15 Burst results for "Maria Thackeray"
The Tennis Podcast
"maria thackeray" Discussed on The Tennis Podcast
"Shots were brilliant. She's got such good hands and then watching her today against Zachary just realized they're completely opposite players. If they could, if they could have each other's strengths, you would sort of form a kind of super player, I think, because Bond rosa has none of Zachary's intensity or consistency, saccharine is always weak in week out. We know what saccharine is. She's completely explicable as a tennis player. Whereas von braucher is the opposite, inexplicable, and yet has these great hands, has this vision on the court. The way she sees the court is just so magnificent and she's able to always be one step ahead, I think, on clay, especially in these conditions. And I really, really want to see her play English film tech at this tournament. They're in they're in the same section. I think von drosh might have to go through Rebecca first. That's right. It's a really interesting section of I think if she's got a head screwed on for that mass, I think she'll beat Rebecca. I personally think von Drescher was just looking up she's 70 in the world, her highest ranking ever was 14. To me, if everybody's playing to the peak of their ability, she's comfortably atop ten player and actually I'd say she's a top 5 player. She's, I think she's brilliant. In terms of just her ability. to it than that. Yeah. I think her serve is a weakness. It's very much a get the point started serve. And today she got away with it against Zachary I could see we're back in a sort of stepping in and causing that some problems. But once the point gets going, especially on a clay court, she can outmaneuver anyone. It's fantastic to watch. And yeah, is she happening? I've probably felt this way several times over the last four years or so, so probably not, but as David said, would love to see it because she's a joy to watch. There are tentative signs, aren't there that Paola bad dossa might be happening again just a little bit, or might possibly happen again in the future? Who she beaten this week? She has beaten. And freedom. Yeah, 7.6 in the third that freed freedom match was, wasn't it? She will now face Carolina much of her in a match scheduled for tomorrow. I don't want to get carried away because I thought there were really good signs in Rome when she beat coco golf and then as we discussed on the podcast I was a bit disappointed in her performance against Maria thackeray in the round of 16, so like I don't know, I think it is going to be two steps forward one step back for bid dosa. It's obviously not going to be the sort of comeback where she just suddenly wins something out of nowhere it's obviously a building block situation, but I do just wonder if she's building a bit of a foundation. Now, just building a bit of a well of confidence that she can draw on in the title matches because we know how good the tennis is. And I'm so ready to see it. I've been particularly surprised this year that having had the terrible year that she had last year in, you know, we know a lot of the reasons for that she's been very open about her struggles with mental health and I believe there will be even more of that on the second part of the Netflix series and interestingly, I believe Netflix are following her again. This year, despite her obviously results wise, being a bit of a dud for them last year, they obviously found her story very compelling. And yeah, I find that an interesting editorial decision from them to continue following her. I'm caught here because I don't want to fall into the trap that I did in Madrid last week where I was like, oh, but doss is back, guys. Because it's obviously not going to be as linear as that, but she might be coming back. I mean, that's a good win over straight sets. Yeah, but jaber is also coming back. I think it is a good win. But she's not there yet. I just feel like there are shoots. I agree with you. There are shoots of recovery, but she's got a, she's got to be tested against the better players and a few times. I'm not convinced yet. Okay, well, that's that then. Onto the men. Early days here, but Djokovic and alcaraz still remain on course to actually play one another in a tennis match. It's big. This time next week it might have just happened. A couple of hours ago, Grigor Dimitrov in three sets. David's David and his relentless irrepressible hope for Gregor Dimitrov is one of my, it's one of my favorite things about David lore and not just that it exists. The fact these willing to state it. So, so publicly to us, every time Google dementia plays one of these matches that you deep down feel like he's definitely not going to win. David will send a message to the group saying, just got a feeling Dimitrov could call some problems today. And I suppose he did David cause Djokovic, one or two problems. Yeah, Dimitrov and predictions and golf have a lot in common in my life, because all of them, no matter how many times they show themselves to be a lost cause, I only need the merest flicker of good news to believe that it's all going to turn around. And everything's going to be just amazing. And actually in this match, look at he was four one down, Djokovic, Djokovic is a nightmare for him. And he's a nightmare for a lot of people, but particularly Dimitrov. Djokovic used to have his way against Roger Federer more often than not particularly in the last 7 or 8 years, and Dimitrov is a much worse version of Roger Federer, isn't he with a single handed backhand and a serve that's not as good and so forth. And I mean, it's absolutely dominant the head to head for Djokovic and you can see why when the play each other. So it's really interesting when Djokovic was a set and a break up. That it then turned. And it was on both sides of the Dimitrov played some brilliant attacking tennis and took it to him and Jamie Delgado whose coaching him these days was audible and heard to be saying go for the forehand. But it wasn't just that. He sensed that Djokovic's irritation at his lack of control with his footwork on those courts.
The Tennis Podcast
"maria thackeray" Discussed on The Tennis Podcast
"Hello and welcome to the tennis podcast where it is Sunday evening in London and Solihull where you find us this evening. We all have Rome on our telly's and it looks like solly hole quite frankly and has done all week with the midway point of the tournament sort of ish. I think it got going officially on Wednesday Monday Tuesday with qualifying, but yeah, we're sort of in the midway point and I have got a match between Alexander zverev and David Goffin on my screen. And everybody watching is wrapped in blankets. And quite frankly, it's just good to see tennis being played because a lot of the tournament so far has been, well, what is a solid whole weekend, David, what is going on and can it please change in the next 18 hours before I arrive in Rome because I've seen the forecast and I am most displeased by it. Yeah, it hasn't exactly been vintage so far has it for the last week. I kind of feel like Rome and solly hall of swapped weathers for the day because we've actually had quite nice weather today. But at least it didn't rain all day and it did mean that the catch up that they had at the tournament really made for a heck of a special day matches everywhere. You needed more screens than I own. But I had a right good go watching as much of it as I could. And I do think it's a brilliant tournament and I actually have to say about this one. This day today has been one of the plus points to the longer tournament because you wouldn't have had this day. On a weeklong tournament started on a Monday, this really was something you get the feeling that in Rome, they come out big time at the weekend and because a lot of the matches are on outside courts or peer tarantula, which is an accessible court on a grounds pass and it's I think it was €24 to get in. The atmosphere was electric. It was so special at that tournament today. Yeah, we'll talk about PHN pitch angeli over the course of this episode and I'm sure the next two that we'll be recording midweek and not the tournament ends on Sunday because it is truly and we sort of taken aback by it every year afresh, aren't we? It is truly one of the most special arenas in all of sport, I think, even when it is populated by people wrapped in blankets, which is becoming a sort of iconic European clay court night session site, isn't it? I really hope this isn't a foreshadowing of the French Open to come. I've seen enough people wrapped in blankets watching Clayton. Catherine was saving up the good weather news. Well, they do say that Rome is the clay court event most like the Frank open and yeah, it feels like the fans are warming up for Paris as well because that was a feature. Last year, wasn't it? Just hordes and hordes of night session fans in blankets. You two have been taking peer trying to the chapter Twitter, I noticed this morning. It was very sort of, I don't know, tennis podcast, 2018, 2019 vibes. I've helped. Normally, we just do that on WhatsApp these days, but. Well, what used to happen in 2018? I don't know. We used to treat David tweeted a very sweeping definitive statement from the general tennis podcast account. So I felt like I needed to clarify from my own account. That I it's not that I specifically disagreed with the statement. I just wanted to make the point that it was a very, it was a subjective take, I think, being treated objectively. Look, this is really boring. He was the debate about peer tragedy being, I think David, you called it the best court in tennis. And I said, look, in the world. And I think it's, I think it's the most beautiful, certainly the most, the most something the most historic, the most artistic, the most aesthetic, something, but I think the best. I think everybody will have their own different take on. Oh, yes. The best is. I was just, you know, it was just what I was feeling at the moment. You were supposed to be making debate. And it worked. Well, I was at exactly what you wanted. I was about to write the word discuss below it, which I normally do and I thought, no. No, I'm not going to, because I genuinely look at this court and because you questioned it, it made me start thinking now, do I regard it just as the most beautiful or do I really regard it as the best? And I start to think, I don't think there is a downside to this court. I think it has got everything. It is sunken into the ground, is surrounded by statues, you're sitting on, I mean, maybe it's not the comfiest. Those marbles. Yeah, okay. But it soaks up the weather. It seems to me this interplay through anything on that court and the fact is people are wondering in on grounds passes on €24 tickets, it was 11 a.m. on a Sunday and there wasn't a spare seat for Maria thackeray against marquette of andros of it, it felt like the biggest deal in the world that match because the atmosphere created and I just don't and they're so close to it and they're enjoying every single bit of it.
