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Post by bangkokbobby on Jan 29, 2018 2:02:14 GMT
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Post by bangkokbobby on Mar 19, 2018 4:42:08 GMT
More pics and videos on my blog: Naomi Osaka Wins 2018 BNP Paribas Open (Indian Wells)Naomi OsakaOh. Yes. Heck. Yes. Naomi Osaka’s championship victory at the 2018 BNP Paribas open at Indian Wells was the most thrilling win to watch as a fan for me in a very long time. I often speak of my Mount Rushmore top four currently being Madison Keys, Maria Sharapova, Petra Kvitova and Simona Halep. But right there at number 5 currently for me was Naomi Osaka. I say “was” because you have to earn your way in to that top four with me. Well, time to make a change. Osaka is now on my Mount Rushmore along with Keys, Sharapova and Kvitova. I still love Simona, she’s number five, but Naomi Osaka is special. Not only is she in my top four now, she is second only to Madison Keys. And who knows? She might unseat Maddie depending on how things go. What an incredible run Osaka had at Indian Wells. She went through five-time major winner and former number one Maria Sharapova. She went through former Wimbledon finalist Agnieska Radwanska. She went through former world number one Karolina Pliskova. She blew through the current world number one Simona Halep extremely easily, 6-3 6-0. And then Naomi claimed her first ever professional title, the first women’s singles title for a Japanese player at Indian Wells, with a 6-3 6-2 straight-set victory over Daria Kasatkina, a fellow 20 year old Rising Star, who herself was coming off of a string of incredible wins including an epic three-setter against Venus Williams. In 2001, Japan’s Ai Sugiyama won a doubles title at Indian Wells with American Nicole Arendt. The power game of Osaka is now coupled with a new patience. If she can maintain her newfound consistency under the tutelage of coach Sascha Bajin, former hitting partner of Serena Williams, Victoria Azarenka and Caroline Wozniacki, we could be seeing a player that could dominate women’s tennis for the next 8 to 10 years. But let me not put a ton on her shoulders after her first ever big win, actually her first win of any kind on the professional level. Obviously, other young big time players with talent like Madison Keys, Sloane Stephens, Daria Kasatkina, the comebacking Belinda Bencic and others will have a lot to say about that. And the established players like Halep, Garbine Muguruza, Karolina Pliskova and still young Caroline Wozniacki will also stand in the way over the next decade. But Osaka is special if she can maintain this consistency. Like Madison Keys, she has what some people would call easy power. The ball just jumps off of her strings in a way that it does for few others. She has the ability when she’s on to take the racket out of her opponents hands. There’s nothing they can do when she’s on. But that’s the future. Let’s just let Naomi enjoy what she has done presently. And as a side note, there is also a part of me that roots for her because she has a black father and an Asian mother, was born in Asia and moved to America when she was 3 years old. That is exactly the same thing that is true of me. I don’t really like to inject things like that into my fandom. However, if I’m being honest, I would have been her fan regardless but those extra details in her life story matching mine does enhance my fandom for her. NAOMI OSAKA, 2018 BNP PARIBAS OPEN WINNER with coach Sascha Bajin
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Post by bangkokbobby on Jun 11, 2018 1:09:02 GMT
more pics and video on my blog: Simona Halep, 2018 Roland Garros ChampionSimona HalepI will admit, I shed a tear this time. Well, maybe a tear or two. Simona Halep was due this. I understand that nobody in sports is owed anything. No matter how many close calls an athlete has, in the end it is in their hands whether they win or lose. You have to do it the old fashioned way. You have to earn it. That is true, but I still felt Simona Halep was due a Major championship. Three times before she had knocked on the door of ultimate tennis glory, reaching two Roland Garros finals, losing to Maria Sharapova in 2014 and Jelena Ostapenko last year, and the Australian Open final just this past January, falling to Caroline Wozniacki. Halep has 17 singles victories at the age of only 26 and is the reigning world number one player on the WTA rankings. She even once handed Serena Williams her worst ever loss, 6-2 