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Showing posts from 2019

Winner takes it all?

For me, the third Grand Slam of the year was about Barbora Strycova, a Czech player who mostly goes under the radar. Our focus is often distracted by Pliskova and Kvitova and we often fail to acknowledge other excellent Czech players. Vondrousova is another example of this. Journalists merely report that Barty ran over Vondrousova to win the French Open title. Instead, they should have been impressed that Vondrousova was the first teenager in a decade to reach a grand slam final (Wozniacki 2009 US Open) and the first teenager in 12 years to make it to the French Open final (RG) (Ivanovic 2007). It is also an impressive leap to go from having only 1 WTA title to her name in 2017 pre-injury comeback, to being a grand slam runner-up. Vondrousova is an amazing player to look out for in tournaments and is still only just 20 years old so should have plenty of years ahead of her on the tour. What 19 year old male tennis player has managed this in recent years? When the women’s game had a ...

Athletes and Visas: Shouldn’t Athletes be Fast-tracked?

Most of us, I should imagine, think athletes receive visas quickly so they can travel around the world competing in their chosen sport. So, it was a great surprise to me to discover that Russian tennis player Svetlana Kuznetsova was left waiting for her visa for the US Open Series leading up to the US Open. This visa failed to materialise, so forcing her to withdraw from the Citi Open, Washington DC, to avoid being penalized for an unintentional no-show. She has been travelling as a pro tennis player for 19 years or so. So why now? Not only is she a famous, two time, grand slam singles winner (US Open; RG) but an incredible athlete. One only has to look at her Instagram videos to see her off-court and on-court training to appreciate this. It is, I believe, the most impressive training regime I’ve ever seen on social media. Indeed, if it were not for social media we would not be aware of Kuznetsova’s plight. Had she not posted her visa problems on Instagram, albeit a little too late...

Nadal Makes History Again!

Rafa Nadal is awesome, the greatest player ever, in my opinion, not just for his ATP and Grand Slam titles but also his contribution to the history of tennis. In 2019 alone, Rafa has achieved a record 34 Masters 1000 titles and become the only person in history to win the most amount of titles at a particular Grand Slam when he won his 12 th Roland Garros Grand Slam title. But what makes him especially impressive for me is his incredible athleticism, reaction time, and speed around the court (which seems to me even more sublime this year at Roland Garros). In addition, Rafa has a rarer talent, which I call the rubber ball effect. By this I mean that he has an incredible bounce effect in his explosive power movement and running on court, as well as an unbelievable flexibility enabling him to turn his body every which way yet still have power on his shot. One example of his speed, flexibility and variety of shot making which I enjoyed at RG was his Bahrami shot, as I call it, when, ...

Own Brain Bingo

Congratulations to Karolina Pliskova on her Foro Italico title in Rome, despite having a mysterious virus in her bloodstream. I’m really hoping she recovers fully from the virus and it doesn’t reoccur. We don’t want to lose her on the tour! Sadly Lucie Safarova is retiring after the French Open as a result of mysterious viruses over the last few years that doctors struggle to understand and treat. I’m hoping she has a great time at the French Open! I don’t watch men’s tennis but I couldn’t help but notice Nadal winning the Foro Italico and making history while at it – 34 th Masters 1000 title! Wow! Congratulations to Nadal – hoping he wins the French Open! I also want to congratulate Petra Kvitova on her Porsche Tennis Grand Prix (trophy plus car!) win in Stuttgart. She seemed extremely pleased that she won it without her coaches present at that tournament. They were left behind in the Czech Republic. This made me wonder if own brain bingo coaching is the way to go! Halep is...

#lesbianvisibilityday2019 and stereotyping women athletes

Tennis is full of lesbians according to Margaret Court. If true, that would be great but, unfortunately, visible ‘out’ lesbians are thin on the ground. However, there is one among the last 18 winners of the last 18 tournaments 1 . Leaving aside the strangeness of these rotating results, let’s talk about why van Uytvanck 2 is the only ‘out’ lesbian out of the 18 winners. I was lucky enough to grow up seeing and admiring many lesbian players, such as Amelie Mauresmo, Jana Novotna, Hana Mandlikova, Lisa Raymond, Gigi Fernandez, Conchita Martinez, Rennae Stubbs, and, of course Martina Navratilova later on in her career playing doubles. So, I find it especially odd that there are now less visible lesbians on tour. Indeed, it’s become fashionable to advertise and give media coverage to women tennis players entering heterosexual marriages. We don’t have an opportunity to celebrate lesbian marriages of current or past players in the same way, despite gay marriage becoming legalised in ma...

