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Hawkeye to be perfectly honest i dont quite know what to think about the whole thing, only its a sad day for an all time great, whos career is tainted because of this ….
One keeps returning to the question how did she and her team believe they could continue using this drug after it had been banned. I know nothing about meldonium but could it be after longterm use she was psychologically dependant on it and could not function without it so they continued to play ‘Russian Roulette’
” By the end of 2012, though, having “found the taking of lots of pills overwhelming,” she hired a nutritionist and left Dr. Skalny’s care. Sharapova continued to use three of the substances he recommended, one of which was Mildronate, without telling her nutritionist, her coach, her trainer, her physio, her doctor in California, or any WTA medical personnel.”
” According to testimony, only Yuri (her father) and Sharapova’s agent, Max Eisenbud, knew that she took 500 mg of Mildronate on match days.”
“The manner in which [Meldonium] was taken,” it concluded, “its concealment from the anti-doping authorities, her failure to disclose it even to her own team, and the lack of any medical justification must inevitably lead to the conclusion that she took Mildronate for the purpose of enhancing her performance.”
In Tiggy’s article, he also believes that the CAS may reduce her sentence using Cilic’ssuccessful appeal as precedent…
? In Nottingham, 20 year old, Anett Kontaveit #97 got the biggest win of her career by defeating Caroline Wozniacki in three tough sets. She’ll have a day off before her quarterfinal match versus Alison Riske.
Thursday Nottingham — my picks:
Johanna Konta over Saisai Zheng
LL Andrea Hlavackova over Q Ashleigh Barty
Magdalena Rybarikova over LL Tamira Paszek
Christina McHale over Q Tara Moore
Thursday Hertogenbosch picks:
Jelena Jankovic over Evgenyia Rodina
Jelena Ostapenko over Kateryna Kozlova
Q Victoriya Golubic over Q Risa Ozaki
Belinda Bencic over Varvara Lepchenko
Jankovic over Rodina should work out. Not at all sure about Ozaki v Golubic. Yeah, not feeling as good about these picks as the Nottingham ones.
Wow. Zero, picks right for Nottingham — the draw I felt better about 😀
A little better, 2/4, for Hertogenbosch.
Down to three seeded players left for the QF’s in Hertogenbosch: Bencic, Mladenovic, and Vandeweghe.
Jankovic, Siegemund, Ostapenko, Bouchard, and Friedsam, all OUT.
Two seeds, Ka.Pliskova and Puig, left in the QF’s for Nottingham.
Konta, Wozniacki, McHale, Watson, Wickmayer, Barthel — all OUT.
For the brave here’ a link to practice picking prior to Wimbledon. Picks can be made starting starting Saturday, June 11 for Mallorca and Birmingham: http://www.tennisdrawchallenge.com/bracket/wta
But I have yet to guess one right today for both Hertogenbosch AND Nottinham ??
What happened to Ricky’s article on Sharadopa’s suspension???
Pseudo McEnroe @McEnroeTweets 2h2 hours ago
So all those years I spent yelling out there I could’ve been doping and still wearing Nikes are you kidding???
Quarterfinal Friday Hertogenbosch:
Bencic over Golubic in 3
This could the opposite way because Belinda, still a little off from missing the entire clay season, has needed 3 tough sets to get wins over two decent grass court players: Van Uytvanck and Lepchenko. Conversely, Bencic’s Swiss compatriot, Victorija Golubic, had easy straight set wins over a qualifier, Ozaki; and (surprisingly) over grass court expert, Anna-Lena Friedsam.
Oops, a jarring clanger ? Anna-Lena Friedsam is NOT on the top 20 grass expert list! (I was thinking of Flipkins, who is top 20). Oh for an edit option.
Moving along… Hertogenbosch QF’s:
Vandeweghe over Rodina in 2
Rodina won long match versus #2 seed Jankovic and Vandeweghe is in her element on the grass winning in easy straight sets all week.
Kozlova over Brengle
Brengle has to be near the limit after winning tough 3 set matches over both Siegemund and home favorite, Hogenkamp. Qualifier Kozlova has been lucky: her first opponent, Johanna Larrson, retired after one set and she beat a lackluster Ostapenko in straight sets.