The Tennis Podcast
"maria thackeray" Discussed on The Tennis Podcast
"What's your in practice with a coach Thomas Vijay against a hitting partner apparently quite a well-known hitting partner that travels quite a lot on the tour, not specifically with Yugoslavia, but for WTA players. And he looked quite stressed actually because it was such an intense practice. You know, his instructions were extremely clear and there was definitely the feeling that if he messed up or didn't do a drill correctly, he'd be in trouble. You know, this wasn't as shrugged off and make a joke type practice. It was zero laughs out there, honestly, this was this was a pre match practice ahead of facing an opponent that she beat love in one the last time they faced that they faced one another and that she beat. I think one and one or two in love that lost two games, the time before that that they faced one another. You know, a complete mismatch of a head to head. And yet she was, it was quite fearsome, actually. It was kind of Steffi Graf like dare I say she's even started wearing the ankle socks which always makes me think of Steffi Graf. I know that's just because it was the 90s and everybody had those socks in the 90s. Before trainer socks became a thing. But champions find something to motivate them, don't they? They achieve a goal and then you've got to find the next goal to stay hungry and Madrid feels like a real goal for her. It's a big clay called tournament that not only she never won before she'd never reached a quarterfinal. Before this week, she is ravenous for it. And. Sorry Veronica, maybe you're about to mount the comeback of all comebacks, but I'm salivating this Saturday's final. Yeah. They both want arrive reaction. I've got another question for you Catherine win. When you asked that question, did it look it's a question as Matt said, you and I have both asked many times in those sort of positions because it's an obvious thing to ask and it's the right thing to ask, but when you went into it, were you expecting her to answer like that? Yeah, I always do with athletes, quite frankly. Maybe with the odd exception, maybe Medvedev, I would ask that question sort of expecting to get a genuine honest answer, but maybe a Dan Evans or something. But it was a surprise. Pretty much all athletes, I would expect a sort of slightly brainwashed answer to and I don't judge them for it. At all, you know, anything you give away is a gift to your opponent, but I actually don't think that if I were to show eager one, it doesn't give two hoots about what arena sabalenka thinks she's she looks so in the zone and in the bubble to me that I don't think she's even noticing who her opponents are, but yeah, it sent a real message. I think I just I really loved it. I actually, I wasn't sure, you know, usually you get told with those interviews three questions, but her answer to the first question was quite short, not in a sort of rude way, just then as she said, what she had to say, and that was that. And I thought, you know, nobody was giving us the wrap up signal, so I thought, I'll push my luck a bit here. I knew it was her birthday tomorrow, so I thought I'll ask about that, how she plans to celebrate, and she really lit up in response to that, so I thought, oh, well, you know, one more question, I'll toss her this one just to wrap up and then she she gave that answer and it was yeah, it was great. It was a really great moment and it was her validating my desperation to make a rivalry happened. So much appreciated arena. Well, if you look at the players they've beaten, we've had 7 last night backing up the win she had over Maya Sharif, she won against Maria thackeray earlier on today. And then we've had Sri Lanka now having beaten a Catherine Alexandra in three really good sets actually. That was her most competitive match of the week, wasn't it, Matt, and then Petra martic very easily. Yeah, and actually as impressive as the egos film tech demolition jobs are, I actually sort of go to the three set win as probably the most noteworthy the most impressive of the tournament so far just because that's been missing this season. You know, we know that when she's at her best, can just kind of swap players aside and beat them easily. But I was quite impressed with that win against Alexander because she wasn't at her best and she was up against it right from the start Alexander is a player who likes these conditions hits the ball very flat, very hard, played well in Madrid last year. It was a tricky contest for she on tech there, but and she sort of let it go a bit in the second set. She probably should have won it in straight sets, but then she recovered and found her game again. So just thought there were a lot of good signs there.
The Tennis Podcast
"maria thackeray" Discussed on The Tennis Podcast
"Just getting back on clay. It's been it's been an optic on a pretty low baseline over the course of the last 12 months for bid off, but there was still something missing, the explosiveness, the spark. I'm sorry I can't be more scientific than that about it, despite having set myself up as the science gal in this episode, but I can't quite put my finger on it, but even with this uptick in form and things are looking a bit better, you know, she beat coco golf 6 three 6 love and a lot of the tale of that match was coco Goff and we'll talk about that in a moment, but look, there are green shoots of growth for the dosser, I just don't have any confidence at all that she's on her way back to where she was necessarily. There is something missing and I mean, if I'm finding it frustrating, then goodness knows how she must feel, she looks bitch, she looks hungry when it's on, it looks as good as it did, but the forehand is shaky, under pressure, but it's the same. It's the same shot. You know, there doesn't make anything wrong. And as opposed to cocoa gough, who will talk about who was hitting whole games worth of forehand areas, you can see that there's something technically wrong there. I can't see anything wrong with what is doing, other than that it's not going in. A lot of the time and you have this feeling in your gut that it's not quite right. Which makes me think that it is a more mental thing, and about confidence, really, you know, we've talked a lot about Dominic team over the last year or so since fixing his injury at least on the surface he appears to be fit again, but unable to play quite the tendency used to play. Sometimes it looks similar, so why aren't the results the same? But also I think to our naked eye as people maybe that don't might not spot the very intricacies of what might be different technically. But even if there isn't anything different, there may be nothing different except that conviction when hidden the ball and, you know, when it gets tense and tight, I think that that is so vital, really. The best players they don't even blink, they don't think. They're just do. And I was impressed with Zachary today on that front, the kids there I was on the WhatsApp group making the jokes about Maria thackeray being a set and a break up and saying this is she's right in the danger zone now. It's definitely going, I was saying, look, I've got no confidence in the dosa, but it's definitely going through because saccharine is a set in a breakup LOL. Easiest lull in a tennis in a tennis WhatsApp group there. It was a very cheap thrill. And I was she she made me look silly. Because she can't believe I'm gonna say this Bamber is Zachary, but she didn't blink. It was convincing, wasn't it? She was serving really well, which I think helped her I do think, as you said, I think I detected that but also wasn't quite right, that spark wasn't there because she wasn't able to for saccharin to get tight and get nervous and you know, she was just missing too much, really, that I think Sacco felt quite comfortable. But yeah, it was really impressive from Sakura. And I think, you know, I don't think any of us had Zachary going deep in this tournament. I think we all saw that section and thought, oh, let's take a bit of a gamble on the player and I think I certainly went with powder, but also having seen how she's played in Charleston and in Stuttgart where she really pushed arena sabalenka. I thought there were, as you said, with some really good signs from her and I thought, you know, being in Madrid might help, but Zachary sort of showed that, yes, we talk a lot about Zachary's problems in the latter stages of tournaments, but she is at least consistently getting to those latter stages, which powder veloster hasn't been doing. And I think Zachary is just sort of form and recent experience of that show today. She looked ready, I suppose, in the biggest moments today. Yeah, absolutely. It's good to see the sackboy, she's got a doubt is us included, herself included, we know what her inner monologue is saying to her, right? Which makes her such a compelling watch, but almost certainly is what's also holding her back. It's fascinating. So yeah, I do really feel it for her when she's when she's doing well just pedaling back for a moment to that pretty crushing defeat for coco Goff to Paolo bodos. Just confirm for me that I'm not exaggerating how disastrous that was for the goth. I mean, literally whole games worth of four hound errors. She completely fell apart if we're being Frank in that match. Yeah, it was, it was horrible to watch, actually. And it started out with just the forehand and then I think, oh, the confidence bled out of her completely and it started infecting the rest of her game and there were uncharacteristic backhand errors as well and the serve wasn't particularly good and it was just really, really bad and I think all this season I've been waiting for gough to get back on the clay because that's the surface where she's got the most time on the ball to hit that forehand and she isn't rushed and it looked pretty good last year and let's not forget of course you reach the French Open final.
