2021 In Between Grand Slam Thread

Olympics draws out

Men

Hard to see Djokovic not getting to the final - only Zverev might provide opposition. Although it's only 3 sets so being beaten is entirely possible.

Women's

Personally just don't like the way Osaka goes about her whole "I want it my way" narrative and also the borderline if not more cynical "I'm Japanese not American" despite never having lived there since 3 to cash in on the sponsorship in the Japanese market due to lack of more global sports stars (she can't even answer questions in Japanese) so hope that she's beaten but down to the surface choice it all should suit her.

https://olympics.com/tokyo-2020/olympic-games/resOG2020-/pdf/OG2020-/TEN/OG2020-_TEN_C75_TENWSINGLES-----------------------.pdf

Do you think that would count for the Golden Slam?!

Certainly the Olympics is a bonus more than anything compared to the Calendar Slam which would, aside from getting to 21 slams, would really differentiate him from the other pretenders (that's all they will be in the end most likely in terms of records).

Nothing to do with cashing in on the huge Japanese sponsorship $$$ and dearth of Japanese sports stars in global sports so a cash bonanza?

Yeah right.

And as said can't even speak Japanese!

There was about as much chance of representing Haiti (who have never won even 1 gold medal at the Olympics so imagine how cool that actually would be) as the man in the moon.

Her father openly went out to try to replicate with his daughters what Richard Williams did with the Williams sisters as he freely admits (also had no background in tennis)

"the blueprint was already there. I just had to follow it" he said of Richard Williams

He would have seen the massive sponsorship money that Nishikori was pulling in so from a money point-of-view it was no-brainer. Nishikori is now down in the 50's in ATP rankings and still pulling in over $30m annually from the Jap corporates!

As women's tennis has such a poor standard relative to the mens' game this has now actually been done twice and so actually is possible

you think that she could have put the effort in to learn Japanese to a level that she could actually try to answer press conference questions in the Japanese language (not questions about clay court tennis obviously!) if "heritage" is so important?! (mi hole) and if she (father's decision) is to pocket the many millions from the Jap(anese) companies each year?

Like Djokovic could even address the crowd in French when he won RG.

she is 10 years supporting Japan because her father and the Jerry Maguire's advising them saw the Nishikori $$$ clear as day over 10 years ago ffs

Playing the victim is very "in" in 2021 and Osaka is seeking to milk it all for her own purposes

Whereas in reality she just wants things her own way on her very specific terms

She has a crowd of "wokesters" supporting her in the media at all costs, like the one who wrote that absolutely poor quality "article" especially since she stuck on a George Floyd face mask but that is merely muddying the waters

She is hardly unique at all in supporting that cause - thousands of athletes do and many are taking stands at the Olympics etc re taking the knee etc

"I'll take money for this interview or do this Netflix series or do this Vogue photoshoot but I'm all anxious if someone might ask me a question that I don't like then eh no, that's just not on in my world"

Very simply you can't just have things all your own way and if decisions are made they are answerable to.

This whole situation is 100% of her own making.

Piers Morgan wasn't asking her questions in the press conferences at RG

pretty benign tennis journalists were

And Morgan didn't make any comment until she created this whole situation all by herself

she's tunnelled up her own arse as other posters have said and using/abusing serious issues for her own purposes makes it all the more grubby and self-serving

100% of her own making

What an idiot

Here is what Osaka's sister said about the French Open press conference situation - later realised that she let the cat out of the bag and i.e. fooked up and deleted it!

-> Mental health is just blocking out anything that you don't want to hear apparently. Osaka herself claimed later to have had some element of depression in the past yet her own sister says clearly here that you don't need to "have depression or some sort of disorder" to invoke the mental health card.

“Naomi mentioned to me before the tournament that a family member had come up to her and remarked that she’s bad at clay. At every press conference she’s told [she] has a bad record on clay. When she lost in Rome [round one] she was not ok mentally. Her confidence was completely shattered and I think that everyone’s remarks and opinions have gotten to her head and she herself believed that she was bad on clay.

“This isn’t true and she knows that in order to do well and have a shot at winning Roland Garros she will have to believe that she can. That’s the first step any athlete needs to do, believe in themselves. So her solution was to block everything out. No talking to people who is going to put doubt in her mind. She’s protecting her mind hence why it’s called mental health. So many people are picky on this term thinking you need to have depression or have some sort of disorder to be able to use the term mental health.”

exactly - not even worth watching.

mere puff pieces.

Murray and Salisbury beat the second seeds in the doubles (mahut and herbert)

That was not expected.

Maybe he could have a good chance of getting a medal there

Would be a decent story.

Barty seems like an authentic decent soul in general. Wouldn't have minded seeing her derail the Osaka hype train.

Pity about the lack of consistency.

So is Osaka going to do questions in the mix zone with journalists?

Probably as much focus on that as the tennis given the situation she has managed to create.

I predict a couple of favoured "plant" questions from people who won't ask anything outside the desired narrative range.

The man is the Usuain Bolt of tennis!

I guess that actual athletes who compete at a high level can have a real appreciation for the man and his skill, physical fortitude and particularly of course as alluded to in the article -> his mental prowess and how he's still at the top of the game at 34 and kicking ass, furthermore in with a good shot of an amazing achievement this year.

They are probably not fretting why the "next gen" haven't beaten him or why he might need to take a piss in-between sets and are more interested in his insights of how the hell he does it.

Boom.

Osaka flames out to the world number 42.

(Vondrousova was injured mid-2019 until end of that season so 6 months but returned full time Jan 2020 so has been back for the last year and a half full time, albeit less tournaments due to pandemic)

Did she answer any questions after or scuttle off flanked by officials?

Bit of a backfire for Japan in the end picking her for the torch.

They were hoping for a Sydney 2000 Cathy Freeman type scenario but didn't do their research on the flakiness of women's tennis.

They have had a decent start to the Olympics with real Japanese athletes getting gold, which has helped turn the tide of local opinion a bit as a lot of the local population were against the Olympics at the time of kick-off and with big Japanese firms like Toyota pulling their logos out as a result to appeal to same population despite having paid heavily for the privilege of sponsorship.