Tennis happenings

In this grass court warm up season, players are getting used to the grass, which can be slippery when wet!  This feature of grass is worth remembering with all the rain coming down in Europe, and the resultant potential risk of injury to players who lose their footing.  As an example, Belinda Bencic slipped in Birmingham with light rain falling and had to retire with a hip injury.  We all want to see tennis, but officials, please be careful and make sure play is safe!

Interesting coaching changes include the return of the ever-stolid Ivan Lendl to Murray’s camp, and addition of John McEnroe to Milos Raonic’ entourage.  If results are any measure, Murray and Lendl have a good relationship.  With McEnroe on his team, Raonic seems to be approaching the net on grass with the backhand slice a little more frequently.  Raonic looks quite fit and is playing very aggressively.

Coco Vandeweghe is looking pretty good on grass.  She won a tournament in the Netherlands last week and beat highly ranked Aggie Radwanska yesterday.  Grass is, in my opinion, Radwanska’s best surface, so it might be worth keeping an eye on Coco as Wimbledon looms.

A little bit of concern about Nick Kyrgios.  Serving at 4-4 in the third set against Raonic at the Aegon Championships in London, Kyrgios suddenly seemed to lose focus and served two wild double faults in a row to get broken.  It’s not a good idea to give a break to Raonic late in a set!  In the final game of the match with Raonic serving, Kyrgios played two shots with decided disinterest, and Raonic served out the match as expected.  Kyrgios has a ton of talent, but nobody can succeed at the top of the men’s game unless they try hard all the time.  Let’s keep an eye on this.