The Tennis Podcast
"maria thackeray" Discussed on The Tennis Podcast
"It out. He kept going and eventually ruiner came back to him. And yeah, I don't think that that will win him a Grand Slam in the end but okay. That's all right. He's done really well here. Yeah, he's never out of form, Rublev. I never think, oh, I wonder how Rublev is going to play this week. You know, you know exactly what you're going to get with him. And I haven't changed my view on Andrei Rublev as a tennis player as a result of this week. I do still think in the very biggest tournaments, the grand slams, there will most likely be someone left in the draw in the latter stages who just has a little bit more game. And we're talking about the very best players in the world there. Some of the best who've ever played the sport in Novak Djokovic, you know, there's no shame in coming up second to them. And I just thought it was so nice to see Rublev win this because I think when someone puts themselves in that position. So often you just eventually want them to be able to do it. And I suppose I used to think that if you put yourself there often enough, it will happen eventually. But honestly, the experience of someone like Maria thackeray has kind of changed my thinking on that and actually being in that position so often and not getting over the line can cause baggage to accumulate and there can be that ceiling that's there for a reason. So for him just to slightly nudge up his ceiling and grab the biggest title of his career, I thought was just great and the outpouring from the tennis community as a whole. I think everyone is so pleased for Andre Rublev. I saw an interesting segment on tennis channel that was Andy Roddick and Chris Eubanks talking a great punditry line up there. And they were just making the point that has been made before, but just how real and how raw everything is with Andrei Rublev. And a lot of players will put up a wall and say the right things, whereas Rublev really lets you in on how little confidence you might have going into a final. He didn't even want to talk about this final before it happened because of his past experiences. And I think hearing him talk like that always, you know, everyone always just likes Andre Rublev and in this in this final, he said that he just told himself to believe right until the end and I think, as you said, David, that's so often feels like it's been the thing that's been missing from him. But let's remember he came back to beat hulk aruna at the Australian open as well. He was, he was two 5 down in the final set against ruiner in Melbourne, came back to win and after that said, I needed to win a match like this. I've lost so many. And I do wonder whether that experience helped him here. He was one four down in the final set of point away from being 5 one down. And yet he never dropped off, never lost his intensity. He always did feel like there was a route back into the match and I think I agree. I think there was some maybe some physical fatigue for runa. He was sort of taking on some salts and some drink, I think, but also maybe just some mental fatigue from the sort of quite dramatic semifinal against sinner. He wasn't quite at his best. He was, he sort of slightly threw it away at the end there, ruining missed a couple of smashes which were sort of horror shows. But Rublev took advantage of that. And I'm not sure Rublev a year ago necessarily would have done. There has been a slight improvement in his in his belief, his self belief. And yeah, it's just been just been great to see because everyone, as I said, everyone in tennis who has dealings with him behind the scenes. Fellow players, they all talk about just how great he is. And I think we see snippets of that as well. So I was genuinely delighted to see him win. It's a nice moment. I do, I share all of your thoughts about this doesn't reframe how I think of him as a tennis player. I don't think he did anything particularly new or different tennis wise. To win him this title, you know, it is a one dimensional game. It's a extremely effective one dimensional game, and I know that forehand of his technique wise is something that people that know more about technique really remark upon that his forehand is something special what he can do what he can do with that shot. But the mental side of things I do find fascinating with, with Andre Rublev, humility, David, is the word that you use. And I think it's his sort of his greatest strength and his greatest weakness. You know, he's so defined by that humility. It's pretty extraordinary to me that he is not right now, is he, but he has been he's consistently been a top ten player and he has at points been a top 5 player with absolutely no self belief whatsoever. I mean, that is no exaggeration to say. This guy, I mean, just none. I know people that work with him behind the scenes and they're sort of having to pep him up and. Remind him that he's a top ten tennis player, you know, he's really we see it on the court, don't mean we see it in how he self harms quite frankly at times. And you've found that very uncomfortable, David, but it comes from this very honest place, having absolutely no belief in himself. Which is hugely endearing because it's so unusual for a tennis player for any kind of athlete. If you think about how much this sport is about marginal gains and how much it's about the mental side of things, you know, if you had no prior knowledge of two tennis players, one ranked a hundred in the world and one ranked 5 in the world and just saw them hitting four hands and back hands to one another. You probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the two of them. So much of the difference is between the ears. The fact that he's been doing what he's been doing with zero self belief is extraordinary. So while I don't suddenly now think he's going to go on. Siri says it's beyond his abilities at the moment to tell whether Rublev is going to go on and remember long ago. I'm going to say that I don't think he's going to do that. There's still reframe how I feel about him is a tennis player, but I do just wonder if it will nudge that ceiling up a bit. Because while he's done incredible things, with a total self esteem vacuum, I'd like to see what's possible if he believes. And I don't he's going to have a personality transplant. He's always going to lean towards the side of humility. But I'd like to see it. I'd like to see what this can do for him. I'm excited for him, and I think the tennis world is, I don't think there's anybody that wouldn't be pleased for him for achieving this. No, it's nice to see him happy quite honestly.
The Passing Shot Tennis Podcast
"maria thackeray" Discussed on The Passing Shot Tennis Podcast
"I think that's we always, we always seem to stand those two. Yeah, Joel's gone for our kras and Fritz. I've gone for alcaraz and Fritz as well. So we'll see what you do. Make similar predictions. I have to say. The next one they are second quarter, I think we've all gone the same. I've got zverev against sinner. Yes, I've done the same. Yeah, so has Joel. So we're in agreement on that one. Our third quarter, I've got her cash and Medvedev. What about yourself? I believe that Joel and I are both gone for norrie and Medvedev for that one. So it's slight difference on that one. Yeah, I went for her catch because he's a former Miami champion, so I thought maybe he's playing pretty well at the moment. I can see that. I thought maybe he likes the court to our fourth quarter. Joel, I'll go for Joel's first. He's got TFO against sits a pass. I've gone for TFO gets hatchimal and also tears those sets of pass on this side, yes. Yeah, I sort of just wasn't convinced by its pass. I'm sure he'll prove me wrong and do super well. Don't say it. I've got a semifinal line up in my predictions of alcaraz against sinner, which is a repeat of Indian Wells. And I've got Medford ever against hatching of in my other semifinal. I have alcaraz center also, and I've got an exact replica with Medvedev and tier foe. Nice. I think Joel has gone for alcaraz zverev in the TFO. So he's thinking of a much nicer slot. We are very much for much nice. Joel's got a final of zverev against Medvedev. No, that's where he is. It's going to be alcaraz, Joel seems to know. What world Joel? Yeah, when did he make these predictions after about 5? He's got method of winning as a result of that file. What have you got in your final then Chris? Well, I've gone for the sunshine doubles I've got for alcaraz taking out Medvedev. So I think he will do it not just the double in consecutive years, getting one each year. I think he's going to do the actual sunshine double. The actual double. Yeah, I've gone the same. I've gone our crest member final alcaraz with a repeat victory, so I feel good about this Kim. You've been going so far. I think I'm quite confident with that. She says now, let's look at the women. Maybe I'm less confident with the women maybe. Let's look at what we've got in our quarter lineups. Quarterfinal one, this is where the potentially I think this is very well. They're all interesting quarters, but we could very well be on for Sri Lanka, we're back in a rematch in the quarterfinal. And that's my quarterfinal lineup. I know Joel's got that as well. Have you gone for the same? I also have gone for the same. I wasn't necessarily sure I was going to go for it, but then I thought, you know what, I'd love to see it again and see if eager can just come up with some very different energy. Yeah, I would love to see it. And we're back in a managed to beat her for a third time on the trial as well. That would also be interesting. Will eager finally manage to reverse the trend? Second chord final, who have you got in that one Chris? I went for jpeg and coco gough and actually I think Joel went for the same of pagina and gough. Jpeg. Yeah, I went for jpeg as well. But I've gone for ludmilla Samsung. Do you love her? Son of a moment. You really do. Your Wimbledon pick now. Yeah, I did predict Edwin Wimbledon one year. Yeah, she would have won it last year. Exactly. My third quarterfinal, I've gone for Maria thackeray and Petra kvitova. Joel, I see he's gone for Belinda bencic and Petra kvitova and Chris, but I've gone for Emma radha khanu. Oh wow. Now that is quite rogue, but it's bold. It is bold. I loved watching her last week. So I really hope that she does something here. No, absolutely. Fourth quarter final, I've gone for Caroline and mukha, and I know we mentioned her earlier how we were hoping she would continue her good form from India was. I've gone from book of it against avalanche in the fourth quarter final. And Joel has gone for coup d'etat against sabalenka. He has passed a matter that's for sure. He does. I've gone for mukha and I thought kajika was actually going to get the revenge on her loss from this week and I think she's going to take out sabalenka. Your partial to a bit of a critique of a prediction, I think. I do like a critique in a moment, that's true. We just say the same things every time doing these predictions. I'm starting to think with our favorites. Are we biased? Yeah, we just always picking our favorite players. Exactly. So semifinal lineup Joel has gone for Rebecca against pagola and then kavitha against sabalenka. From that, he's gone for a Rebecca and a sabalenka final again with Rebecca and a winning again. So he's very much repeating Indian Wells a little bit. Who have you gone for Chris for your semis? I guess Joel did go a little bit rogue in the final with zverev. But I've gone for Rebecca gula or rata kanuka jakova. And then I've gone for Rebecca and I could give her the final with her back in a win. Oh, so you got ratatouille getting to the semis as well. Last time I had Sloane get into the semis, you've always got to go rogue once Kim, that's my theory with predictions. Gotta go bold. Go bold or go. You've got your Samsung ever. Yeah, to be fair, I've got something. Watch this space. We're back in against Samsung and then kvitova sabalenka. I've also got a Rebecca and a Saba link final, but I've gone for Sabah lenca to win, put brackets revenge on my predictions. This is fired up. Yeah. But yeah, we'll see how they all pan out. And listeners, I'm sure you can laugh at us very much when halfway through the week, we do a catch up and we lament those predictions. They'll be put up on our social channels. I believe. And we will be back next week to do a sort of mid Miami catch up. But listeners, I hope you've enjoyed our latest episode of the tennis weekly podcast. Remember to subscribe to us to stay up to date on all the action from the ATP and WTA tours. We're on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcasting platforms out there. And if you like what you're hearing, then make sure to leave us a rating and review on Apple podcasts or Spotify. You can also follow us on social media or email the show. We're on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at tennis weekly pod. And you can email the show at tennis weekly pod at Gmail dot com. Or check out our website at tennis weekly dot code at UK.
