2024 Tennis

[jon abbey]

We can still potentially have 8 of the top 9 men in the quarters:

[1] Djokovic vs. [20] Mannarino
[7] Tsitsipas vs. [12] Fritz

[4] Sinner vs. [15] Khachanov
[5] Rublev vs. [10] De Minaur

[9] Hurkacz vs. [WC] Cazaux
[3] Medvedev vs. Borges

[6] Zverev vs. [18] Norrie
[2] Alcaraz vs. Kecmanovic

 

[BigMike]

What a meltdown for Tommy Paul. From match point to getting bageled in the fifth

That was unreal. He won 1 point on his own serve in the 3 games he served in the fifth

 

[BigMike]

I guess Djoker is rounding into form here . 6-0, 6-0, 5-2 in the third so far.

 

[shawnrbu]

Love how Mannarino wears a regular cotton t-shirt and has grinded his way into the Top 20.

 

[ernieshore]

Sometimes I think ESPN covers the AO very well. And other times, like now, they don’t show a great match like this Andreeva one…

I’m watching it on + with the world feed.

 

[jon abbey]

Recap of yesterday:

Djokovic obliterated Mannarino who didn't win a game until the third set, 6-0, 6-0, 6-3. Taylor Fritz was the only American man to make it to the round of 16 and played maybe the match of his life, 7-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 over Tsitsipas (amusingly Kyrgios tweeted in the last day or so that he was picking Tsitsipas to win this tournament). Fritz's reward? Djokovic in the quarters.

And the other quarter on the top half will pit #4 Sinner vs. #5 Rublev, Sinner has yet to lose a set here and is making a strong push towards the top of the rankings.

Women's side: Coco and Sabalenka continue on a collision course in the semis for what is looking like the 'real' final as the favorite to make the finals from the top half now is, uh, Azarenka? Svitolina? Zheng? You see my point.

16 year old Andreeva's run ended against #9 Krejcikova but not before she won the first set, she is up to #33 in the live rankings and looking like she will be a major factor for a long time to come.

Today is a pretty boring schedule considering how deep we are in the tournament, Zverev/Norrie could be fun, maybe Kecmanovic can somehow bother Alcaraz? Cazaux/Hurkacz could be fun too, but you see my point and I'm not even going to list the four women's matches.

 

[ernieshore]

I hate this split screen crap when it’s nothing really important

 

[jon abbey]

I hate this split screen crap when it’s nothing really important

That's not great but the worst is that they still haven't synched the audio correctly all week, so when the announcers have an instant reaction to a shot, we hear that before the viewer can actually see the shot. It is absolutely infuriating and I can't believe it has gone for more than a full week now, is no one at ESPN actually watching this?

 

[jon abbey]

Rest of the men’s tournament should be great:

[1] Novak Djokovic vs. [12] Taylor Fritz
[4] Jannik Sinner vs. [5] Andrey Rublev

[3] Daniil Medvedev vs. [9] Hubert Hurkacz
[2] Carlos Alcaraz vs. [6] Alexander Zverev

 

[jon abbey]

Last time the top six men's seeds all made the quarterfinals of a Slam: 2012 French Open

Last time no man seeded lower than 12th made the quarterfinals of a Slam: 2012 U.S. Open

 

[jon abbey]

Also Hurkacz and Fritz are up to 8 and 9 respectively in the live rankings, so 8 of the top 9 men in the world remaining (Rune at #7 is the only one missing).

 

[jon abbey]

Women’s quarters are set now:

Linda Noskova vs. [Q] Dayana Yastremska
[12] Zheng Qinwen vs. Anna Kalinskaya

[4] Coco Gauff vs. Marta Kostyuk
[2] Aryna Sabalenka vs. [9] Barbora Krejcikova

 

[Bob Montgomerys Helmet Hat]

Crazy first set for Coco

 

[shawnrbu]

I will never understand how a pro can lose their composure serving 5-1 0-15.

 

[shawnrbu]

Insane point.

 

[jon abbey]

Didn't hear any interviews yet, but Coco played pretty badly, broken something like seven times, and was lucky to steal the first set and win the match. She will need to play infinitely better to take out Sabalenka (I am about three hours behind watching so theoretically Sabalenka is already out but I highly doubt it).

Djokovic was an insane 0-15 in break points in the first two sets against Fritz, splitting the two sets, but converted his first in the 3rd and is up 2-0 'now' (now for me, three hours behind, heh).

 

[jezza1918]

Rublevs attempt to reach his first slam semi off to a tough start, drops first set to Sinner 6-4. 0-9 so far is slam quarters…

 

[jon abbey]

Rublevs attempt to reach his first slam semi off to a tough start, drops first set to Sinner 6-4. 0-9 so far is slam quarters…

Rublev was up 5-1 in the second set breaker and Sinner won six straight points, up two sets now.

 

[jezza1918]

Rublev was up 5-1 in the second set breaker and Sinner won six straight points, up two sets now.

I like Rublev. And feel for him. But he really needs to learn how to alter his style of play a bit if he wants to beat higher ranked players in 3/5 sets.

 

[jon abbey]

OK, Djokovic/Sinner in one semi, should be epic.

 

[jon abbey]

Rublev is now 0-10 in GS quarterfinals lifetime, 3-30 in sets, 8 straight set losses.

View: https://twitter.com/josemorgado/status/1749806130010984571/photo/1

 

[jezza1918]

Rublev is now 0-10 in GS quarterfinals lifetime, 3-30 in sets, 8 straight set losses.