Mladenovic over Mertens
I’m impressed by qualifier Elise Mertens but I’m staying with Kiki M. to make it to the SF.
Forget Nottingham –
It’s just Pliskova and Puig left in the QF’s, the rest are unseeded and qualifiers. I don’t know!
Wow. I love Viktorija Golubic’s backhand! I guess I did see her once or twice before this in Fed Cup – didn’t remember her. She’s tiny but the single handed bh is huge. Better than CSN’s… potentially.
Bencic made it to the SF by winning two tb’s in match that lasted 2 hours and 16 minutes! Her serve broke down too many times but she was lucky that Golubic’s serve did too. It was a mess.
Mladenovic d. Mertens, 75 63 in an hour and 20 min.
Semifinal Saturday Hertogenbosch:
Coco Vandeweghe over Madison Brengle
Kiki Mladenovic over best friend, Belinda Bencic
RC Did i hear right that Wozniacki wont be able to be a flag bearer at the Olympics due to missing so much time off tour with injuries, seems she doesnt qualify, a bit unfair i wouldve thought?
And still cant get through to your bracket challenge ….
I’m not working today or on-call this weekend. All the registration requires is an email, username, password and to verify that you are not a robot 😀 and voila, account created! Very user-friendly, I thought. But this is my 1st time there too!!
She gets to appeal June 30. But I doubt they’ll make an exception because of the rules. Well maybe she has more excuses than we know, but qualifying rules require a certain amount of participation in Fed Cup. One has four years to fulfill the req’s and they say: if you wait until the last minute to do it, it’s your fault. Sounds harsh to me but there it is.
Goody ? alison. I’m very excited for the grass tournaments and Wimbledon, can you tell?
As soon as draws are released, I’ll make my picks and post them here before the draw closes. That way you can look at them and laugh or not! And tell me what you think, if you have time, okay…?
It’s WTA and grass complicates picking – even more than usual! But by Wimbledon we’ll know who is hot. fingers crossed.
alison, after looking at the qualifier list for Gary Weber, I couldn’t resist it…there’s now a ‘rcliff_hangers’ group ? so we can try Halle and London — come test yourselves before Wimbles. Everyone welcome. http://www.tennisdrawchallenge.com/group/view/69/rcliff-hangers
Sunday Picks
Hertogenbosch Final:
Vandeweghe over Mladenovic.
On paper that’s most likely. But I’m hoping Kiki Mladenovic will surprise me and win her first career title.
Nottingham Final:
Ka.Pliskova over Riske in 3.
Mallorca 280:
It’s tough not to pick Garbine Muguruza to the final from the choices in the top half. This is typically Sabine Lisicki’s time of year but she’s having a trouble finding her form in 2016. Right now, Muguruza v Mladenovic is my pick for the final. But that could change, depending on who wins what on Sunday and what qualifiers make the main draw. I’m watching for Elise Mertens, Kateryna Kozlova, Julia Glushko and Sorana Cirstea to come through.
Birmingham 470:
The top half is loaded: Radwanska, Kvitova, Wozniacki, Vandeweghe, Bencic, Strycova, Ka.Pliskova, and the first round is a minefield for most of them.
Top half first round upset alerts:
Vandeweghe v Radwanska.
(Coco is flying high on the grass). But Aga leads 4-0 in the H2H. And it’s all on hard courts; they have never met on grass. Coco is in the final tomorrow in Hertogenbosch, she appears strong, her serve is clicking. It’s tempting to pick Coco.
Ka.Pliskova v Strycova.
Karolina is in the Nottingham final and will have had to play both the QF and SF Saturday and the final, Sunday. This one could go either way but my guess is for Strycova to make it.
QF picks: Kvitova over Radwanska, Strycova over Tsurenko, Halep over Keys, Kerber over Svitolina.
SF: Kvitova over Strycova, Halep over Kerber.
F: Kvitova over Halep
Update: Just saw that Simona Halep had to withdraw from Birmingham with a left Achilles injury. Heather Watson is IN. Also, Karolina Pliskova won Nottingham in easy straight sets over Riske. Have decided to take Pliskova over Strycova. ?Changes
QF:
Radwanska over Konta, Bencic over Ka.Pliskova, Kvitova over Keys, Kerber over Suarez-Navarro
SF: Radwanska over Bencic, Kerber over Kvitova
F: Radwanska over Kerber
OH my, ?? Aga ninja’s her way to the title.
