Raducanu

[BaggieSingh]

Missed everything today just catching up had a crazy day

Started watching the Raducanu match with my daughter now

Awesome stuff, hope she wins

Would do so much to inspire the nation

Mick, you were so right

[baggieal]

Missed everything today just catching up had a crazy day

Started watching the Raducanu match with my daughter now

Awesome stuff, hope she wins

Would do so much to inspire the nation

Mick, you were so right

Just brilliant BS. What a complete star!!!!

Well done Emma!

[regis80]

Umpire looked fit.

[TipperaryBaggie]

Well done girl. Kent is proud of you.

[baggieal]

Umpire looked fit.

Good with balls Regis no doubt😭

[Barrera]

Incredible performance ... and so mature for her age. The steel, grit and determination she showed when seeing the match out ... then the the poise of the acceptance speech. Wow!

Haven’t watched too much of the US Open only a few highlights, but was amazing to see how hard these two young girls were hitting the ball. One hit what looked like a winner .... then the other sends it back with interest. Thought both played to a high standard ....

Just thinking of Naomi Osaka .... bailed out due to the mental stress and pressures .... and just two months later a new queen takes over ...

[kettering_baggie]

I am not really interested in tennis but that girl was remarkable, great to see a new young talent emerge from the UK.

[mickd1961]

Missed everything today just catching up had a crazy day

Started watching the Raducanu match with my daughter now

Awesome stuff, hope she wins

Would do so much to inspire the nation

Mick, you were so right

Cheers BS.

I'll let you into a secret......although only Sports Direct sell more tennis rackets than me in the UK I'm not "into" the whole bulls--t side of tennis, I've never enjoyed dealing with coaches and players and clubs right from when I started at Dunlop back in 1991.

Racket sports were a good choice of career and then business for me because I never got drawn into the "scene" whereas if I'd taken the job I was offered with Puma back in 1990 ( I was offered ex Man Utd and Scotland captain Martin Buchan's job ) I'd have been too distracted by the glitz and the glam and not enough on the product I think.


This is one of the reasons that I hadn't got a clue who Emma Radacanu was during the early part of Wimbledon at the end of June.

I happened to catch some highlights of her on an outside court in the second round I think it was, I presumed the white pasty girl was the Brit and that the lush, elegant young lady with the Asian looks was Eastern European.

So I watched a few points in blissful ignorance whilst I was sat working on my laptop, TV sound was on low so I wasn't really listening to commentary.

As I watched I was transfixed at the way this young beauty moved around, she had the grace of Federer and just seemed to have so much time to decide on every shot, I thought then that this kid was going to be a star.

Anyway, I moved on with my work and they moved on to another match and it was a few days later when she was on TV again the I suddenly realised she was one of ours, like I said earlier, I don't "follow" tennis, in my game it's only the top four men and occasionally the very top female player who attract people to buy rackets so I just have to follow those trends.

Steffi Graph was probably the last female player to attract big sales to a racket with the Dunlop 200G back in the 88-91era and Sharapova a bit in recent years......the Williams brothers had no impact on sales at all.


I digress.


Emma is sponsored by Wilson ( on a very small deal at present I guess ) but she's going to have the biggest impact in the history of UK tennis on racket sales, I've sold a lot of kids rackets online today at a time of year when things are normally pretty slow for tennis.

Wilson are going to have to get the cheque book out pronto or she'll be gone, they've been very lucky/astute to have had her on the books at this point.


The reason I believed she was going to win majors and become a great really comes down to her movement, all great players in every sport have an ease of movement predicated on being in position so early because of how they read the game, same with footballers and many other types of sport.

It's also how she moves, she's like Federer when he was at his peak, she just glides, she doesn't break sweat and when the ball arrives at her racket she seems to have forever in which to dispatch it.


Mentally she's unbelievable, nothing fazes her.


The biggest hurdle she now faces is herself, she needs to not overthink the future.


She could do a "Michael Chang" and never win another but I doubt that, his game was based on chasing everything down, her game is a mix of Federer type poise and grace and Andy Murray's ability to know where the opponent is going to put the ball before the opponent themselves has come to the decision.


Somehow with Emma I just knew she had it within two minutes of watching her.


I sort of feel the same about George Russell in F1 as well, no wonder stroppy pants Lewis Hamilton is p I s s e d that his lapdog Bottas is being replaced by young George, that lad has quality written right through him.


Don't hold your breath for an English up and coming male tennis player though, Broady is a "Billy Big Bo l l ox" from what I'm told and loves himself too much.

Well done Emma though, great night to be British.

[Barrera]

Maybe we are getting carried away ..... but Emma’s win could possibly be one of if not the greatest individual sporting achievement by a Brit in history ... she never even dropped a set over 10 matches for **** sake ....

Hits the ball like a rocket .... but I agree it’s the movement and speed around the court. I am not some kind of perv ... but you can’t fail to see she has long and powerful legs .... especially the thighs .... real power and stability there ...

[mickd1961]

Maybe we are getting carried away ..... but Emma’s win could possibly be one of if not the greatest individual sporting achievement by a Brit in history ... she never even dropped a set over 10 matches for **** sake ....

Hits the ball like a rocket .... but I agree it’s the movement and speed around the court. I am not some kind of perv ... but you can’t fail to see she has long and powerful legs .... especially the thighs .... real power and stability there ...

You’re very right about her legs.

Also look out for how low she sets herself for some of her shots from the baseline, this is textbook technique but not easy to do.

Most players don’t want to make the effort involved in bending the knees, they take the easy way out and hit from an upright position whereas she generates tremendous power from having that lower base.

She also has a remarkable attribute in being able to return shots that look as though they’ve gone past her, like when a great keeper claws away a shot that’s actually gone past him, she does this regularly and you can hear her racket scraping the ground because she’s at the absolute limit.

Her biggest asset seems to be the ability to throw the kitchen sink at even the most powerful shots played at her, she never flinched whatever the pressure.

I’ve just watched some of her playing Fernandez at junior Wimbledon three years ago when she was 15, she wiped the floor with her, if I’d seen the quality of her play then I’d have tipped her to win majors.

I can’t think why Laura Robson is still trying to make a comeback from injury, nice player but that’s the problem, typically English “nice”.

If you can’t hit the ball like Emma and move like her and have so few unforced errors then you need to follow the other losers like Annabel Croft into the commentary box.

I used to call on Siviter Sports in Brierley Hill.

Phil Siviter the owner was a terrific local player and made it to Wimbledon in around 73.

His son Mark was a good junior player and at 14-15 he wanted to go to Nick Bolliterri’s acadamy in the USA where Agassi went as a youth.

Phil was worth millions and could afford it but he told me that he had to be hard with his son and tell him that no matter how much money he threw at his tennis he was never going to make it!

We need more of that sense in our sport, talent like Emma’s and that of Jude Bellingham ( another I forecast for stardom after his debut at 16 for Blues! ) we need to stop supporting mediocrity and focus on obvious quality.