View: https://twitter.com/josemorgado/status/1749806130010984571/photo/1

It's just so hard to routinely execute hitting gargantuan forehands on a routine basis on big points. Rublev is like the opposite of Djokovic...when things get tight Djoker tightens up his game and refuses to bend and make dumb mistakes, hence is absurd winning % in tiebreakers. It doesnt matter if you're #1 in the world, #5, or #5 on a low level D3 college team - relying on offense at crucial times over the course of 3 to 5 sets against players your equal or better is unlikely to yield positive results.
All that said, given the 3-30 set discrepancy there's likely something more mental going on as well.

 

[Bob Montgomerys Helmet Hat]

Yaz rolls to the Semis in straight sets.

 

[jon abbey]

Yaz rolls to the Semis in straight sets.

First Ukrainian woman to ever do that here, she is very easy to root for.

 

[jezza1918]

Alcaraz in some real trouble down a set and a break. Had himself a couple break points up 3-2 and zverev got out of it…and then zverev immediately got the break. Huge potential momentum swing.

 

[jezza1918]

And gets broken again at 3-5. Zverev in complete control now…he’s serving above 80% on first serves, just putting a ton of pressure on Carlos. And Carlos, surprisingly, is wilting under it.

 

[Bob Montgomerys Helmet Hat]

Zverev's serving has been incredible

 

[jon abbey]

I’m a few minutes behind but a complete no-show from Alcaraz so far.

 

[BaseballJones]

Alcaraz getting absolutely destroyed. Shocking.

 

[BigMike]

And Alcaraz with a break and gets back on serve. I have a bad feeling for Zvrev if he chokes this set away

 

[jon abbey]

Carlos may have woken up, sick point at 2-2 in the breaker and now he is up 6-2.

 

[jon abbey]

Onto a 4th set! Medvedev is loving this, no matter the result.

 

[jon abbey]

And then Alcaraz plays a very weak service game to start the 4th, Zverev up a break at 1-0.

 

[BigMike]

And then Alcaraz plays a very weak service game to start the 4th, Zverev up a break at 1-0.

And Zverev immediately returns the favor

 

[jon abbey]

Zverev digs deep to hold, six straight holds for both players now, 4-4 in the 4th.

 

[jon abbey]

Zverev breaks, serving for the match (again).

 

[jezza1918]

Zverev digs deep to hold, six straight holds for both players now, 4-4 in the 4th.

Rolled that right into a pretty easy break...will serve for it now.

 

[jon abbey]

And Zverev finishes it off.

 

[jezza1918]

Gritty game and closes it out. Go Medvedev.

 

[mikeysox]

Gritty game and closes it out. Go Medvedev.

great quote from Zverev in the post-match when asked about facing Medvedev:
“well, he’s been kicking my ass recently but maybe this time it will be different”

 

[jon abbey]

[1] Novak Djokovic vs. [4] Jannik Sinner

[3] Daniil Medvedev vs. [6] Alexander Zverev

 

[jon abbey]

[15] Zheng Qinwen vs. [Q] Dayana Yastremska

[2] Aryna Sabalenka vs. [4] Coco Gauff

I was surprised to see that Coco has a 4-2 career record against Sabalenka, but she has been playing very passively this tournament and I think will need to get decidedly more aggressive to beat Sabalenka again.

 

[InstaFace]

Gauff-Sabalenka is at 3:30am ET. Hope those of you in a better time zone for it can enjoy it, it should be the "real" final.

And if Yastremska follows it up... she'd be only the second qualifier to make a major singles final, men or women (after Emma Raducanu won the US Open in 2021. Alexandra Stevenson made the Wimbledon semis as a qualifier in 1999; Goran Ivanisevic was a wildcard at Wimbledon 2001).

 

[jon abbey]

Yeah, I'm pumped.

 

[HomeRunBaker]

Does anyone else feel like Sinner has a real good chance to catch Novak here or am I on an island?

 

[jon abbey]

Does anyone else feel like Sinner has a real good chance to catch Novak here or am I on an island?

It often seems like guys have a better chance than they do against recent Novak, and he has had an extra day to rest and prepare (both have obv), but Sinner did just beat him in December (best out of 3 and he lost the rematch the next week but still). Sinner is playing fantastically, though.

 

[jon abbey]

I am a bit behind but the start of Sabalenka/Coco has been the heavyweight fight all hoped for:

2 games for Sabalenka, the first seven points of the match, all easily.
2 games for Coco, somehow breaking back in a game where Sabalenka did not miss a first serve. (2-2)
3 games for Sabalenka, Coco really going for it on her second serves and double-faulting way too much. (5-2)
3 games for Coco, much like the other night fighting back from 1-5 in the first, she just refuses to lose another game.

So it's 5-5 now on my paused version, go Coco!!!

 

[jon abbey]

Wow, so then Coco broke to go up 6-5, on a complete head case decision by Sabalenka who had plenty of time to hit to the open court but instead tried to go behind Gauff who had basically not moved and missed completely. Then Coco was up 30-0, two points away...

and Sabalenka won 10 of the next 11 points, winning the game and then going up 6-1 in the breaker before closing it out 7-2. So many momentum swings in just one set!!!

Coco has got to serve a lot better to win this, first and second serves both.

 

[Silverdude2167]

Coco is in trouble, this might be over.

 

[jon abbey]

Yeah she couldn't come back from blowing the 6-5, 30-0 lead, Sabalenka served 75 percent first serves for the whole match.

In the second, both players held to 4-4, Coco played a sloppy 4-4 game and got broken and Sabalenka closed it out.