Tennis Thread

[soccer10k]

Djokovich down 2 sets to 0. Didn’t see that coming.

 

Now down two breaks in the third set also.

[Wilson A2000]

Djokovich down 2 sets to 0. Didn’t see that coming.

 

Now down two breaks in the third set also.

 

John McEnroe rolling credits. Novak changes shirts and mounts a comeback. Can he break Medvedev down 5-4?

[soccer10k]

That was some impressive stuff from Medvedev. Outside of serving at 5-2 and then the double fault at 5-4, 40-15, he didn’t falter. Just steady throughout and a fully deserved win.

 

Glad to see one of the young guys finally break through and get one. I don’t count Thiem at the Open last year since only Djokovic played and he defaulted.

[Wilson A2000]

Rats, I wanted Novak to get the calendar-year grand slam. He looked unstoppable before today. Similar to how I wanted Tom Watson to win the Open Championship in 2009 at age 59. Had to just par the 18th, but he bogeyed it and lost in a playoff to Stewart Cink.

[gflore34]

Rats, I wanted Novak to get the calendar-year grand slam. He looked unstoppable before today. Similar to how I wanted Tom Watson to win the Open Championship in 2009 at age 59. Had to just par the 18th, but he bogeyed it and lost in a playoff to Stewart Cink.

 

Me to, think he ran out of gas, so many unforced errors = tired, to his credit, Medvedev did execute also, looked good and had far more in the tank.

[soccer10k]

Rats, I wanted Novak to get the calendar-year grand slam. He looked unstoppable before today. Similar to how I wanted Tom Watson to win the Open Championship in 2009 at age 59. Had to just par the 18th, but he bogeyed it and lost in a playoff to Stewart Cink.

 

Me to, think he ran out of gas, so many unforced errors = tired, to his credit, Medvedev did execute also, looked good and had far more in the tank.

 

I know Novak's in great shape but I wonder if the matches caught up with him. Medvedev only dropped one set in the tournament and his longest match was 2:23. Novak had 4 longer than that, three of which were over 3 hours and the 4th was 2:59. Four successive matches too (3rd round through the semis). He's not old at 34 but he's also not 27 anymore. Then couple that with the pressure of going for the calendar Slam. It's a lot.

[cl smooth]

[cl smooth]

[jersey cubs fan]

[Wilson A2000]

What a crapshow. Supposedly the panel that gave an unvaccinated Novak the green light sees only an anonymous application, but some players are let in and others aren’t. If the Australian govt wasn’t going to let him in, then this was all pointless.

[Wilson A2000]

Novak denied entry into Australia at customs

[Wilson A2000]

Wow, the courts decided to let Novak in and compete

[Wilson A2000]

Now the government says they might cancel his visa a second time. Fun times!

[Wilson A2000]

Novak is scheduled to be deported pending another court appeal with the same judge that allowed him to stay a few days ago

[squally1313]

Go Australia, horsefeathers this guy.

[Wilson A2000]

Nadal up 3-2 in the 5th set after being down 2-0 sets. If he closes this out, he would have the most men’s majors all-time and did it at a place that Novak has historically dominated.

[soccer10k]

Nadal is a great player but he’s just unbearable to watch serve. All of the tics he has, his routine before each point and then bouncing the ball 75 times just makes his matches take forever. When I can fast forward 30 seconds after a point ends and he still takes another 5-10 seconds to actually serve, he’s taking way too long. Just get the ball and serve it like 99.9% of the other players do.

[Wilson A2000]

Nadal is a great player but he’s just unbearable to watch serve. All of the tics he has, his routine before each point and then bouncing the ball 75 times just makes his matches take forever. When I can fast forward 30 seconds after a point ends and he still takes another 5-10 seconds to actually serve, he’s taking way too long. Just get the ball and serve it like 99.9% of the other players do.

 

There’s a 25 second serving shot clock that Nadal pushes to the limit. Not sure if you have to toss the ball before 25 seconds or just bounce it off the ground where you serve. Novak also plays loose with the rules with his “bathroom breaks” between sets.

[soccer10k]

Nadal is a great player but he’s just unbearable to watch serve. All of the tics he has, his routine before each point and then bouncing the ball 75 times just makes his matches take forever. When I can fast forward 30 seconds after a point ends and he still takes another 5-10 seconds to actually serve, he’s taking way too long. Just get the ball and serve it like 99.9% of the other players do.

 

There’s a 25 second serving shot clock that Nadal pushes to the limit. Not sure if you have to toss the ball before 25 seconds or just bounce it off the ground where you serve. Novak also plays loose with the rules with his “bathroom breaks” between sets.

