2021 In Between Grand Slam Thread

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118072059#Comment_118072059

Murray hasn't been able to win more than 2 matches at a tournament all year - can he do it here?

First win over a player inside the top 20 in 13 months

klr87

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118072527#Comment_118072527

So, for the hold-outs, the choices are now, in increasing order of common sense (which cannot be taken for granted with any of these):

1. Don't go
2. Allow no time for warm-ups events, arriving in Australia 14 days or so before the start of the tournament [NEW]
3. Go very early so that they can complete the 14-day quarantine before playing one or two warm-up events [NEW]
4. Get vaccinated!

The problem with option (3) is that a player and their entourage could be spending Christmas and/or New Year in quarantine. And option (2) would leave a player at a significant disadvantage in terms of preparation. There's a continuum between those two extremes, but there's no way I can see of completely avoiding both problems, exept by option (4).

klr87

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118072531#Comment_118072531

He's also up to 99 in the live ATP race, which is a much more accurate indicator than official ranking of 143. The latter is probably still affected by 2019 points being retained due to COVID-19, just as for the women. So it's likely he'll make the AO main draw under his own steam, unless the rankings don't revert to normal.

yerwanthere123

I wouldn't be taking that letter from the Australian Open as gospel. The messaging from the Australian government has pretty much been no vaccination no entry, so I doubt they'll be making any exceptions for tennis players. I personally think Djokovic et al. will come to their sense and get vaccinated soon.

Looking ahead at Vienna, hoping we'll have a decent semi final line up on Saturday because I'm after treating myself to some tickets 😎

klr87

Emma Raducanu wins her first ever main draw match on the main WTA tour, beating Polona Hercog 4-6 7-5 6-1 in Cluj.

Odd thing to say about a Grand Slam champion 😀

lostcat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118076698#Comment_118076698

She really caught a wave at the US Open, will be interesting to see if she can cement a place in the top 10 in the medium term. It doesn't look like she will qualify for the year end WTA finals which must be very unusual for someone who won a slam in the given year. it shows just how far from nowhere she has come I guess.

Some considerable see-sawing from various Aussies on the vaccination requirements in recent days, currently it looks like non-vaccinated people might be let into the country but not the state in which the tournament is to be played! Anyone for a shadow Aus Open in Perth?

Murray downed by Alcaraz in 2 sets who was much better on the UE count compared to Indian Wells.

Murray out-of-breadth after points a lot by the end of the match.

Great movement by Alcaraz and that forehand is already one of the best shots on the ATP Tour.

Another deeply impressive win for Alcaraz in a very compelling match that went the distance as he takes down another Top-10 player in the form of the powerful Berrettini in the Vienna quarter-final 6-1, 6-7, 7-6

Hard to believe that he's only 18 since May in terms of the composure that he displays on the big moments

There has been nothing seen like him on the men's tour in terms of doing it at 18 since Nadal

Itssoeasy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118090641#Comment_118090641

I was keeping an eye on that match and as you say it’s amazing how well the young players both men and women are doing at only 18,19.

Simona Halep won easily against her fellow Romanian 6-1, 6-1 and is into the semi final in Romania where she could play Emma Raducanu should she win later today.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118091036#Comment_118091036

With all due respect there have been plenty of young female players beating Top-10 ranked seeds and who (the young players) are also tournament winners at 18 on the WTA over the years but not on the ATP since Nadal 15 years ago

(Nishikori won a tournament young but was not really playing like Alcaraz in terms of maturity and composure)

It's just much harder to do it against fully grown men in a tour that is much more consistent also over its history

Raducanu blitzed by another teenager 6-2, 6-1

Increasingly looking like "Just another WTA Grand Slam Winner" - bizarre as that may sound it's not an oxymoron

It's hard to know what to make of WTA results

yerwanthere123

Raducanu being written off in her second tournament post US Open win 😏

Anyway, looking forward to seeing Alcaraz in the flesh tomorrow! Had my eye on the potential Zverev match all week so glad to see it's come to fruition. I suppose the Austrian crowd will probably be cheering for Zverev? I might have to cheer for Alcaraz quietly.

Hoping I'll see Sinner tomorrow also, don't mind who he plays against.

Well Raducanu is going down the Sofia Kenin route more than anything else so far.

