Vika Ran out of Gas?

[RJD11]

Sam Sumyk, the coach of Victoria Azarenka, says fatigue was a factor in the final set of the Belarusian's 7-5, 6-7 (6), 6-1 loss to Serena Williams in the U.S. Open final. Azarenka came back from a 1-4 deficit to win the second set, but lost the last five games of the third set.

“She ran out of little bit of gas to keep pushing from behind,” Sumyk told TENNIS.com. “When you run out of energy it’s better to lead because that gives a little boost, but to push, push, push always to come back drains you.”



http://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2013/09/azarenkas-coach-vika-ran-out-gas-final/49122/#.Ui-VL3_J5ac

 

[RJD11]

Sam Sumyk, the coach of Victoria Azarenka, says fatigue was a factor in the final set of the Belarusian's 7-5, 6-7 (6), 6-1 loss to Serena Williams in the U.S. Open final. Azarenka came back from a 1-4 deficit to win the second set, but lost the last five games of the third set.

“She ran out of little bit of gas to keep pushing from behind,” Sumyk told TENNIS.com. “When you run out of energy it’s better to lead because that gives a little boost, but to push, push, push always to come back drains you.”



http://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2013/09/azarenkas-coach-vika-ran-out-gas-final/49122/#.Ui-VL3_J5ac

Last time I checked Vika (24) is much younger than Serena (near 32).

Serena played both doubles and singles for the 2 weeks. How can this

man even fix his mouth to say this.

 

[RJD11]

Poster speakthetruth posted this in the comments


Oh something else from the horses mouth...LMAO. Interview from a few days before final.

Q. You also looked very strong like physically like. Are you doing anything different? Like you do look stronger. In that last game like you were hitting the ball so hard. Are you doing anything different with your body?

VICTORIA AZARENKA: Well, I work a lot on my fitness. I feel like I develop every time I come back, you know, especially after this injury. I came back on another fitness level, and my physical ability always helped me to play better tennis. Because, you know, my movement is important to me. I feel like I have heavier shots now. I direct the ball better. I can, you know, reach to the balls that I maybe wasn't able to reach because of my flexibility before. So a little by little it becomes more as one piece, and that's what I'm working on. And still gonna keep improving.

 

[tossip]

lame excuse..

 

[sk310]

I don't think it is a lame excuse. It's obvious that is what happened. It is not to say that Serena wouldn't have won. She most likely would have won regardless. The point here is that Serena's fitness, endurance, and coping abilities under pressure are far superior.

Seriously you Serena super-fans get up in arms about anything other than an outright compliment. Sometimes even a compliment sets you off.

Serena is better. She is a GOAT candidate. She is obviously superior to ANYONE playing tennis today. Just get over it when someone says something slightly contrary to your world view.

 

[tossip]

I don't think it is a lame excuse. It's obvious that is what happened. It is not to say that Serena wouldn't have won. She most likely would have won regardless. The point here is that Serena's fitness, endurance, and coping abilities under pressure are far superior.

Seriously you Serena super-fans get up in arms about anything other than an outright compliment. Sometimes even a compliment sets you off.

Serena is better. She is a GOAT candidate. She is obviously superior to ANYONE playing tennis today. Just get over it when someone says something slightly contrary to your world view.

in other words he is diminishing Serena change of tactics in the third set.Serena stopped making errors in the third set and started moving Zenka corner to corner.Serena started to engage Zenka in longer rallies...she used Vika s game against her and thats being tactically astute.

 

[sk310]

And YOU are diminishing Vika's nerve and grit in coming back from being down 1-4 in the second set. It's all semantics. Stop taking everything as an attack on Serena.

 

[RJD11]

And YOU are diminishing Vika's nerve and grit in coming back from being down 1-4 in the second set. It's all semantics. Stop taking everything as an attack on Serena.

And just how is what he said an attack on Serena. It is not

Sam Sumyk is the one diminishing Vika by saying such

a thing. And himself as a coach.

 

[sk310]

YOU ARE THE ONE WHO SAID HE WAS DISPARAGING SERENA!

 

[tossip]

well... a 24yr old who had a day off before final,didnt play doubles lost to a player 8ys her senior.Vika has never beaten Serena at a grand slam event maybe the h2h got into her head.

 

[kskate2]

No one is wrong in this scenario. Vika spent more time on court than Serena w/ her multiple 3 setters. She didn't play her best until the final. It's very likely that she was mentally tired as she knows better than anyone that Serena wasn't going away. She expended alot of mental energy in sets 1 and 2. By the 3rd set when Serena changed her tactics and stopped making errors, Vika was low on mental and physical energy so she was not able to adjust her game to match Serena's, ie. a runaway set.

