Tennis Thread

[kittykat]

I mean I don't like Djokovic but I don't mind the whole jacket thing, he earned it.  You tie for most majors of all time, that deserves a little celebration.  It was a huge deal when Sampras broke Emerson's record and I was rooting hard for Serena to do the same to Court.  There was definitely Federer fatigue in the mid 2000s especially when Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt were predicted as the next greats to dominate  and Federer squished em. There's always a little fatigue when one person dominates and why we welcome a disruptor like when Nadal came on the scene in 2005.

[voiceover]

On 9/10/2023 at 4:47 PM, SuprSuprElevated said:

 

The Moderna Shot of the Day

 

This needs to be a gif til the end of time.  Congratulations Novak!

[shok]

Nobody's watching any tennis? I know I'm not.

Rafa's finally back on the practice court doing some light training so hopefully he'll be ready to go and I'll have some tennis to watch in January.  😉

[Crashcourse]

I'm not watching either.  Just waiting until next year.

[TVbitch]

I am watching the Asian tournaments. I swear every time I turn on Tennis Channel Kudermetova is playing. 🤣

Dimitrov has been ON FIRE, but sadly ran out of steam finally. Feel bad for the guy. Alcaraz has lost his way a bit. 

I enjoy the Asian crowds, as they are so respectful, polite and quiet. 

[roseha]

I watched a little Tennis Channel plus but I find it difficult to concentrate sometimes when there's no commentary, even when Alcaraz played Dimitrov there was none which surprised me.

This time of year tends to be wacko with odd tournament results sometimes, which is one reason why I'm not on the Holger Rune bandwagon - he's also been playing badly though apparently he's injured - but I just don't believe that winning the Paris Indoors last year was a prediction of greatness.  Look at some of the other winners - Jack Sock, Karen Kachenov?

Not to pile on but I've just read that Rune has added Boris Becker to his team - I was never a fan frankly but has it occurred to the Rune camp that Becker is not allowed in the UK as a condition of his release from prison for fraud?  Not very helpful for Wimbledon.

I hope the young players coming up will develop some fun rivalries but I feel we may be in a lull time at the moment.  Maybe it's part of the time of year issue though.

[shok]

Good for Jannik Sinner. He beat Djerk twice in one day, first in singles and then in doubles, to knock Serbia out of the Davis Cup. I'm not impressed with how the Davis Cup is run now but apparently Djerk wanted to win it very badly so yay for Jannik!! Italy will play Australia for the championship.

Djerk played (and beat) Cam Norrie a couple of days ago and apparently threw a hissy fit in the post match on court interview when the Great Britain fans pounded on their drums furiously to drown out what Djerk was saying and he was very unhappy about it. Awww. Poor attention seeking dweeb.

Turns out, before that match the doping officials came looking for Djerk to do an unannounced test - both blood and urine - and he got into a big fooferah with them - much yelling and stomping of feet - and said he needed an hour and a half to prepare for the match. So the doping officials wouldn't let him out of their sight from the time of their notification to him that they wanted to do the test until after the match when he finally provided the samples. Hah!! Good for them. I don't trust Djerk for a minute with all his weird and secretive preparations and processes before matches so I'm glad to hear WADA is doing some testing.

 

[woodstock]

Cancer Sucks

Chris Evert undergoing treatment for recurrence of ovarian cancer and will miss Aussie Open.

Sending healing vibes her way.

[Salacious Kitty]

That's insane. If it's a recurrence, shouldn't she gave had her ovaries removed the first time? She's not using them anymore. I'm just baffled as to why this didn't happen.

Sending healing vibes her way. 

[Notabug]

4 hours ago, Salacious Kitty said:

That's insane. If it's a recurrence, shouldn't she gave had her ovaries removed the first time? She's not using them anymore. I'm just baffled as to why this didn't happen.

Sending healing vibes her way. 

Chris' ovaries were removed at her first surgery.  The recurrence is apparently in her abdomen, probably on the peritoneum.  That is often the first place that ovarian cancer spreads.  I was hoping since she was initially diagnosed as Stage 1 (all the cancer inside the ovary and nowhere else) that she might do better than most, but this is not a good sign.  Her sister Jeanne died of ovarian cancer a few years ago.

[Salacious Kitty]

14 minutes ago, Notabug said:

Chris' ovaries were removed at her first surgery.  The recurrence is apparently in her abdomen, probably on the peritoneum.  That is often the first place that ovarian cancer spreads.  I was hoping since she was initially diagnosed as Stage 1 (all the cancer inside the ovary and nowhere else) that she might do better than most, but this is not a good sign.  Her sister Jeanne died of ovarian cancer a few years ago.