6-0. When the third set of Saturday’s Roland Garros women’s singles final against Sloane Stephens was over and Simona had finally triumphed, 3-6 6-4 6-1, and held her first Major, it was one of the happiest moments as a fan that I have had in recent years. That is to take nothing away from an incredible tournament and final from Sloane Stephens. I am very fond of Sloane as well and would have been happy if she had won. But the win for Halep was significant in a different way in tennis history and legacy. There’s a line of demarcation between players who have been world number one but never won a singles Major such as Dinara Safina and Jelena Jankovic. For that matter, also Caroline Wozniacki before she finally broke through at this year’s Australian Open. So perhaps it was fitting that in back-to-back Majors two women who have held the world number one ranking but had not won Majors finally removed that monkey from their back. Simona HalepWhat made the victory for Simona even sweeter was that Sloane Stephens really made her work for it. Stephens, who is the reigning US Open champion, for the first set and early into the second set looked impenetrable. While Sloane’s level did dip a little bit, it was Halep raising her play and having strong mental fortitude that proved the difference. Even the final set, with that 6-1 score, was about as competitive a 6-1 set as you will ever see. The score did not tell the story of how tough a battle this was for Simona all the way through. But now, she finally and forever is a Major champion. She no longer has to answer questions about when she thinks she will win one or what does she think it will take to win one. Like Simona, the legendary Chris Evert lost her first three Major finals before breaking through. Chrissy went on to win 18 singles Majors. I am not predicting that Simona will win 18 Majors. In fact, if I have to predict anything I would say she definitely won’t win 18 Majors. But if she can stay healthy, I certainly could see 4 Majors before her career is done, a career similar to Hall of Famer Kim Clijsters. SIMONA HALEP, 2018 Roland Garros Champion
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Post by cannlinny on Jun 12, 2018 12:57:59 GMT
I was really happy to see Simona win also. What a final match!
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Post by bangkokbobby on Jun 12, 2018 13:07:17 GMT
I was really happy to see Simona win also. What a final match! Agreed! Terrific match. Sometimes a final is not reflective of how great the tournament play has been over the fortnight. If somebody tuned in only to the final this year, they saw a high quality, tightly contested match...even the 6-1 final set didn't feel like a whitewash.
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Post by 18majors on Sept 9, 2018 14:03:15 GMT
Naomi Osaka, the new Queen of Women's Tennis
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Post by philknj on Sept 9, 2018 14:21:21 GMT
Naomi Osaka, the new Queen of Women's Tennis
I didn't see any of this....who did she beat? The wicked witch of the west?!
You'd think having a child would have given second thoughts about opening her big nasty yapper...I guess not.
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Post by HappyFan on Sept 9, 2018 19:18:16 GMT
I didn't watch it, either, but I did a lot of reading about what happened last night. I'll confess right now that I can't stand Serena Williams, so take what I'm going to say with a grain of salt.
Basically, this incident had some similarities with what happened with Thompson at ANA. Williams was getting her butt handed to her by Osaka. In the second set, her coach signaled to her to come to the net more often. It is CHEATING to communicate with your coach during a match, and the ref saw it and penalized her. In case there was any doubt, the coach later admitted to ESPN that, yes, he was signaling her, 'but everyone does it'. Nice.
There's no way Williams didn't know she was cheating, but she chose to play the victim, even having the gall to berate the ref for calling her a cheater and demanding an apology from him. 'I'd rather lose than cheat' she said. Hoo boy.
My take: don't do the crime if you can't do the time. It doesn't matter if others don't get caught, you might, and you'd better be prepared to take your lumps if you do. She wasn't. She repeatedly stopped the match to bitch and moan about how unfair the ref was being, until he finally docked her an entire game. All the penalties were within the rules.