RC Sorry i missed the bracket challenge, but i will still be here to chat, im so excited about the grass court season, and the WTA is quite exciting now with new players getting in the mix, happy to see its not just the Serena show anymore ….
Cheers. There are other things to do today but I’m trying to get my tennis fix. Rain in Stuttgart isn’t helping! https://tenngrand.com/non-tennis-forum/ The last page (page 12) is where I go on a rainy Sunday 🙂
WTA bracket game update – 😀 manwerty vs ratcliff:
We picked the same title winner for Birmingham, Aga Radwanska. Not good since she lost to Coco Vanedewghe, but that was a tough first round for Aga. Coco was full of confidence coming off her Hertogenbosch win and too good. Aga fought admirably over three sets, tho.
Mallorca, manwerty vs ratcliff:
Both of our projected titlists are out. manwerty’s pick – Kiki Mladenovic; and mine – Garbine Muguruza. Both of us have a finalist pick left. manwerty’s – Caroline Garcia; and mine – Jelena Jankovic!
This is fun. I thought you were IN, Ricky!??
The Big game is coming up – Wimbledon. I’ll have a Tennis Channel WTA bracket going again.
Coco is on the ‘hot’ list for Wimbledon!
manwerty picked Madison Keys to the Birmingham final and I picked Angelique Kerber. Otherwise, our brackets looked very similar.
And – manwerty wins hands down in the ATP brackets for Halle and London. I picked Kei Nishikori over Federer for Halle… oops. More on those games later.
Thursday Picks
Mallorca:
Laura Siegemund over Veronica Cepede Royg
Caroline Garcia over Anna-Lena Friedsam
Monica Puig over Kirsten Flipkins
Ana Ivanovic over Sara Sorribes Tormo
Birmingham:
Madison Keys over Tamira Paszek
Petra Kvitova over Jelena Ostapenko
Johanna Konta over Misaki Doi
Caroline Wozniacki over Yanina Wickmayer
Carla Suarez-Navarro over Andrea Petkovic
Tsvetana Pironkova over Irina Camelia-Begu
Angelique Kerber over Daria Gavrilova
Barbora Strycova over Heather Watson (or the other way around!)
Coco Vandewehge over Christina McHale
Wow, that’s too many matches for Birmingham. Hope it’s not going to rain.
Congrats to Caroline Garcia – First winner of the new Mallorca grass tournment! And big Congrats to Madison Keys winning Birmingham and making WTA #10!
Pulling from the Eastbourne tournament this week: Keys, Strycova, Vandeweghe, and Laura Siegemund — left wrist injury. Hope they will all be healthy and ready to play for Wimbledon.
Hawkeye to be perfectly honest i dont quite know what to think about the whole thing, only its a sad day for an all time great, whos career is tainted because of this ….
Alison,
Well said! My sentiments exactly! I wish that it had never happened.
One keeps returning to the question how did she and her team believe they could continue using this drug after it had been banned. I know nothing about meldonium but could it be after longterm use she was psychologically dependant on it and could not function without it so they continued to play ‘Russian Roulette’
#pun intended
Very possible, ed. One wonders many things on the topic right now indeed.
Ed, she kept it from most of her team.
” By the end of 2012, though, having “found the taking of lots of pills overwhelming,” she hired a nutritionist and left Dr. Skalny’s care. Sharapova continued to use three of the substances he recommended, one of which was Mildronate, without telling her nutritionist, her coach, her trainer, her physio, her doctor in California, or any WTA medical personnel.”
” According to testimony, only Yuri (her father) and Sharapova’s agent, Max Eisenbud, knew that she took 500 mg of Mildronate on match days.”
“The manner in which [Meldonium] was taken,” it concluded, “its concealment from the anti-doping authorities, her failure to disclose it even to her own team, and the lack of any medical justification must inevitably lead to the conclusion that she took Mildronate for the purpose of enhancing her performance.”
