This is the best I've ever seen Simona play. Probably one of the highest levels of any player I've ever seen playing. The tournament is hers to lose. That was incredible.
First back to back win since the Asian swing.
Simona showing no physical problems, and a good evolution. Playing way above anything she did in a long time.
Anett started very strong. I think she missed only one shot on her BH the first set.
Simona was inspired at the right moments to break, and her service was never in danger.
Her 2 best sets of tennis this year by several country miles. Hope she can keep it going!
Kontaveit actually played pretty well for much of the match and deserved to win more than 3 games. However, Simona was ruthlessly efficient and didn't give her a look-in.
Those UE stats in the first set seemed way off, didn't they? (9 for Simona & 16 for Anett). All I was seeing 90% of the time was winners and forced errors. Didn't see the 2nd set stats.
I really miss to see Simona schooling journeywomans like this. Hope she keep this up. Next match against Sam won't be easy but if she maintain the consistency she can pass her. Congrat.
I really miss to see Simona schooling journeywoman like this. Hope she keep this up. Next match against Sam won't be easy but if she maintain the consistency she can pass her. Congrat.
Glad to see Simona finally getting back on track. I wish I'd seen her match but WTA is still failing to have its own live streaming service, and I hate it.
Let me try and clear up some misunderstandings . We all ( admins/mods ) agreed on how to
handle certain problems in GM. I'm only implementing what we all agreed upon. I was online this evening so i posted the reminder about the extended rules so people fully know what is accepted and what's not accepted. As you are well aware, we have been having problems with unnecessary bashing towards Simona as well as a few other players in GM. It's not like we are enforcing the rules out of spite or targeting certain fan groups. It's just that the new rules have been up since November and people don't seem to be getting the message.
If anyone ever has a question please PM me or any of the other mods/admins instead of asking the question in a thread as it throws the thread off topic.
Feel free to PM me tonight as i'll be on all evening doing computer work for my job. I don't think i'm a difficult person to interact with.... Just please bring up your concerns in a private manner and i'll do my best to answer your questions.
Simona still could not properly run in some of her important skills (may I dare to call them "weapons"? ), but I can agree on that in 2017 this was her best match :yeah:!
I only saw the 2nd set.
And they call Halep a pusher? Told you she is a fine ball striker. But some days she just doesn't strike and prefers waiting in the back.
When she is attacking, it takes a Meldonium induced player to yank a Grand Slam final from her.
Give her back the trophy and the money please. She earned it.
Congrat Halep .. Keep searching for your best game. It's not easy but always give it a shot!!!
I only saw the 2nd set.
And they call Halep a pusher? Told you she is a fine ball striker. But some days she just doesn't strike and prefers waiting in the back. When she is attacking, it takes a Meldonium induced player to yank a Grand Slam final from her.
Give her back the trophy and the money please. She earned it.
Congrat Halep .. Keep searching for your best game. It's not easy but always give it a shot!!!
Without Maria, Halep still probably would have lost to Muguruza or Bouchard, who both came closer to beating Sharapova than Halep did. But I do have high hopes for her at the slams this year if she keeps this form up.
Good display from Simo today :yeah:
Match by match she's getting closer to her real game level and now that's not that far... Still she has to improve a bit her fitness and (if she will stay healthy) will become competitive for the clay season. Still a few rallies proved today her footwork is not yet 100% but the general feeling was she surpassed most of the consequences given by her previous health issues. Hopefully the next match she will be better just because Sam plays in a different league than Kontaveit.
Anett is a promising youngster and she may become relevant if she will fix somehow her liabilities; I mean the FH (mainly on ROS) and the second serve (not that is not strong enough but it's quite predictable). She has enough time for these corrections as she's pretty young related to the current standards of the Tour. The girl has potential and today I enjoyed her sharp CCBH as well as her DTLBH strokes.
(btw, a friendly advice to those funny guys/girls that predicted her being ready to dump Halep today: don't jinx the Mynx anymore!)
I dont know why earlier posts got lost but I'll repeat what I said there pretty much. Halep was truly excellent today Second set she was hitting winners everywhere and I've never seen her play so aggressively yet consistently. I was quite astonished how well she was playing on attack, because when Nettu was given the opportunity to attack in the first set she was winning almost every point. The first and second sets featured some really nice hitting, Halep was also excellent on the big points especially in the second
Mynx' return of serve today :O She really needs to fix this if she wants to rise further in the rankings. It's amazing how her biggest strength has become a huge weakness in the space of just 2 years. She can't afford to miss 2 returns a game and be completely ineffective when she does make the return, especially against a player like Halep who doesn't miss much and who's serve is probably the most attackable part of her game. Having 0 BPs the whole match is really not good enough, and it was inevitable that her Serve would ground play would eventually suffer when she was putting herself under so much pressure on return Still a good Sunshine Double for Mynx, hopefully she can get into Top 80 before RG given she has no points to defend Finishing the year inside Top 60 would be a really nice achievement
So happy to see my girl finally play well. This is easily her best match since the US Open. I hope she continues to get better from now on and hopefully stay injury free. The match against Sam will be fun.
I laugh at those who call Simona a pusher. She is definitely not a pusher. She is an aggressive player. Of course at her height, she is not going to be able to hit a lot of winners but she is definitely more aggressive than many girls that are way taller than her.
There are definitely moments where Simona just pushes. Obviously she is capable of very aggressive tennis, as she showed today, but up until this point that has not been the norm. Hopefully it becomes more common for her, not only does it work better for her but it makes her game more appealing.
This is the best I've ever seen Simona play. Probably one of the highest levels of any player I've ever seen playing. The tournament is hers to lose. That was incredible.