TENNIS: From Warsaw to Washington D.C.
Aug. 8th, 2023 08:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllI watched some of Iga Swiatek winning the Warsaw Open, which obviously meant a lot to the Pole as it was at her home club. Some of her hitting was ferocious, and Laura Siegemund only managed to avoid getting a double bagel by winning the one game. (She’s the fifth ranked German player, in her thirties and hadn’t been in a final for five or six years. She was playing the world no. 1 and home favourite.) I think some of that may have been because Swiatek had been in command in the semi final, but instead of winning it easily had to play a second set tiebreak on Sunday, although Siegemund had had to play back-to-back matches the previous day, and probably was tired, but when she tried to change up her game by drawing Swiatek forward, the world no. 1 had an answer. Good prep for the hard courts in north America.
I have to say I have never seen such young ballkids at the back of the court, ever.
The ‘North American swing’ has begun with the DC Open, which is an ATP and WTA 500 event and thus has some good players and lots of Americans (some of whom fall into the first group too.) I watched the first round rematch between Elina Svitolina (still a wildcard, though she’s now ranked no. 27) and Viktoria Azarenka (ranked 19.) The solo commentator never mentioned the war (is that Amazon policy?) or explained why there were so many Ukrainian flags around, but no Belarussian ones.
Svitolina wore an asymmetric top in teal over shorts the same colours as the tennis balls, while the back of Azaranka’s top was two overlapping triangles in black over a white sports bra.
As I’d missed their epic at Wimbledon only a few weeks ago, I was delighted to watch it. Pre Svitolina’s maternity leave, Azarenka had a lead of 5 wins to 0, and probably wanted revenge for the last loss, but the first set was full of momentum switches, with one player dominating, then the other (Svitolina would start overhitting and make several errors) so it ended up 6-6, and you’ve got to say Svitolina played the better tiebreak, winning it easily.
The second set was all about the returning. Svitolina was the first to hold serve, but kept being reeled back. It was a high-quality match, with hard-hitting baseline rallies, but with moments of touch and smarts. Svitolina’s athleticism was great. Being the first to reach 5 games helped, and although she couldn’t serve it out, she broke to win. Her excellent return after childbirth continues.
The third round/last sixteen match between Dimitrov and Ruusovoori wasn’t that captivating. At first, they both held serves easily, then they both had tough games, not helped by double faults, but Dimitrov was able to bring pressure to bear at the end of the first set, and although there was more coming forward in the second set, Ruusovoori couldn’t put up enough of a fight in the second, where Dimitrov played some dazzling shots in the penultimate game. Dimitrov beat the Finn for the third time this year on three different surfaces.
I then watched the quarter final between Jessica Pegula, the top seed, and Elina Svitolina (both former world no. 3s, Svitolina of the amazing comeback having more top-class experience, but Pegula being a current top 5 player.) Pegula was wearing kit in the style Svitolina had worn in the first round, while Svitolina had a black skirt over tennis-ball-coloured shorts, and a vest top in the same colour.
If you look at the scoreboard, it was a close match, with just one lost game ceding a set, but in the first set, it was this new, aggressive, purposeful Svitolina who was the better player. Her level didn’t drop in the second set – in fact she won the first point marvellously – but Pegula seemed to have decided she was going to step inside the baseline and was thus able to find a higher gear, more befitting the current world no. 4. The momentum swung, and although Svitolina went into fighter mode at the end of the third set, she never could convert a break point in the last two sets, but Pegula could.
I tried to watch Murray vs Fritz, which was played in front of a much larger crowd, who seemed to be pro-Murray, even though he was playing the top American man, but I was tired after the last match and watching Murray give away the start of sets and then get frustrated with himself is nothing new and rather draining, so I dipped in and out before giving up.
