She also didn't tell any of her coaches or physios that she was taking Meldonium and significantly increased dosages before she played big matches (apparently facing Serena Williams makes you much more susceptible to Diabetes). I consider her to have been cheating for a decade, she took a medical substance for the wrong reasons to boost performance for a ridiculous period of time (along with so many other Russian athletes) but was still stupid enough to get caught when WADA finally woke up. The fact that she's been so graceless and lacking in contrition, along with her already being unpopular amongst her fellow players, make it no surprise that other players are against her return.
Tennis 2017
- Thread starter The Man Himself
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She also didn't tell any of her coaches or physios that she was taking Meldonium and significantly increased dosages before she played big matches (apparently facing Serena Williams makes you much more susceptible to Diabetes). I consider her to have been cheating for a decade, she took a medical substance for the wrong reasons to boost performance for a ridiculous period of time (along with so many other Russian athletes) but was still stupid enough to get caught when WADA finally woke up. The fact that she's been so graceless and lacking in contrition, along with her already being unpopular amongst her fellow players, make it no surprise that other players are against her return.
The lack of contrition's the main thing for me, in one of the many many interviews she's given as part of her triumphant return she claimed to take responsibility then blamed the ITF for not giving her a personal warning... Not sure if she's deluded or just badly advised but the whole thing could have been handled so much better from her side. Looks like the wildcard debate won't rumble on for much longer anyway, she'll likely win Stuttgart and do well enough in Madrid and Rome to qualify for tournaments automatically.
Also I'm amazed Bouchard's quotes were front page on the BBC website, her PR team are doing a brilliant job of keeping her relevant.
Murray survives for once.
She seriously irritates me. A 2nd rate, also ran player for more than two years now yet her mouths always open.
Chung falters in the tie break but showing a lot of promise.
Bouchard should learn to keep her mouth shut. She hasn't played well for two years now. Infact, she's rubbish at the moment. Sharapova's won all the Slams.
I cannot understand the media wankfest over Bouchard. She had one very good year in 2014 and yes, she's gorgeous, but the continuous media attention to a tennis player who hasn't played well for more than a year proves that the media, including the Beeb, give her the limelight just because of her looks.
I cannot understand the media wankfest over Bouchard. She had one very good year in 2014 and yes, she's gorgeous, but the continuous media attention to a tennis player who hasn't played well for more than a year proves that the media, including the Beeb, give her the limelight just because of her looks.
Chung looked pretty good. The backhand in the first set was pretty good.
He has a funny come on too.
He has a funny come on too.
Anyone watching Murray/Theim?
Theim playing some gorgeous stuff, and about to win the first set.
Am in total conflict here, love Theim but want Murray to win..
Theim playing some gorgeous stuff, and about to win the first set.
Am in total conflict here, love Theim but want Murray to win..
Great fun to watch right now, close contest.
Just put it on. Not surebwgo I want to win really. If Nadal gets to the final, I think a final against either would be good.
That was a really good match. Best match I've seen Theim play, and he really deserved the victory. Some of those points he played was superb.
A bit worried about Murray.... just coming back from injury so hopefully he'll improve with some more matches under his belt..
A bit worried about Murray.... just coming back from injury so hopefully he'll improve with some more matches under his belt..
Murray gets bounced. Shame, i was looking forward to seeing how Mr. Excitement would fare against a resurgent Rafa.
Nadal's gotten quite lucky with his draw so if he gets to the final, interesting to see how he plays against a pretty good player.
Same thing happened in Monte Carlo too. Will miss the final tomorrow, but think it will be interesting (assuming he wins later)
Zeballos with the shot of the week possibly. Great get, then blasts a back hand long line winner on the run against Nadal's smash to set up 2 break points.
How was he lucky?
Not his fault Djokovic, Wawrinka and Murray got knocked out. He was due to meet Djokovic but he lost to Goffin.
You can't be lucky when him and Fed are the only consistent players on tour so far this season.
What a great 2nd set this is. Zeballos hanging on for dear life against a very strong Nadal.
Edit: Jinx, it's over. Nadal breaks. Well fought.
Edit: Jinx, it's over. Nadal breaks. Well fought.
Same how he got lucky in the draw at Barca. Zverev, Nishikori and Goffin all went out early. I agree with you, nothing he can do, but almost a bit annoying (even if it does benefit him).
Monte Carlo wasn't that lucky tbh but he's gotten extremely lucky with the draw here. Not even one seeded player till the final!
