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shfanspace · 6 years

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2017, Simona Halep’s Year!

Written by Ramona Toderaş; Translated by Evelina Cătănescu & Anca Burcă

Simona has been through two turnaround moments which, if we look back, we ask ourselves how she managed to get over, get back the strength she needed, pick up the racket again and again and say: „Today, I'll do everything better than yesterday, today the only thing that matters is what I can do for myself, because I'm the only one who can help me and only I can work for my dream.”

First, there was the injury at the start of the season and then, the Paris moment.

We were excited for what this new season was about to bring her, feeling that this would be her year. But things aren't always as we expect them to be and Simona started off the first match of the season, on the wrong foot. A match against Siniakova, a match in which we felt like something wasn't right. Yet, we moved on. And with only one match won, Simona entered the main draw at Australian Open. The impediment though? Shelby Rogers. Known and named as the fastest, quickest player on the court, Simona was in the situation where she couldn't cope with the game that Rogers had at that moment. Rogers had come to play every point, every ball and there was nothing in the world that could make her offer free points. At the press conference, Simona said at that time that she was struggling with a tendinitis, a health issue that she had been struggling since the WTA Finals. The pain she was dealing with was an obstacle that didn't let her play at her best, foreseeing a break for resting and getting better.

She made a comeback at St. Petersburg, where she sadly won only one match, retiring before the quarterfinals. The break announced at the Australian Open had become a necessity. Therefore, she retired from the Fed Cup competition and tournaments such as Dubai and Doha. For the first time in her life, Simona was in a situation she hadn’t been before, still, aware of the fact that being healthy was the most important thing.

At Indian Wells, the victory against Donna Vekic came as a breath of fresh air. And yet, Miami happened. The turnaround moment. The moment when Simona became the Simona that she is today. From the match against Stosur to the breakdown in the match against Konta, a breakdown which led to a temporary break with Darren Cahill. A break during which Simona had to analyze herself and her attitude and make some major changes. Changes that happened and were visible in the match against Konta in Constanta, within the Fed Cup competition. A match where she showed that the will to continue was way bigger than her stubbornness.

Clay. On clay, Simona is like a fish in the water. Win after win came with Stuttgart. After Stuttgart, she defended her Madrid title, then there were two finals in a row: Rome and Roland Garros. When Simona and the clay meet, it's like two friends working together in order to get the win. Every slide, every backhand, and forehand hit, like the clay, is helping her to go for the wins. With all the wins at Stuttgart, she came to Madrid more confident in her game and ready to defend her title. The win against Krystina Pliskova was piece of cake, yet facing Roberta Vinci was another story. The girl had come to play, making Simona work for every point, giving nothing away, confusing her with drop shots and volleys. Still, here's where the Simona we know and love, appears. When she's on the brink, she brings out her best game, as she realizes she has nothing to lose, and she gives everything she has. It might not be the best approach, but when it works and she gets the win, it's the sweetest taste ever. With Stosur, she didn't let the score move in the opponent’s favor, quite the contrary, she stayed close, got the advantage and so she was in her first final of the 2017 season, a final which she won against Mladenovic, a Mladenovic who was on a roll, but the experience and the game made the difference. Simona won the Madrid Title, two times in a row.

In Rome, she was in the final with only one set lost against Anastasia Sevastova and she was facing Elina Svitolina who already had in her tennis bag three trophies. There was nothing to announce the drama that was about to come. Winning the first set and having the advantage in the second, Simona fell and suffered an ankle injury that was making her presence at Roland Garros uncertain. But Simona held her strength and, even if she lost the Rome final, she held on until the last point. She then arrived in Paris and, despite everything, she decided to continue playing no matter what.

Roland Garros. The tournament where the wish for winning is even bigger and where Simona had been having the most amazing performances. The tournament that broke thousands of hearts and made us scream in agony, in happiness, and kept us awake night after night. It must have been a nightmare...

We don't believe Ostapenko took away Simona's chance. We believe that in the key moments it was Ostapenko who knew how to handle the situations in her favor. In the end, she played better.