Thanks for filling in the gaps. The word "recurrence" is what threw me, implying it was in the same place. It was the specific way I read it, I guess. 

I hope she beats it. 

[AimingforYoko]

Tennis in Australia is...different.

[NUguy514]

3 hours ago, AimingforYoko said:

Tennis in Australia is...different.

No, thank you.

To be fair, I did live in Sydney for almost four months and never saw any of the infinite number of deadly things that can and will kill you in Australia.  There were three shark attacks in Sydney, though, while I was there, so...yeah.

[Carey]

I can take it or leave it in terms of Tennis in Australia.  It sounds good (on paper) when you're posting about it off of a computer somewhere in America.  If that was my go to place (and I survived it), I probably would promote it more but would not recommended living there permanently to anyone else

[NUguy514]

1 hour ago, Carey said:

I can take it or leave it in terms of Tennis in Australia.  It sounds good (on paper) when you're posting about it off of a computer somewhere in America.  If that was my go to place (and I survived it), I probably would promote it more but would not recommended living there permanently to anyone else

I'm a very proud American, but Australia is an amazing country.  It's stunningly beautiful and safe (despite my above post), there is great food (other than Mexican and, in my experience, pizza), and most Aussies are cool.  I was only there for four months, but if I didn't have family and friends and a community here, I would have stayed.

[shok]

Too bad for Rafa and Mery - they've tried so hard to protect baby Rafa from the paparazzi and other picture takers but they've been caught out in Australia. With Junior walking now it's that much harder to keep him in a corner. Anyway, he's cute as a button and looks like he's going to be a go-getter like his mama and papa.  😍

p.s. That's Mery's mother in a couple of those pictures. So nice that she's able to travel to Australia to help out with a toddler.

[Crashcourse]

He looks like a baby tennis pro holding that little racket.  😄

[shok]

Here's a quick peak of him with his daddy's racquet. It's almost as big as he is and he's got it in his left hand so for now I guess he's ambidextrous.  🤩

[Salacious Kitty]

Rats, Rafa has withdrawn from the Australian Open. 😢

[Salacious Kitty]

Here's the seedings for the Australian Open. No real surprises, but I didn't realize Madison Keys was out. 

[Harry24]

Will miss Madison and definitely Petra (congratulations, Petra!), but I will REALLY miss Muchova.  She is such a gifted, entertaining player.  Incredibly bad injury karma.

[crimsongrl]

ESPN has Nick Kyrgios calling matches... 😒 Maybe he's good but I FF right past those matches. 

Not an exciting first day but Coco plays tonight & Osaka is on Monday morning. 

Edited January 14 by crimsongrl

[Harry24]

Did anyone else watch Blinkova take out Rybakina?  Oh.  My.  God.

[blackwing]

I can't stand Danielle Collins, but I'm also tired of Iga Swiatek constantly winning, so I was really rooting for Collins to take her out.  Up 4-1 in the 3rd and then lost five straight games.  Sad.

Lots of big names are out on the women's side already.  Rybakina, Pegula,  Vondrousova, Jabeur, Sakkari, Wozniacki, Kerber, Raducanu, Osaka.  The last four I guess weren't unexpected since they all came back from long breaks, but still.  Looks like we are marching towards the inevitable Swiatek / Sabalenka.  I'm not a fan of Sabalenka either.  At this point I'm rooting for Gauff, Qinwen Zheng, or Azarenka.

[Harry24]

Thank you, THANK YOU, Jannik Sinner!!  Thanks to you the rest of the week will be a little brighter.

[peachmangosteen]

I haven't been keeping up since it airs in the middle of the night here but I am SO happy to hear Sinner took out Djoker and Mevedev took out the abuser.

[Medicine Crow]

1 hour ago, peachmangosteen said:

I haven't been keeping up since it airs in the middle of the night here but I am SO happy to hear Sinner took out Djoker and Mevedev took out the abuser.

Which "abuser" are we talking about?

[blackwing]

11 minutes ago, Medicine Crow said:

Which "abuser" are we talking about?

Zverev.  Accused of physically abusing two women.  The first ex-girlfriend didn't want to press charges.  The second one is the mother of his child.  Charges have been filed and he is going on trial in May.

