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Post by jimmalone on Jan 20, 2022 9:26:46 GMT
Medvedev - Kyrgios certainly the most interesting 2nd rounder. But after Daniil has won set one in tiebreak I think it will be tough for Kyrgios. Good match so far though.
Tomorrow is a match I'm even more curious about: Youngster Alcaraz challenges Berrettini. The winner of this match has a pretty good chance to go all the way to the semifinal in the first section of the draw. Though Monfils, who seems to be in pretty good form, is also up there.
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ibbi
Based
"Batman's a scientist"
Posts: 4,882 
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Post by ibbi on Jan 20, 2022 11:27:27 GMT
Medvedev is the MAN  skewering that fucking crowd after being cold as ice during the match. Potentially epic US Open rematch with Botic ahead. |
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Post by mhynson27 on Jan 20, 2022 13:12:50 GMT
Damn, bae Emma gone  |
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Post by pacinoyes on Jan 21, 2022 18:51:48 GMT
Well........we'll have a new male and female champ.......Osaka out  |
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Post by jimmalone on Jan 22, 2022 14:06:13 GMT
I'm curious if Anisimova can challenge Barty. It was a good win for her and hopefully after all those troubles she will find her way back. She certainly has the potential to compete for Grand Slams. As for now I think Barty will have to much variations for her though. Pretty uneven draw for the women, with the upper half stacked even with Osaka out. My pick would be a Barty - Badosa semifinal, but you really can't exclude any of them, maybe except Pegula. While in the down half it's probably between Swiatek, Halep and Sabalenka. My guess is Swiatek.
As for the Men's tournament, nearly everything goes as planned so far. But Andrey Rublev still has to wait for his first semifinal and now has fallen even before the quarterfinals for the fourth consecutive time in a Grand Slam. Cilic was playing and especially serving strong today, I'm curious what he can do in this tournament, he will now play Felix Auger-Aliassime in maybe the most interesting match of the round of sixteen.
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Post by mhynson27 on Jan 22, 2022 15:09:27 GMT
So happy to see de Minaur through to his first AO 4th round.
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Post by jimmalone on Jan 24, 2022 8:19:33 GMT
I hate this part of the Australian Open. The best matches are often in the middle of the night for me. Therefore I also missed Cilic - Auger-Aliassime, at least saw a replay of the Zverev - Shapovalov match the night before. Both Canadiens through to the quarters again, great effort by Shapo especially, helding his nerve and beating Zverev.
Medvedev survived with a scare against Cressy. Only saw the last couple of games, but the Russian seemed to struggle with the American's nowadays totally unorthodox serve and volley game. Nice to see that this type of tennis is still alive.
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Post by pacinoyes on Jan 24, 2022 10:33:21 GMT
FAA was my wish to go deep this year but now I'm praying for him to lose against Medvedev and just get baselined to death - because as talented as FAA is - and he's great fun to watch - athletic as anyone - even if he gets to this final he can't beat Satan in the other draw in a final at this point .........and that 20 title little jerk clearly has a path to get to the final fot Godsakes because you would assume Shapovalov can't beat him in the quarters .........which would make me want to stab myself in the face. 
