WTA Stock Up, Stock Down (Feb 2026 edition)

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Welcome to the mini-book, Your Dane Podcast for the Big Story Life Results, Incarnations

from the Times World today is January 3rd.

I want to begin today's podcast with a massive thank you to all of you crack-grackets fans

without whom I would not have the immense opportunity.

I have these next two weeks, of course I'm recording today's podcast from my hotel room

in Los Angeles, California, where I am preparing to be on the broadcast for our friends at

Tennis Channel as, of course, the front half of the Sunshine Swing gets ready to get

underway.

Indian Wells main draw play starts tomorrow for those of you curious, I'm going to be

on the call of that Manorino Baratini match, believe it starts around 2.30 pm, Pacific

time.

After that, I get to take prime time from Indian Wells with one of my closest friends in

the business myself, Bradley Clon, going to be on the call for the Spider-Man, Zachary

Spider, taken on Marin Chilich, if you're curious to hear what it sounds like when I'm behind

the mic broadcasting a match, tune in to Tennis Channel's coverage of each of those battles.

I will try my best to let all of you tennis fans know what matches I'm going to be broadcasting

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I'm here again, I am so keenly aware of the fact that without your support, without so

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to live out my dream, hopefully you hear that enthusiasm in our coverage each and every

day as certainly if nothing else, that's what we owe all of you tennis fans, but we also

owe you the proper preparation for the upcoming Sunshine Swing, we got back to back 1000

level events and it's not just going to be the top players in the world in action, although

of course they will be highly featured, and if you're curious what are the snapshot

views right now at the top of the tennis world scroll down on your mini brake podcast

feed, you can hear my breakdowns of my pre Sunshine Swing top tens for both the men,

the women, my expectations for those players in those top tens accordingly, again those

podcasts available here on this mini brake podcast feed we will have continued coverage

each and every day of Indian Wells on this feed, I'll try my best to offer a quicker

draw previews tomorrow, but I do still want to perform that exercise for all of you tennis

fans, we're going to be busy by the way as I go directly from here in LA to the 175

action in Phoenix next week where we will have the opportunity to speak with countless

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a proud partner of the mini break podcast feed all right all of that established again

a couple more things I want to do before we get too deep into this sunshine swing first

and foremost again we offered a snapshot of what the top of the field looks like yesterday

today let's talk about who's filling out the rest of that field which players coming

out of the month of February are you stock up stock down on and in particular for this

exercise I wanted to try and focus on players you know again like of course big picture

Evie Yobich is still a massive stock up in 2026 and you know by ranking you can just

go look who's ranking has risen the most from start of year to where we are now if you

wanted to just formally quantify this exercise you also had a bunch of different title winners

right maybe even some unexpected title winners unfold over the course of the second month

of the season and accordingly those would be obvious picks some of them I do end I did

end up selecting and I do want to talk about today but again this specific stock up stock

down exercise focused most most impressingly I suppose on February results specifically

I again tomorrow I'll try to talk you through the dark horses the sleepers in the Indian

Wells draw it'll help that we have some round one action already underway starting tomorrow

to perhaps go lend us some and I into that but more broadly who are the biggest winners

of the second month of the season players who now again you are watching that much closely

as the spotlight shines that much brighter in this third month of the year with a back

to back 1000 level events accordingly again focusing on February's results specifically

trying to contextualize those February results in the broader context of theirs careers

to date stock up stock down who are the recipients of this exercise are the focus of this exercise

as I suppose coming out of February's action let's start with a player who's run I overlooked

as I got swept up in all things national indoor season here at crack rackets but let's start

with 20 year old Sarah Baylek the 20 year old lefty who look was rising up the ranks certainly

to end her 20 25 season this is someone who did make her debut top 100 debut at the end

of last year Baylek doing that type of cracking that top 100 October 13th obviously last

month she cracks the top 50 and how does she do that well of course she doesn't on the back

of the title she wins in Abu Dhabi of course in that Abu Dhabi run as a qualifier gets through

to the main draw signature victories over Ashtapenko toss and six in one over Alexander Ova in the

final no doubt it's the biggest result to date of Sarah Baylek's career and you look for Sarah