I am glad I watched the Tiafoe vs Evans quarter final, though, a night match, after both of them had played already that day (I’ve subsequently learned that was because of the weather. Some players had a far tougher schedule than others.) The crowd was entirely for Tiafoe, who is local, and there was no commentary for the first six games. Winning the toss, Evans had put Tiafoe in to serve and won the game, mainly because his opponent hadn’t settled. But Evans backed it up by some strong serving – this run at Washington/on the hard courts coming after a woeful few months of 12 first round losses.
Tiafoe got it back together, but it was Evans who broke first in the second set, and it was all him, retrieving, outplaying his opponent at the net. Either the crowd were rowdy or dead quiet. They got rowdy when Tiafoe saved break points and then took advantage of a shaky Evans game, but Evans held it together, and was back to playing excellent tennis that a more neutral crowd would have had to applaud. He broke at 5-5, and served for the match, despite strong resistance from Tiafoe, who wasn’t far off, but had to conceded he was being outplayed by an Evans who was close to his best. He’s through to a semi against Dimitrov (who had a kinder schedule.)
I watched the first women’s semi (accompanied by lots of the crowd furiously fanning themselves.) Jess/Jessie/Jessica Pegula against Maria Sakkari, the world no. 4 against the world no. 5, and the no. 1 seed against the no. 4 seed. The latter wore a salmon pink top and black skirt.
It was hard to call, but it soon became clear that Sakkari was determined to stick to the baseline and had some explosive shots. She broke Pegula early, consolidated well, and was the boss on court, to the extent that she broke Pegula again to win the first set.
This meant she was serving first in the second set, and continued in this vein, racing to a 4-1 lead. But Pegula is resilient and not in the top 5 for nothing, she would not let the Greek have a double break, and perhaps the Greek player’s form had pulled hers up, but suddenly it was Sakkari who was frustrated (and far more volubly so than Pegula’s borderline racquet abuse, which she wouldn’t have got away with on grass.) Pegula won game after game, and indeed, the second set.
But something clicked for Sakkari in the third set (she helped Pegula win the second with her mindset, a little, probably because she’s failed to progress beyond five or six semis this year, and was desperate to get into a final), and she was quieter, more assured, and soon more likely to hit the winners. In fact, by the end of the set, she was stringing them together, absolutely scorching (the heat metaphors offered themselves up easily.) I haven’t seen her play this well before, but I haven’t seen much hard-court tennis.
I watched a bit of the second semi final – Coco Gauff of the top 10 vs Ludmilla Samsonova of the top 20, and also defending champion, apparently. Gauff had gone off and worked hard after losing to Kenin at Wimbledon, and it was paying off. Samsonova didn’t have an in on the American’s serve, and Gauff’s athleticism was nullifying some of her Russian (?) opponent’s weapons. She won the first set, and didn’t seem to have dropped off in the second.
So I wasn’t surprised that she would be competing the women’s finals (Evans vs. Griekspoor in the men’s final was surprising, well, not if Evans had been maintaining the level he’d played at against Tiafoe. But according to their seeding, neither should have won the quarter finals.)
Gauff (in a red cut-out top and burgundy skirt) started off commandingly. Sakkari wasn’t playing badly, she just wasn’t allowed to make much of an impact. An afflicted spectator (the first of three) led to a short break that halted Gauff’s momentum, somewhat, but she was soon back on it, and won the first set 6-2. Sakkari started the second set better, but maybe pressed a little too much at pivotal points, while Gauff’s level was, overall, better. You’ve got to admire her focus and mental resilience, while she seemed to have fine-tuned everything, including her first and second serves. (Still wondering how her forehand will stand up to scrutiny from the very best.)
I was reminded, as she celebrated her deserved victory with a little dance, that she is still a teenager, still clearly on an improving trajectory (Sakkari had four wins to one on her, although Gauff was the higher seed.) This is her biggest tournament win yet, and quite a statement after Wimbledon and for the coming weeks. Sakkari has now lost six finals (she beat Jo Konta to win her last title), so there’s bound to be scarring tissue there. Her game looks to be almost good enough, she can compete with the top 10 and win against them, but maybe not when it’s semis and finals, when it really counts. The crowd must have been pleased, at least one American had won a singles title.
