Tennis Thread

[Mrs. P.]

1 minute ago, truthaboutluv said:

To empty stands. 

Probably a friendlier environment.

[truthaboutluv]

3 hours ago, Mrs. P. said:

Probably a friendlier environment.

Very true.

eta: So Tsitsipas for no discernible reason I could see, at about 5-3 in the fourth set, where he previously had a double break and was all but ready to close this match out, decided to just have an epic meltdown. 

Edited September 5, 2020 by truthaboutluv

[TVbitch]

Tsitsipas/Coric was the first really exciting match for me, where I didn't walk away from the TV. Tsitsipas would play amazing and get some break points, or win 8 games in a row, or be up 5-1 in the fifth set, but then go on walkabout and allow Coric right back in it. Coric earned it though. He was playing great tennis. Lots of spectacular points. There is no interview up yet, but I'm dying to know what was going on! 

Also, Cliff TOTALLY has a crush on Stephanos.   

[emmawoodhouse]

5 hours ago, TVbitch said:

Also, Cliff TOTALLY has a crush on Stephanos.   

Who doesn't? 😁

I was trying to watch about five things and missed the end of the 5th set. Sorry to see my Greek God go. 😢

[Spunkygal]

I hope Sloane can hang on to beat Serena! Looking good so far.

ETA: I hope I didn’t just jinx Sloane. I should know better.

Edited September 5, 2020 by Spunkygal

[emmawoodhouse]

Sloane will find a way to choke it away.

[PepSinger]

51 minutes ago, emmawoodhouse said:

Sloane will find a way to choke it away.

LOL. Your comment was prophetic. 

[theatremouse]

Why hello, Pospisil, suddenly living up to his potential.

[Darknight]

unpopular opinion but I kind of like it that there's no fans in the stands. It feels more relaxed and pleasant. 

[theatremouse]

At minimum it stops the whiny hissy fits certain players throw when the crowd seems to be against them/for their opponent.

[emmawoodhouse]

8 minutes ago, theatremouse said:

At minimum it stops the whiny hissy fits certain players throw when the crowd seems to be against them/for their opponent.

I was thinking about Medvedev flipping off the crowd last year. 😁

[topanga]

13 hours ago, Darknight said:

unpopular opinion but I kind of like it that there's no fans in the stands. It feels more relaxed and pleasant. 

I like it when the cameras show players watching other players’ matches. I didn’t realize they could only be on the grounds or in their hotel rooms. No where else. Makes sense, though. 

And I’m sorry Sloane stopped bringing her A game to the match, but I’m still rooting for Serena to finally get to 24. And her daughter is simply adorable. 

[Guest]

On 8/31/2020 at 9:31 PM, truthaboutluv said:

He is. 

Well Coco's out. I saw the match and she could have won, because Stevastova wasn't playing that great but the serve let her down. Other than that, most of the matches were pretty meh. It was cool discovering Petr Korda has a son old enough to be playing professionally now.

And then I felt old since I remember watching Korda play. Though to be fair, I think he was in the latter years of his career by that point. But yeah, his kid is like his doppelganger. As soon as I saw him and saw the last name was Korda, I knew that had to be his son. 

Slightly off topic but just an FYI: Petr Korda also has not one, but two grown daughters playing professional golf on the LPGA tour. Both Jessica and Nelly have multiple wins and are usually in the mix. They also have the Korda look XD

Edited September 6, 2020 by tracyscott76

[Spunkygal]

Quit arguing, Novak. Be thankful you didn’t kill that lady and get off the court. You’re a jerk.

[emmawoodhouse]

And he's OUT! Don't let the door hit you in your skinny ass.

[Spunkygal]

That’s was scary—-hearing her struggle loudly for breath. And that ridiculous smirky smile as he was arguing. Ugh. Maybe the jerk will learn a lesson. 

[truthaboutluv]

2 minutes ago, emmawoodhouse said:

And he's OUT! Don't let the door hit you in your skinny ass.

Just read this. When I saw the score, with the winner tick next to Carreno Busta's name, I assumed Novak retired from the match. But then I saw disqualified. I was like, "the fuck?" Of course my first thought was, "did he have another not-social distancing event and they just found out"?

[mojoween]

The cesspool that is Twitter was all over the map about whether he deserved a disqualification or not (I’m all for disqualifying him, I don’t need a reason).  I’m also enjoying the arguing going on on ESPN right now.  Is that Brad who is getting excoriated?

[Spunkygal]

Love Rennae not gonna hear it from Brad!

