Tennis: US Open 2024

[kihei]

Sabalenka deserves credit on another score, too. How difficult must it be to cope with the suicide of a partner in March and continue undergoing the rigors of a professional tennis career. She seems to have come though this period with grace and dignity. All credit to her

 

[kihei]

I'd like to see Taylor win. I just can't see any path for him to do so. Outside of first serve, Sinner checks off all the other boxes. Fritz's only hope is that Sinner plays beneath his abilities (or the wrist problem flairs up). But how likely is that? Sinner in four sets

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

I don’t think Sinner is going to blow Fritz out today. Sinner isn’t playing so good this tournament that he can beat a good player in great form on his best surface with a partisan crowd in an easy three sets. I think there will be a few points here or there in each set (or most of the sets) that decide the match. Let’s see who wins those.

 

[kihei]

Sinner breaks immediately and looks awesome doing it.

But Fritz soon gets the break back, 2-all. Big-league fastballs galore off both wings from both guys.

Weak service game from Taylor and he is down a break 4-3, as Sinner begins to control more and more of the points.

Ends in domination fashion by Sinner as Fritz can't match him from the baseline and only served 38% on first serve in the set.

 

[kihei]

Only seven attempts to get to the net combined from both players. Easy explanation: how do you hit a decent approach shot when you are coping with 80 to 90 mph howitzer groundstrokes.

 

[kihei]

4-all as Fritz is serving way, way better this set, an absolute necessity.

Second set to Sinner 6-4. Fritz doesn't have an answer to Sinner's offense, but he doesn't have an answer to his defense either. Hard to win that way, obviously.

 

[kihei]

Crowd hasn't been much of a factor since the first set....but they are getting into it now as Fritz starts playing lively tennis again.

Fritz's efforts rewarded with a break for 4-3. Sinner has had at best a mediocre serving day and it is even worse this set (36%). Time for Sinner to adjust.

With Fritz serving for the set, Sinner breaks, 5-all.

 

[kihei]

No disgrace to Fritz at all. The way he played would have beat most players today. But Sinner was awesome on everything except serve. The best man won.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

That’s slam #1 with an asterisk for tennis.

Fritz played a terrible match. Couldn’t hit any shots for winners. Every time he tried he misfired. Sinner used good tactics to counter Fritz’s serve once it got going, and Fritz serve lost him too often for how he was hitting from the ground.

 

[TCTC]

Fritz pretty much played his best tennis and still had no chance. I think him making the final this year was an anomaly, tbh. He's just not that caliber.

 

[kihei]

That’s slam #1 with an asterisk for tennis.

Fritz played a terrible match. Couldn’t hit any shots for winners. Every time he tried he misfired. Sinner used good tactics to counter Fritz’s serve once it got going,the ball and Fritz serve lost him too often for how he was hitting from the ground.

Think you are way too hard on Fritz. He did often overhit the he ball because Sinner was in control of too many points. But his options were non-existent. I thought he made a match of it otherwise, even outplaying Sinner for stretches. Sometimes the other guy is just better than you.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Think you are way too hard on Fritz. He did often overhit the he ball because Sinner was in control of too many points. But his options were non-existent. I thought he made a match of it otherwise, even outplaying Sinner for stretches. Sometimes the other guy is just better than you.

His serving in the first set was pretty awful. Like under 40% first serve I think, which for such a good server isn’t anywhere up to par. And then late in the third he went back to around that percentage. I haven’t looked at the winners to unforced numbers and I get that Sinner’s defense takes away a few winners and probably forces a player into more unforced, but for someone who is legitimately a very good ball striker from both wings he was uncharacteristically bad off the ground. Sure, Sinner should win most longer rallies, but the amount he won was an absurd percentage. Fritz movement, which already isn’t a strength, wasn’t there either after the five setter on Friday night. Didn’t recover well.