In Tiggy’s article, he also believes that the CAS may reduce her sentence using Cilic’ssuccessful appeal as precedent…
https://tenngrand.com/social/wta/comment-page-10/#comment-121736
? In Nottingham, 20 year old, Anett Kontaveit #97 got the biggest win of her career by defeating Caroline Wozniacki in three tough sets. She’ll have a day off before her quarterfinal match versus Alison Riske.
Thursday Nottingham — my picks:
Johanna Konta over Saisai Zheng
LL Andrea Hlavackova over Q Ashleigh Barty
Magdalena Rybarikova over LL Tamira Paszek
Christina McHale over Q Tara Moore
Thursday Hertogenbosch picks:
Jelena Jankovic over Evgenyia Rodina
Jelena Ostapenko over Kateryna Kozlova
Q Victoriya Golubic over Q Risa Ozaki
Belinda Bencic over Varvara Lepchenko
Jankovic over Rodina should work out. Not at all sure about Ozaki v Golubic. Yeah, not feeling as good about these picks as the Nottingham ones.
Wow. Zero, picks right for Nottingham — the draw I felt better about 😀
A little better, 2/4, for Hertogenbosch.
Down to three seeded players left for the QF’s in Hertogenbosch: Bencic, Mladenovic, and Vandeweghe.
Jankovic, Siegemund, Ostapenko, Bouchard, and Friedsam, all OUT.
Two seeds, Ka.Pliskova and Puig, left in the QF’s for Nottingham.
Konta, Wozniacki, McHale, Watson, Wickmayer, Barthel — all OUT.
For the brave here’ a link to practice picking prior to Wimbledon. Picks can be made starting starting Saturday, June 11 for Mallorca and Birmingham:
http://www.tennisdrawchallenge.com/bracket/wta
But I have yet to guess one right today for both Hertogenbosch AND Nottinham ??
I’m in
Yay! I’ve never tried that website. Not sure how it works. Should I do a group? I’d put it under my TC WTA bracket pool name, jalep_wildguess.
What happened to Ricky’s article on Sharadopa’s suspension???
Pseudo McEnroe @McEnroeTweets 2h2 hours ago
So all those years I spent yelling out there I could’ve been doping and still wearing Nikes are you kidding???
Quarterfinal Friday Hertogenbosch:
Bencic over Golubic in 3
This could the opposite way because Belinda, still a little off from missing the entire clay season, has needed 3 tough sets to get wins over two decent grass court players: Van Uytvanck and Lepchenko. Conversely, Bencic’s Swiss compatriot, Victorija Golubic, had easy straight set wins over a qualifier, Ozaki; and (surprisingly) over grass court expert, Anna-Lena Friedsam.
Oops, a jarring clanger ? Anna-Lena Friedsam is NOT on the top 20 grass expert list! (I was thinking of Flipkins, who is top 20). Oh for an edit option.
Moving along… Hertogenbosch QF’s:
Vandeweghe over Rodina in 2
Rodina won long match versus #2 seed Jankovic and Vandeweghe is in her element on the grass winning in easy straight sets all week.
Kozlova over Brengle
Brengle has to be near the limit after winning tough 3 set matches over both Siegemund and home favorite, Hogenkamp. Qualifier Kozlova has been lucky: her first opponent, Johanna Larrson, retired after one set and she beat a lackluster Ostapenko in straight sets.
Mladenovic over Mertens
I’m impressed by qualifier Elise Mertens but I’m staying with Kiki M. to make it to the SF.
Forget Nottingham –
It’s just Pliskova and Puig left in the QF’s, the rest are unseeded and qualifiers. I don’t know!
That’s messed up what they are trying to do to Maria. They would NEVER do that to Fedal. I hope she has Tom Brady’s lawyer to get this lifted.
Genius.
lol
Wow. I love Viktorija Golubic’s backhand! I guess I did see her once or twice before this in Fed Cup – didn’t remember her. She’s tiny but the single handed bh is huge. Better than CSN’s… potentially.
Bencic made it to the SF by winning two tb’s in match that lasted 2 hours and 16 minutes! Her serve broke down too many times but she was lucky that Golubic’s serve did too. It was a mess.
Mladenovic d. Mertens, 75 63 in an hour and 20 min.
Semifinal Saturday Hertogenbosch:
Coco Vandeweghe over Madison Brengle
Kiki Mladenovic over best friend, Belinda Bencic
http://www.tennisdrawchallenge.com/group/view/68/jalep-wildguess
Link to WTA bracket challenge Mallorca and Birmingham. Come on in ??
