Talk About Tennis 2.0

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Sun Apr 30, 2023 3:51 pm My GF only read Murray's reply, and we were wondering what he meant. Now, with your info, it makes sense and context. Txs.
About Murray. A severely underrated personality. To say the least.

JazzNU wrote: ↑Mon May 01, 2023 1:28 am Roger visited the tennis center up in the Bronx and watched some of the kids play and hit with them too. I'll post if I see some photos or video. Very nice. He's in town for the Met Gala.

ti-amie wrote: ↑Tue Apr 25, 2023 9:35 pm The reason that there were so many questions about Burrage is because if Raducanu loses early Burrage will become the British #1.

16 questions, 58 words: Emma Raducanu shows the strain in bizarre press conference
The Briton has been handed a nightmare Madrid Open draw that leaves her facing a huge challenge to avoid dropping more ranking points

By
Simon Briggs,
TENNIS CORRESPONDENT, IN MADRID
25 April 2023 • 7:47pm

A drained-looking Emma Raducanu showed worrying signs of strain in Madrid, as she dead-batted all attempts to initiate the traditional pre-tournament interview.

Presented with 16 gentle questions – on subjects ranging from her chronic wrist trouble to the recent good form of her friend and compatriot Jodie Burrage – Raducanu offered a combined tally of just 58 words.

After a little less than three minutes, the attempted conversation grew so awkward that a media-liaison official from the Women’s Tennis Association was forced to step in, with a brisk “I think let’s just leave it there.”

Raducanu’s uncooperative mood was unexpected, as the one area where she has remained poised and confident since her triumphant drive to the 2021 US Open title has been in her dealings with the media.

Normally, she is bright, talkative and engaging during press conferences. At this very tournament 12 months ago, she entertained a group of reporters with an anecdote about her A-levels, before adding cheerfully that “Even when I’m losing, I find it a great challenge to pick myself back up.”

But Raducanu’s world-weary demeanour on Tuesday made one wonder whether her recent run of three straight defeats – stretching back to Indian Wells six weeks ago – has tested that resilience to breaking point.

This is an important tournament for her, as she stands to forfeit 110 of her 740 rankings points if she were to lose her first-round match. A fourth straight defeat would constitute the worst sequence of her professional career, while also sending her sliding just outside the world’s top 100.

A three-figure ranking could potentially impact on her sponsorship deals. Many players have ranking-linked clauses in their contracts, although it is unknown whether this applies to any of Raducanu’s eight endorsements.

Either way, she could do with a morale-boosting win when she faces world No 73 Viktoriya Tomova on Wednesday afternoon in the unusual high-altitude conditions of Madrid. Not that a deep run here seems plausible, given that the winner of that first-round match will go on to face the dominant world No 1 Iga Swiatek in their next outing.

It was Swiatek who began Raducanu’s mini form-slump – which has involved losses to three successive grand-slam champions – when she delivered a 6-3, 6-1 beating in the fourth round of Indian Wells. And Swiatek has only gathered strength since then, having celebrated the return to her favoured clay by lifting the Stuttgart title on Sunday.

Asked about her draw here, Raducanu replied listlessly “It is what it is.” She was equally unforthcoming about her chronic wrist trouble (“We’re managing it”) and Jelena Ostapenko’s performance in thrashing her 6-2, 6-1 in Stuttgart last week (“She played a great match.”)

In all, she averaged three-and-a-half words per question, with the longest answer coming to an enquiry about her three-set defeat at the hands of Bianca Andreescu in Miami a month ago. “Yeah it was a good trip in America, tough match,” said Raducanu. “But yeah, moving on.”

How effectively she is moving on remains to be seen, because this interview suggested someone who is beginning to feel trapped on the never-ending carousel of the professional tennis tour. Raducanu practised with Poland’s Magda Linette at Madrid’s Caja Magica on Tuesday morning, but there must be some question about whether she feels completely ready to compete.

In March, Raducanu said that she had deleted Instagram and WhatsApp from her phone in order to insulate herself from the negativity of social media. Even so, she may still be feeling the weight of criticism from those who expect her to play world-beating tennis every week.

The most frequent barbs tend to concern her sponsorship commitments, which continue to be highly visible. Only in the last week or so, she has appeared in the new British Airways safety video – where she was filmed stowing a passenger’s luggage in the rack – and in a Vodafone campaign that boasted “the world’s first 5G hologram coaching session” between Raducanu and a pair of young hopefuls.

Both these clips were broadcast to her 2.5m Instagram followers, presumably by a third party who is now handling her account. But while Raducanu the corporate icon keeps plugging away, the real-life 20-year-old behind the hoopla is beginning to look like a shadow of her former, carefree self.


https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tennis/2023 ... drid-open/

meganfernandez wrote: ↑Mon May 01, 2023 7:42 pm This could be an entirely personal issue or distraction, something happening off-court. Who knows. This, in particular, is garbage without any substantiation: How effectively she is moving on remains to be seen, because this interview suggested someone who is beginning to feel trapped on the never-ending carousel of the professional tennis tour. Raducanu practised with Poland’s Magda Linette at Madrid’s Caja Magica on Tuesday morning, but there must be some question about whether she feels completely ready to compete.


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JazzNU wrote: ↑Mon May 01, 2023 6:28 pm

JazzNU wrote: ↑Mon May 01, 2023 1:28 am Roger visited the tennis center up in the Bronx and watched some of the kids play and hit with them too. I'll post if I see some photos or video. Very nice. He's in town for the Met Gala.

nelslus wrote: ↑Mon May 01, 2023 10:00 pm Honestly- with all of the pressures young newsworthy women face- especially when Emma is freakin' 20 years old (and Coco, btw, is 19 years old)- maybe, once and for all, it's time to, as much as possible, leave them all the heck alone. Let them grow up, and see what happens. How many Brooke Shields and Britney documentaries do we need before we finally get that-iMO, all of us are a huge part of the problem facing these young women?

nelslus wrote: ↑Mon May 01, 2023 10:00 pm Honestly- with all of the pressures young newsworthy women face- especially when Emma is freakin' 20 years old (and Coco, btw, is 19 years old)- maybe, once and for all, it's time to, as much as possible, leave them all the heck alone. Let them grow up, and see what happens. How many Brooke Shields and Britney documentaries do we need before we finally get that-iMO, all of us are a huge part of the problem facing these young women?