Baylek more broadly to her level success coming into that week in Abu Dhabi very limited across

the board obviously this is someone who we had seen pull off an upset at the majors before obviously

she beats Marta Kostic round one Roland Garros last year you know she made a round of 16 in Madrid

back in 2024 as well has qualified for a couple of slams during the course of her career and again

did so in particular as a teenager 2022 US Open 2023 Australia Open 2023 Roland Garros

she had had some moments and accordingly had certainly been on the radar for those of us as I

like to continue to refer to us as in the tennis intelligentsia who are looking for those next rising

stars and yet still you look for her in her career going into that Abu Dhabi run to her level again

hard court matches I mean okay so according to the number she's she was what 19 and 12 in hard

court matches but so many of them were qualities of majors you know again main draw play she had

reached a quarter final in Prague wins over Ujjima in parks last summer but that quarter final was

really it I mean again on clash made around of 16 in Madrid but round two Roland Garros that was

the only sort of even two level data points we really had from Sarah Baylek to this point and in

fact you look for Sarah Baylek in her career 2019 against top 100 opponents now has gotten six of

those we got six of those top 100 victories in the month of February certainly the most notable

of them again the win over at Austin the win over in Alexandria you look for her in her career now

two top 20 victories both of them coming in this moment she's only played three matchups against top

20 opponents in her career the other a one in three loss in that Madrid round of 16 to Elena Rabakina

it was just again for someone who had lingered on the outside wanting you know again lingered on

the outside waiting for her opportunity to knock on the door and come on in she took that in an

Abu Dhabi draw that yeah like of course it's worth noting that Abu Dhabi draw softer than maybe

you would have anticipated certainly when Thompson Belinda Benchich pulls out of the draw right away

that opened up that top quarter of the draw for Baylek but she still had to go through an

Ashland Kruger who was a finalist in Abu Dhabi I believe last year she had to go through an

Austin Panko who ends up making the semi finals of the 1,000 event the very next week Aquara Tossin

who played much better ball than February than she did in in January these these are just

significant top 50 or better hard court victories for a player who just did not have a track record

of any sort of result like that and look the the easiest comparison to make of course when

watching the lefty the 20 year old Sarah Baylek is the vandros of a model the lefty who just

gets you stretched in ways as most players are righty you're not comfortable doing stretch so far

outside of the alley with her forehand cross I think she swings through the backhand extraordinarily

well she moves well there's more firepower there obviously the big thing in Abu Dhabi was how well

she served I mean if she serves like she did in Abu Dhabi she will be a top 25 player in the world

and certainly when you look at well how would you go about attacking Sarah Baylek you do feel like

again the bigger more powerful players as they try to get that ball up on her blitz that ball

by her return of serve plus one like will her via her stature her core position will she be

able to absorb that sort of pace particularly on the quickest surfaces first of all that's what I

want to find out during this Indian Wells during this stretch although you look for Sarah Baylek

is Sarah Baylek playing Indian Wells wide is she she must be right is she not playing Indian Wells

no that can't be true don't don't break my heart like that Indian Wells forecast right out of the

gates apologies that is something I probably should have known and pulling up that Indian Wells draw

now Sarah Baylek out of Indian Wells that sucks hopefully we get to see her back in Miami because

again certainly now it she's got the longest possible runway of course had a ton of 125 success

last year and did win a match at Roland Garros but now she's getting into main draws on her own

ranking everything's going to be at the two word level and that's where ultimately again you go

knocking on the door and she was inside the top 85 top 80 so she's probably getting into two

or level events but now if she's healthy first of all we should see Baylek Madrid Rome I don't

know if she'll get close she probably gets into Stuttgart but sometimes that cutoff is crazy

it's just and I and I do think projecting for her the physicality she plays with the angle she

plays with more so than the line drive obviously the biggest success that she had at the majors

I mean one match that she won at Roland Garros Clay has always been the surface I feel like the

the well-rounded name of game of Baylek will fit best and now she'll get the opportunity to show

it at the highest level over the course of the European Clay Court season as again it's not just

oh she won a 250 title no no no she won a 500 she's inside the top 50 and again for someone who

in her career to date Sarah Baylek has played how many matchups I mentioned just the three against

top 20 opponents but maybe even more importantly than that how many she played against the top 50

in her career only 14 matches she's six and eight overall three of those again top 50 wins coming

in Abu Dhabi roll the balls out let's find out again certainly one of the biggest risers the 20 year

old actualizing on a talent all of us had seen for quite some time and by the way you just look

for the you know can talk about just more broadly stock up that 21 and under crew there are now

currently two four six eight ten of the top 100 players age 20 or younger you could argue the