The Passing Shot Tennis Podcast
"maria thackeray" Discussed on The Passing Shot Tennis Podcast
"And I think especially once you've got a win against someone like that, I mean, she got to win in The Office season against her in straight sets. I think she lost sort of full games there as well. She's got another relatively straightforward when in Australia. And so I think it's just a case where when the pressure really is off, she plays some of her best tennis. I think she goes out there without expectations. She knows that she probably, based on the form book, isn't necessarily always expected to win that match. At the moment, irrespective of what you had to have my big against eager, we've seen tennis of the highest level from Iger and she is a world number one and she is the current hold of two grand subtitles. So I think it is a case that she just swings. She really does. And knows that she has to play her best tennis. It's something Serena has always said that when you are number one or when you are someone who is kind of held in that esteem, you do have a target on your back. Everyone plays their best tendency against you or tries to every time that you play. And it's kind of you play against the most inspired people at their most inspired. And so I feel like we're back in a it is that exact situation that the higher ranked you are, the more dangerous she is to play against. She might very well be on the other end of that, you know, if her projection of the rankings continues. She's going to stay at number three, right? Never above. Yeah, exactly. Then she can continue to be at the top two players. Just lose gets everyone else. No. I mean, she did have a tough quarter final against Carolina mcavoy, and that could have potentially gone very differently because there was a set point in the first set between Rebecca and hitting overhead. She had set point and just completely, I mean, what were you thinking when you saw this shot Chris because a bit of a disaster? It really was. It was one of those shots where you just hope that they don't have Twitter accounts because you really don't want to see that one back again because it was a bit sort of meme central in terms of things that sort of proceeded unfortunate events. In terms of that match that being a key turning point, I guess it just shows that no matter what the situation, what the score is, just how important it is to make sure that you get the points you should be winning and you don't make too many unforced errors because how do you want that? It means you did win the next set 6 two milk of a and then obviously she went down in three sets, 6 four. So, I mean, it's a hard one to get over that one, but again, we're back in is obviously playing some really great tennis. And mukha was actually gone through to the first round to qualified for Miami. With the loss of, I think, just 6 games. So she has not dwelled on that and she has got herself. Another couple of wins and I think we both have her as potentially doing quite well in Miami cam. So although it was pretty difficult viewing for that particular shot, I'm looking forward to some more good tennis from her this week. Yeah, she seems to still be in good form and I'm sure that one shot won't put her off team march. She'll take a drive volley next time maybe. What do you think? Yeah. Sabalenka, despite losing in the final, she had some good wins throughout the week getting sakurai in the semis and coco Goff in the quarterfinals. She sort of destroyed Coca-Cola really for in love. With coco golf had previously had a very good record against sabalenka. I think she'd beaten her three out of their last four meetings, but sabalenka's all turning that around just overpowering her out hitting coco Goff really. What do you think went wrong for coco Goff in that match? I don't know if you saw much of their quarterfinal, but do you think it's just the forehand proving too much of an issue, especially against someone or sabalenka's caliber in her current form? Yeah, I think this was a case where there were no service issues. I think I saw that this was the first time all season the sava lenca has gone through a match without facing a single break point. So obviously this serve was working very nicely and then if she's seeing the ball like a football and she's really able to get her eye in, she's very difficult, especially if she when she gets that sort of first search. She's a great FrontRunner at times. So I think the matchup itself, I've always been surprised that sabal Anka has had such a poor record against golf. I think potentially it could be because sabalenka hasn't always given herself that much margin previously. I think something that's really clicked for her this year and the back end of last year is she isn't kind of having to paint the lines. She's not always having to hit the cover of the board. I think she's playing with a bit more top spin. And I think she's playing with a bit more margin. So if she's heading big targets and she's playing well and he's putting pressure on that forehand, it can break down. I don't think golf played too badly. I think it was a case that sabal and sort of played to her strength and really kind of played her weakness from Goff and a really kind of broke down in that sense and saving was playing well. So unfortunate, but I think we were all a bit surprised by the nature of that. And we weren't expecting a bagel and that one because coco is such a good defender. Yeah, I thought it would be a bit closer. It was quite up for that match, you know, both in the top ten and I guess you do often see very one sided score lines, but it seemed a bit of a shame, especially coco golf being on home turf as well. And another player as well, perhaps a bit disappointing, getting to the semifinals, but just sort of seeming to lose with a bit of a lackluster school lives, Maria thackeray doesn't surprise me that she got to a semifinal and lost looking at kind of stats Maria thackeray out of all WTA semifinals and finals put together. She's one 8 and lost 27 of them. Some great stats around that. If you're looking at all of the top ten players, she by far has the worst record in finals and semifinals, 22 .8%, 22.9%, I should say, of those semis and finals one, I think the next highest players on 47% and it's up at the top of 75%. So quite vast differences and I know we've said this many times before that she seems to get to semifinals and kind of combust a little bit or just she can't perform. It doesn't seem to have that extra extra level to get to. Do you think that's I feel like we've asked this question before as well, but do you think that just, should we stop talking about her as a major contender given the fact that she is not able to get over that next hurdle it seems?
