[icyyy]

Guys, do you have any RELIABLE info (players/ coaches/ commentators) about how the courts in Melbourne play (speed/ bounce)?

I have no quotes but i assume it will be medium fast and medium bounce like usual.

 

[icyyy]

Interesting they picked doubles over Pegula-Krejcikova and Gauff (shocking).

Pretty good scheduling for Polish fans who want to stay at night to watch tennis. OIga and Hubert back to back on RLA.

Day conditions should suit Iga more as it should be higher bouncing (important vs Rybakina who hits flat) and help her topspin more especially that balls aren't that great for TS oriented players.

 

[icyyy]

Well... that's life. You either win or lose. There will be more opportunities to win this year.


One thing i'd like Iga to do is add more variety to her game. It became too one dimensional for my taste, using slice or dropshots vs Rybakina would be a good option, especially slice because Iga topspin was landing in Elena strike zone way too often.


Other than that it is what it is. You can't win everything and there will be bad moments in her journey too, but what would sweetness be without bitterness?

 

[icyyy]

i just rewatched this match and agree with guitarra on serve specialist. Opening service game and Iga throws 150 kmph first serves, its just recipe for disaster vs big server like Rybakina. Its been a few years now and there is little to no progress in this aspect, sometimes she serves worse than during her junior days. Sabalenka and Rybakina matches were winnable really if it wasn't for absymal serve.

Match vs Rybakina reminded me of Bencic match at USO2021. Very winnable first set and probably whole match if it wasn't for unclutch play and critical errors on big points (going for this insanely hard fh dtl after Rybakina weak return at 40-0 in the first game and then missing easy putaway at bp in the next) and then losing after brief fight in the second.

 

[icyyy]

I saw discussion about return being not good enough, its interesting Iga still did better than the other returning Lena first serves. Obviously 46% is still not good enough if you have no serve.

 

[icyyy]

A fan shouted “brawo, Magda!” in the middle of a rally. I can’t 🙄🤦🏻‍♀️

More than once...

 

[icyyy]

Anyway Sabalenka-Rybakina in the grand final. Both very in form and both have beaten Iga in their recent matches. I believe these two will be main rivals in 2023. I feel Sabalenka confidence skyrocketed after this Forth Worth victory over Iga.

 

[icyyy]

So, with both Saba and Ryba being a threat to Iga at Wimbledon and Iga being a favoutire at RG, who is more dangerous on slow hard courts? And what Iga needs to do to beat them there, apart from improving her firts serve? What should Iga do to make Rybakina run and Aryna start missing? Should she have a different tactics in both cases? Which tools or Iga's strenghts are most dangerous to Elena, and which to Saba?

I think Iga rallying tactics work just fine vs Sabalenka. She is not afraid of Aryna pace and can counter it with good depth and her own power. That's how she was beating her off the baseline in their last matches. In Forth Worth it was (yes again) absymal serve that let her down.

Iga should also outrally Rybakina most of the time. In their 4R match she didn't play that badly offensively (15 winners to 14 unforced errors). Besides serve and unclutchness i think she didn't do enough defensively, let's not kid ourselves Rybakina got cleaner groundstrokes and more power, so she can't expect to overpower the Kazakh. That's what she did wrong, trying to outhit Lena in every rally. I think Wiktorowski thought the same, he said that Iga was not trying to chase balls that she could have gotten back if she tried enough, last point of the match showed it perfectly.

It's just this freaking serve. You can play great from the ground but it may still not be enough if your opponent second serve is often not worse than your first delivery (have you seen Sabalenka monster second serves?). I also think Iga tends to serve to opponents backhand too often, not only predictable but also a bad idea vs Rybakina whose forehand is more vulnerable.