most talented of the group might just be lily tacker sitting outside of that group at 117 no I

wouldn't go there but that group more broadly again throw Baylek in the mix with the rising

yalla obviously with my joint is done either you know excuse me with either youvich has done so far

this season marchinkos consolidated her top 100 spot him and his cast in save of the left he just

broken Barton kova just keeps working her way quarter final after quarter final at the 250 level

there is so much talent you know cornieva wins another 125k like there's just so much ascending talent

right now you guys all know my thoughts on emerson jones clear v goon away there's just so much ascending

talent right now in the women's game as i continue to reiterate think we're in a really fun spot

right now things could be really cool ending uh to the rest of this decade but again Baylek

probably the biggest stock up just by virtue of welcome to the ballgame now she's going to get to play

all the things she wants to play moving forward uh again has to be the biggest riser for the 20

year old to pick up the biggest title of her career in the month of february by the way

and you know what that's interesting i might have just figured out this is a side note and i

apologize i supposed for some of you listeners are like come on let's get to the next name but

for a while now i've been trying to figure out how to get my friend patrick ding onto this podcast

pat i think i have my idea what if we do stock up stock down and we talk about you cannot be ranked

in the top one hundred because i'm not going to lie my list is very top one hundred centric and

i'm thinking like as i'm looking further down the list i'm like what about a dash of hidminova

she had a great month um alina cariava i watched her win midland that was a great month um

maybe a non top one hundred stock up stock down addition i need you to commit to both the many

and the women though pat if you're willing to do that maybe we get into and we start that next

month um anyways sarah baylek certainly one of the biggest winners again five months ago we're

talking about a player outside the top one hundred now she's inside the top fifty and that again

all consolidated with the top with the run to the five hundred level title in abudabi so she's

first on the list second up and you guys know me i'm a glass half full sort of guy this player also

happens to be a friend of the putt program multi-time appearance uh piror on the cracked interviews

podcast feed i like to think we were there from the start where even though she was playing one

she was the vulnerable spot in that texas line up her freshman season texas team that by the way

lost just one match national indoor championships in february match they were up three one in uh

before going on to win the national championship in each of her two seasons in austin yeah

of course i'm talking about painsterns a painsterns who a reminder even with the success in austin

she picked up one five victories there she's still twenty two and twenty overall over her last

fifty two weeks of play and by the way like it wasn't just the austin run she had to get into

dubai as a lucky loser beats of on but first of all this was her month of february three set lost

to zvera's of a vera's of anoreva if you lose that match in twenty ten in twenty eleven in twenty

twelve hell anytime in the twenty tens no shame in that loss to lose that match to the 41 year old

in february of twenty twenty six you just can't have that that was coming off of by the way a third

round appearance for her at the australian open that was the first time that australian open by

the way that she had won multiple matches since making the rom semi final back in may so again

you have it's been a tough stretch for painsterns no doubt loses to zvera raiva doha round

of sixty four then beats her three sets round one dubai qualifying only to lose three sets to

alina gabriela rusa gets a lucky loser though into the main draw in dubai ultimately gets a good win

over magdalena free who of course went on to make the finals in merida of course last week

so i think that's when that's aged pretty well she then loses her round two match up in dubai to

claritas and goes to austin three three set victories a six and five win in the final over

taylor towns and in austin and look she'd have to face a single top fifty player on her run to

that austin title i don't care no one needed a run like this more than painsterns again

not just the the points of it all the two fifty you know again but just to play three matches

in a given week to play how two matches in a given week it's just something painsterns hasn't

gotten a lot didn't get to do pretty much at all down the back half of 2025 you know again now

she's won multiple matches in multiple events here this season i test wise the level is just

getting better as she gains that much more confidence with her serve once again the forehand

that of course follows that serve so frequently with so much success moving better willing to take

those cuts again and get forward knowing that okay finally i've got some winning under my belt as

well by the way this is a player who's in jeopardy of falling outside the top 75 and certainly

staring down it's not just the roams at my final she made madrid round of sixteen before that

there was a world where painsterns was going to fall outside of the top 100 and it was going to be

a precipitous decline and a tough have to climb her way back no pockets of points to rest upon

it's just look there's still some serious stress because again she didn't do a ton of winning

back half of last year and has roams semi final and madrid round of sixteen still to defend

however back up to 48 in the rankings now has this pocket of points third round australian open

