Weapons: Strong serve and flat backhand, good movement on the baseline out to both wings. Weaknesses: Health a real question, sometimes has trouble facing the pressure versus top players
I likely would have ranked Vika higher, due to her power and ability to hit through opponents with incredibly flat balls on either wing. However, recurring health problems have really put the wrench in her season and put serious doubt over her ability to go deep over a fortnight. If she looks sharp and healthy early on, watch out.
“What are little girls made of? They’re made of sugar. And spice. And sweat. And grit. And fucking swearing, bitches.”
And therein lies the question. When do all those lovely catch words, sweat, grit, determination, desire, competitor, passion… when do they all become ugly?
Last night in Rome, it got ugly. Vika was, um, unimpressed with Maria, and had a catchy phrase to call her. And after she was forced to retire with an elbow injury, down in the second set, she flailed her arms around in a near universal, ahem “I find you highly irritable” gesture.
In a rather classy way, Vika said on Twitter (@Vika7) that she essentially only ever chirps herself on court and not another player. Maria declined to comment any further. Few. Vika was mad at herself, case closed. Except…
Who calls themselves a “f—ing b—h” after winning a set? And my first year university psychology class I took way back when tells me that when you’re pissed at yourself, you usually do something physical. Like, I don’t know, smash a racquet? Pull a Youzhny and bleed your forehead open? Not swing your arms helplessly. A nice attempt at a save, but not a realistic one.
So, as tennis fans, what do we do with this? This is nearly universal to tennis. When a pitcher throws at a hitter, they swear and look for payback. Hockey players will go after the other one, maybe fight. The list goes on. In tennis, not only can you not storm the mound, there is no one else on the field except the two of you. It’s all tension, baby.
For me, responding to this is difficult. I’ve never been a huge Vika fan, but I’ve never thought her as the scum of the earth, and really respect her game and think she’s great for the game. I also think I’m a highly competitive person and am definitely into finding ways of pumping myself up in intense, competitive situations.
However, no one wants a sore winner, and no one wants a sore loser either. Yet Vika falls into a strange spot here, being injured before the incident, and during the incident that led to her retirement. There is no “code of retirement ethics for an opponent” in other sports. In tennis, it’s unwritten. How many people have chirped on Justine for retiring in a slam final? Or for players retiring down a set and 0-4 or 0-5? “What the hell, just stand there and finish it out.”
In other words, I’m not going to sit here and tell that what Vika did was totally acceptable, or completely slimey. Simply, we should stop and think about what happened, and the players that have muttered similar words either undetected by cameras, or on non-show courts. I don’t know. Maybe it was unsportsmanlike, maybe it was in the heat of battle, or maybe it falls on the thin line between.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen something like what happened to Vika.
Ana was playing at the same time, so I wasn’t paying much attention to the other matches. All of the sudden people on twitter started talking about her, so I went to check it out.
When I saw her on the floor, I freaked out. Even more when they showed it again. It was awful. In the middle of a rally, Vika just stopped and collapsed on court. It really scared the shit out of me. They had to move her in a wheelchair and she couldn’t even hold her head.
At first, everyone thought it could have been due to heat exhaustion. She’s known for not being able to deal well with extreme conditions, but it was later diagnosed as a concussion.
Here’s her statement: “I was warming up in the gym prior to my match against Gisela Dulko, when I fell while running a sprint. I fell forward and hit my arm and head. I was checked by the medical team before I went on court, and they were courtside for monitoring. I felt worse as the match went on, having a headache and feeling dizzy. I also started having trouble seeing and felt weak before I fell. I was taken to the hospital for some medical tests and have been diagnosed with a mild concussion.”
It sucks because Vika had a legit shot this year and was playing well.
Get well soon, girl.
Oh, and I’m sorry for the lack of posting, but I have exams so it’s difficult to keep up with everything.
Practice makes perfect. It also makes tennis tournaments.
I find practice gets mentioned far more in the men’s game, probably because of the extremes of some of the top players. Rafa goes balls to the wall on all his practices as if they were a slam match, Fed relies on schedules, patterns, consistency, and Novak likes to yuck it up with the guys. That being said, watching a player, any player, in their practice, is something that makes a tournament, sets the atmosphere when you’re there, and is really such a bonus feature to the whole experience.
Practices are also different. Today I saw Marion serving at cones down the tee, Dinara practicing cross court backhands, Agi practicing volleys, there’s all sorts of stuff. Sometimes, player will play legit points against each other and really go at it, and that’s when things can get fun…
On Monday, I watched Flavs and Vika go at it, and it definitely wasn’t pretty. While Flavia seemed the angry one at first, getting absolutely killed, spraying balls everywhere, and eventually smashing balls against the back stop in frustration, it wasn’t long before Vika had her own set of problems.
