Rybakina against Osaka: never ever in that match was Rybakina confident in her FH, often showing again and again she just could not time it. And for much of the match, she could not get a first serve in - in the final set wherein she was never broken, she served at only 50% So why did she still win? You have to say that Osaka missed a real opportunity. She had one plan, particularly in that last set, which was to relatively safe deep balls to the Rybakina FH and hope for errors. She played it safe, too safe. One of Rybakina's underrated shots is her kicking 2nd serve, but it still can be attacked. But Osaka never did so, content mainly to put it in play, but that won her only 50% of 2nd serve returns in the final set. Osaka has been focused on returning more balls in play and cutting down on errors, but in this match she all but gave up on aggression and it cost her.

It's pretty apparent when watching Alex Eala on court is that the most valuable thing she learned from her tutelage at the Rafael Nadal Academy is not anything technical or tactical but the Nadal mindset between points, which AI provides a good summary of what it entails (SEE BELOW) Of course every player tries to do some variation of this, some much better than others. It has to be something that's learned, it takes practice, and Eala has been practicing it since she was 13 years old.

Here's a perspective on Alex Eala based on the lefty legacy in recent WTA history. First, we have to acknowledge commonalities nearly all lefties have: Spinny, versatile but not very fast serves Amazing creativity and versatility on the FH A BH that is oftentimes not a weapon There's some variation obviously, and if we look at the gold standard for lefties in the last 15 years, Petra Kvitova, her big serve was definitely an exception. But other than Kvitova, there really seems to be a performance ceiling for lefties and it seems to be around a ranking of 20. Yes, players have reached higher than that, Vondrousova (#6#) Haddad Maia (10), Fernandez (13) but none have been really able to sustain it It's now been 6 years since we've had a lefty as a mainstay inside the top 10. That of course was Petra, who was a fixture in the top 10 for nearly the entire period from 2011 thru 2020(!) Some may find it silly that I am comparing Eala to other lefties, but if you believe as I do she shares characteristics with other lefty players then it's valid to speculate about a ceiling. If Eala can pull it off and have a top 10 career, then her nationality won't be the only unique thing about her, a lefty doing this will also be very notable

This Chwalinska-Gibson match is an entertaining contrast in styles. Gibson is no joke in that she can hit the ever-lovin' sh-t out of the ball, but she is not a good mover. Chwalinska's job is to get Gibson into a rally where she can get Gibson off-balance, and then win the point with her laser-accurate FH. The difference as often is the case may be who gets the easy 1st serve points, and there we have to favor Gibson

Kalinskaya might have the strangest psychology in tennis. She breaks Pegula when Pegula was serving for the match at 5-4 in the second. Immediately gestures and talks to her box, presumably because she was worried about her dog getting overheated. Priorities??? Then she DFs 3 times and nets a FH to give the break back immediately. Loses the next game and the match.

Janice Tien's 2026 season is kinda fascinating. She started the year ranked #53# She is currently ranked #37# She has 9 wins and 20 losses on the season How is it possible to IMPROVE in ranking with such a record? Certainly not having that many points to defend is important, but one key is she has 2 wins at slams, and 4 at the 1000 level plus 1 500 win Not all wins are equal!