by Karen
A few days ago one of my tennis buddies said to me that she felt
like something was going to happen at Wimbledon. She said either Serena will lose early or Fed
will go out early. Neither player lost
in the first round but in the case of Serena she struggled mightily with nerves
in her first set against the unheralded Gasparayan. In the second set she did not have to play
pretty tennis but she did what needed to be done in order to move on.
The same cannot be said for the hot and cold Simona Halep (seeded
No. 3) who went out in spectacular fashion to Jana Cepelova who notched just
her second win of the season. This was
by any account a really weak effort by Halep.
Not only did she have semifinal points to defend at this tournament, but
she had a really good opportunity to work her way through her side of the draw
with a potential semifinal against Petra Kvitova. That is not to be and I am hopeful that Halep
will take these early losses at the Major events as a sign that her game and
mental attitude needs a lot of work.
After her loss to Lucic-Baroni in Paris, she indicated that she
was trying to do too much off the ground.
She subsequently fired her coach and commenced working with Darren
Cahill. While she did not have a lot of
match time on the grass (losing to Mladenovic in Birmingham), she seems to have
not learned from her French Open failure as on the two occasions that she has
lost, she has lost matches playing hit hard tennis and when that does not work,
hit it even harder. Someone needs to
tell her that that is not her game and she should go back to working the point until
she finds an opening and then finish with her kill shot.
Halep losing was not the only top seed going out on the women’s
side. As Genie Bouchard said in her post
match press conference, “I believe that the world has now come to an end”. I don’t think I would be that dramatic, but I
do believe that the alarm bells that have been ringing all year are now pealing
and as a result Bouchard will need to take a step back and evaluate her game as
well as the team around her. I don’t
know if the problem lies with her coach, but one thing that has struck me about
Bouchard this year is the weight loss that for me has taken away her weight of
shot. Before the start of this year’s
tournament, I watched last year’s final and Bouchard had stronger legs and a
bigger physique. She had well developed
muscular arms and legs and this is one of the reasons why she was able to win
as many matches as she did last year.
This year she is significantly thinner and I don’t know if the two go
hand in hand but it is hard to ignore that particular glaring fact.
As I opined earlier, this so-called sophomore slump of Bouchard is
not a slump but an indicator of the kind of player that she really is. I don’t know whether adding back the muscle
that she has undoubtedly lost will help her cause but it could not hurt her to
try something new. With Halep and
Bouchard losing early, the draw has opened up significantly for a fair number
of players to take advantage.
At the close of play today, Madison Keys, one of the players who
could benefit from the loss of Halep and Bouchard was locked in a 3 set battle
with Stefanie Voegele.
News came today that the doubles team of Venus and Serena have
withdrawn from the Championships. No word as to the reason behind the
withdrawal but hopefully it is because both women have realized that they will
need to be in peak optimum condition in order to win this title.
Tomorrow’s Day 3 OOP sees 32 matches from the top half of the
women’s draw which features both Williams Sisters and Sharapova. Also in action will be Ana Ivanovic and
Sloane Stephens. The Spin’s Picks are
highlighted below.
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Court Assignment
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Players
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Centre
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Williams (S) v. Babos
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No. 1
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Hantuchova v. Watson
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No. 2
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Sharapova v. Hogencamp
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Williams (V) v. Putintseva
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No. 3
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Mattek-Sands v. Ivanovic
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No. 12
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Radwanska (U) v. Stosur
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Errani v. Krunic
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No. 18
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Bencic v. Friedsam
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Flipkens v. Azarenka
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Court 8
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Ziyas v. Sasnovich
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Stephens v. Davis
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No. 16
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Tsurenko v Begu
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No. 17
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Pliskova
v Vandeweghe
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Ostapenko v Mladenovic
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TBA
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Hsieh v Safarova
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From the Commentary Booth
Most of what I have been listening to has been very good commentary so far. Perhaps this is because I have had the distinct pleasure of getting streams that have European commentators who know not to talk during points, or who only speak when they have something of value to add to the tennis. Unfortunately, this ended today while I was watching the Keys/Voegele match.
I believe the commentary team was made up of Doug Adler and Jeff Tarango. For the first time in a long while I wanted to verbally abuse someone on social media. Luckily for me, I did not. Below are a series of tweets which told the story about the men in the booth:
No clue who is playing
Who the hell is commentating Keys-Voegele? I just heard someone mention 'Simon Halep'.
— Hannah Wilks (@newballsplease) June 30, 2015
Being the ultimate Monday Morning Quarterback
Doug Adler is happily reproving both players on Chatrier. Neither player meeting Doug's standards.
— Andrew Burton (@burtonad) May 29, 2015
Killing me softly
Wow someone needs to shut up Doug Adler he is getting on my last freaking nerves
— The Spin (@bridgepea) June 30, 2015
Trashing Lindsay Davenport
@ESPNTennis wonderin if u r ok w/ Doug Adler trashin @LDavenport76 coaching skills on ur air? Her creds surpass him in all aspects of life.
— Matty (@Matty_Layne) June 30, 2015
Needs to be fired
@theoverrule Adler, Doug. Horrific commentator.
— Matt (@puntdotcom) June 30, 2015
We all wondered who Vergeller or Vergulla was
Who is the commentator absolutely destroying Voegele's name? I think it might be @puntdotcom's fave American commentator from last year.
— The Overrule (@theoverrule) June 30, 2015
Wow, according to these 2, Keys is the only player on court. "Vergulla" has never made R2, "the other girl" cant return pace. Disrespectful.
— Victoria Chiesa (@vrcsports) June 30, 2015
We were in Pain
Listening to Jeff Tarango commentating Keys' match like pic.twitter.com/7iSUYkBomt
— René Denfeld (@Renestance) June 30, 2015
People want him to seek employment elsewhere
Now, if only someone could hire the McEnroe brothers and Doug Adler, my TV tennis watching experience would improve by 98%.
— Juan José Vallejo (@jjvallejoa) December 10, 2014
Don't forget the screamingly obvious commentary
"If she doesn't like the call, she can challenge!" Do these two think Keys has never played w/ Hawkeye before? They talk like she's 12.
— Victoria Chiesa (@vrcsports) June 30, 2015
See or heard something in the commentary booth that you want to share, hit me up on Twitter or in the comments.