250 that she's cashed for herself here early in the year she's not going to fall inside the top

100 anymore painsterns and even more importantly than that her weapons are just back on track and

finally momentum heading in a positive direction first turns she's by the way back up to 48 as a

result of her success and you go from potentially falling outside the top 75 to back in the top 50 you

go from oh man like am i going to get into anything on the clay court events in europe how much

quality how many qualifying matches am i going to have to play versus do i go try to play a bogatog

250 here in south america do i stay state side obviously there's charleston there a bunch of 125

k's like she had some options available to her um really you know and again now you don't

have to stress about any of those choices you're going to play to her level events and more than

anything again just to get things back on the right track for painsterns i think a massive victory

so she's got to be a big stock up winner for me just especially given it just felt like the trendline

was heading in the wrong direction and finally she has blunted that and it's an eye test thing

even when she lost her first match of the season uh in ocklin to uh excuse me on an ocklin in

she lost the Kuwaito that was bad but in hope art when she lost that second match to denilvich

after beating kretchen kova if you actually watch the match you saw painsterns was striking the ball

so much better ocklin in elvich was just really good um now you finally see a big result put

together four painsterns so massive for the confidence more than anything else and look again

her kick serve indian wells or the heaviness of her forehand obviously you've seen her have success

in clay indian wells as the closest we have to that on the hard courts like her skill set

is very well suited by the way so is sarabalix that's why it's so disappointed to see her not

competed indian wells this year uh you look for sterns historically at this indian wells event

what's the best she's done last year she gets knocked out match one versus magda lanette

she made round of 64 lost to and dress q 23 round of 64 lost to sebalanka 24 um well now i need to know

who did she draw here in 25 right um all right like how much more difficult can it be for

painsterns um although i dress q in 2023 isn't the most brutal drop but you look for painsterns

where does she fall in the draw she's got salana seara match number one uh she gets through that

i'll tell you what her forehand into the mirror and dream of forehand corner problem is painsterns

loves to hit kick serves and you don't want to hit kick serves into mirror and dream is backhand

and dream of course the defending champ as well at least salana seara ain't going to be an easy

out hit's a big ball that's so interesting that's interesting can sterns give her a run we'll find

out again painsterns i think a massive stock up coming out of the second month of the season

two players who i think you got to continue on the stock downtrend you know i try to focus on the

glass half full i have these are the only two names i'm going to give full breakdowns for the

glass half empty case but i mean again i talked about it last week emanavaros now four and seven

overall on the season it's not the serve that's fallen apart that's the most concerning part

it's the rest of the game it's the return is just sitting in the box to be struck against it

feels like every opponent well aware of the fact look you're not going to out grind emanavaro take

your cuts play through the backhand wing cover uh the forehand read a right line where she hits

so well like again if you can keep that ball deep in her backhand corner her backhand's fine she's

not going to give you a loose error but if you're patient you'll get something to attack behind

have to go after the kick serve she's going to hit that kick serve second up you got to be bold and

go attack but even then she's winning a career high fifty point five percent of her second serve

points again it's the return that has fallen off a cliff and why are you so concerned

it's not as though she's been playing ilena robacanas it's not as though she's been playing

niomi osaka is how like i'm trying to think of lesser ranked players who hit massive serves and

have massive weapons and might just be able to blitzer on the right day right like Alex and drovas

i was going to say Maria Socrates who by the way Maria Socrates quietly back up to 34 in the world

that ain't bad either um but that's not who she's been playing for emanavaro it's again who the

losses are two she's lost matches to junksway four and four uh mertens two and two how you lose a

match two and two to elisa mertens i know elisa mertens good you can lose a match to elisa mertens no

shame in that but loses a match two and two and generates only two break points elisa mertens one

eighty five percent of her first serve points made only 43 point four percent of her first serves

and faced only two break points in that match i know Dubai was playing fast but you cannot have

that happen um the count skia fine hailey babtiste okay but like magdalinet no Schneider no uh Schneider

fine but again pounseva no emerson jones no francesca jones no like this is someone who is routinely

finishing top twelve by break percentage each of the last couple of years again her first three

full seasons for break percentage thirty eight point three forty percent thirty nine percent

it's twenty eight point six right now it's a ten percent decline and it's again it's not as though

she's been playing the indoor hard court circuit it's not as though she's been playing blitzing

servers it's just not working as well the patience the the physicality uh the death by a thousand

paper cuts nature by which eminivara goes about slicing you dicing you it's just not working

for her right now here to start this twenty twenty six season and like i mean again she wasn't that

bad to end last year she made a quarter final in Beijing even if she lost a juncture match one