If she was actually going to be consistent quality she shouldn't be getting hammered 6-2, 6-1 by another teenager (19) who has been around on tour for a few years but who has done absolutely nothing

Outside Serena there hasn't been a consistently good WTA player since Henin retired in 2008 (not counting the comeback effort)

MisterAnarchy

He is pretty handy for 97

https://twitter.com/WeAreTennis/status/1454048896066457607

yerwanthere123

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118091615#Comment_118091615

Better forehand than Gasquet

Sinner is in good form

He should get to the final

Zverev is the heavy favourite against Alcaraz but hopefully Alcaraz can make a match of it - will be interesting to see if he can get any change out of the Zverev serve

Itssoeasy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118091425#Comment_118091425

She struggled to win her first match of this tournament but looked much better in her second match and I didn’t see the one today(I saw the end of the halep match which is why I gave the score) but it sounded like she never got into the game.

This guy at 18 gets it.

Love the way he tries to play big tennis on the big points - and getting smarter all the time on shot selection.

Djokovic has shown these guys the importance of the trait - paving the way for the next generation of standard bearers.

Driving the standard - without that well you can see what happens.

Alcaraz over-powered by Zverev today who was very good - serving just too good with 80% first serves in and they were big.

Alcaraz wanting on his own serve with 50% first serves in.

Looks like Sinner is cruising to a straight sets win also.

Not very interesting semi-finals.

Final should be better - two form players.

Sinner really motivated to do well here because he wants to lock down his place for Turin and he has a tough draw in Paris so can't count on getting a lot of points there.

dublin49

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118094329#Comment_118094329

He was,and now looks like Tiafoe cant lose from here.funny ould game,

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118094588#Comment_118094588

Yes.

Surprising turnaround there.

Didn't watch it as looked like a done deal.

Can't see Tiafoe troubling Zverev too much in the final but if Zverev's serve is off might have a chance.

dublin49

watched his comeback,Sinner caved once Tiafoe started to play a little,Tiafoe can work the crowd with his antics and then feeds off them,great win.

Halep rinses the rinser of Raducanu 6-0, 6-1 (Kostyuk)

The prize money in that tournament is a bit of a joke - less than 30k dollars for the winner

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118095100#Comment_118095100

Sinner not impressed apparently with the "crowd working / stirring" on the part of Tiafoe

“In my opinion, Tiafoe went too far today. He did too much. It’s one thing when you put on a show, it’s another thing when there’s no respect. I don’t know what happened, but today I think he went a bit too far.”

yerwanthere123

Good day in the arena today, even if none of the matches were exactly classics.

I think what turned the Sinner-Tiafoe match around was the crowd. Tiafoe got them on his side and thrived off of it. The Austrian crowd were already a few beers in at this stage so it didn't take much to get them going 😂 Once sinner failed to serve it out it was a different match.

It was weird cause I was expecting the crowd to be on Sinners side with his Austrian roots, but apparently not. I stayed for the doubles SF at the end too but wasn't very invested tbh.

klr87

In the Cluj fnal between the top two seeds, Annett Kontaveit beat Simona Halep 6-2 6-3, and in doing so took the last spot at the WTA finals from Ons Jabeur, who was injured this week. There's no stopping Kontaveit at the moment. That's her second title in two weeks, her third since the US Open, and her fourth since August.

yerwanthere123

Kontaveit won 26 of her last 28 matches to qualify, impressive stuff. Love these end of season tears that players sometimes go on to make the finals, reminds me of Kuznetsova back in (I think) 2016.

With Krejcikova being the only grand slam champion to play it this year though I can't exactly see it being a sell-out...

klr87

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118099539#Comment_118099539

Correct, Kuznetsova won Moscow in 2016, and literally had to go straight from there to Singapore to play in the WTA finals, where she caused a stir by cutting her own hair mid-match! At least there is now a week between the last qualifying tour event and the finals.

In 2017, Caroline Garcia came from nowhere to win the two big Chinese events (Wuhan and Beijing) back to back, eventually edging out Jo Konta for a place in the Finals.

There was also just one slam winner in the 2015 Finals (Flavia Pennetta), as Serena finished her season after losing to Roberta Vinci in the US Open semi-finals, failing to complete the calendar year slam. It was still a strong line up though: This year's is not going to be as strong, but it should be very competitive.

klr87

Well, that's a sickener for Murray. He had 7 match points against Lucky Loser Daniel Koepfer in Paris, but lost 4-6 7-5 7-6(9). There was a match in Queens in 2014 where he lost in straight sets to Stepanek despite having 9 set points in the first set, but that was just the first set. He's usually been on the other side of these episodes. In the Shenzhen final the same year, he saved 5 championship points against Tommy Robredo, and another 5 against Robredo again in Valencia a few weeks later! Then there was that epic 20-18 tie-break in Dubai in 2017, when he saved 7 match points against Kohlschreiber.