Worth noting that, in recent history, Ramos gave Djokovic an unsportsmanlike for tossing his racquet at Wimbledon (QF). He also gave him a warning for coaching in the Cecchinato match. He also gave Cecchinato one.
He was not *picking on* Serena.
Q: "Tennis is like a roller-coaster ride, isn't it?"
Rublev: "It's not rollercoaster. It's like they put gun to your head. Roller-coaster is much easier"
Less than two months ago,
@Stako_tennis
was practicing on Court 3 at the
@AustralianOpen
, ahead of the final events of his long tennis career and in anticipation of returning to family and business life.
This week - he's signed on to defend his country.
Life is crazy.
Azarenka: "She threw her racquet seven times. I say one thing, I get a warning".
Cicak: "Four"
(Keeping track obviously)
Azarenka: "She needs a psychiatrist.
I knew this match would deliver.
An extremely happy pair…
@leylahfernandez
and
@alizecornet
, after upsetting the top team of Stosur and Zhang.
(Worth freezing your tuchus off for. That was good fun).
"I told myself not to cry, but it's very tough. We've been working very hard. I don't know how many finals that is now, but hopefully it's gonna come soon".
Chennai – lobbying for an ATP 500 event –absolutely packed for this final involving two players the vast majority had probably never heard of before this week.
Great to see – a silver lining with the last-minute hustle to find alternate venues after the cancellation of China.
Rock star umpire Mo Lahyani stopped for a pic by a kid who apparently is a huge Mo Lahyani fan!
How great was he, really.
This was just before he took the court to umpire the FAA-Ruud match.
Perfect reaction by Zverev here.
Every time I see people run up and put their arm around players to get selfies, and generally get WAYYY too close, I wonder where they think someone gave them permission to grab total strangers who have no clue what their intentions are.
The reason so many try to find *reasons* for Nadal, like he’s not as injured as it seems, is simply because we mere mortals absolutely cannot fathom the competitive beast he has within him. So people try to explain it in “mere mortal” terms.
Per Lulu's Facebook, this will be Leylah Fernandez's RG kit.
SO much pressure on the young female players to show off their tummies these days. :-O
(Like they don't have enough pressure).
Chill out everyone. I convinced my van driver to take a (not small) detour to check out the WTA Finals stadium tonight after arriving in Cancún. And they were already laying out the ELC sensors on the finished-looking court.
Take a look!
Newly elected to the ATP Player Council for the first time, Canadian
@VasekPospisil
plans to give full effort as an advocate for his fellow players, especially on the issue of equitable revenue distribution.
And he has thoughts – lots of them.
The player I feel for today is Portuguese veteran Joao Sousa.
He's next into the Indian Wells main draw.
Except Djokovic - who at this point you'd think is SURE not to be coming, hasn't withdrawn yet.
He plays Max Purcell in the qualies today.
So dar,
@AndreyRublev97
is the only player through on this rainy Saturday in Rome.
But he does his best work in the rain - as you can see by his masterful fan service act on the first day of the tournament.
The bad news was that the appealing duo of
@TaylorTownsend
amd
@leylahfernandez
didn't pull off a major upset and win at the
@MiamiOpen
. The good news is that they're sticking together to try to make the WTA Finals.
Okay ... so ... since people here are jumping to all sorts of conclusions based on the selected timeframe of one clip on Twitter, I decided to mosey over to the replay to see what the heck happened. Because there was surely more to it.
And indeed, there was.
A thread!!!
Without kissing her a** too much may I just say that the on-court look doesn't do enough justice to how spectacular Andreescu is looking these days irl.
The work she's been doing on the inside and outside is really paying off – regardless of match results.
Good news from the new Townsend-Fernandez collab. They're going to play together as much as possible this year and try to make the WTA finals.
Already in for Charleston and Madrid.
(More later - in a cute interview where Fernandez fought HARD to get a word in. 🤣)
Breaking – Surprise or not (especially with cancellation of Madrid), Rafael Nadal isn't on the official US Open men's singles entry list and will not defend his title.