The Tennis Podcast
"maria thackeray" Discussed on The Tennis Podcast
"Still tactically, you've got the capacity to try and think clearly and change things up whether you're able to execute that. Or not, they didn't seem to be the intention to do that, I suppose, or certainly I didn't see any evidence of that. But Elaine were back to come back to your original point, David. I don't think I have seen her put in a better start to finish performance from that. And I think part of that was, I can't believe I'm saying this because it's eager to, but you shouldn't take didn't make her uncomfortable really at any point. There was one rally, wasn't there where we said, oh, that's what she needs to be doing. She moved her. She moved her. Look, we're back in it is a better mover than you think she's going to be because you see those big ground strokes in the big serve and you see the size of her when you think back in the day she might not have been a great move because that would been enough would have been enough, but these days I think the game has evolved to such a stage that you can't afford to have your movement is a weakness. It can be a relative weakness, but it can't be an absolute weakness. And she moves decently. Does Elaine are back in her and so it's not just a question of getting her on the run a bit. You have to really, really work the angles. And then we want two points there which she did. And it was like, okay, that's it. But wasn't able to do it consistently at all and we're back in a just felt completely serene didn't feel like she was in any kind of battle out there, no questions for her to answer. The serve helps, I think, not just practically not just in reality, I think it helps mentally so much when you're playing somebody with the locker room or that you get has now when she steps out onto court, which of course would be diminished against someone like Rebecca, who's beaten her so recently, but still there, I think, just knowing you've got that get out of jail free card up your sleeve when you're under pressure, must just take away off your shoulders, but she was just sublime. Tonight, I thought, absolutely sublime. Yeah, and honestly, it's the type of performance that I think and I hope will make me just, I don't want to say respect for back in a more because I feel like I really do have respect for it. But at the start of this tournament, I was thinking she film tackle sabalenka was going to win it. And I think I probably thought that at the start of the Australian open as well. And, you know, she's the Wimbledon champion. She's your strain open finalist. She's now the Indian Wells finalist who knows maybe even she might win this tournament. It feels like everything she's doing is just elevating her in people's minds and making her more and more part of the main conversation and a performance like that. It was outstandingly good. I mean, it was so good. She had a beat in anyone, I think, today. So, I think Rebecca can apply better today than samba linka. I do. But sabalenka does dominate that. That head to head. She can meet power with power and turn it back on. Some great sounds coming from the crowd when Rebecca connected. I love that sort of gasp and the awe and oh, you know, how she got that one back and hit it that hard. I do think she has that sort of power and ball strike. It goes through you really. It makes you shudder. It doesn't look like a slow court, does it? No. When we're back in this playing. No. Yeah, Daniel Medvedev must not be liking what he's seeing tonight. It's really detracting from his case, the fact that sabal Ingram were back in it. So easily hitting. I'd quite like to get back in the gym, Daniel. I'd quite like to know whose ball goes through the air faster out of Rebecca and Medvedev's. I think Medvedev could probably tell you the I would imagine it is Rebecca's, but she's some player and she's getting better. She is. It's an awesome sight when she plays like that. So it is a replay of the Australian open final and that because arena sabalenka got the better of Maria thackeray in the first singles semifinal of the day, the most notable aspect of which was the ridiculous delay of 40 minutes to the match, but before it got going duty. Now that's faff. Failure of the sound system. Now I'm probably not the best person to talk about this because I was stranded live on air on court with absolutely no VTs to go to because we'd already played them all in the build up. Because this is the thing, the players had got on the buggy, they'd made the journey to the backstage area, which is literally feet away from the court entrance. They're there. The cameras are on them. And it's at the stage where they try and play the build up music, the bells tolling that they play before the players walk on. It was at that stage that they realized, oh, no bells are tolling. This is a bit of a problem. Should we check if Hawkeye lives back at all? That's not working either. I think we might have a problem here. And then you start the DJ starts malfunctioning, and you start hearing sort of two seconds snippets of unidentifiable dance music. Then the DJ sorts himself out and starts belting out David Bowie and you think, okay, we're ready to play some tennis here. Maria Zachary starts walking out onto court and then she has to sort of moonwalk back into the holding area. Because they realize actually we're not in any kind of position to start playing Dennis because the umpires microphone isn't working. The line calling system isn't working and those two things are quite big problems. And then they think they've got it figured out. Both players do walk onto core and then there's about 25 minutes of them on the court in the pounding sunshine and I know they had umbrellas, but it was blooming hot out there. Being incredibly good natured about this sort of indefinite delay to their match, they were sort of in this very weird nether zone of being told you've got to stay here, but we've got absolutely no idea when we're going to be able to fix this problem. That needs work for future so tennis. It was. And especially tennis now that has come to rely on the technology of the line calling system. I don't necessarily think this is an argument that we shouldn't use that technology. I still think, you know, generally it's a good thing. But I was a bit perplexed that because at one point they started putting out chairs for line judges. There was clearly a backup line judge crew available and that you met them probably. I met them. I met them in the tunnel on the way of course. It's an old job, isn't it? Being on standby to be a main judge. I believe. They'd been working on the junior tournament. Okay. But it took a while to scramble them. Yeah. I don't know. And actually, it is a bit of a concern because what a do you literally have a squad of backups who are invariably never going to be used. And then once in a while, they might be required. Yes, they might have had the junior tournament this time, but not everywhere as a junior tournament, does it? And I just, I do think, though, in that instance, well, they do need to have a plan B and I think if ten minutes goes by with no tennis, you've got to get them on and you've got to let them do the first set.
The Tennis Podcast
"maria thackeray" Discussed on The Tennis Podcast
"In the world do is make you feel constantly under pressure, make you panic, make you move out of your comfort zone, make you go for things that you wouldn't normally try and go for because you think you have normal game isn't good enough and I think just having the pressure reliever of that serve of the three points obviously in reality in practice is a huge advantage, but also I think mentally is a huge advantage when you're playing somebody like Schmidt. Yeah, it can calm you down, I think, because you're not thinking, oh my God, she's going to dominate my serve. Yeah. We're back in a nose. If she serves well, there's not actually anything that should be on the tech necessarily do about it. Yeah, I completely agree. Yeah, and it will be Rebecca against shonte in the 6 p.m. match tomorrow and the first of the women's semifinals will be at 3 p.m. before that there's the women's doubles semifinal. So the 3 p.m. semifinal will be arena sabalenka, who is numero uno in el race. Against Maria thackeray, who is in el race, but doesn't feature as prominently as the other three, but of course, has the Indian Wells pedigree, finalists last year and really impressed that she's, she somehow backed that up by reaching, reaching the semifinals this year. And in her words, she hasn't paid a good match yet. She said, I think I agree with that. I completely agree. I mean, she said it on the court, you know, after beating Petra kvitova, it was maybe a bit of a burn. But I can beat her. I mean, I do think that was really impressive from Sakura yesterday because she was, she was setting a breakdown and absolutely no need to panic in that situation. You know, it was exactly what she's doing and she did her thing. She got it back. And won the second set. But what I was impressed with was how easily she won the third set. You know, we've seen her get herself back into a match and then have another wobble and have to sort of mount the comeback again. But as soon as she got a grip on that match yesterday, she actually held onto it and didn't let a bit of it back in. Didn't fade and that was that was probably her best set of the tournament. So she goes into this match playing a little bit better. She's sort of fallen up in the decider and we're all going, oh, this is a catastrophe for Saturday. This school line is worst case scenario for hers. Clearly going to fall apart from here. What she wants to be is for one down in a decider. That's when she's got someone right where she wants them. Very impressive deciding set against against kavita, but very impressive. Defense of that run from last year. I'm so full of admiration for Maria thackeray and what she's doing and yet and yet every match still confirms my doubts about her. Yeah, she was my admiration. It confirms my doubt. She's winning in spite of her Achilles heel, really. But I just wonder whether maybe the pressure will be off in this semifinal, and she can just relax, swing. She's expected to lose. And I think that might make a dangerous. She's supposed to have been out of this tournament four times. Quite honestly. And I mean, the emotion in her eyes, yesterday, when she got over the line, it was really moving, I thought, and we were in a room full of people at the time watching it. And everybody was won over by her. Because you can feel and see her struggle, even if you don't know her backstory in it, and even if you haven't seen the Netflix documentary and heard her describe what she goes through because of her desperation to succeed and her short falls within that. Even in the microcosm of a single match, you can see how much it means to her and good honor for getting this far. And she's got a chance. I mean, she's the underdog for sure, but she's got a chance. Well, she won their meeting at the WTA finals in Fort Worth, didn't she, Maria thackeray 6 two 6 four. It's just, as we discussed with samba link, head to head record against Goff the other day. Irrelevant. How relevant is it? Sabalenka is a different prospect now. And I asked sabalenka about that after she'd beaten golf in the quarterfinals yesterday. And she confirmed that she said I'm not thinking about those past matches. I'm different now. And the words she uses for her sort of change is how much calm she is. And that definitely comes across. But as a viewer, it's a much more relaxing experience watching sabalenka now because I trust her. And I didn't used to. I used to expect extremes, you know, brilliant or a sort of torrent of arm forced errors. And she's not lost any of the brilliance. You know, she's still just as devastating and just as powerful. But if she does start making errors, she doesn't let it run away from her. She reigns it in, keeps calm, and it's such a difference. And of course, the other thing is her serve. I know that I know that come the back end of last season, she'd improved it a lot already. But I realized yesterday that I watched the whole arena sabalenka match without even thinking about her serve.
The Tennis Podcast
"maria thackeray" Discussed on The Tennis Podcast
"You from tennis podcast towers Indian Wells on the second Thursday of the BNP Paribas open 2023 where. Our semifinal lineups in both the men's and the women's tournaments are set, the quarterfinals have been taking place today and the yesterday and what we have for you is fire emoji fire emoji fire emoji. We've got arena sabalenka against Maria thackeray and eager field tech against Elena that is three of the three leaders of el race in 2023 in sabalenka, she on second Rebecca. And we're saccharine, who's also quite good. Very good. And it's also the three reigning Grand Slam champions in the women's draw. And the men's semifinals will be daniil Medvedev against Francis TFO and then Yannick sinner against Carlos alcaraz. Can I have a yes please? Okay. Sure. Yes please. Yes, please. No notes. No, notes. We will chat about all those quarterfinals that we've seen, but yeah, it is shaping up to be a pretty special weekend actually, I think, David. I think if you were to write down your preferred semifinal lineup, it would be pretty much that at the start of the tournament. I can't think of maybe we might throw an Andy Murray in there or someone like that, but that is a blockbuster lineup. As I said before, no, no. It's going to be a quick podcast. David, it's going to be like the good old days. Before we got shown up by Matt. Yeah, when we just chuck opinions around without much heaven. Before we get into the 8 quarterfinals, that is right. 8 quarter finals, yes, two times four is 8. Well done, where are we good on this show? Before we get into all of that, big news. Yeah. Very big news.