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Post by themoviesinner on Jan 24, 2022 10:46:42 GMT
FAA was my wish to go deep this year but now I'm praying for him to lose against Medvedev and just get baselined to death - because as talented as FAA is - and he's great fun to watch - athletic as anyone - even if he gets to this final he can't beat Satan in the other draw in a final at this point .........and that 20 title little jerk clearly has a path to get to the final fot Godsakes because you would assume Shapovalov can't beat him in the quarters .........which would make me want to stab myself in the face. I thought Tsitsipas could beat Nadal, since he had defeated him in previous Australian Opens, but he's playing like shit right now and is struggling against Fritz, so who knows?  |
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Post by jimmalone on Jan 24, 2022 11:58:09 GMT
FAA was my wish to go deep this year but now I'm praying for him to lose against Medvedev and just get baselined to death - because as talented as FAA is - and he's great fun to watch - athletic as anyone - even if he gets to this final he can't beat Satan in the other draw in a final at this point .........and that 20 title little jerk clearly has a path to get to the final fot Godsakes because you would assume Shapovalov can't beat him in the quarters .........which would make me want to stab myself in the face. I thought Tsitsipas could beat Nadal, since he had defeated him in previous Australian Opens, but he's playing like shit right now and is struggling against Fritz, so who knows? Tsitsipas had elbow surgery only in November. I didn't have him on my short list of favourites here. He is actually playing better than I expected. As recently as mid December if I recall correctly he didn't know if he would play in Melbourne. |
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Post by themoviesinner on Jan 24, 2022 12:19:53 GMT
I thought Tsitsipas could beat Nadal, since he had defeated him in previous Australian Opens, but he's playing like shit right now and is struggling against Fritz, so who knows? Tsitsipas had elbow surgery only in November. I didn't have him on my short list of favourites here. He is actually playing better than I expected. As recently as mid December if I recall correctly he didn't know if he would play in Melbourne. Yeah you're right. He actually is playing well this tournament and raised his level quite a bit in this match as well, from the start of the second set and onwards, but Fritz is nearly faultless right now. He's playing really well. |
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Post by jimmalone on Jan 24, 2022 12:27:35 GMT
I think Fritz has definitely raised his game over the course of the last year. He still lacks consistency in performance, but consistency in his strikes has become better and he has beat some pretty good opponents in 2021 occasionally.
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Post by jimmalone on Jan 24, 2022 12:52:25 GMT
BTW: If some of you have missed this, this shot is an absolute must see.
If watched many matches, but never have seen this before.
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Post by themoviesinner on Jan 25, 2022 11:18:08 GMT
Watching Berrettini vs Monfils right now. Pretty good game so far. I can't think of any other top 10 player with a backhand as weak as Berrettini's, but his forehand is fantastic though. So many great shots with it. Monfils looks like he's about to faint, but keeps running around and returning everything. Pretty entertaining stuff from both.
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Post by jimmalone on Jan 25, 2022 19:32:06 GMT
That was a great match indeed. Berrettini (who has indeed the weakest backhand of any current top 10 player, if we look a bit back we would some weaker ones though like Milos Raonic) really was in control, serving so good and honestly after he hold his serve in that ridiculous 20-minute-game for 2:1 (?) in the second set and accomplished the break himself I thought the match was over. But it was great to see Gael never give up and I already began hoping for a comeback (nothing against Berrettini, whom I really like, just love Monfils), but at the start of the fifth Monfils lost the focus and that was it. Well, it was a typical Monfils ending after all...
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Post by jimmalone on Jan 26, 2022 7:51:47 GMT
Never expected Tsitsipas to blow out Sinner that way. One thing is certain: His elbow is absolutely no problem for Tsitsipas. Otherwise he couldn't have played the way he did today.
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Post by themoviesinner on Jan 26, 2022 13:38:12 GMT
Great win for Medvedev. Wasn't playing well in the first two sets, but gradually found some good form. Auger-Aliassime was pretty great overall and could have definitely won it, but got tight on crucial moments. This was another quality quaterfinal.
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Post by jimmalone on Jan 26, 2022 13:39:38 GMT
This was a great match, maybe the tournaments best so far, between Medvedev and Auger-Aliassime.
First of all Chapeau to Felix. I haven't seen a better performance of him before, especially since he hold his nerves very well thoughout the match, which usually always has been an issue with him. Also his shot selection and his variety have increased and I think he will make the next step this year, especially if he continues to reduce his errors. This is a hard defeat to take, being 2-0 up in sets, but in the end and especially with Toni Nadal to his side I think he will take many good things from today. He now knows that he can keep it close with the world's best players and might challenge them more often in the future.
Also kudos to Daniil, who found yet another way to win the match, when he wasn't playing his very best. This is a sign of champions.
