When I took the photos of Camila Giorgi at the WTA San Jose event for this month's Tour Portrait, I saw that she had a new coach, after her father filled that role as long as I've seen her. I imagined this conversation between Camila and her new coach. {TPN Tour Portrait at this link)
Camila: "So what's our strategy, coach?"
Coach: "Hit every ball as hard as you can."
Camila: "That's awesome. I love it. But how about we add this: Hit even harder on big points?"
Coach: "You're brilliant."
Her monochromatic tactics aside, Camilla is a fighter and fun to watch if paired against the right opponent. Plus, the former gymnast looks more like those athletes than like a typical WTA player. The head on her Yonex racket seems as big as she is, she's fast, graceful and -- darn it -- just plain photogenic.
Plus, there's something so audacious about a 5 ft 6 in maybe 100 pounder deciding the way to beat the 6 footers on tour is to hit through them it makes me smile. At the Australian Open this diminutive woman had one of the fastest serves -- 190 km/h or 118 mph, only 3 mph behind the fastest WTA serve in the event, that by Elena Rybakina, and faster than those from players such as Karolina Pliskova, Caroline Garcia & Madison Keys.
If John Isner had as much pop-per-pound, he'd serve over 250 MPH <g>.
Camila's been as high as 31 in the world, and has some big wins incl Karolina Pliškova in the Olympics, Aryna Sabalenka, Maria Sharapova, Aryna Sabalenka among 15 top-10 wins.
Hope you enjoy them. Here is a pair of samples
filedata/fetch?id=99650&d=1675466237&type=thumb
Camila: "So what's our strategy, coach?"
Coach: "Hit every ball as hard as you can."
Camila: "That's awesome. I love it. But how about we add this: Hit even harder on big points?"
Coach: "You're brilliant."
Her monochromatic tactics aside, Camilla is a fighter and fun to watch if paired against the right opponent. Plus, the former gymnast looks more like those athletes than like a typical WTA player. The head on her Yonex racket seems as big as she is, she's fast, graceful and -- darn it -- just plain photogenic.
Plus, there's something so audacious about a 5 ft 6 in maybe 100 pounder deciding the way to beat the 6 footers on tour is to hit through them it makes me smile. At the Australian Open this diminutive woman had one of the fastest serves -- 190 km/h or 118 mph, only 3 mph behind the fastest WTA serve in the event, that by Elena Rybakina, and faster than those from players such as Karolina Pliskova, Caroline Garcia & Madison Keys.
If John Isner had as much pop-per-pound, he'd serve over 250 MPH <g>.
Camila's been as high as 31 in the world, and has some big wins incl Karolina Pliškova in the Olympics, Aryna Sabalenka, Maria Sharapova, Aryna Sabalenka among 15 top-10 wins.
Hope you enjoy them. Here is a pair of samples
filedata/fetch?id=99650&d=1675466237&type=thumb
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