British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

B00thy · County player

RE: Weeks 3 & 4 - Grand Slam, Australian Open - Melbourne (outdoor hard)

indiana · Tennis legend

I still tend to think that she may in essence be right, that going for it particularly on the forehand is more still her way forward. And get her serve sorted out since it could be a real plus rsther than so on and off.

But she sure doesn't go about things the right way. Whether she thinks changing her game, or at least having much more variation, is the way to go or not, she shouldn't be publicly expressing such a counter opinion like that. Saying she was in the process of looking at making developments to her game ( and that time had been lost with her injury ) would have done. Give it a chance then discuss / argue about how it is progressing behind closed doors

indiana · Tennis legend

GAMEOVER wrote:
I notice that Iva Jovic who Mika beat on route to the 2024 US Open juniors title has reached the 4th round of the US Open beating Jasmine Paolini . I hope this is a case of the tortoise and the hare because Iva who is a year old than Mika has a live world ranking of 22 but in her most recent match Mika lost to a player outside the worlds top 600.

-- Edited by GAMEOVER on Friday 23rd of January 2026 08:42:47 AM

Mika seems to be still generally a pleasantly fast moving tortoise. Possibly she's something else

the addict · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
GAMEOVER wrote:
I notice that Iva Jovic who Mika beat on route to the 2024 US Open juniors title has reached the 4th round of the US Open beating Jasmine Paolini . I hope this is a case of the tortoise and the hare because Iva who is a year old than Mika has a live world ranking of 22 but in her most recent match Mika lost to a player outside the worlds top 600.

-- Edited by GAMEOVER on Friday 23rd of January 2026 08:42:47 AM
Mika seems to be still generally a pleasantly fast moving tortoise. Possibly she's something else

Mika WR279 may have lost to Martynov WR619 (but CH=339 in Oct 2024) in three sets, but Martinov beat Hietaranta WR327 on the next round. So not quite as bad as it looks.

indiana · Tennis legend

the addict wrote:
indiana wrote:
GAMEOVER wrote:
I notice that Iva Jovic who Mika beat on route to the 2024 US Open juniors title has reached the 4th round of the US Open beating Jasmine Paolini . I hope this is a case of the tortoise and the hare because Iva who is a year old than Mika has a live world ranking of 22 but in her most recent match Mika lost to a player outside the worlds top 600.

-- Edited by GAMEOVER on Friday 23rd of January 2026 08:42:47 AM
Mika seems to be still generally a pleasantly fast moving tortoise. Possibly she's something else
Mika WR279 may have lost to Martynov WR619 (but CH=339 in Oct 2024) in three sets, but Martinov beat Hietaranta WR327 on the next round. So not quite as bad as it looks.

FWIW, Iva Jovic this time last year WR 191 ( CH 189 ).

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

the addict wrote:
indiana wrote:
GAMEOVER wrote:
I notice that Iva Jovic who Mika beat on route to the 2024 US Open juniors title has reached the 4th round of the US Open beating Jasmine Paolini . I hope this is a case of the tortoise and the hare because Iva who is a year old than Mika has a live world ranking of 22 but in her most recent match Mika lost to a player outside the worlds top 600.

-- Edited by GAMEOVER on Friday 23rd of January 2026 08:42:47 AM
Mika seems to be still generally a pleasantly fast moving tortoise. Possibly she's something else
Mika WR279 may have lost to Martynov WR619 (but CH=339 in Oct 2024) in three sets, but Martinov beat Hietaranta WR327 on the next round. So not quite as bad as it looks.

And then Martynov lost very easily

She's also barely made it past R2 in nearly every other event she's played recently

Like Indy, I think Mika is doing just fine, but there's no way that the loss to Martynov is anything other than a real disappointment, I think it's perfectly as bad as it looks

BUT nothing is purely linear, Mika is making excellent progress

It's true Mika beat Iva Jovic at the US Open.

Hannah also beat Iva at the J500 in the USA.

Iva also lost to Glozman, Tyra Grant, Kostovic ..... i.e. a whole heap of players who are doing fine, but nowhere near as well as Iva

The takeaway is Iva's meteoric rise, not that the other girls (including Mika) are doing badly

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Friday 23rd of January 2026 04:29:14 PM

the addict · Tennis legend

I bow to your analysis CD ! wink

Although Mika was just 4 points away from a straight-sets win in that tie-break at 3-4

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

the addict wrote:
I bow to your analysis CD !
Although Mika was just 4 points away from a straight-sets win in that tie-break at 3-4

Yes, it's a good point

I was once involved (in the dark ages) with funding decisions for a 'very promising' youngster, who had won a very high-profile international tournament (but done very little else)

And most people were very excited - but I couldn't help but point out that she was 2 points from losing in her R2 match.

Which, yes, you might say: well done to her for fighting back.

But the point was, if she'd lost those 2 points, no one would have been even mentioning her name, she wouldn't have got a penny - and there we were, thinking of going all out, big guns.

There's a very thin line often - and, yes, Mika could well have won that match (there's no real point taking major positives from the fact, but it's also no point going overboard on the fact she ended up not winning, it's just a bad loss, move on)

PS to finish the story, major funding was given, infrastructure changes put in place - and 12 months later the girl was struggling, her dad was a nightmare - and 24 months later she was back to being a normal top county sort of youngster (which is probably what she was in the first place)