General Tennis Discussions

[jayakris]

There is a small chance that she reached a psychological breaking point and had to come out with this for some semblance of mental peace. But, it does not seem like that is the case.

Not a small chance. That *is* probably what drove her to do this. It is often how women react to these things. They know that they will be in trouble so bottle it up, but at some point they need to let it out. But China knew how to handle her, with carrots and sticks (both may have been given, including forcing the guy to apologize to her etc).

[Atithee]

Jay, you sound like nothing will happen now despite your earlier opposition to the possibility. Have you changed your mind as to how this is going to end and what changes it might bring?

[jayakris]

^^^ This is what I said would happen, so, on what do I need to change my mind? I said China would produce her in an interview and that would be that. If they were NOT going to do that quickly, it wouldn't die and people wouldn't stop - which is all I said (unlike the Jack Ma case where he was gone for months and nobody really cared; this was different). But I predicted that China knew the game and would take care of this, and they did ...

China still lost something, though. It is one more knock on what the country is, that people clearly understand now - even if they may all take China's money now and keep quiet once they got some excuse that she is alive and seemingly not being physically tortured. But the last 3-4 years have been brutal for the reputation of the country, and they have lost all trust and goodwill that they worked so hard to build over a 25-year period. They are back to being taken as nothing more than the country they were at Tiananmen square, 1989. Don't think that events like the Peng scandal will have no effect.

4 years ago I was in Taiwan for 10 days, and about half the country (almost everybody under the age of 40) was ready to join China with a HongKong-like arrangement. They were all willing to go work in China. Now I hear that not even 10% want to do anything with China. They saw what happened in Hong Kong.

[Rajiv]

4 years ago I was in Taiwan for 10 days, and about half the country (almost everybody under the age of 40) was ready to join China with a HongKong-like arrangement. They were all willing to go work in China. Now I hear that not even 10% want to do anything with China. They saw what happened in Hong Kong.

4 years ago was the Presidency term of Ma Ying jeou who actively promoted a Hong Kong type integration during his term.
And this policy of advocation of warmer ties with the mainland led to his downfall in the ensuing elections with the incumbent President Tsai Ing-wen emerging victorious.

[PKBasu]

All the native Taiwanese I've met are totally opposed to any links to China (particularly communist China, but they loathe the KMT just as much, especially if they are older, given the atrocities of "2/27" -- or February 27th 1947, when the KMT killed at least 20,000 Taiwanese in order to stamp out anti-China and pro-independence feelings). In fact, most say that they would prefer to going back to being ruled by Japan (as they were from 1895 to 1945) rather than become part of China; of course their top choice is independence.

Initially, the "mainlanders" (political and business elites of pre-communist China who came to Taiwan in 1949 as the communists gained control of the mainland) were about a fifth of the population, but they are now supposed to be between 25 and 30%. They solidly support the KMT, their multi-generation patrons. The native Taiwanese (who were on the island, hence under Japanese rule, before the KMT "carpetbaggers" arrived and took over all the industrial and other assets left behind by the Japanese) are largely opposed to becoming part of China -- particularly the older native Taiwanese. Younger people may well have worked in Suzhou, Shanghai, etc. in the past 2 decades, and would be less opposed to reunification. But the last two elections have clearly demonstrated a solid majority in favour of the DPP (a party run by native Taiwanese, that is pro-independence, even if they don't always shout it from the roof-tops).

[Dinesh]

It’s official. WTA announced it no longer will have any tournaments in China and Hong Kong. Here for more

Will be exciting to see which region/country replaces bulk of the Asian swing in the Fall season. I am assuming there will be lots more of tennis action in the UAE.

[jayakris]

^^^ That is a bit of a surprise to me. I thought that once she appeared on a TV interview, WTA would take the easy way out and go quiet saying something like "they would observe the situation". Nice to see this, even if temporary. I am sure this is not the final word. Maybe China will force Shuai Peng to speak against WTA and say that they are over-reacting and not taking her word that all is well. Let us see.

[Atithee]

There will be the proverbial straw that will break the camel’s back one day. Is this it? I doubt it.

[Atithee]

IOC held a second call with Peng. I’ve no idea why they are bent on making themselves look bad here. I suppose to justify holding the upcoming Winter Olympics in China.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/hours-chines ... 00997.html

[PKBasu]

The Davis Cup was won by the Russian Tennis Federation -- i.e., not the country (Russia) that is banned from international sport for doping, but by its tennis federation. What a charade!

Borna Coric wasn't available, so Croatia had to make do with the Challenger journeyman Borna Gojo, who has never made it to the top-200. Gojo played out of his skin in the earlier rounds (including the SF) but couldn't do much against Andrey Rublev, so it was an easy 2-0 win for the Russians in the final.

[VReddy]

I just looked up the results after your mention of Gojo as I had seen Gojo's win over favoured Gunneswaran in Croatia.

Gojo was unbeaten till the finals and defeated 3 top 70 players enroute to the finals! In the finals too, he was the main man and ran Rublev very close 64 76(5).




Crazy how this chap is able to raise his game when playing for country or in a team environment!

[jayakris]

It is indeed amazing. Leander was of course known for this quality. I thought this kind of stuff in Davis Cup would be less, now that nobody seems to care for davis Cup after the format change and general diluting of the uniqueness of the event. Nice to see that is it still there.

(BY the way, I should pull the Peng posts out to a separate thread, I know... Mod, Jay)

[PKBasu]

With Gojo (and perhaps Karatsev) it is probably simply a function of being in the company of a professional team, preparing better, and having the opportunity to be coached during the match. This suggests he is an under-achiever without those benefits. Leander too thrived on the adrenalin rush of a big crowd, and always performed far better in India colours (the one exception, not for him but the team, was in the Davis Cup World Group semifinal in 1993, when the team was surprisingly flat in Chandigarh on grass against Australia). Somdev (although not quite to the same extent) did much better in India colours (winning the CWG and Asiad singles golds, for instance).

[jayakris]

This is a positive development, if they actually announces pulling out (but I am still not hopeful)

ITF backs WTA by suspending all events in China over Peng Shuai situation

ITF had said that "they didn't want to punish 1.4 billion Chinese people" or some crappy excuse earlier this week, but could they be making a U-turn? There are a couple of reports on this in the last few hours, including the above one from the tennis magazine that talked to a "credible ITF source". But no announcement from ITF just yet.

Anyway, stay tuned! If ITF also pulls out, then there is ATP. Pressure is now building on ATP too.

[Atithee]

Normalcy restored…

https://www.yahoo.com/news/tennis-playe ... 20932.html