Simona Halep and Sloane Stephens are in the final of the French Open 2018, and the Romanian in particular powered herself into her third final in Paris. A little more finesse is to be expected from Stephens.
Martina Hingis took a very nice picture with her from Roland Garros, the place where she suffered a very bitter defeat against a very happy Stefanie Graf in 1999. Hingis posed in front of a large photo wall, where Court 2 had stood last year. Hingis looked very relaxed, her glorious career is finally anchored in the history books since more than one year.
Right next door Maria Sharapova and Garbine Muguruza beat the felt of the tennis balls, accompanied by martial screams. Neither is a unique selling point, and why is that? You beat me, you win. It is no longer surprising that the balls are played at the same speed during training, but without accompanying noises. Gamesmanship. Rafael Nadal’s match against Diego Schwartzman was also a natural phenomenon with an acoustic note.
Martina Hingis never yelled. I’m not gonna get into a fight. The Swiss dominated the place, in the truest sense of the word. Yes, Hingis was blessed with a unique talent that she also proved in her time as a doubles player. Hingis could do many things that are difficult, if any. And yet the next generation around Venus and Serena Williams, also Lindsay Davenport, were beaten into early retirement.
Physical infirmities, private calamities did the rest.
Never would a player like Martina Hingis be more important for women’s tennis than these days. Because at least with the Swiss Miss match plan, bonds could be taken. One day after their convincing success against Sharapova, Garbine Muguruzra lost to Simona Halep. Number of slice balls not played in dire straits in the entire match: zero. Stop balls: also zero.
Sloane Stephens has opened her semi-final against Madison Keys with a backhand slice attack. Perhaps the American will surprise you in the Saturday finale with a festival of good-humor hits.
In the past, the tennis expert liked to talk about the Czech school, where every kind of spin is frowned upon. The Czech Republic has long since conquered the world’s top women’s event. With very few exceptions.
Daria Kasatkina has cut changes and angular play to offer in her Playbook, the Russian is on her way forward, still fluttering her nerves too often.
Angelique Kerber irritated Halep at the beginning of her quarter-final with a stop, tried shorter cross-balls – and then got involved again in a drive shot duel. In this discipline, however, the Romanian is simply better. The German number one has long been a champion in the art of drop shooting.
No one can have success with Hingis’ 1997 tennis in 2018, of course. However, finesse and variation would drastically increase the chances of winning. Madison Keys put it like this after her defeat against Stephens: players like Halep and her countrywoman Sloane have to get away from the baseline somehow.
After many moons on the tour, Martina Hingis may not be ready to return to travel stress as a coach. The 37-year-old is already a consultant at Belinda Bencic. But maybe you can find a few coaches from young players who are taking a slice of the cake with their protégés from the matches at Hingis. There is enough incriminating video material on the Internet.