2020 In Between Grand Slam Thread

29-02-2020 1:25am

lostcat wrote: »

Sharapova was never going to win another major tournament I think, even without injury. I'm ambivalent about her legacy, the ban was correctly applied and is quite damaging but the taking of that drug was not banned for the majority of the time she was taking it. It would be naive to think that she is the only player to be taking this kind of stuff.

Also the fact that she was complete rubbish when she came back after the meldonium ban only adds fuel to the speculation that it helped her greatly.

Slashermcguirk · 29-02-2020 6:17pm

Djokovic beats Tsitsipas in straight sets to win the Dubai title. 21 consecutive match wins to start 2020. Novak really making a statement early in the season.

On the verge of 80 ATP tournament wins now. Amazing achievement and I think only a few tournaments shy of Nadal but Novak is a year younger and two years less on tour.

You could make a case for Djokovic being tied with Nadal now in terms of career achievements. I know two less slams but there is more to it than that. Heading towards 300 weeks at world number one

dominatinMC · 29-02-2020 6:22pm

Slashermcguirk wrote: »

Djokovic beats Tsitsipas in straight sets to win the Dubai title. 21 consecutive match wins to start 2020. Novak really making a statement early in the season.

On the verge of 80 ATP tournament wins now. Amazing achievement and I think only a few tournaments shy of Nadal but Novak is a year younger and two years less on tour.

You could make a case for Djokovic being tied with Nadal now in terms of career achievements. I know two less slams but there is more to it than that. Heading towards 300 weeks at world number one

You could certainly make a case, but slams are ultimately what count in most peoples eyes.

29-02-2020 6:34pm

dominatinMC wrote: »

You could certainly make a case, but slams are ultimately what count in most peoples eyes.

weeks at number 1 -> 280 vs 310 for Fed. will overtake him surely, maybe even this year.

slams - currently looks like he will get to 20 (even by end of next Jan maybe) if he can have another good 2 years but you never know....

Slashermcguirk · 29-02-2020 6:53pm

dominatinMC wrote: »

You could certainly make a case, but slams are ultimately what count in most peoples eyes.

What about the split of slams, Nadal so heavily balanced towards the french Open. For me Novak’s split of slams is more impressive. I get what you are saying though.

You would be a brave man to bet on who will finish with the most

dominatinMC · 01-03-2020 12:07pm

Straightforward win for Nadal overnight in Acapulco too. An 85th ATP win, and with the clay swing around the corner, more to come I'd say. The "next gen" are proving to be really pathetic so far though. Nadal and Djokovic weren't even troubled in their finals.

03-03-2020 5:22pm

dominatinMC wrote: »

You could certainly make a case, but slams are ultimately what count in most peoples eyes.

Although I do remember Federer fans putting a lot of emphasis on weeks at world number 1 also before Djokovic started appearing in the rear view mirror

josip · 03-03-2020 5:26pm

glasso wrote: »

Although I do remember Federer fans putting a lot of emphasis on weeks at world number 1 also before Djokovic started appearing in the rear view mirror

Ah, but it's not the total number of weeks that's the measure of greatness, but the number of consecutive weeks

03-03-2020 6:06pm

josip wrote: »

Ah, but it's not the total number of weeks that's the measure of greatness, but the number of consecutive weeks

that should be rephrased to - "measure of period where the competitive landscape was relatively poor by historical standards and the other future greats too young"

February 2, 2004 – August 17, 2008 - 237 weeks.

Once Nadal came up to his peak that was the end of it.

03-03-2020 6:11pm

dominatinMC wrote: »

Straightforward win for Nadal overnight in Acapulco too. An 85th ATP win, and with the clay swing around the corner, more to come I'd say. The "next gen" are proving to be really pathetic so far though. Nadal and Djokovic weren't even troubled in their finals.

true - not a very challenging showing in these finals.

Djokovic and Nadal are still way ahead on the mental toughness and resilience side of things.

Sheridan81 · 03-03-2020 8:01pm

Larcher Brito or whatever she was called was a hell of a grunter.

Jannik Sinner, Alcaraz and Lorenzo Musetti are the future of men's tennis. You heard it here first/second.

03-03-2020 8:09pm

Sheridan81 wrote: »

Larcher Brito or whatever she was called was a hell of a grunter.

