This week, Brodie of Mind the Racket and Juan José chat about all things Paris, including Djokovic’s impressive post-US Open run and Ferrer’s win over Nadal. They also discuss the difference between hard courts and debate how much indoor hard courts have slowed and the impact that has had. They finish off with some shout outs to Simona Halep and the Italian Fed Cup team.
Remember to subscribe to us on iTunes, Stitcher or use this feed to subscribe to us on an Android device or any other feed aggregator. If you like what you hear, feel free to give us a rating or a review. Thanks for listening!
First of all, I like your podcasts and have listened to a good number of them. There is always good tennis discussion and a much proper coverage of players throughout the tennis scene. Not like the Americans (tennis.com, tennis.si.com) for whom the tennis does not go beyond Big 4, Serena and Sloane, since the american men’s tennis is in a very sorry state.
Since I am a Halep fan, and your latest podcast featured Halep, rest of this comment would be about that.
Mr. Juan Jose, had she won in R16 her quarterfinal opponent would have been Vinci (Penneta vs Azarenka was in the SFs). She had set point on her serve against penneta to push the match into 3rd, but as soon as first few drops of rain hit the court, penneta ran towards her chair, packed her bags and was out within 30 seconds. When they returned, her momentum was lost and she was broken as she lost 3 straight points. “Pennetta dominated the tiebreaker against a disheartened Halep.”
Broadie correctly pointed out that Halep had tough draw in the Slams as she was unseeded.
1. Australian Open – Lost to Sloane Stephens in 1st round, she had injury problems till April
2. French Open – Lost to Carla Suarez Navarro in 1st round, this she should’ve won considering she had a spectacular run in Rome and was evenly matched with CSN. Still, she lost in 3 sets
3. Wimbledon – Lost to Li Na in 2nd round, Served a breadstick in the 2nd set, got bageled in the 3rd, No idea what happened there,
4. US open – had a good run, loss to penneta explained above
Compared to Halep,Stephens had easy draw in all the Slams. No top30 opponent in AO till injured Serena, No top 90 opponent in Roland Garros till she lost to Sharapova in R16, no top 20 opponents in Wimbledon till she lost to Bartoli in QFs, same in USO till Serena.
Simona against top 20 – 15 wins, 8 losses (6 in the earlier half of the season)
Sloane against top 20 – 2 wins + 1 Walkover , 11 losses.
Sloane has not been tested enough against quality opponents as could be surmised from above.
As for Simona’s titles, only Serena, Vika, Kvitova had better titles then Simona amongst the top 10. Most of the single title holders won the 270 events.
Whenever we ask SI, why they are not covering Simona, they thrust her poor performance at Slams in our faces and say let’s see what she does in Slams in 2014. She had won 5 titles, when we complained, surely that should be enough to atleast give her a decent interview space. All the american media went Shit crazy when Duval won against Stosur, who had a horrid year till then, but there’s no transcript or video available of Simona after her R16 defeat to Penneta, even though rain delay added a bit off drama.
I have full faith that she’d do good in Slams next year.
But whatever she may or may not achieve in Slams next year, her achievements this year has not been properly acclaimed and rejoiced by the tennis reporters.
P.S. Even though the Britishers have also not done anything, but since they’ve always been a pompous lot, no need to talk about them.
SI just did an article on Halep recently discussing her year. If Halep do not reach the top 10 before Indian Wells, that would be a shame as she do not have many points to defend. Good thing about Halep finishing at 11 is she is NOT restricted by Roadmap. She can play any tournament she wants. If she plays 3 Internationals, no penalty while Wozniacki has a limit of 2. On Stephens, her signature wins were injured players. S Williams had back and ankle issues while Sharapova had shoulder issues. Stephens is going to be more under the microscope in 2014 especially early during the AO swing.
Hey guys, hopefully we can get the whole Changeover team on the podcast again to wrap up the season and discuss next season as well possibly? Anyway, just wanted to say I strongly disagree about what you guys talked about in regards to the slowing down of surfaces. It’s pretty awful that indoor courts are this slow. What is the point of having different surfaces when they all play the same speed more or less. There is hardly any variety and sure rallies can be fun but when they end or the point is decided by an error it doesn’t make for good tennis. Not to mention, tournaments don’t do it for the reason you gave. Neutralising the courts protects the top players, the players that bring in fans and money. The longer the rallies, the longer fans are in the stadium, buying food, merchandise etc. This is another strong reason as to why younger players aren’t breaking through. London this year is way too slow, and the bounce is pretty high contrary to what you see. It just doesn’t make sense as to why this is called the indoor season when it doesn’t play anything like what it’s supposed to.
Juan Jose,
How can you forget that Tsonga won his only Masters event in Paris defeating Nalbandian in 3 sets?