I don't care how much of a Twitter tennis genius you are, if you claim you called two Canadian wins in straight sets against the far more accomplished Italians, you're BSing to the max. 🤣
Super impressive.
The long-awaited return to action for
@Bandreescu_
is tentatively set for Stuttgart, as the 21-year-old has entered that event.
As well, fellow Canadian
@geniebouchard
's return after shoulder surgery is set for the week of April 11.
It's actually pretty cool that two kids from Québec –
@leylahfernandez
and
@felixtennis
- are out there teamed up for a mixed-doubles exhibition that features the very best players on the planet.
Can't take that for granted.
#dreambig
Great stuff from the Canadians, who upset the favored Czechs (who seemed somewhat discombobulated) and make the BJK Cup final.
Fernandez came up big today in both singles and dubs.
Cud be the Czech's last match for awhile, too.
I know we live in a bubble where everyone gets way overly excited about the brand-new latest thing every five minutes. But let's take a moment to appreciate the play today from the *vintage* Bencic, Azarenka and Svitolina.
If you're a tennis fan in Canada, get up early (really early, if you're out west), put the coffee on, and enjoy some great Canadian content on Sunday morning.
Here's the column written by the Cincinnati columnist (whom I remember from my baseball days) who asked Osaka *that* question yesterday – a very fair question, by the way, asked in a gruff (he's an American sports columnist) but hardly rude tone.
Thiem on Gaston:
“I haven’t seen for a very long time a player with such touch in his hands. His drop shots are from another planet. If he continues like this he’s going to to be a huge, huge player, and make a lot of joy in this stadium in the future.”
Dutch coach Max Wenders, who worked most notably with Demi Schuurs but also dated former No. 4 Sofia Kenin on and off for several years, has been banned for 12 years for match-fixing.
It's also worth pointing out, given recent coaching moves, that she and Thomas Hill (along with Iga Swiatek and coach Piotr Sierzputowski) did it without a coach who'd "been there".
They took good coach-player chemistry and grew together.
There isn't only one way.
Maria Sakkari becomes the 1st 🇬🇷 woman to break into the Top 10:
“People don't realize how big it is for someone who at the age of 26 - not the age of 20 - cracks into the Top 10. When no one believed I could do it, myself and the people around me really believed in me."
Look who's back in the house with
@denis_shapo
?
Three years after they debuted at the 2019 US Open, and nine months after parting ways, Shapovalov has Mikhail Youzhny with him at this US Open.
What we're hearing is that Bianca Andreescu's injury is an ankle sprain, although no solid intel yet on what grade of sprain.
That, given all the speculation from the Twitter medical corps about ... other things and such, is rather good news.
Something not talked about NEARLY enough in women's sports, because the men who still dominate sports media find it kinda ewww and would rather pretend it doesn't exist.
But Iga Swiatek TOTALLY went there in her press conference tonight.
#TotalProps
Not too many people I know literally can't walk through their office without 20 colleagues (or their parents or siblings) asking them for selfies though ...
Massively underrated part of Federer's day-to-day at tournaments.
Not to mention all the young hitting partners on the way
Happy Leylah Fernandez doing an interview with me. Perhaps just as psyched at meeting Thierry Henry before doing the interview as being in the RG quarterfinal.
Okay, maybe not QUITE. But definitely jazzed.
Also: bad news in Montreal: Ons Jabeur, super popular in Montreal with a big community of supporters there (and also, natch, her fluent French) has withdrawn.
Nadal telling France TV that he played the fortnight with his foot numb - the nerves to it blocked.
That's why he says he just can't continue like this - they have to find a solution.
Zverev literally HAS no choice but to win, or these two will never speak to him again.
Nadal: "NO NEGATIVE THINKING AT ALL"
Fed: "I want a fist pump or a let’s go, every fucken point you win."
Nadal: "And no ONE NEGATIVE FACE"
Dying here.
Canadian
@leylahfernandez
is part of the Nadal-Ruud exhibition in Mexico City Thursday.
Playing mixed dubs w/Jack Sock v Mexicans Renata Zarazua and Santiago Gonzalez.
All four, not coincidentally, are Lulu Lemon ambassadors.