2022 WTA Tour
2022 ATP Tour
Qualies action should begin tomorrow (December 31st) so time to get the thread underway.
Here's to hoping we'll see some great tennis/storylines this year.
Judge seemed to have his mind made up when he heard the lack of time provided to answer the questions raised. Thats probably the treatment any of us would have received if it had happened to us. I don't think he even got to hear the about late application and the rest.
Two interesting nuggets from the BBC update today.
Djokovic will have further questions to answer about his Australian travel declaration, which all passengers have to complete three to seven days before arrival. It states he did not travel in the 14 days before his flight to Australia, but he moved between Serbian capital Belgrade and Spain in that time. Immigration minister Alex Hawke is still "thoroughly considering the matter", an Australian government spokesman said.
From the ATP : "More broadly, ATP continues to strongly recommend vaccination for all players on the ATP Tour, which we believe is essential for our sport to navigate the pandemic. This is based on scientific evidence supporting the health benefits provided and to comply with global travel regulations, which we anticipate will become stricter over time. We are encouraged that 97% of the top 100 players are vaccinated leading into this year's Australian Open."
I'd say we could soon be looking at Djokovic as the Most "Winningest" Player Of All Time, but not Greatest Of All Time.
Gas ... I have never seen so much coverage of Djokovic from RTE ... he wins his 9th Australian open - appears as a mention after Rugby, GAA, Racing and tiddlywinks ...
Wins FO .. barely a mention, same with Wimbledon - maybe articles copied from Reuters on their page, and they still manage to get the score wrong.
Covid related !!! - wall to wall coverage.
Meanwhile, Emma Radacanu gets her season up and running with a 6-0 6-1 thumping by Rybakina 😮
Emma Radacanu seems a very pleasant girl and all as I said times before but I quickly spotted her very limited game and obviously other players and their coaches would be far more aware of that than me.
Unless she can add a good bit more to her arsenal I think personally that it's going to be difficult for her to make an impression on tournaments "going forward".
Big big challenge for her new coach in terms of that.
I hope for her sake that she quickly locked in some of those "set-for-life" sponsorship deals and that they don't have too many performance-related clauses in them.
Just shows the state of things, being a slam holder.
I suspect that a few Instagram histories for the 14 days preceding travel to Australia are being wiped today by players/entourage in Melbourne for fear they will become collateral damage like Renata. Although she could have chosen to be vaccinated, I feel sorry for her. Identical status as Djokovic but because of a difference in process, he might still get to play in the AO, whereas she won't and probably never will again considering her age and ranking.
Nick Kyrgios tested positive for covid today. As you would expect with a pro athlete, he is not sick. He may be out of the AO now.
Strange story about Bernard Tomic who was playing in the qualifiers. Seems very critical on the lack of PCR tests.
Yes harsh on her. She only used the process that she was informed about and followed all the guidelines.
It's not just a question of not having the resources that Djokovic has either in terms of hiring the legal guys - by the time the Australians "retrospectively" picked her up if she decided to appeal it would have been too late by the time the hearing etc came around.
She said this herself.
“I did everything they asked me to do. Apparently, Tennis Australia has misled us, which is annoying,” she said.
She said it was impossible to follow in Djokovic’s footsteps and launch a bid to stay in the country and the tournament.
“I would have to ask for another visa and wait for a week, locked up in a hotel, without training,” Voracova said.
“It doesn’t make sense. So I’m waiting for a permit (to fly out of Australia) on Saturday perhaps.
“I would like them to let him (Djokovic) play. We are athletes, we have come here to play tennis and not to deal with disputes behind the scenes.”
I know that Osaka pulled out of a match after a couple of wins following a 4-month layoff to ease back in she said but aside from that her attitude seems to have turned a corner to one that seems more realistic and sustainable for her case for remaining in tennis over the longer-term in fairness (if she can actually stick to what she's saying here of course).
She has actual proven ability over a number of events (at least on some surfaces, room for improvement) and if she can stick to this policy there might be more success out there and a much-needed assist in upping the general quality
Quoted on the WTA website after the victory over Cornet, Osaka said: “I only really have one major goal this year, and it’s completely unrelated to results and stuff like that.
“For me, I just want to feel like every time I step on the court I’m having fun. I can walk off the court knowing that even if I lost, I tried as hard as I could.
“Also, I have a goal in the pressroom, that I’m never going to cry again, so hopefully that works out in my favour.
“I’m the type of person that cared a little bit too much about the results and the ranking and stuff like that and I just need to find a way to enjoy the game again. Because that’s the reason why I was playing in the first place.”
I always find it strange when RTE give tennis any kind of coverage. I doubt a lot of research goes into it, they once had Osaka as 'Naomi Oska' 😬 They were even talking about the Djokovic saga on Claire Byrne last night! Djokovic has truly made it.
Disappointing first outing from Raducanu, but Rybakina is a tough opponent to open your season with, and particularly when she lost a couple of weeks training due to testing positive/isolation requirements etc. Raducanu is obviously a bit of a mystery right now, due to the unprecedented nature of her US Open win nobody really knows her true level. Top 50? Top 100? Time will tell I guess.
I don't expect a whole lot from her this year, there's a lot she'll have to get used to, and particularly under such a lens. As I've said before, I just hope she's got a good team around her and she's well-insulated from all the sh*t that's inevitably going to come her way this year.
I think what Raducanu achieved at US open was incredible. However lets not forget she didnt beat a single top 10 player throughout that tournament. She did indeed beat plenty of very good players but none were top 10. I know others on here will disagree with me but I also think the quality of women's tennis right now is very poor. I dont think I have seen a worse top 10 in my life time. You look at players even from 2000 - 2010 in their prime like Serena, Henin, Clijsters, Hingis, Venus etc. Raducanu could only beat who was in front of her but she wasnt up against any world beaters.