Congratulations Martina Hingis on the birth of Lia!

Congratulations to Martina Hingis on the birth of her daughter, Lia, last month. Love the photo she released on social media of baby Lia in pink dungarees, looking absolutely gorgeous 1 . The way Martina is cradling her daughter in her hands reminds me of the artistic photos of babies by Anne Geddes. She looks amazing so soon after giving birth! What’s the secret? Staying fit hiking in the mountains? Great to see Martina taking a gender neutral approach with Lia by taking her for a walk (or is it a jog?) in her blue pram 2 . Looking forward to seeing Lia holding her first tennis racquet! Maybe by the age of 2 she’ll be volleying at the net? Lucky Lia having a multi-grand slam winning genius tennis mother! Martina is also such a natural with children, as can be seen in the photos from Kids’ Day at the Samsung Open in Lugano, Switzerland, where she’s helping them acquire tennis skills 3 . She’s clearly enjoying herself and, despite being such a tennis legend, is giving these ch...

Where are all the gay and trans people in tennis?

Following on from my LGBT+ History Month blog post this time last year and an article in which Djokovic highlights the complete invisibility of gay men on the ATP Tour 1 , I would like to ask, why is there such a low percentage of current lesbian and bi players on the WTA (and none of the current top women players are openly gay)? In addition, apart from Renee Richards (who hung up her racquet back in 1981, never having won a title in 4 years of professional tennis), where are the trans tennis players? This is despite the LTA issuing guidelines 2 on how GB tennis can create an inclusive and welcoming environment for trans and transgender players, as well as all those who work in the sport and spectators, in line with the Equality Act 2010. Unlike the common usage of the term transgender, which encompasses a variety of gender identities, it appears that the LTA’s definition of trans specifies people who are at any stage of the gender reassignment stage, which includes those who ...

Looking forwards….onward and upwards!

The Australian Open feels a long time ago already, although it’s only been just over a couple of weeks! I was pleased Kvitova and Karolina Pliskova did so well. Kvitova was runner-up (taking her to world number 2) and Pliskova was a semi-finalist (taking her to world number 5). Pliskova is playing great tennis with her new all-female coaching team. She has hit upon an important aspect of being on the tour: it’s not enough to be great in practice, it’s about taking your form in practice into your matches 1 . How does one do that? I can identify with her description of the frustrations you can feel in matches. It’s not experience-based because even Pliskova has suffered from it and I think it’s something we all suffer from at every level of the tour. Two main problems, which Pliskova talks about in her AO QF post-match press conference, are negative thinking and playing less aggressively as a result. When tennis players talk about playing aggressively, they don’t mean what is usua...

Pliskova and Kvitova have done it again!

I’m disappointed that Serena is out of the Australian Open but pleased she beat the world number 1, Halep because it’ll boost her world ranking and seeding in future tournaments. However I’m delighted that the Czech women, Kvitova and Ka. Pliskova, are marching on and make up 50% of the semi-finalists. Here’s hoping for an all Czech final! They both deserve to win the title. Both are playing even better than last year. Pliskova played excellently against Osaka in Tokyo last year so has the game to beat her. However, Osaka may have tried to learn from it so could play slightly differently this time around. The key for Pliskova, I feel, is to get out of the starting blocks quickly and keep up the pressure on Osaka because she does throw her racquet about when upset and losing, as she did this tournament against Hsieh. Osaka made a comeback in that match by improving the speed of her footwork, making more small, adjusting steps, meaning she moved better and transferred her weigh...

Congratulations to Karolina Pliskova and Petra Kvitova for their Jan. 2019 title wins!

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In my previous post, I ended last season celebrating the Czech Fed Cup win over USA in the final. I start 2019 by celebrating two big title wins for two top Czech women players: Karolina Pliskova won Brisbane and Kvitova won Sydney International! Congratulations to both! May they collect many more titles this year! The sad news for Czech tennis is the retirement, due to ill health (from viruses/reactive arthritis), of Lucie Safarova, a hugely talented all-court player who was great to watch. I’ll miss her! Another loss for the game is Agnieszka Radwanska who has also retired due to a foot injury that, like Andy Murray’s hip, doctors are unable to repair, especially for the strains of competitive tennis. I’ll miss her creative shots! Her good friend, Caroline Wozniacki, is dealing with rheumatoid arthritis but is excited to be defending her Australian Open title. The Australian Open main draw starts now, in an hours’ time or so. So, on a fun note before they start, h...