2022 Tennis

CFB_Rules

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So Novak can still miss out if he either falls outside the top 20 or if someone wins the US Open and is ranked higher than him…and is also outside the top 7.

Djokovic would finish in the top 20 most years with his current point total. Given that Wimbledon isn’t giving points, that threshold will also drop a lot this year.

Since the Open will award the full 2000 points, it will be hard for someone to win it and fall outside the top 7, but also ahead of Novak. In the current rankings it would require a winner like Opelka, Isner, Schwartzman, or Berrettini.
 

jon abbey

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Naomi Osaka vs Coco Gauff starts in a little bit, I think/hope Tennis Channel is showing it.
 

jon abbey

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That match was fun. Osaka is rusty but played well, but Gauff was locked in, especially on serve. Gauff was up 6-4, 5-1 and had Osaka at 0-40, but then Osaka turned into her old #1 self and pulled it back to 5-4 before Gauff was able to finish on her 9th match point, 6-4, 6-4.

Also kind of amazing that Osaka has only ever won seven tournaments and four are hardcourt Grand Slams and a 5th is Indian Wells. For a while there were top ranked women (Wozniacki is one I remember) who had no good Grand Slam results, Osaka is the exact opposite.
 
Also kind of amazing that Osaka has only ever won seven tournaments and four are hardcourt Grand Slams and a 5th is Indian Wells. For a while there were top ranked women (Wozniacki is one I remember) who had no good Grand Slam results, Osaka is the exact opposite.
So you're basically saying Osaka is to women's tennis as Brooks Koepka is to men's golf? ;)
 

jon abbey

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I do my best not to follow golf but yes, it looks almost identical.

Another thing they pointed out on the telecast last night was that Osaka's 4 Grand Slams were in back to back hardcourts two years apart which would mean she would win the next two. Seems pretty unlikely but she did look healthy and is getting matches under her belt, she won the 2018 US Open/2019 Australian and the 2020 US Open/2021 Australian, she has never gotten out of the third round at the French or Wimbledon. She is 46-9 career at the two hardcourt Slams and just 11-8 at the other two, I did not realize she was such a specialist.
 

jon abbey

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Also I guess Osaka will not be seeded at the US Open? She is ranked #40 last I see, but she has won four of the last eight hardcourt Slams and is 24 and seemingly healthy, that is going to be a rough early round draw for someone.

Gauff as I said really steamrolled her for most of the match but when Coco got asked after about that late charge from Osaka, she said something like 'I mean, maybe two of those points were even possibly winnable for me, I was just hoping she stopped playing that well at some point and if not, it wasn't my day'.

Their career head to head now is 2-2, really I think my two favorite female players in a long time, so I hope they meet a lot more.
 

jon abbey

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Another interesting thing they said about Gauff last night that I didn't know was that basically until this hardcourt season, she has pretty much always entered both singles and doubles, but now for the first time she is solely focusing on singles. She is the youngest in the top 20, still just 18.
 
Another interesting thing they said about Gauff last night that I didn't know was that basically until this hardcourt season, she has pretty much always entered both singles and doubles, but now for the first time she is solely focusing on singles. She is the youngest in the top 20, still just 18.
I was just talking with Pete Odgers, who did the world feed commentary on Gauff-Osaka last night, and she was very complimentary about the standard of the match and was particularly pleased to see Osaka smiling and having fun out there and even pumping her fist during her strong second-set fightback. In addition to Gauff focusing on singles and not both singles and doubles, I think it's great for both players to be able to focus just on playing tennis for a while, rather than trying to save the world or take political positions that are above their pay grade. (In the abstract, it's great for athletes to be engaged with the world beyond their sport...but when you're a teenager, or were very recently a teenager, and are thrust into the limelight so much so soon and never really get the chance to fully figure the world out in your own time, that's such a monumental burden to bear.)
 
Gauff and Badosa played a first set today of very high quality and a tiebreak which was outstanding...right up until the point that Gauff double-faulted away the set. And then the wheels basically came off and Badosa streaked away to win. (Gauff should still reach the Top 10 at the end of the week unless Kasatkina wins the tournament in San Jose, but it's a good reminder that Gauff is still young enough that we should expect this sort of inconsistency from her.)
 

BigMike

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Such an awesome commercial/ event Barilla pulled off here. And Roger is having as much fun as the kid is.