We won't relive the dramatic moments again, but we have to point out that Simona took every negative point from that final, that painful loss, and with her desire to get better and better, turned it into maturity, positivity, and strength.

After the quarterfinals in Eastbourne, Simona was able to adjust her game for the grass season, earning the tightest victories, despite the rain and the confusing schedule which forced her to play the round of 16 and the quarterfinals in the same day. She may have lost against Wozniacki, but she had enough well-played sets, in order to be ready and confident for the third Grand Slam Tournament of the year, Wimbledon. In fact, Simona didn’t lose a set until the quarterfinals of the London tournament, where she won against Erakovic, Haddad Maria, Shuai Peng, and Azarenka.

There are at least three names which Simona had faced throughout the 2017 season, which connect to the most significant moments, whether failures or unlocking victories. First, there was Ostapenko, the one that stood against Simona’s chance to win her first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros final, but whom later on, managed to defeat in Beijing. That was the moment that brought her the bouquet of roses she was holding in her arms for becoming world number 1. Then it was Svitolina. Simona lost the Rome final against her but won the match in the quarter-finals of Roland Garros. And lastly but not least, there was Johanna Konta.

It was the famous Miami episode first, then the Fed Cup revenge, and then the Wimbledon quarterfinals. Rivalries in tennis are more special than in other sports, everything here is personal. There's a certain player who will always interpose between you and your goal. The player that will bring you the most disappointments of your career and the player you want to beat the most. It becomes a personal matter, an issue that motivates you in strong matches. Simona was a match away from the first ranking place, and Johanna was in front of a huge performance for a British player, namely to reach the Wimbledon semifinals for the first time since 1978. With a partisan public in the back, the British made perhaps the best match of the year for her, served with incredible percentages and was extremely aggressive, attacking every ball. Having two match points in the tiebreak of the second set, Simona did not risk, and that cost her not only the set but also the match. In the fourth episode of the meetings between the two, Simona came more prepared and left nothing in the hands of fate. The matches with Johanna have always had tragic tendencies, with Simona having the match in her hands (at least from the perspective of the score), only to shake Johanna's hand at the end and head back to the locker room disappointed. The examples are far too many, first, there was the Wuhan 2015 episode where Simona lost after the 5-1 advantage in the decisive set, at Miami she was leading 5-3 in the second set, and at Wimbledon, she was two points away from victory. Inexplicably, Simona did not manage to defeat her in the circuit, even though she kept saying that she knew she had the game to beat her, but the matches always tended to get complicated, and so the rivalry was reinforced in each duel. In Cincinnati, the game seemed to be in Simona’s hands, and at 5-3 in the second set, she had two match points and another three at 6-5. The same scenario seemed to repeat itself, but Simona was stronger in the key points, ending the match with a clear 7-1 in the tiebreak.

The American season came with quarterfinals at Washington, Toronto Semifinal, Cincinnati Final and a way too early exit from the US Open.

The sweetest tournament came in Beijing. Asia hadn’t always been the land of victories for Simona after a long season fatigue always caught her from behind. But Simona arrived in China more ambitious and after an hour practice every day, exclusively on the serve - the weakness from the US Open match against Sharapova. And maybe it was meant to happen like this. She met Sharapova again in round 16, only this time, Sharapova wasn't facing the same Simona which she had beaten in the previous 7 meetings. Simona won triumphantly, demoralizing and with self-mastery, the match in which she lost four games, made six unforced errors and ended up with 74% on the first service. A match in which Simona's game came close to perfection, with incredible emotional control and a more than solid service. In the quarters, she stumbled upon Daria Kasatkina, whom she had lost against at Wuhan a week earlier with the same score, 6-2, 6-1. In the revenge tournament, the match with Ostapenko was no exception. Simona was perfectly connected to the stake of the game and in perfect sync with her feelings, with her shots, and with the destiny to reach something no other Romanian player has ever reached: the first ranking position of the WTA.

