JonH comes home wrote:

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63 straight slams and shes made her first QF, and plays Danielle Collins next in a winnable QF. Career event and shes had a few!

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It's 60 staight Slam MDs, 63 in total, I believe for Alize. If at first you don't succeed 

If and when she does reach 63 straight, she will beat Ai Sugiyans's record of 62 from 1994 to 2009.

Kaia Kanepi on the other hand has a serious Slam record. into her 7th Slam QF after beating Sabalenka. And she has completed the full set of the  Slam QFs. Yet to reach a SF though. Plays Swiatek in the QF.

-- Edited by indiana on Monday 24th of January 2022 06:01:52 PM

Ace Ventura wrote:

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There's certainly some stories this year. Cornet had played the most slams out of all the L16 players, but was the only one not to have made a slam QF before, so she has finally broken that duck, then 36 year old Kanepi, who had a reputation in recent years as a grand slam giant killer, has now made the last 8 at all the slams. However, with the slams being the biggest events of the year, and fantastic for building profile and stars, looking at it from a commercial and marketing perspective, I'm not sure how much good a 32 year old Cornet who was just questioning how long she had left in the sport the other day, and then someone who could call it a day at any time, actually does.

Then there's Pegula, 28 next month, made the QF here last year, been in and around the top 20 for most of the year, American nationality, you'd think she would be a fairly big name, but barely anyone knows her. She's pretty active on Instagram, yet despite all those favourable things mentioned, she has like 28k followers.

If it's just nice feel good stories, or in say Barty's case, a nice girl getting consistent results then that's not really for me. I do like how other women's sports are generally getting more exposure now, and more opportunities for young girls to get into a variety of sports now, but at the same time, I'm not particularly interested in any other women's sports, and the main reason why I am so interested in the women's side of tennis is the fact that the platform is absolutely there to make breakout stars and household names, very much on par with the men. Take Emma for example, while I still think the slam may have come too soon (although you certainly don't want to be passing up a chance when it comes along), she is one of the most famous sportspersons, male or female, in the UK. Bradnam (or maybe Reed) was mentioning £35m in endorsements during her match with Stephens, over 2m followers on Instagram, apparent record views on Eurosport etc. Now obviously there are factors that help her - her age, her image, her background, minimal female tennis success for the (big tennis) nation she represents etc. but if she won the US Open equivalent of golf, then she wouldn't be anything like as big as she is now, a little bit like how golf major winner Georgia Hall isn't really a household name here.

I think Barty vs Swiatek would probably be my preferred final from this point as then you would have a clash of slam champions, the #1 playing at home against the youngster constantly adding to her resume, but I'm not really sold on the last 8 line up overall, and we'll probably end up with something like Pegula vs Kanepi instead, haha.

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 Winning the slam may have come too soon for Emma in one sense but winning the US Championships hasn't come along very often for British women. Starting in 1887  and being held every year  since we've had the ladies singles  champion in 1930, 1968 and 2021. Hope we don't have to wait another 53 years for our next winner.

Ace Ventura wrote:

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If it's just nice feel good stories, or in say Barty's case, a nice girl getting consistent results then that's not really for me. I do like how other women's sports are generally getting more exposure now, and more opportunities for young girls to get into a variety of sports now, but at the same time, I'm not particularly interested in any other women's sports, and the main reason why I am so interested in the women's side of tennis is the fact that the platform is absolutely there to make breakout stars and household names, very much on par with the men. Take Emma for example, while I still think the slam may have come too soon (although you certainly don't want to be passing up a chance when it comes along), she is one of the most famous sportspersons, male or female, in the UK. Bradnam (or maybe Reed) was mentioning £35m in endorsements during her match with Stephens, over 2m followers on Instagram, apparent record views on Eurosport etc. Now obviously there are factors that help her - her age, her image, her background, minimal female tennis success for the (big tennis) nation she represents etc. but if she won the US Open equivalent of golf, then she wouldn't be anything like as big as she is now, a little bit like how golf major winner Georgia Hall isn't really a household name here.

I think Barty vs Swiatek would probably be my preferred final from this point as then you would have a clash of slam champions, the #1 playing at home against the youngster constantly adding to her resume, but I'm not really sold on the last 8 line up overall, and we'll probably end up with something like Pegula vs Kanepi instead, haha.

