British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

Which was a disappointment

She couldn't really get going - it wasn't flowing like she wanted - and Coco didn't give her anything

BUT it's been such a wonderful week

Yes, I love these type of stories.
It reminds me a little bit of the Chinese player shuai Zheng who couldnt make ends meet and was going to retire after the Australian Open but then came through qualifying and got to the quarter finals and has gone on to have a very good career since

In the doubles Paolini and Errani #2 beat Andreeva and Shnaider #4 by 0 and 1. A & S had four consecutive bagel sets on their way to the semis and were looking good !

Coco takes the title, beating Aryna 6-7,6-2,6-4. Great match. 2 GSs for the 21 year old. Number 2 in the rankings. Serena won her first slam when she was 18 if I am correct? Then three when she was 21. So 2 more to go Coco!

-- Edited by Var on Saturday 7th of June 2025 04:28:00 PM

So glad Coco won. Sabalenka is a classless sore loser. Her post match comments in her press conference were disrespectful to a worthy opponent who not only played the better tennis but controlled her on court emotions. Sabalenka was frankly pathetic. I don't think I have ever seen a professional tennis player lose it so much emotionally and mentally as Sabalenka did today. I'm also totally fed up with her ridiculous screaming. In fact I'm surprised nobody has called it out as deliberate hinderance. I've noticed that when the ball goes in she continues her screaming until the opponent hits the ball but when her shot either hits the net or is sure to go out her scream is cut short. This shows she could stop the scream if she wanted to but chooses not to.

She's obviously a damn good tennis player but I could do without the noise. Today she lost because her opponent played the better tennis in tough conditions and controlled her mental and emotional side as a professional athlete should. Coco was a worthy winner.

I have just watched a recording of Sabalenka's post final press conference and in the main I found it a quite interesting honest assessment from a very frustrated player.

I didn't see the match but from everything I have heard the conditions were awful, she got too emotional and played badly.

Well she certainly acknowledged in spades that she played badly, and did think she let her emotions get to her. And folk had seen the conditions she talked about.

What was very clearly lacking was any praise for Gauff other than a kind of grudging she handled the conditions better. Saying that she ran around a lot and hit high balls often seemingly off the frame did leave it very lacking!! - and I am sure she did rather more than that. And say a sharing comment like the conditions sure made it tough for both of us might have been good.

Out of interest, from these who saw the match, did Gauff play that much good tennis or was her level comparatively low too in a match largely confined by the conditions? ( given the closeness of the match their general levels must have been pretty similar  ). Whatever, Sabakenka should definitely have given her more credit ( like more than virtually none! ) even if not actually saying she played particularly well. Sometimes players are arguably insincerely praising on such occasions but she did need to give more credit and that was the really bad part of the PC.

Not her finest 10 minutes but she can be a good listen, often quirky and self dreprecating. Good to have her around.

It was a fantastic match for the neutral, one of the better GS finals of recent years. But Sabalenka's assessment is pretty fair. By the end of the first set she'd hit more UE than in any match previously - at times it was wild. Coco was largely solid, but there were still some brilliant points. We know Coco is quick but yesterday she was everywhere. Coco won because in those conditions, making Sabalenka play more shots was always going to reap reward.