WTA 500 Strasbourg 5/18 - 5/24 2025

[ashkor87]

Following Samsonova carefully..she is one of the best slow court players, expected her to do well at Madrid, Rome etc, she didn't. Hope she gets back on track here.

Career win/loss record on clay is 122-80 (according to Copilot). She is 5-5 this year, and her best run at RG was a R32 two years ago.
Maybe to be used in R1 for the SP. Maybe. She just lost to Baptiste at Rome (#90) and Staradutseva (I am certainly spelling that wrong) in Madrid (#99).

yes, she has definitely underperformed at RG.. she actually does better on slow hard courts.. bu I am hoping for better from her at this year's RG.

Samsonova beat Badosa today, who is considered a top player! (Though not by me)

[ponchi101]

Who considers Badosa a top player? That is a result that is totally unsurprising.
Paula reached #2 after that IW during the pandemic. Way too long ago to consider her anything but what her ranking says.

[ti-amie]

Day 7 Order of Play

Court Patrice Dominguez
Starts at 6:00 AM

Semifinal
CHN Jiang/TPE Wu (4) vs CHN Guo/USA Melichar-Martinez
Upcoming
Semifinal
KAZ E. Rybakina (4) vs BRA B. Haddad Maia (9)
Upcoming
Semifinal
USA D. Collins vs RUS L. Samsonova (8)

[ashkor87]

Who considers Badosa a top player? That is a result that is totally unsurprising.
Paula reached #2 after that IW during the pandemic. Way too long ago to consider her anything but what her ranking says.

I am glad you no longer consider her a champion.
She is #10 though,.so that is a good indicator of how good she is?!
I don't think so

[ponchi101]

Who considers Badosa a top player? That is a result that is totally unsurprising.
Paula reached #2 after that IW during the pandemic. Way too long ago to consider her anything but what her ranking says.

I am glad you no longer consider her a champion.
She is #10 though,.so that is a good indicator of how good she is?!
I don't think so

When did I consider her a champion? First, you are the one that uses that denomination. I consider players to be good or bad. On a scale.
When she reached #2 she looked like she was solidly improving. But remember, I was the one that kept track of her numerous retirements; she was as fragile physically as can be.
And we know your position on the rankings; you don't believe in them. And her #10 right now simply means she gets seeded 10. Nothing more. Does she have the tenth best odds at RG? I don't think so. But she has better chances than a lot of people, including at least one above her (I say she has a better chance than Navarro or Keys).

[ashkor87]

Watched the third set BHM vs Rybakina.. I am now persuaded the problem with BHM is entirely in her head - after winning the second set 6-1 and breaking Rybakina to go up in the third set, she completely lost it.. smiling nervously at her team, popping doublefaults.. just gave it away.
She needs to believe in herself a bit more!

BTW I discovered that BHM is of Lebanese origin.. interesting competition for Jabeur

[ashkor87]

Collins - Samsonova was a poor quality match, I think neither was able to handle the wind.. not that it was gusting too hard... but both were spewing errors..
anyway, Samsonova won. I will forebear to point out that Samsonova is a good player on clay.

[ashkor87]

Re Badosa, I just dont see what she has in her game that is exceptional, and she doesnt move all that well.. defense is not great. I dont care what the rankings say. Pegula at 3, Navarro at 8, Badosa at 10, all over-rated.

[ponchi101]

Re Badosa, I just dont see what she has in her game that is exceptional, and she doesnt move all that well.. defense is not great. I dont care what the rankings say. Pegula at 3, Navarro at 8, Badosa at 10, all over-rated.

And as before, who would you then put at 3, 8 and 10?
I agree that Paolini at 3 is fine. But, in a sense, you also make too much of the rankings. Nobody is claiming, once again, that Badosa is the second coming of Seles. But they don't give the points for free.
She is fine. Nothing more.

[JTContinental]

Badosa was a much better player before her spine fracture, and I'm assuming that will plague her for the rest of her career.

[ti-amie]

Day 8 Order of Play

Court Patrice Dominguez
Starts at 5:30 AM

Final
HUN Babos/BRA Stefani vs CHN Guo/USA Melichar-Martinez
Upcoming
Final
RUS L. Samsonova (8) vs KAZ E. Rybakina (4)

[ashkor87]

Re Badosa, I just dont see what she has in her game that is exceptional, and she doesnt move all that well.. defense is not great. I dont care what the rankings say. Pegula at 3, Navarro at 8, Badosa at 10, all over-rated.

And as before, who would you then put at 3, 8 and 10?
I agree that Paolini at 3 is fine. But, in a sense, you also make too much of the rankings. Nobody is claiming, once again, that Badosa is the second coming of Seles. But they don't give the points for free.
She is fine. Nothing more.

Going into RG

!. saba, 2 Gauff 3 Paolini 4 Andreeva 5 ostapenko 6 anisimova 7 collins 8 zheng 9 svitolina 10 samsonova 11 Rybakina 12 swiatek
13 kostyuk 14 keys 15 Tauson 16 alexandrova

[ashkor87]

Samsonova vs Rybakina will be 50-50.. Samsonova is actually playing better right now than Ryba..

[ashkor87]

Badosa was a much better player before her spine fracture, and I'm assuming that will plague her for the rest of her career.

this disagreement between us goes back to Wimbledon 22.. not everyone will (or should) remember, and I am restraining myself from giving details

[ti-amie]