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.
With Medved and Zverev gone surely Alcaraz has a good chance of taking a 1000 title
Facing an in-form Serb next, who is playing good tennis - no, the other guy!
Kecmanovic takes a close tie-breaker to lead
He's no mug
Alcaraz was 5-4 up with a mini-break, missed a backhand winner effort and Kecmanovic took the next 2 points.
Alcaraz 3-0 up in the second though
Really good quality match.
Went to the absolute wire in the final-set breaker
Reverse situation of the first set
kecmanovic had the mini break with only a couple of points from victory but Alcaraz turned it around brilliantly under pressure
He hit 52 winners in a 3 set match which is mental
A fair few UE's too but positive ratio of winners to errors in his so attacking style.
The confident all-court game on display again
Credit to kecmanovic
He was hitting forehands actually harder than Alcaraz
Not surprising that he got his revenge on Fritz this week
If he keeps playing like that he can be top 20 this year
Human highlight reel indeed
Sky Sports have won the rights to the US Open from 2023. I like Amazon’s coverage, you can watch whatever match you choose and no ad’s!! The rights for the ATP and WTA tours are up for grabs from beginning of 2024.
Sky Sports - hard to be enthusiastic about that tbh
Alcaraz played a smart game against the big-serving Hurk and did it in 2 breakers.
Not a patch on the Kecmanovic match in terms of excitement but did the job.
A very different game where Alcaraz really had to concentrate on holding his serve because Hurkacz was always going to be pounding down a load of first-serve rockets.
Serious maturity from an 18 year old in how he played it as had to really alter his game-style from the match the day before.
I find Ruud a very boring player to watch whenever I turn on a match of his.
That Argie guy was a relative walkover for him in the semi.
Hopefully the final will be a decent match - both will be very motivated.
I'd be up for an Osaka win today - after her recent cry-baby antics here she is in the final.
Maybe she will realise that playing better keeps the hecklers off her back and that might stick.
The WTA could do with some sort of a notion of a rivalry to generate some interest after what has been a very long period of lacklustre fare on that tour so a win over Swiatek for Osaka would be better imo
I for one will be rooting for Swiatek, think it'd be a good way of stamping her authority on the #1 ranking. Wouldn't be the best look if she ascends to #1 at a tournament where she lost the final to someone who's basically played part-time for the last year. Now I know Osaka is no ordinary part-timer, but still.
I also think an Osaka win doesn't really add much to her narrative, if that makes sense. We know she's probably the best hard court player in the world when she's motivated, is she willing to actually enhance her game and make an effort on clay/grass? Time will tell I guess.
Didn't see all of the men's SF last night but I enjoyed what I did see. I feel they were pretty evenly matched for a lot of the encounter, but Hurkacz played the big points/second tiebreaker horribly.
I agree that a Swiatek win would be better for the same reasons. As you say it wouldn't look great if Osaka beat the incoming No.1 player.
His serve is muck , he hasnt shown enough to worry the top guys now. I agree he will be world number 1 but theyll be gone at that stage. In no way will he he no1 within 2 years.
Nice start to this final. Competitive first game.
Onto the 6th Deuce now and it's only the first game.
Osaka getting taken apart in this set 😶
Lol
He won more points on serve than Hurkacz last night who is one of the biggest servers on tour and neither of them dropped a service game
Alcaraz finished with a higher serve rating for the match than Hurkacz
His serve has come on a huge amount in the last 4 months
His second serve is particularly good
He's never going to have the biggest first serve as he's not a beanpole
Nadal has done ok with a famously not so great serve over his career
Doesn't he have the most number of slams or something!?
Competitive first set, demolition job in the second. Swiatek the fourth female player to win the Sunshine Double, joins a list of Graf, Clijsters and Azarenka. Only a handful of ATP players have done it too.
So much for a good match there
A bit cringe seeing a bagel in a masters 1000 final
I just think its very shaky.also hurkacz is an awful returner . I just dont agree with your 2 year timeline, i see it being double that.
And the youngest to do it as well. It was shaping up to be a good game in the first set. Osaka is now paying for those breaks she took from the game.
Alcaraz can get broken but he also breaks but he showed last night how much his serve has come on in such a short time
The way that he already plays the big points is hugely impressive
I think that he has a decent chance of getting to number 1 before he's 21 in May 2024
He's progressing so fast and barring injury it's not that much of a stretch imo
The trajectory has been inexorable so far
Iga deservedly World No. 1 now, super performance from her despite her first serve going awol for a lot of it. Nice to see the respect between the two of them.
Yeah maybe you are right , either way he must be a huge source of relief for the ATP. Outside the big 3 its shocking out there. Medvedev ain't gonna be drawing big crowds. Zverev and Tstitipas massive chokers and not good enough. Christ looking at the rankings , Ruud 8 and Norrie 12 is a massive indictment of the state its going to be in.
Not bad company to be in.
except it was a little harder to do that when Graf and Clijsters did it.
Djokovic leads the way on 4
Medvedev out for a bit
Swiatek does the Sunshine Double, emphatically beats the best hard court player in the world with a bagel in the final, yet she's still criticised and it somehow had to still come back to Djokovic 😂
well he does have 4 Sunshine Doubles which is the ACTUAL subject in question - nobody else does so it's kind of the record and he did it in the era of the best 3 players of all-time
Swiatek has 1 on a long-time weak tour - the bagel shows that.
A bagel in a final of a top-tier tournament (just below GS level) where injury is not the cause shows that there are serious issues
Just another bullet point to go with the case of the "plucky teenagers" who have barely been able to hit a ball out of their way since the US Open Final over 6 months ago!
Or the 4 French open semi finalists that were about as renowned as those same unknown teen-agers!
Can anyone honestly say that Graf and Clijsters didn't have at least some consistent non-flake players to triumph over when they did it - eh no.
I can see him getting to No.1 well before then, possibly next year.
I think the end of next year is possible also but erring on the side of a little caution
I said that it's possible that he could break the record for youngest ATP No.1 which would roughly be the end of 2023 so the ATP Finals 2023
Men's tennis is at it's lowest ebb in a long time, Djokovic not able to participate over Covid restrictions, but, will probably dominate when he returns Nadal past his prime, but, still too good for the next gen "stars" after a long layoff. Medvedev doesn't compare to previous No. 1 players, couldn't even hold onto it with Djokovic not even playing. Zverev and Tsitsipas crumble at the first sign of trouble. A lot of hard grafters and journeyman in the top 10/20 now, not many to get excited about. Alcaraz is a breath of fresh air, but, need a few more to emerge to make it interesting.
Agassi was winning a slam at 33 nearly 20 years ago. Its no surprise whatsoever that 2 of the best ever players can win them at 34 and 35 with the massive advances in training, sports science, sports surgery and nutrition since then.
It's a fallacy that there is some divine right for younger players to win slams.
On the ATP It usually takes the next generational talent like Alcaraz to come along and impose themselves.
That has been the cycle for 50 years on the ATP.
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