Talk About Tennis 2.0

Court looks slow..Swiatek will love it, no wonder she already has 3 in a row.
Swiatek 70%
Sabalenka 20%
Rybakina 5%
Field 5%
I don't expect Coco etc to do much here, can't hit through the slow court. Among my favorites, Samsonova may do well, so might Noskova..Alexandrova will find the court too slow...not my favorite but Pegula will struggle too ..I think Keys is already out with an injury, else she could have been a force. Certainly not Paolini.

I know court speed make at most 5-10% difference, at the margin, but these courts look extreme - in the Indian Wells league, where odd things do happen.

ashkor87 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 09, 2025 1:13 pm Suddenly Parks comes to life..beats Shnaider in the first round! Am happy but also frustrated..why can't she play like this more often?

Because that is what makes her Alicia Parks.
She has gorgeous strokes and her athleticism is excellent. But we keep forgetting, a lot of times, that there is also the factor of precision. The great ones can hit the same shot, over and over, and make it land within a very small area. Connors was the best example: he could make a ball land within one foot INSIDE the baseline with great regularity.
Parks simply hits the ball wonderfully, but her margin of error is huge. They can land in for a wonderful winner, or fly out by three feet for a monstruous error. It is what is happening to Muchova: when they land in, her strokes are a sight to behold. But when they land two inches out, and that is happening more and more frequently, they are equally gorgeous, but they were out.
I don't think that your prediction that Parks will be a Wimby winner will come true. Her standard deviation is too big.

She needs a coach that can teach her shot selection, because she seems absolutely clueless on that front.

ashkor87 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 09, 2025 1:13 pm Suddenly Parks comes to life..beats Shnaider in the first round! Am happy but also frustrated..why can't she play like this more often?

I agree. She played with confidence and smarts frustrating Shnaider.

Monday Order of Play

Center Court
Starts at 7:30 AM

RUS D. Kasatkina (10) vs RUS P. Kudermetova
Upcoming
GRE M. Sakkari vs POL I. Swiatek (2)
Upcoming
USA M. Kessler vs TUN O. Jabeur
Upcoming
ESP P. Badosa (9) vs CZE K. Siniakova

Grandstand 1
Starts at 6:00 AM

CRO D. Vekic (15) vs CZE L. Noskova
Upcoming
JPN A. Ito vs LAT J. Ostapenko
Upcoming
CAN L. Fernandez vs USA E. Navarro (8)
Upcoming
CZE M. Vondrousova vs UKR E. Svitolina

Grandstand 2
Starts at 6:00 AM

USA A. Krueger vs USA S. Kenin
Upcoming
RUS V. Kudermetova vs POL M. Linette
Upcoming
UKR D. Yastremska vs USA P. Stearns
Upcoming
TPE H. Chan/RUS V. Kudermetova (5) vs UKR M. Kostyuk/ROU E. Ruse

Grandstand 3
Starts at 6:00 AM

UKR A. Kalinina vs SVK R. Sramkova
Upcoming
USA D. Krawczyk/MEX G. Olmos vs JPN S. Aoyama/JPN E. Hozumi
Upcoming
RUS A. Panova/HUN F. Stollar vs FRA K. Mladenovic/CHN S. Zhang
Upcoming
SVK T. Mihalikova/GBR O. Nicholls vs KAZ A. Danilina/RUS I. Khromacheva (7)
Upcoming
CAN L. Fernandez/UKR N. Kichenok vs USA A. Muhammad/NED D. Schuurs (8)

Grandstand 4
Starts at 6:00 AM

KAZ Y. Putintseva vs JPN M. Uchijima
Upcoming
BEL E. Mertens/AUS E. Perez (6) vs CHN X. Wang/CHN S. Zheng
Upcoming
BRA B. Haddad Maia/GER L. Siegemund vs RUS E. Alexandrova/RUS L. Samsonova
Upcoming
RUS M. Andreeva/RUS D. Shnaider vs USA A. Krueger/USA J. Pegula

Yastremska-Stearns, Fernandez-Navarro, Vekic-Noskova are the three am looking forward to.. they will tell us a bit about some young ones (actually F and Navarro are both pretty much the same age, aren't they?)

I don't know enough about Stearns but the court will suit Yastremska..she is so powerful...

Noskova beat Vekic 2 and 4 as she should on a slow court...

watched a bit of Navarro-Fernandez.. Leylah was stepping in two feet inside the baseline to return serve, it is so slow. Navarro wasnt blown away but had few answers..

Tuesday Order of Play

Center Court
Starts at 7:30 AM

USA C. Gauff (3) vs UKR M. Kostyuk
Followed by
CHN Q. Zheng (7) vs TUN O. Jabeur
Followed by
BLR A. Sabalenka (1) vs RUS E. Alexandrova
Followed by
ESP P. Badosa (9) vs USA A. Anisimova

Grandstand 1
Starts at 6:00 AM

FRA C. Garcia vs ITA J. Paolini (4)
Followed by
KAZ E. Rybakina (5) vs USA P. Stearns
Followed by
UKR E. Svitolina vs USA J. Pegula (6)
Followed by
RUS D. Kasatkina (10) vs ARM E. Avanesyan

Grandstand 2
Starts at 6:00 AM

USA S. Kenin vs USA A. Parks
Followed by
SVK R. Sramkova vs RUS M. Andreeva (12)
Followed by
POL M. Linette vs POL M. Frech
Followed by
RUS A. Panova/HUN F. Stollar vs USA A. Muhammad/NED D. Schuurs (8)

Grandstand 3
Starts at 6:00 AM

CZE L. Noskova vs KAZ Y. Putintseva
Followed by
RUS L. Samsonova (16) vs LAT J. Ostapenko
Followed by
ITA S. Errani/ITA J. Paolini (3) vs NOR U. Eikeri/ROU M. Niculescu
Followed by
CHN X. Jiang/TPE F. Wu vs TPE S. Hsieh/LAT J. Ostapenko (2)

Grandstand 4
Starts at 6:00 AM

BEL E. Mertens vs ESP C. Bucsa
Followed by
BRA B. Haddad Maia/GER L. Siegemund vs USA S. Kenin/UKR L. Kichenok (4)
Followed by
BEL E. Mertens/AUS E. Perez (6) vs CHN Y. Xu/CHN Z. Yang

Gauff -Kostyuk is always interesting ..the slow conditions favor Kostyuk but has she really found her game? Samsonova -Ostapenko, both have the power, osta has the class ..can Samsonova punish that second serve? Not sure she can.the other matchups don't look too interesting..Alexandrova won't be able to stand up to Sabalenka, Anisimova should beat Badosa but I am not sure she has really found her game yet, though the first match was encouraging. Anisimova did win the only time they met though, and I do give h2h a lot of weight ..much more than rankings or ELO.
If A beats B once, she is likely to do it again unless conditions are too different ..

ashkor87 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 10, 2025 5:39 am I don't know enough about Stearns but the court will suit Yastremska..she is so powerful...

Didn't work out that way.

skatingfan wrote: ↑Tue Feb 11, 2025 1:33 am

ashkor87 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 10, 2025 5:39 am I don't know enough about Stearns but the court will suit Yastremska..she is so powerful...

Didn't work out that way.

As I said, I don't know much about Stearns

Meanwhile Leylah took out Navarro 2 & 2 which is an upset in my book.

ETA: The head to head is 3-1 in Leylah's favor after this match.