Australian Open thread

[Coxy]

Definitely! Certainly had more chub than should be acceptable for a professional tennis player. Wonder if Roger Rasheed is going to comment on her chubbiness like he did Casey Dellacqua?

 

[Flutterby]

Actually her physique reminded me of Lyndsay Davenport and I always wondered how much better she would have been if she wasn't so big. I don't think either of them are unfit, but just a bigger build.

 

[ethos]

Geez, she wasn't that unfit comparatively speaking.

Any tennis player who can make it to the quarters of a Grand Slam and have a ranking inside the top 30 must be fit.

 

[Coxy]

Similar. Kleybanova is 180cm and 73kg, Davenport at her peak was 188cm and 78kg. But I think Davenport was just more solid. Kleybanova seems flabby.

 

[Emma]

Yes Lindsay Davenport is a big girl, but she never had that much chub floating around her mid section!

And Coxy, Rasheed wasn't just commenting on Casey, he was talking about the women's game in general, and he's right. Too many of them just don't seem fit enough.

 

[Coxy]

Fair comment. That's one thing that's struck me about Jelena Dokic, she looks super fit.

 

[mrslong]

are you guys sure the russian chick Dokic beat was a chick.. I though she was a man... Great win for Dokic she is doing herslef very proud. Hopefully she can recover from her ankle injury and put in a good show against Marat Safins younger brother.

Not only did she look like a dude, she sounded like one as well. And I must say, if I was a professional tennis player and all I did was play tennis and train, I'd be ashamed to look as unfit as her! She must eat a lot of goulash or whatever they eat in Russia to keep up that kind of physique.

Borsch, and it's delicious, who can blame her? [icon_lol1.

Meh what's with all the Dokic love all of a sudden? The media are such whores.

 

[Flutterby]

As ethos said - she couldn't have made it so far in the rankings and grand slams if she was unfit.

 

[Flutterby]

Meh what's with all the Dokic love all of a sudden? The media are such whores.

Only Australian tennis playing winning anything - the media are ALWAYS the first to jump on a bandwagon and also the first to jump off

 

[Emma]

There's a difference between being unfit and not as fit as you could be though, and Rasheed is right, I think that's a problem in women's tennis in general. Sorry, but looking at that Russian 'woman', she just looks like she could be a lot fitter. Even watching her around the court, she just looked like she was struggling a bit.

Besides, in women's tennis the gap between number 1 and number 20 in women's tennis generally speaking is huge, whereas the gap between number 1 and number 100 in the men's is hardly anything at all really.

 

[Flutterby]

But who are we (or Rasheed) to say if they are as fit as they could be, without having worked with them or done any physiological assessments on them or even seen the results of such testing? Everyone is very different and trust me I have worked with a lot of athletes over the year who to look you would think aren't that fit, but they come out far in front of others when all the testing etc is done. Greg Eastwood is a prime example - so many people have constantly criticised him for being unfit and I agree he doesn't look that fit, but one of my friends does all the testing for the Broncos and he pretty much led the way in all the fitness tests. Plus players tend to be a little less fit at the Aussie Open, being the first Grand Slam of the year and coming off an end of year break. Or she may have had an injury that she is coming back from. I agree she didn't LOOK that fit the other night, but there could be many reasons for it.

 

[Bucking Beads]

Rasheed is a tool why would anyone listen to him!!!!

 

[Emma]

Margaret Court agreed with him, how do you feel about her?

 

[Bucking Beads]

She is fine Rasheed is just a clown and nobody likes him so channel 7 need to get rid of him...

 

[Emma]

Channel 7 in general is shithouse, so he fits right in there anyway.

Court agreed with him, but unlike Rasheed, she wouldn't be drawn into naming names but stated that some of them definitely looked like they were carrying excess baggage.

 

[Coxy]

Did Rasheed do "sheed" all as a player? I'd never heard of him until he was apparently coaching Lleyton Hewitt...

 

[Bucking Beads]

Rasheed destroyed Leyton.. I think Rasheed was a doubles player who couldn't cut it as a decent Singles player..

 

[Emma]

I'm sure I remember hearing somewhere along the line that he was the youngest player ever to qualify for the Australian Open until Hewitt came along. Don't think he was a top player though.