Obviously Sinner is a better tennis player, but Fritz is more than good enough to put up a better showing than he did. The way he played today I think he would’ve lost his prior three matches.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Been watching the NFL more so I only caught the third set when the match was tightening up, Sinner is an awful matchup for Fritz because of his defensive nature. Fritz's serve becomes meaningless when someone can consistently get the ball into rallies, Fritz's FH let him down from what I saw it seems, he might've just been exhausted for the whole tournament which is valid. It was his first time being at this stage, he'll be back.

Both winners the most deserving out of the group

 

[kihei]

His serving in the first set was pretty awful. Like under 40% first serve I think, which for such a good server isn’t anywhere up to par. And then late in the third he went back to around that percentage. I haven’t looked at the winners to unforced numbers and I get that Sinner’s defense takes away a few winners and probably forces a player into more unforced, but for someone who is legitimately a very good ball striker from both wings he was uncharacteristically bad off the ground. Sure, Sinner should win most longer rallies, but the amount he won was an absurd percentage. Fritz movement, which already isn’t a strength, wasn’t there either after the five setter on Friday night. Didn’t recover well.

Obviously Sinner is a better tennis player, but Fritz is more than good enough to put up a better showing than he did. The way he played today I think he would’ve lost his prior three matches.

Didn't see it that way. Fritz's service game was awful in the first set but his serve percentage was way better than Sinner's in each of the last two sets, like by a wide margin. Didn't change anything. Likewise, Fritz hit 29 winners in 32 games, a respectable number especially when compared to the fact that Sinner only hit 22 winners. In unforced errors, the difference does go the other way, with Sinner making only 21 errors compared to 34 for Fritz, though that isn't an outrageous total for 32 games either.

I think the major difference had to do with Sinner's dominance on Fritz's second serve and his ability to place his plus-one shots and his returns of serve more effectively time after time. His return game too often had Fritz on the defensive immediately. Taylor sometimes could return to neutral but usually that was as far as he could go. Then, increasingly Jannik's superiority in talent just proved too much for a very good foe.

 

[17futurecap]

I feel like the two best players won respectively, and honestly that’s cool to see sometimes.

 

[kihei]

As a consequence of his victory, Sinner is almost certainly going to end the year at #1. He has a more than 4000 point lead over Zverev and a slightly less than 4500 point lead over Carlos.

 

[MsMeow]

Sabalenka deserves credit on another score, too. How difficult must it be to cope with the suicide of a partner in March and continue undergoing the rigors of a professional tennis career. She seems to have come though this period with grace and dignity. All credit to her

For sure, but she had broken up with him prior to his death. That changes things a bit but of course it is still difficult.

 

[hockey20000]

sinner getting any backlash at all for the drug tests?

 

[kihei]

sinner getting any backlash at all for the drug tests?

I saw nor read anything suggesting that he got any blow back at all. I read that during his first practice session fans were very supportive. Even when he was playing Americans he was treated with respect, certainly no booing of any kind that I heard. And this is New York....where fans have no qualms about expressing their feelings when it suits them.

 

[CupofOil]

Disappointing U.S. Open to say the least, very forgettable. The Olympic year kind of screwed things up, knocked some of the top guys and gals out early so we ended up with foregone conclusions with Sabalenka and Sinner winning although I doubt anybody was stopping Sabalenka anyway.
With all due respect to Draper and Fritz who are fine players, that semi and finals path to a slam win was one of the easiest that I can recall in recent memory, added in Medvedev's complete clunker in the quarters. Sinner is a great player but he was hardly challenged in this tournament.

 

[SlafySZN]

Disappointing U.S. Open to say the least, very forgettable. The Olympic year kind of screwed things up, knocked some of the top guys and gals out early so we ended up with foregone conclusions with Sabalenka and Sinner winning although I doubt anybody was stopping Sabalenka anyway.
With all due respect to Draper and Fritz who are fine players, that semi and finals path to a slam win was one of the easiest that I can recall in recent memory, added in Medvedev's complete clunker in the quarters. Sinner is a great player but he was hardly challenged in this tournament.

I wanted Tiafoe to make the final, he played so well the whole 2 weeks and he had a tough year but i doubt it would've changed the outcome anyway.