Women’s Tennis

While the men were playing Davis Cup last week, the women were in Charleston, where the theme was “emerging talent”.  Three of the last 4 spots in the tournament were filled by players who are relatively unknown:  Daria Kasatkina, age 19, from Russia, the ultimate winner; Jelena Ostapenko, age 19, from Latvia, the other finalist, and Laura Siegemund, age 29, from Germany, who made the semifinals.   Ostapenko relies most on a powerful two-handed backhand, Siegemund backs up a pretty powerful forehand with a lot of tactical ingenuity, and Kasatkina uses strong ground strokes from both sides and swift feet to succeed.  Siegemund, at age 29, is a late bloomer, but all of them have a chance to make some noise on the women’s tour, where nobody currently dominates. 

Other women’s tennis news: 

Sharapova set to return.  Now age 29, Maria will resume play from her suspension in Stuttgart on April 26.  It will be interesting to see how she plays and how her return is received by players and fans.

Kudos to Keys.  Madison Keys has begun a campaign to address the issue of abusive verbiage on social media.  In one TV spot she reads from tweets she has received herself.  One tweet called her the “cancer of tennis” and another simply said “monkey” in an apparent reference to the fact that she is African-American.  Madison gets the full support of this blog, where racism at any level, by any person, at any time, is considered absolutely intolerable.  Moreover, abusive behavior such as that to which Keys has been subjected should be considered totally unacceptable, whether or not it involves bigotry.  So, kudos to Keys for bringing this issue out for scrutiny and discussion.