Take a moment to check out these quotes by Ana Ivanovic + Dinara Safina who lost to Agnes Szavay 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 and Samantha Stosur 6-1, 6-4, respectively, in the Miami third round this weekend (BTW - so did Vera Zvonareva but she won in Indian Wells and gets a mini-pass this week):
Dinara: ...I just can say it was sad the way I played today. Just basically I wasn't playing. I go to the court, and I don't even fight for it. So it's just bad behavior from my side. The champions, they don't do this. It's a good punishment for myself.
NaturAna: I always was missing by a little bit, and got really down on myself. It was kind of hard to pick up from there. I think [the reason was] I sort of expected some things would come easier today on the court than they actually did. It was tougher than I expected.
So let's remember the formula for failing in a match: make a few easy mistakes, beat yourself up, make more mistakes, give up mentally, stop fighting, make more mistakes, lose the match, beat yourself up to a pulp. Ahhh - feeling good yet?
When are these lady ballers, including Jelena Jankovic, going to learn to scratch, scrape, and claw their way to a win when their game isn't on point? I give the Williams sisters, especially ReRe, full credit here. She may walk onto the court with all kinds of ideas in her head - fashion, screenplays, some tennis - but when the going gets tough she'll take off the earrings, put the screenplay to pasture, and get down the dirty business of winning matches. It's time to get gritty ladies.
NaturAna, Dinara, and JJ should know by now they wear targets on their backs and their opponents will bring A-games when playing them. Get used to it.
Now to be fair, neither NaturAna nor Dinara has ever done particularly well in Miami (quaterfinals for both) but in tennis it's all about a positive state-of-mind, desire, competitiveness, and heart - something they have yet to find.
(images via getty)
Monday, March 30, 2009
NaturAna + Dinara beat themselves up, expect great results (wrong-o)
Labels: Ana Ivanovic, Dinara Safina, Miami, tennis
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Good call Rich.... they are all lacking the desire, hunger and drive to claw their way back into matches. I once remember reading a quote about Monica Seles' intensity...that she would 'crawl over broken glass' to win a match.... that kinda attitude is lacking in today's game. Williams and Sharapova are the only current players I can think of who leave everything out on the court. Makes for great tennis and great theatre...something missing at the moment in the women's game.
ReplyDeleteanon: Great point about Moni. She wasn't a great mover, a good one, but not great. It was similar in a way to these two but she also had less reach due to her double-fisted than these two ladies. But she knew what her strengths and weaknesses were and knew to get on top of the point from the first ball. She made her opponents feel her on every point - every point was a match point for Moni which is similar to Rafa these days.
ReplyDeleteThese girls need to figure out their games and decide on patterns and strategies that play to these strengths and hide the weaknesses. And stop getting down on themselves mid-match - it's one of the worst things they can do. The moment they let that doubt creep in, it snowballs and then it's over.
Spot on, Rich. It's frustrating when you see these ladies just stop competing. Or not even at all. Especially when you like them! HELLO! Show a little heart out there. I'm not the biggest fan of the W sisters, but I definitely appreciate that aspect of their game - they don't give up, and they actually look like they want to be out there playing, fighting for every point and every match. These other chicas need to get with the program! Ugh.
ReplyDeleteThe only reason I was watching the women this year was for a a fabulous outfit. Now that I have it, I'm boycotting all the chicks until Kimmie comes back or Dinara grows a pair and starts winning again.
ReplyDeleteLast night Serena was playing so badly. She kept getting broken, but she clawed her way back and won the match. Today when I checked the wta website and saw the match highlights she was bringing everything she had in that match, scrambling and fighting for every point. These girls think people will just roll over and give them the match (at least that is what I gathered from Ana's comments), so as soon as someone who has no fear starts playing them they have no idea what to do. Like Venus says there is no drug for mental strength in tennis.
ReplyDeletenaturAna is just coming off her slump and, as rich has pointed out, has not done really well in the past in miami so i'll still give her a pass. she maybe no williams nor sharapova but she's getting there. the kid has, to her credit, gutted out matches in the past (her wimby match against dechy and her win against pennetta in IW are some of the few that come to mind). it just wasn't a good day for ana and i still think that she's starting to come back to her old for. besides, szavay has also given her problems in berlin last year. as for dinara, i think that maybe the thought of being able to takeover the top spot from serena has derailed her. her downward spiral started after her trashing at the AO finals this year. she's not, imo, prepared to undergo the same criticisms that JJ went through last year. i hope serena remains no.1, for the wta's sake. another slam-less player at the top would just be another embarassment for the tour.
ReplyDelete