2023 Tennis

Apisith

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Sinner hits the ball really hard. That’s my main impression from watching him. I swear he hits harder than Rafa but I haven’t checked the statistics.
 

BigMike

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Ben Shelton into the 4th round in just his second major ever. He will face American JJ Wolf another former college player for a spot in the QF. American Tommy Paul dumps fellow American Jenson Brooksby in straight sets and will face the Murray/Agut winner in the 4th round. Along with Korda on the top half those are the last 4 Americans standing on the men’s side.
This is so awesome. He's certainly a better hard court player than his dad ever was. Still might bet on Bryan against him on grass though :)
 

jon abbey

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Bencic up a break on Sabalenka early, it's not ideal to double fault three times in the same game.
 

jon abbey

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Sabalanka came back big after getting down 3-1, 6-2, 6-2 after that. she is playing incredibly. Also Garcia just lost in her half, looking like Sabalenka and Rybakina to the final currently but the top half is much harder for Rybakina (Ostapenko and probably Pegula).
 

jon abbey

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Shelton has not been broken through 3 sets against Wolf but is down 2-1 after losing two tiebreakers, very even match.
 

jon abbey

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Rune blows a 5-0 lead in the 5th set breaker and loses 11-9 on a net cord that just creeped over, he will never forget this loss.
 

jon abbey

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Djokovic destroying De Minaur, 6-2, 6-1, 4-0. De Minaur has a game point though.
 

jsinger121

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It will be Shelton vs Tommy Paul in the QF guaranteeing an American into the semifinals. Korda can still join one of them if he wins his QF match.
 

jsinger121

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The last time 3 Americans were in the QF of the Australian Open was 2000 with Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras and Chris Woodruff.
 

InstaFace

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# of American Men in the QFs of each slam.

Year: AO, RG, WM, USO

2022: 0, 0, 1, 1
2021: 0, 0, 0, 0
2020: 1, 0, 0, 0
2019: 1, 0, 0, 0
2018: 1, 0, 1, 1
2017: 0, 0, 1, 1
2016: 0, 0, 1, 0
2015: 0, 0, 0, 0
2014: 0, 0, 0, 0
2013: 0, 0, 0, 0
2012: 0, 0, 0, 0
2011: 0, 0, 1, 2
2010: 1, 0, 0, 0
2009: 1, 0, 1, 0
2008: 1, 0, 0, 2
2007: 2, 0, 1, 1
2006: 0, 0, 0, 2
2005: 2, 0, 1, 3
2004: 2, 0, 1, 2
2003: 2, 1, 1, 2
2002: 0, 1, 0, 3

Australian: Tennys Sandgren lately, but plenty of Roddick, Blake and Mardy Fish in the aughts.
Roland Garros: Agassi was the last one, in 2003.
Wimbledon: Mostly Roddick and Querrey.
US Open: Recently Tiafoe, Isner, Querrey; in the aughts, Roddick and Fish late, Roddick and Agassi early.

Last time we had 3 make the QFs of a slam, it was the 2005 US Open, with eventual runner-up Agassi beating wild card James Blake, and Robby Ginepri (who lost to Agassi in the SF). It also happened in the 2002 US Open, where Sampras won his 14th GS and then retired.

It's been a long, lonely drought for American men's tennis fans since Roddick retired. Andy Roddick made 19 slam QFs, 10 SFs, and 5 Finals - where he went 1-4. Beat Ferrero in the 2003 US Open, went up against Federer 4 other times and lost them all. So it goes.
 

jsinger121

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Bad week continues for the Pegula family. First the Bills get smoked at home against Cincinnati. Now Jessica Pegula gets smoked 6-4 6-1 by Azarenka is the QF.
 

shawnrbu

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Paul takes the first two sets. Up a break in the 3rd 4-3. Shelton breaks, saves 3 break points on his serve the following game and breaks Paul later in the set to win 7-5.
 

shawnrbu

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Comfortable 4th set for Tommy Paul. Only lost 3 points on serve (2 on double faults). Well earned trip to the semifinals.

Fantastic first Australian Open for Ben Shelton. A star in the making.
 

jon abbey

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Shelton’s first time outside the US!!

I have been falling asleep early too many nights, can’t believe I slept through all of Tsitsipas/Sinner. I took some naps today though, so hopefully I’ll be in good shape for Djokovic/Rublev, starting soon.
 

jon abbey

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Djokovic absolutely steamrolling Rublev, it's truly incredible some of the shots he manages to somehow get back in the court.

6-1, 6-2, 2-0 currently, Rublev has had some game points here and there but has not been able to finish most of them, obviously.
 

jon abbey

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Novak finishes it 6-4, he gets Paul in the semis, Tsitsipas/Khachanov on the other side.
 

jon abbey

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Women's semis tonight, starting around 4 AM (argh), looking like a heavyweight showdown between Rybakina and Sabalenka in the final but Azarenka might have something to say about that. I don't think Linette will.
 

jon abbey

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Rybakina and Sabalenka through to the finals, both playing great but sticking with Sabalenka as my pick. Sabalenka is 3-0 head to head but don’t think those are too relevant, all at least 18 months ago and both are much better now.
 

InstaFace

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Tsitsipas last beat Djokovic in late 2019 (twice). But he's taken a set from him in 4 of their 8 meetings since; two of those were at grand slams (RG 2020 and RG 2021) and they both went to 5 sets.