[Harry24]

The power of the ABN Train cannot be denied!!

[TVbitch]

I guess I got my ABN, but damn. He could have killed that woman, end of fucking discussion. I was pissed off that he got no warning for the prior shot that hit his bench!

[emmawoodhouse]

And Novak stood there the entire time arguing with no mask on. He really thinks he's above it all, doesn't he?

[BlackberryJam]

Wow. I haven’t seen it yet. Does anyone have the clip?

But hey, Novaxx Djcovid, it’s pulling crap like that which ensures you will never be loved like Rafa and Roger.

[truthaboutluv]

7 minutes ago, mojoween said:

The cesspool that is Twitter was all over the map about whether he deserved a disqualification or not (I’m all for disqualifying him, I don’t need a reason).  I’m also enjoying the arguing going on on ESPN right now.  Is that Brad who is getting excoriated?

The dumbest arguments are the ones declaring over and over that getting accidentally hit is a hazard of the job most lines-people deal with and expect. What they don't seem to get is that is accepted when it occurs accidentally during play. Not when it occurs because a player is smashing a ball out of some petty temper tantrum.

[Spunkygal]

Leaving without a statement. Stay klassy, dude. 

[Fukui San]

8 minutes ago, BlackberryJam said:

Wow. I haven’t seen it yet. Does anyone have the clip?

But hey, Novaxx Djcovid, it’s pulling crap like that which ensures you will never be loved like Rafa and Roger.

 

[cambridgeguy]

He didn't wind up and hit the ball with everything he had - it was more a casual, careless swing.  I don't think it was deliberate, but a casual swing from a pro is still pretty fast and yeah, getting hit in the throat can take someone down.

All of that being said, this will be mostly forgotten in a few days.  People who like him will say it was an accident, so why crucify him.  People who hate him will point to this as more proof of what a douche he is. 

[BlackberryJam]

I saw a couple of clips. He wasn’t aiming for her; just careless. It appears to hit her right in the throat, which is dangerous  and painful. The throat is one of the more vulnerable spots on the human body. 

Novaxx then approaches her and touches her, without a mask, and she’s probably gasping for air, but she looks terrified. I get that he’s had it already, but there is so much not known about this virus so masking, distancing all of that is for everyone. 

I have no issue with defaulting him. He then does argue without a mask, and finally goes over and shakes hands with Carreno Busta. He left the grounds without talking to the press, 24 minutes after the default. I bet he’s on the next flight out.

Edited September 6, 2020 by BlackberryJam

[Jillibean]

56 minutes ago, Spunkygal said:

Love Rennae not gonna hear it from Brad!

My new hero. Love those ladies for shutting him down so thoroughly as he tried to hedge and say that it’s not that he shouldn’t have been defaulted but they should have had instant replay to make sure he should have been defaulted, and then when that idea was debunked saying Djoker would have been defaulted SOONER with his replay idea, only to get that also debunked. Rennae was Not Having Brad’s blatant bias and it was beautiful to watch. 

Also, they can shut right up about how hard it was for him to recover from Covid. Brad, do you remember how he came to GET Covid, by any chance? Disgusted. 

Bye Felicia. 

[QueerGirrl]

51 minutes ago, BlackberryJam said:Novaxx Djcovid

I will call him this from now on.....I use to like him but he’s really showed his ass lately and I’m done with him.

2020 is not playing with you Novaxx.

[BlackberryJam]

I am in a restaurant and can’t hear anything (music not a crowd of people, we are all in something like plexiglass enclosures, such is life), so I’ve not heard Brad, but #ShutUpBrad generally trends in my brain during tennis coverage. He’s such a dudebro jerkwad. 

[Spunkygal]

1 minute ago, QueerGirrl said:

I will call him this from now on.....I use to like him but he’s really showed his ass lately and I’m done with him.

2020 is not playing with you Novaxx.

True, and to add, he may also have a shoulder injury after that spill on his left arm/shoulder a bit earlier in the match. So, yeah, 2020 karma is not playing around. 

[khyber]

1 hour ago, Harry24 said:

The power of the ABN Train cannot be denied!!

I wasn't expecting a derailment.

[EVS]

This is an interview from 2016 where a reporter asks Djokovic if he is concerned that he might hit someone with a ball one day.  I hope it’s ok to link to Reddit. 

 

 

Edited September 6, 2020 by EVS

[emmawoodhouse]

And he wonders why people don't like him. 