Now all these apologists are talking about how unfair the ref was to Williams, and how she was some kind of victim. Sound familiar? The guy giving out the trophy apparently even said 'it wasn't the outcome we all wanted'. Can you IMAGINE? Poor Osaka having to listen to that? And the stupid crowd booed constantly during the trophy ceremony. I don't care why they were booing, that was direct disrespect to Osaka. As was Serena's behavior during the match.
Dig the USTA official statement after the tournament. Not a word about cheating or Serena's boorish behavior. So much like how they circled the wagons to protect Thompson from the fallout of her actions, huh?
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Post by HappyFan on Sept 9, 2018 19:26:20 GMT
Re: the USTA person's mention of 'what Serena did on the podium': In order to quiet the obnoxious crowd, Williams took the mike and said that they should be quiet and respect Osaka; it sort of worked. I'll give her some credit for that, but to be honest, it was about the least she could have done after the brouhaha she caused. For her to be called out as respect-worthy for that is laughable and shows how hard they were reaching to find SOMETHING to compliment her about.
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Post by bangkokbobby on Sept 9, 2018 21:45:38 GMT
I basically agree with what HappyFan said with the exception that had I been the chair umpire I would have let the final game penalty infraction go. I would do everything in my power to not penalize a player a full game in a championship match, and certainly not for 'verbal abuse' that I'd call mild compared to what I've heard in my lifetime watching tennis as a hardcore fan. Was Carlos Ramos wrong to do what he did? No he wasn't, for all the reasons previously stated. But could he have 'put the whistle in his pocket' so to speak? I think so. Put it this way, you can get tossed in a baseball game for verbally abusing an umpire. But in a game 7 of the World Series, an umpire tries to give players a longer leash. Serena wasn't defaulted, but down a set and serving 3-4 a game penalty makes it a set and down 3-5. That's huge. I'm not saying Ramos was wrong. I'm just saying what I would have done. more pics on my blog: Naomi Osaka, 2018 US Open ChampionNaomi OsakaFirst of all, Naomi Osaka absolutely deserved to win the 2018 Women’s Singles title at the United States Open. Although the final with her idol Serena Williams ended in controversy, Naomi was the stronger player on this day. I’m not suggesting that Serena could not have come back but let us praise Naomi Osaka on this day. I have been watching Naomi for several years and it seems that over time the more I watch her game improve and her personality during interviews the more enamored I become of her. For the last five years I had never rooted for anybody when they played Madison Keys, my favorite. That was, until the women’s semi-finals on Thursday when even to my own surprise I found myself pulling for Osaka to win. I’ll admit, deep down I felt, already knowing that Serena had made it to the final, Osaka would give her a better match in my opinion based on how Naomi was playing. Not only did Naomi give her a better match she gave Serena all that she could handle and then some. The 20 year old Haitian-Japanese Osaka is possibly a player that could dominate the tour for years to come if she can play this way consistently. I think by adding former Serena hitting partner Sascha Bajin as a coach, Naomi has grown incredibly this year in both her play and her belief in herself on court. Her win at Indian Wells earlier this year will now definitely not be seen as some sort of fluke. Naomi Osaka is the real deal. She got some help today from an overzealous chair umpire, but in the end I don’t feel she really needed it to have won outright. Today, a new star was born in tennis.
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Post by don on Sept 9, 2018 21:58:36 GMT
You're supposed to yell at the empire in a big time TV tennis match.
