by ti-amie Tournament: Grampians Trophy
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Dates: February 3 - February 7, 2021
Level: WTA 500
Total Financial Commitment: $565,530
Surface: Hard
Main Draw Singles
7 Andreescu, Bianca (CAN)
12 Bencic, Belinda (SUI)
13 Azarenka, Victoria (BLR)
19 Rybakina, Elena (KAZ)
22 Sakkari, Maria (GRE)
23 Kontaveit, Anett (EST)
24 Brady, Jennifer (USA)
25 Kerber, Angelique (GER)
26 Riske, Alison (USA)
28 Putintseva, Yulia (KAZ)
31 Jabeur, Ons (TUN)
36 Kuznetsova, Svetlana (RUS)
37 Strycova, Barbora (CZE)
39 Stephens, Sloane (USA)
46 Kudermetova, Veronika (RUS)
58 Watson, Heather (GBR)
59 Siniakova, Katerina (CZE)
61 Blinkova, Anna (RUS)
65 Krejcikova, Barbora (CZE)
71 Cirstea, Sorana (ROU)
75 Davis, Lauren (USA)
81 McHale, Christina (USA)
88 Fernandez, Leylah (CAN)
98 Li, Ann (USA)
99 Kostyuk, Marta (UKR)
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ti-amie 
by ti-amie Interesting draw...
by JazzNU Ahh, okay, I didn't remember why so many were missing from the list in the other thread. This is the hard quarantine draw.
After not revealing the players placed on hard quarantine, we now see who was actually in that protocol.
by
skatingfan Gabriela Dabrowski got into a singles draw for Tour event?
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Deuce skatingfan wrote: ↑Mon Feb 01, 2021 5:53 am
Gabriela Dabrowski got into a singles draw for Tour event?
^ That is very odd.
She did win the Orange Bowl as a junior, I believe, but she's definitely been a doubles player for 95% of her pro career.
Looking at the rest of the draw, Leylah has a chance to beat Sloane for the 3rd straight time... which would set up an interesting match with Andreescu.
But when the top seed is a player who hasn't played an official match in over a year, there is a problem with the system.
by
meganfernandez skatingfan wrote: ↑Mon Feb 01, 2021 5:53 am
Gabriela Dabrowski got into a singles draw for Tour event?
Grampians is just for women who were in hard quarantine, and I don't think it has a doubles draw. So thye must have had space and let her into the singles draw just for some match play.
I doubt any player who's in Melbourne is shut out of a WTA warm-up. This one has 28 players and the other two have 54 each. That's a total of 136 spots. There are 128 in the AO singles draw.
by
ti-amie 
by
Deuce The way that things are going this early season, with 'tournaments' being created out of nowhere and everything being done seemingly at random, I would not have been at all surprised to see Carling Bassett replace Andreescu in the draw.
by ponchi101 You had to give these players at least some time on court.
But I would have chosen a different name. This sounds like "Grandpa's Trophy".
by Deuce Although it’s just a glorified exhibition, Sloane once again did not look good at all. Lots of very careless errors. And when she makes these errors, she constantly looks over at Murray with an expression that says “How come it’s not easy? How come I have to make more effort to make the shots?” Murray should simply not be within Sloane’s view during her matches, as she is far, far too dependent on him during matches now. It’s time to cut the cord and force her to be more INdependent. Maybe it’s time to find another coach - one who can actually help to motivate her.
I know that she’s had a difficult time with people close to her dying of COVID-19 recently - and that’s unfortunate, obviously. But her level of play has been very sub-par for over a year now. Overall, she has looked disinterested. For at least the past year, she’s just been going through the motions - and doing it with some extra weight that she wasn’t carrying a few years ago. She has been physically out of shape and mentally disinterested for quite a while.
Leylah just beat her for the 3rd straight time (twice last year). Leylah should have won the 1st set 6-1 (she was ahead 5-1 and won it 6-3, then ran away with the 2nd set 6-1). Sloane had all of 5 winners - and 40 unforced errors.
These two are absolute opposites in that Leylah’s attitude is one of “I think I can, I think I can... I know I can, I know I can” - always so very focussed and determined... while Sloane’s attitude is more like “Yeah, whatever - I just don’t want to put out any effort.” Their body language could not be more different.
As this has been going on for a significant while with Sloane, it’s really looking like her time as a top player is finished for good. Sadly, she has shown no signs of the form she had a few years ago. Unless she can recapture her passion/focus/enjoyment for the game, she’ll never reach the top level again.
Perhaps it’s a case of ‘too much too soon’ with her... maybe after her US Open win, she just got caught up in the folly of ‘being famous’, and that became more important to her than being a good tennis player. She wouldn’t be the first to have this happen (see Genie Bouchard, among others), and she won’t be the last.
Still, it's sad to see.
by Suliso Beating Stephens, particularly outside a Slam, is not much of an accomplishment these days. Seems like a loss of interest indeed. I wonder if she's still doing amazingly well on endorsements front in US. She was few years ago and arguably deservedly so. Definitely not deserved anymore. If Osaka not within a company's budget they'd do better betting on Anisimova or Gauff (for US market only of course)...
by ponchi101 Remember that Sloane just went through (I believe) a couple of deaths in her family, due to Covid.
I actually wonder what the hell she is doing in Australia. I know that they are professional athletes, and I don't want to compare myself to them, but when my dad died I have no recollection of what I did in my next work shift. I was simply not there.
I don't know how much more different can it be for athletes.
by ti-amie I'm watching a replay of Sloane vs Leylah-Annie now. Sloane hasn't been this slim/fit in years. And yet...
