Tennis 2020: There is an I in Thiem

CFB_Rules

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McEnroe is right though. If you are Zverev, it’s not possible to have a more brutal loss. Up 2-0 in sets, served for the match, double faults in the tiebreaker.
 

jezza1918

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At the end of the day that was a dramatic and compelling match, but not necessarily a great showcase for men’s tennis post big 3 era. Of course by the time the big 3 finish the other top guys could be a couple teenagers we haven’t even heard about yet...
 

jsinger121

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At the end of the day that was a dramatic and compelling match, but not necessarily a great showcase for men’s tennis post big 3 era. Of course by the time the big 3 finish the other top guys could be a couple teenagers we haven’t even heard about yet...
I agree with this take. Had either Djokovic not gotten DQ'd or Nadal been here its likely neither of these two even make it to the final. They are such a step down from the Big 3.
 

jon abbey

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Yeah, that's not true. Thiem is 5-2 head to head career vs Federer, 5-9 career vs Nadal (1-1 on hardcourts), 4-7 vs Djokovic, so 14-18 career vs the three of them and he has only gotten better in the last year or so.

This January he beat Nadal at the Australian in 4 and lost the final to Djokovic 6-4 in the 5th. Last French Open he beat Djokovic in the semis and lost to Nadal in the finals, the big 3 right now has Thiem in it and not Federer, who has only made one Grand Slam final in the last seven he has played.

Also with the French up next, Thiem is definitely top 2 on clay now, making the semis of the last four French Opens and the final of the last two. Thiem also had big breakthroughs for him in the two hardcourt Slams this year, he had only made one QF career between them before this year making the final at the Australian and winning the US.
 

jezza1918

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Thiem certainly has earned his stripes before, and agreed he is a top 3 player in the world. Even with a healthy Nadal/Federer/non DQ'd Djokovic he's got a great shot to make the finals. From a larger perspective though, I think we may be heading towards an era that is pretty lackluster. Of course we were headed that way post Sampras/Agassi but it only lasted a few years once Federer and then Nadal came onto the scene, so who really knows. I was texting with my old boss (who runs a tennis travel biz) and he joked that he doesnt think Fed/Nadal/Djokovic have much to worry about in terms of any of these guys catching up them in terms of slam totals; I responded Im not sure Murray or Wawrinka have much to worry about...
 

CFB_Rules

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Thiem is definitely one of the top guys and can beat any of the Big 3...but he wouldn't have beaten any of them playing the way he did yesterday.

With any great comeback there is always the question of whether the frontrunner collapsed or if they were simply outplayed by an opponent who figured things out. This match felt a lot less like 28-3, and a lot more like Jean van de Velde approaching the 18th hole.
 
I was definitely rooting for Thiem yesterday, for a number of reasons. Some of them are personal: e.g., I've spent a lot of time in Austria over the past six years and have friends there who obviously root for him, and I commentated on a great Thiem-Coric match at the ATP 1000 tournament in Madrid a few years ago and have been following his career particularly closely ever since. (He's now the first player male or female to win a Slam after being involved in a matched I'd called.) But there were two entirely tennis-related reasons as well: one of them is that I don't think Zverev deserves to win a Slam yet. No player with his balky serve should be winning Slams, and if he'd had to face someone like Medvedev in the semis instead of Carreno Busta, there's no way he would have reached the Final. (And Carreno Busta came very close to winning as it is.)

The other is that I think Thiem has done the hard work and has a CV which makes him a worthy Slam winner...but if an attack of nerves had caused him to lose this match - and apparently he attributed both his horrible play in the first two sets and his cramping/choking in the 5th set to nerves as well - it might have had a devastating effect on his career. Instead, he's the first NextGen player to get over the Grand Slam hump, and even if it came in a tournament with no Federer, no Nadal and a defaulted Djokovic, it's still a Slam, and I think it will give him confidence and help him play his best tennis the next time he faces one of the Big Three in a Slam, in a Final or otherwise. (He's a bit like Andy Murray in that regard, Murray having had a 0-4 record in Slam finals before finally winning one and then going 3-4 in his next seven Slam finals, the latter being a perfectly respectable record in the Big Three era.) If Thiem should play Djokovic or Nadal at Roland Garros in a few weeks' time, we might see some amazing tennis. And my hope is that Thiem being successful will inspire Medvedev and Tsitsipas and indeed Zverev, et al., to raise their games in such a way that maybe the NextGen will be enough to help men's tennis survive the inevitable departure of the Big Three era, or indeed to give Djokovic some serious competition after Federer and Nadal leave the stage first.
 

jon abbey

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Switched the thread title back to the one I had earlier in the year, figured Thiem deserved it.
 

