Tennis 2019: Plus ça change...

InstaFace

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Yeah Keys is a very good player but has never really shown more than flashes of being great, and when Svitolina is on there aren't many who can rumble with her.

Coco Gauff / Caty McNally's doubles match was entertaining, they took out a seeded pro team (after winning several junior majors together) in a very tight second set whose tiebreak went back and forth. Their doubles match was on fuckin' Armstrong, the only doubles match on one of the top two courts today. And they had a crowd of like 10,000 in there - for doubles.

Serena rolled her (quite well-taped) ankle midway through the second set, as she made it 30-30 on Martic's serve. She called for the trainer, and before the trainer arrived, knocked off two points to take the break, and then was clearly affected (Especially on serve) the rest of the match. Deprived of her primary weapon, she basically gutted out three more holds on one leg by pushing Martic side to side with groundstrokes.
 

InstaFace

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2 sets to Stan, and Djokovic is getting his shoulder massaged on the break. Reminds me of Novak's early career where he'd start losing and then develop a medical issue that would make him take time and then retire. Poor workman who blames his tools, etc.
 

Sam Ray Not

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Wow. I was about to say I’d never seen Djokovic melt down like this; now clear he wasn’t right physically.

Moments like this just make what the Big 3 have done over the past 10-15 years that much more amazing to me. All it takes is one half-bad day to get bounced.

That said, great stuff from Stan. Bummer for him that it had to end the way it did.
 

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Wow, that is a complete stunner. Djoker has been an overwhelming favorite to that point.

We may finally see Federer vs Nadal 1 at the US Open, . For some weird reason, I think the fates wont allow it, and someone will lose
 
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jon abbey

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Fuck the fans for booing, as if he wouldn't keep going if he could.

He looked pretty hurt in the second round but got through, then totally fine last round, I don't think he was getting through this whole gauntlet draw anyway, as I said. That was pretty shocking but Stan clearly has always played his best tennis in the Slams against the big 3.

@BigMike, I am looking at the draw and it is hard to see anyone stopping Fed/Nadal the way they are playing and even more now that Novak is out and there is a Slam up for grabs. Fed always beats his countryman Stan, 23-3 lifetime including 6-4, 6-3, 6-1 in the semis here in 2015. Rublev has looked impressive, #5 Medvedev and #6 Zverev are still in, but come on. We're getting Fed/Rafa for the third time at a major this year, this one in a final and not a semi.
 

jon abbey

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Yep, Osaka is out. Big chance for Serena, the top three seeds all out in the last couple of days.

Only two top 10 players left in the quarters, #5 Svitolina and #8 Serena (both in the bottom half, Bencic is the highest seed left in the top half at #13 but #15 Andreescu is probably the favorite now to make the finals).
 

BigMike

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Bencic is a good player, so happy to see her back and healthy again.

Get to see Bencic vs Vekic now

So we have the hot couple, and now the former couple in the quarterfinals (Vekis was longterm GF of Warwinka)
 

johnmd20

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Vikic's win was phenomenal. She fought off a match point and Bencic got sloppy and Vekic just rolled from there.
 

BigMike

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Vikic's win was phenomenal. She fought off a match point and Bencic got sloppy and Vekic just rolled from there.
Vekic beat Georges, get's Bencic next. But it was pretty amazing to see her come back and finish.

Watching Zverev play, and he still seems like his game is nothing like his A game, but then again it would be pretty shocking if he doesn't win this one and make his first Open Quarters. Question is can he find his A game for the next match (I doubt it)
 

johnmd20

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Vekic beat Georges, get's Bencic next. But it was pretty amazing to see her come back and finish.

Watching Zverev play, and he still seems like his game is nothing like his A game, but then again it would be pretty shocking if he doesn't win this one and make his first Open Quarters. Question is can he find his A game for the next match (I doubt it)
Sorry, thanks for the correction!
 

BigMike

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So apparently Zverev is looking to dump his way out of the tourney here. Just a disastrous performance out here today. Just a shame, because while Zverev has played like crap so far in this tournament he can play with Nadal. Schwartzman is going to be blown off the court by Nadal

Nice interview with Kristie Ahn they just played. Would love to see her make it through to the quarters
 

BigMike

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And Zverev goes down. Still amazing to me 2 guys playing as poorly as Zverev and Cilic are were able to make the round of 16
 

InstaFace

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And upon resumption of games on outer courts, Azarenka and Barry lay absolute waste to Coco and McNally, 6-0 6-1. End of tournament for the Coco phenomenon.
 

jon abbey

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And upon resumption of games on outer courts, Azarenka and Barry lay absolute waste to Coco and McNally, 6-0 6-1. End of tournament for the Coco phenomenon.
Heh, that's funny. McCoco go McByebye.

Nadal dropped the second set to Cilic, so he kicked it up a few gears, took the next 6-1 and is two games away from closing it, up 4-1 with two breaks in the 4th.
 

InstaFace

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Taylor Townsend giving it her all in the night's final match, dropped the first set to Andreescu but up a break in the 2nd. Serve and volley forever!
 

jon abbey

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Taylor Townsend giving it her all in the night's final match, dropped the first set to Andreescu but up a break in the 2nd. Serve and volley forever!
Heh, but you know she won the second set when she stopped coming to the net, right?

Medvedev takes out Stan pretty easily, 6-1 in the 4th. He will get Fed in the semis if Fed beats Dimitrov tonight.
 

johnmd20

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Serena is taking apart Wang in a way that is amazing and also hard to watch.(for Wang)

Someone call the authorities, there's a murder happening on Arthur Ashe court.
 

jon abbey

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Yeah, that was crazy, and Wang was playing great before this. I had Andreescu over Serena in the final before that, but now I'm back to Serena, hopefully she can finish it this time.
 

