Linda Pearce is the Chief Tennis Writer and general sports reporter for The Age. She writes about a range of sports, including football, netball, and gymnastics. Linda has twice been named Australian tennis writer of the year.
Nick Kyrgios has spoken of emerging from the "dark place" that threatened to engulf his tennis career following his controversial Australian Open loss to Andreas Seppi, his newfound enjoyment for the game manifesting in a second straight sets defeat of Novak Djokovic in the space of a fortnight.
When netball star Caitlin Thwaites is asked to nominate her worst injury during an eventful 14-year career, the answer has nothing to do with her body but everything about her mind.
Having never played a full game in netball's big league until this season, Emily Mannix's first two were against Diamonds' duo Caitlin Thwaites and Caitlin Bassett and her third against the NSW Swifts' Trinidadian revelation Sam Crawford. This Saturday it will be the colossus Romelda Aiken, who is equipped with the twin advantages of height and experience. Welcome.
It was a Magpies netball performance that was more than the sum of its decorated individual parts.
Magpies Netball coach Kristy-Keppich Birrell says "surprise" would not be the word she would use to describe her new team's 1-2 standing after three rounds, because it was always accepted within the Holden Centre's incredibly well-resourced walls (our words) that a team built from scratch and with a minimal collective pre-season preparation would need some getting-to-know-you time, however elite its separate components.
Capitalising on home games against two of the competition's more beatable opponents is vital for Victoria's Super Netball teams this weekend.
Ash Barty awoke to a phone full of test messages in Kuala Lumpur on Monday after becoming the first Australian woman not named Sam Stosur to win a WTA singles title in six years, but one from a fellow fisherwoman with whom Barty has formed a close bond was particularly special. Evonne Goolagong Cawley was among the well-wishers; Barty was thrilled.
After a double-bill that earned the Magpies and Vixens just one point between them, next weekend's follow-up will come against Super Netball's two weakest teams and a loss for either Victorian team would be dire.
When the tale of the inaugural Super Netball season is written, the Melbourne Vixens may well lament the last 90 seconds of Saturday's round-three clash with their bogey team, the NSW Swifts.
The Giants remain unbeaten. Collingwood remain unable to win a game on their home court. The Magpies, raging flag favourites in the pre-season, now have a solitary win from their opening three rounds after a 59-51 loss at Hisense Arena.
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