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Maria's Exho-Whore offseason cheering thread.

34K views 526 replies 59 participants last post by  Chrissie-fan 
#1 ·
So first ones today. Anyone know if it'll be streamed?
 
#454 ·
Another exho with Woz :haha:

Maria is the ultimate exho-whore :cheer: ExhoVulture :oh:

They played 4 exhos so far if I remember correctly:

2008 Hong Kong- Maria won 6-2 6-2
2010 Hong Kong- Maria won 7-5 6-3
2012 prior to IW(I forgot where :hysteric:)- Maria won 6-3 6-4
2012 Brazil- Maria won 6-2 7-6

Am I missing any?
 
#456 ·
2012 was at Madison Square Garden (NYC) :lol:

EDIT: oh i see I was beaten to it, and I think there's a few other changes like her net aggressiveness but that could be a mental thing (eg its an exho so she's more confident/comfortable there) whereas these are technical changes so I feel more confident we'll see them in 2013.
 
#457 ·
Maria is so scared of the net in real matches! She always backs off and ends up losing so many points because of her refusal to attack the net! :tape: She is very well able of doing so, but lacks the confidence :(
 
#464 ·
I'm sure they like each other or at least get along. Otherwise they wouldn't play so often against each other in these things. And Maria is very popular while Caroline probably also ranks in the top five of most popular (though not at TF obviously) or well known players, so it's a good match-up from a business perspective.
 
#469 ·
Can't believe there's only 20 days left of the off-season :lol:.

Brisbane is gonna be such a treat with all the top players. Like an opening season Stuttgart. Excited for Maria's last exho so I can pay more attention to some of the changes you guys have been noticing. I agree that Hogstedt has been an amazing addition, always seeming to look for ways for Maria to improve and coming up with strategies against players who give her trouble. Maria really seems to respect him and they have one of the best coach-player relationships I've seen in a while
 
#470 ·
Hopefully Brisbane will be a successful start of the season and by "successful" I don't mean losing 3 and 1 to Azarenka for the upteenth time :hysteric:
 
#476 ·
Yes, I always watch matches that she wins/loses and that Madrid match is one of the ones where she should have won more than 4 games in a set let alone the whole match :rolleyes:

She proved she can break/hold serve with ease, but didn't let herself do it as soon as she got ahead in each game.
 
#477 ·
Maria is really bad at keeping momentum and seizing the few chances she has against Serena! :help: I mean, if Serena's playing GOAT, there's nothing anyone can do, so just hang in there and take the L. But if she isn't playing well, they all have chances, if they execute a gameplan well!
 
#478 · (Edited)
Oh, man, I don't know if I'm ready for the new season already. I've been following Maria since 2004, but for some reason, I felt more nerves and anxiety with Maria's matches in 2012 than any other year. By the time the 4th round or quarters rolled around, my stomach was tied in knots. Those Vika finals losses were especially tough, like getting kicked in the groin.

Maria has shown steady improvement in her game from 2009-2012 each year. She got back to the top of the mountain this year with the French and the number one ranking. I hope that wasn't her post-shoulder surgery ceiling and we see a continued growth and evolution to her game in 2013. It's one thing to see some new wrinkles in easy-going exhos. But I want to see these changes in action when it counts.
 
#479 ·
Well normally Maria carries her form rather well over from exhos to tour matches so I'm not particularly concerned. The good thing is like what Mark and Griffin pointed out, the steady improvements she has made ever since her comeback, that certainly fuels optimism for the future seasons.
 
#480 ·
^Yeah. I liked what I saw from the Brazil exho, but part of me was wondering how well she'd be able to play that way against Vika or Serena in a real match and whether she would be able to come in as much against Vika's returns for example. While Woz is a nice person and tries to make them fun, I wish Maria would have an exho with someone who takes them more seriously so that she (and MUCH more importantly, we) can gauge her game as if it was a real match. Not Vika because I think both of them would try to kill each other or Masha would take it way seriously and risk injury in a meaningless exho, like in Prague, but maybe Kerber, Li or Kvitty - dangerous players that can cause Masha trouble.

And, yeah, the exho gives me hope that there are changes she and Hogstedt are making that I hope will lead to better results.
 
#483 ·
^Yeah. I liked what I saw from the Brazil exho, but part of me was wondering how well she'd be able to play that way against Vika or Serena in a real match and whether she would be able to come in as much against Vika's returns for example. While Woz is a nice person and tries to make them fun, I wish Maria would have an exho with someone who takes them more seriously[ so that she (and MUCH more importantly, we) can gauge her game as if it was a real match. Not Vika because I think both of them would try to kill each other or Masha would take it way seriously and risk injury in a meaningless exho, like in Prague, but maybe Kerber, Li or Kvitty - dangerous players that can cause Masha trouble.

And, yeah, the exho gives me hope that there are changes she and Hogstedt are making that I hope will lead to better results.
Well, since Woz has experienced for the last half a week or so how much everyone appreciates that she's a nice person chances are that she'll just concentrate on the tennis in the next one. Everything that she would do other than just playing tennis would be put under the microscope, so I hope that she won't give the lynch mob any new material to work with. Besides, it's not only Maria who needs a real test to see where her game is at. Caroline needs it even more considering how poorly she played last week. While Maria very obviously was perfectly willing to give Caroline some points here and there in a "fuck if I care" exho, if Caroline wants a real match I'm sure that Maria will give her one.
 
#500 ·
I think it's obvious Maria did what she had to do to get out of the Korean exhibition. There's no reason to be playing a meaningless match in a different country a couple of days before the real tennis season starts. If it was truly a significant injury, she would've pulled out of Brisbane as well to get ready for Melbourne.
 
#502 ·
I think it's obvious Maria did what she had to do to get out of the Korean exhibition. There's no reason to be playing a meaningless match in a different country a couple of days before the real tennis season starts.
I agree. I wonder why she accepted to play there to begin with (same for Woz btw). But the fact that she did commit to play there probably means that there is some injury, albeit a minor one. Nothing to worry about I guess, except that it might disrupt her training schedule a bit.
 
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