The 2017 season is defined by work in in front of the adversity, by taking the most sour moments that life can offer you and transforming them into moments of glory. No success can be sweeter than when you know that you have fought with yourself and won, when you keep the hidden wounds of battles as a reminder of the things that have made you stronger. At the end of the year, Romania's best tennis player is also the best player in the world. It is not possible for us to be more proud.

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buddyrabrahams · 7 years

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Five teams with the best shot of knocking off the Cavs in the East

Cleveland has found itself in an unexpected position this offseason. Following the team’s second NBA Finals loss in three years to the Golden State Warriors, the general NBA populace entered the summer months assuming the Cavs would retain their core and take another stab at Golden State next June.

Despite all the inevitable offseason jockeying, in the end we’d have LeBron, Kyrie, and Kevin Love versus the 2K Team for the title…again.

But, wait, what’s that?

Life comes at you fast. Though we may still find ourselves with a rematch in the Finals, the odds of that happening now appear slimmer than they did just one month ago.

Cavs owner Dan Gilbert chose not to re-sign general manager David Griffin — a decision that was unpopular with the players. The Cavs feverishly tried to trade for Paul George — and thought they had an agreement in place to do so — but fell short. And lastly, of course, ESPN discovered the news that has the NBA spinning — Kyrie Irving, tired of playing second banana to LeBron James, has made it very clear he wants to be traded.

Irving reportedly gave the Cavs a list of four teams that he’d be willing to go to: the Knicks (his hometown team), Timberwolves (an organization on the rise with an established head coach), Spurs (stability), and Heat (stability).

Regardless of whether the Cavs are able to remedy the Irving-James situation (don’t count on it) and retain Kyrie, it seems Cleveland will be vulnerable next season. After making it seven years in a row, could this be the year LeBron finally misses the Finals?

Below are the five teams with the best shot to overtake the Cavs in the East.

5. Toronto Raptors

It seems everyone is down on the Raptors right now, and with good reason. Though Toronto has been a top-three regular season team in the East for the past two seasons, the squad has faltered in the postseason. They’ll get their 50 wins, sure, but nobody considers them a legitimate threat.

This offseason, the Raptors somewhat surprisingly doubled down on the present. Some expected a rebuild. Instead, the team signed Kyle Lowry and Serge Ibaka to big deals (which some might say were too big).

Though these decisions were questionable from a long-term perspective, Toronto’s free agency strategy ensured the team would be competitive with the best of the East for the foreseeable future.

The Raptors likely do not currently have the talent to dethrone Cleveland. In the 2015-16 Eastern Conference Finals, Toronto pushed the Cavs to six games, but anyone who watched the series knows it wasn’t that close. In the 2016-17 semifinals, the Cavs played full-throttle from the outset, and they coasted to a sweep.

Cleveland has clearly been the superior team in this matchup. So, what could change?

For one, the rosters could change. Toronto has been shopping big man Jonas Valanciunas. If a couple pieces move, there’s an outside shot the tide of this head-to-head matchup could turn.

And while Cleveland is in the midst of such chaos, you can’t undersell the importance of stability. Toronto’s core (Lowry, DeMar DeRozan, coach Dwane Casey) has been together since 2012. That’s an eternity in the modern NBA.

Maybe this is the year everything clicks, the Raptors make some shrewd moves before the deadline, and they capitalize on a weakened Cleveland squad. But probably not. This is a longshot.

4. Miami Heat

As I mentioned above, the Heat were one of four teams Irving said he would be willing to go to.

But, they missed the playoffs. So, why would Irving have interest in them?

Well, they have a stable front office (Pat Riley), a top-tier head coach (Erik Spoelstra), and some solid role players on good contracts. They’re competitive every year and are in a good place financially for the coming years. Oh, and it’s South Beach.

Forget the irony of Irving bolting Cleveland for Miami and consider this: if you’re a free agent or just an unhappy player, is there any franchise/city combination more appealing than that of Miami? If you were in his shoes, why wouldn’t you want to go there?

The Heat have a decent core — Goran Dragic and Dion Waiters have blossomed together in the backcourt, Hassan Whiteside is a dominant force inside, and Kelly Olynyk was a good signing — and they flourished down the stretch this spring, but they’re this high on the list because they’re so well positioned to make a move.

