Australian Open, Melbourne, GS 2000, Jan 16-29, 2023

[prashanthm]

Sonyliv app in India

thanks... I guess no subscription needed for Sony Liv as long as you are in India, right? I might try a VPN and see if it works for me

Personally, it's great that at least we have options to watch our juniors live in some form...

[sameerph]

Sonyliv app in India

thanks... I guess no subscription needed for Sony Liv as long as you are in India, right? I might try a VPN and see if it works for me

Personally, it's great that at least we have options to watch our juniors live in some form...

No. Subscription is needed. I had subscribed earlier when I wanted to watch web series on stock market scam. But, it had expired. Now, had to subscribe when yesterday wanted to watch Shruti's match.

[prashanthm]

No. Subscription is needed. I had subscribed earlier when I wanted to watch web series on stock market scam. But, it had expired. Now, had to subscribe when yesterday wanted to watch Shruti's match.

thanks, i'll check...

[jayakris]

Yuvan is up 63 00 on the 4th seed Gea. Broke him in the 7th and 9th games, and held serve from 0-40 down in the 8th game in between the breaks. Playing well, but a little too wound up. He may lose his edge any time and lose the next two sets too (like happened when he played Gea last time, at Eddie Herr, iirc). Hope not!

Had three very good returns that helped the 7th game break. Served very well at all 5 BPs he saved in the first set, especially 3 in a row in the 8th game from 0-40 (had an ace at AD out too). The 9th game break was mainly from some errors from Gea.

Does Yuvan have an Asian coach?? Somebody was talking to him at length like a coach, at the end of the set when Gea took a bathroom break. Looked like a Korean or Japanese.

Down a break immediately on some wild shots. Control yourself, Yuvan. At 63 01 (Gea serving 30-0), it started raining. In a delay. Match suspended.

[jayakris]

Does Yuvan have an Asian coach?? Somebody was talking to him at length like a coach, at the end of the set when Gea took a bathroom break. Looked like a Korean or Japanese.

Actually I think it was Stephen Koon of ImpactTennis Academy in Nonthaburi, Thailand. He is a very good coach. I think Yuvan was there sometime last year for coaching and showed improvements soon after.

[gbelday]

Yes Jay. Shruti and Yuvan have been training with Koon. Here’s an interview of Koon by ITD folks.

https://indiantennisdaily.com/2023/01/2 ... phen-koon/

[PKBasu]

Sania/Bops through to the MxD SF after Ostapenko-partner gave a walkover. Ostapenko had earlier been beaten by Rybakina in a Russia-Ukraine match-up in the singles QF (although it was masquerading as a Kazakhstan-Latvia match ). Rybakina is looking very good indeed. Ostapenko has a killer backhand, but otherwise is an ugly player to watch.

[sameerph]

Yuvan is up 63 00 on the 4th seed Gea. Broke him in the 7th and 9th games, and held serve from 0-40 down in the 8th game in between the breaks. Playing well, but a little too wound up. He may lose his edge any time and lose the next two sets too (like happened when he played Gea last time, at Eddie Herr, iirc). Hope not!

Had three very good returns that helped the 7th game break. Served very well at all 5 BPs he saved in the first set, especially 3 in a row in the 8th game from 0-40 (had an ace at AD out too). The 9th game break was mainly from some errors from Gea.

Does Yuvan have an Asian coach?? Somebody was talking to him at length like a coach, at the end of the set when Gea took a bathroom break. Looked like a Korean or Japanese.

Down a break immediately on some wild shots. Control yourself, Yuvan. At 63 01 (Gea serving 30-0), it started raining. In a delay. Match suspended.

On resumption, Yuvan seems to have folded up, lost 63 16 26.

[prashanthm]

Too bad..., but the one very encouraging and exciting thing out of these performances by Yuvan is his serve... 200+ kmph first serve is not a joke..., especially for us Indians

[jayakris]

I kinda knew Yuvan might not hold up, as Arthur Gea is way too steady in his shots. Yuvan is up and down. He needs to be able to just play the shots calmly and not have to force himself to focus too much into each shot. All the screams after every point just bothers me. That seems to always be the case when he manages to get ahead in the match. You can see it on his face and reactions after each shot. But you shouldn't need that to force breaks on the others and hold your serve. Good shots and returns for winners should all come naturally. He needs to get there. I saw this against Campana Lee late last year. Then also it was a fold after getting ahead in the first set. Exactly same thing has happened twice against Arthur Gea since that match too. Hopefully Yuvan will soon get to the level of believing he can beat these top-10 guys with his natural game, without the extra effort he thinks he needs to make. But tennis players go through this as they raise their level of play. Ahainst pllayers below top-25 or 50, he may believe in himself more now.

