Technology, tennis and WTA final Riyadh
View(s):Toil of acquiring skill, physical needs, accommodate travel stress, matches and matches, sweat and anxiety, is the life of a WTA tennis player. Who wants such a life? Unbelievably many want to live this life. WTA ranking has well over 1500 and another couple of thousand aspirants at entrant level.
WTA has named its yearend finalist for 2025. For WTA management, yearlong events and attractive schedule without issues is the goal. For the Riyadh WTA final money is 15 plus million in US dollars. This is the first such event in Riyadh with Singles and Doubles.
In identity, tennis is mainly Singles, and it has been so. Doubles incorporated to provide players to have a longer carrier spell. It has worked well. Riyadh there will be Singles and Doubles.
The eight women players are Aryna Sabalenka, compared to previous queens, she wins but marginal difference. She is consistent all courter but not with lethal weaponry. Full three set wins are her usual strait in close encounters. She carries home stress situation, very admirable and creditable.
Iga Swiatek in position two of WTA follows her. Of recent, she has been not very effective as her inception year. Personality factor as I see it. When players open their notebook in change over and she does this, it is stress-sign. It is unfair to label them in this manner, fact remains they get jerky and toilet breaks get longer. Fair play is umpires job and they have issues with Swiatek. To me she, in full swing, is easily one of the best all-rounders tennis world has seen.
The next two are Coco Gauff and Amanda Anisimova, both from USA and young. Young stressed the most with WTA global playing schedule. They face court coverage speed, match duration and killer strokes. These two are born in America, USA is the livewire of modern tennis. They have all needed to be world-beaters.
Jessica Pegula and Madison Keys are the other two Americans in the autumn/winter period of their career. They have calculating tactical approach in shot selection and positioning to play. Age-wise in their thirties and are good for another year or two. They in their early days faced fiercest women players the world has seen. The William sisters, Maria Sharapova and Justin Henin. At present, for young players tactical geniality is their survival formula.
Elyna Rybakina and Jasmine Paolini are the other two finalist in Riyadh. Rybakina is from Kazakhstan, originally Russian. At 26 years of age, she has to ration her effort to stay free from injuries. A tall lady without any weakness on her given day. From forceful service and vicious return of service with very effective net play are her brand of tennis. Injuries are her issues. She has withdrawn many times from event due to injuries.
Italian with African genes is the last player into the WTA final in Riyadh. She had a sizzling early year and went into injury spell. Gear up enough to be in the final in the last spell of WTA events. To come into the Top 8 of WTA ranking, a player cannot be a weakling. In events like the final, she has good chance of entering final rounds. Very versatile all-rounder with surprising shot selection. It fact this could be said that all are. Matches can be interesting and very close in Riyadh.
Tennis was the first sport that incorporated industrial modernity with metal racquets. Wilson brand Racquet Company, came with steel racquet in the 1960s. Then came manganese, aluminium and so on. A Swiss bought in aeronautical construction design with chemical composite – the honeycomb and others from aeronautical industry. The kind of power modern racquets deliver could not be with original wooden racquet material. Composite racquets are lighter but not the professional line production, known to come out of factory in Perth, Australia. These racquets are battle-axe heavy. Technology has taken speed in tennis to skyrocket through the roof. Even this seem to be inadequate to modern players.
The last is string and stringing. Have you seen players change rackets with unbroken strings? Why is this? Technology demands this, at high end their duration can be less than a set.
Challenge of tennis now propelled with techno-age innovations, where equipment is enhancing power. It places players in time squeeze situation all the time. To accommodate it stroke-making has changed for two reasons. Top end tennis is one second per shot; it is less than that now. In stroke-making back swing replaced with wrist-elbow flexes and the footwork has no definition anymore. Footwork is only to cover court and provide dynamic balance. Players are serving at 230kmph shot duration to return is well under one second.
Tennis is a sport that requires strength, speed, suppleness, stamina and stability, all of these now needed at an enhancement than ever before, in microseconds. The grace of Susanne Langlen and Maria Estella Bueno of yesteryear in modern tennis seen only in slow motion reviews. What about highly paid courtside seat? It is a good question, is it for ambiance only.
–George Paldano, European and Asian competition player; Coach German Tennis Federation; National coach Brunei and Sri Lanka; Davis Cup, Federation Cup coach, coached ATP, WTA and ITF ranked players in Europe and Asia; WhatsApp +94775448880–