 

pantsparty

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Coco Gauff and Jess Pegula won the Canadian Open doubles title, which makes Coco now the #1 ranked women's doubles player.
 

jon abbey

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Coco Gauff and Jess Pegula won the Canadian Open doubles title, which makes Coco now the #1 ranked women's doubles player.
On one hand, of course this is impressive, she is the youngest to do that since Hingis in 1998. On the other hand, there's a real chance it is messing with her potential singles success.
 

jsinger121

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19 year old American Ben Shelton took out French Open finalist Casper Ruud 6-3, 6-3 in the second round at Cincinnati. He is the reigning NCAA singles champion and has already received a wild card for the US Open. He’s an intriguing young American with size 6’4 and who is a lefty.
 

jezza1918

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19 year old American Ben Shelton took out French Open finalist Casper Ruud 6-3, 6-3 in the second round at Cincinnati. He is the reigning NCAA singles champion and has already received a wild card for the US Open. He’s an intriguing young American with size 6’4 and who is a lefty.
Worth adding on for those that don't know is that his father is Bryan Shelton who has a relatively accomplished tennis career himself. During his pro years he got up to 55 in the world, won 2 titles and had wins at all the slams including a 4th round trip to wimbledon. He won the national title as a womens coach at Georgia Tech in 2007, and the mens title at UF in 2021 - and got to watch his son win the clinching match (at 5 singles no less. dude was playing 5th on his college team 15 months ago and just beat the 5th ranked player in the world). Shelton is the only coach to win a national title with a mens and womens tennis program FYI.
 

jsinger121

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Worth adding on for those that don't know is that his father is Bryan Shelton who has a relatively accomplished tennis career himself. During his pro years he got up to 55 in the world, won 2 titles and had wins at all the slams including a 4th round trip to wimbledon. He won the national title as a womens coach at Georgia Tech in 2007, and the mens title at UF in 2021 - and got to watch his son win the clinching match (at 5 singles no less. dude was playing 5th on his college team 15 months ago and just beat the 5th ranked player in the world). Shelton is the only coach to win a national title with a mens and womens tennis program FYI.
It will be interesting to see how far Shelton can at Cincinnati and at the US Open because that may determine if he goes back to Florida or not. He definitely is someone I want to see succeed asap because American tennis has blown for two decades.
 

StupendousMan

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It will be interesting to see how far Shelton can at Cincinnati and at the US Open because that may determine if he goes back to Florida or not. He definitely is someone I want to see succeed asap because American tennis has blown for two decades.
Is there an adjective missing, perhaps, between the two highlighted words?
 

jezza1918

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It will be interesting to see how far Shelton can at Cincinnati and at the US Open because that may determine if he goes back to Florida or not. He definitely is someone I want to see succeed asap because American tennis has blown for two decades.
I can only imagine the convos going on behind the scenes there...so many interesting dynamics at play given his dad is both his college and personal coach.
Also, American MENS tennis has kind of blown for awhile...

edit: damnit @StupendousMan
 

Matty005

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It will be interesting to see how far Shelton can at Cincinnati and at the US Open because that may determine if he goes back to Florida or not. He definitely is someone I want to see succeed asap because American tennis has blown for two decades.
Well, he lost yesterday to Norrie 0 & 2. Still an impressive showing.

And like other's have said, you're missing a key word there. But on top of that, all countries have blown for MEN"S tennis the last two decades save Switzerland, Spain and Serbia.
 

jezza1918

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Well, he lost yesterday to Norrie 0 & 2. Still an impressive showing.

And like other's have said, you're missing a key word there. But on top of that, all countries have blown for MEN"S tennis the last two decades save Switzerland, Spain and Serbia.
Very valid point. Depth for American men's tennis is there right now...nothing top heavy though. In mid august 2000 Agassi/Sampras were 1-2 in the world, but only 10 Americans in top 100. Today, there are no Americans in top 10, but 13 in top 100. Five years ago, no one in top 10 and only 9 in top 100.
 

Dim13

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Wow, Tsitsipas looked pretty dominating in the first part of the first set at the W&S Open, but Coric just steamrolled him from that point on. And gained about 80 points in the rankings. Good for him.
 
Wow, Tsitsipas looked pretty dominating in the first part of the first set at the W&S Open, but Coric just steamrolled him from that point on. And gained about 80 points in the rankings. Good for him.
According to https://live-tennis.eu/en/atp-live-ranking, Coric gained 123 places in the rankings - up from #152 to #29. Pretty amazing.

(I remember commentating on a match between Coric and Dominic Thiem in Madrid back in 2018; it was a joy to watch, full of great tennis, and I remarked that part of the fun of the match was thinking about how many great matches these guys might play against each other in the future. Well, Thiem hit some amazing heights, but Coric never got there; here's hoping that he might fulfil more of his considerable potential.)
 

