Remarkable non-GB performances

indiana · Tennis legend

Remarkable non-GB performances

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

Indeed.
Ashleigh, and fellow returning feel good story, 'Case' Dellacqua also won the doubles.

Spectator · All-time great

It's a relatively small thing - but having followed Darian King's adventures against our players at futures and challengers level, interesting to see that he beat Mikhail Kukushkin to qualify for Indian Wells and is now well within the top 150 (and with very little to defend before June). Not an easy thing to get that far when you're from a small country without a strong tennis tradition. No WCs, no academies .... Nice article on him here: www.espn.co.uk/tennis/story/_/id/18697624/tennis-meet-darian-king-barbados-overnight-sensation

vohor · Grand Slam Champion

Thanks for that Spectator; totally agree it's great that someone from Barbados has a shot at making the top 100 :)
Think Barbadians might rank Garry Sobers above an Olympic bronze medallist though: clearly cricket not on the author's radar!

Spectator · All-time great

At one level, nothing Roger Federer does is 'remarkable' because almost everything is. But really, this start to the year is something else, for both him and Rafael Nadal. His tennis is just beautiful, and to be winning match after match! I didn't start out a Federer fan, and only became one reluctantly (and I'd still always want AM to win, if they played). But my goodness. You could sense both Nick Kyrgios' focus and his frustration - you can play as brilliantly as you want ... you can be playing a 35-year-old who's played some long matches this week ... and still ....

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Here, Here! Disliked Rodge initially for his domination but now truely appreciated what a technically beautiful player he is. Bit like a bigger stronger version of Evo but totally committed from day 1.

Spectator · All-time great

Hurrah for Henri Kontinen, the new doubles number one, and the first Finn to be top-ranked.

indiana · Tennis legend

Spectator wrote:
Hurrah for Henri Kontinen, the new doubles number one, and the first Finn to be top-ranked.

Well done to the young pup ( in doubles terms ) getting a turn at the top of the tree, he seems a very nice guy. And very good for his regular doubles partner and fellow Aussie Open winner, John Peers, now WR 2.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Bravo to 39 year-old Tommy Haas, playing his final year on the tour, who put out young gun, Opelka, (age 19), at the ATP in Houston last night.

And with Dustin going through too, it was a good evening for Germany.

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

Vicky Duval, in her first tournament for 9½ months, has just reached the SF of the $80K in Indian Harbour Beach.
She thrashed Genie, 0 & 3 to do it, and beat Tomljanovic (a fellow long time absentee) earlier in the week.

Given everything that girls been through, this just makes me smile like

wimdledont · Challenger level

Just watched Vondrousova beat WR18 Strycova with a combination of excellent htiing off both wings, combined with pinpoint lobs and frequent unplayable dropshots.

She goes through to her first WTA final, from WR233, unseeded in qualifying, still aged 17.

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

wimdledont wrote:
Just watched Vondrousova beat WR18 Strycova with a combination of excellent htiing off both wings, combined with pinpoint lobs and frequent unplayable dropshots.

She goes through to her first WTA final, from WR233, unseeded in qualifying, still aged 17.

Katie Boulter is having a pretty good year, and about the best of her GB contempories (Dunne, Dart, Christie et. al)
86 days ago, she played Vondrousova, and was ranked WR361; Marketa was lower ranked at WR420.

In that good period for Katie, she has manged to push steadily up to now stand ranked at WR283, +78.

In the same period, the Czech has moved through to now be WR233, +187, and live rankings more like ~WR139, +281!
Can't see her losing to Kontaveitt tomorrow, from what I've seen of the play in Biel this week.
That would make her the youngest WTA singles title winner since Konjuh took Nottingham in 2015, at 17y 5m.

It's still a long way off 2004-2006 with Vadisova and Paszek (15y and 3,9 months respectively) though

I think the youngest was Tracy Austin, Portland 1977 (14y 28d).

Only Americans have ever won a WTA before their 15th birthday (Austin, Jaeger, Rinaldi, Capriati). The closest a non-American came to doing so was in Bol in 1997, 15y 1m. That player is still doing rather well for herself - Mirjana Lucic

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

At the other end of the scale, 36 yo Francesca Schiavone, in her last year on tour wins in Bogota.
That backhand has been flashing and sparkling all week long
Edit, to add: It was also, rather neatly, her 600th career win.

The Rome tournament director has denied her a WC, or even one in to qualifying. He has found it in him to furnish a player returning from a doping volation with a MD WC though.

-- Edited by AliBlahBlah on Saturday 15th of April 2017 09:27:16 PM

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Argggggh. That's Romes loss. The last Italian women to win a slam on clay! A single handed back hand on the WTA!

AliBlahBlah · All-time great

Vondrousova wins in Biel. Well done to her. If the injuries have no recurrence, she looks destined to match the potential suggested by her outstanding Junior career.

For GB Fed Cup considerations, Niculescu played herself bang in to doubles form (albeit on indoor hard courts) teaming up with Su-Wei Hsieh to upsetthe home crowd by beating Hingis/Bacsinszky to the title.