Tennis

[jkjk]

Hopefully, the Djokovic injury is less serious than it seems.

[Michael*]

If Djokovic is indeed out then realistically Nadal would have to beat Medvedev and Thiem back to back, which sounds like a tall order. Thiem almost had him at the 2018 US Open and nearly beat Novak in the Australian final last year.

[Michael*]

Starting with Hsieh-Osaka tomorrow, which could be the most interesting match of the tournament so far for me, after which we've got Dimitrov-Karatsev.

 

Also absolutely insane what Karatsev has done to reach this point, three tour wins in his entire career before the Australian and now four wins in a slam.

 

Overall though, I think this may now be Medvedev's title to lose. Really looking forward to seeing a match with Nadal, if indeed it comes to pass.

[jkjk]

Naomi Osaka wins again.    

[jkjk]

And Djokovic     

[Michael*]

On 2/20/2021 at 8:09 PM, jkjk said:

Naomi Osaka wins again.    

 

Osaka, Barty, Halep, Kenin, Muguruza and Serena are going to be the clearest threats at most tournaments, I'd say, closely followed by Swiatek who perhaps still needs consistency off the clay. Then, form and fitness permitting, Sabalenka, Brady and Andreescu too. That's a pretty exciting top ten.

[Michael*]

On 2/21/2021 at 11:02 PM, jkjk said:

And Djokovic     

 

The younger guys still can't seem to figure out how to win a slam against Djokovic or Nadal.

 

I heard it said once that the big three hunt as a pack, in that winning a slam would require another player to play and beat two of the three. One is difficult, two is near impossible. Should be interesting to see if that dynamic returns when Federer does.

[jkjk]

3 hours ago, Michael* said:

Osaka, Barty, Halep, Kenin, Muguruza and Serena are going to be the clearest threats at most tournaments, I'd say, closely followed by Swiatek who perhaps still needs consistency off the clay. Then, form and fitness permitting, Sabalenka, Brady and Andreescu too. That's a pretty exciting top ten.

 

The women's field is deep. There are a few names that could be added to that list which are not contenders every week but could win any time.

 

2 hours ago, Michael* said:

The younger guys still can't seem to figure out how to win a slam against Djokovic or Nadal.

 

I saw something from a tennis expert talking about how Djokovic played the final, and his summary was essentially what you said. He was talking about how Djokovic was adjusting to what was working and what wasn't working before Medvedev knew what was happening.

[Michael*]

On 2/27/2021 at 12:56 AM, jkjk said:

The women's field is deep. There are a few names that could be added to that list which are not contenders every week but could win any time.

 

It's interesting that some of the names I'd usually associate with high rankings and being a threat at any given time suddenly feel less relevant. Not to say they're in decline, but Svitolina, Pliskova, Konta, Garcia and maybe even Bertens have seemingly gone from being the best of the rest to just "the rest".

 

Then again, a lot of the most notable exits we've seen recently were at least somewhat quarantine-related, so it would probably be wrong to read too much into unexpected outcomes.