The Passing Shot Tennis Podcast
"maria thackeray" Discussed on The Passing Shot Tennis Podcast
"Or do you think she could pull off the unthinkable? She's gone a bit under the radar, hasn't she so far this year. She hasn't been getting that many wins, but she does love to play against one of those top ranked players. She won't be intimidated by the nature of that situation. I think potentially it's going to be one way traffic, purely because the nature of the court and the nature of iga is that she really does get back. And I think she probably is the best defender on the tour and the best mover on the tour. And christia is all about hitting winners. And so I think if you're able to do a similar thing in terms of the right accounting match, I think she will be able to weave her web and make that very difficult for Costa to get the ball to the court. Yeah, I think so. I quite like a bit of Serrano stare. I've seen her quite a bit of grand slams and she's always involved with all the very entertaining matches, but I'm not so sure that the one against film tape is going to be quite so close in entertaining. What I think would be the more entertaining clash from this side of the drawer is the look of Rebecca quarterfinal because I think that's quite an interesting match up Rebecca are doing very well to come through the draw so far in straight sets and also coming through beaten as a ranker and von drew so far, but we know muck of our on her day can cause an upset as well a bit like a castella but perhaps a slightly different level. Joel had predicted Rebecca to win the title. She's looking good so far. So where do you think we're back in is going to fare in this tournament? Do you think she could be the one maybe going further to upset Sri Lanka's apple cart maybe? Well, I think the nature of the court, it does suit a player who might not naturally be the quickest of movies to give them a bit more time to get behind the ball. And that's why I think it looks like ego has got so much time. So I think if you're a big hitter and she is, and you're able to kind of play it almost a little bit like a clay court in that sense. I think it's going to be a really interesting encounter. I think that match with milk of earth. I think that would be particularly interesting. At this stage in the quarterfinal, and I think whoever wins that match will be highly entertaining. But we're back in had some injury woes coming in. We weren't sure there was a question mark and I said Joel, it was very bold of him to predict. We're back in it to win this one because she did have to pull out of her last match prior to this. But she's beaten Grand Slam champion in canon, former champion, but then obviously a bit more straight and against. But obviously, she had a great result. And Dallas. So she's beating some form players and making it look pretty straightforward. So I would say that's probably my prediction for this area that I reckon that's probably what we're going to end up having an eager feeling take matter. We would definitely have that. She's been split into two. Is there any way to compete here as a self maybe? You can delve into that if you want to unpack what's going on there. But no, we're back in it. I think it will be her kryptonite in the sense that. The battle of the slam champions as well, really. And just I have to move before we move on to the other part of the draw, Chris. Sloane Stephens against Sofia kenin that did catch my eye in the drawer. Two former Grand Slam champions to American players. Straight sets Ken and I assume you got up in the middle of the night to watch this match as well. As you do for Sloan. It was unfortunate. I think canon did play very well, but I just think we've been in a bit of a tricky spot with Sloane this last couple of years in terms of what's going to happen with a game and where her commitment is to tennis. And I think it's not as focused as she could be at some of these moments. I'm hoping we get a clay court resurgence like we did last year with a quarterfinal in Paris, but Miami, she's won it before. So I'm staying optimistic in that sense that there's still a little bit of hardcore hope left this year. Yes, let's see what she does. Over the next half of the sunshine double. And then let's look at the other results from the ladies side because Australian open champion arena sapa linker. She's doing well. She has benefited from a walk over, but she had a tough match against Barbara critique of her, who I think you were tipping quite a bit, weren't you Chris of late. But it was a link that came out on top in their round of 16 clash. What did she make of that match and sabalenka's performance? Well, I was watching it yesterday and I do think it was bit topsy turvy. I don't think either of those players would say that they played their best tenant in that one. Both had moments where they played well. It was quite stop and start in terms of the tennis and be a missed second server turn and then a winner of a first serve. So it was one of those sorts of matches where it was about getting the win and winning ugly if you needed to. So not pretty, but finding a way to win is obviously what the champions do and what the champions do best and sabalenka was able to edge that. It was super tight in that final set. It was 5 four and it went to juice in that game. I can't quite remember there's a breakpoint or not, but it could have gone either way that clash. So I think a bit of revenge there from what happened in Dubai where she actually bagels, critique of that first set and then went on to lose that match. So having picked up a relatively straightforward first set, she must have been thinking surely not again. But no, I think it was a solid performance. And she's moved to 15 one. For the season. So I think we kind of forget that obviously she did pick up that title prior to Australia. And then I think a lot of people would love to see on tech final. I think that's what I got, I think. Suddenly you're getting it all right. It hasn't happened yet, but yeah, she wants to stop a link virtually unbeaten for the year. So her good form continues. And her serving form really as well. Compared to last year when she was couldn't get a serve in. But she'll be playing playing coco Goff in the court of final and the other quarterfinal is between Maria thackeray and Petra kvitova. Convicted of a beating Jesse pagola, I woke up this morning looked at the live scores and saw that they had like an epic tiebreak to 24 point final set tie break in that match. Which was crazy because of saving four match points. Match of the tournament possibly, Chris.
The Tennis Podcast
"maria thackeray" Discussed on The Tennis Podcast
"But there are certain players who can always just exploit her weaknesses and one of the big problems is that the main one is the world number one and the English film tech whenever she plays golf has such a comfort level in that match up and as you said without sort of big changes, I don't really see how Goff turns that head to head round. No, I mean, to be honest, it has a bit of a feel of federal erotic, or something like that. What is it, I don't know how many it is now, but they've never had a close match. I don't think. It's 5 or 6, I think. Yeah, they've been very one sided. But and just the other thing on that came out of golf's press conference that caught my attention was the point made by one of the journalists asking the question that an American woman hasn't won here since 2001. And obviously a large reason of that is because of the boycott that Serena and Venus didn't play this event for so long, but you know we had Taylor Fritz winning last year on the men's side and you know I feel like I feel like Indian Wells sort of should have homegrown champions in a way. That is such a long, long drought and the long, the huge number of great American female players that there are at the moment, you know, it would be pretty amazing if golf could win this tournament. I think that would be a really big deal. The other two women that we spoke to impressed today were Maria thackeray, I went to her press conference after about the Netflix episode that she appeared in which obviously focused on her run to the final at this tournament last year and in particular about her the vulnerability that she laid bare in that episode and the fact that a lot of tennis players just aren't prepared to talk about those vulnerabilities because they think it could harm them on the match court that it sort of handing in advantage to an opponent and she said I just didn't want to do it that way. You said if I was going to say yes to being in this thing then fill honesty was the only way to do it, which I which I really respect, but she did talk about how it's funny in terms of results and her game, I don't see much difference in emery as this year to last year. I'm sort of thinking of her in quite a similar way, but she sees herself in a very different place mentally this year to last year. I think it's possible that most of last year was a hangover from the match point squandered at the French Open in that semifinal in 2021. Was 21, wasn't it? Oh, the pandemic years. What a blur. And of course, that's something that she talked about a lot in that Netflix episode, isn't it? How does it three night? She didn't sleep for. I mean, well, you can tell us what that's like. That sounds like. David's like, only three. Horror story. I've had those days. No, I do. I do wonder what would happen with Maria Zachary if she could fully conquer her mental fragilities and anxiety and the way she kind of comes apart at the seams when she gets too uptight. And I look, it's the most human normal natural thing in the world to feel those nerves. But if she could find a way to harness everything, she's got. I still think there's a better player in there than we've seen so far. So I don't know. And I want it for her because it matters so much to her. You know, when you hear Maria thackeray talk about tennis, you're looking at somebody who's in love with the sport. And he was in love with the idea of being the best. And so far, as good a career as she's had, and she's had a really good career. It isn't what she wants yet. And so I kind of hope she gets that because nobody would love it more than she would. Maybe arena sibling. Yeah, I mean, there are look, there are loads of players that that's the new bar. I do love the appetite that a lot of these players have for it, but with Zachary, she puts me a little bit on edge the way that sometimes maybe she found tech does. It's just this feeling that she wants it too much. She's so desperate for it. She then can't control it. In those in those moments, given the type of personality she is. But be very interesting to see whether she has on locked something. Anything interesting in Zachary's drawl, Matt? Well, she's in the bottom half, so she's in with quick cheek of a pagola sabalenka. So she's avoided shrimp tech. Modern players. Everyone else. I was trying to put a positive spin on her drawer. Right. In the same half, no. She's avoided gibber, although I don't know how much of an avoid that is. I mean, the main question I wanted answered from your press conference, whether she's fit or not. Beyond so I felt like we got was fit, but not match fit. The injuries healed, but she's very undercooked in terms of practice and training and matches. Yeah. And she sort of said that she slightly accelerates her comeback. Like, ideally, I don't think she would be playing now, but it's Indian well. You have to start somewhere. Let's do it. I'm fit, but as you said, match fit is maybe a different thing. I didn't leave that press conference thinking on shiba was ready, really. Yeah, same. I didn't leave sort of worried that she was going to do herself further harm by playing here. But I did sort of think, depending on the draw, she could be there for the taking. I don't know who might take that taking. Well, as a ranker, is a potential fourth round opponent. Well, she loves it in Indian Wells. Absolutely. And by the way, starts again, shall we Rogers, who was a winner today on that stadium. That's not easy. But by the way, we just watching the Alicia parks having got very heavily defeated by tough one. That was not a good watch really. It's a tough watch. Having gone through quite a rigmarole in order to have that watch. 48 hours worth of attempting to get the tennis on the telly. Anyway. We finally cracked it. Have you noticed that the differential in temperature at this place, depending on what time of day it is.
