Tennis: All Purpose Tennis Thread XVI

[Tuggy]

Another perfect day in singles for Canada at the DC. This time against Finland.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Been catching up on the tennis for the past couple of days. Wow at Danielle Collins season crashing down, didn't expect her to lose in the first round in Mexico. Some fun results in the Davis Cup too. The Laver Cup rosters look so unfair btw

 

[Tuggy]

Huge win for Marina!

Stakusic saves four match points, ousts top seed Ostapenko in Guadalajara

 

[Tuggy]

Denis and Felix do it again. Didn't drop a set in singles group play.

 

[17futurecap]

Watching the Asian Swing in the middle of the night when there is 10 people in the crowd is the biggest letdown of the season every year.

 

[kihei]

Team Europe came from way behind after the first day to defeat Team World in the Laver Cup, 13-11. The final match between Carlitos and Fritz determined the victor when Alcaraz won in straight sets. He absolutely dominated Fritz in the first set, but after building a 4-2 lead in the second set, his play, especially his service game, dropped and he let Fritz back into the match briefly.

 

[kihei]

What a great week for the Chinese at home. Zhang is a finalist in Hangzhou. losing to a rejuvenated Cilic, but Shang defeats Musetti convincingly in Chengdu to become the first Chinese national to win a tour event.

 

[kihei]

Bothered by a sore forearm that bugged him the entire match and first serving as low as 135 km/h, Nishioka still manages to beat Felix in the Japan Open, 7-6, 3-6, 7-6. It was an infuriating match to watch. How Felix can follow up his Davis Cup heroics with an absolute stinker like this is just so hard to fathom. But he does this sort of thing time and time again.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Oh boy, WADA re-opened their investigation on Sinner and are seeking a 1-2 year ban.

 

[kihei]

Oh boy, WADA re-opened their investigation on Sinner and are seeking a 1-2 year ban.

Just read this.

You are undoubtedly too young to remember Abbot and Costello. But they had a baseball routine that was called "Who's on first?" This mess made me recall that routine. Who is in charge here? The protocols seemed all screwed up. The appeal can be appealed? How many hoops do players have to jump through and what are the actual rules and why aren't they made clear to everybody?

For those who haven't seen it:

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Just read this.

You are undoubtedly too young to remember Abbot and Costello. But they had a baseball routine that was called "Who's on first?" This mess made me recall that routine. Who is in charge here? The protocols seemed all screwed up. The appeal can be appealed? How many hoops do players have to jump through and what are the actual rules and why aren't they made clear to everybody?

For those who haven't seen it:

At this point, it was just a social media mob from twitter that caused this. People are gonna say the sport is trying to defend their star boy #1 when arguably Sinner had the rebuttal ready asap. I understand the anger if you're someone like Halep who had to sit out until her case was heard but being mad about the actual decision is comical imo.

 

[kihei]

Watching the Asian Swing in the middle of the night when there is 10 people in the crowd is the biggest letdown of the season every year.

You are so right. Alcaraz's second round match was played in front of oceans of empty seats, and most other matches are far worse than that, some of them seem almost completely empty. Such a bad look for the ATP, but I guess money talks.

 

[Tuggy]

Shapovalov and Diallo both qualify in Shanghai.

 

[kihei]

The crowds finally showed up in force in Beijing and were treated to two highly entertaining matches. Sinner knocked off local hero Bu in two tough sets in a match that resembled the laser sword battles in Star Wars, both players walloping the bejesus out of the ball. In the other semi, Carlos defeated Medvedev in a sloppy but fun match where neither served especially well but there was a lot of imaginative shot-making on both sides.

Sets up yet another Sinner/Alcaraz confrontation tomorrow at 5:00 AM. I sure don't plan to miss it.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Match of the year candidate brewing between Sinner/Alcaraz

 

[kihei]

Just wow. Carlos should have won all three sets. In the first set, he blew serving for the set at 5-3, a set point in Jannick's subsequent service game, and a 6-4 lead in the breaker. In the third set, he blew a 4-2 lead and then went down in the breaker 0-3 before winning the last seven points.

Which isn't to say that Sinner wasn't great, though I think he tired out a little near the end of the match when his first serve virtually deserted him. Some of the forehand exchanges between the two were utterly breathtaking, and the overall quality of play was incredibly high with a whole highlight reel of spectacular points. He took the riskier path all night.

Definitely the three-set tennis match of the year. Whatever is second is not even close. As tennis fans, we are blessed by these two.

 

[CupofOil]

Alcaraz-Sinner just has that Big 3 aura to it. The shotmaking, the drama, the momentum swings, the clash of styles. Tennis really needs this rivalry to continue to flourish because there isn't much meat on the bone in the ATP right now outside of them and Djokovic.

 

[Incubajerks]

Alcaraz-Sinner just has that Big 3 aura to it. The shotmaking, the drama, the momentum swings, the clash of styles. Tennis really needs this rivalry to continue to flourish because there isn't much meat on the bone in the ATP right now outside of them and Djokovic.

And the even more beautiful thing were the words that were said during the awards ceremony.