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Post by pacinoyes on Jan 26, 2022 13:45:33 GMT
Great win for Medvedev. Wasn't playing well in the first two sets, but gradually found some good form. Auger-Aliassime was pretty great overall and could have definitely won it, but got tight on crucial moments. This was another quality quaterfinal. There's a real question for men's tennis that given the ages of the emerging players - and I'm a big fan of FAA and he's growing - clearly to go along with his awesome takent - will any male player aside from the big 3 win 10 slams of those currently playing? I tend to doubt that - once the big 3 stop winning - and they maybe already have .........do all the slams get split up among them like with the females? For Medvedev who's a little older - how long is window etc before FAA and the group under him start to surge for titles...... |
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Post by jimmalone on Jan 26, 2022 14:22:48 GMT
This is a question they ask for a few years already. But honestly it really doesn't matter. I don't urgently need players to win 10 slams. I rather have 6-8 players who are very close to each other and sometimes this player wins, sometimes the other one. There would be much more tension throughout the tournament.
I don't think we will have such a wild situation as with women's tennis right now on the men's side. Best-of-5 is a huge difference maker in that sense that the best will prevail more often than not.
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Post by themoviesinner on Jan 26, 2022 14:26:55 GMT
There's a real question for men's tennis that given the ages of the emerging players - and I'm a big fan of FAA and he's growing - clearly to go along with his awesome takent - will any male player aside from the big 3 win 10 slams of those currently playing? I tend to doubt that - once the big 3 stop winning - and they maybe already have ......... do all the slams get split up among them like with the females?I think that's the most likely to happen. There is a lot of talent, but there isn't anyone right now that looks likely to dominate in the future. I think the one most likely to reach (even surpass) 10 slams is Carlos Alcaraz. |
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Post by pacinoyes on Jan 26, 2022 14:36:41 GMT
To be fair 10 is a lot - it's just the big 3 have raised the threshold I guess - the others with 10:
Pete Sampras 14
Roy Emerson 12
Björn Borg 11
Rod Laver 11
Bill Tilden 10
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Post by mhynson27 on Jan 27, 2022 5:40:46 GMT
We're getting an all Aussie Men's Doubles Final. You love to see it.
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Post by jimmalone on Jan 27, 2022 9:18:13 GMT
Those numbers over different eras are really hard to compare. In the 90s it was still much harder to be good on all four surfaces as the difference between them was bigger. Grass in Wimbledon was much faster for example and balls jumped different as well. They changed this to get more and longer exchanges there, which obviously is fine for tennis, cause while occasionally they make for some fine contrasts, I couldn't stomach to many Isner-Anderson matches in Wimbledon semis, but in comparing numbers it's always tough. Not to speak that Laver or Emerson for the longest time couldn't play at many slams and Borg never except once travelled Down Under because the Australian Open just didn't interest many top players even in the early 80s. There was much less a "only Grand Slams count mentality" back then and Australian Open anyways were much less regarded then the three others. Even Sampras in the early 90s still wasn't interested in playing in Australia. Also it is always different to tell how players will really develop. As of right now I agree with themoviesinner that to me Alcaraz is the most likely pick to reach a high number of Grand Slams, as he is incredible for an 18-year-old. But you really don't know how players will develop, especially mentally, though you can sense it a bit. But for example back in 2002 I probably would have picked Safin to win more slams than Federer, which didn't quite become reality.  And not in 2010 I would have said Wawrinka would "beat" the french musketeers (Tsonga, Monfils, Gasquet) 3-0 in terms of slam count. Oh and I remember a time, when the whole tennis world speculated if Dimitrov would win 15 slams or just 5. But maybe I'm just totally clueless of course. But it's really fun to see players develop and change your mind about them all the time. |
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Post by themoviesinner on Jan 27, 2022 12:06:30 GMT
Just saw the 2nd semifinal on the women's side. Pretty disappointing to be honest, since I expected it to be much more competitive. But it was very entertaining to watch Collins just demolish Swiatek (who, by the way, is a Grand Slam winner) like that. Such a dominating performance. Let's hope the final is much more competitive, although Barty is the clear favorite and anything other than a two set win from her would be a big surprise.
As for the men I'm clearly hoping for a Berrettini - Tsitsipas final, as I think they would provide the much more entertaining match, as both will offer powerful, fast-paced tennis. The Medvedev - Nadal final, which is the more likely outcome, I fear will be a tedious grindfest.
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skewering that fucking crowd after being cold as ice during the match. Potentially epic US Open rematch with Botic ahead.