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 I think that you're being a tad harsh on Barty. For me she's the most interesting player out there at the moment by a long way. I love watching her play. She's not winning simply because she's physically bigger than the other women and simply better at hitting the ball very hard very well which is what we've had for the best part of the last 15 years or so. She's got what I would term real court craft. Also one of the best serves in the women's game. Her forehand is pretty good and it's like watching a tennis version of chess when she plays. Really intelligent player.

She's also a really decent ambassador for the game. You don't see her disrupting the opponent's serve or taking ridiculous bathroom breaks and I like the way she seems to have her life in order.

You make some relevant points, I think about the other players. But in terms of profile some of these simply don't put themselves out there in such a flagrant way as other players. They aren't bothered about posting endless pictures of themselves in bikinis etc and I suspect prefer the quieter more private lives and I respect them for that though there's nothing wrong of course with the opposite position either.

Like many on here I've watched women's tennis for many years and the depth of talent and all round physicality in the game right now is better than at any time I've watched it. Maybe the players at the very top of the game aren't as good as they used to be but I think some of that is because the rest of the field is far better than it ever was.

It is  a shame that the two best players in the world at the moment are probably in the top half of the draw but as you say a Barty/Swiatek final would be the most high profile from a seeding point of view.

Ash is great in so many ways ( and HarryGem makes very fair points but some such as her courtcraft I am afraid are not truly relevant to the perhaps wider 'problem' ) that I feel sorry for I think kind of getting where Ace is coming from.

It's difficult, je ne sais quoi indeed, that means that she is a clear WR 1 that doesn't really cross over outside tennis aficionados and pull more people in to follow the sport.

Serena, Sharapova, Osaka, probably Emma if she seriously gets and stays near the top, in their different ways have done and can do more to widen the audience. even without their controversies. Though of course in some ways these can add.

-- Edited by indiana on Monday 24th of January 2022 10:17:13 PM

I'll not quote you HarryG as it will take a lot of space, and I see there have been comments since (and Indy has touched upon some of the names I will mention), but I wasn't meaning posting pics in bikini's, I was just meaning having a bit more about them, although I guess that's pretty subjective anyway. Someone like Andreescu for example, her 2019 was amazing, I loved the drama she brought to the court, the way she could engage and really work a crowd, and she felt like a really big deal. For me, with the likes of Barty, and I guess Krejcikova as well, without wanting to sound harsh, it kind of just becomes another women's sport, very good at what they do, but then perhaps a bit of relativity enters the equation, although I am very conscious of how what I'm trying to say may be coming across, so don't want to say too much.

Things like Sharapova winning Wimbledon at 17 (regardless of how her career ended) was huge, or a young champion like Osaka overcoming the crowd and a legend to win her first slam and create massive headlines, obviously Emma coming through quals and not dropping a set - that's kind of what I like - I like the idea of big brands developing, star quality - I want to feel like what I'm watching is, or has the potential to be, important and massive news. I want my more football fan mates to randomly message me asking who such and such is. I want it to crossover more and attract more casual fans, and not just stay niche.

Barty obviously doesn't need win my approval, and is doing a great job just being her and winning a lot of tournaments, but for me, I want more (I'm sure she will be gutted ). She is clearly the best player in the world at the moment, brings a lot of consistency, wins the vast majority of her matches (like 50 of her last 59 matches), and a number of events each year, although saying that, she is a year and a bit older than Osaka, and currently has half the amount of slams, and both have had well documented spells of inactivity. I'll never really enjoy her game or limelight lacking persona, but I do absolutely respect her results, and obviously the more big events, particularly the slams, she wins, the more her name and profile will continue to grow around the world. Ironically, as I'm more watching tennis from a one player perspective these days, I am finding myself wanting Barty to win the majority of her matches, even if I might actually prefer her given opponent. I've not watched any of her matches this year, but will watch the Pegula match tomorrow at 8am, and probably watch highlights of the other SF that starts at NB 1.30am UK simultaneously.

Madison Keys has reached the semi finals of the AO for the second time unseeded.  She did it previously in 2015. 2015 set the trend for unseeded womens  semi finalists as apart from 2021 there has been an unseeded  semi finalist every year since.