Jan 28, 2021
this is big news!!!
seen from China
seen from United Kingdom
seen from France
seen from China
seen from China
seen from T1
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from China
seen from China
seen from China
seen from China
seen from China
seen from China
seen from France
seen from China
seen from T1
seen from China
seen from Argentina
seen from China
this is big news!!!
Naomi Osaka donates earnings from Western and Southern Open to Haiti Earthquake Relief
#haiti Naomi Osaka donates earnings from Western and Southern Open to Haiti Earthquake Relief
Naomi Osaka donates earnings from Western and Southern Open to Haiti Earthquake relief. She is doing this as her own contribution to help comfort the survivors of the earthquakes that struck the nation. The four-time Grand Slam champions announced her pledge in response to the 7.2-magnitude quake that struck the country on the Saturday. So far the total number of death has risen to 724 on…
View On WordPress
Naomi Osaka said fuck the french and I respect her for that.
A New Season
In men's tennis, order has been restored. Mostly. No one outside the Big Three won a Slam this year. Those who contended were familiar names like Cilic and Del Potro. The players missing from action in 2017 returned at various points, to mixed results.
If we really wanted to wind back the clock three years, the Big Three would be a Big Five that included Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka. The next two months are critical for them.
Wawrinka is further along in his recovery than Murray. He hinted at the old "Stanimal" in Toronto this summer, and he took advantage of Grigor Dmitrov's waning confidence at the US Open to secure a long-due Top 10 win. Progress for Wawrinka would be a semifinal finish at either Shanghai or Paris (both Masters events), which would likely mean knocking off a couple Top 20 opponents and a trendy youngster.
Murray's situation is trickier. As expected, he's struggled since his return during the grass-court season. Moving vertically has been a strength so far: he can still chase down a dropshot like the old days. Moving side-to-side and turning his trademark defense into offense has been more elusive and will take more time to find. If early round losses continue to pile up, Murray will have to double-down on the practice court to test his body, even as mental toughness requires more match play.
Murray and Wawrinka will likely benefit from a depleted field come this time of year, as well. The tennis season is long and without much in the way of an offseason. After the last Slam of the year, many players reduce their schedule and look for pockets of recovery ahead of the new calendar year. The "Asian swing," with big tournaments in Beijing and Shanghai this fall, will still draw top players, but the road to a quarterfinal and beyond should pose less resistance than a tournament earlier in the year.
All great news for two players who no doubt want to enter the 2019 Australian Open as seeded players. Wawrinka's current ranking is No. 88 and Murray's is No. 307.
On the women's side, I have my eye on two players: Maria Sharapova and new Slam champ Naomi Osaka.
Sharapova's 2018 has been disappointing. Her performance at the US Open was particularly discouraging, coming at a time when increased match play should find her rounding into form. Credit to her competitivness that she managed to get to the second week with virtually no serve or timing on her groundstrokes.
Sharapova's game is in need of a new wrinkle. If Madison Keys is currently the top-tier version of Sharapova, the ceiling for her game is pretty clear: elite counterpunchers like Halep, Stephens, and Kerber can just wait for your forehand to break down. A player like Osaka poses an even bigger threat: someone with big offensive weapons who can also hit with shape.
Sharapova's reinvented herself before. She won her first French Open correctly surmizing she had to improve her movement and court positioning. She converted a career-long weakness into a strength and pulled off two Slams on clay. Where can she turn next for innovation?
It's tempting to imagine a Sharapova who ventures into the net more and simply hits with more margin, but that seems against her philosophy as a player, if her book is to believed.
Whether Thomas Hogstedt, her old, new coach, can help her find answers remains to be seen. Sporting a new coach by the end of the year would be no surprise.
If Naomi Osaka fails to win another match this year, she's still arguably the greatest success story of 2018. Serena Williams possesses a losing record against only three players, active or retired. Osaka is one of them.
Currently, Osaka is No. 7 in the points chase to the year-end finals. If she manages to win the WTA Finals, she'd be entering Seles territory, nailing down a Premiere-level tournament (Indian Wells), a Slam (US Open) and the WTA Finals, all in one year, all before she can legally have a drink.
And like Seles, winning three out of four Slams a year for awhile seems completely within reach. On paper, there's no one ontour who represents a bad matchup for her. Then again, parity on the WTA tour has reached nearly unprecedented levels the last few years. With the target on her back bigger than ever before, how will she handle the pressure?
Hopefully as well as she handled one of the craziest matches in Grand Slam history.