Amazon had the first part of the men’s final, and I fast forwarded to learn that Evans won the first set. I had to look up online to learn that after a lighting delay he’d won the second and thus the tournament. Well done him!
So, I usually watched the first match on court or caught up on the night match that most interested me. I’m thinking it might be something similar when it comes to the US Open. [Edited for typos 9/1/26.]
I have to say I have never seen such young ballkids at the back of the court, ever.
The ‘North American swing’ has begun with the DC Open, which is an ATP and WTA 500 event and thus has some good players and lots of Americans (some of whom fall into the first group too.) I watched the first round rematch between Elina Svitolina (still a wildcard, though she’s now ranked no. 27) and Viktoria Azarenka (ranked 19.) The solo commentator never mentioned the war (is that Amazon policy?) or explained why there were so many Ukrainian flags around, but no Belarussian ones.
Svitolina wore an asymmetric top in teal over shorts the same colours as the tennis balls, while the back of Azaranka’s top was two overlapping triangles in black over a white sports bra.
As I’d missed their epic at Wimbledon only a few weeks ago, I was delighted to watch it. Pre Svitolina’s maternity leave, Azarenka had a lead of 5 wins to 0, and probably wanted revenge for the last loss, but the first set was full of momentum switches, with one player dominating, then the other (Svitolina would start overhitting and make several errors) so it ended up 6-6, and you’ve got to say Svitolina played the better tiebreak, winning it easily.
The second set was all about the returning. Svitolina was the first to hold serve, but kept being reeled back. It was a high-quality match, with hard-hitting baseline rallies, but with moments of touch and smarts. Svitolina’s athleticism was great. Being the first to reach 5 games helped, and although she couldn’t serve it out, she broke to win. Her excellent return after childbirth continues.
The third round/last sixteen match between Dimitrov and Ruusovoori wasn’t that captivating. At first, they both held serves easily, then they both had tough games, not helped by double faults, but Dimitrov was able to bring pressure to bear at the end of the first set, and although there was more coming forward in the second set, Ruusovoori couldn’t put up enough of a fight in the second, where Dimitrov played some dazzling shots in the penultimate game. Dimitrov beat the Finn for the third time this year on three different surfaces.
I then watched the quarter final between Jessica Pegula, the top seed, and Elina Svitolina (both former world no. 3s, Svitolina of the amazing comeback having more top-class experience, but Pegula being a current top 5 player.) Pegula was wearing kit in the style Svitolina had worn in the first round, while Svitolina had a black skirt over tennis-ball-coloured shorts, and a vest top in the same colour.
If you look at the scoreboard, it was a close match, with just one lost game ceding a set, but in the first set, it was this new, aggressive, purposeful Svitolina who was the better player. Her level didn’t drop in the second set – in fact she won the first point marvellously – but Pegula seemed to have decided she was going to step inside the baseline and was thus able to find a higher gear, more befitting the current world no. 4. The momentum swung, and although Svitolina went into fighter mode at the end of the third set, she never could convert a break point in the last two sets, but Pegula could.
I tried to watch Murray vs Fritz, which was played in front of a much larger crowd, who seemed to be pro-Murray, even though he was playing the top American man, but I was tired after the last match and watching Murray give away the start of sets and then get frustrated with himself is nothing new and rather draining, so I dipped in and out before giving up.
I am glad I watched the Tiafoe vs Evans quarter final, though, a night match, after both of them had played already that day (I’ve subsequently learned that was because of the weather. Some players had a far tougher schedule than others.) The crowd was entirely for Tiafoe, who is local, and there was no commentary for the first six games. Winning the toss, Evans had put Tiafoe in to serve and won the game, mainly because his opponent hadn’t settled. But Evans backed it up by some strong serving – this run at Washington/on the hard courts coming after a woeful few months of 12 first round losses.
