[gc-spurs]

I hope Maria doesn't play Brisbane. I've liked the no-match play results she's been getting.

[MM_1257]

Originally Posted by mc8114

apparently she forgot about it


From Twitter:

It's not like I believe her.

[Andy.]

Im really happy with how today went. Sure she didnt win but she didnt play like a scared deer and makde Serena work for it. Obviously the surface helped but Im just so happy she put up a good fight against her for the first time on over 2 years.

[Mexicola]

Originally Posted by gc-spurs

I hope Maria doesn't play Brisbane. I've liked the no-match play results she's been getting.

I agree. She should take a page out of Serena's playbook and save her body as much as possible. Just look at her Aussie Open results this year, after she rested that ankle and skipped the first tournament. She looked sharp and fresh throughout, until the Final.

Not playing Brisbane and starting her season in Melbourne would give her some extra weeks off. Though, when Maria announced she was playing Brisbane, she sounded excited, so I don't think she has any intention of missing it.

The governing body should find a way to have their WTA Championship take place at the start of October instead of the end to give the players more time off. The off-season is way too short.

[18majors]

Will have to live two (2) months without tournament tennis from Maria, life is tough!

[Lachy]

Originally Posted by gc-spurs

I hope Maria doesn't play Brisbane. I've liked the no-match play results she's been getting.

HEY. Just cos she aint going to Auckland doesn't mean she gets to ditch Brisbane again Not this time please

[Asherahpova]

Drive volleys most definitely. I mean even in 2010 she would have been happy to blast a ball that was almost past the surface line out of the air. Now she waits on balls right beside the net to bounce most of the time. I suppose we have plenty of time to bit-pick her game though, gonna hold on to this season for a while longer.

[Trih]

Originally Posted by dsanders06

By the way: I want you guys' serious opinions on this. Am I just deluded, or does anyone else agree that this is the second-best match Serena has played against Maria (after the AO07)? I just don't see that she played anywhere near as well at the Olympics. Or am I deluding myself?

I think Serena played better at the OG, better serve and all. But Maria played miserable that day, this time she played much better.

Originally Posted by SilverSlam

You're deluded. I think it goes like this.

Olympics>AO>Stanford>Today>Miami

But if I were to rate Maria's level at the same time from those 4 matches it'd be

Today>AO>Stanford>Miami>Olympics.

Agree

Originally Posted by Wonderwall.

When it comes to GM one last thing and I shut up.
Some of you always say what an ugly place it and how all should stay in SS where we're a happy family etc etc but then you, well, go there. No one is forcing you to.
Also, the ignore function works very nicely to my experience.
I'm not saying that I actually do this stuff all the time (ignore GM and annoying posters) because I do not but then again I don't complain about it very often. Drama is fun sometimes and it really looks like many posters here like it too.
It's pretty sad that the General part of the forum has to be in a state like this because I didn't join TF as a Maria fan only, but as a tennis fan with intention of visiting most parts of the forum. Also I hate how people aren't smart enough not to judge people according to the players they like. I mean do you people here like all Maria fans/ posters on the Siberian Siren? I know I sure don't.
Plus, some of you have displayed various levels of ignorance at times so yeah some of you deserve some of the shit you got.

In case someone actually reads this, focus on the word some here so we don't have misunderstandings.

But most of all we should always remember this it a tennis forum ffs so some of the things we write here sometimes look funny and/or sad in retrospect.

You're right... nobody is perfect. I always tried to have a decent reputation on internet even if it's easy to hide behind a monitor, and I think I always tried to be a decent poster on GM, but after all tough, you can't deny how GM is the place where all the worst people show up. I'm pretty sure there is a lot of good and nice posters, from EVERY fan base, we never see there because they prefer to avoid it given the amount of shit that goes around there. Don't you think? But let's talk about Maria, this year and next year, let's leave GM's hate out for once, shall we?

Ok first part of quotes done. Now I have to go through dsanders' walls of text!

[Crux Squall]

Originally Posted by jameshazza

Drive volleys most definitely. I mean even in 2010 she would have been happy to blast a ball that was almost past the surface line out of the air. Now she waits on balls right beside the net to bounce most of the time. I suppose we have plenty of time to bit-pick her game though, gonna hold on to this season for a while longer.

Agree, i don't know why she want the ball bounce, she can finish it better.

[Trih]

Originally Posted by Jechijo

The only thing that Maria needs is a lower FS percentage from Serena! It was sky high in this match and much lower in the others. Frankly, if Vika played Serena today, she would've managed to win 4 games at best.

Totally besides what Maria could do or do better, there's noone who can fight up Serena's serves when she's like that. I mean, 3 aces in a game.

Originally Posted by dsanders06

Anyway, genuinely so proud of her for what she's done this year -- I mean really WHO could've anticipated her results in 2012 would be this good this time last year? Hopefully she does some more rehab on her shoulder and improves her game even more over the offseason; if she does, she's definitely among the top contenders for RG and the AO.

This, if she works on the netplay like you guys said

Originally Posted by tejmeglekvár

- Netplay. How many times she forced her opponents out wide and they hit a floating slice she could've finish at the net but she did nothign just backpedaling behind baseline and hit another useless groundstroke? Infuriating. She is enough fast to get to the net with 3-4 steps from good position, and even if she'll dump a few volley/drive-volley into the net, it would help much more to build authority on the court. She has to bring back some netplay into her game to shorten points and games, she cant keep up baseline grinding constantly.

Yep.
Italian commentators on ES were just talking about how Maria played a lot near the net in 2004 when she beat serena in W and YEC, and they said that basically over the years she became more of a baseline player than she was when she was 17. I'd be happy to see a little more NetMaria in 2013, and we already saw a little improvement going that way since she's with Hogstedt, don't you think? It would help her not only to add variety to her game, but also to close points faster and therefore saving energies. Last year I wished she would improve like she did in 2012, for 2013 I wish she would work on this aspect of her game.

[Crux Squall]

Anyone know what exhibition tournament Maria play in this offseason

[Trih]

I know she plays an ex. with Petra tomorrow and another with Ivanovic, Errani and Vinci in Milan, december 1st. There are others but I forgot atm. _:P

[Cherry.]

^ Also the Gillette Federer Tour in December.

[peipei]

what a great yr for Mashacant wait for a better yr next yr!
i thk it is easy for us to say Masha should improve this and should really try to do that etc...but its totally diff when u r on court...things dnt always go into ur way...im sure she ald knows or Hoggy ald hv tld her the stuff we want her to improve n do...but...sometimes its jst hard to n cant...n im sure she definitely tried her best in this final...im happy with her performance ytd

[CareerSlamPova]

Another exo with Karolina at Seoul