shawnrbu

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The weather conditions should be interesting. Watching Svitolina/ Rybakina in the final of a warmup tournament and both players wearing long sleeves and leggings. Not used to seeing tennis played in sub-60 degree weather.
 

jon abbey

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Medvedev lost the first set and was in a tiebreaker in set 2. He had evidently already been warned for racket abuse, so when he missed a shot wide to go down 6-3 and broke his racket in frustration, the chair ump had no choice but to award a point to Fucsovics, giving him the set and a two set lead. Do not remember seeing that before, although I probably have.
 

jon abbey

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Serena pulls out before her second round match with an Achilles injury, and Azarenka gets stomped 2 and 2. The men's draw is looking much more compelling than the women's here.
 

jon abbey

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All four of the women's semifinalists from the US Open are already out:

Osaka: Not in the draw
Azarenka: 2nd round loss to Schmiedlova
Brady: 1st round loss to Tauson
Serena: W/D ahead of 2nd round match
 

jon abbey

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Too much happening this week to pay much attention to this so far, but the top three men are just steamrolling their way towards each other (Thiem/Nadal in the semis, Djokovic in the final).

Djokovic: 9-0 in sets, 15 games total lost.
Nadal: 9-0 in sets, 19 games total lost.
Thiem: 9-0 in sets, 28 games total lost.
 
My favorite match from the first seven days at Roland Garros had to be Hugo Gaston's upset of Stan Wawrinka yesterday. The French wildcard, ranked #239 in the world and who had never defeated a player in the top 50 before - or won a single ATP-level match before this week - played extravagant, very French tennis and wound up winning 6-0 in the 5th. At one point, I think in the 4th set, he played a lob between his legs, facing the back of the court, and missed it long by about three inches. Gaston plays Thiem tomorrow and will probably lose in straight sets, but still...what a week it's been for him.
 

jon abbey

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Halep was the overwhelming favorite to win the women’s title coming into today, but she is being obliterated by 19 year old Swiatek from Poland, 6-1, 5-1 currently,.
 

jon abbey

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6-1, 6-2 final, they just called this the biggest upset of the year.
 

jon abbey

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Halep beat Swiatek 1 and 0 in the same round last year, can't have much more of a flip than that. Amazingly she is now the favorite, slightly over Svitolina and Kvitova.

Iga Swiatek +250
Elina Svitolina +260
Petra Kvitova +333
Sofia Kenin +900
Fiona Ferro +1100
Ons Jabeur +1600
Nadia Podoroska +1800
Danielle Collins +2000
Martina Trevisan +2800
Laura Siegemund +2800
Paula Badosa +3300
Shuai Zhang +4000


https://www.sportsbettingdime.com/tennis/french-open-odds/
 

jon abbey

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Meanwhile Thiem lost the 3rd and 4th sets to young Frenchman Hugo Gaston, no idea why the Tennis Channel is still making us watch Schwartzman.
 

jsinger121

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Daniel Altmaier is a 22 year German qualifier who had never played In a grand slam tournament until now is in the 4th round having won his first three matches in straight sets. Pretty nice story.
 

jon abbey

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On serve at 3-2 in the 5th and still showing some minor doubles match on The Tennis Channel. Do you know why this is, @Conigliaro's Potential ? Usually when this happens it's because the better match is on a higher profile station, but I don't think that's the case here.
 
On serve at 3-2 in the 5th and still showing some minor doubles match on The Tennis Channel. Do you know why this is, @Conigliaro's Potential ? Usually when this happens it's because the better match is on a higher profile station, but I don't think that's the case here.
You probably don't want to be asking the guy living in the UK about US tennis television rights. ;)
 
One of Iga Swiatek, Martina Trevisan or Nadia Podoroska is going to be playing in the women's singles final on Saturday. Crazy. (Podoroska just thrashed Elena Svitolina 6-2 6-4.)

Also, in the other half of the draw we have a guaranteed American semifinalist, with Sofia Kenin vs. Danielle Collins to take place tomorrow after Collins edged a very good match with Ons Jabeur this morning. (The other quarterfinal on that side is Kvitova vs. Siegemund.)
 

jon abbey

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Podoroska is the first qualifier to make a Grand Slam semi since 1999, and Trevisan could be the second.
 

jon abbey

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Thiem in big trouble against Schwartzman. He was up 2 sets to 1 (6-7, 7-5, 7-6) and quickly went up 2-0 in the 4th, but Schwartzman won 5 of the next 6 games and is up 5-3 trying to send it to a 5th. Keep in mind that there is no 5th set tiebreak here.
 

jon abbey

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Thiem fights off some set points and ties it at 5-5, trying to avoid a 5th before facing Nadal.