Dubai WTA

[jimlosaltos]

17 yo Mirra Andreeva upset Iga from a break down, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 for her fifth career Top 10 victory. Her backhand DTL was extremely effective.

The teen had 10 aces to none for Iga, and held the Iga to only 51.1% points won on her supposedly improved first serve. Both players held 8 BPs, but but Mirra converted 4, Iga only 1.

Game "featured" a bad example of using video replay to check on whether Mirra touched the net. She had but the review stopped play for several mintues.

Both of the WTA's top 2 ranked players are out of the event. Sabalenka going out earlier to Tauson.

[jimlosaltos]

17 yo Mirra Andreeva won his first WTA 1000 title over 22 yo Clara Tauson 7-6(1), 6-1 becoming the youngest player ever to take the largest main tour title, place for 16 years -- one less than her age. WTA: "She is only the sixth teenager to win a WTA 1000 title. The others are -- no last names necessary -- Gauff, Swiatek, Andreescu, Bencic and Azarenka. Going back more than 30 years, Andreeva is the second teen, male or female, to win the title in Dubai -- after a guy named Nadal.

The points from her title make Mirra the third youngest player to make the WTA Top 10, putting her only days behind Maria Sharapova, and Nicole Vaidisova. Notice that all 3 are no flags.

Least anyone wonders how hard she had to work in Duba, Mirra beat Iga, the world number two, then beat Clara would had taken out the top seed, world number one Aryna Sabalenka.

My observation, Mirra does this despite having obvious areas in her game where she has room for huge improvement, such as her midcourse-to-net game, and recovery motional times. In the semifinal, Mira's DTL forehands and backhands both left Iga, arguably the best mover in the WTA flatfooted, and she out-served and out returned Iga.

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[hybridfh]

Big fan of Mirra here. Seeing her beat my least-liked player, Swiatek, was especially great. Swiatek is a great player but I dislike too many things about her. I'd say this was not a huge surprise though - obviously Mirra was going to get better from when she first burst onto the scene, just a matter of time. Agree that she still has a lot of upside to her game (serve and coming to net). I think she'll remain top 5 for quite a while.

[jimlosaltos]

Is Stef Tsitsipas on the comeback trail? After several months of tepid play for someone of his level, the 26 yo looked quite sharp in winning his first ATP 500 Title.

That's also Stef's first title since Monte Carlo 1000 last year, I believe. Curious that he could win Masters, ATP Tour Final, and make finals of a major -- with a 500.

One journo noted that Stef's backhand, which has been missing inaction for most of a year, was excellent.
Is this because of Stef's mysterious new all-black racket?
As an Associate Dean of UCSF med school once told me: "Never underestimate the power of placebos."

Tsitsipas "admitted that he is "trying out new things and trying to adapt to the changes occurring on the tour because the tournament conditions are becoming slower," he emphasized.

Spanish translation: "Tsitsipas is playing this week in Dubai with rackets painted black (with Wilson's stencil, by contract). In the core, they look more like a Babolat Aero mold, with a 16x20 pattern, than a Wilson. Today the ball came out much easier for him

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