Wuhan as her final loss of the year third round loss us open but it's three sets of kretchenkova

no shame in that round of sixteen loss wimbledon fine i mean the problem with the gap between

she loses to your strengths gun montreal round of thirty two cidal match one in Cincinnati parks match

one in Monterey doesn't have a ton of points to defend because eminivara is again someone whose

points come in the totality of a bench that she plays and how well the spurs they are across

the course of her resume will provide her some padding in terms of falling too low in the rankings

but she's twenty five in the rankings going into this sunshine swing right now via the live rankings

down to twenty seven here at the start of indian wells you look for nivara draw wise nivara

if she can't i mean again she gets the winner of cartel and taro rudy in the round of sixty four

you feel like that's one she should cruise through right then a potential date with maddie keys

in the round of thirty two i mean again given i know key keys wasn't as good as she was last

january she's still better i think the nivara has been so far this year again this is an eminivara

who has had some success of course in indian wells in the past you could argue this was one of her

breakout events in that twenty twenty four season as of course in twenty twenty four

nivara able to make the quarter finals beat sabbelanka on her way to that quarter

i mean you look for nivara in my amy how she done historically in my amy that's a good question

hasn't played a ton of my amy draws round of sixteen last uh two years ago first match lost to

rata canoe seven six two six seven six now that i say that a lot i remember being that being one of

the better matches the better of the emas uh last year look things are bad and the thing is like

if it's the serve that falls apart i guess here's the glass half full if it was the serve that

fellow part because that does feel like the attackable thing although her first serve she's added

more pace to it's certainly and gets that much more confident in going after that first four hand

but the return is supposed to be the foundation of which the rest of the success is built upon that

physicality again that innate ability to just put that return and play with depth and get things

back to neutral as quickly as she does that was one of nivara's biggest strengths

if that goes away it's just a different identity like eminivara's serve bot is not the best

version of eminivara i think we would all agree fastening to see how she does during the sunshine

swing obviously again drawing gonna be easy for her second match in your delta medicine key

but we'll be fastening to see how she does on home soil uh similarly look jasmine palini in theory

has all the ingredients to be really good at indian wells you look for her historically

at the event four palini though at indian wells i'm sure she's played a bunch of them now uh

what's the best she's done round of 16 last year was that her best round of 16 2024 as well

losses to samson over potapova respectively how she done in my ammy historically in her career in my

ammy palini semi finals last year knocked out by sabalanka okay so again no excuses obviously you

look for her here so far in 2026 five and five overall on the season now who is she lost to again

a blinda bench chat united cup bench which might have been the best player in the world that week

jovich in australia jovich was one of the 15 best players of the opening month of the season

sockery and doha again sockery's playing better beach fiat tech in doha

yala and do buy Alex yala's really good buksha and marina buksha went on to win that tournament

and yet that's just not a list of results you would expect from a player who is made back-to-back

to her finals who made two slant finals in 2024 who again beat just kipagula and digashvian tech down

the home stretch of last season that player doesn't lose a match five and four to christina buksha

doesn't lose four and two to marina sockery you look at the numbers four palini to start this

season big as she's been on serve the serve has been a struggle she's winning just 57.2% of her first

serve points that's her lowest number since 2020 she's holding serve just 61.3% of the time

just start this season 61.3 she's getting broken four out of every 10 service games skin broken

that means pretty much twice a set that is a horrible i don't care how well she breaks her

and she is top 10 by break percentage but you are seating yourself you are putting yourself in

the worst position by the way that jasmine palini hold percentage here in 2026 amongst top 50

players since i know you're curious it ranks let's see 49 47 45 44th amongst top 50 players the

only player she's above bogecova buksha valentova christian joint and bozish manero i don't know if

that's where you want to be from a hold percentage perspective average player again holding serve