Though the Heat missed out on the marquee free agent targets they coveted in Gordon Hayward (Boston) and Blake Griffin (back with the Clippers), they’re lurking.

The Heat already had tons of cap space, then they were relieved of Chris Bosh’s hit against the cap.

Miami has all of its chess pieces positioned to make a big move. It may not come this offseason, but they’re a team to watch until the trade deadline in February. With some small changes, they’d be a scary second-round matchup.

3. Milwaukee Bucks

The Bucks’ present dreams of what could be. This team appears to be the future of the East, as anyone who watched this year’s first round of the playoffs could contend.

Milwaukee has positioned itself brilliantly. It has a promising coach (Jason Kidd) and a stable of good young players under contract for years to come.

This team is centered on Giannis Antetokounmpo, the 22-year-old “Greek Freak.” In this year’s playoffs, Antetokounmpo showed how close he is to “being there.” He turned heads in the team’s first-round loss to Toronto, averaging 24.2 points, 9.8 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 2.2 steals, and 1.8 blocks per game.

He led the Bucks in all five categories this season and became the first NBA player ever to finish the season in the top 20 in total points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks. How about that? This kid’s special.

It’s not just about Giannis, though. Milwaukee has Malcolm Brogdon (the NBA’s Rookie of the Year and future U.S. President), Khris Middleton, Jabari Parker, and a promising big in Thon Maker, in addition to some solid complementary players.

The Bucks are still a bit raw, and they might not be ready this year, but they’re coming soon. Their length and skill — they can switch so effortlessly on D — has the whole NBA on notice.

2. Washington Wizards

The Wizards’ long-term prognosis is now clear, as John Wall recently re-signed — finally! He agreed to a four-year, $170 million extension.

So, why did he take so long to make up his mind? It might have been a little bit of vengeance for Washington re-signing Bradley Beal to a max deal before him.

That’s all history at this point. Beal is under contract through 2020-21, and Wall is now inked through 2022-23. That means this backcourt is the organization’s centerpiece for the next four years.

Does Washington have enough right now to knock off Cleveland? Doubtful. But if the Wizards gain a piece, or Cleveland loses a piece, a series between these teams could get really interesting.

Imagine the disparity in the backcourt if the Cavs didn’t have Kyrie and were instead trotting out the injury-riddled Derrick Rose and J.R. Smith to try to hang with Wall and Beal. The Wall/Beal duo might outscore them by 60.

The Wizards also brought back Otto Porter Jr. and have a budding young wing in Kelly Oubre Jr. (Kelly Olynyk’s nemesis). Though it would take a herculean effort from Washington’s 1A and 1B options, they’re good enough to be considered a legitimate challenger.

1. Boston Celtics

The Celtics just get it. Danny Ainge knows how to run an organization.

Look at the moves he’s made over the years and, with perhaps the exception of the Fab Melo/Jared Sullinger 2012 draft, Ainge has a nearly flawless track record. Consider the Isaiah Thomas trade, picking up Jae Crowder as a throwaway in the Rajon Rondo deal, and — of course — the Paul Pierce/KG deal with the Nets.

This summer, Ainge has shined yet again. In addition to snagging Jayson Tatum in the draft — a pick that looks even better after Summer League — Boston added Gordon Hayward, an All-NBA caliber player who’s still improving.

The team also made a sneaky-good trade in flipping Avery Bradley for Marcus Morris. Though Bradley may be the better player head-to-head, Morris’ contract situation is superior (Bradley is going to get paid next summer, while the 27-year-old Morris is on a bargain deal), and Morris provides something the Celtics sorely needed: toughness inside. Boston may have improved in the short-term and long-term as a result of the trade.

Even if the Cavs retain Kyrie, the new-look Celtics should be able to give them a run for their money. If Cleveland loses Irving, however, and does not improve as a result of the trade, Boston could very well advance to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2010.

Though the Cavs remain the favorites in the East, the Celtics should make Cleveland fans anxious.

from Larry Brown Sports http://ift.tt/2w4ey6Z

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