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JazzNU ti-amie wrote: ↑Wed Feb 03, 2021 7:36 pm
I'm watching a replay of Sloane vs Leylah-Annie now. Sloane hasn't been this slim/fit in years. And yet...
I'm glad you mentioned this. I only saw a highlight and wondered if it was just not seeing her for an extended time that made me think she had slimmed down.
by Deuce She is slimmer than last year, but I think she's still carrying 10 to 15 more pounds than when she won the US Open.
In any case, no matter how physically fit she might get, it's quite clear that she has no interest in running balls down.
It would be interesting to know how/why she lost interest in playing tennis.
by ponchi101 Repeat: she just lost a couple of very close family members due to Covid. I don't know what she is doing playing at all, but saying she has lost all interest in tennis for no reasons may not be accurate.
by Suliso We know that and at least I would never claim loss of interest based on 2021 alone. It seems to be going in that direction since the beginning of 2019...
by ponchi101 I don't think she has lost interest. She is still here.
The competition keeps getting better, and what I would grant is that she is satisfied being a USO champion. She never struck me as a Steffi Graf type, completely driven in every match. I am pretty sure that when Sloane losses one match, she is perfectly fine with that.
by martini4me Not a good forecast for Melbourne today. Lots of rain and thundershowers in the forecast.
Also quite windy. The players are having a lot of difficulty with their ball toss, and resultantly there are four breaks in the first five games of Sakkari-Fernandez.
by ti-amie The roof is closed on MCA.
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Deuce ponchi101 wrote: ↑Thu Feb 04, 2021 2:47 pm
Repeat: she just lost a couple of very close family members due to Covid. I don't know what she is doing playing at all, but saying she has lost all interest in tennis for no reasons may not be accurate.
Of course, losing people you are close with has a major impact.
But, as Suliso mentioned, the downfall and loss of interest has been present for quite a while - since long before she lost the family members. If you've watched her demeanour on the court over the past year or so - both during and between points, and on changeovers -, it's quite apparent that things are far from good with her.
One doesn't lose his/her ability to play this quickly - that only happens with age or significant injury. This problem is definitely mental. And mental things can easily snowball.
Maybe it's something unrelated to tennis that's bothering her - who knows? But it's quite clear that she is not at all focused on the court.
by martini4me I take it back. It's not just the wind. Fernandez is having terrible problems with her ball toss today. Sometimes it's way out to her left, sometimes it's a couple feet behind her to her right. FIve double faults in the set, but it felt worse. She didn't hold serve once in the set, but broke Sakkari twice.
by
Deuce martini4me wrote: ↑Fri Feb 05, 2021 12:58 am
I take it back. It's not just the wind. Fernandez is having terrible problems with her ball toss today. Sometimes it's way out to her left, sometimes it's a couple feet behind her to her right. FIve double faults in the set, but it felt worse. She didn't hold serve once in the set, but broke Sakkari twice.
Lots of breaks in the women's game is very common.
Leylah was having problems with her ball toss against Sloane the other day, as well. It's at the point now where she's far too conscious of it - and overthinking is the enemy of every tennis player. And she has to deal with the wind today, as well, which puts even more focus on her toss.
I'm afraid this won't end well today for Leylah.
by ti-amie Leylah-Annie lost?
I should mention that my daughter has a hyphenated first name so I will call Leylah-Annie by her full name.
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Deuce ti-amie wrote: ↑Fri Feb 05, 2021 4:31 am
Leylah-Annie lost?
I should mention that my daughter has a hyphenated first name so I will call Leylah-Annie by her full name.
Yes, she lost. It wasn't close. Nor was it an enjoyable match to watch - mostly because of the excessive wind, I suppose. Sakkari managed the wind much better than Leylah did - not surprising, as she is far more experienced than Leylah.
About 18 months ago, Leylah was playing in a Final, and had lost the 1st set and was trailing late in the second set... It was rather evident that rain was coming fairly soon. I said to Leylah's coach at the time (Dave Rineberg, who worked with Venus and Serena when they were young) "She needs to slow the pace and get to a rain delay - that's her best chance of changing the momentum." Dave said "Yup - that's what she needs to do."
5 minutes later, the match was over. 2 minutes after the match ended, the rain began. Dave said to me "She's still too young to be aware of these things."
By the way, she seems to have dropped the 'Annie' from her tennis name, surprisingly. Or the WTA decided to drop it, as she has appeared as 'Leylah Fernandez' in pretty much every draw since tennis returned last summer. I don't suppose the WTA could drop the 'Annie' without Leylah's permission.
Sadly, things like this could be a sponsor decision. Maybe Asics decided that it was easier to market Leylah than Leylah-Annie, and that was a condition of the contract.
by the Moz The BBC saying this final won't be played.
by ponchi101 Why? Everybody pulled out?
I mean, do they know how to play chicken? Just wait until the last moment, and see if the other player pulls out first. That way, you get the trophy.
What a mess.
by JazzNU So this is the quarantine tournament, so it started late and was affected even more by the halt for testing mid-week. For them to play the final, they'd have to work in the semifinals and the finals today in order to have a day break tomorrow. Tennis Channel commentators were openly wondering what the schedule was since it didn't seem like 2 matches were getting played yesterday and they didn't have any information about what the plan might be. So this isn't that surprising and one of the things they are doing right most likely. They weren't supposed to be pushing the quarantine group that couldn't practice like the others at all for the two weeks prior as much.
I hope the plan is to give this group later first round assignments even with the canceled final.