Weeks 10 & 11 - WTA Premier Mandatory ($9.035M) - Indian Wells, CA, USA - Hard

the addict · Tennis legend

Weeks 10 & 11 - WTA Premier Mandatory ($9.035M) - Indian Wells, CA, USA - Hard

ROSAMUND · Futures level

Jo's current coach is Frenchman Dimitri Zavialoff. The thinking was that somehow her previous coach Mike Joyce was not the right fit for her. As regards Indian Wells it was the first time Jo had won 2 matches there since 2016. Also courts were not particularly favourable for Jo as seemingly somewhat slow.

ROSAMUND · Futures level

markymc1983 wrote:
Both players alternating between good points and errors. Hard to call.

Who is the French commentator btw I can't place her?

The commentator is the sometime ex French Canadian player Stephanie Dubois who now resides in London. She sounds a bit like Marion Bartoli.

vohor · Grand Slam Champion

Just caught the last few games; against an excellent opponent Jo was playing very well (apart from, I feel, an overuse of the drop shot which I think won 1 point and lost 3 points for her during the short time I was watching). Very encouraging when added to the 2 wins so here's hoping she can continue on this upward path :)

hoots · Intermediate Club Player

Still giving her opponent too many free points by overhitting her forehand shots.

LordBrownof · Futures level

Urgh the drop shots. I lost count the number of points she lost (I got to about 7 and gave up). Majority of them weren't even just missing either - either barely reaching the net or looping over higher than her ball toss on serve. That said, we all think she needs to add more variety and you've got to start somewhere. She needs a technical adjustment on that shot though, and that of her slice. It's often too high and not deep enough to really help get her back into the point when she's stretching.

I watched the whole match and at no point did Bertens dominate. She was simply more solid (except on serve) - it's a shame cos if Jo had been a few shots more consistent she could've run out a comfortable winner.

But all told, a good week on slow courts and now onto Miami where she thrives. Fingers crossed for a decent draw.

JonH · All-time great

Somewhat surprised that Osaka isn't on main centre court today ahead of others, being us open champ and playing bencic.

LordBrownof · Futures level

JonH wrote:
Somewhat surprised that Osaka isn't on main centre court today ahead of others, being us open champ and playing bencic.

Agreed. She was unstoppable last night against Collins. She's hitting harder than most of the guys. It was a really exciting performance.

scottie1 · Futures level

LordBrownof wrote:
JonH wrote:
Somewhat surprised that Osaka isn't on main centre court today ahead of others, being us open champ and playing bencic.
Agreed. She was unstoppable last night against Collins. She's hitting harder than most of the guys. It was a really exciting performance.

Osaka is the future of women's tennis last thing we need is Serena Williams back at no 1 in the world.

indiana · Tennis legend

But for tonight Osaka has to give way to another player who may have quite a say in the coming years.

Belinda Bencic has beaten her 6-3 6-1

This comes on top of her Dubai Premier 5 title where she successively beat 4 of the top 9 ranks from the L16 to the final - Sabalenka WR 9, Halep WR 2, Svitolina WR 6 and Kvitova WR 4.

Great to see Belinda fit and well and playing at such a consistently high level.

indiana · Tennis legend

Belinda Bencic adds Ka Pliskova WR 5 to her list of recent victims.

That's unbeaten in 10* matches including beating 6 of the top 9 ranked ( and the current top 3 ).

* 12 if you add Fed Cup.

-- Edited by indiana on Thursday 14th of March 2019 10:25:28 PM

Mervatron2 · Challenger qualifying

I do like Belinda. She was the first on the 97 generation to break through but had that nasty wrist injury. Great to see her hit such a roll.

indiana · Tennis legend

Osaka is the future, no Bencic is the future, heck maybe 18 yo Bianca Andreescu is the future - she follows up thrashing Muguruza by beating Svitolina in 3 sets in the SF. As Jaggy said, WTA is nothing if not fascinating.

Andreescu awaits the winner of Bencic vs Kerber.

-- Edited by indiana on Saturday 16th of March 2019 05:32:42 AM

indiana · Tennis legend

Kerber beat Bencic 4 & 2 so maybe it's back to the future.

We shall see how this fortnight concludes and then the next tale will unfold in Miami.

Julia Carrot · All-time great

indiana wrote:
Kerber beat Bencic 4 & 2 so maybe it's back to the future.

We shall see how this fortnight concludes and then the next tale will unfold in Miami.

Mmmm yes, pretty interesting times.