WTA Tour/Non-India Fed Cup

[prasen9]

Maybe the COVID issues have combined with mental issues to tip things over the breaking point. First it was Osaka and now it is Barty. Osaka is still not the same.

[Sin Hombre]

Barty seems like a very sane head for her age and I don't expect her to regret it. She does not appear to be someone who wants validation from people and plays a lot of sports since that is what she did growing up with her two sisters in rural Queensland and loved it. You need to have a lot of ego to continue pushing yourself at the very top.

Osaka is a different case. She is the kind of person who seems to break down if someone in the crowd calls her garbage or something relatively mild as far as insults go.

[arjun2761]

Not sure about that. She's apparently pretty fragile mentally and as someone noted just walked away earlier from tennis for a couple of years to play cricket (for which there really wasn't much prospects at least as a professional). While not quite overtly crazy like fellow Aussie, Kyrgios, I'm not sure that she is all that well settled in her mind....

[SaniaFan]

I think it is more of sin Hombre's explaination. Basically she is a simple person underneath whose priorities are family and personal happiness. Tennis was not giving her that even after winning so she left it. I think her mind is sorted. She did not like the grind of the tour even if she was the best out there so she left it to find other things that will give her more joy. It is as simple as that. Of course her finances are already sorted so she doesn't have to worry about it.
That begs another question - why is tour such a grind that players are feeling that way. Sareena also mentioned it and we all know about Osaka . I think WTA needs to look into this seriously.

[Omkara]

Can this be a trait of a generation and not necessarily a problem? Our generation (35+ now) still had the fire in our belly driven by our parents who had a deprived life. We lived better than them and aspired for more. So irrespective whether we succeeded or not, we kept on running on the treadmill for more. The next generation, who have had much better life might not think like that. Once they have done well in one area they might want to shift to the next. Nothing wrong in that. But I have to agree, haven't heard of people making decisions like Barty.

The Naomi Osaka problem is a trait that's more common in the 20+ zone. A cousin of my friend is on therapy as her boss criticised her for her work. Can't take a comment.

[prasen9]

So with tons of upsets, it seems the semis will be Swiatek v. Kasatkina, and Leyla v. Coco if things go according to seed ... which they most possibly will not.

[prasen9]

Can this be a trait of a generation and not necessarily a problem? Our generation (35+ now) still had the fire in our belly driven by our parents who had a deprived life. ... The next generation, who have had much better life might not think like that. Once they have done well in one area they might want to shift to the next. Nothing wrong in that. But I have to agree, haven't heard of people making decisions like Barty.

Right, our generation is the fighter generation. In our previous generation, there was some guy whose first and last names also started with B who retired when he was 26 or so when he had even more of the world at his feet. But, yes, never heard of a person whose name was A.B. who made decisions like this. B.B. yes.

[prasen9]

That begs another question - why is tour such a grind that players are feeling that way. Sareena also mentioned it and we all know about Osaka . I think WTA needs to look into this seriously.

It is what it is. What can the WTA do? Traveling week in and week out, training their butts off, etc. will be there and people will burn out. You cannot ask people to cap their training to so many hours a day. I guess the WTA can invest in supersonic jets that make the world a smaller place? The best the WTA can do is to provide a bit more support and counselors but I doubt that would change the fundamentals of the body not willing to take more.

[PKBasu]

Harmony Tan vs Serena Williams was on live TV during my flight from Singapore to Delhi. I don't think live TV was a feature on flights until quite recently. But I found it absolutely compelling and couldn't stop watching on the red-eye flight (as a result of which I had a red-eye the next couple of days ). Harmony plays a very different sort of game, with her go-to strokes being sliced forehands and backhands (a la Ramesh Krishnan to some extent). But she can mix that in with some power off the serve and groundies when needed. Serena struggled with the changes of pace, and the very frequent forays to the net that were required of her -- because her opponent was slicing drop shots regularly and then hitting a clean drive towards the back of the court. Very clever play, albeit with a style (sliced/chip forehands and backhands that most players are rather shy to use -- they used to be my go-to shots, but I shed them awhile back because they were a bit embarrassing in today's tennis world dominated by top-spin rather than underspin ).

[PKBasu]

34 year old mother of two, Tatjana Maria, has been the story of this Wimbledon. She had never made it to the last-16 of a Slam before, having been playing them quite consistently (except for maternity breaks) since 2007. Now, after a tough 3 set win over Ostapenko (75 in the third, the same score as the previous two sets, albeit with one reversed), she is in the QF!

The women's singles is wide open, with Simona Halep the only former champion still alive -- but meeting 4th seeded Badosa next. Swiatek and Gauff, the FO finalists, lost in R3. Swiatek's 37-match losing streak was ended by 32 year old Alize Cornet.

The other surprise German in the QF, Jule Neimeier, reached a junior career high of 33 when she was 17 in 2017. (The same year, our Mihika Yadav reached 32 in the junior rankings; they are the same age, but Mihika's career has withered while Jule's is now flowering...). Kontaveit, who Neimeier beat in R2, was a rather undeserving second seed, but Neimeier's run has been impressive. She lost in the final round of qualifying at Wimbledon last year, and her first Slam main draw was at this year's French Open. She has a solid game, though.

[PKBasu]

Jabeur looks increasingly likely to be the Wimbledon champion this year. A Tunisian champion would be pretty amazing -- Carthage has history, but Tunisia is barely viable as a nation today.

[PKBasu]

Relatively orderly women's QF list compared to the men this year. 1-Swiatek vs 8-Pegula, 22-Pliskova vs 6-Sabalenka, 12-Gauff vs 17-Garcia, 5-Jabeur vs Tomljanovic. 3 of them have lived up to their seedings, the other 5 have slightly outperformed.

[prasen9]

So, now, we have the following if things go by ranking (which they seldom do). Rybakina is in the semis and meets the winner of Pegula-Azarenka. On the other side, Sabalenka-Pliskova if things go by seed.

[PKBasu]

A lot of 'upsets' on the women's side, mainly because Rybakina is heavily under-ranked because she got no points for winning Wimbledon.

[prasen9]

So, Azarenka-Rybakina in one of the semis. Tsitsipas-Khachanov in the other