[gaviotabr]

Originally Posted by VirginMary

^^Well then, maybe he does have some experience... coaching 5 year olds or something.

Awesome.. that's exactly the experience he needs.. Ana often looks like she is 5 years old.

[Marilyn Monheaux]

Perfect match.

[soul]

nothing has changed; will change??????????????????????????

[Adrian1092]

Thanks for all the pics

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know who that other goofy looking guy is thats often in Ana's box during matches? He's half in the pic with Ana's hitting partner too

[gaviotabr]

Originally Posted by Adrian1092

Thanks for all the pics

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know who that other goofy looking guy is thats often in Ana's box during matches? He's half in the pic with Ana's hitting partner too

I have no idea but I always wonder about it as well. I think he is somehow related to Marija.. but that's only a very wild guess.

[Cp6uja]

When Ana say that instead Coach will hire full-time hitting partner I expect she will introduce him soon as part of her team, but its not happen. In women tennis history there is many examples of very good and successful partnerships between player and hitting partner as winning formula and good replacement for classic coach/player relationship.

I checked now on Ana site TEAM ANA page, but there no information about hers hitting partner, and from her todays "Viva Las Vegas" diary message she mentioned him, but not says his name.

...I worked with Darren Cahill and of course my hitting partner and trainer were with me...

BTW this guy from pics little remind me on Adidas Team hitting-partner (Sven's assistant) which works with Ana several times before in past (his surname "Merkel" is same as Germany PM - only reason why I not forget his name ), but I'm not sure b/c on this two pics I don't see any Adidas logo on his outfit and this guy think has more hair than that from ADTP.

[gaviotabr]

Originally Posted by Cp6uja

When Ana say that instead Coach will hire full-time hitting partner I expect she will introduce him soon as part of her team, but its not happen. In women tennis history there is many examples of very good and successful partnerships between player and hitting partner as winning formula and good replacement for classic coach/player relationship.

I checked now on Ana site TEAM ANA page, but there no information about hers hitting partner, and from her todays "Viva Las Vegas" diary message she mentioned him, but not says his name.

The thing with Ana is that she only seems to respect and listen to the real top name coaches. And she needs someone who she can trust blindly, respect, listen to and above all, someone who will get her head together.. work on her mentality. A hitting partner promoted to coach won't be able to do that.. mostly because she won't listen in the first place.

I guess they won't see the need of saying his name until they are feeling safe Ana won't fire him.

Originally Posted by Cp6uja

BTW this guy from pics little remind me on Adidas Team hitting-partner (Sven's assistant) which works with Ana several times before in past (his surname "Merkel" is same as Germany PM - only reason why I not forget his name ), but I'm not sure b/c on this two pics I don't see any Adidas logo on his outfit and this guy think has more hair than that from ADTP.

This guy is most definitely NOT Mats Merkel. It really doesn't look like him at all.. the only resemblance is that they are both blonde.

And the guy is sporting a Nike shirt with Nike shoes in the practice pics.

[The 2nd Law]

She was practising with Aga?
I like Aga don't get me wrong, but no wonder Ana's forehand was looking good

[gaviotabr]

Originally Posted by Hurricane Ana

She was practising with Aga?
I like Aga don't get me wrong, but no wonder Ana's forehand was looking good

Yeah.. there is a video in the videos thread of Ana making Aga look like Karlovic.

[Cp6uja]

Originally Posted by gaviotabr

The thing with Ana is that she only seems to respect and listen to the real top name coaches. And she needs someone who she can trust blindly, respect, listen to and above all, someone who will get her head together.. work on her mentality. A hitting partner promoted to coach won't be able to do that.. mostly because she won't listen in the first place.

I guess they won't see the need of saying his name until they are feeling safe Ana won't fire him.



This guy is most definitely NOT Mats Merkel. It really doesn't look like him at all.. the only resemblance is that they are both blonde.

And the guy is sporting a Nike shirt with Nike shoes in the practice pics.

Which pics

BTW I'm still not sure that Ana so desperately needs good coach more than any other TOP WTA player. Her winning formula game strategy should be so simple and almost always same. When she is out of her mind and not in love with tennis, even Heinz is not able to prevent last seasons RG-Wimbledon disaster. On other hand she technically won Linz and Bali without coach (of course influence of work with Heinz is obvious there).

[gaviotabr]

Originally Posted by Cp6uja

Which pics

The ones in the previous page, plus this one: http://www.flickr.com/photos/10sballs_com/5506818157/

Originally Posted by Cp6uja

BTW I'm still not sure that Ana so desperately needs good coach more than any other TOP WTA player. Her winning formula game strategy should be so simple and almost always same. When she is out of her mind and not in love with tennis, even Heinz is not able to prevent last seasons RG-Wimbledon disaster. On other hand she technically won Linz and Bali without coach (of course influence of work with Heinz is obvious there).

She actually needs a shrink more than a coach. It's all on the head for her.. but that's why to have a coach as a mentor would be important.. Also someone to make things and plans simple for her in her game, which hasn't been the case when she is all by herself or with the wrong coach. Ana alone won't work on her mentality and get it to be stable.. she will always be prone to go into a wrong attitude patch at the very first moment of adversity, as she so promptly showed us all this season.

[gaviotabr]

Originally Posted by Cp6uja

When she is out of her mind and not in love with tennis, even Heinz is not able to prevent last seasons RG-Wimbledon disaster.

I do think you nailed it in this sentence. When Ana is "out of her mind" and not totally in love with tennis, dedicated, focused.. there is nothing that makes her play well. That's why she has sucked so much this year. At the first adversity she let her mentality go down the drain and her attitude towards tennis got back to sucking. She just can't play tennis like that. She needed extensive specific work on her mental game to overcome that and become more stable.. the only way to be really out of the slump..

At the beginning of Ana's career this weak mentality showed itself in her inconsistencies and her tendency to flop epically after every great result. It was still the exception as it mostly got pushed aside by huge desire and determination. After acomplishing her dreams, that desire died down a bit.. she still wanted to do well and win big things, but just expected it to fall from the sky. It obviously didn't.. and the weak mentality took over, it was the most present one. It became the rule, no the exception. So it comes back at the first adversity.. Without some real hard work on her mentality it will keep being predominant and showing up much more often than any good attitude.

All this is very disappointing, as she is wasting tons of talent and becoming a real journeywoman the past 3 years.. Sad to think Ana will be remembered as somewhat the Gaston Gaudio of the WTA.

[hellas719]

Doubles:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10sballs_com/5514880927/

[hellas719]

[saul1333]

IW practice with Andrea











cool shirt