2022 Tennis

jon abbey

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Two days off before the semis helps Novak too, his half of yet another Novak/Rafa final looks likely.
 

cromulence

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I'd love to see Fritz take it to Rafa, but then that probably hurts the chances of Djokovic losing. Ugh. What a disappointment.
 

BaseballJones

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Novak is 35. Rafa is 36. And they're still the two best players in the world. I know Federer isn't this caliber anymore, but he was #1 in the world at age 36.

How these guys are maintaining this level of excellence either speaks to their unfathomable greatness, or suggests that the rest of the world just isn't that good. I suspect the former has to be the case. But I just can't really figure out how the other great players in their late 20s haven't caught up to these guys yet. They don't appear to be close, actually.
 

cromulence

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So much of it is mental. Yeah, Djokovic stepped it up after the first two sets, but some of the turnaround was also Sinner just not being able to deal with the pressure of having a lead and closing it out. We've seen that happen over and over again when this next generation (actually more than one generation) plays the big three in these spots. The experience factor is massive.
 

jezza1918

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So much of it is mental. Yeah, Djokovic stepped it up after the first two sets, but some of the turnaround was also Sinner just not being able to deal with the pressure of having a lead and closing it out. We've seen that happen over and over again when this next generation (actually more than one generation) plays the big three in these spots. The experience factor is massive.
Feels like Sinner, along with Alcaraz, are the headliners in the third tennis gen trying to take over from the big 3. Going off memory here but feels like Dmitrov & Raonic were some of the first crew who were supposed to surpass them, then you had Zverev/Thiem/Medvedev/Tsitsipas. Clearly the big 3 have outlasted that first generation...and honestly gen 2 might get squeezed out by 3 before Nadal/Djokovic fully go away.
 

jon abbey

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Del Potro was a big one after he beat both Nadal and Federer to win the 2009 US Open just before turning 21, but of course he could never stay healthy.
 

jon abbey

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Also Medvedev is right there with Djokovic and Nadal currently, at least on hard courts.
 

jezza1918

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Del Potro was a big one after he beat both Nadal and Federer to win the 2009 US Open just before turning 21, but of course he could never stay healthy.
Yup. Great call...mine was certainly not an exhaustive list. Might make for some good thought exercises/fodder between Wimby and US Open (as something tells me this thread won't be breaking down the Newport draw)!
 

jon abbey

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Wow, Chris Evert just said Krygios is the most exciting player we've seen 'in such a long time' and that he is bringing a lot of new young fans to the game.
 

jon abbey

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Nadal is hurting, he lost a break lead in the first set to drop it 6-3. Now he's on serve in the second set, up 4-3, but his MPH is down about 15 on his first serve and he jsut called for the trainer.
 

Van Everyman

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At this rate i wouldn’t be surprised if Nadal doesn’t make it to the end of this match. His serve as noted is a lot slower and his ground stroke game has been affected as well. He’s still hanging in there tho.
 

cromulence

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Fritz letting Nadal's injury affect how he's playing, crazy how often that happens in tennis.
 

jon abbey

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Krygios through in straight sets, leaving us two wins away from everyone’s dream final of Djokovic/Kyrgios. :)
 

jsinger121

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Nadal evens it at 5. Fritz will probably fall apart on his service game as he’s already down love 30
 

BaseballJones

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Incredible 7th game of the 5th set. Fritz lost it, had it, then lost it. Rafa up 4-3 with a break.
 

jon abbey

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Yeah, exactly. Federer won his last Grand Slam in Australia in 2018, and Djokovic/Nadal have won 14 of 16 since then, looking a lot like 15 of 17 now.
 

cromulence

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I'm just tired of watching every single one of these guys fold when it counts. Nadal is old and beat up. There's no way he should have won that match.
 

cromulence

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Yeah, whatever. I'll bet you anything that Nadal does not win this tournament. Fritz had a shot and blew it.
 

jezza1918

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The point is that just about everyone that comes across these guys paths blows it. Not just American men like Fritz. I'm not going to bother listing all of them but off top of head alone Djokovic beat Musetti in french last year coming back from 2 sets to love, then did the same to the "next big thing" Tsitsipas in final. Did it to Sinner yesterday. Nadal came back from 2 sets down to Medvedev (one of the few guys that has broken through in big situations) in Oz this year.
The story is WAY more about Nadal and Djokovic (and from 04-15 Federer as well), and less about the guys "blowing it"
 

jsinger121

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Yes but when’s the last time an American was even a legit contender. Andy Roddick back in the early to mid 2000s and that is it. We are approaching almost 2 decades of American crap on the mens side. This has been the dark ages for American mens tennis and it’s been pretty sad to see.
 

jezza1918

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Yes but when’s the last time an American was even a legit contender. Andy Roddick back in the early to mid 2000s and that is it. We are approaching almost 2 decades of American crap on the mens side. This has been the dark ages for American mens tennis and it’s been pretty sad to see.
I completely agree. I just think they are two related, but separate conversations...on the one hand you've got a few generations of up and comers across the international spectrum that have all failed at taking over from the Big 3 (now the Big 2); while on the other you've got the complete failure of American Men's tennis to produce someone to contend at all. It's been a gong show at work today so if I'm not making sense I'll try to revisit tomorrow.
 

coremiller

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It's amazing that Nadal was able to gut it out and beat Fritz. But if he couldn't continue it might have been better if Fritz had won or Nadal had retired so we'd get an actual semifinal match.
 

jsinger121

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That stinks. The fact that Fritz couldn’t beat a B level Rafa stinks since I don’t want to see that shit bag Kyrgios on Centre Court on Sunday.
 

shawnrbu

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When was the last time someone was gifted a trip to the finals in a men’s slam?

Really hurts the quality of the tournament to not have one of the semifinals.

Much like the 2020 US Open, this doesn’t feel like a legit slam.
 

jsinger121

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When was the last time someone was gifted a trip to the finals in a men’s slam?

Really hurts the quality of the tournament to not have one of the semifinals.

Much like the 2020 US Open, this doesn’t feel like a legit slam.
If Medvedev was at Wimbledon this probably doesn’t happen. Absolute ludicrous decision by the All England Club.
 

Apisith

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Damn, I didn’t expect Rafa to pull out like this.

Finally Kyrgios makes it into a slam final. He’s as talented as Zverev, Alcaraz and Tsitsipas. At his best, he’s probably better. Let’s go Nick!
 

jon abbey

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Novak served much better in the second set, Norrie got much sloppier. One set all.
 

jon abbey

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Two bad misses on his last two first serves from Norrie, Djokovic breaks to start the third.
 

jon abbey

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Also it is evidently much hotter there today than it’s been the rest of the tournament, Novak put on a hat before the second set.