Vika’s errors got ridiculously out of control, and she ended up firing a ball backwards off the court and into the Banque Nationale court. I mean, into to, not against. It very easily could have knocked someone in the back of the head, or entered play there. At the switch of ends, she steamed at her coach “when I ask you for the ball, give it to me right away.”
Once Flavs was on our side, she was yelling “aahhhh puta!” and having a hell of a time with just about everything.
The end result? Both of them lost a combined 6 games in their respective matches. Get that shit out on the practice courts, people. Especially against another good player. It’ll help you keep things together for your next match.
Blasting through Morita, Mel, Wicky, Sam and Masha while only dropping one set on the way (to Wicky Bartoli), Vika picks up her fourth title, and first of 2010.
While the first set was a serious tug-of-war and battle for momentum, it was pretty clear that Vika was winning the longer rallies and staying unfazed by Maria’s big hitting or huge winners. I wasn’t quite sure if she was going to be able to close it out, but she did deserve it, and took it 6-4.
Masha pretty well disappeared in the second set, and Vika didn’t drop off for one second. It was over in a flash (though that might have been because I slept through a couple of the games…) 6-1.
Super cute trophy presentation, where Maria said that she was sure they would play “many more times, and I will get my revenge”. Vika, all choked up from her win, thanked Maria and said she was sure they would play many more matches, in which Maria let out a cheeky laugh. Not only super cute, but super classy. I think most people would be down for more clashes between the two, there was some damn good tennis in that first set.
Really fantastic tournaments for both ladies to kick off the 2010 hard court and US Open Series, and I think it’s safe to say that both are big favourites to pick up lots of points pre-USO, and possibly make a run at the big time. Both are in good shape (where did those Vika guns come from?) and fully capable. Show me what ya got.
Solid win today for Vika, who took out Sam in straights today. The stats show pretty obviously that Vika brought her A game, and Sam did not, and it was enough to make the difference. Both these players are too good for another to not show up, and have things be close. Vika served at 74%, Sam at 55% with only 2 aces. Vika was only broken once in her 6-2, 6-3 victory.
The real impressive thing for the birthday girl (who turned 21 today) was her match yesterday versus Bartoli. Down a break in the first set, she remained positive, fist pumping, tapping herself, and urging herself on. Unfortunately for her, she dropped the set and got broken early in the second. Things totally unraveled, with her yelling at herself and whacking balls against the backstop. I figured it was over, usual Vika was out being herself again. But slowly things shifted, Vika pushed on, upped her game, Bartoli’s game dropped a bit, and before you knew it, Vika had the match in three. While it wasn’t a total mental display, the end of the first set, and the eventual win showed real signs of Vika staying calm, positive, and reassuring of herself. Those are the wins that are important for big time players, because more often then not, you find your A game the next day and before you know it, you’re in the final.
I can’t say I’m a huge Vika fan. Hate her for the “wooo” sound (once drove my sister out of an adjacent room because the sound alone was driving her mad) or the temper, but the fact of the matter is that Vika has one of the hardest hitting games out there, and isn’t afraid to take it to opponents. Not to mention some good defensive skills and above average volleying. The temper and consistency are what has been hurting her, but with an improvement in the headcasiness (I can only assume that’s a word) and a proper control on aggression, she should be a serious contender for a ton of hard court points this season. Which along with other big hitters like Sam, Masha, and Elena, you’ve got to like as a fan of the WTA.
Well that’s just Vika. After a collapse (in my mind, what SHOULD be a confidence shattering one) to Serena in Melbourne, looking exhausted and injured for Fed Cup, girl has put together a hell of a run to the final. And she’s looked confident doing it. Oh, and she’s beating players that she’s supposed to beat. Hell, it’s early in the season, but I’m impressed, and the on court antics seem to be down (though that might just be because I haven’t seen them, she’s winning, or both.)
Regardless, Vika is confident, striking the ball with authority, and despite A-Rad’s best attempts to push her around the court and try to dictate play, Vika was pouncing on short balls, coming to the net (and looking totally comfortable doing it) and knocks up another straight set win. She’ll face defending champ Venus in the final at 7pm local time (10am EST.)
In one of the most epic collapses in slam history, Vika was up a whopping set and 2 breaks at 4-0… and then Serena got angry. And it was not pretty. There was just about everything but blood on the court as Serena started hammering the ball, playing with purpose, and actually moving (*gaspshockgasp*). Vika was able to stop the bleeding to get things to a tiebreak, and was even up a mini-break, but Serena just overpowered her and steam rolled all the way through the set and the win.