The worst final for me out of the quarterfinals would have been Djokovic/Zverev, so I'm glad neither are in.  Wish it could have been Sinner/Alcaraz, but oh well.

[Carey]

I haven't been paying attention to the Australian Open either for the same reasons mentioned by peachmangosteen in addition to the fact that the biggest NFL games are happening now.  However, I probably would've still heard news on how Joke did.  Wasn't sure he even made it to the semis, but I also know that his A game was absent.

Needless to say, no sleep lost here

[NUguy514]

[CountryGirl]

@NUguy514, that was pretty much me when I saw the update. 

Buh-bye, Joker. May we never see any more obnoxious jackets from you again. Very happy abusing asshole Zverev is out as well.

I'm rooting for Sinner to win his first major. He'll forever have my undying affection for taking out Joker. 

[Salacious Kitty]

Team Jannik! I was able to watch, being primetime on the west coast. What a great win! 

Med's a character, but I prefer the quiet assassin Sinner. 

[TVbitch]

Sooo... I guess Dj isn't a robot. 🤔😁

I enjoyed Med attributing his 5 set victory to a lucky doink. Don't mind either winning, but would like to see Sinner get this one as a prize for toppling Novak. 

 

[BlackberryJam]

I feel like I only enjoy the majors after Djerkovic loses.

[roseha]

I just watched the replay of the Mixed Doubles final, congratulations to that creative genius Hsieh-Su Wei on her 7th major title.  For anyone who hasn't seen it and has ESPN plus, i recommend the replay.  She is something else to watch.   Hope she will be able to take the women's doubles as well.

By the way I recognized Paul McNamee her coach and former Aussie doubles champ in her box.   Yes I'm old.

Hoping for two good singles finals.  As far as the women go I'm not a Sabalenka fan so will be rooting for Zheng.

[Salacious Kitty]

Ugh Sabalenka. Why can't we have good things? 

[CountryGirl]

I was rooting for Zheng, too. Letting her racket do the talking like Sinner and my perennial favorite, Sampras. But congrats to Sabalenka, she earned it. I just don’t care for the grunting, shrieking, and toddler on the verge of a tantrum antics. Emotions are fine but she’s a bit much for my taste. 

[Carey]

2 hours ago, Salacious Kitty said:

Ugh Sabalenka. Why can't we have good things? 

Meh.  We just received a good thing!

[Salacious Kitty]

3 hours ago, Carey said:

Meh.  We just received a good thing!

If you're referring to Djerk, then yes, I agree. 😀

[TVbitch]

I thought Med had it in the bag. Very pleased Sinner made the comeback! He really kept it together. What a QUIET match, I really enjoyed that. Hope the NFL playoffs are also good contests!

[Dr.OO7]

I guess we'll have to wait until 2028 for Coco Gauff to earn the Calendar Year Golden Slam. Which would actually be very appropriate, coming 40 years after Steffi Graf did it.

[Carey]

So happy for Sinner as well.  While the win 2 days ago was very impressive, I'm in the camp of making it count.  He sure did!

[Salacious Kitty]

Forza Sinner! Great win for his resume. Pity it's an all nighter here on the west coast, so I will try to catch some of the repeat later. It conflicts with the NFC playoff game though. At least the first two BAD sets. 😀

[Crashcourse]

Congratulations to Sinner!  I'm so happy for him.  Also, I liked Carlos sending out a congratulatory tweet to him.  I'm looking forward to seeing these two in the future.   

[CountryGirl]

Sinner, Sinner, Aussie Winner!

I’m thrilled for him to have his 1st major title and his ending the Italian Grand Slam drought. 

My husband was convinced Med had it in the bag with those first two sets, but I kept the faith. 
 

I’m looking forward to seeing what he and the rest of the youngsters will do this year. 

[Salacious Kitty]

Carlos left Sinner a nice message on IG. I look forward to their rivalry this next decade or so. 

[Harry24]

So glad to see Osaka beating two quality opponents in a row.  Her returning to around the top of the game would be great for me as I find her game so darn exciting to watch.  I just love watching clean, powerful hitters like her, Davenport and others.

[khyber]

Watching Sinner these days is a thing of beauty.

[Crashcourse]

Also, watching that young guy Luca Nardi beat Djoker was a thing of beauty.  Djoker looked like he was in a state of shock when he walked off the court.

[Salacious Kitty]

3 hours ago, khyber said:

Watching Sinner these days is a thing of beauty.

I love Sinner! If Rafa can't return, I will happily uber Jannik.