Khachanov played Djokovic at the Paris Masters in November and got smoked, 6-4 6-1. Djokovic has only lost one match to Khachanov and it was in 2018. All but 1 of their 8 meetings since were won in straight sets.

I think I'd take the over, but wouldn't put much money on it.
 

jon abbey

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Yeah my immediate response is the over, but Djokovic is playing like a man possessed, so dunno. Paul and Tsitsipas are both playing great too, I’ll say he loses one set total in those two matches (Khachanov is playing great too, not ruling out him beating Tsitsipas).
 

jezza1918

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Yeah. It's obviously tough to take the under there, especially with Tsits looming. But I just watched quite a bit of the Rublev match...and I'm having a hard time envisioning any sort of lapse long enough from Djokovic to lose a set.
 

jon abbey

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When Chris Fowler said while watching a replay of a Tsitsipas foot fault, 'one toe over the line', I hope I am not the only one who automatically thought 'sweet Jesus'.
 

InstaFace

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Tsitsipas chokes away the 3rd set several ways: first when serving for the set, then in the tiebreak with 2 match points, up 6-4, loses 4 straight points to hand it back. Khachanov had a very questionable second serve on one of those that we never got a replay on, but on they played. On they still play, into a 4th.
 

InstaFace

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Tsitsipas struggles to close out his first service game of the 4th, but fails to choke away anything further, and comes alive for his other service games and looks convincing by the end.

If he beats Djokovic he becomes #1.
 

jon abbey

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Djokovic starting soon and going for an alltime record 27th straight match win here, currently tied with Agassi at 26.
 

jon abbey

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Djokovic playing terribly but still up 7-5, 6-1. He had more unforced errors in the 1st set than in the whole Rublev match, 24 to 21.
 

jon abbey

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7-5, 6-1, 6-2 Novak.

Not the best tournament but should be two exciting finals, especially if Novak is hurting at all.
 

jon abbey

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Fun women's final so far, Renae Stubbs says this is the hardest hitting women's match she's ever seen. Sabalenka played a sloppy first set and Rybakina took advantage, then Sabalenka settled down and played a much tighter second set.

6-4, 3-6, and 2-2 on serve in the third right now.
 

jon abbey

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Sabalenka gets the first break of the third after a long game, up 4-3 now. They are just throwing haymakers both ways.
 

jon abbey

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Sabalenka holds on 6-4, great match and fantastic final set from both.
 

johnmd20

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Happened to wake up very early today. So I watched the match at the gym. It was pretty great. Deserved victory for Sabalenka. And Rybakina really gave it her all.
 

InstaFace

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Fun women's final so far, Renae Stubbs says this is the hardest hitting women's match she's ever seen.
Would be pretty hard to top some vintage Capriati vs Williams sisters matches. I give you:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO55EoksH8Y


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srMJ4plV1QQ


For all her ground-stroke power, Capriati always had kinda a wimpy serve. But yeah if you want the trading of lightning bolts, that's first to mind, for me.

It's interesting how well those matches hold up today. 1983 to 2003 was a world of difference in tennis technique, power, and of course equipment. But going from 2003 to 2023, you've still got largely the same composite rackets, it looks like the same sport tactically, it's not like serve-and-volley has made a huge comeback or anything... the biggest difference is the full automation of line calls, to the point where linespeople are no longer needed.
 

jon abbey

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For all her ground-stroke power, Capriati always had kinda a wimpy serve. But yeah if you want the trading of lightning bolts, that's first to mind, for me.
Yeah, I don't know or care that much, just repeating what she said, specifically the hardest hitting women's match she's ever seen courtside.

View: https://twitter.com/TennisPublisher/status/1619277826674524161


Sabalenka averaged 87 MPH on her forehand in the game that she broke in the 3rd set, which is up there with many of the top men. What Stubbs said was that others have hit that hard, but she didn't remember a match where both players tried to hit the ball at peak velocity every chance they got.
 

InstaFace

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yeah just caught the highlights. They can both definitely bash the ball, although the more impressive thing to me was how often they were hitting the baseline, or within a few inches of it. They both went for small windows a whole lot, it seemed.
 

jon abbey

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Career head to head, Djokovic is 10-2 vs Tsitsipas, including the last 9 going back to 2019. They famously met in the 2021 French Open final where Tsitsipas won the first two sets before Novak came back to win in 5. Starting in the middle of that match, Djokovic has won 11 of the last 12 sets over 5 matches.
 

Apisith

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I’m hoping this is going to be competitive. Stefanos has gotten better incrementally year after year. He put up a great fight two years ago on clay against Novak.
 

jon abbey

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First set was not competitive, Tsitsipas could not do anything on Novak's serve and was lucky to just be broken once, 6-3 Djokovic.

Set two was fantastic and evenly matched, only one break point, twelve straight holds. Strange tiebreaker, six of the first seven points to the returner, but Djokovic won a huge 4-4 point on Tsitsipas' serve and closed it out from there, 7-4, up two sets now.
 

jon abbey

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If I put the over/under at .5 for Djokovic sets lost in his final two matches combined, would you bet the over or under?
That second set right there was the .5, heh. It is down to this set now, under is looking good.
 

Apisith

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Tsitsipas with the early break. I feel Djokovic hasn’t really been pushed, he hasn’t had to hit the lines. Some games have been tight but you always get the feeling Tsitsipas will break down first.