Jannik Sinner, Alcaraz and Lorenzo Musetti are the future of men's tennis. You heard it here first/second.

https://www.reddit.com/r/tennis/ are big on Alcaraz

remains to be seen who comes through. lots of talent but aside from Fed who was just better for a long period if you take Djokovic and Nadal their primary strength (obviously have all the rest) was/is the top 5 inches and that doesn't become apparent until a couple of years at pros. or in the case of Djokovic it took him a bit longer to sort that out even.

yerwanthere123 · 09-03-2020 8:27am

Wow, Indian Wells has been cancelled.

Royale with Cheese · 09-03-2020 9:13am

I'm supposed to be getting Roland Garros tickets in two weeks. The hotel and flights are already paid for so I might as well now, but could see quite a lot of the clay court season being affected by this now.

lostcat · 09-03-2020 9:50am

Wonder how they will work out the ranking points due to the cancellation, will everyone just drop their all their points? Federer would hop back over Theim into #3 if this was the case.

Its a wider question however, if several tournaments get cancelled how are they going to mantain rankings?

Rob2D · 09-03-2020 11:26am

Apparently most of the players were there already and didn't even know.

lostcat · 09-03-2020 11:42am

to answer my query above:

'The ATP world rankings work on a 52 weeks basis. Hence, the players drop their points after 52 weeks regardless of whether the tournament happens or not.'

This is from a blog rather than an offical ATP source but seems to make sense. Looks like Thiem will mantain a 15pt lead over Federer after this week.

yerwanthere123 · 09-03-2020 6:15pm

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

I'm supposed to be getting Roland Garros tickets in two weeks. The hotel and flights are already paid for so I might as well now, but could see quite a lot of the clay court season being affected by this now.

I was going to try for them this year but not sure it's worth the risk. I could probably get a hotel refunded through booking.com, and if RG was actually cancelled then they'd surely either refund the tickets or give vouchers for next year. Flights through Aer Lingus are almost certainly non-refundable unless you pay crazy amounts for your fee to begin with though, so it's a question of whether I'd be willing to lose the flight money. The situation changes so rapidly too it's difficult to see where we'd be in two weeks or a month, let alone late May/early June.

Royale with Cheese · 09-03-2020 6:42pm

I've a holiday in the south of France/north of Spain booked for then anyway, I just rerouted the start of it through Paris so I could go to this. Flights/hotel in Paris and train to the south already paid for so I'll be going either way as long as there's not an outright travel ban. I'd imagine they'll have to fully refund the tickets if the tournament is cancelled?

mzungu · 09-03-2020 11:56pm

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

I've a holiday in the south of France/north of Spain booked for then anyway, I just rerouted the start of it through Paris so I could go to this. Flights/hotel in Paris and train to the south already paid for so I'll be going either way as long as there's not an outright travel ban. I'd imagine they'll have to fully refund the tickets if the tournament is cancelled?

Yes, if its cancelled then they would have to give you your money back. Fingers crossed that things don't go down that route.

yerwanthere123 · 12-03-2020 12:15am

Not officially confirmed yet, but looking like the ATP tour will be suspended for 6 weeks.

callaway92 · 12-03-2020 3:44pm

https://www.atptour.com/en/news/atp-tour-2020-six-week-suspension-decision

Confirmed

12-03-2020 4:08pm

WTA also probably gone.

everything that was normal is not normal

bigger things like a global recession to be worrying about now tbh.

Royale with Cheese · 13-03-2020 12:48am

Federer timed his injury well then.

josip · 13-03-2020 1:40am

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Not officially confirmed yet, but looking like the ATP tour will be suspended for 6 weeks.

I suppose weeks at No. 1 won't count during the suspension?

lostcat · 14-03-2020 9:07am

josip wrote: »

I suppose weeks at No. 1 won't count during the suspension?

I was going to say that Djokovic is going to be a big looser if there is a points freeze and a no1 freeze, and given the fact that he looked on excellent shape, but really, like in every other walk of life, it will be the guys/gals hanging around at the lower end of things who will be hit very hard

yerwanthere123 · 17-03-2020 4:58pm

Wow, Roland Garros has been rescheduled, will be played from September 20th to October 4th. Will be interesting to see how all this plays out.

mzungu · 17-03-2020 5:55pm

So this year RG will take place one week after the scheduled finish of the US Open. First thing that comes to mind is that it does not allow for much prep time after the hard court season before the main clay court GS. I wonder what the players will make of it?

All eyes on SW19 now which is due to begin on June 29th.

The next month will tell us a lot.

yerwanthere123 · 17-03-2020 7:53pm

RG announced this apparently from nowhere, no one seemed to have a clue. The ITF, WTA and ATP all seemingly had no idea.

lostcat · 17-03-2020 11:23pm

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

RG announced this apparently from nowhere, no one seemed to have a clue. The ITF, WTA and ATP all seemingly had no idea.