The Passing Shot Tennis Podcast
"maria thackeray" Discussed on The Passing Shot Tennis Podcast
"Yeah, I mean, yeah, the first person that came to my mind was Novak Djokovic because, you know, we've seen with the PT PA forward thinking to sort of lead and get involved in things. And I can totally see him being like a future president of Serbia because he's I think nationally he is a hero. The favored son of Serbia and I think if there was an election, he would win by a landslide if he was to put himself forward at home in Serbia. So that was the first person that came to my mind. Chris, what about you? Well, I've gone for a keep it in the family kind of approach to this one. I've gone for Maria thackeray because interesting fact her boyfriend constantinos mitsotakis. Is actually the son of the Greek prime minister. Well, I thought potentially that might give her that insight into what happens in the political sphere. And I think that could be unlocked. Semifinal hoodoo then, is that what you're saying? Well, I was also thinking, what would be a positive thing that could happen off the court for Zachary? To avoid some of the pitfalls that can happen on the tennis court. I think once you've been elected, obviously, you can get yourself into some trouble, but it's just one election and then she can relax a little bit, hopefully for a few years. But I think the Sakura would be my back there. I don't think you want a politician you can get in and then just relax for a few years. For a while, that's what I mean. A final set tiebreak there out of the equation. Talking of tiebreak, that brings us on to very nicely. A new event that's been announced called the Eisenhower cup, which actually was not really a new event per se. It's kind of the annual pre Indian world's tie break tens exhibition that normally happens. But they're doing a mixed doubles format this year. And being called the Eisenhower cup. But there's some quite fun pairings actually being announced. It's not necessarily done by nationality because we've got some sort of mixed national pairs. But we've got the likes of arena sabalenka, playing with Taylor Fritz. We've got anja board teaming up with caspar rude. We've got future prime minister of Greece, Maria thackeray, with Stefan sits pass. And egis will take an Uber. And emirati cardio is playing with Cameron nori. So yeah, lots going on. It's quite fun. Joel, what do you make of the eyes and how are I think it could be, yeah, quite fun, quite interesting. It made me realize actually, like, there's not much, when you get to these big high profile events, there's not really much mixed action kind of going on when both the ATP and WTA tours meet. It's very, oh, we've got men's singles and men's doubles. And we've got women singles and women's doubles, but I don't know. Is there an opportunity given, you know, the more of a spotlight that mixed and the combined format is coming under, is there an opportunity for more, I'm not saying like massive drawers, but is there an opportunity for like a 16 16 person 16, 16, 16 person mixed doubles draw perhaps a future event is what I was thinking off the back of this, because some of these pairings are really fun. I know it's going to be kind of exhibition style, but I think people will get quite into it. And I want to see how she on tekken her cash get on because I thought they were one of the stories of the united cup earlier on in the season. So be curious to see how they do and also radical and cam nori. Yeah, Chris, is there any particular pairing that really captures your eye? Amongst the ones announced. Well, for those of you who follow us on Twitter, quick plug for tennis weekly pod on Twitter. But I have been tweeting about this when I saw it. And I was a bit of a bit of a tongue in cheek, tweet, I did say my prediction was that Casper and ons will lose in the final. I know. It's much more above board than that normally. But I think that will be an exciting one. I'm looking forward to the flare of arms, the shot making of arms in a tiebreak with the reliability of a player you can dependability of Casper. I think those two personalities, I'm looking to see how that gels. I think that would be particularly interesting. But if I had to bet money on it, Jesse pagola is cleaning up on the doubles court. I think from her title in Doha, defending the title, and I think put it with anyone and I'd probably think that she's got a good shot on the doubles court with the play that she's got, but the forms she's got at the moment. Yeah, I have to say, I think the pigula pool pairing might be quite good, especially given Tommy Paul good format in Australia. And yeah, pagola and Goff won the Doha doubles just last week, so defending their title there. But this is all for those of you who don't know what tie break tens is. It happens all in the space of one evening. There's first the ten point where I break matches and it's the sort of elimination drawer. So 7 matches all in the course of one evening. So it's really a fun event and yeah, I think it's nice that they're doing it and I like you said y'all I would love to see maybe yes and small mixed draws at these kind of mixed masters series events. I think that would be really fun. If they're going to be I think it would be interesting to see how competitive they are. I just feel like if you're playing with players of your same nation and you're going to be playing against players of the same nation. I feel like it's hard to take that competitive element out of it. So I'd be curious to see how intensely they take it on the eve of Indian Wells proper. Absolutely. Let's just look at what we've got this week. Has already been some results actually in play.
