I’m definitely becoming a fan of Zeynep Sonmez.
Another really respectful handshake and a few nice words after her win against Polona Hercog.
#Wimbledon
The WTA and ATP really does an awful job at promoting doubles.
Krejcikova/Siniakova are one match away from competing the career Grand Slam (+ YEC and Olympic gold) but there doesn’t seem to be a single tweet or post about it.
“They are both Polish but Radwanska and Swiatek are totally different players.”
Gosh, who would have thought that from a country of 40 million people? 😦
Dark horse: Bianca Andreescu. That’s interesting seeing as she isn’t playing.
Doubles prediction: Hunter/Mertens. They aren’t playing together this year.
Vondrousova reached the doubles semifinal in 2019, not singles.
🤷♂️
Wimbledon’s sustainability plan is off to a good start. The water from the refill taps “isn’t drinkable” so they are handing out bottles of Evian instead. 😅😭
Putintseva's win also makes it three Kazakhs through to R3.
🇰🇿 Diyas
🇰🇿 Putintseva
🇰🇿 Rybakina
The only country with more representation in the third round is the United States.
Vesnina has now reached Grand Slam doubles finals in three separate decades with five different partners (Azarenka, Zvonareva, Mirza, Makarova, Kudermetova).
How poorly designed is the post-US Open calendar? Rybakina is playing her fifth tournament in a row, each one on a different continent. 🙃
US Open
Portoroz
Tokyo
Ostrava
San Diego
Aren’t the crowds in Guadalajara fantastic? And I can’t imagine the tournament had the time to do much marketing given the event was put together in eight weeks which was a feat in itself.
What a list for the women’s invitation doubles!
Barty-Dellacqua
Black-Stosur
Clijsters-Hingis
Hantuchova-Robson
Konta-Vandeweghe
Petkovic-Rybarikova
Radwanska-Schiavone
Vinci-Zheng Jie
If any of these pro athletes want to hire me as a comms consultant for the situations, I'm happy to take your money in exchange for writing this short statement that you can read: "It was a tough loss. Congrats to Coco. I'll just have to try harder next time."
Not quite sure why the mixed doubles draw has been published at such a late hour but here goes...
Strycova/Melo are the top seeds but they have a tough R1 against Mattek-Sands/Murray.
Venus is playing with Cabal and Ostapenko/Paes and Anisimova/Kyrgios also feature in the draw.
Sania Mirza is planning on making her comeback in Brisbane and then Hobart.
Apparently she has entered Hobart with Nadiia Kichenok and presumably Brisbane too.
Tennis player Novak Djokovic has purchased 80% of Danish biotech firm QuantBioRes, aiming to develop a medical treatment against COVID-19, the company's chief executive told Reuters.
Aww. 🥺
Serena and Kuznetsova had some fierce battles over the years, especially in the Grand Slams. The 2009 and 2013 French Open clashes immediately spring to mind.
I know singles will always be the main attraction but the WTA and ATP are communicating to a global audience and doubles will be relevant and significant to a lot of their followers.
Emma Raducanu just beat Zhang Shuai 6-2, 6-4, even with a wobble at 4-0.
Into
#USOpen
round 3.
Laura Robson just said on BBC
@5liveSport
that she stands a good chance of going even further.
Reckons Zhang, on paper, is a tougher opponent for her than Sorribes Tormo.
It does make me a little sad that Schiavone and Pennetta never really got the adulation that Sinner (justifiably I should add) gets. They both deserved it.
It was the women who carried Italian tennis for so many years.
Day ? coronavirus update: feeling more or less fine but still tired and still testing positive. 😤
Unfortunately I don’t have an unmasked stamp ceremony in my honour to attend so I guess I’m still going to be stuck indoors for the next few days. 🤷♂️
Andy/Serena should become a permanent mixed doubles fixture at Wimbledon throughout the 2020s and quite possibly even into the 2030s. It's the will of the people.
Interesting to note there is a Russian-Ukrainian doubles combo (Khromacheva/Strakhova) in Anapoima this week.
I certainly don’t believe this has happened at tour level since the Russian invasion.
Kveta 😪 What a legend though!
Aside from Venus and Serena, I think Peschke must be the only active player as of this year to have played Graf and Seles.
Special moment tonight
@CharlestonOpen
- Kveta Peschke, after 30+ years in pro tennis, has played her last WTA match.
2011 Wimbledon champ, world No1 doubles ranking and 36 titles 🏆 Made the SFs of every major in both doubles and mixed!
Turned pro in 1993. Legendary!
Karolina Muchova makes it through to the fourth round of Wimbledon on her main draw debut and she is yet to drop a set.
This time last year she was ranked
#223
.