I know there are a lot of independent bodies knocking around in tennis, but this kind of unilateral move isn't going to down well. It will lead to diminished tournaments and split fields ( is Federer going to move the laver cup to avoid a clash for instance?)

Doesn't help that there is max one month of downtime in the season as it is...

RosyLily · 18-03-2020 12:53am

This is so odd. It really seems as if RG just announced the change without consulting anybody. I can imagine the ITF, USTA and other bodies are hopping mad at this. Bad form, many players venting their frustrations on Twitter. Will they start matches earlier due to shorter hours of daylight? Or go completely off the wall and do Best of 3 to save time?

A WEEK between the end of US Open and start of French? That's nuts! Nadal defending lots of points. As is Barty who won the FO and reached 4th round in Flushing.

I can definitely see a diminished field on the men's side due to Laver Cup. Many of the Americans aren't great on clay so they might play LC. And there's the jetlag to contend with.

Djokovic and Kenin going for the AO-Wimbledon double.:eek:

Sidenote: This is such a weird time my head is actually frazzled trying to keep up with everything.

whiterebel · 18-03-2020 10:27am

A fairly pointed response from the USTA by the looks of it....https://scontent.fdub5-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/s960x960/89979856_10156905145577187_2524291501224099840_o.png?_nc_cat=1&_nc_sid=8024bb&_nc_ohc=uAVcFK1hcUEAX9qtliM&_nc_ht=scontent.fdub5-1.fna&oh=6b8b51d64571ad76159cb41a6071f7c3&oe=5E96F444

dominatinMC · 18-03-2020 1:07pm

Strange times indeed. The players must be (rightfully) fuming - if it's true that they weren't consulted. However, for those posting that it may clash with the Laver Cup, and we could see diminished fields as a result, c'mon - no way is any player even going to contemplate playing what is largely an exhibition event over a GS.

lostcat · 18-03-2020 3:16pm

dominatinMC wrote: »

Strange times indeed. The players must be (rightfully) fuming - if it's true that they weren't consulted. However, for those posting that it may clash with the Laver Cup, and we could see diminished fields as a result, c'mon - no way is any player even going to contemplate playing what is largely an exhibition event over a GS.

Federer might consider it, seeing as Laver Cup (a glorified exhibition) is his baby and he very sees it as a revenue generating venture going forward. and he might well bring a few guys who have no hope at the FO with him.

yerwanthere123 · 18-03-2020 8:05pm

Both tours suspended until June 7th at least.

lostcat · 19-03-2020 2:26pm

dominatinMC wrote: »

Strange times indeed. The players must be (rightfully) fuming - if it's true that they weren't consulted. However, for those posting that it may clash with the Laver Cup, and we could see diminished fields as a result, c'mon - no way is any player even going to contemplate playing what is largely an exhibition event over a GS.

Well, It's just been announced that Laver Cup will proceed. Lets see who is more important to tennis - Federer or the FO. Madness that it has come to this nonsense really.

josip · 19-03-2020 5:12pm

Any truth in the rumour that my mate's brother-in-law cat heard down the pub last Friday, that this virus was released by Federer in a last ditch attempt to hold on to the GS/weeks at ATP #1 record ?

lostcat · 19-03-2020 7:49pm

josip wrote: »

Any truth in the rumour that my mate's brother-in-law cat heard down the pub last Friday, that this virus was released by Federer in a last ditch attempt to hold on to the GS/weeks at ATP #1 record ?

he should have just snuck some gluten into Djokovic's diet...

mzungu · 19-03-2020 10:32pm

Quite bizarre of the FO authorities to go on a solo run like that.

I reckon there are a few more miles to go in this story.

Royale with Cheese · 20-03-2020 12:10pm

Tour suspended until June 7th now, Wimbledon will be next up on the chopping block after this.

yerwanthere123 · 25-03-2020 4:52am

Thiago Seyboth Wild has tested positive for Covid-19. He won his first title in Chile last month, not long before the tour was shut down. He turned 20 a couple of weeks back.

Royale with Cheese · 30-03-2020 10:42am

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/mar/30/wimbledon-2020-cancelled-wednesday-french-open-fury-tennis

Wimbledon to be cancelled, French Open to be... disciplined.

dominatinMC · 30-03-2020 11:21am

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/mar/30/wimbledon-2020-cancelled-wednesday-french-open-fury-tennis

Wimbledon to be cancelled, French Open to be... disciplined.

