Wimbledon 2023

Disgraceful imho that they've allowed Russian + Belarussian players this year.

Propaganda for the folks back home in Russia + Belarussia, to show them that all is well and their sporting heroes and heroines are striding across the world. When in fact the populations of these states need a clear & stark message that they are outcasts.

Pathetic from Tsitsipas.

Both him and Ruud have now exited Wimbledon to complete unknown players that they really should be dispatching with ease.

Hard watching that sabalenka one. The noises are **** ridiculous.

He joined up with the Ukranian armed forces at the start of the war.Obviously he's gone back to boxing since then.

The Russian and Belorussian players should be not be stigmatized for what their governments have done, nobody picked on the British and American players during those governments invasion of Iraq so why should the Russian and Belorussian players be stigmatized now for what their governments have done. It was completely wrong to exclude them last year and thankfully they've made the right decision to include them now, particularly wrong to exclude them in tennis as many of the top players are from those 2 countries so it makes a mockery of the competition to have so many good players not allowed to compete for something that has nothing to do with tennis.

Too much Ukraine talk, on the thread now, that's the end of it from me.

Alcaraz very impressive overall (even though he struggled to close things out a tad) against Berrettini

I would imagine it relates to how they need to split the draw into top half and bottom half to play alternate days on week 2 and the need to have similiar weighting in both halves pushes 6 down and moves 8 up. Total guess.

I assume you mean a "strictly seeded" draw? Calling it a fair draw is debatable, arguably the fairest draw would just be a completely open one.

But I digress. The draw is not strictly seeded. The basis for the draw is this:

• The top two seeds cannot meet before the final
• The top four seeds cannot meet before the semi-finals
• The top eight seeds cannot meet before the quarter-finals
• ...and so on

There is no additional requirements, so if you're a top four seed and you've reached the quarter finals, you're as likely to be facing 5th as 8th (but definitely not one of the other top 4)

The problem is if it is always 1 v 8 in every quarter-final then you can theoretically be trapped long-term at 8 even if you are actually the 2nd or 3rd best player in the world. Doing a partially randomised draw (where 1,2,3,4 can be bracketed to play any of 5,6,7,8 in the quarter-final) gets around this potential block.

It's definitely been a problem in other sports which you may or may not follow. e.g., getting to world number 8 or 16 in snooker was an issue when Stephen Hendry was an unbeatable machine as the draw is always rigidly fixed for 1 to play 32, then 16, then 8, then 4. So interestingly what your son thinks is a 'fair draw' does have a flaw.

Djokovic has a lovely delicate touch with the drop volleys when he fancies it

Each to his own opinion - I thought Rublev put up a good fight against Djockovich - certainly put it up to Novak!!

Rublev ,like Dimitrov and probably Tsitsipas are to mind flaky when under pressure.Hard to believe with all the assembled teams ,the years of analysis ,lockeroom wisdom ,nobody seems to be any nearer to solving the challenge Djock presents,would love to see Eubanks go the whole way now although alcaraz realistically has the best chance of causing an upset.

What's really disappointing about the next gen players is that they are struggling to even get to the latter stages of the slams on a consistent basis, often getting beaten by low ranking guys who haven't done anything in the game. Rublev played quite well today but, it was inevitable once Djokovic got on top that was it, he's supposedly one of the top players but, hasn't reached a slam semi final yet!

Even Medvedev who has been one of the top players over the last 5 years or so, has only made about 5 slam semi finals, the likes of Zverev, Tsitsipas have similarly poor records, they really are an exceptionally poor generation of players. Alcaraz and possibly Sinner will hopefully be more consistent in getting to the latter stages of the slams

Forgot about Rune as he wasn't playing, I think you might be right, he seems to have a different mentality, but, we'll have to wait and see. I know Sinner is only in his first semi, but, still young and now that he had made the break through might become more regular. My point really was about the likes of Medvedev, Tsitsipas, Zverev, Theim, etc, all well established for a number of years now, but, haven't made a huge amount of slam semis between them and look to be in decline already.

A nothing QF in the end yesterday, and Djokovic will saunter to another Wimbledon win next Sunday. All so predictable unfortunately.