RC Did i hear right that Wozniacki wont be able to be a flag bearer at the Olympics due to missing so much time off tour with injuries, seems she doesnt qualify, a bit unfair i wouldve thought?
And still cant get through to your bracket challenge ….
hi alison,
It will work to join the group after you’ve registered here:
http://www.tennisdrawchallenge.com/login
Next step, make your picks (Mallorca and Birmingham brackets will be available for picking Saturday, June 11)
Then add your picks to the Group named — jalep_wildguess ?
http://www.tennisdrawchallenge.com/group/view/68/jalep-wildguess
I’m not working today or on-call this weekend. All the registration requires is an email, username, password and to verify that you are not a robot 😀 and voila, account created! Very user-friendly, I thought. But this is my 1st time there too!!
alison, no, I hadn’t heard about Wozniacki. Just looked it up.
http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/06/ftw-explains-caroline-wozniacki-olympics-banned-appeal
She gets to appeal June 30. But I doubt they’ll make an exception because of the rules. Well maybe she has more excuses than we know, but qualifying rules require a certain amount of participation in Fed Cup. One has four years to fulfill the req’s and they say: if you wait until the last minute to do it, it’s your fault. Sounds harsh to me but there it is.
E&V Mallorca West: “Toni Nadal is the ambassador of the first WTA Mallorca Open!”
https://twitter.com/EVMallorcaWest/status/741243865718476801
WTA Mallorca Open is the first ever grass court tournament on Spanish soil, it will be held next week.
Absolutely a gorgeous tournament they built, augusta!
RC I think ive cracked it with the bracket 😉 ….
Goody ? alison. I’m very excited for the grass tournaments and Wimbledon, can you tell?
As soon as draws are released, I’ll make my picks and post them here before the draw closes. That way you can look at them and laugh or not! And tell me what you think, if you have time, okay…?
It’s WTA and grass complicates picking – even more than usual! But by Wimbledon we’ll know who is hot. fingers crossed.
alison, after looking at the qualifier list for Gary Weber, I couldn’t resist it…there’s now a ‘rcliff_hangers’ group ? so we can try Halle and London — come test yourselves before Wimbles. Everyone welcome.
http://www.tennisdrawchallenge.com/group/view/69/rcliff-hangers
Sunday Picks
Hertogenbosch Final:
Vandeweghe over Mladenovic.
On paper that’s most likely. But I’m hoping Kiki Mladenovic will surprise me and win her first career title.
Nottingham Final:
Ka.Pliskova over Riske in 3.
Draw challenge brackets for Birmingham, Mallorca, Halle, and Eastbourne are open for picking!
http://www.tennisdrawchallenge.com/group/view/69/rcliff-hangers The deadline for making changes is June 13, 9:00am (UTC).
Rafa Nadal: “Tomorrow starts the Mallorca Open. Enjoy yourselves by my land! Good luck to the players and especially welcome to the [RG] champion Garbiñe Muguruza.”
https://twitter.com/RafaelNadal/status/741940317818130432
Mallorca 280:
It’s tough not to pick Garbine Muguruza to the final from the choices in the top half. This is typically Sabine Lisicki’s time of year but she’s having a trouble finding her form in 2016. Right now, Muguruza v Mladenovic is my pick for the final. But that could change, depending on who wins what on Sunday and what qualifiers make the main draw. I’m watching for Elise Mertens, Kateryna Kozlova, Julia Glushko and Sorana Cirstea to come through.
Birmingham 470:
The top half is loaded: Radwanska, Kvitova, Wozniacki, Vandeweghe, Bencic, Strycova, Ka.Pliskova, and the first round is a minefield for most of them.
Top half first round upset alerts:
Vandeweghe v Radwanska.
(Coco is flying high on the grass). But Aga leads 4-0 in the H2H. And it’s all on hard courts; they have never met on grass. Coco is in the final tomorrow in Hertogenbosch, she appears strong, her serve is clicking. It’s tempting to pick Coco.
Ka.Pliskova v Strycova.
Karolina is in the Nottingham final and will have had to play both the QF and SF Saturday and the final, Sunday. This one could go either way but my guess is for Strycova to make it.