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"maria thackeray" Discussed on The Passing Shot Tennis Podcast
"Gonna leave it, but listeners, if you want to go have a listen, it is on Spotify, just type in Lorenzo's sonic and you can go, you can go here in all its glory. I think it's, I agree with you, Chris. I think it's a decent song. And who knows? Maybe he is thinking because I'm thinking, you know, players love to come out. You're a vision. It's very Eurovision game. It is. I'm not thinking Eurovision. I'm thinking, you know, players coming out to walk on music in specifically indoor arenas. If I'm Lorenzo sonic, for me, that's free PR. I'm telling the DJ, play my song, otherwise I'm not coming out. I'm not sure you'd want just a second unless you're winning the match, otherwise it's over before it started. Yeah, bad Amon. No, I love that. I'm gonna go give his channel, listen. As soon as we finish recording, and I suggest our listeners do the same whether you like it or not, check it out. Let's look at the actual tennis now, but one player who, yeah, it was probably on and off the court in just a second, likes on a go song. Was eager to contact because she won her title in Doha without breaking a sweat, really. She was on and off very sharpish in all her matches. A winning the title for the loss of just 5 games across the whole tournament, a lot of players would lose 5 games in a set, let alone across four matches. She actually only plays three matches. She had a walk over and a buy in the first round. But when she did play and take to the court, you know, it was 6 love 6 one over Daniel Collins, then she had a 6 love 6 one over Veronica coup d'etat, and then a 6 three 6 love against Jesse pegula. Now these are not players who are down in the dumps of the rankings. They are players who are at the higher echelons of the game. Chris, was this just beyond tech back to her absolute best dominant form or does this indicate a wider problem, perhaps with the fact that players of a similar ranking are just not able to compete when Sri Lanka is playing decent tennis. It's a bit of both I reckon, clearly she was playing well, but the conditions in Doha are quite challenging in the sense that you do get some swirling wind. And I think it's about your ability to be able to adapt to it. And I think that's something that eager is very good at. We've seen her when in the very cold October in Paris, I think it was. When a lot of players were struggling with those conditions, I was very surprised by the Collins result, particularly that is very surprised because she's not a player that kind of gives you a win. Normally she'll find a way to dig deep or should be able to lift her game. So I think she must have been playing some pretty exceptional tennis, even though it doesn't look like much resistance was put up by some of these top players. Sounds like there was more wind resistance than resistance. That's a good way to sum it up, Joe. But I was a little bit disappointed. Yeah, we didn't get the schwinn tech bench quarterfinal. I mean, we should have got shion tech Azarenka. I don't bench did immensely well to kind of come through that very long match. I mean, she lost the first set 6 one and has a rank of really did have it on her racket. But yeah, I was a little bit disappointed. We didn't get that match up because I did think that those were, you know, they are two of the players who world number one and Ben chic probably one of the most formed players on the tour at the moment. So maybe bencic would have been able to take to the court would have given her a better run for her money. But yeah, I was interested to read about Sri tech and her mental approach and how she was talking about, you know, focusing not necessarily on the WTA rankings based off of the last year results, but actually just on the race, which is just your results from 2023. And I thought I was really interesting perspective because we're all talking about, oh, how many points has she got to defend? Is that pressure going to get to her? Well, it sounds like she's just using this to kind of block that out and just think, well, I've just got this year. I'm not going to compare and look into the past. All I'm going to do is focus and look ahead and perhaps again, that's what has helped her in this tournament and just focus on the situation at hand. Yeah, I think that's quite a sensible strategy actually, because every year, whatever we're doing in our lives, we're a different person, you know, from month to month, year on year, we have different experiences, different things we can build on. So it's kind of unfair, I think, to compare yourself to exactly that time last year and what you were doing, just like I wouldn't want to compare myself to the me of four years ago because probably quite different. Due to the experiences we've had in between. So I think that's a really sensible strategy and I think it will enable her to just focus on that given match. And we know that that is when she is her most destructive when she doesn't have all that other sort of all those other thoughts clouding her headspace. But Chris, what did you make of, I mean, you spoke about it is a bit of both. It's beyond it being very dominant, but also the strength of the women's film, but I mean, as a ticket holder, attending Sean Tex matches, like, you would not really want to see the world number, would you? But just in terms of like having kind of value for money, you'd probably be wanting to go and see Maria thackeray play Caroline Garcia, because I went down to the wire, for example. Providing a lot more kind of entertainment, if you like. But yeah, I mean, what did you make of the fact that Sri Lanka has just claimed this new kind of statistic? I think the first player this century to win so few games on en route to the title. I mean, do you think we're going to see that statistic beaten at any time soon? Will she beat her own record? Will it be four games next tournament? Well, I think it's something where people do love to see eager playing well. And so I think having had a period where she hasn't had that dominance, I want to enjoy the winning streak. No one was bored with that at all. I think that was kind of headline news. So seeing her get back onto the tour and playing well and picking up the title is something that people would definitely welcome. I think the nature of it is added some excitement because people do enjoy when eager is handing out baked goods, but then at the same time, as you say, we've just been talking about the strength of the top ten and strength of the women's game and then eager rocks up in Doha and kind of makes a mockery of some of the comments that we've made because it's clear that no one is in her league when she's playing well on an outdoor on an outdoor court. I think on an indoor court it's probably a little bit different. If I was a ticket holder, it's great to see a player playing well, I prefer to see two players playing well.
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"maria thackeray" Discussed on The Passing Shot Tennis Podcast
"I'm going quite strong after that. So yeah, Potter paper getting her second title of the season out in lintz. We did have the top seed Maria thackeray actually falling to martic in the semifinals and Potter paper coming through against von drews of got off to a bit more of a decent start to the season hasn't she as well. Chris, what did you make of Potter pavers performance this week out in Austria? I was impressed with her, I think she's someone who after she broke through in Istanbul last year winning the title on the clay over there. She could have better in that final and was very, very impressive and I think people thought she might do a little bit more. And so I think it's great to see that she's able to put some results together and kind of live up to some of the expectation that was there. I think she's got a great kind of all court game. I think she can swing really freely of both sides. And she's a good match player. And she goes out and she really brings her a game to her opponents, even when she's not necessarily playing the cleanness of tennis. So I thought she did very well this week. I thought the level in the march sakurai match in the semifinal was much higher than in the other semifinal with von dreux of so this is a shame for me that martyrs wasn't able to bring her top game because in the highlights I watched from that match. Some of the lobster was hitting some of the drop shots, some of the court craft that Marty had in that. It was just a shame that kind of got dragged into a baseline slugfest and she didn't really end up on the right side of that for her game. But I think it's a good result nonetheless for a young player. Yeah, and Zachary falling again at that semifinal situation. We've seen it before, sakurai and semifinals. Joel, is there anything Zachary needs to be doing? She just seems to be reaching that limit of the almost a semifinal ceiling. What do you think she should do at this stage to kind of get over that dark? Yes, it's tricky, isn't it? I think you look at this drawer and to me it's a bit like sinner this week. Sinner was able to just come through. I think what's straight sets didn't drop a set, won the tournament with ease. And I was looking at this drawer in relation to Sakura, and I was thinking, she really should be just strolling through the straw, having no dramas at all. And lifting the title at the end of the week, but it's not just clicking for her and I do think she just sort of panics in the stages, particularly when she does come in as the top seed, highest ranked player, whether she just feels that pressure and it perhaps builds throughout the week. But I think I've got to say that Petra martic played very, very well against Zachary, Zachary was playing, I thought, very good tennis. I watched some of the match. She had earlier on against Donna vekic, who had a very good run at the Australian open. So martic did bring her a game, but for me, Zachary, whether she just has the weight of the expectation of being the number one C get to her, the more it gets into the tournament, she just needs to approach I think every match like maybe it's just like the first round match because I feel like she's more relaxed in those earlier rounds. Yeah, I think that's a yeah, I think I would second that. But I mean, so we're getting to the semifinals. We can't be some players would love to get the semifinals. So it's just that we know she's got the talent to kind of go that next step and it's just frustrating tournaments like this that she's not quite able to do it. Let's have a quick look back because we do have some tournaments from two weeks ago just quickly to touch upon because, well, we had the Thailand open, linju beat lycia. It's when her first career title, that was a straight sets victory. And zoo was the player who actually had quite a good start to the season, getting to the round of 16. At the AO, I think she was the one that came up against Azarenka who had very high praise for her after that match saying she's going to be top 20. So she seems to be doing the business so far in 2023. Getting her first career title and yeah, making inroads on the tour, so she, I think, will be into the top 50 soon. Well, she's in the top 15 now, actually. As a result of that, Chris, just one word from you Bianca andreescu. I see she fell against the eventual finalist. Anything you want to add about Bianca's time in Thailand. I know you're a big fan. It looked like she had a really nice time in Thailand. It's what I'd say. Was it too nice? She hadn't been before. And I think she really enjoyed it. So I think I'll leave it with that. Oh, nice. I mean, perhaps more fittingly for the podcast. And one of our players that we do sort of follow here at tennis weekly, Caroline Garcia, she was playing at home in Leon, she got through to the final. She I would say was the hands down favorite for the final, she'd be going pretty well or all week coming through only dropping one set on route to that final playing at home, home fans, up against Alyssia parks of the United States and when I went on to check the score, I think I was out and about when I wanted to check the score and I was quite flabbergasted actually that gossip didn't win. It was 7.675 to Alicia park. She lost in straight sets. And Alyssa parks, yet another first time winner on the WTA Tour. Joel, I know you're a bit of a fan of Alicia parks. I think you've told us both before that you think she's one to watch. So were you quite feeling a bit smug when she came through and got her first title in Lyon? A bit smug and also, I'm not gonna lie a little bit surprised because this was Caroline Garcia. She's been in a great run of form over the last 12 months or so, playing at home and she was really using the crowd I feel to try and intimidate her opponent, but yeah, parks has been I've been reading about how she's being touted as almost alongside coco Goff as the two brightest lights for the future of the women's game, particularly in the United States. And you can just see her, I've been reading about how she been growing up idolizing Serena Williams and really kind of using that as the cornerstone of a game and you can see the power that she can bring to the core, particularly on her serve. If it goes in, it is very impressive and it is very, very hard to get back and when you have such a big booming serve, like I think park does, it makes you very, very tricky to be defeated if you can keep your first percentage up when you're on an indoor court like this and I just think she played the big points very, very well and it was great to see I think she's announced herself. I think she'll be looking to make this season a breakthrough season. You know, she's won this title, which is great, and I'm excited to see if she can kick on, you know, go back to the states, sunshine double coming up, certainly make a name for yourself and she'll be high on confidence and belief with this result. Well, she did lose in length in the first round of the next match that she played just to kind of rain on your face.