 

Oh yeah. When those two play each other it’s always a slog.

[Derwood]

Serena Williams already out at Wimbledon

[raw]

Serena Williams already out at Wimbledon

 

She looked good at times. Lost the first 2 points, then ran off 4 straight that I saw. But wound up losing that set 7-5. Dominated the 2nd set and 3rd set went to tiebreaker. Definitely rust there and probably some stamina issues. Plus she's 40 now, which is crazy to me. I don't imagine she's done for good, but gotta be getting close.

[soccer10k]

With Medvedev losing yesterday and Nadal going down today, the only player left on the men's side to have won a major is Marin Cilic, who is currently down 2-1 late in the 4th set. So if he loses, we'll guaranteed get a 1st time major winner.

[cl smooth]

 

federer in his prime is probably the best athlete outside of jordan that i've seen in my lifetime.

 

people throw GOAT around when it comes to athletes but roger was the real horsefeathering deal.

[soccer10k]

Federer is the first guy I really remember watching play. Like I watched Sampras and Agassi sometimes in the 90's but I didn't really get into it until the early 2000's. I remember being at my grandparents house in 2001 and watching a 19 year old Federer knock off Sampras at Wimbledon when Sampras had won the last 4 titles and 7 of the last 8 there. Then two years later he gets his first major there after never having even made a major semi. And then it was on.

 

He won 16 of the next 27 majors.

Starting in Wimbledon 2004, he lost 9 times in majors. 6 of those were to Nadal, one to Djokovic, one to del Potro and one to Marat Safin

From 2005 Wimbledon to 2010 Aussie Open he played in 19 majors. He won 12, lost in the final 6 times and lost in the semis once. Death, taxes and Federer in the final. You never knew who would come out of the bottom half. But you knew nobody was beating him in the top half.

 

Any GOAT case for Federer starts with his consistency.

-He made a record 10 consecutive major finals. Second best streak is 8 straight, also done by Federer. Djokovic's best was 6. Nadal's was 5.

-He made a record 23 consecutive major semifinals. Second best streak is Djokovic at 14. Nadal's best streak is 7.

-He made a record 36 consecutive major quarterfinals. Second best streak is Djokovic at 28. Nadal's best streak is 11.

 

Djokovic and Nadal have more major titles. I've said this before but Nadal is way too one dimensional to me as far as the GOAT debate goes. Top-5 all time for sure. But we're picking nits here but you can't have 60% of your majors on one surface. Djokovic you could sell me on being better. He's got the same consistency as Federer as he's got between 81 and 86 wins at all four majors. Nadal has 112 at the French but his second most is only 76 at the Aussie Open. Federer's totals would be better (105, 102, 89, 73) if he hadn't stopped playing the French after 2015.

 

But there is a part of me that truly believes Federer's greatness pushed Nadal and Djokovic to another level. Of course those two would have won a ton of majors because they're ridiculously good players who had the drive to keep getting better. But it's easier to maintain that drive when you're still chasing someone else.

 

And personal preference but I always enjoyed watching Federer play more than I did Nadal and Djokovic. He was just so smooth out there on the court and it seemed effortless to him. Nadal was pure effort all the time. You could tell he was giving 100% on every single point. For both him and Djokovic, for a while they both seemed content to just get the ball back, wait for the other person to make an error and eventually wear down their opponent with their fitness and stamina. The 2012 Australian Open final between Djokovic and Nadal was a prime example. It went 5 sets and nearly 6 hours and I watched every second. It was a great match but also kind of boring. I also remember a Nadal-Verdasco match in Australia where both players just rallied back and forth. Nadal should have just been able to overwhelm Verdasco. But he was content to just sit back and rally knowing Verdasco would make more mistakes than he would. Nadal and Djokovic are both super slow players, the Pedro Baez's of tennis. I remember early Djokovic, the more tension was in a point, the more he would bounce the ball before his serve. Nadal was also a very meticulous player also who had his routine before every point. For both players, I could use the skip forward 30 second button after a point when they were serving and it would still leave a couple seconds before their next serve. Federer would just get a couple new balls and get ready to serve.

 

Well, that was longer than I thought it was going to be when I started but boy did I love watching that dude play tennis.

[soccer10k]

Great Wimbledon final today and glad Alcaraz won. He’s certainly looking like the next big thing. Two majors now, one on hard court and the other on grass. None of the other younger guys (who aren’t even that young anymore) have proven to win consistently either so we’ll see how many Alcaraz can rack up.