My final post for the night, but I'm kind of thinking what Vika needs is the other girls to step it up. She knows that Reehanna is better, but she was able to coast through 2013 as the clear number two, without ever playing that well. She still finds a way to step it up against Reehanna, but seems to lack the motivation elsewhere. So maybe if everyone else gets a bit better (for example if Lady Aga can win here, and some of the next generation break the top ten) then Vika will be forced to respond, and will do so.
First bagel in 3,5 years, to Radwanska. Ouch. (Don't think Vika cares though, a loss is a loss regardless).
I didn't see the match, but whatever the reason is, i can name 5-10 matches in 2012 when her level of play was higher than any match in 2013-2014. I said before i don't think she will reach top level at the start of this year, i just hope her team sort out whatever the problem is and we get to see her back in top shape later this year.
It is up to her really, as long as she avoids injuries.
Will try to lower my expectations for the upcoming tournaments. I dont expect we will see any magic turnaround in Doha. (She might still get a good result though).
I just do not want her to fall into that void of 8-16 range. She's too good for that. She just is. She knows she is. But she hasn't proved it of late. She must remain in the mix.
But I definitely think she thrives on Serena and Maria (especially) doing well. She needs that.
The problem for her and Kvitova is that even out of shape, they are easily top 8 players. Vika is still #2 as of right now. They can lie to themselves. What´s the big difference between #1 and #2, or #4 and #6. The difference is wasted opportunities at Slams you don´t get back. I honestly still can´t believe those serve averages from Radwanska and the according return stats by Vika. I´d almost bet that Aga has served better in some of the drubbings she received previously.
Yep the ROS was the huge problem today. She wasn't good on second serve returns against stephens either but at least neutralised her first efficiently. Today she made radwanska's first serves look like missiles.
Over the last year I've found myself wondering if she should get her eyes checked, her reaction time is so slow. Its not really a fitness thing as you can be unfit and still have explosive, sharp reactions.
Either that or mentally she's not concentrating point by point and thinking about previous mistakes. Other times she would have put the first game of the third set behind her and got stuck into the next return game.
So I went to sleep at 2-0* third set and now I see that she got bagelled. Are you kidding me. Did she just gave up or what?
It still feels to me like it's all just a bad dream. I mean, I have witnessed the heartbreaking matches against Serena and I've seen her play like utter crap multiple times before but this loss is just something else. Of course everyone can have a shitty day in the office but it's not like the signs of something like that happening sooner or later weren't there. Not sure what to expect from her in the future.
She regained some fight at 0-4 and Lady Aga played absolutely GOAT that game, hitting some ridiculous shots. The last game was like four unforced errors or something . She always talks about being read for every opponent, but I think she definitely underestimated Lady Aga (though in her defense, who didn't?). I still can't get over that first game of the third set . The problem is that she basically gave up after that too . I hope this loss hurts more than the other ones; it should.
I am still not able to come to terms with this. I say through painfully until 2nd set and thought she picked herself up and by the time back it's 5-0.
She was simply outplayed, outsmarted. She underestimated aga, whom she hasn't played for a long time while her form deteriorated. Yes aga played the match of her life but vika just didn't hold he own. She was under pressure from first game onwards. I have noticed she started badly in almost all her first service game but got it back vs low ranked players. She needs to get go and aggressive from first game, she was impatient in first set and lost long rallies almost all the time. She had to play good friend strikes to go for her shots when opportunities arise. You could see from her cringed face in first set almost saying she couldn't do anything to break the lock. She was nervous and unsettled. I thought she was more focused in last match with a lot of pressure. She never really settled in this one.
Is she slightly slower, maybe. But her game is more offensive but she was not allowed to. She will always struggle with fitness players with good defense. Cos her defense just not good anymore, relies too much by other players UEs. And you don't get that from aga.
Sigh, she really did have the chance here but I guess all the pressure got to her, where she was not playing fearlessly. She was playing a bit conservative.
And her service game, I looked closely, just not raising her arm straight up enough and she has to push herself forward to catch and usually dumped into the net.
I am pretty shocked with the result of the last set. I had to catch some sleep after set no. 2 and I expected a closer one. After how she played I can't say I'm surprised about the loss but a bagel?
Aga played well but Vika made so many easy mistakes...she also seemed a bit out of it which is a shame in a GS quarterfinal. I really hope she finds her groove and her game and has a good spring.
Benito ( @b1pr ) posted a picture of Sam at the match. Maybe sitting slightly apart from the others.
Sorry the match didn't go well for you. Felt like her game in the second set, while not fully functioning, was good enough to get her over the line. She actually played decent tennis in that first game of the third set but made a mess of the finishing.
After she came back from the leg injury last year and was ready by Wimbledon, the damn fall happened and screwed up everything. She has not been back to her form yet after that fall...scraping through with her mental strength...She felt exhausted at the end of the season coz her body was not cooperating with her will/mental strength!! Thats why she has a fitness team in place now. So lets give her couple of months and see how she performs in Indian Wells/Miami. This loss to her pigeon at her beloved Aussie Open might be a blessing in disguise....who knows. Stranger things have happened in Tennis....so we all'll have to wait and see!!