[Dejana]

He's very, very sorry (or someone on his team is pretty good at crafting apologies):

 

 

[emma675]

"Caused her such stress"? He was careless and took his frustration out in a childish way and a woman could have been seriously hurt. I have lost any respect I ever had for him over the last few months. What an ass.

Edited September 7, 2020 by emma675d

[emmawoodhouse]

 

[theatremouse]

Well, Nick, it was a line judge, not a ball kid, and given you've got many previous incidents, I'm guessing 3 months.

(Not saying Djoker doesn't also have incidents in the past, but he wasn't punished by ATP for a lot of them so I'm using the baseline of Official Incidents, rather than including incidents he's already gotten away with if I'm guessing how ATP would respond.)

[BlackberryJam]

I love YoutubeTV for recording all tennis, no matter what, for me. I watched the two games prior and the entire sequence. Novaxx had smacked a ball into the side board a few points prior, clearly in anger in frustration. You could hear the thwack echo in the stadium. James Blake pointed out then how dangerous it was and how Novaxx was playing with fire. Then Novaxx hit the ball without regard to where it would go and hit the line judge. Just sloppy and selfish.

PCB remained calm and stayed out of it.

The tournament director talked to the chief line judge/woman who was closest to see. Then he let Novaxx have his say. Nothing about a replay screen would have changed how this went. So SHUT UP BRAD.

Had there been a crowd there, they would have boo-ed Novaxx of the court.

[Dejana]

 

 

[pennben]

8 minutes ago, BlackberryJam said:

The tournament director talked to the chief line judge/woman who was closest to see. Then he let Novaxx have his say. Nothing about a replay screen would have changed how this went. So SHUT UP BRAD.

Brad was also suggesting the linesperson took a couple of steps to walk into his shot.  I really enjoyed the commenter covering the Kvitova match, when asked for reaction clearly pointing out that the linesperson never moved before being struck.  Only one who needed to see replay (and he had!!!) was Brad, who just couldn’t help himself from equivocating for Djokovic. Gaaahhhh!!

[xaxat]

3 hours ago, Dejana said:

He's very, very sorry (or someone on his team is pretty good at crafting apologies):

 "growth and evolution as a player and human being"? I'm going with option two. 

While I appreciated his talent, I had no judgement about Djokovic as a person. Then, this year, he hosted the covid tournament, started a "no girls allowed" league and now this. Major league asshole. You've got to work really hard to make Kyrgios look better in comparison.

 

[QueerGirrl]

Brad and his stupid fearhand needs to go away pronto.  Stop trying to make fetch happen Brad.

Edited September 7, 2020 by QueerGirrl

[magdalene]

He could have killed that woman. You know how dangerous it is to get hit in the throat like that....

Never liked him.  Always thought he was a douche without any class. 

Good riddance and I hope that is the end of his career.

[Rickster]

The chair umpire should have warned or penalized Djokovic after his first angry smash to the sidelines and then the incident with the lineswoman probably wouldn’t have happened. I’m guessing they were being lax the first time because of the lack of fans around.

It was unfortunate. I didn’t think he hit the ball that hard or maliciously-I’ve seen other players do the same thing-but it was “reckless” under the rules.

[khyber]

12 hours ago, xaxat said:

 "growth and evolution as a player and human being"? I'm going with option two. 

While I appreciated his talent, I had no judgement about Djokovic as a person. Then, this year, he hosted the covid tournament, started a "no girls allowed" league and now this. Major league asshole. You've got to work really hard to make Kyrgios look better in comparison.

 

On twitter they are calling him Novaxx Djocovid

[BitterApple]

I don't know if you guys have heard, but the lineswoman in question has been getting death threats on Instagram, and people have mocked her dead son.

For starters, that type of behavior is sick and cruel. Second, the tournament director made the decision on the default, not the lineswoman; and third, why not put the blame on Djokovic where it belongs?

Every time I think I couldn't possibly be more done with 2020, something else hits the news.

Edited September 7, 2020 by BitterApple

[magdalene]

25 minutes ago, BitterApple said:

I don't know if you guys have heard, but the lineswoman in question has been getting death threats on Instagram, and people have mocked her dead son.

For starters, that type of behavior is sick and cruel. Second, the tournament director made the decision on the default, not the lineswoman; and third, why not put the blame on Djokovic where it belongs?

Every time I think I couldn't possibly be more done with 2020, something else hits the news.

Some of his fans must be as toxic as he is. Like attracts like I guess.

[truthaboutluv]

I've said it before and I'll keep saying it - social media is toxic as fuck. It's the breeding ground of stan culture and trolls.