BigMike

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For those not watching, what happened from the first to second set?
Roger is suddenly playing like ass. He fought back to on serve, with help from Dimitrov game dropping, and then Roger falls apart on a service game up 30-0 to hand Dimitrov the set. His forehand is all over the place, but generally not on the court right now
 

BigMike

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Roger wins the 3rd set as Dimitrov game drops a level, but Roger still is playing very poorly. I guess it is harder to be at your best every night when you are a pro at age 38, but he will be very lucky to survive the night, and has no chance winning this tournament, if he plays like this again

Federer gets broken to start the 4th
 

BigMike

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UGH, And now we are off to a 5th set.

Dimitrov isn't playing great, but Roger is beyond awful. Had a chance at the end of the 4th to break, and could do nothing with 4 or 5 break points. Forehand doesn't work, backhand doesn't work. Serve isn't very good.

And now Roger has called for Physio. He is clearly very broken lets see if he can find a way to survive
 

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Roger wins the 3rd set as Dimitrov game drops a level, but Roger still is playing very poorly. I guess it is harder to be at your best every night when you are a pro at age 38, but he will be very lucky to survive the night, and has no chance winning this tournament, if he plays like this again

Federer gets broken to start the 4th
It's going 5
 

jon abbey

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There have only been two Grand Slam finals without any of the big three since 2005, Cilic/Nishikori here in 2014 and Murray/Raonic at Wimbledon in 2016. Nadal needs two more wins to keep this from being the third.
 

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I sometimes forget that Nadal has 18 major titles to Federer's 20. Nadal only has one non-French open championship in the last six years -- 2017 U.S. Open -- so it would be huge for Nadal to reach or surpass Federer if he could win his 19th this year, since I think it's safe to assume he'll get one or two more French Opens before he's done.
 

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Anyone watching Berrettini/Monfils? Goodness gracious. Monfils refused to die, until Berrettini got him on Match Point #5. Epic final set with nothing left in the tank for either guy but particularly Monfils.
 

jon abbey

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Nadal/Schwartzman the strangest 6-4, 7-5 (both sets to Nadal) match that you will ever see.

Nadal 4-0
Schwartman 4-0
Nadal 7-1 (wins the first set 6-4, goes up 5-1 in the second)
Schwartzman 4-0
Nadal 2-0 (wins the second set 7-5)

Has to be very very rare to win four straight games twice in a row in the first two sets and lose both of them.
 

InstaFace

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Holy crap Serena is on absolute fire tonight. I'm not sure I've seen her play this well in maybe years. Not only is she not making errors at anything close to her usual rate, she's taking big risks with creative shots and fucking nailing them, while also playing D way more intense than we've seen in the latter stages of her career. About the only thing she doesn't have is 12 aces tonight, because she's A+ on just about everything else. Svitolina isn't playing badly, isn't dishonoring her 5-seed, but she is completely outclassed.

I can't wait to see her against Andreescu, this time for realsies.
 

johnmd20

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Holy crap Serena is on absolute fire tonight. I'm not sure I've seen her play this well in maybe years. Not only is she not making errors at anything close to her usual rate, she's taking big risks with creative shots and fucking nailing them, while also playing D way more intense than we've seen in the latter stages of her career. About the only thing she doesn't have is 12 aces tonight, because she's A+ on just about everything else. Svitolina isn't playing badly, isn't dishonoring her 5-seed, but she is completely outclassed.

I can't wait to see her against Andreescu, this time for realsies.
Did you watch her against Wang? It was one of the biggest blowouts ever in the quarterfinals. She's on fire right now.
 

InstaFace

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Did you watch her against Wang? It was one of the biggest blowouts ever in the quarterfinals. She's on fire right now.
I did, I had a great fucking laugh for about 45 minutes watching her against Wang on Tuesday night, caught it on replay and just skipped the commercials. The thing is, Wang kinda had nothing in her arsenal that could do any damage to Serena whatsoever. The points in the second set were 21-3 at one point. Yeah it was the QFs, but it might as well have been a first round against a qualifier.

But tonight wasn't against a nobody, it was against the #5 player in the world, defending Tour Finals champion, who this year made the AO QF, Wimbledon SF, and was in the USO SF. She had plenty that could hurt Serena - if she could ever get a shot with enough balance to go for it. She made some shots. She made Serena work for a couple of her early holds, had a bunch of break points. And Serena just upped her game and saved every single one. So, yeah, the score was more lopsided against Wang, but to me, tonight was way more impressive - and much better tennis.

I was watching one of her matches earlier this year and some announcer said something to the effect of "To me Serena Williams is, at all times, either #1 in the world, or injured. If she's healthy, then I don't care what her ranking is, I don't care how many events she's played or whether she's struggling with footwork or consistency - to me, she's the person to beat, and everyone gets a funny feeling in their bellies when stepping onto the court against her, because - if she's on - then their best simply won't be good enough." To that you could add: plus the whole crowd will be rooting against them, and for Serena.

Even right now, commenting on a very tense Bencic-Andreescu match, they keep on talking about "Well, that won't be good enough against Serena..."
 

jon abbey

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BIANCA ANDREESCU: "If someone told me a year ago that I'd be in the finals of the US Open this year, I'd tell them: you're crazy."

PAM SHRIVER: "I would've told them the same thing. I don't think i'd heard of you almost a year ago!"
 

jon abbey

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Andreescu is 43-4 this season, she is up to #8 now on Monday if she loses, #4 if she wins.