2022 In Between Grand Slam Thread

Tsitsipas comes back from the death vs the terrier

Zverev takes out Sinner who really needs to add more variety to his game

D-Fokina has a good chance to make the final playing Dimitrov in the other semi.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118932404#Comment_118932404

Raducanu has just been thrashed 6-1, 6-1 by WTA 32 Vondrousova

The BBC have gotten their excuses in early tho - "hampered by blisters"

poppy37

Another tough loss for her, blisters are a fact of life for tennis players and she needs to play consistently to harden up her feet. Blisters can be more common on clay as all the sliding creates more movement in the shoes and she hasn’t played on clay in a long time. However it’s yet another setback, she seems like a nice girl and I just hope it turns around for her, the pressure she will be under once clay is over will be huge and the media coverage will be relentless. Hope she has a good team around her.

yerwanthere123

Nice to see Davidovich-Fokina into the final after doing the Lord's work against Djokovic, would be good to see him take the title now. Fritz, Alcaraz and Davidovich-Fokina would be a most unexpected list of winners for the first three masters events.

No shame in Raducanu losing to Vondrousova, but perhaps winning just two games leaves a lot to be desired. Still, not a terrible outing for her first time playing on clay in over four years.

No such problems for Swiatek though, 60 60 against Prisacariu.

So this is an actual BBC article - mmm

https://i.imgur.com/vwirytQ.png

Fair play to Tsitsipas for back-to-back Monte Carlo Masters 1000 Titles

Not many have done that

dominatinMC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118944712#Comment_118944712

Yep, becoming increasingly obvious that clay is his preferred surface. I originally thought his game would be more amenable to hard, or even grass, but that hasn't really transpired. If fully fit, he has a serious chance at the FO, should really have won it in straights last year.

josip

Djokovic not going well in training for Serbian Open apparently. We have tickets for Fri-Sun but we've been advised to get tickets and see him tomorrow while he's still in the tournament 😀

His opponent Dere has been playing well on clay recently so Djokovic will need to be able to hit the ball in more consistently than last week (even though D-Fokina got to the final) where he was completely dire by his standards

Royale with Cheese

Russian players banned from Wimbledon. I can't say I agree with that, you are representing yourself as a tennis player and not your country.

Captain Barnacles

Absolutely mad decision to ban Russian players, utter nonsense.

This is a dangerous road we are going down.

yerwanthere123

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118950747#Comment_118950747

Nothing confirmed yet, for now this story seems to have come from Sportico. I've never even heard of Sportico so no idea if they're reliable or not. Hope it isn't true though, can't fathom how it might get widespread support.

dominatinMC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118950747#Comment_118950747

Virtue signalling permeating every aspect of society now.

Captain Barnacles

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118950816#Comment_118950816

BBC and guardian reporting it

yerwanthere123

Confirmed now. Russian and Belarusian players banned from Wimbledon 🙄

josip

Unseasonably cold here in Belgrade. Beanies, heavy coats and underwarmers for the ball kids, are order of the day.

Even the umpire looks like she has 6 jumpers on.

Itssoeasy

Shocking decision to ban Russian and Belarusian players from Wimbledon. What exactly does that achieve except to punish tennis players for something they have no control over. It’s nearly as bad as the IOC banning Paralympians from the two countries after first allowing them to compete. You can be firmly and fully behind Ukraine without punishing sports people from the two countries.

yerwanthere123

Strong, sensible response from the ATP

https://twitter.com/TheFanChild/status/1516811975925256192?t=8fzOLwNZayhfj5YPfciYug&s=19

Bad news for the anti-Djokovic brigade

😍

Djokovic playing much more like Djokovic against Dere in Belgrade, particularly as the match went on as he took the match in 3.

Movement and confidence coming back. Taking the big points.

Makes sense now what Ivanišević said just after Monte Carlo, that Djokovic was ill just before it and not 100%

Djokovic was out of energy completely by the end of that one last week. Not today.

"He wasn’t feeling well before he came here. He was sick. Let’s say he’s not fit one hundred percent to compete," Ivanisevic said.

Nowhere near the errors and mistiming seen last week, especially after the first set.

Definitely needs more matches to improve but very different to that Monte Carlo shambles

Dere was a tough enough opponent and well up for it to try to get the win

Kecmanovic may well beat Djokovic tomorrow but he's on the way back.

yerwanthere123

Strong words from the WTA about the Wimbledon ban

https://twitter.com/BenRothenberg/status/1516850341618274313?t=NikBOXa8WAMYxq-qSLsClg&s=19

Djokovic also speaking out against it

https://twitter.com/ozmo_sasa/status/1516884229069619201?t=lKJAkOkEK4lyal1jCYfI4w&s=19

Will be interesting to see what happens here, and what the response will be.

thiagos

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118921392#Comment_118921392

Not that surprising , they are both quite inconsistent.

thiagos

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118953145#Comment_118953145

A 7-6 in the third win against laslo djere couldnt possibly be classed as bad news for the anti djocko brigade. Jaysis Laslo Djere

obviously didn't see either the match today or the match last week to cop the context and difference

It's about how he couldn't hit a ball out of his way last week and was out of gas in the third set

Quality tennis on show from Djokovic today, particularly in set 3.

Well on the way to being back to producing top stuff.

Finding his range with depth of returns and rally baseline hits getting there. Hitting clean winners.

Serve was a step up towards the end also.

josip

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118958021#Comment_118958021

At a change of ends in the 3rd set, the great man turned and said, "molim te, peškir (towel please)" to my son.

Best. Day. Ever.

I see that after triumphing over a couple of complete nobodies (197 and 118) that Raducanu will face Świątek next.

Will Świątek take pity on her?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118958061#Comment_118958061

Maybe the famed Vajda is not so essential after all.

He's not 100% but some trajectory shown in just a week from the D-Fokina match (absolutely abject) to Djere (some merit) to today's game (some proper quality and clutch and desire)

Itssoeasy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118958145#Comment_118958145

didnt know she was playing today but knew she won yesterday.

Do you have a personal issue with Emma raducanu ? The British media hype isn’t her fault you know.

josip

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118958149#Comment_118958149

😀 Maybe not, but we won't know for sure until the end of the year when we do a title count.

I agree that this week is a big improvement on Monte Carlo. It could have been very different if Djere had capitalised on more of his break points in the 2nd and 3rd sets yesterday. But just the fact that Djokovic did dig himself out of those holes is showing signs of his old self.

whiterebel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118958061#Comment_118958061

Wasn’t watching it. Are they back to ball kids getting towels?

D’oh - forgot he could be asking for more towels at the sit down.😴