I'm not buying it starzero4, according to your criteria Lisicki should have won several majors by now.
What's wrong with Genie?
It's not mechanical it's personal, Shazza stole her boyfriend. A Machiavellian move by Sharapova, she messed up the head of she that wants to replace her. Genie is a certified dude magnet, she can't even begin to process that she lost a guy to another girl. Now that she's knocked of pedestal she will benefit in the long run. And it's time for Martina Navratilova to take over her training.
Can you clarify? Not buying what?
I didn't say having power means you will win. I am saying NOT having power makes it much more difficult to win. Subtle but very important difference. Look at the list of slam winners in women's singles over the last 15 years. The vast majority are big hitters. The ones that aren't (Henin, Schiavone, etc) have a lot of variety. VERY few exceptions to this rule.
Re: Masha's boyfriend
You are gonna have to provide me some info on this. I was not aware that Masha stole Genie's boyfriend. Are you referring to Showtime? I do know that Showtime was linked to Serena and now is Maria's boyfriend. Genie and Dimitrov have never been a couple or dated. I am sure some people will now go online and see pictures of Showtime and Genie together. That was some stuff for the Acapulco tournament - they were not dating. Now let us suppose for the sake of argument that Masha did steal Genie's boyfriend (Showtime). Well Masha has been dating Showtime since 2012. So you are saying Genie was not affected by this last year but suddenly now in 2015 she is affected by Masha being with Showtime? Some sort of delayed reaction? Not logical in my opinion. Masha and Showtime didn't just start dating in 2015. Unless you are referring to somebody other than Showtime. You are gonna have to provide some info on this because I wasn't aware that Masha stole Genie's boyfriend. Either I don't follow tennis enough or haven't been following the tennis gossip closely enough.
Lisicki does have some big weapons but a big serve and FH alone isn't enough to win you slams. Lisiciki's results spike during the grass season every year b/c her game comes alive on grass - it rewards her big weapons and aggressive play and hides her weaknesses. Grass court tennis is about first strike tennis and you play a lot of short points on grass as well.
Take Aga Radwanska for example - lot of variety in her game, high tennis IQ, very good defensive player but has not been able to break through and win a major in part due to her power-quotient. Not a lot of power. There are other factors that have contributed to that too. Aga has come up inexplicably flat in some big matches deep in tournaments (see 2014 AO semi v. Cibulkova). If you recall Pam Shriver was courtside for ESPN during that match and Pammy said she had never seen a match where there was such a big discrepancy in the energy level on either side of the net. But make no mistake the absence of power has also hurt Aga against the bigger hitters.
Ever read Jon Wertheim's mailbag on cnnsi? He even wrote a couple months ago in one of his mailbags that power is the essential weapon in women's tennis these days. You can count me as one of the fans who subscribes to that theory.
A lot of Genie's issues can be traced back to the power deficiency. She has to hug the baseline and take the ball super early. Why? To compensate for the lack of power. Taking the ball super early and hugging the baseline allows her to rob opponents of time but taking the ball that early that consistently can cause timing issues and that is what we are seeing now. Moreover, she hits very close to the lines. Why? Because she doesn't hit nearly as big a ball as Madison Keys. Keys can hit a couple feet inside the lines and play with more margin and still blast the ball past her opponents. So Genie doesn't have as much margin to work with and that can lead to very streaky play. Truth is she benefited from some soft draws at majors last year and upsets (see 2014 Wimbledon). And even with those soft draws she still had to grind out a lot of matches. She wasn't exactly putting on a lot of clinics or beat downs. Also , have you noticed how Genie has had trouble playing against bigger hitters? She lost to Masha, Kvitova and other big hitters last year. And she has a terrible record versus top 10 opponents. Just an overrated player in my opinion . As unpalatable as that may be for Canadians to hear. I have to be fair and call it like I see it. Canadian or not. This is just my opinion.
Also, Genie lacks variety. That is okay if you have power. Power can mask some deficiencies but Genie lacks the power as I stated. Also, Genie is an adequate but not an elite defensive player.
Re: Martina Navratilova
Curious why you think Martina needs to coach Genie. Martina didn't exactly do a great job with Aga. In fact Aga REGRESSED under Martina. If I were to pick a player for Martina to coach I'd pick Taylor Townsend b/c she plays the game more similarly to Martina. Genie's game and Martina's game styles completely different. But like I said there isn't recent evidence to prove Martina is a good coach. Quite the opposite based on the Aga-Martina partnership.
By the way check out this article.... It talks about a lot of the same issues that I have been stating for a long time about Genie.
http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/eugenie-bouchards-great-expectations-20150121
Anyway. I respect your opinion but we can agree to disagree. I think the issue is her game and skill set and not boyfriend issues.
By the way Ken Crosina a tennis analyst was on TSN1050 last night with Mike Hogan and Jim Tatti and Croina said Genie lacks power and variety as well. Same things I have been saying for quite a while. I'm in agreement with him.
Here is the link of TENNIS ANALYST Ken Crosina last night from TSN1050 radio. He DOES think the problem is related to her game. Not in her head due to boyfriend issues.
http://www.tsn.ca/radio/toronto-105...-stats-to-figure-out-what-went-wrong-1.292488
I just believe that in the modern day women's game you need big offensive weapons and power. Genie lacks big weapons and power. You are a big disadvantage if you don't have these things. In the 90s or before that she might have gotten away with it. Hingis won without power . Hingis played a brand of tennis not dissimilar to Aga Radwanska but the game was different back then. It has evolved and power is very critical. I won't say impossible to win w/o power but its VERY hard to do so. And if you don't you better have a boatload of variety - Genie lacks in that department as well and Ken Crosina would seem to agree with me.