Tiafoe got it back together, but it was Evans who broke first in the second set, and it was all him, retrieving, outplaying his opponent at the net. Either the crowd were rowdy or dead quiet. They got rowdy when Tiafoe saved break points and then took advantage of a shaky Evans game, but Evans held it together, and was back to playing excellent tennis that a more neutral crowd would have had to applaud. He broke at 5-5, and served for the match, despite strong resistance from Tiafoe, who wasn’t far off, but had to conceded he was being outplayed by an Evans who was close to his best. He’s through to a semi against Dimitrov (who had a kinder schedule.)
I watched the first women’s semi (accompanied by lots of the crowd furiously fanning themselves.) Jess/Jessie/Jessica Pegula against Maria Sakkari, the world no. 4 against the world no. 5, and the no. 1 seed against the no. 4 seed. The latter wore a salmon pink top and black skirt.
It was hard to call, but it soon became clear that Sakkari was determined to stick to the baseline and had some explosive shots. She broke Pegula early, consolidated well, and was the boss on court, to the extent that she broke Pegula again to win the first set.
This meant she was serving first in the second set, and continued in this vein, racing to a 4-1 lead. But Pegula is resilient and not in the top 5 for nothing, she would not let the Greek have a double break, and perhaps the Greek player’s form had pulled hers up, but suddenly it was Sakkari who was frustrated (and far more volubly so than Pegula’s borderline racquet abuse, which she wouldn’t have got away with on grass.) Pegula won game after game, and indeed, the second set.
But something clicked for Sakkari in the third set (she helped Pegula win the second with her mindset, a little, probably because she’s failed to progress beyond five or six semis this year, and was desperate to get into a final), and she was quieter, more assured, and soon more likely to hit the winners. In fact, by the end of the set, she was stringing them together, absolutely scorching (the heat metaphors offered themselves up easily.) I haven’t seen her play this well before, but I haven’t seen much hard-court tennis.
I watched a bit of the second semi final – Coco Gauff of the top 10 vs Ludmilla Samsonova of the top 20, and also defending champion, apparently. Gauff had gone off and worked hard after losing to Kenin at Wimbledon, and it was paying off. Samsonova didn’t have an in on the American’s serve, and Gauff’s athleticism was nullifying some of her Russian (?) opponent’s weapons. She won the first set, and didn’t seem to have dropped off in the second.
So I wasn’t surprised that she would be competing the women’s finals (Evans vs. Griekspoor in the men’s final was surprising, well, not if Evans had been maintaining the level he’d played at against Tiafoe. But according to their seeding, neither should have won the quarter finals.)
Gauff (in a red cut-out top and burgundy skirt) started off commandingly. Sakkari wasn’t playing badly, she just wasn’t allowed to make much of an impact. An afflicted spectator (the first of three) led to a short break that halted Gauff’s momentum, somewhat, but she was soon back on it, and won the first set 6-2. Sakkari started the second set better, but maybe pressed a little too much at pivotal points, while Gauff’s level was, overall, better. You’ve got to admire her focus and mental resilience, while she seemed to have fine-tuned everything, including her first and second serves. (Still wondering how her forehand will stand up to scrutiny from the very best.)
I was reminded, as she celebrated her deserved victory with a little dance, that she is still a teenager, still clearly on an improving trajectory (Sakkari had four wins to one on her, although Gauff was the higher seed.) This is her biggest tournament win yet, and quite a statement after Wimbledon and for the coming weeks. Sakkari has now lost six finals (she beat Jo Konta to win her last title), so there’s bound to be scarring tissue there. Her game looks to be almost good enough, she can compete with the top 10 and win against them, but maybe not when it’s semis and finals, when it really counts. The crowd must have been pleased, at least one American had won a singles title.
Amazon had the first part of the men’s final, and I fast forwarded to learn that Evans won the first set. I had to look up online to learn that after a lighting delay he’d won the second and thus the tournament. Well done him!
So, I usually watched the first match on court or caught up on the night match that most interested me. I’m thinking it might be something similar when it comes to the US Open. [Edited for typos 9/1/26.]