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Post by bangkokbobby on Sept 9, 2018 22:54:09 GMT
from my blog: Naomi Osaka 2018 US Open Champion Photocall; Xiyu Wang Wins Junior Girls TitleNaomi OsakaWith a chance for everybody to calm down and get some sleep, I hope Naomi Osaka’s 2018 US Open champion’s photocall at Top of the Rock is step one in the process of celebrating what the young 20 year old earned, and leaving behind any controversy that stains the memory of her achievement. Those of us that follow tennis week in and week out have had our eye on Naomi for a long time. It looked as though she had broken through when she won Indian Wells earlier this year, but then she had a summer hard-court season where she was not good at all. But maybe she is similar to Sloane Stephens in that she will bring her best in the biggest moments. At this point, nobody cares how she lost in Cincinnati, when she followed that up by winning the US Open. Xiyu WangSpeaking of winning the US Open, congratulations to Xiyu Wang on winning the 2018 US Open Junior Girls title. The 17-year old from China is coming off a Girls Junior doubles title a few months ago with partner Xinyu Wang, also from China. Last year, she partnered with Lea Boskovic of Croatia to finish runner-up at the 2017 US Open. But on this day she stands alone as champion after defeating Clara Burel of France, 7-6 (4) 6-2. XIYU WANG NAOMI OSAKA
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Post by longballbogey on Sept 10, 2018 1:00:28 GMT
I basically agree with what HappyFan said with the exception that had I been the chair umpire I would have let the final game penalty infraction go. I would do everything in my power to not penalize a player a full game in a championship match, and certainly not for 'verbal abuse' that I'd call mild compared to what I've heard in my lifetime watching tennis as a hardcore fan. Was Carlos Ramos wrong to do what he did? No he wasn't, for all the reasons previously stated. But could he have'put the whistle in his pocket' so to speak? I think so. Put it this way, you can get tossed in a baseball game for verbally abusing an umpire. But in a game 7 of the World Series, an umpire tries to give players a longer leash. Serena wasn't defaulted, but down a set and serving 3-4 a game penalty makes it a set and down 3-5. That's huge. I'm not saying Ramos was wrong. I'm just saying what I would have done. more pics on my blog: Naomi Osaka, 2018 US Open ChampionNaomi OsakaFirst of all, Naomi Osaka absolutely deserved to win the 2018 Women’s Singles title at the United States Open. Although the final with her idol Serena Williams ended in controversy, Naomi was the stronger player on this day. I’m not suggesting that Serena could not have come back but let us praise Naomi Osaka on this day. I have been watching Naomi for several years and it seems that over time the more I watch her game improve and her personality during interviews the more enamored I become of her. For the last five years I had never rooted for anybody when they played Madison Keys, my favorite. That was, until the women’s semi-finals on Thursday when even to my own surprise I found myself pulling for Osaka to win. I’ll admit, deep down I felt, already knowing that Serena had made it to the final, Osaka would give her a better match in my opinion based on how Naomi was playing. Not only did Naomi give her a better match she gave Serena all that she could handle and then some. The 20 year old Haitian-Japanese Osaka is possibly a player that could dominate the tour for years to come if she can play this way consistently. I think by adding former Serena hitting partner Sascha Bajin as a coach, Naomi has grown incredibly this year in both her play and her belief in herself on court. Her win at Indian Wells earlier this year will now definitely not be seen as some sort of fluke. Naomi Osaka is the real deal. She got some help today from an overzealous chair umpire, but in the end I don’t feel she really needed it to have won outright. Today, a new star was born in tennis.
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Post by longballbogey on Sept 10, 2018 1:04:41 GMT
I watched the match and Naomi was the clear winner. On Serena, I fully agree with the guy on the chair. She broke the rule and kept going on and on. Experience has taught me that when you have rules you must follow it. You let one guy go and you open up a can of worms.
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Post by HappyFan on Sept 10, 2018 7:00:05 GMT
You're supposed to yell at the empire in a big time TV tennis match. Too true, but it takes a special kind of entitlement to yell at a ref for penalizing you for cheating and demand an apology when you just fricking obviously cheated!! I definitely felt a flashback to the utterly unfair way the trolls treated So Yeon after the ANA, with a bunch of them going on her twitter and Instagram feed to say she was a terrible person because she did not PURPOSELY THROW the match after the Thompson penalty. Who knows? Osaka might never win a Slam again. This was her moment. And the troglodytes in the crowd purposely ruined it for her. By the way, Serena got a $17,000 fine for her behavior. Pocket change for her, but at least it's a minor statement.
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