I'll not step in GM for another 2 weeks atleast...it'll be a circus dere with Na-Mug leading the team of clowns
The intensity is certainly not there anymore nor is the inner fire to win.
Her concentration lapse & lack of mental preparation for a match is staggering.
Her team don't seem to believe in her and they don't care if she's very serious about winning.
After that first game though! That easy shot at 40-30. I guess pressure that Radwankska would get there (looked like she might) threw her off. Still, i feel like crying, especially after viewing that result thread
I wouldn't blame Vika's team members for this result straight away. We are outsiders, and the things looked quite promising before the quarterfinal. Both Vika and Sam Sumyk probably deciced to recruit those new members for the team during off-season.
Somehow this AO quarterfinal vs Aga Radwanska remains me the Carlbad final 2013 vs Sam Stosur. Vika had and has a huge head-to-head statistics vs. both Aga (12-4) and Sam (8-1). For some reason Vika couldn't really find her game rhythm, and Aga must have been very motivated in this match, and all her tricks seem to work for her. Perhaps Vika needs mostly to improve her movement, and now there is two and a half weeks time to recover for the Qatar Open in Dohan (will start on February 10, 2013). If Vika find her game, she doesn't have many ranking point to defend between Doha (W) and Rome (F). So the ranking shoudn't bring her much extra pressure.
As a whole the WTA tennis seems to become more unpredicable, and this tournament looks as open as Wimbledon 2013. Perhaps Genie Bouchard will "save tennis" like a young Martina Hingis did as a teenager.
I thought so. Wimby last year. Hugely unpredictable. I wonder if this is one off or actually a change at the top. It is not about accidents but the courts are faster and weather hot. Still. I feel so so sad, I kept thinking about the first game third set. How to get over it...
I mean, most of what I wanted to say about this match has been covered by you all. But seriously, when was the last time Vika got an actual quality win over a quality opponent in Slams? And I don't mean bullshitting your way through the draw playing inconsistent tennis a la US Open 2012. I seriously think we have to go back to AO 2012 for this, the way she played Clijsters and Sharapova was incredible to witness and the improvements on her serve were a joy to watch. All of that went to shit for some reason.
Ohh holy Queen of Fuckery, what has yee done?? This is a beyond disappointing loss, she should never ever be losing to Agatha no matter how many rare shots the latter pulls off/flukes.
Somehow I taking we feel much worse than vika. She knew her opponent was great but also knew how bad she played. We, just mourned for the fact that she lost good opportunity. And that we have been worrying for a while now really of what version of vika would show up on court. How can she turn so inconsistent since 2012. I don't know if she is wearing the pressure well. I feel that the way she plays, there is more to lose this more to gain. Her mental game is fine, her actual game is not. What a reality check at a slam.
I just caught the ES replay from 2-3 second set, Vika won 8 straight points there. :lol: Just shows Radwanska's victory was largely Vika's doing. Vika also looked really lethargic from what I saw, and mentally not there.
I didn't know what to expect after reading GM with all the clowns celebrating and that bitter mess Tennis Ghost baiting and opening doors for all the haters, but after watching parts of the match and I am still stunned. Vika wasn't bad, she was abysmal. That third set. It doesn't matter how well Aga might play, if Vika is just average (more or less what she was against Sloane) she should never lose this match up, but 6-1 and 6-0 !! ffs. I am speechless. And with Pova a mess and Serena not getting any younger, in decent form this season she should have won, at least, 2 slams. Now we have Pome, Aga and Bouchard as contenders. A joke. Even VIP in her current form has options again from now on. I hope at least that Li will win the whole thing.
At least the expectations have lowered. She's not a safe bet anymore, even to make it to the SF. I hope she can play more freely from now on and gradually sort out all the fitness issues. The season has just started and I don't want to even imagine things getting any worse.
Well, I didn't want to comment until I saw the match for myself. It felt like she was lost out there. She was trying to play her usual game and it wasn't working, then she'd try and play more percentages and that too wasn't working as well either. Credit to Radwanska, she did play well in the match, but I do feel Vika should have at least been able to make things a lot closer than she did. I think the most concerning thing is just how she lost the third set. Of course she was fighting, but she just couldn't even piece it all together to win a game, so unlike her Oh well, considering how she's played this tournament, a QF is very good. Hopefully this gives her motivation to improve, and doesn't damped her mentally.
Omg I Livescored this match and almost had a heart attack in bed, it was a horrible read , how is it possible to be bageled by your pigeon? . Someone needs to get it in to her skull that she needs to lose weight (to improve her movement) and to get rid of RedTool and his other tool friends that go to her matches. I watched an interview recently that said she met RedTool at the US Open in 2012, and things started to go wrong shortly after that. I also saw another interview she did saying that she rarely practises anymore!, i mean WTF no wonder Sam looks annoyed all the time when she would rather spend time with that clown BF of hers rather than hitting the courts .
Hopefully this will be a wakeup call for her and her team and she can be inspired with what Serena did after the French Open 2012 and go on a good run.