70.3% of the time here this year it's tough really really tough spot for jasmine palini to find

herself in this season obviously that serve when it sits up it is able to be attacked players well

aware you have to go after you'd rather miss that return while wrong long than play from neutral

because play from neutrals the kiss of death four palini now again the return of serve right where

it always is for jasmine palini and again still a limited sample size of matches palini 44th by hold

pulled percentage fifth by break percentage here in 2026 and again very limited sample size of matches

it's just the most of the extremes and again where would you rather be would you rather be the

player having the pronounced success on script on serve would rather have this pronounced success

in reacting and taking away that serve and playing that return with that then again doing all the

things she's done you'd rather be the dictator you'd rather be the one on serve you'd rather be

the one doing the damage right imposing your will not having the reverse imposed upon you

it just hasn't been great for jasmine palini it does feel like again two years people like all right

what are her service spots take away the kick take away the slider wide on the due side don't give

her easy plus one lanes to attack her because she does that so successfully be aggressive on the

return of serve play big early in the rally I mean this are all such basic platitudes but they're

what you have to execute certainly as you take on a jasmine palini and so far our players have

been finding success in doing so certainly so again I think you just given the continued stockdown

you know again we've seen her have big February is in the past obviously for jasmine palini you

go back to that aforementioned 2024 season where she made the two finals the real break out was

actually those first two months of the year she went round of sixteen australia title of course

for her in Dubai obviously again you look for what she did last year the sunshine swing now a ton

of points to defend round the sixteen indeed well as well semi-m I mean it's not an insignificant

amount of points to defend but before you know she'll have to defend those one thousand points

that she got from the Rome title last year I mean she still has that Cincinnati final

roll line chaos around the sixteen she's fine but you look right now more importantly though

from the points deficit of look you want to make a third straight to her finals and by the way

three straight to her finals now you're talking elite company has to obviously find a way to

lift her level at the start of this sunshine swing certainly again she'll still be seated with

plenty of padding to work her way into this she faces oh faces the winner of stacoustic potapova

round one not easy uh Wong Shin used the seat in her section or Tommy out of its rusa I mean

again she should get through both of those you look for her after that around of sixteen against

a toss in her and Alexandra Ova as your seeds that's a pretty good draw to get to a quarter final

there's a very much suitable pathway for jasmine palini to get things back on track the question

is will she be able to do so again palini I think with Navarro the notable stockdowns from the

month of february everything else we can kind of rapid fire through if you've been listening to

this mini break podcast if you've been actually watching the tennis I'm telling you Katie bolter

is playing really good ball to start this twenty twenty six season she lost five and four in

Auckland is fidelina other than the semi finals fidelina loss at the australian open is probably

the toughest fidelina got pushed in the opening month of the season Katie bolter was right there

with her might even had a five two opening set leave like I'm telling you that match was really

good second set between her and bench at the australian open was really good and then of course

she goes and wins australia yes an indoor hardcore perfect for her line drive tennis didn't have to

face a top fifty player on route to the title I don't care drop there's two sets on route to that

title as well she was outside the top one hundred going into that week obviously got herself back

into it after that quarter finals for her marina wins over hadad maya and osorio before tough

three set lost to palini where by the way she won the first set six love

is she in qualifying did she get into the main draw she's in qualifying of indian wells the

question is did Katie bolter get herself into the main draw bolter knocked out final round qualifying

two six seven five six two by the aforementioned lefty victoria him and his cast and save uh

who's on my honorable mention list by the way of stock up because i mean we've talked about her

i think enough in the past lefties got weapons it's cast and sava i mean it she's not in the petra

covet of a power tennis model but you know you got to compare lefties to lefties it's just the

rule south paws i've got two brothers who are both south paws so i know the life um

she i mean it's not in the vandros of a model and it's not the power of covet of but it is the

commitment to plan that cast and save us got to ball uh hit to big ball and she can move i'm just

a fan of her game i need to watch more of okay what are the actual combinations she has that are

most effective but um anyways she knocks out katie bolter knocks her out of qualify i'm sure bolter

stays on site right maybe gets in as a lucky loser at some point tomorrow but um again quarter

finals marita final loss from from outside the top 100 back up to 64 welcome back to the ball game

katie bolter back up to 38 by elo rating as well not insignificant not insignificant in the slightest

for the 29-year-old on a colon skia has to be on the list and a colon skia right now and for those

curious 17th by elo rating back up to 22 in the world as well again it wasn't the most notable

victories for colon skia quarter final doa well actually she beats fidelina four and three

finale has been seventh eighth best player in the world at worst this season she beat nivaro in

three sets good win of her poses miniero obviously in dubae after austapanco made the semifinals

the week prior she gets a three set win over austapanco before getting knocked out by cocoa goth

again here's the most impressive calant skia stat this season she's a eight and five overall

