Tennis: All Purpose Tennis Thread XVI

[MsMeow]

Felix and Gaby won their mixed match. It was quite obvious who the doubles specialist was!

 

[PanniniClaus]

Navarro loses to Zheng and acts like a spoiled super-rich kid (a rumoured family worth of 3 billion, which trumps ((oh, that word again)) Pegula by some margin), saying that she doesn't respect Zheng as a competitor and telling Zheng that she doesn't know how she has any fans. This after losing 6-7, 7-6, 6-1. Zheng responded gracefully and did not take it too personally.

Would love to know what she claims Zheng does.

 

[kihei]

Nole through to the quarters 5 and 3, but a lot of it, especially the first set, wasn't pretty as early on he struggled against Koepfler, a journeyman who should have been much easier prey.

 

[kihei]

Rain delay at 4-3 in FAA's match (might be a long one), with Felix looking pretty damn sharp to this point.

 

[kihei]

First set to Felix. He is playing extremely well and smart, too. Better shot selection, showing patience during long points, higher margin of error over the net, good body language, withstanding rather easily Medvedev's merciless pounding on his backhand, not going for too much on his shots. Best that I have seen him play in a long time.

2nd set: Daniil upped his aggression on all fronts but Felix matched him off the ground. The set went to a tense breaker that Felix won on the second match point 7-5. Superb win for Felix. He is in the Olympic quarterfinals.

 

[Tuggy]

First set to Felix. He is playing extremely well and smart, too. Better shot selection, showing patience during long points, higher margin of error over the net, good body language, withstanding rather easily Medvedev's merciless pounding on his backhand, not going for too much on his shots. Best that I have seen him play in a long time.

Looking calm and composed.

 

[VMBM]

Wow. A tennis match couldn't get much closer than Zheng vs Kerber. And I already thought in the first set that Kerber was toast when after an erratic start, Zheng was constantly pummeling her with big shots. Anyway, the sentimental favorite lost in the end.

 

[kihei]

Would love to know what she claims Zheng does.

Did, more likely. Which was clobber Navarro 6-1 in the third set. Probably didn't help Emma's mood much.

 

[kihei]

Meanwhile, while I was all distracted by Felix, I didn't notice that Collins has evened her match with Iga winning the second set, 6-2, just as emphatically as Iga won the first won, 6-1.

Iga making quick work of the third set, though. Two service breaks and a 3-love lead....Collins retires at 1-4 with a legit abdomen pull.

 

[Tuggy]

Awesome from Felix. Has a shot at a couple medals.

Mixed doubles later today.

 

[kihei]

Ruud cruises in straight sets over Cerundolo who seems to never show up for big matches.

 

[VMBM]

Rafa/Carlitos getting a tennis lesson in the doubles right now. I myself am guilty of hyping them in the tournament; it's a different game.

 

[kihei]

Interesting to note: before today's match, Medvedev was 7-0 against Felix lifetime.

 

[BMOK33]

Vekic on her way, this is rough stuff, Iga is gonna win RG and Gold likely going through Paolini/AKS...thats not exaxctly stiff competition right there at all, Vekic cannot move on clay at all so fully expect a capable clay player like AKS to just abuse her assuming she gets there

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Vekic on her way, this is rough stuff, Iga is gonna win RG and Gold likely going through Paolini/AKS...thats not exaxctly stiff competition right there at all, Vekic cannot move on clay at all so fully expect a capable clay player like AKS to just abuse her assuming she gets there

Shame Sabalenka + Rybakina didn't go the Olympics, for different reasons I presume, they're the two best women serves/power ground strokes women players to give Iga trouble on clay. Collins is a lesser version of both and gave her trouble today

 

[Tuggy]

Awesome from Felix. Has a shot at a couple medals.

Mixed doubles later today.

And they won, into the SF!

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Btw, Vekic on her A game could give Iga issues but yeah it's probably not likely on clay. This match against Kostyuk has been good though in this third set

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

That tiebreaker between Vekic and Kostyuk was one of the best pieces of tennis I've seen all year from entertainment point of view

 

[kihei]

Men's quarters

Djokovic/Tsitsipas
Zverev/Musetti

Ruud/FAA
Alcaraz/Paul

Women's semis

Swiatek/Zheng

Schmiedlova/Vekic

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Bravo to Zheng, from possibly being knocked out 2 rounds ago to a gold medal match

 

[kihei]

Zheng gets a ton of credit for being clutch when she needed to, dealing with the pressure and taking advantage of her opportunities, but it was a very strange match who lost four straight games in the first set to lose 6-2 and was up 4-love in the second set and just committed error after error (37 unforced errors in all). A very uncharacteristic performance by Iga at the worst possible time, especially shocking on the clay of Roland Garros.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

No human on planet Earth should've saved that set point that Paul added to give us a third set but Alcaraz isn't human

 

[BMOK33]

Zheng gets a ton of credit for being clutch when she needed to, dealing with the pressure and taking advantage of her opportunities, but it was a very strange match who lost four straight games in the first set to lose 6-2 and was up 4-love in the second set and just committed error after error (37 unforced errors in all). A very uncharacteristic performance by Iga at the worst possible time, especially shocking on the clay of Roland Garros.

She has always sort of played poorly in country events, she has had a couple of bad United Cup losses and also got steamrolled by Badosa in the 2021 games in Tokyo. She's mentally a different player in slams. I was most surprised Zheng had anything left in the tank at all, I felt her and Vekic would likely lose today due to fatigue.

 

[kihei]

All the Canadians are going "Win this in two sets, Felix, win this in two sets."

Bah, humbug. Felix telegraphed a shot and Ruud jumped right on it for the set. 10-8 in the breaker.

 

[kihei]

Felix's record this year in three set matches: 3-7