One more Grans Slam, one more chance for Simona.
In my opinion, her last matches don't matter too much and I'm confident that it will a great tournament for Simo.
If the weather doesn't have something against, I will go to Melbourne to watch tennis and to witness history.
My biggest worry with Simo is that by the time she's mentally ready to win a slam the competition will be even tougher, there is a good crop of youngsters coming through... Osaka, Kasatkina, Bencic and others, the next couple of years are crucial for Simo if she wants to win a slam.
This slam for example, below par Kerber, Serena vulnerable after gruelling matches, missing so many top players, even dangerous floaters further down the rankings are missing.
This has to be one of the most open slams for years, but is Simo ready? In her own words leading up the the tournament, no she isn't, and that's a sad state to be mentally after nearly 2 years with a world class coach and being a top 5 player for years.
Her last couple of slam losses were winnable matches imo with just a little more belief, Kerber at Wimbledon and Serena at the US Open.
My expectations for her are getting lower and lower, this is fine for me because when my expectations are at the lowest she often exceeeds them by far... hopefully she can continue that trend, doing well when you least expect it.
No talk of Halep in GM. She gets under the radar for once.
Mathematically, she could come out of Melbourne as the Brand New #1.
If Serena and Kerber bail out in R1 and Halep wins the whole thing, she is #1.
What are the chances it can happened? Very little. But mathematically, it's a possibility.
No one saw Kerber coming. She even faced Match Point in R1. Had Doi converted, that would have been it.
I like the fact that no Halep fan mentioned it. Too many haters would jump on it.
Let's keep it that way and hope she surprises everyone.
Go Halep Go !!!
Don't check out Shelby's scalps from last year's RG if you don't want to bite your nails about R1 already.
Frankly a decent draw. But good / bad draw ... that didn't mean much for Simo in the past, so it's hardly predictable how far she's gonna go. As usual. But let's pray for the best.
Tricky first match but you'd expect Halep to win, not that that means much these days... couldn't care less about the draw, Halep is he calibre of player that if she's on she can beat most players on tour. Plus, there are no easy draws if you want to win a Grand Slam, they can open up a bit later on but the initial draw is meaningless, especially in women's tennis.
If any Brits want the Eurosport Player to watch the Slams, it's just £19.99 for a year at the moment (usually it's £60). The offer finishes on 31st January. No promotion code needed to get the offer.
Personally I'm sure that Shelby Rogers WATCHED and LEARNED from Simona's latest defeats. ==> She's going to play very aggressively. There remained 2 unanswered questions:
- At what error rate can Rogers play this aggressively?
- What Simona is going to do if Rogers play with few enough errors?...
I don't want to talk
About the things we've gone through
Though it's hurting me
Now it's history
I've played all my cards
And that's what you've done too
Nothing more to say
No more ace to play
The winner takes it all
The loser standing small
Beside the victory
That's her destiny
I was in your arms
Thinking I belonged there
I figured it made sense
Building me a fence
Building me a home
Thinking I'd be strong there
But I was a fool
Playing by the rules
The gods may throw a dice
Their minds as cold as ice
And someone way down here
Loses someone dear
The winner takes it all
The loser has to fall
It's simple and it's plain
Why should I complain
But tell me does she kiss
Like I used to kiss you?
Does it feel the same
When she calls your name?
Somewhere deep inside
You must know I miss you
But what can I say
Rules must be obeyed
The judges will decide
The likes of me abide
Spectators of the show
Always staying low
The game is on again
A lover or a friend
A big thing or a small
The winner takes it all
I don't want to talk
If it makes you feel sad
And I understand
You've come to shake my hand
I apologize
If it makes you feel bad
Seeing me so tense
No self-confidence
But you see
The winner takes it all
The winner takes it all
So the winner takes it all
And the the loser has to fall
Throw a dice, cold as ice
Way down here, someone dear
Takes it all, has to fall
It seems plain to me
I don't know if Simona and Darren will stay together all year, but it's not working. Time for a change. She has regressed badly. I don't even know what she does well anymore.
What a total embarrassment.
I'm done with Simona. It's impossible to root for someone with no heart or guts. She should retire and start a family, and let Darren coach someone who cares.
Have fun, everyone who sticks around.
Even in 2014, she was inconsistent. She had the pattern of one good tournament and one bad tournament. Though she was consistent in GS events save for the USO.
It's just as well she has so few points to defend. Maybe I'm just being hopeful when I think she may have injured herself in training prior to this match. If she was fully fit, it's disturbing to watch her looking so lethargic and lacking any venom on her return of serve. Let's see if she can find some better form later in the year like she did in 2016.
I'm extremely embarrassed.
Do you know what is worse? I'm not sure she feels the way I do.
She's probably relieved.
It's like Simona is being sent to prison instead of being a successful professional athlete playing tennis in one of the best courts of the world.
So many people would love to be on her position but she wants to run way from it. This can't be normal.
Not sure she should continue playing but $$$$ is still running to her bank account, so she will stay at least till she finds a boyfriend and quits the game as Ivanovic.
Shelby is a very nice girl, good for her to have this win in her CV but she didn't have to play much to get it.
Dropping Wim after a hugely successful year, consistent and mentally strong in big events, including a straight sets win over Serena could turn out to be the biggest mistake of her career, it could define it...
Disagreed. Wim gave her bad advice. An infecting one. (I'm not quoting it, you certainly remember.) He had to go.
But this, unfortunately, doesn't mean that her next coach (Darren) is more "useful". If you ask me, I've never heard any bad advice from Darren. He was always telling her the right things. But this is only part of the story. Now it seems that Darren doesn't tell her everything important. He doesn't tell her the bad news, when she's doing certain things WRONG. And if so, this is a HUGE problem.
REALLY?!? WHY?!? (Was she attacking Rogers when she had her chances?!? No! Then what on Earth was she crying about?!? She put almost ZERO offensive efforts into this match.)
It's concerning that the same left leg problem from Singapore last year has flared up again. Unless she can get it fully fit you can imagine every opponent serving wide and Simona going on full stretch and exacerbating the injury. It might be for the best to miss some tournaments, but would Simona want to miss Doha?
I thought Simo wasn't scheduled to play Doha anyway? Why even consider playing it now? And I'm wondering how much time did Simo actually rest to let her knee heal? This is the second straight year now where she's come in carrying an injury sustained the previous fall. She didn't give her achilles time to heal last year, and it's still bothering her on and off. I recall she was training just a week after the WTA Finals in 2015, when it was recommended a full 3-4 week rest.
Did she do the same thing with the knee? And if it is the case, she neeeds to take the required time off to get it fully healthy. And that means not bending to the demands of Fed Cup and then fooling herself into thinking she's ok to keep playing tournaments. She's only hurting herself when she does not take the necessary rest to get healthy.
If a player does the proper treatment for an injury, it should not be popping up again during the first few matches two months later. And this is the second straight year this kind of thing has occurred for Simona.
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