this year her five losses are six four and the third to pagula seven six and the third to him

boco six one in the third to shfion tech three and four to doha champion carolina muheva

and four and four to dubae semifinalist cocoa goth she has only lost to player only lost

players who not only do i consider but the rankings consider top ten players this year everyone

else she's beaten and she's beaten them pretty soundly as well in fact as she's been pushed to

the only three set victory she has this year nivaro austapanco respectively holding the whole

percentage isn't grippity is breaking serve 41.6% of the time to start this season top five by

break percentage and firing fucking line drives off of both wings again i'm just telling you again

it felt like a flash in the pan that twenty twenty four season when she reached that career high of

eleven last year some ups and downs calant skia overall twenty five and twenty one the level is

back for the twenty seven year old to start her age twenty seven season you should not be surprised

if she goes on and beat someone serious in this she's probably my ultimate quote unquote dark

course in this oh the man what a brutal fucking draw she gets the winner of tesla and san mes first

that's a tough first round with face victoria and boko who's obviously in as good a form as

anyone in the world right now um man that's brutal that's brutal uh certainly for uh

for on a calant skia and yet like i think she could get through but i think that'd be a really fun

rematch between the two of them obviously again given the fact that it was what seven six in the

third when they played an adelaide if you can get through that again do things open up for you

uh if you can get through that you'd face succeeded in mandinism over and she's in the sapolanka

quarter of the draw that's freaking brutal for anacollin skia throw her somewhere else's someone else's

section and i'm telling you like maybe even semi-final frisky that's the level i see from calant

skia right now stock up in my mind certainly this one's a lazy one and a boring one because by

ranking it's an obvious one stock up Christina buksha a Christina buksha who wins the biggest title of

her career a five hundred in marita by the way that's her first career tour level title like that

both her and eva jovich have now done that in the last five months kind of funny it's a good

run man beats vackage stacusich sonmez palini all in straight sets before the three set win over

magdalena frich in the final considering that she had lost five consecutive matches albeit one

to sapolanka one to sfidelina but she lost three consecutive matches cartel match one and abudabi

your stremska match one and doha sidel match one and dubai i don't feel any differently the only

reason i'm putting her stock one stock up stock down and she's still 66th by elo rating the 28 year old

spaniard which is feels much more accurate in my mind but she's 31 in the world 31 by ranking

did not have that in my bingo card this is certainly again where you just got to tip the cap

this is what i hope the segment can be where you just tip the caps to things you didn't expect to see

and yeah coming out of the month of february christina buksha number 31 in the world did not expect to

see that now if you're a player on the outside looking in trying to attack a spot and get seated by

the french open buksha is the spot you're gonna attack um but let's just give a tip of the cap

to christina buksha probably could have put her in the honorable mention section but wanted to give

her her own shout out there and then last but certainly not least and obviously the results

speak to this but maybe even the conversation surrounding her speak to it that much more

to not have victoria and boko in this exercise would have just been a cry and it would have been a

crime because we're now having legitimate conversations or at least i am i don't want to speak to

the we maybe you're not i don't know who you talk to when you're tennis life but send this text

if you have someone in your life and there's no better feeling than having that person in your life

in fact if you want to text me my phone number is just kidding however at a august can on twitter

the dm's are always open if you want me to be that person for you i'm happy to do so because god knows

i want to have this talk we're just having all the conversations about victoria and boko now

and it's not reckless it's responsible to have them like where does her skill set stack up over

the next decade the combination of speed strength skill maybe even most importantly how

fucking well she competes already at this point of her career she is just a killer in the best

sense of just like look she is in that category of we have two options we can both die on this court

or i'm gonna win like that's your choice when you walk out on court with victoria and boko

she's gonna find whatever thing you don't want her to do over the course of two and a half hours

and she has the skill the strength the creativity to just find a way to fucking execute it

and so that's your like you're either a top 10 player in the world and can beat her

like or or be ready to die like because that's what it takes to beat victoria and boko and again

how complete that skill set already is the wins that she's already picked up to beat andriva beat

rabok and uh all the different make a round of sixteen in australia back up just everything we've

seen from her since canada it just continues to rise the stock is just again it's it's it's

apple in the two thousand it's just like if you are holding victoria and boko stock the return

you're getting profit over it's just like congrats you're gonna be able to retire on your earnings

here like this is the one every go put that that money away because that's the rainy day fun moving