I'm a bit surprised at the all-out cancellation, would it not be possible to postpone and re-schedule until later in the year? The organisers of the ATP tour and SW19 could surely come to some mutually-beneficial arrangement? Being a grass-court event, I guess that it mightn't be possible for later in the year when the weather isn't exactly conducive to grass-court tennis...Obviously, this is assuming the virus has been managed by the end of the year

mzungu · 30-03-2020 10:16pm

dominatinMC wrote: »

I'm a bit surprised at the all-out cancellation, would it not be possible to postpone and re-schedule until later in the year? The organisers of the ATP tour and SW19 could surely come to some mutually-beneficial arrangement? Being a grass-court event, I guess that it mightn't be possible for later in the year when the weather isn't exactly conducive to grass-court tennis...Obviously, this is assuming the virus has been managed by the end of the year

I think cancellation is the only game in town for SW19. Lets say they were to reschedule it to later in the year, would the players have a few grass court tournaments to play beforehand? That is before we get to the logistical headache of where you squeeze it in the calendar at a time when everything is up in the air. The weather does factor into it, yes, but that is the least of their concerns imo.

After the long layoff, the players are going to need a while to get back into the swing (pun not intended) of things. The only benefit is that it will probably give some of their worn out knees and ankles a much needed rest.

I see the calendar as being pretty decimated this year. It's horrible, but that is where we find ourselves. Best we can hope for is that the USO goes ahead, but with the way things are at the moment I wouldn't be betting too much on that happening either.

yerwanthere123 · 30-03-2020 10:50pm

With New York being the epicentre of the American outbreak I can't see that going ahead either. At this point I've accepted that 2020 will be a write off for pretty much everything, probably more a question of how much of 2021 will it disrupt.

dominatinMC · 30-03-2020 11:16pm

Mad times. Although somewhat academic now, you would have to wonder how much of an impact this will have in the GS race between the Big3. If this year is indeed a write-off, that's potentially three slams gone-a-begging for them to pick-up. Although they won't have clocked-up much additional mileage in the legs by the time 2021 rolls around (can't believe we're discussing that already :eek:), they will be a year older and wearier...

yerwanthere123 · 30-03-2020 11:40pm

dominatinMC wrote: »

Mad times. Although somewhat academic now, you would have to wonder how much of an impact this will have in the GS race between the Big3. If this year is indeed a write-off, that's potentially three slams gone-a-begging for them to pick-up. Although they won't have clocked-up much additional mileage in the legs by the time 2021 rolls around (can't believe we're discussing that already :eek:), they will be a year older and wearier...

Yeah, I've thought the same. Whatever happens, there'll be big what if's and fans trying to apply asterisks. Federer never wins another slam, people'd wonder had he another Wimbledon in him in 2020. Nadal never wins anything else outside RG, people'd wonder if he had another US Open in him after winning two of the last three. Djokovic never gets quite back on form, or perhaps ends up not overtaking Federer, then it'd forever be a wonder if the Coronavirus stopped him from becoming the greatest of all time. I don't like Djokovic but I'd really feel for him if this happened.

Going on age alone though it has to hurt Federer the most. Serena too on the WTA side, this may be the death knell for any hopes she had of overtaking Margaret Court. Only positive of this situation is it'll give lots of people the time they need to recover from injuries, particularly the likes of Andreescu and Nishikori who're forever injured.

josip · 30-03-2020 11:42pm

The only one it will definitely suit is Federer who isn't going to win another Slam.
If the FO goes ahead, Nadal will be happy enough winning that and equaling Federer.
Djokovic would probably be most disappointed by Wimbledon and US Open being cancelled, but if the FO doesn't go ahead, then at least he got 1 GS closer to Federer this year with the AO.

Rob2D · 31-03-2020 12:14pm

Fed wanted one last crack at that Olympic gold though.

whiterebel · 31-03-2020 4:33pm

josip wrote: »

The only one it will definitely suit is Federer who isn't going to win another Slam.
If the FO goes ahead, Nadal will be happy enough winning that and equaling Federer.
Djokovic would probably be most disappointed by Wimbledon and US Open being cancelled, but if the FO doesn't go ahead, then at least he got 1 GS closer to Federer this year with the AO.

The same Fed who was one point away from adding to his total at the last Wimbledon? I wouldn't write him off just yet. He might still hang around for the Olympics.

2020 In Between Grand Slam Thread

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