Tennis 2018

Senator Donut

post-Domer
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The Duke of Kent actually looks more absurd than the actor who portrayed him in Seven Days in Hell.
 

BigMike

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Nice Job Angie, now ESPN will spend the next 10 minutes saying you didn't win, and it was just given to you because Serena wasn't great.

Angie dominated the tournament . She won the last 12 sets she played. She beat 4 seeded players along the way and 3 major champions.
 

bostonbeerbelly

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Reporting in from here. Do I feel lucky that I got to see the Nadal Djokovic semi today. That was the treat of the day as the women’s finals match seemed over 15 minutes in. The crowd was dead. Great experience getting to attend via the overseas ballot. Now to watch a bit of men’s doubles then head home.
 

BigMike

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Djoker better steal this tiebreaker, right now Anderson is the better player (over the last set)

Djoker wins it. You could tell Novak was back as the tournament went on, as he had moved into full on dick mode
 
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InstaFace

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Andy Murray's season has been an emotional roller coaster, and now it's a literal one:


that's Nick Kyrgios taking the hand-held video as they go hit 3Gs or whatever.
 

jon abbey

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Stefanos Tsitsipas from Greece turns 20 later this week, he just became the youngest player ever (since the ATP tour started in 1990) to beat four top 10 players in the same tournament, and he did it on four straight days, even more impressively.

2nd (7) Dominic Thiem W 6-3, 7-6 (8-6)
3rd (9) Novak Djokovic W 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3
Quarterfinals (2) Alexander Zverev W 3-6, 7-6 (13-11), 6-4
Semifinals (4) Kevin Anderson W 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 7-6 (9-7)

Nadal is in the other semi, playing later tonight. Tsitsipas was ranked 27th coming into this week but will jump up to 12th with a win tomorrow, or 15th if he loses.
 

InstaFace

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with the Rogers cup in the rear-view mirror, the US Open series is heading into its home stretch. Nadal finally ended Tsitsipas's miracle run in Montreal in straight sets, though it was a close 2nd-set tiebreak. And Halep took a tight 3-setter from Sloane Stephens to win in Toronto, meaning both #1 seeds and #1-ranked players won.

Cincinnati is starting and running this week, and it features probably the only non-Grand Slam appearance by Serena Williams we'll get for the rest of this year. I suppose she might play the Tour Finals if she's up to it, but more likely she'll skip it to spend more time with her daughter because she owes the WTA nothing. Because she's unseeded, she doesn't get a bye and opens her play in the featured match, 7pm ET, against Gavrilova, who has some pop. The top players usually rest the week before we get started in Flushing, so this is really the preview week for the top-level competition (except for Venus, who withdrew).
 

InstaFace

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unseeded Serena draws Petra Kvitova in the 2nd round. Kvitova took a hard-fought first set, and then Serena upped it and won the 2nd 6-2. They're on-serve now in the 3rd, 2-1*, Kvitova up and looking strong.

Here's the best stream I've found.

edit: Serena sprays a few too many, and despite an ace on break point, ends up broken, Kvitova serving *4-2. Great groundstrokes from PK took and held the offensive on the longer rallies.
 
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InstaFace

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If anyone were looking for evidence that the tennis majors' draws are not analogous to David Stern envelope lotteries, look no further than the US Open's (which of course starts tomorrow):
- Venus and Serena set to meet in the 3rd round, despite being #16 and #17 respectively
- both of them are in #1 Halep's 8th, and the winner likely gets Muguruza in the QF
- Sharapova has nobody of note in her 8th
- Keys and Vandeweghe are loading up Kerber's 8th

Just a terrible draw for Serena fans, or really anyone except Sharapova fans, as most of the tour's top names are going to be forced to knock each other out well before the big-money rounds.

On the Men's side, Del Potro has fought his way up to 3rd, and Djokovic up to 6th. @jon abbey 's boy Stefanos Tsitsipas has gotten himself the #15 seed. On the flip side, Nishikori has fallen to #21 and Raonic to #25. Also, someone by the name of Andy Murray has taken a protected ranking to get a main draw entry, and would meet Delpo in R3 if he survives the tennis stylings of aussie James Duckworth (himself returning from foot surgery) and then world #72 Denis Kudla.
 

InstaFace

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Also, here's a nice B-R feature on 20-year-old phenom and part of the future of women's tennis, Naomi Osaka. She has a Haitian father and Japanese mother, and will play for Japan at the olympics, but she's culturally as American as Maria Sharapova is (and a lot of fun to watch).
 

jon abbey

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The heat is taking a toll, seven withdrawals already on the men's side and now Djokovic is having trouble and he is only in the second set.
 

jon abbey

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Nice comeback for Novak, a set all and down 4-2 in the 3rd, then he won 10 straight games against the also wilting in the heat opponent.
 

jon abbey

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Pretty great day of matches for a first week Friday, all third round matches.

Right now, three top 10 men's players are in dogfights with younger players:

Shapovalov (28) just took the first set from Anderson (5). Thiem is in a battle against American Fritz, he just pulled out a third set tiebreaker 7-5 to go up 2 sets to 1. And most noteworthy, Nadal is down a set and an early break in the second to Khachanov (27).

On the women's side, Sloane Stephens won a tough straight set match against Azarenka.

Coming up tonight, we've got Serena vs Venus, but also Raonic/Wawrinka and Del Potro/Verdasco.
 

jon abbey

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Nadal broke to bring it back to 4-4 in the second, but got broken right back and now Khachanov is serving for a two set lead.
 

Sam Ray Not

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Great stuff in the third set from Nadal/Khachanov. The Russian fights off five set points in the tiebreak, but Rafa holds on to close it out 9-7 after an incredible million-shot rally.

