So many misunderstandings in such a short thread
...
ATTENTION!!! A LONG ASSAY MIGHT FOLLOW!!!
1.) There are MANY PLAYERS who are better at one thing or more than Simona. This DOES NOT MEAN that Simona can learn from them. For instance,
CSN,
Vinci, and
Flipkens all do have
beautiful one-handed BH slice shots (fully missing from Simona's arsenal) which are quite effective in certain cases. But Simona is NOT AIMING to learn this kind of shots, partly because she's too old for that, and partly because she's playing in another style. Also, she can compensate the missing 1H-BH slice in other ways. ==> She's NOT GOING TO LEARN this shot from its masters.
2.) Or there are excellent lefty players, like
Kerber, for instance. Kerber has a really amazing
lefty FH-CC shot against the more vulnerable BH of the majority of the players. There is a video evidence showing that while Simona plays with her right hand, she kicks the ball with her left leg. (==> She's a hidden lefty.) But this DOES NOT MEAN for a second that at her age she could or should learn to play the lefty tennis! Also, as an answer she has a rather good (one of the bests) two-handed BH-DTL and BH-CC shots. (This might also be related to her "hidden lefty" nature.) ==> She's NOT GOING TO LEARN this shot from its masters.
3.) And there are the big girls with serious power (compared to Simona), like
Muguruza,
Keys,
Ka Pliskova,
Venus,
Azarenka, (
Sharpova+meldonium), etc., having rather big advantage at serving, over-head smashing, and opening angles. But Simona is NOT GONNA BE ANY TALLER. ==> She's NOT GOING TO LEARN this style from its masters. (She has to compensate it with smarter point construction, etc.)
4.) Simona's problems are lying mostly in the tactical/mental departments. Also, Simona's main strength is her still present learning ability. We can say that while at skill and physique levels her tennis is already MATURED, at the tactical/mental departments is still very young. There is much more to come!
5.) So what is Simona learning, and from which other girl (or man) can she learn it?
First of all, Simona is learning from her couch
Darren Cahill. On the other hand, Darren sees very well that Simona can really learn from his advice. (Excellent collaboration. :yeah
Most of this teaching/learning is in the mental/tactical department (surprise, surprise).
And here comes
Serena Williams, the well deserved dominant World No.1, a living legend still on the tennis courts, and with a still hugely UNDERRATED BRAIN!
Simona already could learn certain very important things from her (others are ongoing) lying mostly in the mental/tactical departments (surprise, surprise). For instance, how to handle injuries (already quoted but misunderstood in this thread), how to balance between the tournaments of different scales, how to handle critical situations like tiebreaks (still a lot to learn), how to gear up the aggression level (still a lot to learn), how to self-control the temper, how to save the power/energy (some progress), and so on.
Now I'm NOT going through the supposed names. But it is really funny to think of Wozniacki, Kvitova, Kuznetsova, and even Sharapova regarding my last two points :lol:. (
Venus could have been a valid role model, but unfortunately she's in another age group.)