It was messy, to say the least. It was strange, seeing Vika have Serena’s number after she hadn’t even been broken all tournament. At the same time, Serena looked oddly flat and sort of content to die away with a whimper. And let’s be honest, were this a non-slam tournament (especially outside of the US) Serena probably would have gladly eaten a bagel in the second. But something clicked, for sure, and it was bombs away. Methinks she may be out for blood. Specifically Justine’s.
The other semi actually happened before but is barely worth mentioning. 3 sets of tired tennis that I’m pretty sure exhausted its viewers faster than its players. Nails finally took it in the third set that had next to no service holds… the rest is history. Specifically history not worth re-mentioning. The good that DOES come out of it, however, is that Nails is the first ever Chinese player to crack the WTA top 10, which is pretty damn epic, so congrats to her on that!
Smoking the ball all first set, and taking it rather handily, and then serving for the match in the second set, two points away from victory… and Aravane goes to 30-40, the Ghost of Nando’s Past makes an appearance, and double fault on break point. Then she drops the set. Then she drops the match, despite breaking back twice in the third. Same old crap. Aravane seriously needs to figure out that second serve, it’s entering into A-Rad territory, and there’s no way she’s going to be able to compete with big time ball-bashers when they can just smoke that second serve all day long. And of course she knew it, so she often tried to make up for it by going for the second serve… and double faulting. Whatevs. First ever Sydney final for Serena.
Her opponent in the final will be defending champ Elena, who has looked pretty solid this week from the little I’ve seen. What’s up with Vika though? I didn’t see it, but not much of a scoreline at 6-3, 6-1. Love that the WTA home site is starting to call Serena/Lena a rivalry. Of course. It’s the new Federer/Nadal! Anyway, I saw a bit of Vika this week, and she did not look consistent at all. I was figuring, like Nando, she’d be able to come out of the gates flying just like last year. Remains to be the case, though obviously a semifinal berth is pretty solid.
If you’re curious, Lena leads the head to head 4-3. Might not be a bad final to catch. It will be at 7:30pm local time.
You want drama? We’ll give you some fucking drama.
The first match of the day didn’t start things off too surprisingly, Caro dropped to JJ 2 and 2, and after the gimpfest that was her last match, pretty safe to have seen that coming.
A win by Lena would book her into the final semis spot in the Maroon Group… but she instead lost to Kuz, in what was a dead rubber (minus the cash) for her. Sure there’s ending the season on a positive note, but this is ending the season on a win… though not a tournament win. Doha is a magical land my friends.
And then this crazy shit. Unfortunately for Vika, praying to Sven wouldn’t end up helping. She took the first set pretty convincingly, and ran up to 5-2 in the second set, and it seemed all but over. And then things changed. A-Rad had little trouble holding serve (for the most part) and Vika’s serve absolutely abandoned her, and the Iron Chef was just chasing down every damn ball out there and Vika couldn’t cope. A-Rad busted the thing out 7-5 and onto a third we went.
After a change of clothes, Vika returned kind of teary eyed, and Rad Big Sis held serve. Then Vika called a medical timeout (yes, a justified one) and shit started falling apart. She returned to the court with a huge wrap, exactly like that of Caro’s, on her left thigh and was pretty hobbly (that’s totally a word). She managed to hold serve, but things kept getting progressively worse, and the tears kept coming faster. Not to mention Agi was pushing Vika all around the court, and then busting dirty drop shots (she has to have the best drop shot in the game, I think) that Vika wouldn’t even bother running too. In the cruelest twist of Svenatarianism fate, A-Rad made a drop shot up 4-1, that just tapped the net cord and fell onto Vika’s side… in which case she decided she had had enough, and that was that. Pretty rough ending to Vika’s year, obviously. Clearly people had a point with Caro, “well she plays so many damn tournaments…” “why was she in Luxembourg last week?” but Vika hasn’t played nearly the same amount of tournaments as Caro, and suffered basically the same fate in the hot and humid weather of Doha. And that’s not even touching Dina (and the insane fact that the tenth ranked player is subbing in…). Yo WTA, your top two young stars are cramping up at the Year End Championship held in a place where you can’t even sell tickets (as seen above). Um, maybe get on that.
This of course means that Caro and JJ are into the semis (what ridiculous journeys the two of them have had) to represent the White Group, and Serena and Venus are for the Maroon Group. The semis kick off tomorrow a half an hour EARLIER than what has been going on this week (the WTA now standing for “What The? – Arbitrary”) at 4:30pm local time with JJ vs. Venus and then Caro vs. Serena. Oh, its gonna be fun.
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