Nadal up 2 sets to 1.
 

jon abbey

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Nadal gets broken serving for the match at 5-4 in the 4th, 5-5 now and 4:07 in. At least it's not hot today.
 

Sam Ray Not

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Nadal closes it out in the fourth-set tiebreak, 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (7), 7-6 (3). Very impressive stuff from the 22 y.o. Khachanov, who was right with him all match. Arthur Ashe court crowd gave both players lots of love.
 

InstaFace

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Serena Williams tonight played the best match I've seen her play since early 2016. On current performance level, Venus Williams is probably a top-10 player, and she had absolutely nothing that could even start to threaten Serena out there. Her first serve speed has been creeping up to now within a couple mph of "A-game", started the tournament at 102 avg / 115 top, and now up to 106 / 119. She could pull another shoulder muscle at any moment, of course, but absent that you'd have to call her and Stephens co-favorites at this point.

I had to turn Verdasco-Delpo off in the 2nd set because I needed my evening back, but it was great watching. I never knew Verdasco had that kind of forehand power down the line, but he was giving Delpo the business, going for broke all the time. Hugely entertaining.
 

jon abbey

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Kerber goes out, so 4 of the top 6 and 7 of the top 13 women's seeds are already out, as usual these days.
 

jon abbey

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Up and comer Naomi Osaka not only won her third round match love and love, she only lost 17 points (!!!).
 

jon abbey

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Kerber goes out, so 4 of the top 6 and 7 of the top 13 women's seeds are already out, as usual these days.
Kvitova out now too, so now 10 of the top 13 women's seeds are out. Serena at #17 is the sixth highest seeded woman left.
 

InstaFace

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Man, Kvitova got crushed. Like, the scoreline flatters her.

Cilic is facing some no-name Australian on Armstrong, and is [edit] now down a set and a break... and it's 11:30pm. Gonna be a long night out there in Flushing, props to the fans who stick it out till what could be 2am to cheer or jeer.

Kvitova out now too, so now 10 of the top 13 women's seeds are out. Serena at #17 is the sixth highest seeded woman left.
There are positive and negative ways to spin the fact that women's seeds go out pretty hard in top tournaments. My take is that the top end of the women's tour, like the top 50 or so, is just really deep. The difference in peak performance level between those players is really small, and the slightest off-day can lead to an upset. The same is decidedly not true of the men, where punching above your weight means offing someone 5, 10, max 20 rankings above you.
 
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jon abbey

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Anyone else still watching this? As good a comeback I have ever seen from De Minaur there, down 5-2 and 0-40 in the 5th, he somehow pulled back to 5-5.
 

jon abbey

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Cilic holds and then finally converts break point #8 to win 7-5. I wish I could find a video of the third match point he saved, Cilic hit at least three should-have-been winners, insane point.
 

jon abbey

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It's going to suck when Federer/Djokovic play in the quarters, but the four quarterfinalists on the other half are now set at Nadal/Thiem (1 vs 9) and Del Potro/Isner (3 vs 11), no easy roads as always on the men's side.

The women's side, we are setting up for an epic semi between Serena and Sloane Stephens, both one win away now. The other half is much more open, Keys and Sharapova maybe the faves (go Naomi Osaka!) but the Serena/Sloane semi is looking like the real final.
 

jon abbey

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Cilic/Nishikori is the third men's quarterfinal, a rematch of the 2014 final.
 

gedman211

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Roger way too aggressive. Clearly wants to stay away from the base line rallies. Simply looks over matched right now
 

jon abbey

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Djokovic is loving this, his match was done maybe 8 hours ago. Even if Fed gets through, it will take a lot out of him.
 

jon abbey

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Easy to forget with how great Fed has been recently that he hasn't won the US Open in 10 years and he is seven years older than Sampras was when he played his last match.
 

jon abbey

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Wow, you know you've been around a long time when the last Australian player you lost to in a major was Pat Rafter (20-1 career, that was 1999).
 

jon abbey

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Two straight double faults from Fed in the tiebreaker, never seen this from him. Down 5-1 now.
 

Sam Ray Not

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Match appropriately ends on an unforced error by Federer — his 77th of the match. With 10 double faults. Basically an epic meltdown after serving for the second set and seeming totally in control.

Ah well, Djoker probably would have crushed him next round anyway, but this was a tough one to watch. Steve Kerr (who they showed often) looked bummed.
 

BigMike

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Match appropriately ends on an unforced error by Federer — his 77th of the match. With 10 double faults. Basically an epic meltdown after serving for the second set and seeming totally in control.

Ah well, Djoker probably would have crushed him next round anyway, but this was a tough one to watch. Steve Kerr (who they showed often) looked bummed.
Yeah Fed's played poorly much of the summer and really looks his age now. Not sure what the final numbers were but I now midway through the match his first serve percent was hovering well below 50%
 

mauidano

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Roger talked about breathing issues during the match. Gassed? Milman was incredibly gracious in his immediate post match interview repeatedly saying Roger was "off tonight". Apparently he spent a lot of time with Roger in the offseason training with Roger. Regardless Millman played his ass off. He saw a wounded animal and he went in for the kill. Match of his life and he'll make some good dough to go along with that story.
 

jsinger121

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Jul 25, 2005
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Yeah Fed's played poorly much of the summer and really looks his age now. Not sure what the final numbers were but I now midway through the match his first serve percent was hovering well below 50%
I think next season could be it for Roger. If he plays at Roland Garros I think he will call it a career next year. He hasn't played there since the QF loss in 2015 to Stan. Basically it would be the goodbye if he played there.