Remarkable non-GB performances

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Remarkable non-GB performances

philwrig · Hall of fame

insomniacfolder wrote:
Eva Asderaki leaves the WTA and umpiring behind her this week, to take up a position with the ITF.

I've always thought her about the best official on any tour over the last ten years or so and her ability to deal with even the biggest egos in a calm and straightforward manner will be greatly missed. To say nothing of her, sometimes seemingly infallible, judgment.
Happily the new role apparently provides dispensation for her to officiate some tour level tournaments on the odd occasion, so we may yet see her pop up some more.

My congratulations and gratitude to Mrs. Asderaki-Moore, as she now is, for being a paragon sports official, and all the best.

I thought she was in a similar situation to our very own umpiring legend James K, who has a contract with the ITF ( grand slams DC/Fed Cup ) and not the ATP. As far as I know she has no intention to hang up her umpiring boots, and will still umpire at WTA events.

insomniacfolder · Challenger level

philwrig wrote:
insomniacfolder wrote:
Eva Asderaki leaves the WTA and umpiring behind her this week, to take up a position with the ITF.
[...]
I thought she was in a similar situation to our very own umpiring legend James K, who has a contract with the ITF ( grand slams DC/Fed Cup ) and not the ATP. As far as I know she has no intention to hang up her umpiring boots, and will still umpire at WTA events.

The subject came up, described as above, on one of Courtney Nguyen's new 'WTA Insider' podcasts, and subsequently summarised on one of her tweets.
Whilst I often disagree with Ms. Nguyen about the game in general, she's not normally wrong on points of detail.

However, there does seem to be some confusion, I'm not really sure where we stand: she has left the WTA, will join the ITF - in an 'office role', but will continue to umpire some matches.

None of which makes me any less pleased to have had a reason to congratulate her on her career so far, and have found that other people hold her in equal esteem

philwrig · Hall of fame

I didn't see anything referring to an office role, but if that is the case that makes even less sense that she will perform umpiring duties on an irregular basis.

Spectator · All-time great

Not sure if this is a remarkable performance, a remarkable collapse or a bit of both (suspect probably the last) - but Noah Rubin was down 3-6 1-5 (30-40) in the final of the Charlottesville Challenger against Tommy Paul ... and won the match, 3-6 7-6(7) 6-3. Congratulations to him. Indeed, congratulations to both of them: a signal accomplishment to have another all-teen Challenger final, now the second within a month or so.

-- Edited by Spectator on Monday 9th of November 2015 10:09:51 AM

Spectator · All-time great

And hurrah to Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau, who reached the finals at the O2 and are the number one pairing for the year. Beautiful play all tournament (and all year) - and two lovely people. Congratulations to them.

Congratulations, too, to the Bryans, who finished a close year-end number 2. It is a testimony to just how high the standard they had previously set was that this counts as a major disappointment for them.

wimdledont · Challenger level

Shania Mirza and Martina Hingis have just won their 36th match in succession to claim the Australian Open, their third successive Grand Slam. They will now have around 13k ranking points, out of a theoretical maximum of around 15,500. Somewhere close to double the points of the new WR3.

All this 19 years after Martina's first singles GS.

I wonder if, had Martina's singles career run smoother, Serena would now have won 22 Slams? It could have been one of the greatest sporting rivalries of all time.

Spectator · All-time great

The Mirza/Hingis partnership is something, isn't it. I love the way that she's such a superstar in India. If you look online, her doubles exploits are almost always front page news ... witness today's Hindu, where the lead sports story is how she would love to win a career GS (and hold all four slams simultaneously) at the French.

wimdledont · Challenger level

Daria Kasatkina. Plays doubles later this evening against Hingis/Mirza.

The one foreign player that I've been watching most. In 2014, when Katy Swan was eyeing the Junior top 10, and Bellis finished JR1, DK finished JR4 based on her best 12 results from 9 matches played (singles and doubles). Most of the top Juniors choose their best 12 results from 25+ matches.

Starting from WR370, she finished 2015 well inside the top 100, with a W/L ratio that looks PDG. She's now moved to WR45 on the live rankings. Sha spent about 4 tournaments between top 100 and top 50.

In the Fed Cup, Russia picked their eighth-best ranked doubles player for their doubles team. Kasatkina.

No one specific achievement - so far - just take this as fair warning.

Kounosuke · Intermediate Club Player

wimdledont wrote:
Daria Kasatkina. Plays doubles later this evening against Hingis/Mirza.

The one foreign player that I've been watching most. In 2014, when Katy Swan was eyeing the Junior top 10, and Bellis finished JR1, DK finished JR4 based on her best 12 results from 9 matches played (singles and doubles). Most of the top Juniors choose their best 12 results from 25+ matches.

Starting from WR370, she finished 2015 well inside the top 100, with a W/L ratio that looks PDG. She's now moved to WR45 on the live rankings. Sha spent about 4 tournaments between top 100 and top 50.

In the Fed Cup, Russia picked their eighth-best ranked doubles player for their doubles team. Kasatkina.

No one specific achievement - so far - just take this as fair warning.

That fed cup doubles tie was a dead rubber (so pretty meaningless stat), but she definitely looks like a player on the up. She Beat Cibulkova in 3 sets today to make the semi finals of a WTA Premier event (her 2nd one, lost to Pavlyuchenkova in Moscow SF as a qualifier late last year).

Spectator · All-time great

She does look like a good prospect.

Speaking of young players on the rise, as I was looking at Rotterdam scores (hurrah, Nicolas Mahut, SFist - think it's his best singles result so far in a 500 or Masters!) saw that Mr Zverev the younger had beaten Gilles Simon to get to the QFs, though he was then beaten by Gael Monfils. He must be staking a claim to be top youngster. Saw that Mr Fritz had reached the singles and doubles SFs in Memphis, too, though that's not such a strong field.

But the triumph of the week for sheer, gutsy, remarkable performance in keeping going when things are tough has to be this - del Potro is back! WC into Delray Beach. So hope that it goes well for him.

-- Edited by Spectator on Saturday 13th of February 2016 07:11:48 AM

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Tx, Wimbledont - will go and look up/watch out for Daria.

And I agree very much re the different profiles of junior players - some of the GB players (and others, of course) have very decent rankings but have had to play a LOT of tournaments to get there - it's hardly the same.

PS And, yes, Spectator - hats off to M. Mahut smile

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Saturday 13th of February 2016 11:39:01 AM

insomniacfolder · Challenger level

Ms. Bencic bested Ms. Kasatkina in the St. Petersburg SF (Belinda is the older by 58 days) today, and so is guaranteed to break in to the top 10, a month shy of her nineteenth birthday. If she wins the title, against Vinci, tomorrow, she could be as high as seventh.
And this final run jot on the heels of last week where she single handedly dispatched the German team in Fed Cup, in Germany, accounting for 2½ points including singles victories against Ms. Petkovic and new world #2, Ms. Kerber. Switzerland must be a fair ick for the Fed Cup this year, and if not this year then in the next couple.
Another impressive fortnight, which surely won't be her last.

goldfish · Futures qualifying

Shout out to Taylor Harry Fritz, 18 year old American, who entered Memphis as a WC and has reached the final v Kei beating Q Mmoh, Steve Johnson (2) by 76 76 Benjamin Becker in 3rd set tie-break, and Richard Berankis, also in 3. Looks like another terrific prospect, alongside Alex Zverev, who has also had an excellent week in Rotterdam reaching the QF.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Taylor is yet another 'proof' of the family tennis theory - his mum made three Grand Slam quarterfinals. Well done to him.