As I may have mentioned at some point, one American football coach once said one of my favorite lines - "when you get to the endzone, act like you have been there". This is applicable in tennis too. The more you force yourself to cut down on the celebrations after the shots and tell yourself that this is all no big deal to you, the more it all becomes natural to you, and it becomes part of your confidence. Those players who think they have to psyche themselves up for every shot to play well, never get consistently to the levels they should get to. Practice a lot, play a lot against better players, and wait for your shots to come naturally. You buy yourself more time to figure out on-court strategy that way, rather than focus on how to put in effort and play the shots themselves. All the rah-rah stuff is a waste of time too. I guess that is the no-think tennis that I have always talked about (like I know tennis. to repeat, I never play the game, of course )

[jayakris]

Too bad..., but the one very encouraging and exciting thing out of these performances by Yuvan is his serve... 200+ kmph first serve is not a joke..., especially for us Indians

By the way, he is only going to get better at that serve. The serve looks natural to me and he doesn't seem to be thinking too much into serving. Just gets up there and throws it down. Can get up to 210 kph now. That kind of velocity on serve is pretty damn good at this age.

Anyway, I think Yuvan is the closest to being able to play in the pros even in a couple of years, among the Indian juniors. His legs not being too thin is one of the things I notice. That is rarer among Indians. Mahesh once said, "show me well-developed legs and I will show you a champion" or something like that, while speaking of Indian kids. Yuvan has that part taken care of. He is not the fastest mover on court though. He can improve on that. Upper body and core strength will improve more easily if he puts in work.

[prasen9]

And the advantage of being cool (meaning calm) about a good shot is that the opponent thinks that this is normal for you and that you are a better player whereas if you are going gaga about one shot/point that was great, it means that this is not normal for you and an exception and your opponent takes it that way in that such shots are not the norm. So, they are more motivated in a sense. Again, I too have just seen this in club tennis and perhaps imagined to have seen this in TV-tennis.

[rajitghosh]

Sania and Bops reach the Mixed Doubles Final. Good for Sania that her final Grand Slam match would be a final. Hope she wins. The sad part is while she retires playing a Grand Slam Final (albeit a mixed doubles one), India still doesn't have an active player either in the women's or men's section who comes anywhere close to her in terms of achievements and we are still looking for the next Sania.

[PKBasu]

[SF] Sania Mirza/Rohan Bopanna (IND/IND) d. 3-Neal Skupski/Desirae Krawczyk (GBR/USA) 76(5) 67(5) 10-6

What a match!! Our pair were brilliant in the first set, had numerous chances to close it out in the second (mainly bungled by Bopanna), then took an early 4-1 lead in the STB, and never really relinquished it (kept at least a 2-point edge until 8-6, then closed it out 10-6).

Their opponents of course are the reigning Wimbledon champions (for the past 2 years), and a very strong pairing indeed. But Sania was utterly brilliant today: her forehand was working superbly, her serving was very good (she didn't lose a point in her first 2 service games), and she held her nerve at all the crucial points. Bopanna's temperament isn't a strength, but luckily Krawczyk's serve just crumbled under pressure, giving our pair a narrow victory in the end.

Opponents in the final are either an Australian wildcard pair or Stefani/Matos of Brazil: none of them has ever been in a Slam final, so Sania has a great opportunity to finish off her career in the best style imaginable.

[Statsrock3]

Double wow, one for the win and another to see the regulars posting in what could be a historic thread in this website

Sad to say, as a guy following many sports the first time I saw Sania play(after her 2006 GS encounter against Williams) was the 2022 Wimby Semis. And she looked absolutely devastating in the first set, easily the best of the four players. I had then posted in a friends' whatsapp group that 'Sania was turning the clock back and blitzing her way to the final'. It was Set 1 and 3-1 then. Just then Skupski took an injury break(I thought that was dirty because he had just held to 2-3 and then took the break right in time to break momentum!) and the Jewish pair surged back to win Set 2. It was a rollercoaster match but cant begrudge the duo who came from the brink to go on and win the championship.

And what a payback it was as I had pretty much given up on our chances this match. I wasnt too hopeful of the Ostapenko game either but thankfully we had a walkover. I was remembering the very first time I chanced upon this forum - The LP-MB Beijing 2008 quarterfinal was in progress against Wawrinka-Federer and Dr.Jay or someone had commented after losing the singles QF, Fed wanted the doubles gold badly. So glad Ostapenko is not of the same mental makeup as Fed

What of Stefani-Matos - last two matches were against wildcards and they have beaten Mattek-Sands/Pavic, Dabrowski/Purcell and are pretty young. Sania-Bops have big match experience going for them, so hoping this will be one hell of a last dance indeed!

Desiree Krawczyk - has the makings of a future doubles great.