Tennis 2021

Another great stat from Matt Roberts: since 1987, when the Australian Open and the French Open became the first and second slams of the season, this is the first time that none of the women's quarterfinalists in Melbourne will be among the women's quarterfinalists in Paris. There is so much parity in women's tennis...and I kinda love it.
 

jon abbey

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"Coco Gauff has stormed into a Grand Slam singles quarter-final for the first time with a stunning performance. The 17-year-old defeats Ons Jabeur 6-3, 6-1 in the fourth round. Gauff is the youngest woman to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final since 2006."
 
Djokovic has been broken once in the second set (and broke straight back to love) and faced break points in two other games. He could be up against it in a moment, although it's 4-4 in the second right now.

Watching Musetti run around every forehand he can make me wonder just how much more energy you exert in a five-setter when you so heavily favor one wing over the other, and whether that's enough to make a difference.
 

jezza1918

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I am not able to watch, can anyone comment on how this is happening? More Musetti playing with no fear & rising to the occasion, or is Djokovic just really pedestrian today? Obviously it's not distinctly one or the other, just curious how it's playing out
 

cromulence

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I am not able to watch, can anyone comment on how this is happening? More Musetti playing with no fear & rising to the occasion, or is Djokovic just really pedestrian today? Obviously it's not distinctly one or the other, just curious how it's playing out
Haven't been watching for long, but Musetti has been fearless and going for his shots and Novak has been off. He even had a brain fart in the tiebreak and let a ball go that was in and right in front of him.

COME ON MUSETTI!
 

cromulence

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Ugh, I might have to turn this off. Musetti has disappeared since I started watching, besides the tiebreak.
 

jon abbey

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Not sure how much this matters with Djokovic in Nadal's part of the draw, but seems like he is rolling now.
 

jon abbey

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A couple nice drop shots to 5-0, serving for it. I think these two sets have lasted about 40 minutes combined.
 

jon abbey

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If I had to wager on the results, I'd pick the quarterfinals in the top half of the draw to be Gauff vs. Krejcikova and Sakkari vs. Swiatek. (So Kenin losing to Sakkari and Stephens losing to Krejcikova.) And Jabeur vs. Gauff is probably a toss-up as well. But the scenario you've outlined is certainly possible!
Hope you put some money on these, Gauff/Krejcikova through and Sakkari just crushed Kenin in the first set 6-1. Nice job!
 
Hope you put some money on these, Gauff/Krejcikova through and Sakkari just crushed Kenin in the first set 6-1. Nice job!
I don't think it would be seemly for a WTA commentator to bet on women's tennis matches. But thanks. ;)

I'm not entirely surprised that Djokovic won sets 3 and 4, but I certainly am surprised to discover that he won them both in the shorter-than-expected time I was out, and that I missed only one game won by Musetti. Yikes.
 

jon abbey

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33 of 39 points for Novak, up a break at 1-0 in the 5th now.
 

jon abbey

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Musetti retires down 0-4, I'm not sure the total time of the match would have been much different if Novak had won the first two sets as well as a similarly hardfought third.
 

jon abbey

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Assuming Nadal beats Sinner, 7 of the final 8 men are in the top 10 seeds.
 
Sakkari was starting to feel the pressure, and Kenin started playing much better, but Sakkari managed to hang on to win 6-1 6-3. I've commentated on Sakkari a few times and have followed her career in that context, and she seems to either really have it or really not have it on any given day, and this was clearly one of the "have it" days. (For Kenin, today was the opposite.)
 

jon abbey

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Sinner impressive in the first set against Nadal, he got down 2-0 but then won 4 in a row and is now serving at 5-4 for the first.
 

jon abbey

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Sinner just lost it the last few games, like a different guy entirely. First set to Nadal 7-5.
 

jon abbey

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The streakiness in the Nadal/Sinner match was wild, Sinner I think broke as many times as he held his own serve.

2-0 Nadal
4-0 Sinner
1-1
8-0 Nadal
3-0 Sinner (getting the second set back on serve with two breaks)
8-0 Nadal
 
Latest stat from Matt Roberts: if Swiatek loses to Sakkari, everyone in the women's final four would be in a grand slam semifinal for the first time. The only other time that has ever happened was at the 1978 Australian Open, back when many star players didn't bother making the trip. (We're already guaranteed three first-time semifinalists, which has happened only five times in the Open era.)

Meanwhile, today's two women's quarterfinals have both been minor epics. I missed Zidansek's win over Badosa - quite an upset, to my mind - but it finished 8-6 in the 3rd, and Rybakina is currently 6-6 in the third with Pavlyuchenkova. Pav has reached the quarterfinals of every slam in both singles and doubles but has never reached a semifinal in either singles or doubles; if she loses here, she'll at least get another chance in the doubles quarterfinals...with Rybakina as her partner.
 

jon abbey

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Zverev advances easily, so now the lowest ranked player of the seven remaining is #10 Schwartzman. Should be some fun matches from here, starting with Medvedev/Tsitsipas at 3 PM EST, and this one looks like it will actually be televised.
 

jon abbey

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Tsitsipas is up two sets, playing very well. He almost gave away the second set at 4-5, a horrific error on a sitter at net gave Medvedev two set points, but he fought them off and held and played a great tiebreaker to take it 7-3.
 

jon abbey

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Strange match from Medvedev, he seemed overmatched for long stretches. He went up 4-2 in the third but then Tsitsipas won the next two games at love. They stayed on serve until 5-6, Medvedev got up 40-0 but somehow blew the game, including a freaking underhanded serve on match point against. It seemed like Medvedev didn’t really want to be out there.

View: https://twitter.com/rolandgarros/status/1402377919146647553?s=21
 
Was thinking about waking up to watch Coco, glad I didn't.
The first set was very tense and even, although it wasn't particularly well played. And then Gauff just lost her composure, like a teenager is perfectly entitled to do. Nice rally from her toward the end, but we now have three very weird semifinalists on the women's side. (And the favorite to win the tournament will surely be the winner of the fourth quarterfinal now on court - probably Swiatek, but maybe Sakkari.)
 

jezza1918

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Incidentally, for those of you who were tennis fans at least 5 or 10 years ago...just how weird is it that the two best players among the five women remaining in the French Open are from Poland and Greece?
I was talking to my dad about this last night...without actual research the only player I could come up with from a decade ago from those countries was Radwanska. I’m sure I’m missing some?
 
I was talking to my dad about this last night...without actual research the only player I could come up with from a decade ago from those countries was Radwanska. I’m sure I’m missing some?
Apart from Randwanska, Eleni Daniilidou (former #14 in the world, five WTA titles) is the one I could think of off the top of my head...but yeah, they are short lists.

Great first set from Sakkari - I thought she was going to buckle there, serving at 5-4, but she's playing better than Swiatek so far. Can she keep it up?