I think the coming year will be a real challenge for her with the spotlight on her. She will need the right people around her thats for sure. She has the potential to kick on but challenging times ahead. I just wonder where the next 'Great' women's player will come from, there is not one single rivalry that I can think of at the top of the women's game.
You look at the Men's game and you even take Djokovic, you could argue he has a very good rivalry against any number of players:
Nadal, Federer (injuries aside), Medvedev, Zverev, Thiem, Tsitsipas
Raducanu hasn't beaten anyone inside the WTA top 100 since the US Open.
If the Top 10 is not up to much, well you know where that leaves players 100+
Will have to see how this Djokovic test plays out
There are contradictory views on this IT / QR Code stuff at the moment.
Would be mad if he actually faked a test result - that would be some risk to take!
Talk about being under a microscope.
Also it's a bit of joke really that is ahead of pretty much everything in world news - Tennis has never been on the front page for an entire week's news cycle like..... ever?
At this stage and after all this, who cares.......let him play now....
will have to see - it's all in the balance with the Australian politicians and their dubious motives.
no matter how much one might hate Djokovic you'd have to have some desire to see some of this story play out on the courts of the Australian Open 2022.
I feel it's gonna have some impact either way. Djokovic plays, hell be roundly booed for at least his first couple of matches. He doesn't, well, think we'd have a few angry Serbians showing up in Melbourne Park.
I'd be shocked if he's sent home at this stage though, I think the longer they leave it the worse it potentially looks for the Australian government.
Doubt Djokovic would have "that much" of a chance of winning if he plays so could be "safe" even for the Djokovic antagonists lol
Even for someone as resilient as he is this is all an unbelievably disruptive, distracting and draining experience and still ongoing and would keep going on and on
But seeing at least a match or two or three would be surely interesting
Having a group of Aussie Serb first-gen or descendants get unruly in Melbourne would lose its lustre after about 10 minutes
Why couldn’t he go far? He’s world number 1. He won’t suddenly become an ordinary player due to this fiasco.
the chap didn’t get to where he is without serious self belief
He’ll be a contender no doubt at this tournament
who’s to say that this affair hasn’t given him an extra surge of hunger and commitment
I'm throwing a bone to the ill-wishers lol
but seriously, you can't pretend that this wouldn't have a massive effect, even on Djokovic
you might think that he's the type of guy to channel this stuff into play and he is I would agree but still you can't know what the effect of the scrutiny etc is (and it's not going away)
if he got to play (I'm putting it at 60-40 against him playing as the Aussies just like to go for the decision that lets them think "we've won", even in the face of logic or not) I wouldn't be thinking that he could win until he got to the second week at least
Not convinced on the QR code and IT stuff as of yet from the latest on that->
(replies)
I'd agree regarding women's tennis over the last decade or so has been poor, up until the last few seasons all Serena had to do was basically turn up in any reasonabe shape and she'd win a slam. The top 10 has probably never been as poor, but, I think the gap between the top 10 and players closer to 100 has never been as small. I would say that while the top 10 is poor, outside of the top 10/20 womens tennis has more strength in depth the lower down the rankings you go compared to 20 years ago, in other words I'd say players ranked around 100 now are probably stronger than players ranked around 100 were 20 years ago. I think the combination of these two factors ( poor top end & stronger lower end) makes it a lottery to predict women's tennis at the moment.
Updated Djokovic Summary Video from the BBC's Ros Atkins
I would have thought that not traveling for 14 days prior to entry to Australia was a requirement to get a visa? In which case, completing that part incorrectly is a fairly significant administrative error. I think that there are multiple grounds on which the Australians could now kick him out, if the political will is still there.
Novak is now claiming that he didn't know he was positive when he attended the awards event on the 17th with a load of kids, but that he did know on the 18th when he did the L'Equipe interview. He claimed he didn't want to let the journalist down. He told them nothing about being covid positive. That is disgraceful.
His claim about being unaware on the 17th is dubious too, considering the test result was returned at 8pm on the 16th.
Well, as he is still there based on a 'procedural' lapse, it would be hard to argue if he gets kicked out based on a procedural lapse of his own. The non-isolating thing, while not relevant to the visa, may nudge public opinion sufficiently against him that the Aussies feel comfortable kicking him out now, it didn't look likely before this.
One would have to wonder about the advise/guidance he gets from his inner circle, if he takes any guidance at all. Its one lapse of judgement compounding another at this stage., and that's putting it extremely mildly.
Either way the Australians should get on with it tbh.
This "story" is dragging on at this point and needs to be moved on.
He says his agent filled in that for him but it's obviously an error, even if I'm not sure what practical difference it makes.
Just end this stalemate aspect now on the part of the Australians.
Yes, well he probably can say that he assigned the checking of the test results to the guy that he has thrown under the bus for "inadvertently" ticking the wrong box where it asked about travelling in the previous 14 days! Human error apparently. There are too many loose strings in the story now. I would say the Australians are well within their rights to eject him now. If you drew a timeline of the moving goalposts in this entire scenario, it just looks worse and worse for Djokovic. Too many inconsistencies to accept.
Ryanair wouldn't even allow him on a flight now!
I think it would be fair enough to turf him out at this stage to be honest. I doubt they'll do it though. Has he gone down in your estimation out of interest? He will have seriously tainted his legacy. Tennis rarely makes headline news and this story has been headlines non stop across the world.
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