Let's keep some perspective here. Both are tremendous athletes, but Serena is the better athlete and the better tennis player even in her 30's.

 

[Sundaymorningguy]

You know there are different ways of running out of gas. I think mentally Vika was spent after set 2, physically she was fine. I think Vika was hoping that second set completely demoralized Serena, and when she didn't get that, it was hard for her to buckle down mentally to compete in set 3. Many other players would have completely let their games and emotions fly off the handle after that second set collapse and many chances to take it in straights. I think Vika was hoping for that a bit from Serena.

 

[kskate2]

Maybe on the surface she thought that, but deep down she had to know Serena wasn't going away. All their matches this year have been 3 sets. Vika knows better.

 

[tossip]

Maybe on the surface she thought that, but deep down she had to know Serena wasn't going away. All their matches this year have been 3 sets. Vika knows better.

Serena also played doubles and reached the semis....it all came down to the fact that Vika has never beaten Serena at a slam event..8h0 did her in.She lost the mental battle not the physical..

 

[Sundaymorningguy]

I think she knew Serena wasn't going away, but I think she was hoping for a bit of a let down from Serena after set 2, and I think she realized after the first 3 games of set 3 Serena buckled down and calmed down. She didn't prepare properly for Serena actually having it together in set 3. Let's face it Set 3 was probably the calmest Serena had been all match, and that is where Vika truly failed using Serena's own uneasiness against her. It worked in Set 2, but she should have done more in Set 1. I knew if any set went to a tiebreak Serena was going to lose the tiebreak as she has lost all her breakers to Vika this year.

 

[ozza]

People actually reacting to this like it insults Serena or something :huh:?

This was pretty obvious from watching at the time. Serena is fitter than Vika, Vika was just hitting unforced error after unforced error in the final set. Once she got broken she was completely deflated.

 

[golds girl]

Sam Sumyk, the coach of Victoria Azarenka, says fatigue was a factor in the final set of the Belarusian's 7-5, 6-7 (6), 6-1 loss to Serena Williams in the U.S. Open final. Azarenka came back from a 1-4 deficit to win the second set, but lost the last five games of the third set.

“She ran out of little bit of gas to keep pushing from behind,” Sumyk told TENNIS.com. “When you run out of energy it’s better to lead because that gives a little boost, but to push, push, push always to come back drains you.”



http://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2013/09/azarenkas-coach-vika-ran-out-gas-final/49122/#.Ui-VL3_J5ac

To finish Sumyk's quote...'unless you're Nadal'. This was definitely a mental collapse on Vika's part.

 

[Correspondent Kiu]

I say she got broken more than on her serve, that's how it usually happens.

It was the same for Serena last time in Cincy...

 

[RJD11]

Mental fatigue? Serena had every reason to suffer from this

perhaps even more than Vika. The pressure of history weighed

heavily on Serena and don't forget, She had to come back also


Wertheim SI

We're immune to Williams' heroics, mental strength and witchcraft. But how about this: Williams lost in the fourth round the previous Grand Slam tournament, Wimbledon, because she was too passive. She lost her previous match to Victoria Azarenka, her new rival, because she was too passive in the final of the Western & Southern Open last month. In her next major and the next match against Azarenka, she served for the championship twice in the second set. And she flubbed it. This would drive many players to despair. This would drive many players to drink. Serena? She recovered from this catastrophe and, as if beset by happy amnesia, won the third set 6-1 to seal her fifth U.S. Open crown and 17 Slam title. Impressive.

Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/tennis/news/20130909/us-open-50-thoughts-rafael-nadal-serena-williams/#ixzz2ee4aojGZ

 

[RJD11]

Only Azarenka -- with two wins over Williams this year, and Sunday's meeting yet another chance to go to class on her -- has shown the progress, grit, variety and bigness of spirit needed to take Serena down consistently. When she said, of Sunday, "I gave my heart; I fought as hard as I could," it wasn't just accented bluster. Flopped on a bench in a hallway afterward, Azarenka looked shattered. Theirs is a lopsided rivalry, all time, but close to even in 2013. As, Serena's coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, puts it, Azarenka is "still building herself." Time and age could well make the margin even tighter as Williams makes the final push of her career.

"She obviously has something about her," Serena said Sunday night of Azarenka. "She can be down and she'll come back; she can be up and she will play like she's down. She has a hunger for the game that you don't see very often and it's really good to see that she wants to get better -- just for tennis and for nothing else. It's really refreshing. She's completely different than anyone, and that's another cool thing about her. She has a lot of hunger, just like me. I have a lot of hunger. I still do."

Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/tennis/news/20130909/serena-williams-victoria-azarenka-us-open-final/#ixzz2eeBtRViJ