forward um that's victoria and boko she's the rainy day she's the sure thing she's the like it's just

she's that good and if you want to start having her verse andriva you want to start having her

verse i mean we're already having her verse andriva but if you want to start having her verse golf

like that 21 and under crew is she the best prospect of the bunch we're having that conversation

now and i we might have been having it recklessly just because i like to stir the pot here on this

show beforehand but now you're having it with no holes barred you're just like yeah let's have

this debate because it's certainly a fun one to have so i'm gonna keep her on my list even though

i think it's pretty obvious to rapid fire through a couple other names just again these are people

i now think more highly of antonio rousic shout out to the two thousand three crew first quarter

final for her at the one thousand gets a win over rabok and other rabok and of course force

to retire in that match but a win over rata canu no offense or but about it round one

hadn't had a good month leading into it either so shout out to rousic

so rata her staya it she couldn't get her own shout out because i was there in cleveland when

it was her return to form moment last summer but she's been one of the 35 best players in the

world for five months now consecutively on the hard courts had herself a really good

February to win your final event in romania includes as she did to start the season was

inclusion apoca to start the month excuse me inclusion apoca it that will be one of the coolest

runs i keep referring to to win on in your home country in in a moment like that if you can't

celebrate that you're not listening to this podcast certainly at this hour of the day

um

yala just because the

Alex yala has every again it's just go look at the views yala's gonna stay on this list

unless she falls out of the top one hundred

baptist is just a top 50 player and it's consolidated her spot again it's not a massive

stock up because i thought we i was pretty certain about it but nope she's here to stay

mentioned him and his cast and save it in the two obvious ones muheba when she's healthy for five

months consecutively she's one of the 10 best i would argue eight bad well actually i

argued just yesterday she wasn't one of the eight best players in the world so we'll go with 10

one of the 10 best players in the world win healthy for an extended stretch showing that once

again uh then Jessica Pagula as i mentioned yesterday just feels like we're in the middle of a

Jessica Pagula window where she had a combination of mastery of the game and

fuck it to the expectations like she's reached the pinnacle of that synergy uh so she's got to

be on the list yeah those are the honorable mentions stock up honorable mentions stock down

and i don't feel great just again ragging on some of these players without further description

but like but dosa i just don't know how there's going to be a window for her back to the top eight

rata khanu is still so young surprise shouldn't be there tatya maria pavela chankova like it's been so

fun when they've had their moments over the past couple of years but they're just moments at this

point tata pova uh sampson ova uh alexandrova made a final to start the month but then loses in straight

sets to bail it and it didn't really get better after that ishtremska feels like we're in one of

those downstreaks february was not a great month and then linden oscva is in stock down in the in

the broader 20 thousand foot few cents but february was a window for linden oscva to make the top 10

push that you saw in bokeh make the the sort of matches you saw in driva and nisa mova play

over the course of the month like i thought linden oscva would have that sort of month and she did it

so just a shout out there again as that player i'll certainly be watching most closely in the sunshine

swing to see if she can continue her steady rise up the ranks and show off that form that we saw

from her certainly at the end of last season post us open that's everyone as we come out of the month

of february and again hopefully these are players now you'll be keeping your eye on that much more

closely as we get ready for the start of the sunshine swing speaking of that sunshine swing

i will be on the call four matches tomorrow again baratini first manorino uh zaxfida versus maran

chillich uh of course i'll be on the call throughout the rest of this opening week of indian well

supply try to let you know what matches i'm on each and every day here on this podcast feed

speaking of which on this podcast feed will try my best to get that stock up stock down men's

version out to you before tomorrow's play begins of course tomorrow as i break down day one action

i will also offer my indian well straw previews within those podcasts for all of you tennis fans so

make sure you're subscribed to this mini break podcast so you don't miss out on any of our coverage

this week or moving forward of course a shout out as always to our producer daniel westof not only

makes this podcast possible but all the broadcasting the great shout podcast feed the cracked

interview podcast feed our cracked rackets youtube channel it's all possible because of his

tireless effort so a shout out to him a shout out of course as well to the support we get from our

friends and the little sprints will learn more about why they continue to rank once in class

private online school and options to country visit little sprints dot com today that's a

cool our fan message to the reason day one's got for friends that we want to bring school folks

it i hope cracked rackets and the free podcast network on the host Alex Dresskin set that's the

break i'll talk to you all for a second thanks everyone