl, Vilas, Wilander and plenty of others would play week in, week out, without a peep of being fatigued.
Rybakina won last week, in Abu Dhabi. That is a one hour flight, on a private luxury jet. Why are we assuming that she is running on empty? She is a young person, and a professional at what she does. She should have no physical issues stemming from fatigue.
And I repeat. Martina was playing S&V tennis, way more tiring than baseline tennis, and win over and over. Mandlikova, BJK too.

1) Depth of the field today
2) S&V style is/was producing much shorter rallies

[ponchi101]

as usual, Swiatek hits shots that physics says arent possible at all,, her body weight going in one direction, she hits the winner in the other direction.. that off-backhand in particular.. how on earth does she do it? she is a genius, a monster..

Modern racquets and strings

then why is she the only one who can do such things? everyone with a modern racket should be able to..!

And a lot do. Medvedev, who uses the same racquet, does that. They both have the same ugly strokes, so maybe something about the technifibres.
Kyrgios does it. Sometimes his body is going back and he is able to hit winners from there.

[meganfernandez]

Quite likely LF will beat her now..she has started to go down her usual path ..showing signs of fatigue, eking out narrow wins over people she would blow away if she were fresh ..then losing to the first good player she meets. If I were managing her, I would certainly get her to play less..she won abu dhabi, but was it worth it? Just a she won Brisbane....

Well well, proved me wrong! Good win for Rybakina 4 and 2

Serious question here.
Why have we entered this era in which a player plays one tournament, wins it, and we immediately decide that they are so tired that they will not be able to play well the next tournament, if they are on consecutive weeks? The great ones from the past did it, regularly, and today's training is far better. Martina would win 2, 3 tournaments in a row, playing serve and volley tennis, and then go to a fourth and reach the final, and then do it again. So did Chris and Steffi. On the men's side, Lendl, Vilas, Wilander and plenty of others would play week in, week out, without a peep of being fatigued.
Rybakina won last week, in Abu Dhabi. That is a one hour flight, on a private luxury jet. Why are we assuming that she is running on empty? She is a young person, and a professional at what she does. She should have no physical issues stemming from fatigue.
And I repeat. Martina was playing S&V tennis, way more tiring than baseline tennis, and win over and over. Mandlikova, BJK too.

Prize money. It's a lot bigger now and the top players don't need every last cent.

I agree with you that young players should be able to play consecutive weeks with a short break in the middle and not tucker out. And they probably can, but very top players don't need the money and have to manage their bodies for a long, taxing season. We talk about players being smart with scheduling. This is one factor. But they CAN physically play consecutive weeks, assuming they aren't nursing an injury.

[ashkor87]

everybody's body is different.

Meanwhile, Pliskova has withdrwn with a lower back injury.. and Rybakina is up 5-2 .. so all this discusion is fairly pointless.

[ashkor87]

I am happy to see Rybakina is much more resilient than I had given her credit for!

[ashkor87]

Rybakina versus Swiatek is a rare finals..don't remember if they have met in the finals before ..my sense is they have met only in the semis or quarters...doesn't matter, of course, they would take each other seriously no matter what round it is ..,55% Swiatek, 45% Rybakina?

[ashkor87]

AI says Rybakina 75%...pretty high! She has won 3 out of 4, that doesn't give her 75% chance of winning tomorrow!

[ti-amie]

AI says Rybakina 75%...pretty high! She has won 3 out of 4, that doesn't give her 75% chance of winning tomorrow!

Does Rybakina have the foot speed to deal with Iga?

[Suliso]

H2H is 3-1 to Rybakina so there is something to it.

[ti-amie]

[ashkor87]

AI says Rybakina 75%...pretty high! She has won 3 out of 4, that doesn't give her 75% chance of winning tomorrow!

Does Rybakina have the foot speed to deal with Iga?

No, but the court is slow, foot speed is not at a premium here...

[Suliso]

An outstanding win by Swiatek against a very difficult opponent for her. She does like this tournament, though. The third straight title in Doha!