Topic: Tennis League All Thread - page 289. (Read 203623 times)

But if they just send him to counselling, you also don't give the right signal in my eyes. Because it seems then that the ITF agrees with giving slaps to other people as there is no punishment for it.
They probably need to do both: ban him for a couple of weeks and give him counselling.

I don’t think that punishing him is the right thing to do, because they should consider his age and instead of punishment they should provide him counselling to make sure that he understands what he did was wrong. Also if the same thing had happened with adult player’s then yea they would be banned, but I feel that he should escape major punishment as he’s young and mistakes can happen at this age.

Is this the Will Smith effect that we are witnessing right now? 

And right after the slapping there is a brawl between the two sides. This shouldn't happen at any tournaments, not even in this level. And I agree that sanctions should be served here to teach Michael Kouame a lesson, maybe because he lost the match against Ankrah and it was an upset because he is supposedly the number 1 seed in this tournament.

Damn, I watched the video so it's not clear as to what really happen in the game that might have tempted Kouame to slap his opponent. I haven't seen this kind of disrespect to an opponent physically. There is verbal abuse and that is very common. But for the customary handshake and then you gave your opponent a slap? he should be punished by all cost by ITF here.

15-year-old tennis player Michael Kouame slaps opponent at the net after losing in ITF Juniors tournament in Accra. This is very rare to happen in tennis. There is no clear information on what reason the player slapped the opponent. This should not happen and should be heavily punished. Doing such act at this young age is really a bad approach towards the game.

15-year-old tennis player slaps opponent

The commentators during the final at the weekend were saying that he really doesnt
need that much Tennis coaching, he has all the shots and is able to know which to play
and at what time. They also said that it seems they ^{His team} are focussing on
the psychological side of his game, which I think was very evident in his service game
for the match, he seemed super calm and knew what had to be done.

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On the subject of probably the opposite of Alcaraz, Nick Kyrgios in terms of mentality
and demeanor. Nick is playing on the Houston tournament and faces Paul today. I'm
looking at who else is playing and to my knowledge there are no "Top 10" players present.
Where am I going with this? well eventhough I am not betting on him, this is a tournament
I actually think he could win this, it will be interesting to see what antics he gets up to or
will he take it seriously and actually try to win it.....

^It is not really possible to compare Chung or Sinner to Alcaraz. Chung had a brief time in his career when results went his way and got hyped up mainly because of his origins and not talent. Not many top tennis players from Asia and they need new Nishikori as soon as possible. Sinner is a good player but he is mainly counter puncher, something like Simon, never gonna bring in the crowd like big hitters and will look utterly ridiculous when he has a bad day..

Alcaraz is just that, big hitter without a week spot in his game. If he continues to develop as he should, he has future no.1 written all over him. Does not look like he needs mental coaching but if he finds a need for it in the future I am sure Nadal can give him some advice.

I am actually quite strict when judging players and not prone to hype but I see only good stuff for Alcaraz in future. For instance I am always saying that Medvedev does not have what it takes to be no.1 simply because of his mental state. It does not show often since he is such a good player but that is not body talk and mental state of the champion no matter what he achieves. Also when Raducanu and Fernandez played that final I immediately said they are one tournament wonder for the moment and that they will need a lot of work before results like that became their norm. Alcaraz on the other hand looks like he is already ready to attack top 10 or even top 5.

I agree, if she can get her mind right and deal again with the spotlight of being
a top 10 or even #1 or #2 player she could be a serious challenger. I saw from
her runner up speech at Miami I think she felt awkward to be there.


I would like to visit this again at the end of the year when we count how many
titles he collects and maybe if he collects a Grand Slam  also.....

Chung was a hot prospect but didnt win any big titles. He won against Djokovic on AO and everybody thinked he had an amazing career ahead of him,but those injuries just destroyed him. Alcaraz has shown that he is few ranks above Chung with how he is playing. You just know Alcaraz will be #1 its just a matter of months/years before he gets it.

Sinner is going to be good, and is still only 20yo... but yes, this does just highlight how good Alcaraz will be (and already is), to be doing this sort of stuff at 18yo, 2 years younger even than Sinner. Alcaraz looks to be a number one in the making. Has there ever been a male Spanish tennis player winning such big titles at such a young age? 

I would argue that Medvedev is eight years older than Alcaraz
Alcaraz is the youngest winner at Miami open (actually it was Djokovic before him), and third youngest player that won Masters (after Nadal and Chang), so I think that he is much closer to being no.1 than Medvedev in the long term

all the others are also 23-25 years old, 5-7 years older than Alcaraz, I would not call them young, in sports that are middle-ages

True, but women are getting recognition as well, remember the time when Steffi Graf, Monica Seles and Martina Hingis was dominating, the tennis world was very different and I must say that they've given recognition if not more than men.

The bunch of young women player just need to be consistent and maybe they would have the glory years again, specially today that we are in the social media era already.

I agree that Medvedev was the only one so far who did standout amongst the young generation of tennis player that will replace the old guard. But so far, he has faltered, recently in this tournament wherein Alcaraz is the winner. So all the attention has shifted to Alcaraz as there are too much hype around him but he was able to back it up with a huge win in Miami.

There is one thing for sure - men get more recognition than women and it get more hype. Like for instant there was women cricket world cup going on. Had that been men's tournament it would have gained more recognition. But then again men and women recognition is important. Let's celebrate her achievement for sometime.

Alcaraz is a big talent but we have a lot of young talented players out there, so we will need to wait and see who will really breakthrough and start winning grandslams. Till date, I don't really see anybody (except for maybe Medvedev) who will able to dominate the field in a similar way as Djokovic, Nadal or Federed did.

Osaka I think is the most likely challenger. Remember she didn't just make the final here, but she did so whilst still match-rusty and as part of a comeback. If this is a genuine comeback, then she will only get stronger as the weeks go by.

Swiatek is certainly a deserving number one in the absence of Barty, but I don't think she'll sit there unchallenged.

Sakkari? Badosa? This two has also a great run in the last two tournaments, but they need to be consistent and win some in order to compete against Iga because Swiatek form and her all around game is superior right now. And she will be hitting her prime years in the next 2-3 years so it's going to be tough for this ladies to overcome her. But let's see how Sakkari and Badosa will bring it at least for this year.

And Swiatek could hold that #1 spot for quite a while at least this year if she can
continue to keep her performance level. The next 5 places behind her are very close
in points to each other but the one I would like to see challenging her is Osaka If
she can stay playing.

I know its hard to call but who do you think could challenge Iga for #1?

She has accomplished a lot this year, specially getting that number 1 spot. And hopefully, she won't be the hype like the rest of the other champions in the ladies division. That after winning tournaments and rising to the ranks, they suddenly goes down hard and never recover from that. Of course there are exceptions to the rule because there are so many legends as well in the ladies, but we all know how fast the ladies ranking has change in the last 5-10 years. As compare to the men's for example, Roger's ran at the number 1 seed and now Djokovic.

Also the WTA ranking is out. IGA SWIATEK OFFICIALLY RISES TO NO. 1, CAM NORRIE MAKES TOP 10 DEBUT She’s the first player from Poland to reach No. 1 in either ATP or WTA rankings history (the previous highest-ranked player from Poland was Agnieszka Radwanska, who went as high as No. 2 on the WTA rankings in both 2012 and 2016).