Zverev was outplayed by Chung. And Chung gave him a better test than what Zverev did last week. He got trounced 6-1 in both sets and was rather embarrassing. He's still got a lot to prove if he's going to win a grandslam. I thought last year he could be a better player than Kyrgios. But I'm not sure now. Kyrgios doesn't seem frightened of playing the big boys. It's mainly him pissing about that is the problem.
Nishikori has been poor this season. It's a 500 event and a lot of players missing or in poor form.
I agree with you on all points, but on paper it looked like a potentially challenging week for him. He's been tested to a point by some of these guys, but never felt in doubt. I guess, I just want to see Rafa up against the bigger names.
Kyrgios seems to have switched on after the Australian. Not sure what it is with Zverev, has periods where he looks like the next best thing, but then fades away for long periods.
Rafa has been a bit lucky with draws to be fair, didn't beat a single top 10 player in Miami or Monte Carlo and he's had the same number of top 10 wins all year as Federer had in the Australian Open alone I think. Although given the state of the top 10 it probably doesn't matter much.
Agreed, that's what makes it so hard to judge his form still. The only player that could've really troubled him, Goffin, got screwed over by the umpire...
If Thiem plays to his abilities and his ranking he should be a good test for Nadal. Thiem beat him before on clay, but Nadal looks stronger than back then.
Comfortable win for Nadal in the end. If he stays fit and Murray's elbow issues keeps bothering him then he's a pretty safe bet for year end number one at this point.
He's usually pretty terrible during the grass season, no? And I don't think he's done well in the indoor hard court swing pre tour final for a few years either
He's in with a good shout, for sure.
He can afford to be pretty terrible for the grass season considering it's only four weeks long. He skipped the last few months of last year of course but in 2015 he made the final in Basel, semis at the WTF (beating Murray and Stan en route) and only narrowly lost to Stan in Paris, so not terrible results.
The main worry is he chases number one so hard he gets injured in the process. I would say he's smart enough to avoid that but he seems intent on playing Madrid and Rome so who knows.
I don't think Nadal is going to bother chasing the number 1. If it happens good enough but he's going to desperately want a Slam more than anything else. If he wins RG, I reckon he'll go easy on the grass and have a respectable hard court season and be happy with that.
Why would he skip two tournaments that he has had success in and is the favourite for? Rafa will probably ease off during the second phase of the season if his clay season is successful.
He'd want to win all the clay tournaments that are available to him. He'd probably want to play Djokovic before the French. As Djokovic has had his number recently, but I'm sure Nadal should beat him if we basing it on current form.
I don't think he's physically over doing anything. Most his matches have been relatively short on clay and a lot of 6-1 sets. The only tough match he had this week was the first set against Chung.
I don't think he'll be at all worried about Djokovic right now. If he is he shouldn't be anyway. Just think it's risky playing so much when Roland Garros is such a great chance for him to win another slam, we all remember what happened last year.
Djokovic has parted company with his entire coaching staff. Will go it alone until he can find somebody.
What's going on @Mihajlovic?
What's going on @Mihajlovic?
Novak's game has been up and down since he won the US Open in 2015.
He was pretty dominant at the start of last year by winning two grand slams.
Players just have their ups and downs. Djokovic is nearly 30 and is probably looking for a fresh approach as he moves into the latter phase of his career. He has the body type and mental toughness to go as long as Federer has if he chooses the right approach imo.
Well, most comments are saying that the coaching staff has stopped being helpful because they were on far too good terms with each other. The physio is basically Nole's best friend, and Vajda is almost like a father to him. It was noticeable that there was a too relaxed atmosphere which Nole couldn't cope with anymore. His training has become somewhat farcial too, especially after the video he posted from one of his training sessions where he just looked bored to death and playing more with his dog than the racket. No wonder people say winning the French Open was the worst possible thing that could have happened to him.
Also all members of the coaching staff had other private/family commitments so it's not actually that surprising that they would all agree to part ways after spending a decade together.
So the goal is to get an outsider who will work with him so that Nole can finally focus again and do his job ruthlessly and be answerable to his coach if he fecks up. Let's see what happens.
Thought her comments were a bit of a twat move to be honest.
I can understand why clean players would be pissed at players like Sharapova though. In an individual sport like Tennis it's not acceptable and they should be banning players outright in my opinion.
Bouchard is a bit of a twat anyway (though I like her), but like I've said earlier in the thread, the bitterness towards Sharapova from Bouchard and others players is expected and understandable to me.
I can understand them being a bit pissed off but I dunno, just feels like it was unnessecary to bring up to me.
Bouchard beat Sharapova yesterday by the way. Thought you'd want to know that
Yeah I seen, Bouchard is still a cnut. Hot though, but a cnut.
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