BigMike

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Worth adding on for those that don't know is that his father is Bryan Shelton who has a relatively accomplished tennis career himself. During his pro years he got up to 55 in the world, won 2 titles and had wins at all the slams including a 4th round trip to wimbledon. He won the national title as a womens coach at Georgia Tech in 2007, and the mens title at UF in 2021 - and got to watch his son win the clinching match (at 5 singles no less. dude was playing 5th on his college team 15 months ago and just beat the 5th ranked player in the world). Shelton is the only coach to win a national title with a mens and womens tennis program FYI.
Man, I can't believe Bryan's little guy is doing so well. Bryan was one of my better friends in college. I stood on the other side from him returning one day while he was working on his serve and everything was coming in at 132 or so. Definitely the biggest challenge I ever had in athletics. First serve ripped the racket out of my hand. And one to the body hit the thigh, just missed the groin, and the thigh stung a good bit (glad it wasn't the groin)

Bryan is one of the nicest people on the planet, and has an Engineering degree from GT, which he finished while playing on the tour.
 

jezza1918

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Man, I can't believe Bryan's little guy is doing so well. Bryan was one of my better friends in college. I stood on the other side from him returning one day while he was working on his serve and everything was coming in at 132 or so. Definitely the biggest challenge I ever had in athletics. First serve ripped the racket out of my hand. And one to the body hit the thigh, just missed the groin, and the thigh stung a good bit (glad it wasn't the groin)

Bryan is one of the nicest people on the planet, and has an Engineering degree from GT, which he finished while playing on the tour.
My first college match, and I had barely finished puberty mind you, I had to play a 23 year old 6'4 german super senior (who went on to have a successful 15 year ATP doubles career). I don't think he was serving 132, but it wasnt much less. And it wasn't any fun.
Great background story about Shelton, hopefully he gave you a few pointers in addition to injuring you! Definitely rooting for Ben to succeed, he seems to have some personality that a lot of today's top men lack.
 

amh03

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This tribute to Serena on ESPN, ahead of her US Open match is…awesome!
 

jon abbey

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While we are all watching Serena, Tsitsipas has lost the first 10 games of his match, 6-0, 4-0.
 

Ed Hillel

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They're talking Serena up like a real threat...maybe calm down a bit, her shot looks ok, but she can't move much at all lol.
 

amh03

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They're talking Serena up like a real threat...maybe calm down a bit, her shot looks ok, but she can't move much at all lol.
I disagree…they’ve mentioned multiple times that Serena relies more on her strength than on footwork at this point. They just now complimented her movement but it’s not been a prevailing comment, at least from what I have heard.
 

InstaFace

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Gladys Knight looks about 35. I'll have what she's having.

Also, who says she can't move? That was a hell of a couple gets at 15-15, even if she somehow flubbed the put-away.

And Serena's still got her brain, which when it isn't short-circuiting like on that double fault, can out-think anyone on the court and always has.
 

jon abbey

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Serena looked unimpressive early on but has won 8 of 10 games now. We’ll know pretty quickly if she’s a genuine threat as she gets #2 Kontaveit if she finishes this.
 

the1andonly3003

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I'm watching on ESPN3, is this global feed from the Tennis Channel or staffed by ESPN talent? Or is this the world feed broadcast to other countries?
 

BigMike

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Venus goes out in straight sets in round one. ESPN round table post match are discussing how much she wants to play, and how she needs to drop down to the challenger level so that she can get the time on court she needs.
 

shawnrbu

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“Giant Killer” Cornet ended Swiatek’s consecutive wins streak at Wimbledon and defeats defending US Open Champion Raducanu. 7 wins in a row against Top 20 players in majors.

Emma will fall from # 11 to the 70’s in the rankings. Last year she won 20 out of 21 sets in the US Open, including qualifying. Out in straight sets this year.
 

jezza1918

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Cornet hit a ball kid with a ball following the 2nd game of the 2nd set. Didn’t get DQ’ed.
Can you describe what happened or have video of it by chance? A Twitter search only came up with a handful of tweets.

edit: for the record, this was written pre-coffee and if it came off as snarky or some kind of "gotcha" moment I apologize. Genuinely looking to see what happened. I guess Bencic almost hit a ball kid with her racket after slamming it to ground as well, per twitter, but not seeing much made of that either.
 
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BigMike

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Can you describe what happened or have video of it by chance? A Twitter search only came up with a handful of tweets.

edit: for the record, this was written pre-coffee and if it came off as snarky or some kind of "gotcha" moment I apologize. Genuinely looking to see what happened. I guess Bencic almost hit a ball kid with her racket after slamming it to ground as well, per twitter, but not seeing much made of that either.
Cornet was really pissed the roof closed in the middle of her service game. The first few points it was happening it seemed neither player even noticed it was closing. They Coronet caught attention of it, and it completely distracted her mentally.

She drops her serve, is visibly pissed, and hits the ball in her hand towards the net where there is a ball kid running across. ESPN showed it a second time and made some comments, but didn't obsess on it. I think maybe the ref didn't see it, as it probably deserved at least a warning if it was seen. I'll admit I was doing other things while watching so I didn't get a great look at it