Gotta say well done Maria.

First, big congratulations to Maria for the great run. She really surprised me for the game displayed in semifinal and in the final. After a sluggish start of the tournament, Masha changed gear and produced his best tennis ever, showing all her greatness. Sincerely, I thought she wasn't able to do it. I mean, Maria’ best quality, as she confirmed during the press release, is the mental strength. She never gives up, she doesn’t like to lose. I couldn’t believe neither she would have served that good, mixing up pace and loop, nor she would have hit the ball so good, building the points with patience and surgical precision. It seems she learned very well how to manage a match against a top player, worked on her weaknesses such as movement and a predictable pace of the ball. So congrats to Yuri, Michael and the trainer for that. I dunno why so many people are still focused on Yuri telling Maria to eat a banana. That’s the funny part of a very complex Dad, coach and tennis guru. Illegal coaching from the sidelines is widespread in tennis, I dunno why Yuri is the only to blame for that. Maybe ‘coz is not that good to hide his signals ? Relating to her opponent in the final, I would say Justine didn’t play bad at all, even though she remained too passive, too defensive, and showed the new serve mechanic takes some getting used to. I was thinking that Jelena better deserved that spot in the final. But it was just a thought, we will never know how it would have gone, because JJ had thrown a match almost won in that horrendous way.