QF picks: Kvitova over Radwanska, Strycova over Tsurenko, Halep over Keys, Kerber over Svitolina.
SF: Kvitova over Strycova, Halep over Kerber.
F: Kvitova over Halep
Update: Just saw that Simona Halep had to withdraw from Birmingham with a left Achilles injury. Heather Watson is IN. Also, Karolina Pliskova won Nottingham in easy straight sets over Riske. Have decided to take Pliskova over Strycova. ?Changes
QF:
Radwanska over Konta, Bencic over Ka.Pliskova, Kvitova over Keys, Kerber over Suarez-Navarro
SF: Radwanska over Bencic, Kerber over Kvitova
F: Radwanska over Kerber
OH my, ?? Aga ninja’s her way to the title.
Allez Kiki!
Coco Vandeweghe too good. Congrats! In straight sets — Wins another Hertogenbosch title…
definitely a hot pick.
Mallorca Open website: “Rafael Nadal shows his support for the Mallorca Open.”
http://www.mallorcaopen.org/2016/06/12/rafa-nadal-muestra-su-apoyo-al-mallorca-open/?lang=es
NICE, isn’t it. Hope it will progress to a 470 soon.
RC Sorry i missed the bracket challenge, but i will still be here to chat, im so excited about the grass court season, and the WTA is quite exciting now with new players getting in the mix, happy to see its not just the Serena show anymore ….
You are not too late, alison. The brackets don’t close until Monday at 9 am YOUR time.
Anyways…left you ABBA on the non-tennis forum. ?
RC Cheers 😉 ….
Cheers. There are other things to do today but I’m trying to get my tennis fix. Rain in Stuttgart isn’t helping!
https://tenngrand.com/non-tennis-forum/ The last page (page 12) is where I go on a rainy Sunday 🙂
WTA bracket game update – 😀 manwerty vs ratcliff:
We picked the same title winner for Birmingham, Aga Radwanska. Not good since she lost to Coco Vanedewghe, but that was a tough first round for Aga. Coco was full of confidence coming off her Hertogenbosch win and too good. Aga fought admirably over three sets, tho.
Mallorca, manwerty vs ratcliff:
Both of our projected titlists are out. manwerty’s pick – Kiki Mladenovic; and mine – Garbine Muguruza. Both of us have a finalist pick left. manwerty’s – Caroline Garcia; and mine – Jelena Jankovic!
This is fun. I thought you were IN, Ricky!??
The Big game is coming up – Wimbledon. I’ll have a Tennis Channel WTA bracket going again.
Coco is on the ‘hot’ list for Wimbledon!
manwerty picked Madison Keys to the Birmingham final and I picked Angelique Kerber. Otherwise, our brackets looked very similar.
And – manwerty wins hands down in the ATP brackets for Halle and London. I picked Kei Nishikori over Federer for Halle… oops. More on those games later.
Thursday Picks
Mallorca:
Laura Siegemund over Veronica Cepede Royg
Caroline Garcia over Anna-Lena Friedsam
Monica Puig over Kirsten Flipkins
Ana Ivanovic over Sara Sorribes Tormo
Birmingham:
Madison Keys over Tamira Paszek
Petra Kvitova over Jelena Ostapenko
Johanna Konta over Misaki Doi
Caroline Wozniacki over Yanina Wickmayer
Carla Suarez-Navarro over Andrea Petkovic
Tsvetana Pironkova over Irina Camelia-Begu
Angelique Kerber over Daria Gavrilova
Barbora Strycova over Heather Watson (or the other way around!)
Coco Vandewehge over Christina McHale
Wow, that’s too many matches for Birmingham. Hope it’s not going to rain.
Congrats to Caroline Garcia – First winner of the new Mallorca grass tournment! And big Congrats to Madison Keys winning Birmingham and making WTA #10!
Pulling from the Eastbourne tournament this week: Keys, Strycova, Vandeweghe, and Laura Siegemund — left wrist injury. Hope they will all be healthy and ready to play for Wimbledon.
Eastbourne draw is stacked! (but no news on Azarenka)
http://www.wtatennis.com/SEWTATour-Archive/posting/2016/710/MDS.pdf